In Class Blog: Group Situation

Group work is not something that I usually like. For the ideal situation, I would have a group that had members that were all willing to put in some effort to the assignment, whether we wanted to be there and working on it or not. Additionally, I would have all the members be willing to take some responsibility for their part and initiate responsibility over some part of the project. Also I would want all the group members to get along and not quarrel over an assignment they do not feel that strongly about. I'd want all the members to recgonize that it is a group project and not an individual project and that that changes the work ethic and how we go about completing the assignment It would also be ideal if the group could agree on the subject of the project and who was going to do what and that everyone would follow through and if they thought they could not than maybe say so before hand instead of waiting until right before the assignment is due.

In Class Blog: Primary Source Analysis

This assignment was somewhat challenging. For my particular topic it was not so difficult to find primary sources as it was to analyze them. I found it somewhat difficult to decide who the "author" even was in some cases and it was also difficult to analyze what they were trying to argue in addition to analyzing whether the argument was good or not. I found it hard to keep myself from summarizing my sources and I had to keep refocusing in on the nature of the argument itself as opposed to just analyzing what was being argued. I think I got better at doing these with each subsequent source but it was difficult.
Another difficulty I had was making my own central, controlling claim in the beginning of each analysis. I sometimes forgot to have a central claim to guide my analysis. I think I got better at doing this also with each successive source but I do not think that I have fully overcome it and it is something I feel I need to go back and fix in my sources.

Unit 2 Proposal

For my topic, I chose an event that happened in December of 2008 in my hometown of Bellaire, Texas. It is the controversial shooting of young Bellaire resident named Robbie Tolan, son of former baseball player Bobby Tolan. I chose this because there is a lot of controversy surrounding why this young man was shot in his own driveway by a Bellaire police officer. It created a huge buzz around the neighborhood and further more was seen as a terrible incidence of racial profiling in the community. This a general description of this event but there are more details and many different arguments surrounding the outcome of the case which was taken to court. There was and still remains a lot of controversy over the ruling made about the case in court which resulted in the police officer being charged not guilty for aggrevated assault by a public servant. Additionally, Tolan has filed a federal civil lawsuit against the city, claiming his civil rights were violated and no longer wants to live in the city of bellaire. 

This incident brought up a lot of underlying issues in my small home town community. It raised the importance of awareness of apparent racial profiling that many people were not aware of. The argument and controversy surrounding this issue is still being talked about in the community today. I chose it because it particularly surprises me as an issue that would come up in my home town and I think it was a surprise to many other residents. Thus, it is an issue that has been looked into a good deal since the incident and there continues to be research and discussion regarding racial profiling in my small hometown of Bellaire. As a result, there have been and continue to be many opinions, blogs, articles, and other sources written about this particular shooting. So, for my primary sources, I plan to use some of these first hand news articles from local papers in my hometown as well as other blogs, editorials, and position pieces regarding this shooting. I plan to get these sources from local places around my hometown that carry them as well as over the internet. 

In Class: First Paragraph

Though there are many people shuffling around, the lobby of Harris Hospital Downtown is very cold. I was immediatley drawn to this space since I am a nursing student and it is the location of one of my clinicals. I had never noticed how large and somewhat dark the lobby seemed. The popcorn vendors and starbucks present in the lobby have been shown to me in a new light as I walk through as an observer rather than a worker. Hospitals are an ominous place for most, yet there are many things in the lobby (gift shop, popcorn venders, starbucks) that would make one think otherwise. In the public areas it does not seem as if this is a place where people are struggling to breathe every breath. It has more of a warm feel but it is easy to sense that these distractions, like the smell of the coffee brewing behind the starbucks counter, are just covering up what is happening only floors above.
People in this almost everyone. Kids, infants, teens, parents, and grandparents can be seen in just one quick scan of the room. There is a blend of all different types of ethnicities and everyone seems in somewhat of a calm panic. In the corner there resides a fireplace, unused, in the midst of the crowds of people walking through the lobby.

In Class blog: peer reviews

In my past experience, peer reviewing of essays has not be the most productive thing. In high school when we did this we did actually look at each others essays and review them but it was mostly for grammar and other things. It seems that in my experience the peer review process is never what the teacher intends for it to be and students do not typically recieve any input that can actually help them to better format their essay for the purpose of the specific assignment. Additionally, being put into random groups with people and reading their essays seems to make some people uncomfortable. It doesn't make me uncomfortable it just feels like somewhat of a waste of time and has never been something I have looked forward to.  I am not opposed to the idea of peer reviewing essays but it just has not been the best exercise in my past experience.

In Class blog: Peer Observations

After reading over the comments my peers made, there are a lot of new ideas I have gotten. I think I had been trying to be so objective that I neglected to include more of a personal view on what I was obersving. I think adding this will help me discover more clearly the appeals to logos, pathos, and ethos that my space is making.
Additionally, the peer reviews have helped me to see that I need to incorporate the visual aspects I have found in my space and connect them to various appeals they could be making. I need to look at why things are the way they are in this certain setting and what effect it has on the people in the setting. Also their comments put some ideas in my head that I had never thought about like how the staff responses might make an appeal to either logos or pathos.
Their reviews kind of helped me tie together the loose ends of certain observations that I wasn't sure fit with my public space. Now I see that they might not necessarily fit with the typical description of a hospital but that they are there and have some connection to the larger cultural framework that inhabits the hospital, not only in the lobby of hospitals but also in the patient rooms. I need to work on finding out how the rhetorical appeals of the hospital make sense in context with this paper and in regards to the people in the hospitals.

In Class Blog: Observation Process

I though the observation process was a little bit weird. In the hospital lobby, there were not too many people just sitting around and observing, so even though my presence was not really a big deal to most of the people in the space, it felt somewhat weird being there and just sitting, watching and writing. Additionally, It was surprising that I was paying attention more to the people in the space and their actions rather than what was medically going on. It was interesting to notice how much I dont notice in such a big space when I walk through there so much. I did not expect to become aware of so many more things by just taking some time and sitting and observing. I also was not aware of how busy and rapidly the people in the space, not just healthcare professionals, are moving. Everything seemed to be sort of out of control for everybody but they were all in a space that helped them contain it.
Contrastingly, on the patient unit, it felt more natural to be observing. Since there were many nurses and other people around me taking time to chart and write, I almost felt as if I were part of the setting rather than an observer. This made it even harder to keep and objective standpoint and remember that I was there as a third party observer and not as a nursing student. I observed lots of things physically on the unit that I do not notice when I am there otherwise. I did not think there was that much I had not previously picked up on but I found out that there was. Additonally, It was weird for me to be trying to see what the space offered to the people in it rather than being a part of the resources that are offered. I saw objectively the goals of the space and what people are looking for when they come there. This has been hard to observe and figure out since the hospital, from my observations, is not some place that the general population voluntarily goes to unless it is the last option.