Blog about technical writing

In my view, technical writing is really good to make the other people understand one person's writing.We practiced such kind of writing in the class by making the animals and bugs in the kits.What I found  is that making the animals by looking at the photo direction is easy to make the animals identical to the one in the picture.However, writing the instructions about how to make the animals is not so easy. We,who write the instructions, have to take care of every step to make the animals.we cannot and should leave one step,even the very negligible steps.So,what makes students frustrated for writing is that to find words which is appropriate for the instruction.Instructions by speech is different from those by writing.While we were making our assigned animals by the other groups, we found out really difficult to make the animal because there was one step left and we do not know what to do next. In the end,our animal is not exactly the same with the original one.
I think technical writing is really important in academic writing like science journal article,and research paper.In those writings, the author should mention his works to make the readers understand clearly.They have to write every step of their methods for doing the research.However, the writer should be aware of what level of people they are expecting to read their writings.Then, they have to choose the appropriate level of words in their writing.

Journal Entry from Reader

I think the reason Tan's teachers miscalculate her ability in English is that she came from the non-American family. Because Tan is the first generation in America. Her family are the Chinese emigrant. Therefore, the teachers might have thought that Tan's English especially writing would not be as good as the Native ones .Tan also talked about a person's developing language skills are more influenced by peers ,the surrounding.Her family's(her mother's) English had an limiting effect to her because her mother is more fluent in her own tongue than in English and her mother does not feel so comfortable to speak in English.
 Moreover, Tan told that her family English affect her skill in the test results like SAT because those English tests are mostly expressing of opinion and  personal experiences. Sciences are precise so that she can do well on those subjects.Tan also talked about other Asian-American students do well on the sciences and math. It is because those students' English spoken at home can be described as broken or limited.Most of those Asian students do better on math and sciences tests. This fact makes Tan's teachers to encourage her to choose science or math career instead of being in English major.
Tan  make an argument about her mother English,expressing her feelings and views on her mother's limited English as a Asian emigrant. Tan also talked about how her mother made her ashamed by making mistakes when speaking broken English.However, Tan also wrote that her mother's English make some of her friend understand what she means but for some, they do not know what she tries to say. For Tan, she can understand her mother's English because it is her mother tongue.
Tan is trying to point that for some people whose family is not English spoken, can have some difficulties in surviving in the English speaking countries especially when studying or choosing a career because of the surroundings( which had limited English skills)they have contact with.


 

how digital storytelling revolutionize narrative experience

One thing I saw great thing about digital storytelling is that the audience can understand the storytellers' feeling and what messages they want to give to the audience easily and directly with the aid of images and background sound. After I have watched some video clips about digital storytelling, I found out that I really like that kind of storytelling and got more understanding about the goal of the story more than I got from reading the whole book.
The difference I found between listening to the story that a person is telling to the audience and the narrator of the digital one is that the person who tell a story can only make audience to picture the scene of the story. Therefore, there can be some questions of "Why, Who,How" and the storyteller can answer the questions but for the digital one, the audience cannot ask questions directly and there is no direct contact between storytellers and the audience.

However, there are many good things about digital storytelling that can make revolutionize the narrative experiences. Digital storytelling changes people feel different about lives and identities. We can tell and make audience know our feeling level directly.For narrators, they can be aware of making their stories more meaningful and teach a lesson or moral and may make someone to change the way u feel or think in the end.Also, narrators can remember the moment they had experienced about their stories by sharing the feeling about that particular moment. Including images, narrative tone level and background music can be considered as conveying another way of  sending message of the story's meaning and feeling absolute understanding of the story because the combination of image and sound will give people more descriptive meaning about the story.

All in all, it is really amazing that within few minutes, people can make the short points of the story they want to tell to the audience with creative presentation and the audience can get to know the purpose of the storyteller and about the story easily and quickly as well.

summation of my topic for digital storytelling

The topic is about the story about the tortoise family that my grandfather told me when I was young. The story gave me lessons that I should not waste my time by paying too much attention to the other people and allow myself hurt. The story seems a kind of unrealistic but it make a 6-year old child understand and confident and not too afraid.

Journal entry about "Stand Against Wikipedia

After reading Scott Jalchik’s “A Stand against Wikipedia”, I found that some of the educators do not like Wikipedia to be the source of research works for students.  Some think that Wikipedia is the good source to practice for research for the students but it is not at the university level for citing for a paper or exam. Also, some of them told that sometimes, students cited incorrect information from Wikipedia for their papers or tests. Therefore, some colleges such as Middlebury College plan to ban students from using Wikipedia. In my opinion, I partially agree with their plan.

As I am a college student and have done a lot of searching online information, I found that Wikipedia is really useful. It is useful for general information, not the every detailed, specified information about one topic. As people talked about Wikipedia in the article, many Wikipedia entries have good bibliographies, and even found it as accurate as or more than the other traditional encyclopedias. However, for some more specific topic, the Wikipedia is not that useful. In my view, one can see, know and search easily online for something they want but not in details or in advanced ways. For example, when I was doing some research for my bio lab, I need to search for many peer reviewed articles. Though I found it by Google it and using Wikipedia, I could not find the article in the scientific format. Therefore, I could not make citation with specific facts. Therefore, it is not useful for the college paper writing about some projects.

On the other hand, people can get general knowledge about some topics such as person’s profile and the other summaries of arts, music and so on from Wikipedia. Therefore, people should not ban students from using Wikipedia but students should be trained or guided by the appropriate persons to use the sources for their research about papers.

Analysis of Chris McCandless story from the movie.

When I have done reading the book and watching the movie about "Into The Wild".I feel differently and have changed my thoughts and views on Chris McCandless. I love movie more than the book. I found it the movie drew me from the beginning to the end and I cannot help myself crying for Chris's death. He should not die. I feel really sorry for his death.
Also, the music and the sceneries chosen for the movie are so similar and appropriate so that people will have better understanding about Chris actions. When I first read the book, I feel Chris is really foolish to made himself die alone,but when I watched the movie,I knew that Chris is admirable. My opinion about Chris,disappearing and searching the life he wants are because of his parents. Chris had a little bit different family type. Because of his parents, he becomes uncomfortable with the society. He becomes so stuck with the bounds between humans,position,status. He acted strangely since he was young even though he is so smart and intelligent. For example, on his graduation day, he jumped onto the stage while the other people walked; and also, he refused to have a new car from his parents in the movie.
The music in the movie is so great that it makes me cry and correctly guessing about what kind of mood Chris can have for every scene. I like the main solo guitar music,which, I think, have meaningful relationship to the Chris character and the story. I could feel the beauty of nature by the music, and also feeling scary and bit exciting when he killed the moose and tried to preserve the meat in the movie. I understood more about  Chris feeling  disappointed when he preserve meat. It was somewhat disgusting and disappointing.Mostly, the background music made me feel and understand the story and the characters more.I guessed that the background music are kind of similar to country and folk styles.
I found Chris was really happy while he was living in the wild(in the Magic bus). I found his happy expressions and peaceful smile when he saw the herd of deer, and when he plays with the herd of horses. Sometimes, I like the scene of Chris talking alone in the car,playing different roles. Also,the scenes I love most in the whole movie are the scene that he talks to the apple and the last scene he nearly has to leave the world. he talked to the apple that "I am Alex Supertramp and you are super apple and so organic". I found it was funny and also Chris's cute action when talking to the apple.Sometimes, I talked alone to my dolls or sometimes with the food. I really feel sad and sorry to let Chris die in the end, but I found his eyes were telling that he found the life he wanted and he is happy. He even left notes ,telling that he is happy.However, I saw that he missed his old Chris McCandless life before he dies.I do not want him to die.
The actors and actress chosen for the story are so much match with the characters in the book.what I  mostly like is the actions of speaking with the eyes. Although the actors and actresses do not speak much in some scenes, I can know what they want us to see by looking their eyes. They are really talented.However, I noticed some movie mistakes such as the clothe designs and the cars on the road. It was around 1991 ,1992 when Chris's story took place,but the cars and the trucks on the road are modern. First, I was mistaken that these car brands available in 1991. Also, the clothes people in the movies wore do not look like the design of 1991 and 1992. Apart from those careless mistakes, the whole movie is so great and talentedly directed.
To sum up, I understand Chris more when I watched the movie. I first thought of him as foolish and selfish man because he cut all the attachment with his surrounding and just aiming for his desire,but finally I get to know what Chris actually wanted.

rethinking of Chris McCandless character .

After reading the whole story of "Into The Wild",my thoughts on Chris McCandless have changed. At first, I thought Chris is a bit foolish to make himself died in the wild,but , I admire him for his bravery to follow him dream without hesitation, his donation to OXFAM and trying to cut all the attachments such as contacts with family or money and car. Mostly, I admire him more than I think of him as a crazy person. His actions are very difficult for a normal person to do.

However, I found something that Chris is unexperienced about the nature of the wild,which somewhat affect him to get trouble and make him died at the end.When Chris hunted Moose and tried to preserve meat, I found that Chris became so annoyed and angry about doing that. In the book , we can see Chris told that trying to preserve meat was the greatest tragedy of his life. Also, I can understand his feeling when he was so weak because he was poisoned and asked for help. I can understand his family and people who know him well would feel really sorry for Chris death. I think people will usually act like that when they lose someone they love ,they treasure and someone who is so smart and great. However, I see that his family cannot understand Chris action about going into the wild, they see Chris as so brave to find what he wants and needs.I also see that sometimes, Chris act like a normal ,ordinary person like scared, feel lonely,and disappointed.

One thing I really like Chirs is his writing journals and sending cards. Had he had not written journals, we might not have chance to know what was actually happened in the wild, how did he feel over time.People could learn lessons and get the experiences about the wild from Chris journals. All in all, Chris is more idealist for me than the other people think of him as crazy or ignorant.