Assignment #3 [Due: 1/31]

I do think that anyone who has ever been in an airplane as well as an airport can relate to this story in some sense. Airports can be OVERWHELMINGLY stressful. It's safe to say we've all had some sort of bad luck in that department whether it be arguing with our family, losing our bags, being on a tight schedule, or having a delay.

I found humor in Sedaris mocking the people that he was writing about because I too have done that92750. My sister and I would enjoy getting to the airport earlier when we were younger just to "people creep" and see some of the things that people did, wore, and said. It was utterly fascinating at times the things that we encountered.

We often catch ourselves thinking things about the people we see and judging them without knowing them. The critiquing of everyone in sight was filled with quite an interesting amount of adjectives(276). Although we think some pretty rude things from time to time most of us have some sort of filter where we can judge what should and should not be said. That doesn't quite seem to be the case for the group with the "Freaky Mothafocka" tee shirt. As if the teeshirt logo section wasn't enough the woman's comments about "The only ones having babies are the ones who shouldn't be having" sort of took the cake on that one.

I really like the ending of this article how he brings in the theory and makes us really think that maybe deep down we truly are the monsters that we become in the airport. Maybe it is true to some extent that the airport with all its glorious chaos makes us truly embrace all of our personality and habits (both good and bad).

I think that Sedaris has a point to writing this article in the back of his head the whole time. Some people write hoping that their point will become more and more clear to not only the write but themselves throughout the writing. I think that Sedaris wrote this article to show us stories of people in the airport hoping that we not only see that they are outrageous but also seeing that we might have a good amount in common with those people. The writing was easy to relate to because we do encounter a lot of this stuff quite often- we just don't understand how truly ridiculous it is until someone else puts it into writing. I think that he hopes we will second guess ourselves and catch when we do these things. I know that I will be more cautious about it from now on.

I really like all of the fun stories and examples that Sedaris puts into his story. It makes it flow exceptionally well. Meanwhile it also pulled me in as a reader and kept me interested.



Questions:
1. Do you ever think people think these kind of things about you in the airport? Or have you done anything to make people think these things about you?

2. Do you talk with people/ think out loud while at the airport? or do you tend to keep to yourself?


Sedaris, David. "Standing By." First Year Composition Reader. Boston: Pearson, 2011. 275-277.
       Print.

Sedaris 'Standing By' [Due 1/31]

Sedaris' 'Standing By' is about airplanes and the procedure that come with them and experiences once you are on them (275). He seems to have a very negative outlook on flying, and automatically shows you flying is not something that is enjoyable to him. Sedaris comes off as a very judgmental person in my opinion. 

Assignment #2 [Due: 2/29}

After reading through the Student Guide I have definitely learned a lot about what is expected of me in this course. Sometimes it is hard for me going into a class and just guessing what I'm going to need to do based on vague syllabus description. The Student Guide not only goes into deep description it also gives comments/advice from teachers and other students about the course. 

I think that this English class is going to help me a lot more than the previous english courses I have taken. We seem to have a good group of kids in our class, and having a teacher you feel comfortable around and comfortable reading what you write is always a big help. 

I am looking forward to learning a lot of the fundamentals that come with college writing. I was the yearbook editor for my high school, so I'm used to laid back high school writing. College leveled writing courses will be a challenge to me and take a lot of work based on what I read in the Student Guide, but I don't think I will ever feel as though my time has been wasted. 

I'm a little nervous that a board of people that we don't know and have never read any of our writing get to decide whether we pass or fail the class. The number of students that I hear that fail English 101 is sort of intimidating to me. The rules see very cut and dry and to the point so I'm hoping that if I follow the rules and guidelines and take the advice given in the Student Guide that I will only need to take the class once.

I think the difficulty of this class won't be the amount of writing in itself but more so the challenges of writing we will encounter. We will need to step out of our usual boundaries and try new writing skills. 

The things that we will learn throughout this course are things that we are going to keep with us throughout the rest of college and our lives. No one can ever be at a disadvantage for learning and becoming a better write. It will always be beneficial to us at some point in time. 

Introduction [Due: January 24th]

My name is, Paige Hoppmann. I live in a small town of 900 people in Valders, Wisconsin. My family consists of me, my mom and dad, and my older sister Ashley who is a Junior at UW Oshkosh. I also have two dogs named Casper and Zoey. In my free time I like to read, hang out with friends, go shopping, and spend time with my family camping. My favorite thing about Milwaukee is how populated it is, the variety of food, shopping, and experiences. I am a psychology major with the intent to become a child crisis counselor, mainly focussing on rape and abuse trauma. I have wanted to become a part of this profession since my freshman year of high school when I started watching Law and Order SVU. I understand that it will be a troubling job, but I am looking forward to helping people and changing their lives. The best class I've ever taken was probably a Sociology class that I took in high school. It was all about social life, stereotypes, problems in society, and peer pressure. I have never done much writing. I tend to stick more to writing only for academic purposes more so than recreational. I do enjoy reading. I read pretty much anything from magazine articles to thrillers to romance novels.   College Writing definitely seems a lot more difficult and tedious that high school writing. I'm hoping that I advance in my writing, and learn a lot that I will be able to use in my future writings that are ahead of me. I think stepping outside of my usual writing boundaries will definitely help me improve my writing. I think I work best in an area that is up beat and fun. I feel to stressed when I'm stuck in a quiet, tock clicking environment. I'm just generally a very happy, out spoken, optimistic person. And I'm just looking forward to the rest of the semester and learning more about writing!