English 2010 focuses on three related aspects of rhetoric and composition: public writing, writing from sources, and multimedia composition. In this course, we’ll explore a number of different genres of writing common in academic contexts and in public writing situations. Through research, you’ll inform yourself and others about ongoing social justice/public issues, how to use genres to communicate ideas about those issues, and how to “play” with genres. You’ll become an active participant in these public conversations through writing and designing a range of texts. We will focus on public discourses surrounding social justice/public issues, particularly on issues associated with Public Discourse.
For this course, I will focus my research and writing on Performance Enhancing Drugs. I am very passionate about sports and would like to learn more about performance enhancing drugs and why athletes use them.
Communicating and Collaborating
I love everything about the sports world; the competitive nature, meeting different people, traveling around the states, and actually playing the games. So I chose the issue performance enhancing drugs (PED’s) as the focus for this class. Before researching PED’s I had a very negative view on them. I thought the use of performance enhancers in sports was cheating, I lost all respect for an athlete if I found out they were using any kind of performance enhancer. I also had little knowledge about PED’s, the only information I had on them was from SportsCenter, when they would discuss a player that tested positive for performance enhancers. Those sports analysts were very against the use of PED’s, as they are illegal unless prescribed by a doctor. It didn’t take long for my opinion on performance enhancers to change. The very first paper I wrote was a memoir (Times are Changing)talking about the evolution of steroids in baseball and the increasing number of athletes using them. I put myself in these athletes’ shoes, training everyday plus practices and games every week depending on the sport, my body wouldn’t be able to handle that every year. I understand a little more why some athletes take PED’s, they want to keep their bodies in top shape to compete every day and stay in their sport for as long as they can. My report is the only essay where I am against the use of PED’s, but only for the use of teenagers. The effects of PED’s have on a teenagers body is life threatening. After gathering all my information my perspective has changed on adults using performance enhancers, but when it comes to teenagers using them I am still strongly against the use of PED’s in sports.
For our first essay we would have chosen a memoir or a profile. I chose to write a memoir so I could express personal experiences in my paper. I felt like a memoir would show the reader the personal interest I have for PED’s, unlike a profile which focuses on another individual views or something else. Both memoir and profile writing is a great way to portray an insider’s view on the issue. When it came to writing a position or proposal argument I had a hard time deciding. I wrote my rough draft as a proposal argument; I felt like I could state the problems with PED’s and come up with a solution to those problems. Turns out I didn’t do very well on my rough draft; I decided to change my essay into a position argument so I could focus on the problems of PED’s. I chose to keep my memoir and position argument as written essays because I felt I could give more information about PED’s. I feel like making a short clip or a comic strip out of my memoir or position argument would just cover the basics. I wanted to go into depth with those essays giving more detailed information about the issue. But, when it came to my report I really wanted to do something other than an essay. My report was all about teen awareness of PED’s. So what better way to convey a quick message to parents and coaches that they need to talk to teens about the dangers of PED’s than a comic strip? A comic strip will catch people’s attention with graphics and is short enough to convey a powerful message that people can read in less than a minute.
During the creation of D.A.M we had to convey the right message at the right time to catch the reader’s attention and keep it throughout the whole magazine. We looked at several online magazines to get a better understanding of what a successful online magazine looks like. As a group we made strong home page with that hooks the reader and gives them hyperlinks to find our work throughout the magazine.
I really enjoyed having the responsibility of editor-in-chief; it really gave me a challenge and put my communication skills to the test. I have always been more of the follower when it came to being a leader in the class. For the first couple days I communicated with them over text and email, just giving them little bits and pieces of what we should do for our magazine. But, as soon as we had our first face to face meeting I was able to connect with my group members and collaborate on different ideas we had for our magazine. My role is to make sure everything is perfect, from checking little typos on the magazine to reviewing each paper and making sure they showcase their work correctly. I have learned a lot from this class, I actually feel like I will use this information when I get out of school, unlike most other general education classes we are required to take.
