Blogging about Blogging

When I first heard that we were required to blog for this English class I really didn't know what to think. I have heard about blogging before but I never really knew what it was. I just knew it was a web page were people write about stuff. The only problem I had with that is that I hate writing and that it was accessible for anyone to see. I was never really confident with my writing because I always felt that it was never good, so putting it out there for anyone to see was something I wasn't really comfortable with. After my first post I saw that it wasn't all that bad, its just hard to come up with something to write about most of the time. I can see somewhat of growth from my first post till now. It used to almost be impossible for me to meet the word count because I could never figure out what to say. But now it has become a lot easier for me to do so with the practice we have had with all the post. Through out this course in English we have been talking about the many forms of writing. I can see now why we are doing a blog. Blogging allows us to write about what we want without any guidelines. Although this hasn't been my favorite this we have done in class I still see the purpose and benefits that comes with it.

Peer review

The peer review that we have been doing in class is something I have never done before. In high school we were never really required to review someones paper and comment on it except when we helped someone edit their paper. But that pretty much only consisted of grammar correction and finding misspelled words. I never thought it was going to be as hard as it is. The concept seemed simple, just read your group members papers and comment on what you believe needs to be corrected in order for the writer to fix his paper. But it goes deeper that. As a person reviewing someones paper you want to give writer feedback on what they did wrong and what they did right. You don't just want to push the writer to improve their paper but to improve their skills as a writer. Thats something I struggled with. Im not a good writer so it is hard for me to comment on what is good and what is not and to push people to a level of writing that i'm not even at. But I see this as an opportunity to develop a skill that will help me and others down the road. I liked how we have been taking the time during class to review and give feedback on each of our group members papers. Especially when we read our paper out loud, it was really easy to catch the mistakes and hear how our papers sounded. The reviews that I have been getting for my paper are very helpful in ways to improve my paper. Peer review is something I like and want to continue doing during the semester.

How companies brainwash us

After reading and article called Products R Us: Are We 'Brandwashed'? by the NPR staff I got a better understanding on how companies use marketing and advertisement in order to get us to consume their products. The article was about a guy named Martin Lindstrom who works in marketing and has even advised major corporations such as Disney and Proctor and Gamble. He wrote a book called Brandwashed, in the book he talks about how companies make products look more attractive and would use certain techniques in order to lure us in to their product. He says that companies start working to lure people at very young age. He said that and average American 3-year-old can recognize 100 brands, which to me is crazy. I can see what he is talking about, I remember as kid I would ask my teachers for a "Kleenex" when I would need to blow my nose and they would always tell me that was a brand not the actual name for a tissue. Lindstrom also talks about how Whole Foods Marketing is almost kind of a scam. He describes how the company arranges the store a certain way in order to make the produce seem a lot more attractive. They use specific display techniques such as employees cutting fresh flowers when you enter the store. He also focuses on how many of the boxes that hold produce say "Patty's Farm" but it actually isn't a farm. Patty's Farm is just a logo that was designed by a company in New York y in order to make us feel that it was actually grown in Patty's Farm. To me this stuff is mind blowing because it is so true. Its crazy how companies draw you in to their products and make you feel like you need them just because of some advertisement.