Write a roll question

I can't think of a question, but I did go to the last day of class.

Letter to future students

Dear future students of Sean Conaway,

After taking a semester Sean’s English 1106 class I have a couple of tips and tricks to survive. First off do not panic when you hear that you will have to write a 350-word blog post every class. At first it might seem stressful, but what you have to realize is that these posts are a lot more relaxed then a lot of the writing you are probably use to. Make sure to read all of the readings even if they are a bit lengthy, in the long run it will be worth it. This will make it so much easier to write your blog post if you actually read it, go figure, and a lot of them are related to the essays that you have to write. Another big tip is to go to class, here you will be able to learn a lot of strategies to help with your essay and writing in general. Now I know that this can be hard sometimes because he does not count attendance, trust me it is worth it. Especially since there are not a lot of grades in this class, the bulk of them being the essays, you will need all of the help that you can get. Along with that is do not be shy to talk to Sean he is a very understanding guy, so if you are feeling overwhelmed with assignments ask for an extension or if you need help with your essay talk to him about it. Most times people are afraid to ask for help, but there are a ton of resources that Virginia Tech offers to students, so try to utilize them. I know that I went to the writing center for all of my essays this year and found that to be really helpful. I would recommend that any of you guys use it for this class or any other class since it is a completely free program. I am sure that all of you by now know how important free stuff is for college students. Other than that, I would just enjoy your time in class and participate as much as you can.

Sincerely,
Sarah Vasquez

PS - I wrote most of what was or wasn't engaging and other things like that in my last blog post.

Extended Spot Survey

Everything in class has been really helpful in improving my writing, but I think one of the most effective ways was actually the blog posts. A lot of times I overthink what I write, but since the blog posts where more relaxed it helped me to just write and not think so much. I do think that 350 words is kind of a lot for some of the assignments like the one where we had to write about what we need to improve in our rough draft. Another helpful assignment would probably have to be the prickles and goo. This was helpful in writing a lot of our essays because in class I was able to learn about how to balance facts and fluff in my essays. Along with some of the reading assignments because most of them were examples of what kind of essay we were going to write. It made it easier for me to write the essays because there were several readings and examples that you gave us in class that I could refer to. The least helpful assignment was probably when we talked about the rhetorical appeals. I purely say that because in my last semester writing class we went into a lot of depth with the appeals, so I did not really need a refresher on that. Other than that, everything in class was generally useful and engaging because you showed us a lot of interesting videos that related to class. I am not really sure on what you could do to improve the class because I thoroughly enjoyed it and will definitely take away a lot of tips on improving my writing. As for the final assignment, I was not too keen on the PechaKucha, especially since I did one last semester in my writing class. I did like that the topic was on one of the essays that we already wrote, but for the sake of your future students I will recommend assigning a regular PowerPoint presentation. Even though I know that you will probably ignore that comment.

PechaKucha

I will be presenting my research article for the PechaKucha PowerPoint presentation. I chose my research article instead of my inquiry essay because I think I have a lot more information on it. Plus, I think it will be a lot more interesting talking about virtual reality rather than me talking about going to the gym at 8:00am every day. To condense my information, I will talk about three main aspects of my essay, which is the negative and positive aspects of virtual reality, where we are now with VR technology, and what we should expect in the future that will include augmented and mixed reality. From here I will add pictures of the different headsets and I want to try to add some of the websites that have already been made for virtual reality headsets. I will probably have to do screenshots of the websites in order to do go with the flow of the PechaKucha PowerPoint. Along with adding some of the graphs of the projected revenue for virtual reality products. I am hoping to really show everyone in class the virtual reality experience that different companies like Samsung, Google, HTC, and varies other companies are trying to achieve. Besides the time constraint and PowerPoint method I guess my next biggest challenge would be putting the right amount of visuals and text on each slide. That is why in class tomorrow I am planning on making an outline, looking for different visuals that will grab the audience’s attention, and condensing the information from my essay. I am not sure if I will be able to do all of that in class, but once I do finish that the final step would be practicing the presentation. One of the most important parts of the assignment is making sure that I am familiar with the information. That is another reason why I chose my research article because the information is still fresh in my mind. As long as I practice a little bit I should be able to feel comfortable to go off script a little if I forget something.

Potential introductions

In the last decade, there has been a rapid rise in technology in science, the work force, or just simply in entertainment but what’s next. The answer is virtual reality, in the past couple of years several companies have been researching and releasing virtual reality headsets in particular. All of these are made to immerse oneself into another world with life like qualities, so that people can explore the world without having to leave their house. Even though they have had little success so far it is projected that by the year 2020 virtual reality will have over $120 billion-dollar revenue. With very high expectations that it can alter human’s way of life by potentially improving the military by replicating combat without actually having to go to combat or doctors performing lifelike surgeries without having to do it on a real human.  There are so many different possibilities of what virtual reality can do to the world. While some people are, excited and promoting virtual reality, products others have speculations about some of the possible repercussions that could have on humans. That is why this article will go into depth on how this might affect society, were we are now with technology, and what people should expect form it.

Imagine having the capacity to travel all the way across the world to China, touring places like the great wall of China or performing open heart surgery all at the comfort of your home and that is what virtual reality is trying to achieve. A world so realistic that people will immerse themselves into the product for scientific, military, or maybe just entertainment purposes. Currently there are several tethered and mobile headsets offered by Google, Samsung, HTC, and more that have tried to create this with little success, but in a couple of years that could change. Companies all over the globe are looking into this technology and it only takes one product to break through the barriers and become mainstream. That is why it is projected that in only three years there will be over $120 billion-dollar revenue on virtual reality. The question is how will this impact all of us. Many people are hopeful and believe that only good can come from this while others are focused on the multitude of possible repercussions. This essay will focus on both points of views along with where we currently are with virtual reality and what everyone should expect from it.

Fake News

The 2016 election was one of the most controversial elections in probably the United States history. It was a full year of negative political ads and several articles that were made up about both candidates, which made it difficult for some people to tell what was real or fake news. Samantha Subramanian focuses on Veles, an 18-year-old boy from the Balkan nation that made thousands of dollars through creating fake news. This story within itself is pretty interesting, but since most people in the United States saw several of these fake news articles everyday shared through Facebook or tweeted it was able to resonate with the audience. That is what was able to give this piece a human element because it was about something we all know about and it gave insight to Veles life. That is similar to the documentary that we watched in class, when they were able to talk to internet trolls. I would say this is a more effective piece then that one because it gave us more information on the guy, so that we could see why he decided start writing these articles. As most people expected it was for money, but it was a little bit more then that. He lived in an underdeveloped neighborhood with limited opportunities and when he got the chance to get some of the material things that he otherwise would not be able to afford he took it. This appeals to the audience’s emotions or pathos, so that they can feel a little bit of sympathy for him. Overall that made this an entertaining piece that I thoroughly enjoyed, along with I am sure the majority of the class simply due to how relatable it was. Most people watch shows or read books because they can relate to a character or the story. In this case, it was a story that we were and are all too familiar with. Even though the election is over just like the article said there are still thousands or maybe even millions of fake news stories that we could find on the internet.

iGod analysis

In an age where almost everyone around the world has some sort of technology in their household whether it is a phone or laptop, most people seem to question how far it will be able to advance. Nicholas Carr tries to answer this in iGod by taking about different companies such as Google and Microsoft plans for the future, which is to create artificial intelligence. A term that a variety of people are scared of or tentative about, but is interesting to learn about. In the past couple of years there have been several advance in technology and yet artificial intelligence is still hard to imagen having. Carr shows us in this article that we are not as far off to making it happen as many people think. That makes this topic relevant and engaging to the audience because he is able to use companies that the reader knows and most likely uses every day and talks about their future goals. Later on he even reveals dates that people have predicted computers and people will be more connected. That definitely appeals to younger audience, who is eager to see what is going to happen next with technology.  Although overall it was a pretty good article I still think that he could add some information about the effects that this advancement in technology might have on society or on people to make it more relevant. He mentions that Bill Gates is not too keen on the idea of making artificial intelligence, but he does not really go into depth about why. It would have been interesting to look more at that side because later on in the article he talks about the benefits of it. Along with going more in to depth about what they are currently doing to create artificial instead of talking so much about the past. It felt kind of repetitive to me at the beginning when he talked about several different interviews where Google talked about how their goal is to make artificial intelligence.