Crossfire

Having little to no political knowledge or interest, Crossfire was originally very difficult to watch let alone follow. However some points stood out to me as very interesting. Jon Stewart made a very good point as to the fact that Crossfire was theater. He was implying that the other two men were simply actors trying to make the politicians look good. This became more apparent as the one man was obviously a democrat and the other republican. Jon pointed out that the show wasn't a debate show because it was simply two sides arguing. Jon stood as a neutral, unbiased opinion. Even the way he was dressed showed this as he was wearing a simple sweater while the other two were dressed in suits and ties. This causes people to immediately take his side and really trust him as an honest opinion. The other men just kept arguing and arguing while Jon did his best to make it a debate while making it funny and pointing out the flaws in media today.

Assign 1

 I've always had trouble with writing. I don't know if it was the words that I had trouble with, or whether it was correct grammar or it just didn't sound right. I do know, however, that I have improved my writing. I found that if I just write everything as if I was talking, that it's a whole lot easier. Now, I talk a lot. No, that's an understatement. I talk too much. So I know that I shouldn't write everything, but keep most of my thoughts in a paper. By doing this, I realized that what my papers always lacked was detail. They lacked personality and character, and anything interesting for that matter. I try to get started on my work right away when I do it though. I know that if I just get all of my current thoughts down right after it is assigned, I can always go back and take out some of my rambling, which I tend to do. I try to write the basic structure of my essay before I type it because I tend to drift from the subject and I cant really stay focused. Writing the structure down first has always helped because I can ramble about each of my mini-topics within paragraphs instead of making my whole essay one big paragraph. The thing that has helped me the most in high school essay writing, was asking for help. I am one of those super independent "I can do it myself" people. I think it's because I'm short. People ask if I need help a lot. I learned that asking for help isn't always a bad thing and it isn't insulting. I can bring my paper to someone and they won't write my essay for me, but they will simply help me learn to better explain things and they will tell me what sounds stupid. So, really, I don't have too many problems with writing anymore. Sure, I'm not perfect, and there's always room for improvement. So, that's what I want to get out of this class. I don't want to "fix" my writing, I just want to make it better.