Week 01 – OOC – “Preface” and “Writing at VT”
The readings are Preface and Writing at Virginia Tech. The preface was written by Elizabeth Losh, Jonathan Alexander, Kevin Cannon, and Zander Cannon. Writing at Virginia Tech was written by Dr. Derek N. Mueller.
In the preface, the writers talked about the expectation and a brief introduction of the 2nd edition of Understanding Rhetoric. Authors want to encourage the students to dig deeper into the core concept of writing and rhetoric. They also want students to love this book. Understanding Rhetoric had zero negative feedback from the students. Besides the concept from the 1st edition authors also added new elements such as collaborative writing into the 2nd edition. They want to show the student the rhetorical requirements of writing on many different platforms. Also, realize the graphic design and visual evidence as basic tools for communication. Writing at Virginia Tech introduced the importance of reading and writing. Reading and writing are the most significant way to communities. The first-year writing class is a welcome class at VT. It also will show us to become more aware of communities skill and to provide solid foundation writing skills for us.
Two readings are connected to the course tightly. I have been studying this book since the last semester and I will continue to study this semester. To be honest, I had never looked in the preface and introduction. Therefore, this is a new experience for me in understanding this book. This semester I believe that I will be focusing on the research part. I know it won’t be easy but I will do my best.

Week 01 – IC – Music Writing Activity

Song 1The first part of the music is peace and gentle. Middle part is very passionate. It isalso where the high tide is.At the end, the music came to peace again. This music feels a memory after a war. The people wereliving in peace. At the middle part,some peoplecame to attack them. At the end, they successfully defend themselvesand start to rebuild.

Song 2This music is very softand the feeling of happiness. It soundslike aeolian bells.It sounds like anurseryroom.

Song 3Thismusic sound dramaticand passionate. The begin is kind ofheavy feels like a big setback occurred. Then the rhymecame to joyfullike theyare getting stronger and back to the game.

Song 4The rhymeis peace and soft. This music feels like a man with a broken heartdreamed his old happy days. He had acceptedwhere he is andhe the old days are he best life.

Song 5The melody is very fresh and happy. Then the rhyme came faster andfast but the melody is still joyful. It feels like a man’successfulcareer.it starts slow and smooth, then he gets better and better.

Week 01 – OOC – Time Image Response

Tick, tock, tick, tock,
The light shines the world.
Workers are in the shift,
And kids are at school.
Except you,
Curled up in bed.
Tick, tock, tick, tock,
The sun is high in the sky.
Workers are enjoying lunch
And kids are taking break.
Except you,
Spaced out at the window.
Tick, tock, tick, tock,
The sky is dark.
Workers came home from work,
And kids are having dinner.
Except you,
Waste another day.
You don’t know where the time went.
Time slipped right under your nose.

Week 01 – OOC – “Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator”

This TED Talk was performed by Tim Urban. He discussed procrastination by demonstrating self-experience and metaphor. He used the monkey, the panic monster, and the rational decision-maker as a metaphor of our brain
This video stood out to me because of his humor. I felt unrelated to this video because I am not a procrastinator. I feel this video is connect everything. Procrastion is a problem that can’t be ignored. It can influence the assignment progress of this course.

Week 01 – OOC – Time Management

My personal definition for “time management” is to do the right at the right time. I think my time management skill is improving over time. I like to finish stuff on step ahead so I can have some free time. My time management Techniques are canvas, pen, and paper. I will make a list by priorities and slove them as much as I can. I am not interested in any time management techniques currently. I like my way and it is working fine for me.

Syllabus Scavenger Hunt
2020/01/22

1.cetay39@vt.edu

2.(1)Rhetorical Performance
(2)Research Processes
(3)Style Conventions
(4)Multimodal Design
(5)Reflective Interaction

3. You can find them in https://www.honorsystem.vt.edu/

4.Writing Center is a place where we can improve our writing in a best way. Also, it is a place where we can develop a paper for any courses

5.Office hour: Mon & Wed 2:30pm -3:30pm

6.In Class Format FAQ

7.Understanding Rhetoric(2nd edition) Get at Virginia Tech bookstore, a printer, access to the internet, a stapler, laptop

8.go 240 McComas Hall, or call 540-231-1824

9.Allow you to level up when you reach certain amount
10.They are awarded at assignments which allow you to increase your level
11.825
12.Due at check point date
13.04/04

14. The max you can receive on the assignment decreases by 10%
15. What is the grade range for a b-
    83 – 80
16. What is the late work policy
    Side quest will receive half xp
    Checkpoint Quest possible received xp will decreased 10% per hour.
17. How much xp is presentation project revision
    Presentation, Project Revision, and Completed Quest Log – 410 XP
18. How many professionalism xp
    Professionalism – 10 XP per week
19. What is our class theme
    Our class theme is writing and communicating through Arts and Entertainment, meaning we will be examining readings that discuss different aspects of arts, entertainment, and popular culture and exploring what makes these differences important and significant. We will also challenge your concepts of the world around you, encompassing race, gender, class, and education, among other topics, by dissecting and analyzing films, advertisements, web postings, and other forms of print and visual media. You will craft your own research question based on something of importance to you connected to this theme for your semester-long research project.

Week 02 – OOC – “Issue 10”
The reading is understanding rhetoric 2nd edition a graphic guide to writing “issue 10: what are research methods.” This chapter is from Research Methods for writer, by Kate Pantelides, Jennifer Clary-Lemon, and Derek Mueller.
This chapter of reading is the introduction of research and how to write a successful research paper. Research is about learning. It is about learning new stuff and share it with all society. However, at the current level we are probably doing research of things that we already know, but stay curious, sometime the result may surprise you. Research is the key for us to unlock the box of a new world, but you only can open the box when you have the right key. There are five ancient canons of rhetoric include invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery. This chapter meanly discusses invention and delivery. The primary source is to find your data; thus, your data will be most useful to your interest. There are reported data (gathering information through interview or survey), textual analysis (read physic evidence from the subject), and visual analysis (observe the subject). The secondary source is to reference other people’s findings. This method is functioning as pre-writing, brainstorming, or invention for your research. When we doing research, it is important to follow the research methodologies. The methodology starts from the question, method, data, findings, conclusion then back to question. The decisions we are making has to be subjective. Quote from the book: “all research is subjective, all research is communication……This belief is central to conducting ethical research.”
This chapter is significant to the future class. It is also related to the research I have done from the late semester. This chapter gives us a foundation understanding of research. Also, provide us specific information for future research.

Week 02 – IC – Guild Sorting

Team MDZJ
Junchen Zhang
Jinheng Hu
Duke Maddox
Mike Lundquist

1. We all love to eat meat.
2. All of us are not from virginia
3. All of us like snacks.
4. We all live in a dorm.
5. We all like the Westend.
6. We all have dog.
7. We all have iphone.
8. We all have laptop.
9. All of us work out in the gym.
10. We all had trip during winter break.

Week 02 – IC – Issue 10 and Starting Brainstorming

1.My reaction to the reading is academic study

2. The key terms that I have noticed are five ancient canons, primary source, secondary source, methodology, and ethical research.

3. The useful thing for me is methodology.

4. I don’t have any question.

5. I had never write a proposal before.

Week 02 – OOC – Mind Mapping

When I was thinking about my research topic, the first thing that came to mind was the film. The film is a broad research topic, so I drew a map to write down and show my ideas. I divide movies into history, film theory, and genres. Separate several detailed sections from each of the three categories. The film has changed from film stock to video record. Fil theory is a college major in modern times. Movies also split into different categories. I think this subject has great potential. I’m also interested in researching the film.

Week 02 – OOC – “The Surprising Habits of Original Thinkers”

Adam Grant started the ted talk with his example of a failed investment. He talks about the characteristics of the originator. In the second example, he introduced his student Jihae. She helped Adam collect experimental data. And from the data, they found that the precrastinator was done quickly so that precrastinator doesn’t have any time to think. Procrastinator doesn’t want to finish the homework, so they won’t think either. Only people in the middle of precrastinator and procrastinator think and come up with new ideas. Procrastination can lead to decreased productivity, but it can also create new ideas. Even if they lose the first chance, they can improve and create better products from the last generation. Some people fear failure and teasing, but so do the originator. The truly terrible thing is not to do. Challenge yourself to face the fear of giving up. Good ideas are found among bad ones

Reflecting on the video, I think the best part of the video is at 12 minutes. Everyone is afraid of failure, but the real failure is holding back. I’m related to this video because I’m a precrastinator, I like to get things done ahead of time. I am trying to finish the project ahead of schedule now. The inspiration from this video is to calm down and think about how to complete the assignment. Do not rush through it, try to come up with some new ideas. The second week’s video is a supplement to the first week. This video is related to me academically. Because I like to finish projects ahead of time so I can have some time to do what I like.

Week 02 – OOC – Brainstorming

Whenever I get a big project, first I will take a deep breath and start panicking. After the panic, I would check the project requirements. After reviewing the requirements, I begin to decide what is my topic. After that, I will start to complete the requirements one by one according to the requirements of the project. Usually, it takes me an hour to decide what I want to write. The way I brainstorm is to create a framework and come up with a few main points. I will develop my ideas around the main points and the topic.

Week 03-OOC- Issue 9

The reading is Issue 9 style conventions. This chapter is authored by Derek Mueller and Julie Mengert.

Style conventions refer to making correct stylistic choices. The appropriate way of writing can increase validity and preciseness. Inappropriate conventions can cause readers to lose interest and express the ideas incorrectly. There are five canons of classical rhetoric. Style operates along with inventions which mean to come up with a topic. The arrangement is to put words or phrases in orders that will make sense. Memory is to increase the credibility of the paper. Delivery is to express the ideas successfully. Basic units of discourse include words, sentences, and paragraphs. Words need to be accurate, so they can express themselves in the way you want. Sentences should be coherent and not too long. The paragraphs should support the previous and introduce the next or close the whole thing. The paragraph also needs to indicate the intention of themselves. Students can have their writing style based on the Frist-year writing class. Universities also support maintenance and enhancement. There are certain rules in style convention such as MLA and APA. Keep eyes on the Online Writing Lab(OWL). There are updates every couple of years. Issue 9 also introduced a lot of basic grammar rules such as independent clause, dependent clause, conjunctions, commas.

This chapter is closely related to the class. style conventions and grammar are the foundation of the Frist-year writing class. This chapter briefly introduced the conventions and summarizes the basic grammar as review material. Grammar is my weakness. I ask my friends to help me find grammar mistakes after I wrote a big project. This chapter helps me to review and study grammar.

Week 03 – OOC – “Shitty First Drafts”

       The reading is “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott from Bird by Bird.      This article is about the terrible first draft. Many good writers have terrible first drafts. But people often mistake these excellent writers are perfect all the time. Many writers struggle with a lack of inspiration. They don’t know what they’re doing until they’re done. The first draft is to write down all the writer’s ideas, no matter good or bad. The authors used to spend two days writing reviews for food magazines. The first day the writer goes to the restaurant to collect the materials, write down all the ideas, the interesting things. Then she runs out of ideas and starts doing things that don’t make sense. Then sit back at her desk and continue writing. The next day the author will sort out all the previous day’s thoughts. She found everything that good, and write down a good review. The first draft is always a bad one. It has to be revised a second and a third time to become good writing.       Reflect on the writing class, this chapter is interesting. I write my first draft differently. I’ll write down my ideas down on the paper and add to them. Thinking and adding over and over again to finish my draft. I would sit and think instead of doing something irrelevant. I don’t like to procrastinate. I will concentrate on finishing one thing. Distractions interrupt my thoughts. This article gave me a new idea for writing a draft. I may try this way in future writing. 

Week 03 – IC – Rhetorical Grammar

THE B’S

• Your killing me – There over their – Rush our (ft. Mac) -The word is big -A lone in the city(ft. futuristic) -The Wrong Word at the Wrong Time -Under the son(ft. J. Cole) -Hey Their Delilah(ft. PWT)

Formal Proposal – Half Draft

Junchen ZhangChristina Erin TaylorFirst-Year Writing 1106February 2ndFormal ProposalMovies, more than half of the people on earth like to watch movies. The movie is people’s favorite way to entertain and relax, either 100 years ago or today. In 1891, Thomas Edison and his assistant William Dickson invented kinetoscope. The first kinetoscope film shown in public exhibition was Blacksmith Scene, produced by Edison Manufacturing Company in 1893. Technically, it’s just a series of moving pictures, it doesn’t even have color and sound, all it’s a 34 seconds GIF. However, I called it a huge success. In 2019 Avengers: Endgame, “I’m iron man,” he said, bringing tears to the eyes of millions of fans and $2.75 billion at the domestic box office. The film gets to $1 billion worldwide in just five days and $2 billion in 12 days.I am a movie addict. I used to stay in the cinema from 10 am to 8 PM and watched a total of four movies. I don’t care what kind as long as it won’t sing and dances every ten minutes. But at the end of the day, I feel sore, my neck is stiff and my eyes are dry. Then I realized everything has its good side and bad side. Watching movies can make people happy, but watching too much can make people uncomfortable. Therefore, I want to research about the negative impact of the film on people.I summary the negative effects into four sections: health, psychology, scandal, and time. Watching movies for too long can dry out your eyes, and sitting in the wrong position can affect your spine. Movies can also instill ideas and politics. Improper movies will cause people
Zhang 2to produce psychological illness and mislead adults and minors. The development of the film industry will also lead to many scandals such as misogyny and sexual harassment. Movies can also be a waste of time. The average movie is about two hours long. Some movies have sequels like avengers 1, 2, 3, and 4. If you watched all of them, the day will be wasted. I hope this research will make people aware of the negative effects of movies and help people see and enjoy movies in the right way.I decided to use primary source data and secondary source data at the same time. First of all, I drafted a questionnaire and asked everyone questions such as: what kind of movies do you usually watch? How much time do you spend on movies? How do you feel after watching the movie? I’m going to hand out about 20 of these surveys. Then collect and read on the Internet about scandals in the film industry such as improper behavior by directors or actors. After I got all the information, I sorted them out. And then I came to my conclusion. The data I will get should basic questionnaires and news, so it should be easy to understand. I may later use a Pie chart to show the percentage of people regard the negative impact of the movie

Formal Proposal

Junchen Zhang

Christina Erin Taylor

First-Year Writing 1106

February 2nd

Formal Proposal

Movies, more than half of the people on earth like to watch movies. The movies are people’s favorite way to entertain and relax, both 100 years ago and today. In 1891, Thomas Edison and his assistant William Dickson invented the kinetoscope. The first kinetoscope film shown in public exhibition was Blacksmith Scene, produced by Edison Manufacturing Company in 1893. Technically, it was just a series of moving pictures, it did not even have color and sound, it was just a 34 second GIF. However, it was considered a huge success. In 2019 Avengers: Endgame, the line “I’m iron man,” brought tears to the eyes of millions of fans and $2.75 billion at the domestic box office. The film earned $1 billion worldwide in just five days and $2 billion in 12 days.I am a movie addict. I used to stay in the cinema from 10 am to 8 PM and watch a total of four movies. I do not care what kind as long as there is not singing and dancing every ten minutes. But at the end of the day, I feel sore, my neck is stiff and my eyes are dry. Then I realized everything has good sides and bad sides. Watching movies can make people happy, but watching too much can make people uncomfortable. Therefore, I want to research about the negative impact of films on people.I divide the negative effects of movies into four sections: health, psychology, scandal, and time. Watching movies for too long can dry out your eyes, and sitting in the wrong position Zhang 2can affect your spine. Movies can also instill the wrong ideas and politics. Improper movies could cause psychological illness and mislead adults and minors. The development of the film industry could also lead to many scandals such as misogyny and sexual harassment. Movies could be a waste of time. The average movie is about two hours long. Some movies have sequels like Avengers 1, 2, 3, and 4. If you watch all of them, the day will be wasted. I hope this research will make people aware of the negative effects of movies and help people enjoy movies in the right way.To do my research, I will use primary source data and secondary source data at the same time. First, I will draft a questionnaire and ask 20 people questions such as: what kind of movies do you usually watch? How much time do you spend on movies? How do you feel after watching the movie? Then I will collect the surveys and research online about scandals in the film industry such as improper behavior by directors or actors. After I get all the information, I will sort them out and then come to my conclusion. The data I will get should be basic questionnaires and news, so it should be easy to understand. I may later use a Pie chart to show the percentage of people who experienced negative impacts of movies.

Check Point 1 reflection

Junchen Zhang

Christina Erin Taylor

First-Year Writing 1106

February 8th

                         Check point 1 reflection.

      My definition of inquiry for academic research is gathering information by taking particular routes and using specific tools. The research writing requires the writer that has curiosity and academic integrity. The secondary source is examining others’ founding. We need to knowhow to access and use the secondary resource because the secondary resource provides us with useful information and new ideas. Previous researchers have shared this information, so we don’t have to repeat it. We can utilize this information to make our research more convincing. The primary research is working outfield. It is more specific at local research. Primary research focuses on quantity and quality. There are three different research methods. Firstly, reported data can provide information that may be easily counted and categorized and it can offer to many people. Secondly, textual analysis is by asking people to provide context, so the researcher can get a better understanding of the reported data. Lastly, the visual analysis can observe the subject. We can use different research methods to get more comprehensive results. Different research methods give us different experimental directions so the results look more accurate. Researchers will organize the collected materials and organize them into categories. I will arrange my research materials as I planed in the formal proposal. We need collecting information from the internet and the people around us. The resource I know that is around Virginia Tech is the library. The rhetorical concept influences research and writes heavily. Research is done for specific groups of people at specific times. If the target group is wrong, the research will lose its meaning. If the research is done at the wrong time, the audience will be lost or create negative impacts. If the research intention is not clear, the audience will be lost. I have completed many different assignments so far this semester. I practiced rhetorical performance through many main quests and side quests such as writing reflections on the Ted Talks. I did not practice research processes so far. However, I have a deeper understanding of style conventions in the textbook. I created a brainstorming map of the formal proposal. I did a peer review with my guild group members in the class and I did received some good advice from my group members. I would put all my skill stones into creativity Because so far, I have been constantly thinking and creating writing direction. I tried really hard to think about writing, and if my brain is a machine, it would be smoking by now.

The URL to my Quest Log website is https://zjunchenfirstyearwriting.poetry.blog/