Two Seperate Prompts for each class

This weekend I will give seperate prompts for each class, so only read the one for your class.

ENC 1930/1101: You are to write a self evaluation of your first essay and the process that you went through in order to write the final draft. Are you satisfied with the final draft? If you had more time what would you change or work on? If you were to submit that essay to the individual you addressed it to, do you think they would pick you up for their team? Lastly, discuss what you learned from writing this essay and the class sessions as far as rhetorical techniques and strategies are concerned. (min 200 words)

ENC 1102: We are coming to the end of the first unit and soon we will head into a capstone project that will last the rest of the semester. From this project you will learn how to write an exploratory essay, how to design a an effective document design to rally support for a cause, present a persuasive and informative oral argument, and propose a business like solution to an issue that you feel needs to be addressed.

The issue you will choose should be one that you are interested or curious about, and likely to be or already are passionate about. The issue should however revolve around the topic of marginilization. As mentioned at the beginning of the semester the prevailing theme for the course is marginilization. As you will recall marginilization is the practice of excluding a social group from mainstream society who are not part of the “majority”, by placing that group on the “margins” of society.

Inevitably, we all belong to a marginilized group in one way or another. Some are given more attention than others, some are not even acknowledged at all. I want to give you all a taste of some of the past issues my classes have dealt with by providing you links to some of their work. This will jumpstart your brainstorming into a topic that you might want to work on for this project.

Your blog entry should discuss any of the issues that you read up on from other classes (you don't have to look into all of them), and it can also be a brainstorming activity on issues that you are aware of and might want to research more.

Precautionary Note: Some are much better than others; do not assume that because I am linking you to it here that the project got a good grade. Also, some of these are much older when this project was in the beginning phases of my expectations of a document design. Lastly, this is only one part of the document design, the second part is a flyer or brochure.

WebSites:

Slum Rescue; The slums of India
Teen Pregnancy
Not For Sale; Sex Trafficking

Wiki's:

Natasha's ENC1102 Wiki Page (click on any of the links to see their proposals)

Video's:

Outsourcing & Child Labor
Fight Against Obesity
Olelo Now; Loss of Language in Hawaii

Natasha's Youtube Channel (I have uploaded some here)

So many topics...I couldn't choose

In 1102 yesterday morning we discussed various topics we could blog about this weekend and I decided I just couldn't choose for you, so I would let you make up your own mind. Here are some topics that I will allow you to blog about:

Religion (always a fun conversation, especially if you know what you are talking about, I recommend watching clips of a movie called Zeitgeist, particularly the first part that is on religion, click on the link to watch on youtube)

Homeland Security Issues (pat downs, perverted security guards, the difference between here and other countries; getting out is easier then getting in, the randomness of tougher screenings and the new machine they are using called Body Scanners (click on link to learn more)

Controversy with Rx drug addiction (this could lead into a conversation about MJ's death and other celebrities like him that have died as a result of this and the dr's who provide them with the medication and what their role in all of this means)

Analyzing song lyrics; if you want to do this, please copy and paste the song lyrics on to your entry, include a picture and/or video link. Remember that you want to not only analyze the "meaning" (which you will never really know), but you want to analyze audience, and claims, and context (when was it made, what was going on at the time), and purpose.

Another topic that we didn't discuss in class but I learned about yesterday on the news has to do with the role and job description of security guards, particularly transit security guards. A 15 year old girl was beat to unconciousness as three security guards watched on because their job desciption allows them only to "observe and report." The incident was caught on video. You can read and watch at this link from the Seattle Weekly newspaper.

Another option I wanted to offer was an evaluative/critique blog entry on any movie you might see this weekend. There are some great ones coming out; Wolfman, Valentines Day, Percy Jackson's The Lightning Thief. So if you watch a movie, blog about about, evaluate it, critique it, and rate it. How many stars would you give it?

Some of you may have another idea you may want to blog about, and if so, please shoot me an email first so that I can give you approval. Have fun with this, have a great weekend, and Happy Valentines Day.

This Weekend's Sneak Peak

I want to change it up a bit for this weekend's blog prompt and fill you in a little on my trip to Nicaragua this weekend. Do not expect me to pose explicit questions to guide you into answering this prompt. This is not going to be a "Do you agree or disagree" prompt. Rather, simply allow yourself to become an active participant in my narration of the accounts and issues I dealt with and then "wallow in complexity," that is, dwell on the topic, examine the complexities of it, think of alternative solutions or perspectives, whether from first hand experience or previous research, and then write, but most of all, have fun writing about it.

So, when most people think of Nicaragua (assuming they know anything about it), they automatically think of Managua, the capital. Typically, if you ask someone from Nicaragua where they are from, they will tell you that they were from Managua. Managua is the most industrialized and most populated city in Nicaragua (which happens to be the third poorest country in the Western Hemisphere with Haiti being the first). Like any big city, Managua has crime and a lot of poverty. Nevertheless, it is where most people like to stay because it has the better accommodations (i.e. hotels, homes, businesses with people who speak English). I, however, do not go to Nicaragua to visit Managua. My husband's family lives in a small city in the northern region of Nicaragua called Ocotal (13 miles south of the Honduran border).

I like it in Ocotal. It's small, it's quiet, the people are wonderfully pleasant, and it's safe.

My family's husband owns a small farm about 20 minutes outside of Ocotal in an area called Savana Grande which is a farming community. For the last two years, my husband and I have been working on a reforestation project on the farm (the first time I visited Nicaragua I was astonished at the depletion of the forests, the chopping of trees used for fire and building, and the burning of trash and I couldn't understand how nothing was being done to stop this problem from continuing as the repercussions were quiet obvious; the rivers have turned into creeks, animals are becoming extinct, and the natural ecology is being destroyed). In the course of the last two years we have had several volunteers arrive who have helped with the pursuance of this project and little by little we have been expanding our efforts.

Most recently my husband and I decided it wasn't enough to simply reforestate the farm. We decided that we would build an educational reserve center where tourists and locals alike could be educated on how to help protect and preserve the ecology. This of course works well when you target young children, as they are the future of the country. Therefore, we intend to eventually have schools take field trips to the project and learn.

This last time though, another issue became obvious to me.

Sitting comfortably in the patio of the farm, working on my book with the luxury of a laptop, I noticed a young girl attempting to start a fire on the grill (used with wood). She was helping the cook prepare lunch for us (the Gringos). I asked her if she worked for my brother-my-law and she told me no, that she was simply helping the cook because the cook had asked her to give her a hand. She continued to tell me that she used to work at the farm sweeping and cleaning up but now that she had a baby she needed to spend time with her, but that occasionally she would come over and help Margarita (the cook).

Baby? How old are you? I asked. I just turned 16. And how old is your baby? 9 months.

I contemplated. That's quite young, but nothing that's foreign in the United States.

Are you going to school? I asked her. No. She answered. What grade did you go to? 6th grade.

6th grade? Now this is definitely not something you would see in the United States.

Why didn't you keep going? I asked. Because the school is 10 miles away and my parents couldn't afford the bus to take me there, plus uniforms and books. It's just too much money.

Later on I would find out, through my husband, that children are only required by the government to attend school up until the 6th grade. Most of the kids that don't continue with their schooling past the 6th grade are the children of "campesinos," farmers. As a result, the boys of these families work the land with their father (as is the case with the caretaker of my husband's family's farm who has four children - 3 boys and one girl - the boys all help their father labor on the farm and the girl, who only studied up till 6th grade, helps the mother at the house cooking and cleaning) and the girls prepare for procreation. There is nothing more to do. Women in "el campo" will never do much more but give birth to offspring and cook and clean.

On the right is a photo of her with her baby.

This trip has left with many more questions and concerns about the children, the future generation of this country, and their native land and what they (the people and the government) are or are not doing to preserve, conserve, and protect both the children and the land. I am not Nicaraguan, I was born in the states, and yet I feel "Nicaraguan" (whatever that means), and I love the country and its people as though I had been born there and could claim some sort of national pride. What can be done? Is it worth it or is it a useless cause? Who cares? No one seemed to care about Haiti and its people until it was hit for the third time in three years by a natural disaster and everyone finally woke up and decided it was time to help; so why would anyone care about the deforestation in Nicaragua, or children who don't go to school past 6th grade, or girls having babies because that is all their future entails? Who cares?