As of now, I am not planning on going out on Friday, but I am a little nervous about going to classes and walking around campus. If anything, I plan to go to classes and then go back to my dorm and finish up on homework before the weekend. This “holiday” could really negatively affect the campus, especially because of the excessive consumption of alcohol. Negative consequences can include vandalism and sober students skipping class to avoid students who decide to go to class drunk.In addition, students can become unconscious because of excessive alcohol consumption and seriously injure themselves and others. Because Unofficial is such a large event, the negative effects are pretty much inevitable. At this point, students planning to attend Unofficial should be cautious and avoid excessive consumption of alcohol.

I have decided to write my research essay on the relation between the media and body image and self-worth (self-esteem). Although I believe that the media had an overall negative effect on body image and self-portrayal, I also want to discover the psychology behind the reasons why the media has such a negative effect on body image. I am in the process of gathering multiple resources that focus on different parts of the media that affect various body image image and self-esteem issues. I can personally relate to these issues because I still struggle to look a certain way. It would also be interesting to look into the ways that schools and other institutions attempt to deal with the issue of the media’s negative effect on body image and self-worth. I still agree with my former view of Gerard’s idea of writing about a totally foreign topic in term’s of one’s own knowledge. In my opinion, I am writing about media and body image because I have little knowledge about the topic, but I am interested and want to know more. The idea that I could familiarize myself with the topic spurred my interest to write about it. I continue to disagree with Gerard because I would find it hard to write about a topic I have no knowledge about or interest in to say the very least.

The Gerald interview presents the approach of writing a research paper about an unfamiliar topic; write about something you want to know and not what you already know. I agree to a certain extent that writing about an unfamiliar research topic can be beneficial in terms of creating an opinion or bias about an important issue. On the other hand, I want to take the approach of writing about a topic I am well-informed about. I want to be able to strongly defend by views and opinions in a well-written and informative essay. The approach mentioned in the Gerald interview doesn’t seem most helpful when writing a research paper; a research paper is meant to be written about a topic that the reader is already well-informed about in order to illustrate a successful argument. For my research paper I will be writing about the ethics and politics of abortion; I am well-informed about abortion and I can strongly defend my stance on the issue (as well as properly inform the reader). I already know that abortion is a very controversial topic, and stances on the issue depend on a variety of views and opinions. My opinion is rooted in that I am totally against abortion, and my opinion will definitely affect my writing; I am attempting to convince the reader why abortion should be illegal and why others have no problem with it. By presenting the facts at the beginning of the paper, I can simply inform the reader and allow them to formulate their own opinions. Although the topics blog post presented a wide variety of potential ideas, I wasn’t as informed about the topics (especially the politics and current world news). Using  scholarly articles to my advantage will help me write an informative, yet biased research paper while letting the reader observe both sides of the issue.

Dear Maria (sister in high school),

Although you haven’t yet had the college experience, you should know that college is definitely not easy. One of my harder classes is Rhet 105; I am expected to write a critical response every week along with quizzes and other time-consuming assignments. I’m one of the lucky ones to start class every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 8am. Although I am probably sleep-deprived, I make sure I turn in all my assignments on time and follow the given instructions. Hopefully you will prioritize your time and focus on the academics. For Rhet 105, I am expected to write a full-blown research paper! I might have an idea of what I would want to write about, but I’m not set on an ideal topic right now. I want to have enough to write about but not anything too overwhelming. My two options right now are the drinking age of alcohol and the “issue” with parents spanking their children. I decided that a more argumentative topic will be easier to write about. It’s an important decision, and it would be great if you could give me some feedback.

From

Elena