Category: Zoom Summaries

After watching the zoom recording I learned what a scholarly article actually is. I never really knew what it was exactly but this recording helped explain it to me. I’m familiar with Google Scholar because I used it to write my ten page research paper when I was a junior in highschool. My teacher made us use google scholar to find articles for us to include in our papers. Google scholar made it easier to find factual articles that are reliable and include evidence to prove or support their statement. When I would use google to search for articles, it wouldn’t give me an article with reliable facts. The articles were biased and did not provide any to little evidence to back up their claim and I knew if I used these articles they wouldn’t really help my essay, it would make my essay weak because there isn’t any solid evidence that backs up what my statement is. I’m glad that we get to use google scholar for our Essay #2 because it makes things way easier for us to find good articles to use in our essays. Also, I agree with what Dom said about people being disconnected from each other and they need a sense of connection by sticking in a group that have similar things in common like race, skin color, interests, etc. I agree with this because people tend to feel comfortable or safe around people that are just like them and have similar things in common. When they are around people like them, they don’t feel like an outcast.

Unfortunately I was unable to join this zoom meeting but after watching the zoom recording, I learned many new things that I didn’t know before. Anaphora was new to me but zoom recording helped me to understand what it is. It is a list that generate new thoughts and make connections between already existing thoughts. We can use anaphora list in essay 1 to make our essay more clear and thoughtful. Also I learned about sub-list assignment that help us to make connections between topics which usually don’t have anything in common. I think these lists are very important because it help us to relate many things. There was also discussion about essay 2 topic. For essay 2, we need to find the social issues.  The zoom recording was very helpful because without this I would be unable to do my Friday’s assignment.

It was my lost that I missed this week 6 zoom meeting, because it was so informative. So lucky to watch this class recording right now. Beginning of the class, Prof. Almeida was introducing the library’s website, which was really helpful because I have a strange relationship with library research, I understand the great value that exists in using library research; however, I rarely use the library for assistance while researching for sources or writing a essay or research paper, unless I’m advised or required to do so by my professors. It always seems so difficult for me to get started and anytime I have to use the library it makes me feel like whatever I’m using it for will be very difficult to accomplish. So she was showing how to use different sections and areas that were available to us.  She also recommended a place to look for sources. I found her really informative and nice. I like how Prof. Street was brought to the class to study in a group. I feel that’s really helpful to most of us. Professor also talked about the list and how not every list isn’t good text. I was wondering about the difference between essay 1 and essay 2 but Professor explained it very well. Prof. Street also discussed, where he described some attitudes are related to internet addiction. 

I think it’s really unfortunate that I missed this week’s Zoom meeting, because I really found it informative and the discussions about theses could’ve been really good if they just had that little push in discussion.

The first 10-15 minutes were Prof. Almeida discussing the library’s website, walking us through the different sections and areas that were available to us, and talking about levels of reliance/dependability, starting from encyclopedias, to books, to newspapers, to trade magazines, to academic journals. She also revealed to us her key for research: keywords. She discussed how Google and the library website’s primary search engine covered numerous topics, and if we wanted to be specific in our research pertaining to social issues and music, we had to use specific keywords that narrowed the search to what we as writers would want to reflect. In her website exploration, I would have asked if the site included a citation program, since I was wondering if I had to do the tedious task of copying links over to third party sites that generated MLA citation, but she went over it so that works out well. The subject guides she showed us definitely looked like something that I’d make my best friend, as it had a lot of step-by-step stuff, and that kind of detail is really helpful. I saw that one of the sites listed under “Find Scholarly Articles” was JSTOR, and I briefly had flashbacks to last year when I gave up on trying to use the site after having no idea how it really worked. It was for an AP Lit paper, so I was kinda worried where to get citations from, but I figured it out and swore to limit contact with JSTOR from there on out. Despite the bad memories that resurfaced, Prof Almeida thankfully switched topics before I could start foaming at the mouth. I thought her presentation was concise, engaging and really informative, as I now know about the vast pool of resources available for me. She seemed like a nice person, and I was wondering if she’s in any way related to Laurindo Almeida (who I discussed a bit in my Media Share 1). 

As for class, I really found Prof Street’s description of good texts being lists and having a narrative to be really smart, insightful and observant, because after he said that, I slowly realized that every piece of literary work I read that inspired me had that sense of narrative be effectively tied together in a subtle way that tickled my curiosity. I also liked the descriptions of a definitional thesis, as it made me realize that I made this same form of thesis for the aforementioned AP Lit paper, I just never realized it because we never had to dive into such distinctions. During the text discussions, I liked when Mehreen pointed out the lists in the first paragraph as I didn’t see it until she pointed it out; it proves that I understand narrative being crucial to good text, but also that I need to improve on sniffing narrative out. As for the part where Prof Street asked where sexual preoccupations fit into modern Internet Addiction, I would have said that it fits into the niche of people riding the surge of sexual/explicit content such as OnlyFans, Premium Snapchats, and other mediums of porn that are no longer confined to traditional porn websites. I think that with quarantine and the pandemic, most people don’t go out and have reverted back to a baser side of humanity, focusing on the baser instincts of humans, like eating, sleeping, and satisfying their more sensual predispositions. It’s kind of weird to see such a dramatic rise in both supply and demand of porn recently, and I think it ties into the addiction Prof Street discussed near the end, where he described some attitudes displayed or are related to internet addiction. Some people will be inevitably addicted to such explicit content, but hopefully such addictions regress into tamer urges. 

I feel like this week’s class was a bit quiet, so I’m kinda leaning into the idea of fostering discussion, since all the juicy talking points are all in the air, and it’s fun to discuss these ideas among a group of peers. 

While watching the zoom recording I learned about the different types of thesis statements. I learned what a definitional and theoretical thesis are. In my essays, I normally always use a definitional thesis because that was the way I was taught to write a thesis statement. I never knew there were other ways to write your thesis, this helps me change up the ways I write my essays because I always stick to the same format while writing my essays so this could be a way to change it up. If I was able to join the zoom call, I would have answered the question the professor asked which was “Do you think you have internet addiction?”. I would have said that I think I do have an addiction but it isn’t as bad as other people. I only use my phone a lot when I’m bored and have nothing to do or when i’m doing school work (especially now because of corona) but when im with family or friends I notice that i’m not on my phone at all. I remember when I went to Michigan to visit my relatives, I had so much fun that I literally lost my phone. I didn’t look at my phone for almost two weeks because I was so entertained and was going out with my family. During those two weeks I felt really good that I wasn’t on my phone because I know when I’m on my phone I get distracted and don’t interact with the people around me. I’m glad I was able to spend time with my family and not focus on my phone. I just wish I took pictures but overall it was a nice time to disconnect from the interent and spend time with my family.

I was unable to attend Wednesday’s zoom meeting but if I was there I would have shared my Anaphora list (I made a list while watching the zoom recording) and explained that the reason I chose to repeat the word “friends” was because it relates to my essay #1. While listening to the zoom meeting I learned what a Anaphora was, before attending the recording I didn’t really know what it was and was confused about Friday’s assignment but after listening to the zoom recording I figured out what a Anaphora list was and it made it easier for me to make my own list. We often see these lists in songs, texts, speeches, etc but I never knew there was an actual term for it. I found it really interesting when you said “lists can help us organize and build connections between different thoughts.” I agree with what you said because personally for me I like writing lists to help remind me of things I need to do like homework or chores. I write lists daily because it helps me stay organized and productive. I usually forget about assignments that are due so writing it down really helps me remember things. Also, the sub-list assignment was a way to help us make connections between topics that usually don’t have anything in common. It made me think outside the box and find something in common between unusual topics. The only question I have is about Essay 2, It says in the assignment that we need to include 2-3 texts in our essay, does it have to be a text we were assigned by you or any text ?

If I was able to join the 9/16 zoom meeting, I would have talked about a dream I had recently and it was about me and my family getting robbed. I remember watching one of my favorite turkish television show before going to bed and in that episode the family got robbed and ambushed as well. I guess that scene was stuck in my head because I had a dream about it happening to me and my family. I usually never remember my dreams when I wake up but this dream was different, I remember everything very clearly, as if it happened in real life. While listening to the discussion about Serpell’s text, I had the same thought as Domonic when he said “it was not biased because in the first two you can kinda see they have a biased point of view and not reliable story.” I agree with what he said about part three because it tells the point of view of the bystanders, not  of someone who was in the situation head on. The first two parts are kind of biased because they were told by people who were in the situation and the officer himself. The third part of the text wasn’t of any particular person’s point of view and just told the story as a bystander or reporter. Also, If I attended the zoom meeting I would have asked about the sub-lists that are due on friday. Some peoples lists have no similarities and I wanted to know what we do if there’s nothing in common in the list they chose.

In this zoom meeting , you were discussing “My Instagram” in the beginning of the meeting and you stated, “it’s not one of my favorite essays” and I would have to agree. It confused me because I felt that it was all over the place. I found myself having trouble when I was getting my scene together. After reading “April-May-June” by Mirene Arsanios, I came to a better understanding as to what a scene should actually look like. Personally, when I look at a blank sheet of paper, I struggle with getting the first few words down but after that I can’t stop writing. It was the same situation when I was writing the scene because I was worried that it might seem boring. I realized that even if the scene was “boring”, the reader would still feel like they are living the situation because of the details. If I was present in the zoom meeting, my list of weird things would include:

• Salad Fingers (literally the most disturbing video that I ever watched)
• A photo of two people kissing with the caption “love my brother”
• The world record egg on Instagram
• Japan’s pigeon people
• A photo of mannequins laid out on a street
• Goblin sharks
• An underwater lake within the ocean

I would have asked a question on what you meant when you wanted us to also create a list that included a pattern. Did you mean a recurring topic?

If i was able to join this zoom meeting, I definitely would have shared one of my most recent dreams. I usually wouldn’t because I am more on the shy side but this dream felt so real that I thought about it for days and it is unquestionably shareable. The day before I had the dream, I was at the cemetery to visit my nonno (grandfather) because it was his birthday so I wanted to be near him. It was about 10:30pm when I last looked at my phone and I was starting to fall asleep. Note that there was a full sky of stars before I fell asleep and that is exactly what I saw in my dream but the only difference was that my nonno was next to me. We were bonding and joking around like we usually would and he started to point out the big dipper which is a prominent group of seven stars in the constellation. I was quite intrigued, space is just so interesting yet confusing to me. He then said to me “that strike of lighting that you’re going to see is just me saying hello and that I love you so don’t be nervous, I want you to see the beauty of it”. My dog always barks when he hears thunder so he woke me up with his loud barking. The chills that I had in my body were unforgettable. I got up and was trying to calm him down and then I walked up to the window. I went from seeing clear skies before I went to sleep to seeing a stormy night. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw that strike of lightning, I felt like I was going crazy. I’m not sure if it was just a coincidence but I wanted to take his sign. I felt that the meaning was to tell me that he is still with me. I believe in signs from the dead and they are comforting to me because I feel like they are with me sometimes. I enjoyed hearing everyone else’s dreams too, I felt like I was “living the dream”. You grasped my attention when you stated “there is conflict evoked in irony”. I agree with you because when a writer is using irony, they use indirect references instead of direct statements to point out the problematic or conflicted relationship between the perceived and the truth. I was a little confused for Friday’s writing assignment so I would have asked what you meant when you asked for a scene related to our essay’s. I was able to figure out my question because when I hear the word “scene” I automatically think of a play (performance with dialogue).

I didn’t get to join the very first zoom meeting for this class because for some reason I didn’t get any email. I was scared of the fact that I missed my first class for English. I thought I was gonna get left behind a lot and I was also confused. But after watching the first five minutes of the zoom recording, I already knew I would like and enjoy this class. I liked how the professor was being honest when he said “ I just dropped my girlfriend, who’s pregnant off at the hospital”. It showed that he is an open person. I didn’t know what to expect but after watching the recording I thought the professor was nice, friendly, and really helpful. Throughout the video, he showed how to use OpenLab and do everything there because I honestly never used OpenLab and didn’t know anything about it. In the video, he was reading this story and while he was reading it he made sure to explain the meaning behind it. If I was able to join the meeting I would have said something regarding the topic but most of the time my audio would’ve been muted. My video would’ve been off too. I definitely would’ve said something on the chat bar. For most of my classes, I use the chat bar most of the time. So far I feel pretty good about this class. It’s just hard to keep up with all the work. But I will get the hang of it slowly. And I am more of a visual learner so it’s kind of hard to get used to online classes.