Magazine Reflection

When I became part of Randy's humanities class, I traveled with knowledge of Writing, Drafting & Revision, and Creativity & Originality. Through out the magazine, I showed the transition of my knowledge going through my work and become to present my own type of writing style.

In my magazine article, I learned to improve in writing by making sentences simpler, drafting & revision being really on target with minor mistakes like periods, numbers and percentages and lastly adding creativity & originality to my flow of writing like forming unique sense of explaining my message or using original messages to mural my story. These writing tools took time to adjust mind-state of information to improve upon my areas of weakness.

These traits are no longer explanatory advice that someone gives, it's more like a necessity you have to worry about as a writer. I receive the strategies to traits important because it makes you think about how important it is to be serious. I will always feel the knowledge I learn to be important because it is always going to appear back in the real-world. That's the way school and internship cope by because the education one learns at school regardless or not gets put into play so one can experience if that's a right start to a road of success.

Reflection pt.2

1. Overall, when you think about the big picture of your writing, what improved? How did it get better? Why?

My writing has put me through many paths. First of all, I feel that my intros, sentence structure, conclusions all improved. The first intro I had made a really weak appeal to my photo essay, but through many copy edits I improved with many taught strategies. My edit for my intro improved because the more I copy-edited, the concise it got. I started using better words like present tense and getting rid-off sledge hammer words and words that end with “ing”. I also just got straight to the point in order for my future audience to avoid being bored. My favorite writing strategy is “Simpler is Better”.

My sentence structure is my second improvement. I also feel great that I understood the writing format that article authors use like “the loop method”. I structured my intro and conclusion to establish a clear path for my reader to understand my photo essay story. I also collected the mind set to make my sentences short to let my clear ideas flow naturally.

My last improvement was towards my conclusion. My conclusion had a lot of scrambled Ideas in many sentences. I improved my conclusion through many copy-edits that dealt with stumbled paths to clear understanding. I improved my conclusion by adding a “wonder” line that makes people think about what I will do later on.

2. Overall, when you think about the big picture of your writing, what still needs work? What do you think will help you improve? Why?

My basic weakness in writing is establishing transition paragraphs. Transition paragraphs are paragraphs that give a reader an idea with what’s going to happen next. I realize that this weakness can become a strength with multiple drafts to establish a mind set. I believe, once I have this strength I feel that my writing will be enforced greater.

3. Specifically, show us something that improved and describe the path it took to get better. You can quote your article, your drafts, link to evidence, etc.

My first draft of my photo essay included my beginning sentence of my introduction as a starter for my reader to under stand at first. The beginning sentence of my 1st draft is "Stephen x. pineda, an average 16-year old high school who had his main focus on his hobby as well as in putting outstanding effort in school ever since 9th grade." While going through the process of copy editing my photo essay entirely has improved by the last draft. My current beginning sentence of my final draft is "Before Reality Changers, I used to spend my Tuesday and Thursday afternoons at soccer practice while finding the time to maintain an average GPA with a blurry path to college. With the evaluation of coming from a road of distracted ideas to following a clear ideal path. After the whole process I see a big change of re-wording and see many different structures that explain greatly.

4. Describe something specific (or a few things!) that you learned about writing.

My main idea that I learned in writing is not the complicated words you put in text to make it sound real good but the simple words you scramble with flow and the sentences that are dedicated to be better refined.

This is due at the end of the day on Wednesday 5/27!

Magazine Article Reflection

1. What went well for you during the process of creating this magazine?

I believe that the whole layout was great. I felt the magazine process wasn't bad idea to make as an end-of-the year project. I really felt that the process was really quick to do. The functions in laying-out the writing pieces were really simple. The only struggled I had couple of minor confusions of small functions.

2. What challenges did you face as you moved from an early draft or idea to a final product?

The challenges that I faced were many at 1st. I thought I knew what copy-editing was until randy helped me realize. Randy said that complexity isn't always the best way to go. When it came to the copy-editing process, it took me several drafts like about 6 in total. I felt that each draft improved my writing, beginning the complex text to simple flow text took very good improvements from all drafts. The other challenge I had was basically trying to come up with a title and also trying to maintain my photo essay neat with good choice of wording.

3. What other examples of work—student and professional—stood out as exemplary and served as a good model for your own work?

An example of work that stood by me was the art project that I made based on Huey P. Newton & Bob Marley. I've used the skill of forming my text paragraphs smaller and creating them flow better. I have never felt this better in my chapter of progress due to my writing enhancing with newer techniques that better my writing style. The artwork in the project above was excellent, but the paper gave it juice to my project by explaining the pride resemblance of both comrades.

OBAMA = SOCIALISM

Obama & Socialism

Google the phrase "Obama Socialism". What do you get? Try Google news... what did you find?

I found an article that explains that Obama made a confrontation towards Hugo Chavez and shook hands, and seemed really sudden that Obama just went hand on hand with Chavez after past arguments with Venezuela and arguments that weren't taken so calmly when Chavez insulted Bush (even though I dislike bush).

Do you feel that the label "socialism" is applied appropriately or correctly to Obama, his proposals or his policies?
I do strongly agree that Obama's character in labeling policies and exploiting ideas by speeches has got him into following the socialism path. I would have never thought that Obama would forfeit past arguments that caused many Americans to start changing a view on him. I know that Obama is trying to clear up certain stuff that happened back then, but lets not get all friendly to all countries because one never knows what kind of business other countries might put us in.

Do Obama's proposals or policies have historic precedents in America? If so, what happened in the past?

Well, Obama has taken the recent name of FDR by some similar situations that Obama has handled recently such as the stimulus bills and FDR's new deal. I'm guessing, Obama made his decisions by evaluating strategies from past presidents experiences. Obama's spoken word before he got elected, was similar to many presidents that tried to initiate a great start with some fables, but some serve great while other's almost destroyed the U.S. country. Obama still has time to change any confusions, and personally I think the decisions he makes are by rush of pressure from the economy. As Obama said once "That he would be happy to adopt ideas that work, whether they come from FDR or Reagan."

Stephen's Photo essay

Caption 1

“Unity”, that's the word I think about when I see this picture. The blue shirts that spell out “Reality Changers” are a form of commitment for every student that is wearing one because it shows that they are there to support the group. These students in return including me, wear the blue shirts at special events and community service. In which the organization has supported them through earning big amounts of scholarships for college to have same financial advantages. These individuals have been there since 6:30am united to show pride & support for Reality Changers to go on a journey of knowledge to UCSD's event “Comienza con un Sueño (3/7/09)” traveling on a forest-green bus provided by “Pt. Loma Nazarene University”. As the bus waits for Reality Changers, we hop on knowing we are in for great things at UCSD and feeling carefree as we transform into new people with a positive attitude while wearing that blue shirt and participating in the event, and volunteering.


Caption 2

As we arrive smoothly at UCSD for the event, we walked for a while until we came to the registration stands in order to be able to enter the event, and in my mind during that time I ran thoughts of “Impatience” to see what was happening. After we walked towards the UCSD Library to have a lunch of Rubios’ breakfast burritos at the event, we ate with wonder about what the event was going hold. As I turned towards the stage, I was amazed by these young girls wearing dresses with a spread of bright colors all over and dancing to “Ranchera” music. The first word I thought of was “Hispanic Culture” because those girls were up there performing their talent with pride and ignoring rude comments that were said out loud by individuals in the audience. The thing that caused the biggest impact on me was how a teenage girl in the audience realized the disrespect others were giving to performers on stage. The teenage girl said to herself; “These girls are really pretty performing and the audience is being selfish to their moment of shine, but I'll stay quiet because at least it'll be one less individual to the chaos.” I felt it was very rare for someone to have and say an epiphany out loud all of a sudden.



Caption 3

After seeing that, I thought back and realized that we people in the blue shirts have had many epiphanies during moments in the group and always become more responsible and aware for the actions we do and others actions as well. After the performance, our group leaders handed us optional essay assignments that UCSD decided to give out to the audience for a chance to win at $500 and also present their essay to UCSD's student body. We all had to fill out the background information that they asked on the sheet, so on our spare time we can get ahead to attempt the prompt. Even though, I knew the chances of me winning the grand dollar prize was 1 in 1000, I thought about the richer reward in that offer is earning high quality writing skills instead because I knew that any writing offer will improve my chances in life to high outcomes that one could never imagine.


Caption 4

Later that day, our group leaders handed out flyers to us that listed some free workshop presentations in the “Comienza Con un Sueño” event. As we walked as a group to the other side of the campus, we headed straight to the classroom where we were going to learn about “The Education Challenge for Young Chicano Men”. My first impression being inside the class was “school... school”, but soon after, the attention span in the room grew due to the instructor serious tone. My view of the connection she made upon the corruption of security forces and the life of an illegal immigrant and the risks they take every single day was sturdy. The knowledge that I gained throughout the first part of her discussion led me to feel serious and emotional for illegal immigrants. It is sad, because a citizen that has had the road paved for them by birth gets to live without worries most times and while the tables are turned for immigrants because they worry every single day that they will be caught by the ICE agents in a job/street raid. This attitude is unusual for me but situations like these open up my eyes, and make me realize on how good I have it.


Caption 5

Moments after recovering, my feelings changed from sadness to outrage while watching the slides the instructor showed of harmful threats to illegal immigrants and the overall the minority citizen society. These images caught my eye because instead of always seeing the security forces as protagonists, they showed that they have a dark side. A group of Lincoln High students that are part of M.E.C.H.A (an activist group for minority races such as African American & Hispanics against militant forces) captured footage of an ICE agent tackling an undocumented individual at 24th and “C” Street. The individual was waiting at a bus stop for work in order to make ends meet for his family, when a white van pulls up and Ice agents jump out of the van, and tackle the individual. The question in the bottom of the picture made a good case because I used to see militant forces as a good service for our country, but I didn't think about everyone when I say “Our Country” because I can think of it as my country, but not every one can call it home.


Caption 6

After coming from the first class of “The Educational Challenge for Young Chicano Men”, I found myself looking forward to going into another workshop presentation “Latino Youth: From Survival to Success” because of how interesting and life touching the first workshop was. As I walked in the class along with few other students from Reality Changers, we managed to get comfortable with the instructor after getting multiple laughs from his “George Lopez impersonation” which made the whole audience feel really welcomed. As the instructor did his presentation, he helped us find our self-esteem with the question of “How to be successful” and surpassing any limits when it comes to dreams. In the same way, he managed to remind me where my roots were and made me relate with my connection of using my Uncle's motto of “Difficulty is easy, but the impossible takes a little longer” as a big mote in my life. Lastly, I feel that without his personality and the life situations he explained, I wouldn't be able to relate to him on any common ground.


Caption 7

Lastly, arriving back from the event at UCSD on the Forest green bus provided by “Pt. Loma Nazarene University” to the Reality Changers building in City Heights, we sat down with everybody and had everyone share at least one interesting part of the event. In the Reality Changers organization there's more to it then only wearing a blue shirt, there's bonding involved and truly a second family for me because these are people that are always going to stand up for you through thick and thin. One great cause is that we are a second family for others because we will support a member's and other families by setting up events and taking leadership and placing it before our names. As the day ended, we waited for everyone's ride to arrive because of our loyalty for each other. As we move forward, we manage to show how us members from Reality Changers come from different backgrounds, yet use all lend a hand back to the community, that also gave us a chance of succeeding higher level education, and in our career paths.

Magazine

Every student will contribute at least one polished, high quality piece of writing. This could be an article, interview, photo essay, or editorials, personal narratives, reflections, or more.

1. What article(s) would you like to write for the magazine? What photography could you contribute? Art? List three different ideas for your major contribution.

Well, I would to add my photo essay because I feel throughout this semester, my writing has gotten more in-depth and I feel my language has learn to chose better words when it comes into explaining with detail. My Photo essay really brings out the best in my work in order for someone like teachers because they can be able to analyze my growth between many scenarios in how I got up to my success point.

2. Suggest at least one (or more) possible title for the magazine. This could be a title with or without a subtitle. For example, I work for UnBoxed: a Journal of Adult Learning in Schools.

On The Set: a Journal of Class of 2010 Accomplishments

3. Suggest a topic for an article that you were personally like to read in a magazine inspired by the internship semester.

I would like to read about the "Contribution section of the internships sites" and how good the sites benefited from those possible ideas. I find it really interesting because you never when a possibility can be great for big corporations or organizations.

Monday's warm-up questions #1

What did you learn during immersion? How did you learn it?

Well, I improved on my understanding of flexibility from experience at my workplace of REALITY CHANGERS. Reality changers is a non-profit organization that focuses with disadvantaged individuals with a chance to provide scholarships for students to become 1st generation college students. What I learned during immersion that the daily routine scheduled that I encountered during Tuesday/Thursday were very different than 2 weeks of full on observation. The way for my mentor to adjust to that type of form of routine schedule is really stressful because she says that each week is based on working on a certain theme. The way I understood this work concept because it is similar to projects for each class, and my mindset has allowed me to format myself to adjust to the strategies at school with many dealines. I encountered the knowledge of recognition with establishing many relationships with big foundations to lend a hand to a dream I will like to make noticeable and become huge. Since my immersion internship focused on blasting itself to the public with recognition to great outcomes for the public.

What I hope to use in the future will be my motivation to this slogan such as "It's not the product you sell, but how you sizzle the product for the public"

- BUSINESS MAN S.X.P.