Blog review Life Hacker

I liked this blog for the information that it provides and how to apply it to your everyday life.  Lots of interesting tips on how to keep your motivation to reach your goals, whether it be finances and how to be frugal, learning to eat healthy and meal planning, exercise and how to keep your mind set no matter what obstacles get in your way.


- Blogs that relate to everyday life.
  Recurring Themes 8
- Good amount of resources to do more research
  Multi-media 7
- Very informational and easy to understand. Not many visuals.
  Good writing 6
- Post are a few times a day, so doesn't take to much time to read through.
  Frequency 8
- Different authors to look through to get a variety of opinions.
  Author voice 7
- I would like to see more visuals and more creativity but not to busy.
  Creativity 6
Elizabeth Victorio

Photo from http://jabiljoules.com google images



Blog Review (Group) and Personal (Clayton Peppler)

We chose to review the blog mentalfloss.com. With a scale of 1-10, we would rate this blog an 8. We really enjoyed how easy it was to navigate the website, the content of the blog, the presentation and the wide array of interactive material.

The navigation of the blog was not only simplistic but intuitive. We really liked how it had a site map with all the main categories listed. We also liked that if you could not find what you were looking on the site map, there was a search box.

The content of the blog was very interesting and applicable to everyday life. The content varies from movies to money to interesting new technology. The presentation was “calendar” style and was executed extremely well. Each square had a short synopsis of the topic and if you like what you read you could click the square and it would link you to the full article. This style created an organized and clutter free blog. Each post had at least one image and each image was relevant to the topic.

Our favorite part of the blog was probably that it was more than just written posts. The blog incorporated things such as videos, quizzes and an “amazing fact generator”. We felt that these added extras made the blog more desirable than the others and more likely to keep us returning for more.

One thing that we would change about the blog to give it that 10/10 rating would be to reduce the amount of advertisements. We also think that the frequency of the posts could be reduced as it seems that they were posting four or more times a day. We feel that posting this many times a day makes the blog too busy.

Mentalfloss.com (Clayton Peppler)

Out of 10, I would rate this blog an 8 based on the following criteria:

Recurring Themes: 10

-       The blog has different categories that they post to each week, creating reoccurring themes.

Author Voice: 8

-       Because there are many different authors, you get a sense of different voices and perspectives which really livens up the blog. Some authors work is more enjoyable to read than others.

Multimedia: 10

-       There is always an image or a video in the blog post and that image/video always pertains to the content of the post itself.

“Good” Writing: 9

-       When looking through a couple of the posts, the errors seemed to be nonexistent.

Frequency: 7

-       This blogs posts four or more times a day. I find this to be excessive and creates too busy of a blog.

Credibility: 10

-       All of the work that is taken from other sources is cited.

Organization: 10

-       I really like the calendar style that this blog follows. I found that this style creates a flowing, organized and clutter free blog.

Use of Advertisements: 5

-       I really do not like how many advertisements are on the blog. On a couple of the posts an ad would pop up right in the middle of the reading.

-Clayton Peppler, Emily LeMasters and Elizabeth Victorio

Photo From: http://www.otoons.com/eso/floss.htm#sthash.z8RBBRFV.dpbs

Chapter 3 & 14

Chapter 3

Personal Reaction: I found chapter three to be very straightforward with topic and ideas that I have been exposed to time and time again. One thing that was new to me was the breakdown of the critical thinking process. I found the table on the very first page to be very useful and helpful in explaining the process. I also really like the table on the fourth page that applied it to the real world.

Professional Reaction: Chapter three is centered around the critical thinking process. Critical thinking can be split up into three sub-categories: analysis, synthesis and evaluation. Analysis is the breaking elements into different parts based on a principle, synthesis is the combining of these parts to form a new whole and evaluation is the judging of the whole according to standards or criteria. To support you critical thinking, you must have many different types of evidence. There are four main types of evidence: facts, statistics, expert testimony and firsthand observations. When you are gathering your evidence, there are a few things to keep in mind: is the information accurate, reliable, up-to-date, to the point, representative, appropriately complex and sufficiently strong enough to support your claim? If you can answer yes to most of these questions, the evidence is suitable to be put into your writing. In addition to finding suitable evidence, make sure that that evidence appeals to your audience. Find evidence that is logical (logos), emotional (pathos) and ethical (ethos). Gathering your evidence is half the battle of critical thinking, the other half is presenting your critical thinking in an effective manner. The first thing to think about is whether you are going to present your information with a deductive or inductive approach. Next you must build your sequences and scaffolds. Lastly, you must present your information in a logical pattern. The four main logical patterns include: structuring your essay from your least persuasive to most persuasive point (visa versa), using compare and contrast or cause and effect.

Chapter 14

Personal Reaction: Chapter fourteen introduces topics that I have had little exposure to. I think that in my tenth grade English class we spent a week learning about this concept of visualizations and how to get the most out of the image in front of you, but not nearly as in depth as the book goes into. I enjoyed reading the chapter and found the content to be very interesting.

Professional Reaction: Chapter fourteen is all about responding to visual representations. There are three levels to responding to visual representations. The first level is “seeing the big picture”. This level is made up of five components: source, purpose, audience, prominent element and focal point. When you think of source, purpose and audience, think of these three questions: what is the context of the image, what is the purpose of the image and what audience does the image aim to attract? The prominent element in an image is the object, person, background or writing that is the main composition of the image. The focal point of the image brings the readers eye to that area purposely designated by the author. The next level is “observing the characteristics of an image”. This level is made up of objects, figures, action, background, selection of elements, relationship of elements, use of space, composition decisions, function decisions and typeface options. By examining the different components of this level, the reader will be able to gain a sense of the cast of characters, the story of the image, the design and arrangement of the image and the different artistic choices that the author chose to incorporate into their image. The last level is “interpreting the meaning of the image”.  In order to get the purpose of an image, a reader must take into account these five components: general feeling or mood, sociological, political, economic or cultural attitudes, language, signs and symbols and last but not least themes.

-Clayton Peppler

Photo from: http://www.123rf.com/photo_10012014_background-concept-wordcloud-illustration-of-critical-thinking-strategy.html

Chapter 1 & 2 Review

Personal Reaction: The main component that stuck out to us in chapter one was the different characteristics and expectations that are expected to effectively reach your target audience. In Chapter two we found the reading for a purpose portion to be very important. Collectively, our group often reads just to read, but having different strategies from the "preparing to read" paragraph will help us comprehend the reading the first time so we don't have to re-read the information over and over. We learned different techniques regarding reading, but for the most part, we were familiar with the content. There was nothing in this reading that angered us, but we all agreed that we wish we knew the tactics expressed in high school. 

Professional Reaction: In The Bedford Guide for College Writers, the first and second chapter introduce concepts regarding the writing process and the reading process. For the writing process, it explains three critical steps in creating an effective paper. The three steps expressed are Planning, Drafting, and Developing. After completing these steps, one must continue on to the Revising and Editing portion of the writing process. Even though the two may seem similar, there are many differences between revising and editing. Revising consists of reviewing the purpose, structure, audience, thesis, support, and the language. While the editing component explores word choice, punctuation, grammar, mechanics, and the format of the paper. After both revising and editing are complete, you must proofread the paper. Proofreading consists of finding spelling errors, incorrect words, minor details, minor errors, and missing words.Within these processes, one must also take into context the way they're presenting their information in regards to the purpose of the end paper, along with the audience they're targeting. There are four different audience characterizations: the general audience, the college instructor, the work supervisor, and a campus friend. Each audience has a unique tone, format, language, style, and amount of detail. The second chapter explains the reading process for college writers. In order to be a critical reader, one must prepare, respond as they read, and read on an analytical and literal level. To prepare, first identify the purpose, gain background information, skim the text, and plan a follow up. To respond, the reader must read deeply, annotate, and keep a journal. An analytical reader evaluates, synthesizes, and analyzes the information, while a literal reader applies, comprehends, and recalls the information they’ve read. A exceptional reader is able to incorporate both of these concepts into their everyday reads. 

Photo from: http://jkullrich.com/2015/02/05/bleeding-pages-the-strange-dichotomy-of-revision/

Emily LeMasters, Clayton Peppler and Elizabeth Victorio