Journal 12

Over the semester i have learned alot about the analytical side of english. I pretty much never analyzed anything in high school. it was all pretty much short stories or very brief poetic analysis. Nothing too hard like this was. I think my writing has also changed in the way that i now have more than one voice. I have several now. I have actually had a chance to use some of the analytical skills i learned in your class on one of my middle eastern studies papers and it worked wonders

Journal 11

I knew my anti-ad idea from the very beginning. I thought that at first it would be hard, but it proved otherwise. It was actually really easy to make. It was time consuming, but nothing was actually hard about it. I think that the most fun part was making the ad. Just because i really love working on Photoshop and i'm pretty good with it, so its always a good time. As far as the group goes, putting our ads together was actually really easy. We just kinda put them in the magazine and that was that.

Journal 12

My writing has evolved since i began this class. I have learned to be more analytical and to think more in depth on topics. Also, i have learned how to vary sentence structures and to organize my papers better. I have also learned a great deal about media. How it has changed over the years with each and every technical advancement, and how it jumps mediums like Internet, TV, and billboards. MY writing has grown, and I also feel my writing voice has as well. I have increased my writing language, and I feel that is the greatest accomplishment I have made all year in this class.

Journal 12

I don't think that anything in my writing has changed too much. The one thing I've started to learn, but still need to develop, is writing longer essays. I've never had to write anything over three pages, so its still new for me to try and find seven or eight pages of material to write about. I've also learned that the end of the semester creeps up on you out of nowhere, so its best to work on your assignments early and get them out of the way so you don't have them all pile up from all of your classes. Revision is also becoming a more important part of my writing now. I used to just write up my first draft, revise it for grammar and spelling, then submit it. But with longer papers, you have to add and subtract entire paragraphs and ideas, sometimes even throw out things that you've been trying to develop for hours. All the stuff with the media was things I already knew, I just never took the time to analyze it. When i see commercials, I still just look at them for the entertainment value. Analysis just feels like trying to turn something fun into work

Journal 11

Honestly, I didn't know how to navigate the adbusters site or where I was supposed to be looking, so i was nervous when trying to figure out what an anti-ad was, much less how to do one. The two ads i decided to pick from were for McDonalds and the Acia berry diet. The McDonalds one just seemed easier to do, so i chose that one. I preferred thinking up the idea to creating the actual ad because I'm not that great at creating pictures, so no matter how good it seems in my head, i have a difficult time translating that to an actual physical product. Creating this ad wasn't harder than I expected, but the quality of some of the other ads makes me feel like i need to make it look more professionally done. My group members ads I haven't really seen yet, but everyone has good ideas for what to do and I think they'll turn out nicely. Putting them together in a magazine wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be, we just didn't go about it the right way at first. We had to figure out the target audience for each ad, then come up with the average audience that all the ads would target. After that, we had to think of what type of magazine would appeal to that person and what magazines the ads would fit in. Analyzing the ads like that definately made it easier to come up with a magazine idea

Journal 12

I think the biggest change that i have developed throughout this semester that has affected my writing is my word choice. When i was in high school, i always tried to use words that would help me sound smarter. I know that i say dumb stuff sometimes but i always tried to make up for that in my writing. I now know that it is much easier to sound smart if you have a good argument and things to back up your claims. I would have to say that my favorite assignment throughout this semester was paper 3. I really had a lot of fun developing my anti-ad and i think i did a really good job at it. I like how all of our assignments were based on the media. It really made me think about how much the media really does try and target a certain audience. I feel like this is definately one of the most important things that i learned this semester. I am definitely going to use this tool in all of my writing in the future.

Journal 10

The characters in "Hills Like White Elephants" are a couple only referred to as "the American" and "the girl", and they're waiting for a train at some bar while having a discussion. The atmosphere is really tense, and emotions are running high. The conversation reveals that the American and the girl are trying to decide on something that seemed to be a pretty difficult, emotional decision. The American wanted the girl to do whatever it was, but not in the mindset she was in. She seemed to only agree to make him happy and didnt care about herself. I had no idea what this story could be about when i first read it, but after I looked at the other posts and found out that it was about abortion, it made alot more sense. I think the author chose to write this story without telling the reader exactly what the issue was to convey the attitude that it was a serious and taboo subject between the couple, and to help set the atmosphere of fear and uncertainty.

Journal 12

As I look back on how my writing throughout the semester, I wonder how my writing has changed. Sentence structure, my choice of words, and how I compile all my ideas has become tremendously different. I will continue to analyze as much as possible before I begin writing. I have learned that it is easier to gather all the information BEFORE I start writing. It makes things a lot harder when you just start writing and have nothing to base your first draft on. I have learned that Media can be a great way to influence or pass on ideas and that Media is a bigger part of my life than I originally thought. It was almost kind of scary how much present society is influenced by Media. I have found myself questioning more when it comes to analyzing the Media that I run into in my daily life.

Journal 12

Taking a look at my writing this semester, I think I've learned to be more critical of what I am writing about and also to not be afraid to step outside of the regularly accepted standards of writing. I've learned that it's okay sometimes to not always follow the rules and regulations that have been drilled into our heads since we picked up a pencil, and I've learned when those times are. 

In media, I've learned to make connections between the visual and textual aspects of all mediums. I feel like I understand better the reasons for why advertisers make certain decisions. I definitely analyze media more that I used to.

Journal 12

I think I've become more aware of my style of writing. I try to link each sentence together so it doesn't seem like I just through stuff together. I will try to take a time line into consideration, but I'm not sure if that will happen.

I've learned that taking a second look at media can be rewarding, and sometimes it's not worth it. As far as advertisements go, If I really think about one, I will start to analyze it more than I used to.

Journal 12

A lot has changed in my writing since this semester. I really think that I have improved a lot in my writing. Although it has not been easy the writing assignments in the class have been helpful and helped me a lot with my writing skills. I have learned to analyze things more closely and pay attention to some things that I wouldn't have before. At first I thought the assignments were difficult and I didn't think that I would be able to complete them, but when I took the time to think about the topic and come up with some ideas, it became easy. I will continue to look at things from a different perspective because that has been very useful in aiding me with writing the paper that were assigned. There were many things in class that helped me improve my writing. I think that work shopping the papers was very helpful and it helped improve them. I learned that media is not always what we think it is, and you have to learn how to look at the media from different perspectives besides your own. Now I analyze everything more than before, and it is very helpful not just with writing, but with everything. I am more aware of how the media appeals to different audiences, and how they get those particular audiences to become more interested in whatever it is that they're advertising. All of the class assignments have been both helpful and useful to me, and I think that the techniques I've learned will be used in many other classes and for many other assignments.

Journal 12

This semester has helped me focus more on analyzing the topic that I am writing about. Ive noticed that it is also alot easier to write once you have analyzed the prompt. I will make sure that I use this process in my continued writing. It has defineitly helped my with my progression in my writing process too. This class has also taught me about the media of today and analyzed it. I feel that focusing on the media has really given me examples of how other people use the media for the good and bad. I also analyze media different than i used too. When commercials come on or when I see and ad in a magazine I defintely look at them differently and analyze it. Its really cool to look at how people make the ads and the audience that they focus on.

Journal 12

Based on what you’ve learned so far this semester, what has changed in your writing? What will you continue to do that you’ve learned and what will you choose not to do? What have you learned about media? Do you analyze different types of media more than you used to?

Journal 11

The development of my anti ad was not to difficult. The hardest part was not creating a concept but creating the hard copy of the ad. Finding pictures that would work with my anti ad were not easy to come by at all. However, once I came across them I let me creative side have a go at creating the ad and I was done before I knew it.
As for our group project I was not able to see everyones ads due to going out of town. The magazine part though was not too difficult. It did not take long to come up with the idea of our magazine or the set up of cover and table of contents. I hope the rest of the project runs as smooth as it started out to be.

Journal 11

It didn't take me long to think of an advertisement to make an anti-ad for. Basically, I tried to think an ad, or company, that is so ridiculous and over the top with its promises and false presentations. I think if you looked up ‘over the top and ridiculous’ in the dictionary, a picture of a TrimSpa ad would be in the definition. With body image so important in our society right now, this anti-ad is appropriate for the issues young women are being challenged with. It was fun to make an anti-ad that resembled the original ad but replaced the pictures and words with ones that negate the words in the original.

For the group project, it wasn’t too hard to develop an appropriate magazine to incorporate all of the anti-ads but for one we had to manipulate an article into making it work.

journal 11

At first i thought i was not going to know what to do. But this assignment is turning out to be alot of fun. I have created my anti-ad, i think it's cute. however the magazine i think it would be alittle more work. Just because everybody in the group have to agree to one thing. when we first got the assignment i was unsure what to do how to do it, but i think it came out to be a good sucess.I do not think that my group ad's are bad, they actually are really good. And when we are to put them togeather it's not going to be that bad after we figue out what order we want them in.

Journal 11

I had a pleasant experience with this assignment. Though I have yet to actually create my anti-ad, I'm sure it will be fun. Creating the magazine cover was quite the experience, so I figure the ad will be the same. Thinking up the ad wasn't that great, though, because it took me a while to figure out what I was going to do. That and finding an Army ad on the internet was hard for me.

My groups' ad's ideas aren't bad. I haven't seen them, but the concepts seem great. As far as putting them together, that's not hard at all. Just throw em' together.

Journal 11

My experience in creating my anti ad was kinda easy. I found a really good advertisement in a magazine and only had to use photoshop to change it. I went to the library and used photoshop. It came easy to me because I had used it in high school in my yearbook class. But mine is still an amatuer advertisement. After looking around I thought it was going to be hard to make up an ad but it was actually very easy once I found a good advertisement. I thought my group memebers ads were also very good. They were very creative in what they came up with for their anti advertisements. I also feel that it will be pretty easy to put the ads together in one magazine because there is always a magazine that features what we have to work with, liquor, beer and a lotion ad.

Journal 11

I didn't find it that difficult to create an anti-ad. At first it seemed pretty easy and I feel that it was an interesting assignment, but when it came time for me to actually create my ad, it was harder than I imagined. After looking at adbusters.org, it gave me a better idea of what we were exactly supposed to do. Then, it was challenging not to use the same sort of ad or idea. I didn't know what kind of ad I wanted to do at first, and I chose my ad randomly. I knew that I didn't want to do an ad that everybody was thinking about doing. I enjoyed thinking up the idea more than actually creating my ad, because I couldn't really put my ideas together the way I wanted to. My group members ads are completely different from mine, but I don't think it's going to a problem putting the magazine together because many magazines have different ads in them, to sell different products. All in all, I think this was a good assignment, it was very unique and interesting creating my own ad, and discussing the pros and cons of my regular ad. I think that our group will have a fun time creating the magazine, and our plans are looking pretty good.

anti ad

I found creating my own anti ad to be very difficult. Ultimately, my lofty designs for an anti ad are more complicated than my photoshop ability allows. I'm planning on going old school,and drawing and pasting my thoughts to create a work of art. I am thoroughly inspired by the album cover of "Revolver" and hope to create my own masterpiece. I chose to parody alcohol because of its relevance to our lives here at FSU. My group members were just as creative and will surely be much more artistic than me. Finding a fit for lotion and alcohol will be fun. I first thought of young women, but the other two pictured an old woman tabloids. I had a great time thinking up my anti ad but have been disappointed with my attempts creating the actual ad. Hopefully i will have an artistic breakthrough over thanksgiving break.

JOURNAL 11

I was really hesitant at first when we heard we were going to make an anit-ad. After looking at ad-busters in and out of class I started to feel a little bit better about it though. Looking through the ads, I thought about doing something on fast food, or environtmental issues. There were lots of options, but I ended up not going with either of those topics. Thinking of which ad I was going to use was hard, but not as hard as actually making it. It was fun trying to figure out photoshop and working with new things on the computer, but it did become very frustrating. It was a lot harder than I expected. Even though I had a general idea in my head, applying it to paper was hard. When our group got together, our anti ads were very different. I thought it was a little difficult coming up with a common foundation for our magazine. My group members had good ads, ours just weren't that compatable. We worked with it though to make an awesome magazine.

Controversies

I enjoyed creating my anti-advertisement tremendously. It allowed me to be creative and focus my paper on the topic i chose rather than teacher appointed. I faced difficulties however actually creating the ad because i am not a computer genius. I had trouble altering the image to what i wanted it to be, but i feel that I did a suffice job in the end. I was torn by choosing the cigarette ad i did, and a alcoholic ad featuring high school students at a bar underage drinking. I feel that my group member's ads are just as creative as mine. I enjoyed comparing ads and creating the magazine together even though i am a critic and enjoy messing with people. It was relatively easy except for the fact that my entire group including myself were computer retards. Other than that it was a great experience.

Journal 11

At first, I expected this whole anti-ad thing to be quite difficult and boring. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that creating this type of ad was enjoyable and not that time-consuming. I searched through a number of magazines to pick which advertisement I would change and I had numerous ideas, but they all seemed to be about alcohol and cigarrettes. I wanted to pick something that I would enjoy thinking about and manipulating. I think I enjoyed thinking up the idea the best because I am not really good with computers. They usually get me frustrated pretty easily. I think that creating an anti-ad was easier than I initially thought, but it still gave me some trouble. My group members anti-ads were extremely interesting and abstract. As for the finished product, we are still working on the cover page and table of contents. However, once we put in a little more time we should find that putting the magazine together is not as hard as it looks.

Journal 11

Discuss your experience in and outside of class with creating an anti-advertisement. After looking at the adbusters.org site, how did you feel about creating an anti-ad? What were some possible ads and issues you were considering for the last assignment? Did you enjoy creating it the best or did you enjoy thinking up the idea? Was creating an anti-ad harder than you expected? What do you think of your group members' anti-ads? Is it hard to put them together in a magazine, or did you find it easy?

Please post this journal by the END OF THE DAY on Wednesday, November 26.

I've read this story and talked about it in my other english classes, so that kind of spoiled it for me. The story is about abortion. There are numerous context clues that the author puts in the story; for example "The only one i want to be with is you". The scenery symbolized the two choices they have to make, as well as the train tracks, because they are both completely different and the tracks go in two completely different directions.