Project 3 Reflection: Pleasant

This project was my favorite out of all of the projects we did this semester. It was different to the type of essays I am used to writing and it made me learn new things. I had fun working with audacity and trying to figure it out. Even though it was not the easiest thing to learn to use it helped that we had to do a smaller and shorter podcast about the NPR article. Like usual, it took me a while to come up with my idea. I had first come up with the idea of talking about the dorms but I had a feeling a lot of people know about that and I really wanted my project to inform people about something about ASU they might not know about. I decided to do it on the orbit bus system since one of my friends frequently rides it. It was a little difficult to get my rough draft done during thanksgiving week because I went home and wasn't really in contact with the people I wanted to interview. In order to solve this problem I sent my interviewers the questions through email and they wrote back their answers. The hardest part of this project was probably getting the recording of their voice. Since they had their answers ready it was hard for them to talk normally and not like they were reading something. It took a lot of tries to get the final audio because I had constant interruptions and we kept messing up but I felt very accomplished when I was done.

I learned a lot during this project, probably more than any other project. I learned how to use audacity and convert files to mp3 format. Another thing that I learned throughout this project is to manage my time because the time I had with my interviewers was limited and I had to get everything done during that time. I also learned more about interviewing people and getting them to answer in a way that would help my argument.

I don’t really think I did a good job at establishing my argument in my rough draft which is probably why I struggled with the interview questions at first. I didn't really know what my point was and had a difficult time coming up with questions that would lead my interviewers to answer the questions in the direction I wanted.  After researching more on my topic and going to workshop I was able to get a better understanding of what my argument should be and how it should be established on my script. Overall I think my argument in my final product was strong and well crafted. 

Script Draft: The Orbit Bus

CASSANDRA ALVES: The Orbit shuttle bus is a form of public transportation that picks up at various locations around the Arizona State University campus and is free of charge to everyone including students. The orbit bus system provides small blue buses that transport people around residential areas, shopping centers, and other bus stops. This service is important to many students especially those who live off campus and commute to school, work and other recreational activities.

CASSANDRA ALVES: Britney Linzy is a freshmen student at Arizona State University. She says the orbit shuttle has been very helpful in getting her around the campus and town since she began the school year.

BRITNEY LINZY: I live about 5 miles away from campus and the orbit bus makes it so much easier and cheaper for me to get to school every day. There is a bus stop a couple of blocks from my house and it is so convenient for me because I can wake up later and I don’t have to walk a lot to get to class.

CASSANDRA ALVES:  The orbit is free, so how much money do you think you are saving per year by taking it to school every day?

BRITNEY LINZY: Parking at Arizona State University is at least 300 dollars a semester (which is ridiculous) and this is in the furthest parking lot at school which means I would have to walk a lot to get to my classes. Add the gas I would use every day and that is at least a thousand dollars a year!

CASSANDRA ALVES: That seems convenient! Doesn’t it take a long time to get to where you want to go through?

BRITNEY LINZY: I’m not going to lie, it does take at least 20 minutes to make a trip that would originally take about 10 minutes because it goes around the neighborhood and stops at about 6 places before it gets to where I need to be.

CASSANDRA ALVES: What are the other places the orbit shuttle takes you to?

BRITNEY LINZY: The shuttle system has 5 routes; Mercury, Venus, Earth, Jupiter and Mars. Each route has different bus stops and takes you to different parts of town. Mercury takes you to east side of town, near the 101 freeway; Venus takes you to the west side of town, by the interstate 10; Earth takes you to the north side of town, to the tempe market place, where most people go to hang out; and Mars takes you to the south east side, near the golf course; and Jupiter takes you to the south side of town, near the 60 freeway.

CASSANDRA ALVES: How often do the shuttles stop at the bus stops?

BRITNEY LINZY: The shuttles usually run every 15 to 20 minutes during the day and afternoon and every 30 minutes at nights and the cool thing is the schedules are posted up on the bus stops for each route. It tells you about what time it will arrive at the different bus stops it takes you too so that people can estimate their arrivals and their travel time.

CASSANDRA ALVES: Do the shuttles run all day?

BRITNEYLINZY: No! It would be great if it did then I would always be on it! From Monday to Saturday the route for Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Venus starts at six in the morning and ends at about ten pm.  On Sundays, it starts at eight am and ends at 7 pm. The Earth shuttle which is the one I take most of the time is a little different. From Monday to Saturday it runs until eleven pm and but it only picks up every thirty minutes from 7 pm to 11 pm.

CASSANDRA ALVES: That sounds pretty flexible. How did you find out about this service?

BRITNEY LINZY: I’ve been taking the shuttles since I learned about it on the ASU website. It has the information under the Parking and Transit links and it provides everything you need to know from the schedules to the route map. This information is also provided to students during Orientation and the informational meetings at ASU in the beginning of the year.

CASSANDRA ALVES: Why do you think the school provides this information if the shuttles aren’t provided by Arizona State University?

BRITNEY LINZY: This service is very important because it has allowed me to be more involved in school even though I don’t live in the dorms! It gives me freedom because I don’t have to rely on my parents or friends to pick me up from school at certain times and it allows me to go back and forth from school and home throughout the day.  I have a terrible memory and the flexible shuttle schedules have saved me so many times when I forget my homework or my laptop and have to go back home to get it. It also makes it easy for me to get to dance practice during the weekends. With so many tuition fees I can not afford to pay more money for gas and the parking and I am pretty sure it is not only me who thinks this way

CASSANDRA ALVES: Do you find the buses safe to ride?

BRITNEY LINZY: Yeah it is a completely safe environment! The buses are clean and well maintained. Most of the people who ride it are college students or people that work around the school and live close to campus. I also often run into many people that are in the same classes as me. I can actually say it is an enjoyable ride.

CASSANDRA ALVES: Many people use the orbit shuttles but many don’t realize how important it is to the Arizona State University community and also to the Tempe community. It is an easy and accessible way to move throughout the town and get to places in a matter of minutes.  The information and schedule are provided online in the City of Tempe website under Bus information.

ASU Reacts: "Veterans Struggle to Find Jobs, Piece of Mind"

ALVES: Hello this is Cassandra Alves reporting on NPR’s article “Veterans Struggle to Find Jobs, Piece of Mind.” The article presents the argument that veterans that have come back from Iraq and Afghanistan are struggling to find jobs and return to their civilian lives. In the article we hear from solder Brian Cannava as he talks about his struggles to return to his normal life. He states that he has applied to hundreds of jobs since he came back from deployment and that he misses being deployed because he no longer feels that he has a purpose.

ALVES: The unemployment rate for veterans is currently standing at ten percent. But veterans are not the only ones struggling. According to the United States Department of Labor, the unemployment rate for college students also stands at about ten percent. Here is Charlinsky Erickson, a student at Arizona State University speaking for many of the unemployed students on campus.

ERICKSON: I was given Work Study by FAFSA and I have probably applied to twenty jobs in the past 3 weeks and I haven’t even gotten a call back for an interview.

ALVES: Why do you think you are struggling so much in finding a job?

ERICKSON: Most jobs require experience but I’m young and I haven’t really had much experience and it is frustrating because in order to get experience I need to start somewhere and no one is giving me that opportunity.

ALVES: If the problem is lack of experience, why do you think veterans are also having such a hard time finding employment?

ERICKSON: Well, they’re probably struggling because they don’t have experience in a certain work area. If they want a job in a store they’re military training has probably not provided the skills needed to work in retail.

ALVES: The struggle of unemployment is frustrating many people including veterans and students. Hopefully with time things will get better for all of these hard working individuals.

Genre Analysis: Veterans Struggle to Find Jobs, Peace of Mind

The story I listened to on NPR’s Morning Edition is titled “Veterans Struggle to Find Jobs, Peace of Mind” and was hosted by Rachel Martin. This called my attention because many of my family members are deployed and I could relate to the story through them and also through myself because as a college student have also been having a hard time finding a job. In this story the host talks about how difficult it is for returning veterans to find jobs and get used to their new lives away from the battlefield.  She uses an interview as her source and asks a veteran about their lives during deployment and after they come back to their civilian lives. While analyzing this story I looked at the different aspects of it and found out this is an informative essay that provides information on the lives of veterans who come back home and have to make the transition from a soldier to a civilian.

[cambridgema.gov]

                The story is organized in the way that most news articles are formatted. It starts by the host who gives some back up information about the issue. Then she speaks about the man who she is interviewing and talking about the men and women who have come back from deployment who they have been helping in their series “Home Front.” The host, Rachel Martin, introduces her interviewee, Brian Cannava of the National Guard’s 182^nd Infantry Regiment.  She then continues to talk about how hard it is for veterans to come back to their lives and find a job. When she is talking about this she brings up a statistic when she says “The unemployment rate for veterans who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan currently stands at ten percent despise all the programs out there designed to find work for vets.” This evidence shows us how this issue is affecting many people and it helps her become a credible source. The only thing she is missing is the place where she got her numbers from, this is what prevents the speaker from being completely credible. After she introduces the issue, the host then starts the interview which is another type of evidence she uses in the story. In her interview she backs up her numbers when she asks the veteran about his experience in job hunting.  The veteran mentions that he has applied to “hundreds of jobs” and that many people are not interested in his stories and experiences from his deployment. This proves to us that veterans like Cannava are really struggling in getting their lives back together after the war.

                Even though this story is not completely reliable it does show us a struggle that a lot of veterans face through the eye of a veteran. This audio essay is formal and structured just like a written informational essay would be written. 

http://www.npr.org/2012/11/11/164894057/veterans-struggle-to-find-jobs-peace-of-mind

This audio essay I listened to inspired me to make my audio essay on student unemployment. Im not sure who I would interview yet so I am not sure about my topic! Any ideas??

Project 2 Reflection: Discovery

When I was given this assignment I thought it was simple and that it was going to be fun and easy. As I started working on it I realized it was a little more complicated than what I had expected but it was still fun. At first I had an idea for what I wanted to write about but then I realized it was going to be really hard to find sources that could be related to my topic, so I ended up changing my topic to places to exercise on ASU. I enjoyed having to go to the different areas and experiencing them. I hadn't gone to many of the places I wrote about so I learned a lot about my school. One of the things I struggled with the most was finding an academic source to back up my information. Another thing I struggled with while doing this project was making my introduction 800 words. At first I didn't know what type of information I had to include in this and what the criteria was supposed to be like. Because of this I went to a workshop and one of the teachers was able to explain to me what they meant with criteria and gave me some ideas for my introduction. Once I did this the rest of the project was pretty easy. I think I did well in the evaluation of all of my places and on laying them out on blogger. Considering that I wasn't able to attend the workshop that talked about how to set up the map on blogger I did pretty well figuring it all out and setting it up. . I really liked the way we were supposed to set up the map and posts on blogger because it allowed us to be creative with the design of each blog. I liked having to look for pictures and take pictures of the campus and getting to know and explore the campus. It also helped me figure out different places where I could potentially work out at and informed be about something I had wanted to get more information on, the tennis center. The only reason why I struggled was because I left everything for the last minute. I didn't focus a lot on my rough draft and therefore didn’t have much to work with. I basically had to write everything at one time. For next project I will focus a lot more on the rough draft and take it more seriously. I think this will help me with the editing process and will make these projects less stressful. It will also give me more time to go to different workshops and get feedback from different teachers which will probably make my final draft ten times better 

Research Sources: Places to Exercise on Campus

When I was given this assignment I was lost as to what topic I wanted to do. I had nothing in mind but after a couple of days of thinking about it I came up with my idea. Earlier in the week I had been thinking about all of the areas on campus where it is good to exercise and I decided to research it and use this topic for my second project. I think exercise is a very important aspect of a college student’s life because it helps us relief stress and stay healthy but many don’t realize that exercise can be done outside the gym and in many different ways. I am aware that the most obvious place to exercise on campus is the Student Recreation Center, but I really wanted to evaluate and analyze this place along with three other (not so obvious) places that are commonly used to exercise. In order to evaluate this topic I will walk around campus and locate where most people are exercising and probably even use an interview or survey.  

The first place I am going to evaluate is “A” mountain. This is a popular place for students and others who live near the mountain to take a nice hike and enjoy a great view. In order to evaluate the hike up to “A” mountain I will hike it myself and use the newspaper article “Take a Hike” by Kate Rew from the Sunday Times. This two page article mentions that walking is one of the most popular forms of exercise because it is considered to have low intensity and show quick increase in muscle toning, strength, and stamina.   This article interests me because it shows statistics and because I can relate it to my life. It states that walking also reduces stress, improve our self-image, and reduce depression which are aspects that many college students need help with.

Another place I am going to evaluate is the intramural fields by Hassayampa and the Student Recreation Center.  I have noticed that in the evenings many people go out there to play sports and run around the field. In order to evaluate these fields I am going to reference to the observations I make and to the book Sports Nutrition: A Practice Manual for Professionals 5^th Edition by Christine A. Rosenbloom. This 499 page book talks about all the important aspects of being an athlete and exercising to your full potential. Even though I haven’t read the entire book I have read sections and it seems like it gives a good understanding about sports and how this type of exercise can help your health.

The last place I am sure I am going to write about in this project is the Student Recreation Center which is the most popular place to exercise on campus. This is the place I mostly go to which will allow me to use personal experience in my evaluation. Along with my experiences I will also reference to the newspaper article, “Reflecting on gym culture while huffing and puffing: Focusing on the exercise, not the mirrors, proves to be a challenge” by Karina Roman from the Ottawa Citizen. This two page article goes into detail about the culture at a gym and it was interesting to me because it brings up the point that people mostly go to the gym because of vanity and not for their health.

I am still not sure about my fourth place that I am going to evaluate but am still looking for ideas. 

Evaluating Beastly

Today I watched the movie Beastly. It is the modern retelling of the fairytale The Beauty and the Beast that aired in March of 2011. It is directed by Daniel Barnz and features Vanessa Hudgens as Lindy Taylor (from High School Musical) and Alex Pettyfer as Kyle Kingsbury (from I Am Number Four).

[Theatrical release poster]

In the story, Kyle is a rich, conceited, good looking high school boy who makes fun of his class mates and thinks he is the best. He makes fun of a “gothic” girl who was actually a witch in disguise. Since he is so mean and arrogant she puts a spell on him and makes him bald, tattooed, and scarred. She then tells him that he must make someone fall in love with him within a year or he would look like that forever. His father hides him in an apartment in the suburbs outside of New York City with his maid and a blind tutor. He is alienated from everyone for a few months and his father begins to neglect him. He later decides to leave his apartment and go out saves Lindy, a girl from his former school, from drug dealers who were after her dad. She moves in with him for protection and wouldn’t talk to him at the beginning. As time starter passing by, Kyle asks the witch for more time and she refuses but tells him he will make his tutor’s vision come back and would bring his maid’s kids to the US if he got Lindy to fall in love with him. He goes back home and reveals himself to Lindy and as they bond he begins to fall in love with her. Lindy’s father is put in the hospital for overdose and Kyle takes her to the train station and lets her go see her dad. Before she leaves he gives her a letter telling her how he feels about her. In the end, Lindy comes back, tells him she loves him and leaves again. He then changes back into his old self and when Lindy comes back she doesn’t believe it is him. She calls Kyle’s phone and when she hears it ring she believes him and they kiss. At the very end of the movie the tutor can see again, the maid gets three visas in the mail for her kids, and Kyle and Lindy live “happily ever after.” This movie is very cliché; it has an obvious moral to it that people shouldn’t “judge a book by its cover” and that we shouldn’t be so superficial. Even though this movie is very predictable and has many bad reviews I did enjoyed watching it. I think both of the main characters are good and likable actors who fit their characters and did well in establishing the plot of the story.