December 16, 2014
Dear
Ms. Lopez,
I’ve had a wonderful time in your
class. I’ve improved on several of my weak points in my writing as well as
further improved areas of my writing that were already at par coming into this
semester. To demonstrate this transition into better writing, I’ve selected
eight pieces that will show my strengths at the beginning of the semester, how
I grew as a writer throughout the WRD course, and finally a paper written for a
totally separate class that demonstrates my “creative” writing.
The first paper I’ve selected to
showcase is the formal proposal. I selected the ROTC program at UK for this
assignment because I didn’t know much about the organization and wanted to
learn more about it. I also considered that I wasn’t the only person who lacked
knowledge of the ROTC program in my WRD classroom and that presenting it to the
class would shed light on a great organization to a slew of students. On this
assignment, the easiest part I found to write was without a doubt the
conclusion. Because ROTC is not well known to the general student population,
it was easy to demonstrate a call to action on making a documentary for the
program. The next assignment I added to the portfolio was the outline for
in-class presentation of research for our documentary project. This assignment
was given to teach us about presenting research in a effective and efficient
manner. After completing this assignment, I found that analyzing my sources to
be the easiest part of the assignment. After the outline for research
presentation, you’ll be coming across the outline for the group speech about
our documentary. This assignment showed us how to present the sections of our
documentary in a clear and concise way that the audience could clearly
understand. Lastly, there are the blog posts, these assignments helped further
our progress in becoming better researchers as well as summarizing sources we
found in an effective manner. In all of the papers I have provided, my biggest
problem has been writing transparent transitions. For my blog posts, I chose a
post from the very beginning, the middle, and the end. I chose my blog posts in
this manner to show a clear progression in my summarizing ability. I chose a
piece of writing from my Gerontology class because the writing in this class is
very laid back and is more about venting and getting the point across in the
way you choose. It is a great class to showcase my creative writing.
Lastly, in this class, I’ve learned
that writing and speaking are connected more than I ever thought. Being able to
write out what I want to say before I say it allows me to better my argument,
make it clearer to an audience, and become more comfortable in the idea before
I ever speak it. The biggest problem I encountered in this class was writing
transitions in my assignments that made the paper flow. The only way I can see
in fixing this problem is through continued writing and perhaps one day I’ll
finally master the technique.
Sincerely,
Chris Monks
Table of Contents
I.
Formal Proposal
a.
Final Draft
II.
Outline for In-class Presentation of Research
a.
Final Draft
III.
Outline for Group Speech
a.
Final Draft
IV.
Blog Posts
a.
Post 1
b.
Post 2
c.
Post 3
V.
Perspectives of Time
a.
Final Draft
ROTC Programs at UK
Chris Monks
If someone
comes to visit the University of Kentucky, choosing the most important part of
campus to show them might be a difficult task considering that there are so
many organizations that could fill this role. However, one organization that
sticks ahead of the pack is the ROTC programs at UK. While there are other
organizations that may be more entertaining or academically beneficial to the
student body, the ROTC programs provide a great service to the students through
rigorous training physically, mentally, and morally as well as giving back to
the community through donation and service for a century.
At the
University of Kentucky, there are two ROTC programs a person can be involved
in, Army and Air Force. Both are equally important at the University and
choosing one over another lies totally in preference. The Army ROTC program
officially began in 1917 military type training had been taught at UK since the
late 1800’s. Throughout this 100+ year
period, the Army ROTC program has stayed in running order through two world
wars as well as the Korean and Vietnam conflicts. The Air Force ROTC program
has had a similar history at the University of Kentucky. Although officially
starting around the same time as the Army ROTC, the Air Force ROTC has been a
lot more popular throughout the years, for example, in the 1950’s and 60’s
enrollment in the Army’s program was decreasing while enrollment in the Air
Force’s ROTC was at its highest. For any student looking towards the military
as a future career or someone who can’t afford to pay for college on their own,
the ROTC program is a great place to start.
When
enrolled in the ROTC program, cadets are encouraged to not only keep a positive
outlook and exert discipline; cadets are also told to look out for fellow students.
This kind of expectation is one of the reasons the ROTC programs are such an
important part of UK. They strive to have people help one another no matter who
or where you are from. Along with keeping a moral code, cadets are required to
take part in physical fitness that involves cardio and strength training their
first year of college. Within the physical fitness aspect of cadets training,
cadets will also learn goal setting and accomplishment which will not only help
them in college but will carry over into their careers and will lead them to
success. Moving past the physical fitness, cadets are also encouraged to keep
their academics as their number one priority at UK. The leaders in ROTC
understand how hectic the first year at college can be by trying to balance out
schoolwork with clubs, sports, or just socializing. By laying it out on the
line that the ROTC program comes second to academics the ROTC is showing that
they want cadets to succeed. With that being said, leaders in the ROTC program
don’t want students to become hermits whose lives revolve around schoolwork and
ROTC. The leaders at the ROTC program encourage getting involved in other clubs
and activities besides just ROTC. The cadets in ROTC not only get involved
around campus, but in the community as well. Just this past week the ROTC
cadets gave back to the community in a very special way. For the anniversary of
the September 11th attacks the cadets of the Air Force ROTC set up
flags for the victims of the attacks as well as reading off all of their names.
This might not be as big a donation as some other organizations give but the
gesture was well received by students.
The ROTC
programs at UK should be chosen as one of the research topics for the
documentary project for all that it does for the community on and off the
campus as well as preparing the students who do join physically as well as
mentally and morally for life after college.
Chris Monks
Ms. Lopez
WRD 110
October 22, 2014
A
Presentation of Ideas
I.
Introduction
a.
Attention Getter: Are you feeling like you don’t
fit in at college yet? Are you looking for something more in your life? Do you
ever long for a group of people who think just like you and share your same
goals? If this is the case, you’ll fit right in at Christian Student
Fellowship.
b.
Introductory/ Background Information: Here at
UK, there seems to be too many organizations to keep track off; some of the
more popular organizations include intramural sports leagues, Greek life, and
Christian Student Fellowship. The Christian Student Fellowship is one
organization that sticks out among the sea of organizations a student can get
involved in at UK because it offers students a variety of opportunities to grow
as a person and become part of a family of like minded people.
c.
Thesis Statement: I plan to make a documentary
about the Christian Student Fellowship to showcase the benefits of and reasons
for joining the Christian Student Fellowship over other organizations like
intramural sports league or Greek life. Because there is a Christian Student
Fellowship headquarters on UK campus, I hope my documentary will help better
inform students about it so that they can get involved in help change their own
lives as well as the lives of people in the community. Within this
presentation, I will be showing three sources that will stress the importance
of the Christian Student Fellowship in providing a family for students,
building student character, and helping the community. First, I will discuss
the Christian Student Fellowship webpage. Next, I will talk about the interview
I did with one of the leaders in Christian Student Fellowship. Lastly, I will
talk about the responses to the survey I took about the Christian Student
Fellowship.
II.
Source #1
a.
Christian Student Fellowship webpage
i. Main
Point 1
1.
This webpage was set up by the Christian Student
Fellowship for recruitment. The webpage shows some of the fun activities that
students will partake in while involved in the Christian Student Fellowship.
a.
Sub-point 1
i. The
webpage shows multiple pictures of students having fun playing games and
hanging out which might influence students looking for friends or an
extracurricular activity to join.
b.
Sub-point 2
i. The
webpage shows a video of an annual event that students who are in the organization
attend. The video shows the kinds of activities that students will participate
in during their time in the organization which helps to encourage students to
join.
ii. Main
Point 2
1.
The webpage also demonstrates the way in which
the Christian Student Fellowship is attempting to increase their membership.
a.
Sub-point 1
i. The
webpage has icons that let students connect their social networking accounts to
the Christian Student Fellowship.
b.
Sub-point 2
i. The
webpage has links to podcasts so that students can listen and learn about the
Christian Student Fellowship even when they aren’t at the actual headquarters.
iii. Main
Point 3
1.
Considering the webpages main purpose is for
recruitment, it will help me during the final project when I show the
difference between Christian Student Fellowship and other organizations offered
at UK such as Greek life and intramural sports.
a.
Sub-Point 1
i. Although
intramural sports want people to join, the leaders and members aren’t as hands
on in recruiting as the Christian Student Fellowship is. They are more basing
membership on the idea that people who play the sport will know to join.
b.
Sub-point 2
i. During
my documentary, I am going to introduce the differences between an organization
like the Christian Student Fellowship and organizations like intramural sports
team and Greek life by first showing the amount of effort that the Christian
Student fellowship puts into recruitment as well as the friendly environment
the Christian Student Fellowship encases its members.
b.
Transition: Now that you’ve seen the amount of
effort that the Christian Student Fellowship puts into recruiting students
through the web, I’m going to move on to talk about an interview I had with one
of the leaders in the Christian Student Fellowship.
III.
Source #2
a.
Interview with Tater
i. Main
Point 1
1.
In the interview, Tater discussed with me the
ways that the Christian Student Fellowship can help students find a family of
friends at UK as well as giving back to the community.
a.
Sub-point 1
i. Tater
told me about some of the activities of the Christian Student Fellowship that
help the students involved get to know each other like family.
b.
Sub-point 2
i. Tater
told me about some of the ways that the Christian Student Fellowship give back
to the community and help build character.
ii. Main
Point 2
1.
One of the reasons this interview is an
important source is because it shows how the Christian Student Fellowship wants
the students to be a family as well as support the community.
a.
Sub-point 1
i. Tater
referenced an activity called synergy in which students get together and
worship god and get to know each other and help become more of a family.
b.
Sub-point 2
i. Tater
also mentioned an event called Free Friday Night Flapjacks that allows them to
not only get to know other students better but also serve the community and
help build character.
b.
Transition: Furthermore, the Christian Student
Fellowship helps students meet new people when they first get to UK while also
showing students how to serve the community and become better students within
the community.
IV.
Conclusion
a.
When a student first comes to UK, they might
feel overwhelmed by the choices for an organization they have to make. Where do
they start? What kind of people do they want to be around? Out of all the
organizations to choose from whether it be Intramural Sports or Greek life, the
Christian Student Fellowship is the organization that stands out among the
rest.
b.
Students when thinking of which organization to
join, should keep the Christian Student Fellowship at the top of their list due
to the moral character it builds in a student as well as the friendships it can
help grow in a students life. By joining a group of people that for the most
part, are all like minded as soon as you get to college is a great way to meet
people that could someday become like family.
c.
After hearing my presentation, I want you take
the knowledge you heard today and take it to your friends and spread my message
across campus so that more students can learn about the great benefits of the
Christian Student Fellowship.
d.
I have credibility within this topic from my
countless hours spent on the website looking through the information, talking
with people about the Christian Student Fellowship, and talking with leaders in
the organization. Also, I have credibility by spending years in similar type
organizations that help the community.
Works Cited
1.
"Christian Student
Fellowship." Christian Student Fellowship | University
Kentucky. Christian Student Fellowship, n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2014. <http://ukcsf.org/>.
2.
Tater. "An Interview with
Tater." Personal interview. 15 Oct. 2014.
Chris
Monks
Ms.
Lopez
12-5-14
WRD
110
Problems and Pitfalls
I.
Introduction
a.
With
most group assignments, members will likely run into problems and conflict with
one another. This should not be looked down upon as it can help groups better
their dynamic together.
II.
Choosing
a Topic
a.
When
we first started the project we selected a topic that we eventually changed
late into deadlines as well as choosing a topic that not all of the group
agreed on.
III.
Coordinating
Work
a.
As
the project continued, none of the memebrs schedules aligned which led to us
working on aspects of the documentary with little communication to other
members.
IV.
What
we would do differently
a.
If
given another chance we would revamp the way we assign work as well as make
group meetings mandatory or risk ejection from the group.
Commonwealth Stadium
I found
an article in the reference section in a wikipedia article, the actual article
I read and have used can be found at http://www.ukathletics.com/athletic-dept/commonwealth-stadium.html
The article does not have a posted author but I believe it to be credible
because it is on the official UK athletics page. The title of the article is
fittingly "Commonwealth Stadium".
The
article explains the history of the stadium and its improvements over the years
since its conception. It was built in 1973 by a firm by the name of Huber,
Hunt, and Nichols after the Kentucky Wildcats had played at the old stadium
known as McLean Stadium for 48 years. Originally, the stadium featured 57,800
seats and had no protection from the elements. Although the new stadium came
with a whopping $12 million dollar bill, the argument could be made that the
new stadium gave the Wildcats an extra boost on the field as the Wildcats have
a 52.9% win percentage at home.
After
playing on the new Commonwealth Stadium field 26 years, it was decided that the
Wildcats needed to update Commonwealth. The price for this job would end up
being somewhere in the ballpark of $27.6 million. Some of the additions to the
stadium included adding a little under 10,000 seats, a new scoreboard, and some
more restrooms. Ironically, a construction company based in Ohio helped with
job. Since the expansion the Wildcats have enjoyed an average of 56,527 fans
attending games and over 12 million total.
This
article not only brought up the realization that the University of Kentucky
puts astronomical amounts of money into their athletics and gives the athletes
every opportunity to succeed. With that, it also raises some questions, how big
is the return on investment for the university? WIth all the talk of NCAA
should pay athletes, the idea of the University investing so much money into
the athletes just to help them can't be the case.
UK Student Center
I chose an
article about the Student Center. The article does not list an author but it
was found on the University of Kentucky's web page. Therefore, I deemed it a
reliable source. The article explains some of the features of the Student
Center, its hours of operation, as well as directions if you're new to the
campus.
At your first
year at UK, you might not have scheduled your classes particularly well and
have some downtime in between classes. If so, head on down to the student
center located on Euclid Avenue/Avenue of Champions or down the stairs after
passing white hall. The Student Center offers students a number of activities
to do while waiting for class. You can play a game of pool or table tennis.
Watch TV or play video games. Or just sit at one of the many tables and chew
the fat with your pals. While the Student Center has a lot of entertaining
aspects to it, it also has academic areas as well. In the Student Center you
can also find the UK Bookstore, some conference rooms, and the Credit Union
just to name a few things. I stopped at the Student center earlier in the day
on Thursday and spoke with a student named Evan Collins and asked him what he
thought about the Student Center. He told me "Boy oh boy, do I sure love
the Student Center! I can play all the Call of Duty I want!" Although he
was the only student I talked to, judging by the amount of people in the
Student Center, its safe to say that a lot of students share Evan's opinion.
An interview with a UK
senior
For this
article I used an impromptu interview I had with a friend of mine's brother
named Kyle. We were talking about the upcoming concert of a rapper coming to UK
soon. This quickly reminded me of SHHO so I started to ask him about it.
Although he wasn't an expert on SHHO he's an avid listener of hip hop as
well as a very active UK student when it comes to student activities which I
felt gave him enough credibility to tell me about the concerts put on at
UK.
According to Kyle, "UK does a lot of concerts for the students, not
only hip hop but whatever genre you're into you can probably find a concert
you'd like." After asking him a little about SHHO he told me that,
"it's basically where a bunch of people who enjoy hip hop get together,
hang out, meet artists, and play music." Although I felt this was a very
basic definition I felt it necessary to showcase this because this is most
likely the same kind of opinion shared by other students at UK. SHHO isn't just
for hanging out, it can also be a great educational tool for students who
aren't sure how the music industry works and want to learn more about it or
want to see what it takes to make a career out of music. One of the last
questions I asked Kyle was as a fan of hip hop, would he consider joining SHHO
now that he knows more about it. Kyle said, "No, I'm not that big a fan of
it, I really just like to listen to it, I don't want to get that
involved." I think this kind of viewpoint is what I'll find most among students,
they really like listening to it but practicing is a different story.
After
speaking with Kyle I felt satisfied with the interview but it made me want to
go interview someone in SHHO and find out what made them want to go past just
listening to hip hop to actually practicing it in such a large
organization.
Chris Monks
9-16-14
Thought exercise #1
GRN 250-002
Perspectives
of Time
As most of
you know, as time progresses, ideas and systems change within time. For
example, as time goes on, interests, and society will change within time. This
change can be attributed to all sorts of factors but what most notably will
change such ideas are age. As a person gets older its not just their
chronological age that will change, their behavioral and social age will change
with it. This is why moving from a child to a teen and a teen to an adult are
such big times in a persons life. It marks a transformation in not only looks
but also there behavior and social positions. This is such a large-scale
transformation across populations that may be hard for young people to step
back and see this change first hand. A simple way to learn more about these
transformations would be to talk to your parents about their own interests and
choices throughout their own life. Some things to focus on during your
interview would be how they interacted with their family and what sorts of
foods they enjoyed throughout life. Next, compare and contrast your findings
with your own life.
First, the
interview began with some questions about his life when he was younger in the
1960’s. According to my father, a lot of time was spent around the family,
whether it was watching TV or playing games, he was always around the rest of
the family. I found this as a surprise since he never really encouraged this
kind of behavior with my brothers and I. We were to an extent, allowed to
choose our company. Although his parents might of found this to be the best
path, my fathers is the correct way as it doesn’t force people together and
keeps siblings from growing tired of seeing each other so much.
Next, I
asked about the kinds of food he enjoyed as a child and how these favorite
foods compared to my meals as a child. In his younger years, Pop Tarts had just
came onto the market so he ate those a lot for breakfast and Pizza from a
restaurant from Cassanos was his favorite dinner style meal. Although my
favorite foods as a child differ from my father, I don’t think should be
attributed to a time period or behavior rather to the parents choices. In my
youth, oatmeal or cereal were my typical breakfast meals. This was not due to
anything besides the fact that my father found it to be the healthiest option
for me. For dinner, I have enjoyed sushi since I was very young. Again, I liked
it for the taste and also because my dad was always making it for me not
because of things related to time or age.
Lastly,
when asked about the food he enjoys now, its quite a different tale, he has
become more of a health guru over the years substituting his beloved Pop Tarts
for food like oatmeal and fruit in the morning. As far as a favorite dinner,
sushi has become his go to after visiting Japan and falling in love with the
dish. Since growing up around him, my
tastes have followed in his foot steps as I enjoy many of the same
dishes as he.
To put it
all together, when growing up, a lot of the milestones in a persons life such
as moving from a teen to an adult will be shaped by the people you most closely
surround yourself with. These people will help shape your interests, likes, and
dislikes in food, activities, and society. This is why certain generations are
labeled by how the society acted and what the society liked and disliked about
it self.
