Chapter 3 reading response

I found chapter 3 to be mostly review, with discussions of topics such as essay introductions, body paragraphs and support, and conclusions. I look forward to discussing these topics further in class, and to practicing them in our mini essay. I personally think that writing body paragraphs is very easy, the difficult part is starting and finishing the essay.

Interviewing Sabastian

           For my interview, I questioned Sabastian. Sabastian admitted early on that he was not much of a writer, and rarely did anything of the sort. He started the class by mentioning Dr. Strange, a Marvel Comics character, but he told me that he didn’t enjoy actually reading the comics, which was disappointing. Sabastian was a good guy though, and I had a fun time interviewing him.
           Sabastian said the he sometimes composed emails and text messages for friends, but never wrote reports for work, as he had no job. His English class history was typical, with teachers not really leaving a major impression, but he did argue that the quality of the teacher definitely had a huge impact on how entertained he was in the classroom. He said that he had never attended English 121 before, and that he was anxious and a little nervous to start, and his end result is to pass the class, and hopes to improve his writing skills.
            As I spoke more with Sabastian, I felt more strongly that no previous institute of education had ever left a big impression on him. He told me that he had done a few peer reviews in his earlier classes, but none of them were very helpful, as most of the students were just trying to get credit for reviewing. Sabastian knows how to operate a computer about as well as anyone of the younger generation does, which is quite well, and he isn’t afraid of the internet or technology in general.
            When grilled on whether or not he had visited the campus library, Sabastian told me that he went in once, and had decided it was too small. He was very happy with the quality of the pens that the library handed out, and he definitely sold me on their use and value. The points of writing he intends to further work on in this class are citations and sourcing, and introductions and conclusions to essays.
            Sabastian is also a big fan of newspaper comics such as Garfield and Pearls Before Swine, and he gets great enjoyment out of well placed puns. It was an entertaining time interviewing him, and I'm looking forward to working more with him on our blog this semester.

English Composition: Interview with Daniel: Sabastian Stevens

English Composition: Interview with Daniel

Sabastian Stevens

I recently took the time to sit down with and find out a little bit about Dan and exactly what runs through his mind. He seemed like an energetic and quirky person right off the bat and so I was interested to see the results of this casual and somewhat nerve-wracking interview. I immediately started by inquiring about his preferred writing mediums. He responded by saying that he liked writing letters to friends, a rare trait in today’s technology run world. He also occasionally does gmail, writes incident reports at work and occasionally creates to-do lists when he feels his memory won’t do the job.

I followed up by asking him about his previous experiences with English teachers. After all, a fun teacher can make almost any topic engaging and makes college life seem more than just meeting the requirements for a degree! He said that his experiences were rather black and white, with a few teachers being great while the others were mediocre or plain bad. He does not have any experience with this class, but he has done peer reviews before and knows what he’s doing to a certain extent. He is also proficient with computers and uses them frequently, so navigating through web sites, Microsoft Word and blogs should be no problem for him.

Dan is a freshman at Front Range and only had his first day yesterday! He has not yet walked into the campus library, much less familiarized himself with it. His goal in English is simply to pass and improve upon some of his weaker points in the world of writing. He feels like he can’t expand upon arguments that he makes very well and has a tough time concluding an essay. He does, however, like to read large, classic books such as harry potter and super hero comic books, so I’m sure he’s an excellent story writer!

All in all, I feel like even though Dan is just a freshman, he has a good amount of natural talent and should be able to make up for his shortcomings. Experience with writing letters should also help him with class writing assignments and creating good rough drafts of his work. His excellence with basic computer skills should also help him excel in blogging and word processing. Above all else though, he’s a fun person to talk to about comic books and computers, all while coming along with a good personality.

Examining "Let Steroids into the Hall of Fame"-Sabastian

Examining "Let Steroids into the Hall of Fame"

By Sabastian Stevens

1.The author's general subject is about drug use in baseball.
4.The writer's main purpose is to explain that drug use in baseball is prevalent and isn't going anywhere, and that it should be up to the athletes whether they need the performance-enhancing substances
7.The writer has almost exactly opposing viewpoints from mine; if baseball players need to wreck their lives by becoming drug-addled, they shouldn't be playing the game in the first place.
10.Information is missing about the consequences of this drug use. We should be able to know from this essay what the author is making his claims upon and how powerful these substances can be.
13.No, I have never competitively participated in any sport and have never felt the need for drug use.

Let Steroids Into the Hall of Fame

2) Baseball players use of drugs while on the field should be openly revealed to the public in order to "level the field".

5) The audience is mainly baseball fans.

8) His opinion amounts to the fact that everyone uses drugs such as Adderall and Provigil so it is unfair to single out a baseball player's use of cocaine.

11) This essay fails to point out the exceptional negative affects of hard core drugs such as cocaine and monkey testosterone as well as the unfortunate reality that if most of the opposing side is using drugs to enhance their abilities it will inevitably force the other side to turn to drugs as well.

The Use of Drugs in Baseball

3. The writers key supporting points were that drugs have been used throughout history to influence baseball, and that most people these days are on one type of drug or another.

6. He thinks the audience is uneducated upon the subject of drugs and baseball

9. I don't know a lot about baseball, or performance enhancing drugs, but I've got a feeling he's not being fully honest

12. All I know is I disagree with his stance on performance enhancing drugs, and I think this guy's kinda nutty