Dear Ms.

Hoffman, I want to start out by saying the way you have set this class up is a great way of communicating to us students. We have covered a diverse amount of information. It was possible by you allowing us to choose our personal interest along with assigning us topics. A couple that stood out to me would be the fisherman vs. businessman activity, the non-alcoholic beer. And the letter about us, I chose these particular activities for particular reasons. The fisherman story was a great message for me as a businessman of not limiting myself. The activity indirectly showed me that I need to use my blessings to provide for my family. The activity with the non-alcoholic beer was interesting, because people have had issues with having healthy water in America, but we can encourage non-alcoholic beverages that in my eyes are pointless. It isnt targeting drinkers, nor is it helping ones in need of quenching their thirst. However, individuals dont get healthy beverages necessary for survival. Last but not least, the letter about ourselves. This activity allowed us to voice who we were and what we expect to accomplish. This showed that even though this school is considered to be a business, you the instructor was still concerned or curious so to speak about each of us individually. IN- CLASS Next, moving more into the group work we did. I have been in multiple groups my first one completing an assignment was with the non-alcoholic beer exercise. I contributed by drawing the information we read about and explaining my reasoning behind the drawing, also what question we had after the reading summed up into a picture. I remember, I drew a picture of West Virginia to explain how they are in need of water but non-alcoholic beverages are being made. The other picture was the example of the beer that contains no alcohol. I feel in group meetings along with group/class discussion I contribute by simply explaining my findings our being the speaker of the group conversions.

1. Asking and answering questions are a great starting place for our group. You cant direct your story with main points, if you dont develop clear and precise questions. So while creating questions we indirectly unclutter our minds and begin to think of logical points. Those points should make our audience a little more interested. Good questions result in the best stories! So creating these questions are a great way to pre-write. Meaning, if we didnt do this, we would find ourselves rambling with no organization. This writing activity was designed for us to answer why we make questions before we begin writing a paper. Also the pros we encounter while creating questions. Meaning how the designing of questions help us develop more concise, yet, interesting articles or documents.

2. Listen to NPR on Friends It is unique that diverse people become friends in Manhattan in China life is a lot different and to see the 6 individuals come together with their personal issues. Find companionship with each other despite their struggles. o In America it isnt much different look at UNC Charlotte. Different apartments include unknown roommates. However people seem to make good friends with some of their roommates. o My values differ from the show because I feel it is weird for people to just flip and mix and match who they have a thing for. Especially when they all are close, however, it is very much like the real world. o China students think its different to see someone different from them but still work together to help overcome challenges. This activity was made for us to explain our views on foreign countries using the televised series Friends to learn how to communicate with, understand and meet people in America. Even though I didnt agree with some aspects of the show. After discussing our opinions as a group, I got more of an understanding of why Friends out of all televised series was mostly liked by individuals abroad.

3. Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Will Smith, the main character as himself. Moves from the place he is from to his Uncle Banks house. Uncle Banks is more on the rich and classy character who is a perfectionist and wants control. The living conditions are different and he is looked upon as the problem child because the rest of the family has all been raised in this upscale, more uniformed atmosphere. Will Smith is the funny, carefree and up tempo character, but also the big brother, for lack of a better word to his younger family members. Carlton Banks wants to be cool but doesnt know how, because he was restricted by Uncle Banks. The younger family members all have their own issues but they all stick together after the issues and problems they encounter. Today young people do a lot of what is shown on this shown on the television show. On top of that it is realistically funny. This assignment was the first one we did of its kinds. As a class we all called out ideas of interest that we could explain by developing questions/answers of what the television series was about. We then broke up into groups which were based on

which topics had most interest. We thought of questions people would be curious of before/while/after watching

From there we developed a summary that would give the viewer a full understanding of the show.

After doing these exercises it helped me develop an idea of what steps to take when considering a topic for my research paper. The way we chose a topic, created questions that the common reader would want to know, touch those points, and improve a vibrant and brief document that would communicate the information well. I do 90% of my work on my laptop: 1. its quicker for me 2. Because I can search online for questions I didnt understand during class 3. I can upload all my work fairly quickly.

OUT OF CLASS I would grade my work during the first half of class to be considered average, because there were a couple of assignments that I didnt fully examine the assignment, resulting in me submitting the incorrect work and receiving 65% on an assignment. After receiving the grade, I began to participate more in class. Also I began to work with my classmates a little more to show that I do understand the covered material. Listed in red I have 3 assignments I submitted to support my opinion of the level of investment I have given to be successful in this class. 1. National parks today o As a young individual I have never been to a national park but occasionally me and friends get together and play pick-up football and basketball games

at Wingate Park. Moreover, we have cookouts during the warmer months of the year. I havent been to a national park because it doesnt have many things to offer the younger crowd. As a younger individual I only went to the local park because of a specific event me along with friends agreed on hosting, the park was only an option due to convenience and open vacancy for the amount of people that we projected to attend. I dont think the younger crowd has as much of an interest in going to a national park because it isnt what our generation considers fun. We consider movies, bowling, dates, sports, etc. to be considered fun. In other words older people recognize how precious life is as a younger person takes it for granted. o This is an assignment I submitted and looking back on it, I feel I did a pretty good job thinking about the question and precisely communicating my view of the impact it has on our youth. However, now post-library visit I feel my word choice used to explain my view should have been better.

2. TO: Ms. Hoffman FROM: DeAndre Collins DATE: 02/19/2014 RE: Pre-library visit memo Implications of paying college athletes in the U.S

Citation in MLA Humphreys, Brad R, and Dennis R. Howard. The Business of Sports. Westport, Conn: Praeger, 2008. Print. Collegiate sports, Paying college athletes to play sports, life of a college athlete, income of college athletes in comparison to professional or semi-professional athletes, studentathletes, responsibility of an athlete, Life of an athlete, Sports business, Sports management. The book I read had a section in it that describes how European managers feel teams should operate. They feel their position as athletes should be financed in a way where they can live comfortably. They feel if they take care of basic necessities their players can focus on their game. As for the U.S they feel just pay them based off of their personal talents. This is relevant to my topic because it explains a different perspective than how the U.S funds athletes, college athletes at that. I feel this bit of information backs my point of view of there being implications of paying college athletes in the U.S. Also if my topic is specified by saying America isnt paying for college an athlete that not only takes on responsibility of being an outstanding athlete. More than less, the athlete has to remain in good standing with their college or university. However, only some get scholarships for college. That doesnt compensate the stuff they have to take care of outside of college athletics. I feel this source could have been a little more helpful but after tweaking my topic a bit I was able to use some of the information I gathered.

Ok, its completely sold that I rather do something on collegiate sports. However, I dont know if I should simplify my topic to one particular sport. I just really need help trying to discover a good starting place. o This assignment was horrible in my eyes. I thought it would be a great idea, until I started to fully examine my topic. While doing so, I began to notice that I am definitely too biased to neutrally explain this topic. Football is almost life for me. So for me to do my project on it. I would be crazy to think I could remain on the fence with this particular topic.

3. TO: Ms. Hoffman FROM: DeAndre Collins DATE: 02/19/2014 RE: Post-library visit memo

Implications of paying college athletes in the U.S Citation in MLA Humphreys, Brad R, and Dennis R. Howard. The Business of Sports. Westport, Conn: Praeger, 2008. Print. Collegiate sports, Paying college athletes to play sports, life of a college athlete, income of college athletes in comparison to professional or semi-professional athletes, student-athletes, responsibility of an athlete, Life of an athlete, Sports business, Sports management. The book I read had a section in it that describes how European managers feel teams should operate. They feel their position as athletes should be financed in a way where they can live comfortably. They feel if they take care of basic necessities their players

can focus on their game. As for the U.S they feel just pay them based off of their personal talents. This is relevant to my topic because it explains a different perspective than how the U.S funds athletes, college athletes at that. I feel this bit of information backs my point of view of there being implications of paying college athletes in the U.S.

Also if my topic is specified by saying America isnt paying for college an athlete that not only takes on responsibility of being an outstanding athlete. More than less, the athlete has to remain in good standing with their college or university. However, only some get scholarships for college. That doesnt compensate the stuff they have to take care of outside of college athletics. I feel this source could have been a little more helpful but after tweaking my topic a bit I was able to use some of the information I gathered. Ok, its completely sold that I rather do something on collegiate sports. However, I dont know if I should simplify my topic to one particular sport. I just really need help trying to discover a good starting place.

o Even though I dedicated a lot of my time to developing a starting place for this topic. I came to realization after the library visit. That it isnt the best topic to choose. After the library visit, I noticed the visit not only showed me how to search and find good information on whatever my new topic would be. It showed me how to format, and organize my search phrases and keywords to simplify my search while exploring my new topic.

The time was good, however I had to rethink my topic multiple times before coming up with the perfect idea. After the allowed time you gave us in class I noticed the topic I was interested in doing wasnt a good topic. My topic was Implications of paying college athletes. I was finding out that I was biased because I am planning on walking on for football. I also disagree with the idea of NOT paying college football players. So, I decided to do my project on the pledging of Greek members and what good it brings to our societies youth. I am learning that in order to have a great research topic you must one be neutral to the idea. It must be interesting, which can be determined by how many questions can be asked/answered before the writing begins. Last but not least, the speaker or writer (in this case) should be able to talk about the topic roughly for 5 minutes before repeating anything to prove ones knowledge. I learned all of that through this process of choosing my research topic. My last research paper was on legalizing marijuana, and the impact it would have with the government. In that paper I discussed my topic using the point-by-point method. In this paper, I plan to confer the examination of Greek pledging and how it positively impacts college students. However, using this particular method, I understand the risk of being neutral and not coming off as if I have crossed (or been pledged into a collegiate fraternity). Also, staying too general that I dont explain the topic thoroughly. I think by being able to ask questions about a topic, and or determine what is important or irrelevant in someones topic helps us. Meaning, we can indirectly learn to differentiate nonsense from important information. I feel that since we were able to choose our topic and it wasnt prompted we can have more interest in our topic. Encouraging us to be able t o look

deeper into our topic. By the end of this assignment, we should be able to communicate any message clearly and precisely. I have always been told whatever type of paper is assigned; you should state at least 3

points in a thesis statement. Is that necessary in research papers? How does the professional writers incorporate so many other ideas to support their

points without being lenient towards one particular side of the topic? Were these assignments all preparing us for our on information document we are

writing now? Because even some of the articles such as the fisherman story was basically explaining give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach him to fish and he feeds more than himself and profits off of it. From here on out I will have to direct my focus to the class rather than texting and checking emails during class. I feel if I did this, I would be more in tuned with my writing skills. I feel even though I participate, I wasnt showing my abilities of being a master student in this En glish class.