Final Project Reflective Essay

Elizabeth White
Richard Samuelson
English 102
9 MAY 2011
Final Reflective Essay
I’ve always wondered what it really means to “live” your life. I’ve been through ups, downs and in-betweens all for the sake of hoping that whatever I’m doing, I’m doing something right. This year alone I’ve experienced inane amounts of stress, change and surprising snap shots of fun. Little bits and pieces of my experiences are slowly but surely shaping the kind of adult I am and want to be. I have a lot to be grateful for, and my English 102 class was an experience I was thankful to have. I see many of my friends from high school still doing exactly what they did sophomore year and working at the same place that was supposed to be there temporary after-school job. It’s interesting, I’ve never really cared about how anyone else decides to live there lives, but in all honesty it kind of makes me sad. I believe that everyone deserves to have the kind of life changing experiences I’ve had thus far-and will continue to have in life. I want people to realize how important change is; how important education and new and scary things are, and yes, how even a simple English class can alter your life for the better.
I can only imagine throughout this semester how much useful Intel I have taken in without even knowing it. English isn’t just the language we speak, but our ultimate means of communication through speech and the written word. If I hadn’t taken this English 102 course I never would have learned how important it is to be conversant with a research topic, or the fact that when presenting an argument I shouldn’t bash the opposition. After going back and reflecting on everything my peers and I covered in lecture I realized a strong correlation between what we were learning and life in general. If I can successfully acquire these skills, life out in the real world is going to be so much easier! Whether I’m in the work place or making a new friend I would think that having the capability to discuss a topic thoroughly and intelligently would be useful, or having an open mind and just plain listening to something I may not totally agree with would be helpful in almost all situations. These skills will allow me to prosper and flourish as I become an “adult” and enter the “real world”.
Not only do my new skills help me in future situations, but present predicaments as well. While working and totally revising my website for English with the help of Mr. Samuelson and some extra effort from me my website turned out very nice. The first time I worked on the website it was very challenging. I had no idea how to make the website look the way I wanted it to and worst of all I wasn’t getting my message across very clearly. So, I took Mr. Samuelson’s critiques and my own, and got to work. One of the first things I changed was the layout of my website, Mr. Samuelson mentioned it was hard to read at times because there was so much text going on, which I agree, so I put bullets to sum up my ideas better than writing an unnecessary paragraph. Just by adding the bullets the pages looked much better, but still a little too wordy. I also added quite a few more quotes in between paragraphs to give the reader’s a break, and I added some picture so there wasn’t just text to look at. To ease my readers eyes even more I bolded more headings to split my topics and give the reader a prior description.
Something I found very important to change after going back and looking at my website a second time was the mixed messaged I was sending to my readers. First I needed to figure out who I wanted my audience to be again and then stick with that theme throughout the whole website. I decided I wanted this website to be for those who were just interested in the effects that alcohol and substances have on a family; so they can look out for their own friends and family and help if they wanted. I totally rearranged, deleted and added my introduction on my website to better state who this reading might be for. I also changed a lot of the pictures because they weren’t fitting with my topic; for example I took out all of the happy pictures on the first page because other than being pretty, they weren’t doing anything for my website. At first I tried to be as discrete and fragile as I could with my topic by putting a whole bunch of smiling family pictures up, but that wasn’t making any sense considering how intense my topic is. So, I changed a lot of the pictures and added quotes to enhance my argument, not take away from it.
I also changed at least some portion of the text on every page, because everything could really always use some revision. Basically, after leaving the website alone for a little while and then coming back to it, it was much easier to see what my audience would be seeing and much easier to change things that needed to be fixed. I made sure my argument flowed and where things got confusing I either found another way to say it, deleted it, or put the paragraph in a more suitable spot on the website. This part was very time consuming, but well worth it. Just by looking at the website with fresh eyes made such a difference! A particular piece of the text that I needed to fix was how I incorporated Baby Steps into my topic. Before I did my revisions the website literally went from talking about Fetal Alcohol Syndrome to the organization. I decided to add a slide discussing what a reader might try to do if they wanted to help someone and then led into Baby Steps if the reader wanted to find other means of help. On the Baby Steps page I clarified my introduction of the program a bit as well; I think I forgot that not everyone knows what Baby Steps is. All of these revisions made my website so much better and I am proud of my ending results.
There were a lot of things I decided to change, but I thought I would mention the things I kept the same, which isn’t much. Basically, the only things I didn’t change were my topic and the colors. I felt that the sepia, calm tones were still a good idea to keep the reader from feeling overwhelmed by the topic and the website. Unfortunately the calm colors were the only thing I really had any control over if I wanted to keep my audience comfortable. I had to learn and deal with the fact that I just chose a hard topic to discuss. By adding happy pictures and dummying down some the information I wasn’t doing any justice to the topic, the readers or myself. Overall I am happy with the tone I ended up with throughout the website. As you can see I made many new rhetorical choices this time around because I was taking what I learned in English and using all of it to totally revise my website. I needed to relearn my topic, make sure I completely understood it so I could be conversant and give my readers the important information. I also had to keep my audience in check the entire time, which I did not do for my first draft. I made sure that I didn’t say anything that would be considered offensive and talked about what I thought my audience would be interested in knowing. Other than being aware of my audience I got better at taking critiques from someone else. The first time I read the unit critiques from Mr. Samuelson it was frustrating because I had just finished the project, but after taking a break and then using those suggestions while looking at my website I found that I totally agreed with what he was saying. This whole experience has been a challenge, but I learned a lot!
I’m surprised by how much I’ve changed in my writing skills, interpreting someone else’s words and revising. This final project has shown me that I can be a really good writer, as long as I give myself some time. It wasn’t even three weeks ago when I admitted to my English class and you, Mr. Samuelson, that I work better under pressure. Truth be told for the longest time, working on things last minute is how I got work done and usually got the grade I wanted, but I found that I could do better. Why wouldn’t I want to do my best? I surprised myself when I was done revising my website because I found how much easier and fun writing could be when I allow myself enough time to make mistakes and then fix them. In the future I am going to make sure that I stick with this whole “not-procrastinating-thing” and give myself a better opportunity to shine in my writing. Thank you for all of your help this semester Mr. Samuelson, I couldn’t have got through this class if I didn’t have a teacher that was willing to be constructively honest and who wanted to see me succeed.

toughstuffbabysteps.weebly.com

Reflective Letter

Elizabeth White
English 102
Instructor: Richard Samuelson
24 March 2011
Reflective Letter
When deciding my rhetorical choices at the beginning of this unit I had realized how much of a control freak I am. There are certain aspects of my work that I choose to do certain ways dependent upon the quality I am giving and the reaction I want to get from my audience. I tend to care very deeply in connections in every sense of the word when I am making my rhetorical choices. Without connection the audience doesn’t hear what I am trying to tell them on a deeper level. When I provide information I don’t want my readers to linger with questions or confusion. My goal is to keep my readers enthralled in the information provided while giving them a chance to have their own intellectual inferences and perceptions. These inferences and perceptions are where the connections come into play, and without these connections what I am telling my audience will not become so easily conversant for them, therefore, easier to forget. If I can give my readers a chance to dig deep into the messages I am trying to point out and take from it what they want, then I have done my job. Not that I expect readers to fully comprehend and remember every little piece of information, but I would feel much more successful if I could tell other people my thoughts and get them to reach a level of understanding and agreement. Isn’t that every writer’s goal? To write something and for the reader to connect with what you are saying on a personal level so they can recognize this information later on and apply it in a conversation.
The way I make my rhetorical choices has significantly changed since starting this unit. Before this class I couldn’t tell you what a rhetorical choice was or frankly the importance of it. Now, I feel very strongly that what I choose to do as a writer and an informer and in what way I wish to convey this information is almost more important than the information itself! The littlest choices that I make can have the biggest impact on a reader. For example, what color I make the titles or the size of the text can either reel my audience in or push them away. I’ve learned that everything matters. Before totally committing to a format that I feel is suitable to portray and idea to my readers I first have to establish who my readers are going to be. I wouldn’t want to use complex vocabulary if my audience was directed towards children; I would use basic vocabulary and be sure to include things like fun colors and facts. Likewise, if I were speaking to a college student I would probably be comfortable with using a more intellectual use of vocabulary and would not have to focus quite as much on fun colors and imagery, although it’s still good to be creative.
My rhetorical choices have also shifted when I am researching and integrating my sources. I have to be aware of bias, and there’s a lot out there. So, I tend to stick with peer revised, empirical research that makes it harder to argue with and also gives my readers a sense of legitimacy. I have become much more aware of what a fact is and what may be an opinion, and I can also look deeper into the writer’s perspective in trying to understand why the writer might feel this way. Trying to look through the writers perspective helps me better understand the underlining message they are trying to give and why it may be important to them; by being able to make this connection, I too, can then feel the information is important.
Not too much changed with how I present an argument. I still believe that to have a valid, intellectual argument it is only fair if you present the reader with both sides without bashing either idea. What my job as a writer is, is to give the facts but be able to convince the reader that one idea may be more legitimate than the other. There will always be an opposing side, so there’s not too much I can do about those who disagree with what I am writing, but fact is a whole lot harder to argue with than bias or opinion. For example, I have struggled time and time again with my topic alone because there are many different views. When I explore the effects on a family involved in substance abuse the topic alone can be uncomfortable for some readers, then the facts that follow can completely shut a reader’s interest out. This is why I tried to tread carefully when I went into this topic. I made sure not to over generalize, because not everyone who struggles with drugs and alcohol has family problems; but, many people do. So, instead of focusing solely on the uncomfortable information on my website, I made the rhetorical choices to elaborate on the idea of family and unity, and express to the readers that although problems do exist in our community amongst families and substance abuse, there is always hope. I made sure to stay away from stereo-types and even decided to stick with peaceful, neutral colors and pictures of families that pushed more towards calming my audience. I believe that my rhetorical choices for my website made a huge difference in how my readers can receive the information I am providing. I think I did a pretty good job at incorporating everything we’ve learned in this unit into my final project just by doing one thing: being aware.

www.toughstuffbabysteps.weebly.com

Final Web Audience Proposal

Elizabeth White
English 102
Instructor: Richard Samuelson
10 March 2011
Website Audience Proposal:
1 &2: The audience for my website will most likely be no younger than eighteen years of age to any age of interest. The information given in the website will be most helpful to those who are seeking help in some way related to drugs or alcohol. Audience members may consist of friends wanting to help a family struggling with substance abuse. The reader may be a parent seeking help and information on the impacts substance abuse has on a family and hopefully searching for a way to change the problem and get better. Lastly, this website could be very useful for adoptive parents or guardians who may be caring for a child whose family was involved in some kind of substance abuse or maybe even has birth defects caused by drugs or alcohol, to better understand and care for the child’s unique circumstances. So, technically, the audience my website is geared to will be anyone qualified to understand the depth and seriousness of the research topic given. I am interested in finding what kind reactions I receive with my topic due to the severity of the subject. This isn’t always an easy topic to discuss, let alone grab a reader’s attention, so I’ll have to be very perceptive as to how I would react to the information provided if I were an audience member. Overall, I believe my website will be fairly successful in giving the facts to those who want to know them, which is my main goal. Not everyone is provided with this kind of background information, so I think it’ll serve as a secondary resource for those seeking help or just wanting to know more on the topic!
3. I envision my audience to be fairly perceptive if not totally enthralled by the topic and facts provided in my website. I hope for them to be oriented to my questions and concerns, and I believe they will be, granted, if they are interested and willing. My topic tends to cover some “tough stuff”, so not everyone may be comfortable or interested in hearing what I, or the research, have to say. To ease the reader’s tension on the subject I am going to make the “tough stuff” as smooth as possible. While working on my website I decided to go with very calm, welcoming colors and provide pictures of family and a couple of quotes about family support, love and trust. These are all things I am trying to push in my website as well as in the community. I don’t just want to give the audience empirical research that I have found on my topic, but give the readers a sense of self worth and family oriented confidence and pride. Many families struggle with all sorts of individual tribulations, the important thing is to learn about these struggles and grow from them. So, in relation to the community I hope the website can persuade my readers/ community members to remember the important things in life, like family and friends. Although many, many families do not have the particular problem of drug or alcohol abuse, it does exist. Boise may be a wonderful, beautiful place to live but there are also people, families in this beautiful place that do share these problems and addictions. I want this website to be a safe haven for concerned users or observers to get the facts and come to the realization that there are other roads to take and help to get on the right track, like Baby Steps!
4. My topic conversation mainly consists of research that has been proven about the physiological, emotional and psychological impact on a family when involved in substance abuse. Not only do I cover my topic and question, but I also provide a source for readers who are seeking help. A couple of my sources do collide due to differences in opinion. For example, one of my sources focuses on the damage that can be done to a child because of the mothers decision to drink or do drugs while pregnant; while another one of my sources attacks that very stigma put on mothers and pregnant women and provides empirical evidence that the father can be just as responsible for any kind of birth defects as the mother. Leaving both sources very informative but very different stories.
5. To strengthen my web medium I will use bold titles and bullets to make reading easier and more accessible to my audience. I will also focus on keeping my information short, sweet and to the point without doing the research or my voice any injustice. Strong yet subtle colors will be helpful and easy to read for the audiences’ eyes. Usually colors like light blue or green can really set up the whole feeling and response for a website, making it easy for the reader to stay interested. Finally, I will be sure to use videos and pictures to capture my readers’ attention.
6. Substance abuse can be very detrimental to the user and the people around them. Although the effects of drugs and alcohol on a family are not always the same, they tend to be a familiar and repetitive result leading to grave setbacks physiologically, emotionally and psychologically for everyone involved. But there is always hope and there is always help. I was brought to this conclusion by the research that I have done and personal experience. I feel very strongly about this problem and I’m not going to sugar coat it for anyone, but I’m also not going to shove these problems in my reader’s face. Drug and alcohol abuse is a very sensitive topic among many families and unfortunately has grown to be a kind of lifestyle for some. But this website can change these habits and give families a reason to get better. Many families struggle with substance abuse and many of them come out of the situation unsuccessful due to lack of knowledge and resources, I believe all they need is the facts and the acknowledgment that they are worth it and we, as a community, do care. These families just need a little push in the right direction to get better and be healthy!

Annotated Bibliography #2

Elizabeth White
English 102
Instructor: Richard Samuelson
9 March 2011
Annotated Bibliography #2
• BabySteps - A Community Ministry of St. Michael's Episcopal Cathedral. Baby Steps, Dec.-Jan. 2010. Web. 28 Feb. 2011. The main idea of this source was to give readers insight into what kinds of success women of the Baby Steps program are capable of. Although many of the mother’s that come and go at Baby Steps have their fair share of struggles, each and every one of them turn around to marvelous parents with a better knowledge and grasp on what it takes to be healthy and to be happy. The authority of this source seems to be limited. Although I though the source was a good tool in showing my readers a success story about a woman that particularly struggled with some form of substance abuse, she turned around her life for her child and herself. So, the success story was a good jump into a different topic, but it was very short with not a whole lot of detail. I think if I were to elaborate on success rates for parents with common struggles with substance abuse I would try to find some empirical evidence, I would rather use numbers. But, for now I believe that the source proved to be worth mentioning in my discourse analysis in order to give my audience a sense of ease from all of the heavy stuff I was discussing! This source was totally different from any of my other sources. For one, I found this success story right off of the Baby Steps website, so it was literally intertwined with the program and proving a point to the readers that there is hope. And unlike my other sources, this one was very short and not very detailed leaving a lot of bias and assumptions from me. Which is why I didn’t go into too much detail when talking about it.
• Steinglass, Peter(2008) 'Family Systems and Motivational Interviewing: A Systemic-Motivational Modelfor Treatment of Alcohol and Other Drug Problems', Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly, 26: 1, 9 — 29. I figured that throughout my discourse analysis I had spent enough time talking about the effects that substance abuse can have on a family and I really wanted to end on a good note with the audience. Therefore, I found a source that covers the steps that a professional counselor would want to take to help the family and the substance user get healthy. This source makes it very clear that when a problem like drug use occurs in a family it does not only effect the user, but also often times affect everyone around the user. The source also makes it a point that because everyone is most likely emotionally involved somehow that the only way to heal these wounds is to include everyone in the healing process, like family counseling or programs for example. I can affirm that this source is legitimate and authoritative because of the context in which the information was given. I found the source on one of the libraries databases that only post peer-reviewed research. This source was different from the others because it, for the first time, covered a topic that I had not yet covered. Recover is extremely important for a family and was necessary to mention in my discourse analysis. It was very useful for me to use this as an ending side note for my readers, especially if they were looking for ways to help friends or families.Here is my website: toughstuffbabysteps.weebly.com.

Website Audience Proposal

Elizabeth White

English 102

Instructor: Richard Samuelson

6 March 2011

Website Audience Proposal:

1 &2: The audience for my website will most likely be no younger than eighteen years of age to any age of interest. The information given in the website will be most helpful to those who are seeking help in some way. Audience members may consist of friends wanting to help a family struggling with substance abuse. The reader may be a parent seeking help and information on the impacts substance abuse has on a family and hopefully searching for a way to change the problem and get better. Lastly, this website could be very useful for adoptive parents or guardians who may be caring for a child whose family was involved in some kind of substance abuse or maybe even has birth defects cause by drugs or alcohol, to better understand and care for the child’s unique circumstances. So, technically, the audience my website is geared to will be anyone qualified to understand the depth and seriousness of the research topic given.

3. I envision my audience to be fairly perceptive if not totally enthralled by the topic and facts provided in my website. I hope for them to be oriented to my questions and concerns, and I believe they will be, granted, if they are interested and willing. My topic tends to cover some “tough stuff”, so not everyone may be comfortable or interested in hearing what I, or the research, have to say.

4. My topic conversation mainly consists of research that has been proven about the physiological, emotional and psychological impact on a family when involved in substance abuse. Not only do I cover my topic and question, but I also provide a source for readers who are seeking help. A couple of my sources do collide due to differences in opinion. For example, one of my sources focuses on the damage that can be done to a child because of the mothers decision to drink or do drugs while pregnant; while another one of my sources attacks that very stigma put on mothers and pregnant women and provides empirical evidence that the father can be just as responsible for any kind of birth defects as the mother. Leaving both sources very informative but very different stories.

5. To strengthen my web medium I will use bold titles and bullets to make reading easier and more accessible to my audience. I will also focus on keeping my information short, sweet and to the point without doing the research or my voice any injustice. Strong yet subtle colors will be helpful and easy to read for the audiences’ eyes. Usually colors like light blue or green can really set up the whole feeling and response for a website, making it easy for the reader to stay interested. Finally, I will be sure to use videos and pictures to capture my readers’ attention.

6. Substance abuse can be very detrimental to the user and the people around them. Although the effects of drugs and alcohol on a family are not always the same, they tend to be a familiar and repetitive result leading to grave setbacks physiologically, emotionally and psychologically for everyone involved. But there is always hope and there is always help. I was brought to this conclusion by the research that I have done and personal experience. I feel very strongly about this problem and I’m not going to sugar coat it for anyone. Many families struggle with substance abuse and many of them come out unsuccessful and I believe all they need is the facts. These families just need a little push in the right direction to get better and be healthy!

Annotated Bibliography #1

Elizabeth White

English 102

Instructor: Richard Samuelson

3 March 2011

Annotated Bibliography #1

• Rosaryfilms. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome- the Biological Basis/ FAS FASD Video. Television. This source was used to explain to readers the effects that alcohol can have during prenatal development. Specifically looking at Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) which is a disability that follows with a lot of physical and cognitive development and growth in a child leading into adulthood. This source was particularly different than any of my other sources because it was a video from the internet and it had many more components than my other sources. For example, there were a lot more researchers and doctors feeding me the information as opposed to typically one author writing an article. This source was extremely helpful because I knew all of the information I was receiving was legitimate. The film looked like a video I would’ve watched in a high school health class; very informative, lot of doctors and scientists in actual hospitals and interviews with adopted mothers of children with FAS. This source seemed to have it all and really helped me expand what I wanted to learn about this topic much farther than I expected. I was able to discuss issues such as bias and legitimacy in my essay confidently because I knew that the information I had to work with was effective and just what I needed.
• Babcock, M. "Substance-using mothers: bias in culture and research." Journal of Addictions Nursing 19.2 (2008): 87-91. CINAHL with Full Text. EBSCO. Web. 28 Feb. 2011. I found this article in the hopes of steering my readers in a different direction. Up to this point in my discourse analysis I had given frank facts about the physiological, emotional and psychological effects on a family involved in substance abuse. Although I believe that the research was necessary I decided I should try to take a step back and look at a bigger picture. This source was used to explain to readers that there are very harsh stigmatism’s today against women with children that suffer from drug induced birth defects. What I didn’t know, is that it is totally possible for a father to be responsible for these birth defects at conception dependent upon his toxicity levels. I though this source was kind of a fun twist of looking at things in a different light. Overall, I know this source was valid in its own because I found it under World Cat Premier which is database used through the school website that only uses peer-reviewed and substantial work.

Reflective Blog #1

My service learning experience thus far has been extremely rewarding this semester! Unfortunately, I have not yet started my service learning hours (which I begin Tuesday, March 8th) but just by showing up to orientation for a couple of hours has showed me what I'm going to be doing in the program and how that is going to be related to class material and individual research. Just recently I finished my discourse analysis which contained research from sources relative to my service learning program that used the literal Baby Steps program as a source. A few weeks before entering my projects for the class I looked over the Baby Steps website and found "success stories". I used one of the success stories for my discourse analysis to explain the effectiveness of the program for many women sturggling with substance abuse. So, everything I have done, am doing and will do is very closely interconnected! The fact that all of my projects run together so smoothly makes it much easier for me and a little bit more fun. I will continue to use my experiences through my service learning to come up with new questions to research and new ideas of how to improve the things I would like to throughout the community. I'm sure I'll have much more input after my first real experience on Tuesday!