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(highlight = transitions, pointing terms, key terms, repetitions) Reflection: After reading these 2 connecting paragraphs through the chapter 8 They Say/ I Say lens, I realize that my writing is heavily dependent on repeating terms. Specifically, “explore,” “meaningful,” “impacts”, “nature,” and “relationships,” are the words most repeated. I know that when I am writing, I try to choose my words carefully so that my message can be conveyed as accurately as possible to my audience. my transitions are the weakest…

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David Wallace’s ‘This is Water’ commencement speech to the graduating class at Kenyon is best summarized as a message about how none of us are alone and the real value of our education is in relation to living, not just working. Specifically Wallace talks about the power of making decisions, being mindful of others, and the significance of paying attention/being aware of your perspective. Wallace claims that the liberal education is really supposed to be about, “how to keep from…

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My final thesis statement was ” If we embrace virtual communication, we will learn more about each other and ourselves.” I think this is a strong thesis because it makes a clear statement of “if” “then”. I think it might be a little weak when put into context of my essay since i didnt do much to actually back this specific statement up, while it was implied, I didn’t explicitly describe it. While writing my first paper I was poorly reminded…

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In “The Limits of Friendship,” writer Maria Konnikova explores the nature of meaningful human relationships, and discusses the impacts that social media might have on our ability to develop connection. The essence of Konnikova’s argument in her article is, “The time we invest in superficial relationships comes at the expense of more profound ones.” The point that she is making with this statement is that because virtual relationships are not as physically intimate as in person ones, they are somehow…

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My first experience with college-level peer review was honestly a little underwhelming. I received some general feedback but was expecting to receive more insight than what I got. In my peer’s work I focused on giving advice and specific ways to make their essay stronger. I didn’t receive the same effort. While working on my peer’s article I noticed things that they did very well in their essay, specifically quote choices. I want to apply this to my own writing,…

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In “The Limits of Friendship,” Maria Konnikova goes into great detail about the Dunbar number and its relevance to our changing modern world that uses social media to enable connections. The Dunbar number suggests that there exists a “cognitive limit” to the number of personal social relationships a person can keep at a given time. Konnikova studies what this number may really mean, and if our ever-expanding social networks through social media have done anything to change the relevancy of…

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Original: The Dunbar number, as I understand, is a suggested limit to the number of personal social relationships a person can keep at a time. This number grows and decreases by a rule of 3. Your casual friend group might be about 150 people. Your close friends probably make up around 50, and then your most intimate support system might be around 5. Konnikova proves that this is not a recent social behavior. In fact this “rule of three” can…

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Megan Phelps-Roper was born as a member of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. She was raised to “Obey. Obey. Obey.” the Bible. Religion wasn’t optional, it was her whole life. At age 13 she was baptized, and all she wanted to do was make her family proud and go to Heaven. She believed that when she protested gay pride parades, and AIDS victims funerals that she was “engaged in a profound act of love,” by expressing her concern…

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