Source #1
“Bowl Games Can Prove Costly.”
Wieberg, Steve. 26 Dec. 2000.
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/sfc/sfcfs69.htm
In “Bowl Games Can Prove Costly,” Steve Wieberg discusses both the financial costs and benefits of the college football bowl game format. Wieberg discusses how despite the perception that bowl games produce large amounts of revenue for college football teams, some teams are worse off financially after going to the bowl game. He points out how people who use the argument that college football needs the bowl game for revenue are incorrect in most cases (para. 1). Wieberg wrote this article for the average college football fan, many of whom are opposed to the current bowl game format in college football. Wieberg wrote this article in order to inform college football fans that the argument for necessary revenue produced from bowl games is a lie. This article is very helpful to my paper because the revenue production from bowl games is one of the strongest arguments that the bowl committees have for not going to a playoff format.
Source #2
United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. BCS or Bust: Competitive and Economic Effects of the Bowl Championship Series On and Off The Field. Washington: GPO, 2004
In “BCS or Bust,” the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary explores the positive and negative effects, on and off the field, of the Bowl Championship Series on college football. The Senate explores all the positive and negative consequences produced by the BCS system in college football. Congress wrote this article for the American people, including the college football programs, to show them the effects of the BCS system and to get a gauge on its success to that point. Congress’ purpose in writing this was to discover all the possible ramifications involved in using the BCS system. This will help me write my paper because it will be very thorough and factual and show many different viewpoints.
Source #3
Lemke, Tim. “Bracket Buster.” The Washington Times
13 Dec. 2006
In “Bracket Buster,” Tim Lemke discusses all the reasons that college football should go to a playoff system, but why it isn’t ready to do so yet. Lemke discusses how the fans are clamoring for a playoff system and the television networks would pay millions to broadcast it, but the bowl committees aren’t ready to change. Lemke wrote this to frustrated college football fans everywhere. Lemke purpose in writing this was to tell everyone to be patient, that playoffs will come soon. This article will help me a lot because it shows why people want the playoffs and why it won’t happen.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Reading Response 2
An Experience in Acronyms and Why Do People Tan? were both great examples of discovery essays as opposed to research papers. They provided us as the readers with great information and factual evidence for all the varying viewpoints of their topic while not trying to convert us to their opinion. Both authors did an excellent job of providing evidence and opinions from the different arguments, leaving the reader to make their own decision.
In Why Do People Tan? the controlling idea is the issue of tanning and at how society still wants the same look, but doesn’t want to work to earn it. Amy Garrett-Brown is discovering why it is more attractive for people to be tan than just pasty white and why people would rather lie in a cancer bed then go play outside in the sun. Brown does a great job of going through the topic and exploring all the different angles. She provides excellent factual evidence from sources varying teenage magazines to scientific articles. She provides statistics from surveys as well as opinion statements from well-respected journalists.
Brown also does a great job of employing her own voice, while still employing research. For example, she writes about her reactions to some of the research she had found, “It struck me as I read the last lines of this sardonic critique of society that I don’t necessarily wonder why people tan….” She also adds her personal thoughts throughout the paper, not to influence the reader, but to show how her own opinion swayed as she researched the topic.
In Experiences in Acronyms, the controlling idea was whether or not recreational or “party” drugs were wrong. He focused his discovery paper on the three most popular party drugs, LSD, MDMA, and GHB. The author, Jay Holmquist, does a very good job of showing and supporting his controlling idea by recounting personal experiences, both positive and negative, and including research from scientific journals and studies, both for and against recreational drug use.
Holmquist did a really good job of including his own voice by telling personal stories from when he was involved in the rave scene. His stories put you in his shoes and he did an excellent job of making you feel what he felt. His paper wasn’t just a list of facts for and against recreational drug use, he added faces, names, and very descriptive imagery to it. It was easy for me to see that he had an emotional connection to this topic and it wasn’t just a bland, boring assignment that he to do for a class.
These essays helped me a lot in my approach to my research essay. They were both great examples of how to weave your personal opinion and voice into the paper, but at the same time leave the overall voice of the paper unbiased to either side. I could see how these essays were about discovery and furthering the knowledge of both the author and the reader, instead of the author preaching the same viewpoint at the reader over and over. The essays also incorporated Ballenger’s “Features of the Form” really well and provided excellent examples of how to employ them in my own essay.
In the past, I have always written papers that were to prove a specific point on a topic. We would do research for our particular viewpoint, not the different viewpoints for the topic as a whole. These essays, and Ballenger’s suggestions, have really helped me understand better how to write a discovery paper. It’s not about converting our reader. It’s about providing the most appropriate facts from the different viewpoints and letting the reader decide for themselves.
Possible questions for my essay:
Should college football use a playoff system instead of the bowl game format?
Should the United States adopt a 2 year mandatory military service?
Why is climate change so controversial?
In Why Do People Tan? the controlling idea is the issue of tanning and at how society still wants the same look, but doesn’t want to work to earn it. Amy Garrett-Brown is discovering why it is more attractive for people to be tan than just pasty white and why people would rather lie in a cancer bed then go play outside in the sun. Brown does a great job of going through the topic and exploring all the different angles. She provides excellent factual evidence from sources varying teenage magazines to scientific articles. She provides statistics from surveys as well as opinion statements from well-respected journalists.
Brown also does a great job of employing her own voice, while still employing research. For example, she writes about her reactions to some of the research she had found, “It struck me as I read the last lines of this sardonic critique of society that I don’t necessarily wonder why people tan….” She also adds her personal thoughts throughout the paper, not to influence the reader, but to show how her own opinion swayed as she researched the topic.
In Experiences in Acronyms, the controlling idea was whether or not recreational or “party” drugs were wrong. He focused his discovery paper on the three most popular party drugs, LSD, MDMA, and GHB. The author, Jay Holmquist, does a very good job of showing and supporting his controlling idea by recounting personal experiences, both positive and negative, and including research from scientific journals and studies, both for and against recreational drug use.
Holmquist did a really good job of including his own voice by telling personal stories from when he was involved in the rave scene. His stories put you in his shoes and he did an excellent job of making you feel what he felt. His paper wasn’t just a list of facts for and against recreational drug use, he added faces, names, and very descriptive imagery to it. It was easy for me to see that he had an emotional connection to this topic and it wasn’t just a bland, boring assignment that he to do for a class.
These essays helped me a lot in my approach to my research essay. They were both great examples of how to weave your personal opinion and voice into the paper, but at the same time leave the overall voice of the paper unbiased to either side. I could see how these essays were about discovery and furthering the knowledge of both the author and the reader, instead of the author preaching the same viewpoint at the reader over and over. The essays also incorporated Ballenger’s “Features of the Form” really well and provided excellent examples of how to employ them in my own essay.
In the past, I have always written papers that were to prove a specific point on a topic. We would do research for our particular viewpoint, not the different viewpoints for the topic as a whole. These essays, and Ballenger’s suggestions, have really helped me understand better how to write a discovery paper. It’s not about converting our reader. It’s about providing the most appropriate facts from the different viewpoints and letting the reader decide for themselves.
Possible questions for my essay:
Should college football use a playoff system instead of the bowl game format?
Should the United States adopt a 2 year mandatory military service?
Why is climate change so controversial?
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Reading Response 1
The two essays, “I’m a Believer” and “The Joy of Mud” are similar and different. They have similar themes, but much different endings and resolutions to the story. I enjoyed reading both of these essays to see how different people, in different walks of life, search for and long for something in their life. In “I’m a Believer,” the main character was completely obsessed with the band, the Monkeys, and in particular, the lead singer Davy Jones. I’ve never been this obsessed or wrapped around a certain person or topic, so it surprised me to look into the life of someone who is. To get that glimpse into her life and see how driven she was to pursue any information about Davy Jones or any opportunity to see him in concert was enlightening for me. It surprised me because I’ve never really taken the time to get into the mind of some of these people that are completely wrapped around a famous person or band. They always, and still do, strike me as crazy. In my mind, it’s just a band and it’s just music.
I was also surprised by how let down she was when she finally met him. She’d wanted to meet him for so long. She could’ve eaten dinner with him at the buffet or gambled with him late into the night and gotten to know the person she’d been obsessed with for so long. But instead, she was so let down that the person who she thought he ways, the person who the media created a false image of, that she was too shocked to even take advantage of the opportunity that she had right in front of her. “I accept, finally, that this person I know so well I don’t really know at all…. I stand next to him, this man so familiar and foreign.” (B10)
That point brings up an important issue, the misrepresentation of famous people in the media and pop culture. We place these people up on pedestals and think about them like they are so far above us. They are still human beings. They need air to breathe, food to eat, and water to drink. Most of these people that we admire and look up to are not individuals that we should aspire to be like. They have very poor character and are often involved in a lot of illegal activity, which is often caught on camera. Then, because they are famous, the get a slap on the wrist for the same crime that would send a regular citizen to jail. The media puts an image around these people and steals their humanity away from them. The people that they play in movies, television shows, or in concerts are not the same people that they are in real life. They are entertainers, and they are good at their job, telling us what we want to hear and acting how they think will make them the most popular.
The second essay, “The Joy of Mud,” also involved someone searching for something, only this time, a place that they can truly belong and call home. The main character, Catherine, had been struggling all her life wanting to be other places. She had never really gotten into the Hawaiian culture, always setting her focus on living somewhere else. She has moved around to different places seeking that feeling of belonging and now she has returned to Hawaii, atleast for a while. “Maybe it’s the one that will eventually lead me home.” (B15)
The thing that surprised me most about this essay was how uncomfortable she was, even with people who she called friend. I’ve been to Hawaii a few times and the people there are some of the most inviting, caring people I’ve ever been around. But even back home in Washington or here in Texas, I feel that I belong and can call these places home. I’ve never lived in a place that I felt so uncomfortable in that my entire focus was spent on waiting to leave.
The main issue that arises in this story, in my opinion, is how our high-speed culture of today is causing us to miss out on the simple things in life. We are so busy, working all day long, trying to attain a definition of success that other people define to us, that we miss out on some of the best things in life. Take for example, this story. She had a great, fulfilling time being up to her waist in mud and pulling up roots for lunch. I’m not saying that we all quit going to school and everyone quits there job to go play in the mud, but I am saying that there has to be a happy medium between being a workaholic and being a failure.
I was also surprised by how let down she was when she finally met him. She’d wanted to meet him for so long. She could’ve eaten dinner with him at the buffet or gambled with him late into the night and gotten to know the person she’d been obsessed with for so long. But instead, she was so let down that the person who she thought he ways, the person who the media created a false image of, that she was too shocked to even take advantage of the opportunity that she had right in front of her. “I accept, finally, that this person I know so well I don’t really know at all…. I stand next to him, this man so familiar and foreign.” (B10)
That point brings up an important issue, the misrepresentation of famous people in the media and pop culture. We place these people up on pedestals and think about them like they are so far above us. They are still human beings. They need air to breathe, food to eat, and water to drink. Most of these people that we admire and look up to are not individuals that we should aspire to be like. They have very poor character and are often involved in a lot of illegal activity, which is often caught on camera. Then, because they are famous, the get a slap on the wrist for the same crime that would send a regular citizen to jail. The media puts an image around these people and steals their humanity away from them. The people that they play in movies, television shows, or in concerts are not the same people that they are in real life. They are entertainers, and they are good at their job, telling us what we want to hear and acting how they think will make them the most popular.
The second essay, “The Joy of Mud,” also involved someone searching for something, only this time, a place that they can truly belong and call home. The main character, Catherine, had been struggling all her life wanting to be other places. She had never really gotten into the Hawaiian culture, always setting her focus on living somewhere else. She has moved around to different places seeking that feeling of belonging and now she has returned to Hawaii, atleast for a while. “Maybe it’s the one that will eventually lead me home.” (B15)
The thing that surprised me most about this essay was how uncomfortable she was, even with people who she called friend. I’ve been to Hawaii a few times and the people there are some of the most inviting, caring people I’ve ever been around. But even back home in Washington or here in Texas, I feel that I belong and can call these places home. I’ve never lived in a place that I felt so uncomfortable in that my entire focus was spent on waiting to leave.
The main issue that arises in this story, in my opinion, is how our high-speed culture of today is causing us to miss out on the simple things in life. We are so busy, working all day long, trying to attain a definition of success that other people define to us, that we miss out on some of the best things in life. Take for example, this story. She had a great, fulfilling time being up to her waist in mud and pulling up roots for lunch. I’m not saying that we all quit going to school and everyone quits there job to go play in the mud, but I am saying that there has to be a happy medium between being a workaholic and being a failure.
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