GTA V Argument Proposal

Even after actually seeing the game in action, I am still not personally a fan that this game is as popular as it is. I am just not comfortable with people spending their free time playing such violent games as these. I understand that these have become the norm of society, but I believe in a better world people would find enjoyment out of other, less gruesome games. We obviously can not just blame violent video games for the violence of the world. But, I am arguing that it is not exactly helping by desensitizing children to these aggressive and brutal motives. With all the violence in our society, we should not be supporting these games when we could be taking steps in a more positive direction. I guess I could understand how going through the notions of shooting people on missions could be a stress outlet, but I do not think it is in our best interests as a society to portray other humans lives as being so disposable. In the game, you can hear the innocent bystanders shriek with fear as you casually shoot people. Why has this become part of our culture's enjoyment?

Post #4 - Mini Proposal

For this project, I am researching the connection between MSG and obesity. Obesity has become a major problem in American society. There are many different factors that could play into the cause of obesity, but part of the problem may be the types of food and the quality of food we are eating. There are now many different types of food additives in the foods we consume. It is important to know how they additives act once inside our body, and how they may increase our chances for obesity. MSG, monosodium glutamate, is one additive that is very commonly seen in pre-packaged and restaurant foods. The question is, is there a link between MSG consumption and obesity. Based on how it acts within the body, I am arguing that yes, there is a connection between MSG and obesity. To research my topic, I will find reliable and scholarly sources through the library databases. The sources I have already are all scholarly articles found through the library website.

Schedule of how I plan to complete the paper:
-Have found and read through sources by the time spring break is over. Also have draft of working literature review
- March 25: Have completed Works Cited page
- March 27: Have completed first draft
- March 30: Have completed 2nd draft
- April 3: Have completed the project

Project 3 Road Map

For Project 3, I started by comparing two different cover letters from the nutrition professional world. I noticed what I liked and disliked in each of them, so that will help me when I conduct my own project. I will focus on how, in particular, professionals in the realm of nutrition and dietetics communicate. I am planning on finding a specific company that hires nutrition and dietetic majors, and see how their application process works. Once I complete all this research, I will make my own cover letter that fits with all the information I found. I really hope this is actually what is supposed to be done. I was also a little confused by the project, as other students had stated, but it helped me a little when I went back and read that comments in the discussion board from Wednesday. I am hoping to focus my application research on a private practice company that hires dietitians, because that is something I would be interested in possibly applying for in the future. I would also be interested in looking at a company that deals with holistic nutrition, and see if their application requirements differ from a regular one. I have heard from upper class men that this project is actually really helpful to have for future application opportunities, so I look forward to completing it.

Project 1

To be honest, I was a little wary of project 1 when it was first introduced. I was not used to having such open ended assignments, and I was a little thrown off. I was mostly confused by what the supporting source was actually supporting. I did not know if the supporting source was supposed to support the message of the chosen passage, the rhetorical devices of the passage, or the idea that "everyone is an author". I finally decided that I was going to use my supporting source to support the idea that anyone can be an author, and that authoring is more common than thought before.  I thought it worked well with my paper, and helped to prove my thesis.

Besides that slight confusion, I enjoyed this assignment a lot more than I have in any English class from the past. In my opinion, with the formal essays I had to right in high school, there was no room for actual expression of personality. With this assignment, it was more of an opportunity to express yourself as an author while analyzing another.

I went about the writing process a lot differently than I have for previous papers as well. As I had mentioned in class, I wanted to try the process of free writing to come up with my first draft. I'm not sure if I did it correctly, but whatever I did really worked for me. I just sat down, and typed. I typed whatever came to mind, without judging it as right or wrong. I would occasionally slow down to add in the important stuff, such as my thesis or a transition sentence, but everything besides that was simply whatever came to mind. I liked this style, because I believe it allowed myself to have a stronger, more opinionated voice in my paper. I did have to go back and cut out a few parts where my tangents got a little too off topic, and also add in some sentences to more clearly connect my thoughts to my main thesis. Besides that, I was very surprised about how much I actually had to change from my "free writing" draft. I think it is a process I will definitely try again in the future.

English 1030 Assignment #1

Hi Everyone! My name is Marlena Toebben. I am a freshman Food Science Major with a concentration. I am originally from Northern Kentucky, but I went to high school in Cincinnati, Ohio. So yes, I did live in a different state than the state I went to high school in. I come from a family of four children. I have two older brothers, Nick (22 years old) and Adam (19 years old) , and a little sister named Anna (7 years old). Here is a picture of my siblings and I on Christmas Eve before going to my Grandfather's house.

My four favorite things: traveling, boating, cooking, and yoga. I have been lucky enough to have had the opportunity to do a lot of traveling during my time in high school. The summer after my freshman year in high school, I traveled with my school to a ten day trip in Spain and France. It was my first time traveling without my family, so I was kind of nervous, but I really enjoyed it! After that trip, I knew that I had to do more traveling. The summer after my sophomore year I took a trip to Hawaii, again with my school, for a Marine Biology Seminar. I was in no way interested in marine biology (as a career, I found it merely interesting), but still wanted to use the opportunity to travel to Hawaii. This trip was a little longer, 16 days, and we stayed in a boarding school in one of the mountains on the main island. I learned so many incredible things in those first two weeks of actually being class, and then we had the last two day to just do whatever on another island. The summer after my junior year, I went to an international school in Costa Rica for three weeks, while also  staying with a host family. I was planning on studying AP Spanish my senior year, so thought it would gain some more experience with the language with full language immersion. So, my host family did not speak one word of English. Although this was somewhat frightening, it helped my speaking so much! I could not thank them enough for how patient they were with my speaking, and how welcoming they were to me into their home. My summer after senior year (last summer), I traveled for two weeks to Barcelona, Spain and around Germany. In Barcelona, I met up with some Norwegian friends I had met during my time at the international school in Costa Rica. It amazed me how although we had grown up so far apart in other countries, we all got along so well. The four of us just stayed together in a hotel in the main part of Barcelona and enjoyed the city for four days. After that, I traveled by myself to Germany to stay with my friend who had come to stay with me in America to summer before. She lived in Regensburg, so we stayed there most of the time, but also took a weekend trip to Munich, and other parts of Germany by train. 

Previous authoring I have done is writing articles with my friends for my high school newspaper, many types of academic writing, and now I am currently writing for the Clemson Nutrition Club blog at healthytigers.weebly.com.