My Thoughts on Comments

From New York Times article, "Obama Vetoes Bill Pushing Pipeline Approval"

Credible Comments 

1. 

This commenter is expressing a fear that President Obama will approve the pipeline, which would only help worsen the environment and only benefit oil companies. This can be seen in his comment, "please do not falter" when referring to the decision. The commenter does not want this pipeline to be built and fears it will be anyway. 

According to this comment, I believe the person to be more so concerned with who the pipeline benefits and who it doesn't. He talks about it benefitting large companies, and not the people. Because of this I think he is more so concerned about small business or individual people, rather than large corporations. 

This writer comes across as credible to me because they make their point very clear and bring up a valid point for their argument. When he brings up specific corporations, this leads me to believe he knows more about the subject or at least did some research for his comment, unlike some others. 

2. 

This comment specifically states that they fear "the moment of capitulation," or when/if Obama gives up fighting the pipeline. 

This comment leads me to believe that they also are looking to who this move would benefit, because they use a sarcastic question at the end, which they answer in a way that sounds confident and final. They also have concerns about the environment, even suggesting that this could lead to the downfall of humans. While a bit extreme, this does showcase their beliefs and make their point sound stronger. 

I thought this was a more credible sounding argument because of the ending. The question and answer was witty enough to grab my attention, and the rest of the comment also leads the reader to believe that the writer is confident and knows what he is talking about. 

Non Credible Comments 

1. 

This commenter seems to be expressing anxiety about Obama's last few decisions and the decision regarding the pipeline itself. This can be seen by the negative language used and the insults to the president. 

They seem most concerned with the job aspect of the pipeline, which most likely means that they value the idea of creating more jobs for Americans, instead of outsourcing jobs. 

I didn't think this commenter was credible because they give no proof or other knowledge at all, they just throw out a fact and then leave it alone. The last half of their comment has no argument other than insults, which does not make me want to listen to their argument. These combined lead me to believe that this commenter knows little about the topic and speaks from a party standpoint. 

2. 

This commenter is also expressing fear, more specifically about not using fossil fuels and "loony environmentalists." This can be seen form their claim that this is the worst thing since the War of 1812.

This commenter is most likely republican or conservative in views, as most liberals are more concerned about environment than this. They may value businesses and believe that the pipeline will provide more to business. 

I didn't think this commenter was credible because his only claim to being credible was being Canadian, as if that's a huge qualifier for knowing a subject and developing a solid argument about it. He may bring up history, but it is not clear and has little to do with the debate about the pipeline. It seems their comment is more emotional than argumentative. 

My Controversy

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/25/us/politics/as-expected-obama-vetoes-keystone-xl-pipeline-bill.html?_r=0 

This article, from New York Times, explains what was happening in regards to the keystone pipeline last February. The pipeline, as the article explains, is mainly under attack from environmentalists while being supported by conservatives. There is reason to believe that the pipeline will bring more harm to the environment on top of providing very few long term jobs. Obama's decision may become the symbol for what his policy will look like on environmental issues, and those who are against the pipeline have tried to sway Obama by protesting outside the white house.

This issue is important to me because I believe that the pipeline will do more damage than good, and destroying the environment needlessly is something that really bothers me. Even if the pipeline itself is not producing pollutants, it is facilitating a process that damages the environment quite heavily while not benefitting the U.S. as much as other projects might.

Calendar Reflection

Armstrong, George. "Hours-days of operation sign at the Disaster Recovery Center." 3/10/2009 via Wikipedia.
Public Domain Licensing 

Every day of the week, except Mondays, I work part time at a cafe. Luckily, the store closes at 5:00pm every day, so I never get home later than 6:00pm. So, even on days where I have school in the morning and work directly after, I have evenings to work on my school work.


During the mornings I have classes, but three days out of the week I have at least an hour break between them. This will allow me to eat a quick lunch, go to office hours, or get some more work done.


Most evenings I have a friend or two over to hang out and have dinner, or I spend time with my dad. However, my friends are similar to me in that school is very important to them, and most nights we will set aside at least two to three hours specifically to do all of our homework.


Weekends are when I work early in the morning, usually 6:00am or 5:00am, but I get out of work midday. This gives me the rest of the afternoon to study and continue working, and plenty of time to also have fun with friends. Overall, I believe my schedule is accommodating enough to give me plenty of time for homework for all my classes.


Reflection: 

I had never thought about how time does get away from me during the week. When Bailey wrote about how she feels this way, it made me think too about how this first week went in school and how similar I felt to her. It made me decide more so to crack down on myself and force myself to set aside more time for homework, scheduling in time to actually get started on my schoolwork.

Similarly, I agreed with Mathilda about the weekly planner being helpful. It made me realize that I do actually spend a lot of time at work, about 30 hours a week. Especially considering that after school and then work, I don't feel like working in the evenings.

I feel like, since a lot of people are also experiencing the same calendar/time crisis I am, everyone will be able to support each other a lot better. Knowing that others feel the same way reassures me that I'm not alone in the struggles to find time for homework.

My Writing Process

Joonspoon. "A female programmer writing Java code with JUnit". 9/4/2014 via Wikipedia.
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License

My writing process is usually most similar to the heavy planner writing style. I focus on writing and typically do not get distracted until I get stuck somewhere in the paper, but once I have my first draft redone I do not visit it again as often or as thoroughly as I should.


I can procrastinate, but I know this about myself and try to work against it as much as possible. I have also tried to devote my time equally between parts of writing, however, I usually get distracted during the revising process or lose motivation to finish, something else I try to combat.


Most of the time, the heavy planning process works for me in writing papers because I can produce a paper that I can be mostly satisfied with the first time. I am usually thinking about what I am going to write beforehand, so when it comes time to write I can crank out a paper. On the downside, this style limits me from improving my writing skills because I am not going back and reworking my papers.


Furthermore, this writing style means that if I miss something in my brief revisions, it gets stuck in my final draft without my notice. In order to develop my writing more so than it already is, I need to incorporate aspects of a heavy revisor into my drafts. Doing so will help me better understand how to write a more effective argument.


Reflection:

After reading through some of my classmates blogs I learned that a lot of people have similar problems to what I face during writing. This made me feel a little more settled about being in an honors English class, and helped make me feel a little more secure in my own writing. I know that I have a lot of work to do and that I will have to change up my style to improve, and reading about how my classmates work gave me some ideas on how to write differently. I usually don't like to write often, but reading through these different styles and techniques has made me think about how interesting writing will be if I do it in a different way. It won't be repetitive or boring, because I'll be doing something new.

The two posts I commented on were Alex's and Jon's.