Reddit and What I Found There

Kopecky, Michelle. "Advertising on Reddit" 11/19/2010 via wikispaces. Public Domain Dedication License

This blog post will be about what I found on Reddit when I searched "pre-med" which is my major.

A lot of what I found on reddit was support threads for pre-med students. There were a lot of threads designated to let pre-med student vent out all of their frustration and talk about the similar problems they are facing.  There is also threads that current of former medicals students talk to pre-med college students about the problems they will face and also give them advice on how to handle these problems.  Lastly, there is a lot of threads with doctors that are allowing anyone to ask them questions about anything. 

One of the threads I found interesting can be found here. It was debate about whether a guy, who was a senior in college and a computer science major and suddenly wants to switch to pre-med, would be able to get into medical school.  I found this interesting because I can see myself being in that guys shoes. I do not yet know what I want to major in or even what I want to be in life. I walked in to college wanting to go to medical school but I can also see myself doing a variety of other things. 

However, I am scared to end up like him because he went down a major  all the way to senior year and then found out he wanted to go to medical school but that it may be to late. Right now, I want to go to medical school which is why I am taking the classes I am and I am hoping that I do not change my mind because it may be to late for me to start from scratch.

The second thread I found interesting can be found here. This was a debate on what surprised current medical students the most about medical school. I found this interesting because I am interested in going to medical school and, like the person who posted the blog stated, want to be prepared for anything I may face. 

A point that hit home for me in the debate was that it is ok to attend an average medical school because average is still above average. As I stress about my future, this really relaxed me and made me worry less about this whole procedure.

Like on Twitter, people on reddit seem to be stressing out over my major. At the same time there appears to be a lot of support from not only doctors but people who  are currently in medical school. Overall, it all seems worth it and I know the path may be hard but it will all be worth it in the end.  

Evaluation of News Magazine Stories

Honey, Donkey. "Republican Elephant & Democratic Donkey - Icons" 10/19/2011via flickr.  Public Domain Dedication License

In this blog post I will be analyzing two stories, one from The Atlantic titled "The NRA Strikes Back In Virginia" the other one is from New York Magazine titled "Trump Overtakes Cruz and Clinton Holds Her Lead in Final Survey from Top Iowa Pollster"Even though I want to go to medical school, I do not know what major I am choosing but I know I want to be involved in politics later on in life. This is why I chose these two stories as both pertain to a major I am potentially interested in.

The first story is about the Virgina declaring it would no long recognize concealed carry permits of firearm owners in the 25 states with laxer gun laws than its own. e The NRA responded to this by calling it “the biggest setback” that gun owners had suffered politically in all of 2015. lli And interestingly enough on Friday the state reversed itself.

A week before the ban was to have taken effect, the governor announced that  "Virginia would keep granting reciprocity to out-of-state gun owners, so long as they had not been specifically denied a permit in Virginia. In exchange, GOP leaders agreed to change state laws to prevent domestic abusers from possessing guns and to make it harder for private dealing from skipping a background check when selling at state gun shows. " v This deal enraged gun-control advocates as they see it as a step back.

The most sympathetic character of this story is gun-control advocates in Virginia. They had just had a huge victory for their cause and to see it be reversed just a week before it was to take effect is heartbreaking. Many of the advocates see it as practically a give away by the governor but will continue the fight for stricter gun laws not only state-wide but nation-wide.

The least sympathetic character is the NRA who clearly came out victorious. Although this debate will continue to rage  on in the country, Virginia should be seen as a huge victory for them. They reversed a measure that would make gun regulations much more strict and at the same time dealt a heavy blow to gun-control advocates. They have nothing for me to sympathize seeing as how big this victory is.



The second story is about Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump passing candidate Ted Cruz while Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton expanded her lead on candidate Bernie Sanders in a Iowa survey on January 30, 2015. The entire presidential race is a big debate between who would be the best person to lead the country when President Barrack Obama's term expires next year.

The most sympathetic character of this story is Bernie Saunders. Iowa is a key swing state and him losing in the polls is not a good sign. Although there is still plenty of time until the election night, Hillary Clinton was recently endorsed by the New York times to represent the democrats. I am sure Bernie will be looking to bounce back from this defeat in the following polls.

The least sympathetic character is Donald Trump. Often referred to as the most controversial candidate for this election Donald Trump continues to lead the Republicans. There is nothing I sympathize about Donald Trump seeing as I completely disagree with some of the measures he is proposing during his campaign.

Twitter and What I Found There.

Fadilpasic, Sead. "Twitter launches Moments" 07/10/2015 via itproportel. Public Domain Dedication License

This post will be about tweets I found when I searched "pre-med", which is my major, on twitter.

Seeing as how I do not know my major I searched pre-med because I know I want to go to medical school. When I did this I found that most of the people were excited when the got into medical school as well as graduated medical school. They are plenty of pictures of the degrees as well as letters of acceptance from medical schools. Another common thing on this search was college students complaining about how hard it is to be pre-med, something I can closely relate to.

In particular I found two very interesting tweets. The first one was tweeted by @MelaninMD on January 24, 2015 it said "Major : Just because you’re pre-med, doesn’t mean you have to choose a science major. Pursue a degree in something that interests you!" The reason I was interested in this tweet is because, like I previously said, I do not yet know my major.

 I know what I want my destination to be, which is medical school, however I do not know the path I want to take. I have also been recommended my friends and mentors to major in whatever I like. However, it is often common for pre-med students to major in a science since it will be relevant to their future. I am not saying that I do not want to major in a science, I am just looking at all the options before I commit myself to a certain field.

The second tweet I found interesting was tweeted by @ashleyyy_maee on January 21, 2015. It said "Why is it when I tell people I'm a pre-med student they start preaching to me like my soul needs saved.". The reason I was interested in this tweet is because I often get the same response when I tell people I want to go to medical school. They all feel bad for me and say my life is going to suck but I already know this. I am choosing to this life because I've always wanted to be a doctor no matter how hard it may be.

Overall, based on what I saw on twitter I know the discipline I am choosing is going to be hard. I also know that once you get past this hard time you are going to reap the rewards. This is the response I expected which is why I am still continuing down this path. All the smiles on the faces of this tweet really showed me that it would all be worth it.

Evaluation of New York Times Stories

Stern, Joanna. "New York Times Website Hacked, Syrian Electronic Army Appear to Take Credit" 08/27/2013 via newyorktimes. Public Domain Dedication License

This post will be about two New York Times articles that I am breaking down for Sean Bottai English 109H Class. The first story I will be analyzing is "With No Détente, Donald Trump’s Feud With Fox Takes Center Stage" by Jim Gutenberg in the Politics session. The second story I will be analyzing is "Scientists Move Closer to Understanding Schizophrenia’s Cause" Benedict Carey. 


For the first story the main character seemed to be Donald Trump. He is the center of the story because he has had a feud with Fox News over the the past weeks in regards to a comment made by a Fox News anchor about him. It has been taking place all over the news as well as social media sites. This is because Trump is stating he will not participate in the Republican Debate which primarily is hosted on Fox News.


Donald Trump is a big attraction for ratings and viewings so having him miss the debate could be a catastrophic for Fox News. He demands that Fox News have Megan Kelly, the news anchor that made the comments, removed from the debate if they expect him to attend. Fox News so far has been seeing if Donald Trump will cave in and go on the debate as he could potentially lose votes for this seeing as how it is nationally broadcasted. Both sides appear to be standing strong in their beliefs and we may be seeing this through the debate.



The second story was about how researches have discovered the steps by which genes can increase a person’s risk of developing schizophrenia. The main character in this story seems to be the scientists from Harvard Medical School, Boston Children’s Hospital and the Broad Institute, a research center allied with Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who discovered these steps.  The presentation of these findings takes place in the journal, Nature. This has been a primary question for patients with schizophrenia so these findings play a huge role in understanding what schizophrenia is and maybe how to stop it. 

There is no disagreements going on about this as the entire field seems rejoiced for such findings. However ,Dr. Samuel Barondes warned that "any step forward is not only rare and unusual, it’s just one step in a journey of a thousand miles.”

Considering Genre

 Naranjo, Fernando. "Podcast" 09/30/2014 via slideshare. Public Domain Dedication License

This post will be about the genre I am choosing  to do for Project 1.

The genre I am choosing to do my project on is a podcast.  I am doing this because I want to get the podcast out of the way. I want to have a relaxed end of semester so I am trying to get all the tough projects out of the way.

The genre conventions I plan on doing for next week is the audio for the podcasts. I plan on finding where I can check out a microphone as well as any other equipment I may need to make this podcast. I know that I need to check them out in advance as to ensure that I get the equipment to make the podcast. 

Some problems I anticipate is having a difficult time editing the audio. I have no experience with formatting audio so I already know this will be a big problem for me. 

My Writing Process

1.  The type of writer I consider myself to be is a mix between a Heavy Planner and a Procrastinator.
2. Yes, my writing process includes several of the aforementioned approaches such as habitually delaying my writing, thoughtfully planning out my writing, and thinking about my writing in any type of my environment.
3. My writing process does tend to be successful. The strengths of my approach to writing are the ability to plan my writing in any situation and to structure out my writing carefully. The biggest weakness of my writing approach is that I usually delay writing until the last minute.
4. I do think it would be beneficial to try a different approach because I feel as though it would improve my writing. By not procrastinating and putting in more time to revise, I think it would help better my writing increasingly. 

Course Projects

1) The thing I am most nervous about is the primary research portion of the Rhetorical Investigation. I know I am going to struggle trying to figure out what to ask as well as executing the actual interview.

2) I am most excited about the Reflective Self-Assessment. The purpose of this course is for me to improve my writing and I am excited to see how far I have progressed throughout the semester.  I am also interested in seeing how my writing process has developed to see if I have made any actual change.

3) I have to plan ahead for the interviews for the Rhetorical Investigation, I also have to plan ahead for times to work on all of the four projects so that I do not procrastinate.

4) I personally feel that my high school English classes have done a good job in preparing me for this course. My personal proof-reading improved dramatically because of my high school classes.  I bring to class the knowledge of writing research papers.

5) I do not have any questions as of now but I can easily see this changing as I go further into the class and the projects.



Response to my Peers: http://hoover109h.blogspot.com/2016/01/course-projects.html (Nicolas Hoover)

http://creative109.blogspot.com/2016/01/course-projects.html?showComment=1453705773026  (Michael Duffek)

Investigating Genres

Genre of Choice: Quick Reference Guide

1) The purpose of this genre is to break down complex situations into an easy-to-follow narrative that provides readers not just with information, but a nuanced understanding of the context for that information.

2) Users usually find this genre on the internet on blogs or other online news promoting outlets.

3) The typical audience for this genre are internet users and people with internet availability. This is because quick reference guides are usually found on the internet thus the usual audience are those who access the internet.

4) Something unique to the quick reference guides are questions that break down a broad topic into more specific subtopics. These questions make it easy for a reader to find out what they are looking for in a topic without having to read the entire article.

5) Based on my previous answers I would define a Quick Reference Guide as a web post that uses short directed questions to break down and explain a more general broader topic.

Reflection: From this assignment, I learned a lot from my classmates. The information written in their Quick Reference Guides were all very informative and made me realize how taking different approaches to my writing may actually improve it.

Commented Under:

1.  http://noghrehchi109h.blogspot.com/2016/01/investigating-genres.html?showComment=1453702596954#c3912280759976522149 (PJ Noghrehchi)
2. http://jacobcorbin27.blogspot.com/2016/01/investigating-genres.html?showComment=1453703201931#c8146862356686888981 (Jacob Corbin)