Reflection blog for final

I learned from my instructor this semester that ethos couldn’t be projected from one blog or one paper. Rather, it’s what you have projected through out all published and unpublished work. Who you are and where you come from play a big roll in weather the reader will give value to what you say or not. I am not to say whether my writing is credible or not because it is up to you, the reader, to decide. However; I can try to convey where my sources come from to make it easier for the reader to evaluate my credibility. An example of that is these quotes from my technology essay “Miranda Morley is an educator, business consultant and owner of copywriting/social-media Management Company making her knowledgeable in all the areas approached.” Here I introduced the author to save my audience time and effort in determining who exactly she is and why they should value her opinion.

I also learned from writing the Political Ad Campaign that pathos is not the only factor responsible in persuading the audience of your point of view. There are several key factors contributing to the persuasion of the audience such as emotional appeal, clarity of the message and the message’s informative content. For an article to be at its maximum effectiveness at persuading, the article should cover almost all tools of persuasion.

When it comes to my writing, I actually thought I was reasonably good until I took this class. I think it is mostly because I took the previous class “ENGL 1113” with other international students just like me. So the average level was not as high as it is in this class, which makes sense, since all my classmates are native English speakers.  I feel handicapped when doing assignments because I somewhat lack the tools that a lot of my fellow classmates have mastered. My biggest struggle when writing a paper is finding the write words to start my paragraph with. I find myself staring at the screen for a while without writing anything or writing something that my sound off topic as my instructor commented more than once. Plus I feel that I lack analyzing and elaborating skills mainly because of my limited vocabulary. I still try doing my best and feel that my speaking and writing have improved quit a bit this semester. My persuasion skills improved by learning how to put a stronger thesis as the instructor stated on his comments on my last essay. My use of pronouns has also gotten better as opposed to the beginning of the semester when I used to miss use them all the time.

Our last website assignment wasn’t the easiest one. I’ve always been intimidated by technology as I stated before in my technological identity assignment, but I feel that doing such assignment made me realize that talking about something in the internet isn’t as hard as I thought it would be. Persuasion is a big part of one’s everyday life and I feel that this class did a good job in making me better at it.

My time spent so far in Norman/(America)

Since I came to America I have made many new friends and experiences.  I arrived in August 2011 to Norman, Oklahoma thinking I was dropped in a village. I was expecting a bigger city with a more urban  atmosphere. My older brother's friend was the only one I knew here and he was the one that helped me until I moved into the dorms. My first semester living in Couch tower consisted of attending classes from 9am to 3pm at the English program OU offers international students, eating at the "Caf" and making my self familiar with my surroundings and peers. Many of my friends were Saudi like me, because I felt more comfortable speaking Arabic than English and they were of a familiar culture that I was accustomed to.
It was still fairly early in the semester when I met a girl who worked at the "Caf" and lived in my tower that I wanted to get to know better, but she did not speak Arabic. This forced me to speak in English more frequently because I had started spending a lot of time with her. As the semester dragged on, I became very close to her and consequently, my English improved drastically. I graduated the English program in just one semester and gained admission as a freshman for the spring 2012 semester.

Spring 2012 was a very different experience for me, it was my first official semester attending OU. The classes and curriculum were so different from what I was used to it was kind of startling. I had to relearn key terms in both my math and chemistry classes in English; "Zimbak" was now the element "Mercury". It helped that me and my girlfriend were in the same chemistry class along with some Arabic speaking peers, but the other classes were pretty frustrating, In the end with hard work and many hours studying, I managed to earn a 4.0 for my first semester at OU!
I was pushed outside my comfort zone, which consisted of my Arabic speaking friends and my girlfriend, during summer 2012. This was my first long break living in America and many of my friends went home to Saudi Arabia. My brother was coming to join me at OU, but he didn't arrive until about a month into the summer, which left me with a lot of time on my hands. Anxiously waiting for his arrival, I did many new things during this time such as sky diving and getting new hobbies. I also started to hang out with more Americans and met many new people that I normally wouldn't see myself associating with regularly. My way of thinking changed drastically during these months since I was exposed to many different opinions and personalities.
This semester has proven to be the most challenging term in the time I've spent at OU, but also the most constructive. It has shaped me into someone I haven't been before because of all the different experiences I  have gone through, from rushing a fraternity, to being dropped from the fraternity, to my grades, to roommates, and finally to who I consider my friends. Though there have been many changes from when I first arrived to Norman, I'm glad that my girlfriend has been here with me through all of them, which is comforting considering the huge amount of change I have undergone through in just one year.

I have not traveled much yet outside of Norman (besides traveling through Texas for spring break '12 and visiting my girlfriend in Dallas summer '12), which is why I consider it my America, but I hope to see more of this country and add to my American experience.

Calc 2 is driving me crazy!

If I've realized at least one thing this semester it would be that I'm no engineer. The derivatives, the integrals, the partial fraction decompositions- that's just not the life I want to live for the next 2 years of my college life. Sure, in the very distant future it may all be worth it but at the moment every night looks kinda like this:

This picture isn't even particularly posed, I really have these books and notes scattered around me as I agitatedly study at the library. 

I can only ponder how it all came to this. Maybe it's the fact that I took calc 1 over the summer, at an accelerated rate so the concepts were not fully engraved in my soul like they should have been (after all, I am supposed to be an engineer, right?). Or maybe it's because my professor prides himself in having test averages around 30%. One thing's for sure, next time I'm checking ratemyprofessor.com to help me pick between the lesser of two evils.
The thing that puzzles me is that I put so much time and effort into studying. I spend countless hours writing notes at home over things we review, but each time I hang my head at another low grade.
I think much of it has to do with test anxiety. I am able to solve the same questions I miss on exams when I am reviewing, but as soon as I enter the exam room, my mind goes blank and I break into a cold nervous sweat.
With finals coming up so fast, the future of my grade for Calc 2 looks pretty bleak, but maybe with the help of  a tutor and reducing my social life to one of a hermit, I could turn it around.

Technology

Lately I have been constantly hearing about how Facebook is detrimental to our social life. I’m writing this blog to try and show that for most of the time we actually make our lives more social via Facebook.  A lot of people that I know if not most check their Facebook as soon as the computer is ready for use as if there was a rule that says Facebook should be checked prior to doing anything. For that I feel that Facebook would be a very wide field of socialization.

I opened my MacBook to start on this blog, but thoughtlessly I logged on to Facebook. I see that I have 6 notifications in which couples are mandatory meetings that I have to attend this week. Now Facebook is not only being a turf where people can plan parties and BBQ’s but also a business field where you can do serious grown up stuff as well.

Another notifications was my fraternity group on Facebook trying to figure out who’s going to be able to play football this afternoon for IM’s. I don’t see any other ICT that can do this job without having to constantly remind people that they have to check whatever other ITC there using, because most college students check their Facebook once a day if not more without even thinking about it.