Week 15 Posting Brody Carter

I feel like after taking this course I have really improved on my writing. I can look at the papers that I wrote in the past and current, and there is a huge improvement. One thing that has helped me become a better writer is writing drafts. I used to just write either a final draft or if I had to write a rough draft, I would just turn in my rough draft as my final draft. I think I have taken more of an interest in writing this semester is because I am able to write about something I like. The assignments are not boring topics that the instructor has assigned us. One thing I think I am still struggling with is proper grammar. I sometimes do not use the right words. Also I tend to rephrase a lot of words or phrases. I really cannot think of how the class could be run more efficiently. One thing that would possibly help the class is do more group exercises. I would benefit more if we did have more conferences. Even if the instructor just took us out into the hallways, and talked about our writings. The conferences do help because you receive one on one teaching from the instructor.

Week 14 Posting Brody Carter

I feel like the best writing I have done in this class is the Literature Review. I felt like this was my best for many reasons. I think that I worked extremely hard on this paper because it is going to help me the most on the mini ethnography. I can almost use the majority of my literature review in my mini ethnography somehow. Another reason I think the literature review was my best is because it is like a summary of all my previous writings. I am including writing from the Exploring Culture assignment and from the Annotated Bibliography. After completing those two papers, and revising them it is like the Literature Review was a final draft of the two assignments. I was really getting used to the style of writing I was using while informing my audience. I liked the literature review because it was basically putting all the pieces to the puzzle together. I finally started to see some structure towards my mini ethnography. Since I have already wrote my mini ethnography, I can tell you that the literature review has helped a great deal. Since I did really well on my literature review, it made the mini ethnography go easy/

Week 13 Posting Brody Carter

It was a cold Friday night in Arrowson’s Archery. Country music was playing softly through a stereo in the corner of the room. There were 15 people in the store. Shooting lanes 1 through 15 all had an archer in it. There was a shooting league this particular night. I sat on a bar stool with no cushion on it. I was sitting right next to the cash register talking to the co-owner of the business, Rob Garrison. Rob is about six foot tall, and has a goatee. He and his brother own the archery shop. His brother, Michael, shoots in national level archery competitions. Rob does not shoot in competitions. I had never known this until he told me that night. He just sets up the bows for his brother. While we were talking, the archers’ were still shooting their competition. All of the sudden, I hear, “Oh, Shit!” This was uncommon during business hours, because there are “NO PROFANITY” signs everywhere in the shop. As I look to see what was causing the commotion, all of the other archers backed up from one shooter. Blood was everywhere, on the floor, on a support beam, and on the archer’s shirt and pants. The archer’s arrow had snapped when he released the arrow causing about a three inch section of his arrow to become lodged into his forearm. The two ladies in the shop were hysterical, and just about every guy kind of laughed and was surprised to see what had happened. The archer who shot himself eventually went to the hospital to get four stitches.

Week 12 Posting Brody Carter

My understanding of the word rhetoric has to do with language. The definition I would give is the way we present our voice. I think it has to with our appearance, the way we talk, and act. If someone is dressed in a suit and tie, people are usually going to think more highly about the person when they talk. If we sound interested or give emotions to when we talk I think can also make a difference. I hear rhetoric in today’s culture when someone asks if something was a rhetorical question. I believe that it would be used as a positive statement. Some people may believe that deer hunters talk with a southern accent. I would say that this is very false, but people from the south that do hunt fit this stereotype of a deer hunter. I could use rhetoric in my mini-ethnography by having someone give their point of view on a topic of deer hunting. Also I can use rhetoric in my mini-ethnography by my position of being an insider.

Writing Quote Brody Carter

"Writing is like a box of chocolate, you never know what type of writing you are going to get."

This quote is meaning that there are so many different type of writing assignments. They all are very similiar, like all the chocolate is similiar. But there is always a key difference such as a bibliography, fictional story, mini-ethnography, or a report. This symbolizes the differrent types of fillings in a box of chocolate. You could have nuts, carmel, coconut, or strawberry.

Week 11 Posting Brody Carter

I do believe that my writing process has changed since week 1. I know actually do research into my writings and have multiple drafts. I now make at least a rough draft, and have someone proof read it before I turn it in. The assignment that has really given me the most trouble is the literature review. It’s really hard for me to not talk about my opinions. The literature review is supposed to be about the readings, and the context in it. So when I talk about a review over something I may not disagree with, it’s really hard not to give my own opinion. The one I thought that was easy was the annotated bibliography. I found it was easy to find research and summarize it and then explain how I am going to use it in my paper. I am writing to express my feelings. I felt that if I did a topic I am an insider in, it would be easier to say things that I do not usually say. Writing doesn’t play a tremendous role in my life, but it does have an impact. I can express my feelings without say a word from my mouth. Everyone uses writing in their life, so it will play a role later on maybe not research paper wise, but a report may be needed.

Family Research

I would have to say that my grandpa is the closest person in our family to being famous. He has passed away, but at every family get together he is always mentioned and stories are told of him. One cool thing that he told me was he used to be Sheriff for Delaware County. He was actually sheriff when the current Delaware County Jail was first opened. He told me that as a joke he was the first person to be locked into a jail cell. I cannot remember how many years he was sheriff, but he had enough stories that made it sound like he was sheriff for 50 years. Now he was sheriff quite a bit years ago, so things back then were different than now days. Back then, if he arrested a man that had a weapon, he could keep the weapon, unless it was used in a crime. So there he had three gun vaults filled with guns. He could tell me a story with each weapon. Sometimes the stories were exaggerated a bit, but it always left me with thinking that my grandpa was almost Superman. I also remember watching Walker Texas Ranger with my grandpa, and he would always say that Walker was one tough son-of-a-bitch. He would else tell me that everything Walker would do to criminals, he too did that to a criminal.