Category: José

This has been an extremely productive, yet an overwhelming month indeed. During my busy class schedule, I have the opportunity to read, research, and edit many  articles for several classes – which reminds me that I have to upload this  course´s video onto moodle. Things, however, do not always have an easy flow and  many times I end up torturing myself over completing major workloads in time to  meet deadlines. For instance, two weeks ago went to Stockton (a medium size city  in northern California), to see my family and friends. Upon arriving I realized  that I had way too many homework assignments and deadlines coming up; the very  next morning I decided to return to Monterey in order to gather my materials and  finish some work. I arrived to Monterey around 3pm and right way started working on my many assignments. I really got into the tasks at hand; to the point that I  didn’t even noticed I had worked throughout the entire afternoon. At 11:00 pm I  decided to take a break and soon after regained my concentration on the readings  and many editing I had been doing. In short, I continued working until 6:30 am  and by then I had accomplished many assignments. Although I had a very bad head  ache for the rest of that day (given the lack of sleep), I felt relaxed and  ready to tackles some more work. Flash forward to this week and in the process I  have gotten up to date on my school work. For the purpose of this class –  Alicia, Hanadi, and I – have gotten together on various occasions and worked on  the video project. I must admit that although it has been a demanding and  somewhat slow process for getting this project ready, I have enjoyed working  with them.

This has been an extremely productive, yet an overwhelming month indeed. During my busy class schedule, I have the opportunity to read, research, and edit many articles for several classes – which reminds me that I have to upload this course´s video onto moodle. Things, however, do not always have an easy flow and many times I end up torturing myself over completing major workloads in time to meet deadlines. For instance, two weeks ago went to Stockton (a medium size city in northern California), to see my family and friends. Upon arriving I realized that I had way too many homework assignments and deadlines coming up; the very next morning I decided to return to Monterey in order to gather my materials and finish some work. I arrived to Monterey around 3pm and right way started working on my many assignments. I really got into the tasks at hand; to the point that I didn’t even noticed I had worked throughout the entire afternoon. At 11:00 pm I decided to take a break and soon after regained my concentration on the readings and many editing I had been doing. In short, I continued working until 6:30 am and by then I had accomplished many assignments. Although I had a very bad head ache for the rest of that day (given the lack of sleep), I felt relaxed and ready to tackles some more work. Flash forward to this week and in the process I have gotten up to date on my school work. For the purpose of this class – Alicia, Hanadi, and I – have gotten together on various occasions and worked on the video project. I must admit that although it has been a demanding and somewhat slow process for getting this project ready, I have enjoyed working with them.

After making it clear that I am not perfect when it comes to writing or speaking I would like to share some if the most obvious pet peeves I encounter when walking down the street. There are two forms of observing the incorrect usage of the English language either by listening to people talk or by reading. I have, in many occasions, heard people use two negatives in one sentence; there have also been times when I´ve heard people use double past tense in one sentence. Finally, there is the simple wrong usage of words in past tense. I would like to provide an example to explain every one of these common but unexcusable mistakes.

Example no. 1

“I don´t have no money to give you.” The correct sentence should only have one negative. “I don´t have any money…” or “I have no money…”

Example no. 2

“Things became complicated so I didn´t went to the doctor.” The correct sentence should only have one past tense. “Things became complicated so I didn´t go to the doctor.”

Example no. 3

“While walking barefooted in my living room I stubbed my toe on the side table, man that hurted!” The word hurt in past tense is “hurt”!

I understand that we are all humans and we all make mistakes but like I said before, some mistakes are unjustifiable.

After meeting and dividing different tasks amongst each other for the purpose of the EAPP Project, the questions that will be part of the quiz have been created. The questions are very well structured and will challenge the student to reflect on what he/she was supposed to learn and how well the student really learned. The quiz is a Google document format which is simple, concise, and effective for the purpose of this project. The power point presentation (PPT) is in its finally stages of being completed and ready to teach. The compiled information in the power point presentation points out the problems that run-on sentences create; in particular the problems that are found in fused and comma splice sentences. In reference to the video interviews, specific dates have been set with interviewees to work on the set examples and provide supporting evidence for why the examples may or may not be correct. Although Hanadi, Alicia and I are working together in the whole process of the project, we have individual tasks and provide feedback to one another. All in all, our group is having fun with this project and hopes to achieve fruitful results.

The chapter explains which four error are the most important to find and fix throughout all readings. It targets fragments, run-ons, subject-verb problems, and verb form and tense. It provides the reader practice examples with basic elements of errors in sentences. Grammar terms, in this chapter, are kept to a minimum. A basic sentence must have three elements; a verb, a subject, and a complete thought. Within each sentence there are main verbs, linking verbs, and action verbs. The linking verbs connect the verb to another word that describes the subject. The action verbs tell what the subject performs. Furthermore, there are helping verbs that join the main verb to form a complete new verb. Fixing a fragment is very necessary and helpful when writing complete ideas. A fragment is a set of words that looks like a sentence but is missing the three key elements that forms a complete sentence. There are five trouble spots that show signals of sentence fragments. The trouble spots are groups of words that start with a preposition, a dependent word, an –ing verb form, to and a verb, and an example mentioned in a previous sentence.  The chapter explains run-ons as two complete sentences that are joined incorrectly and written as one sentence. Run-on sentences can be either fused or comma splice sentences. A fused sentence is two complete ideas joined without any punctuation. A comma splice is two complete sentences joined by a comma. The comma splice can produce two separate sentences or one double clause sentences by using a semi colon. A third way to fix a run-on sentence is by adding a comma and a coordinating word like and, but, or, so, etc. Properly writing simple or complex sentences is crucial surely gives credibility to writers who use correct grammar.

Origianl Summary:

What is Culture?

Culture is the way that human beings learn to live with one another and their environment.

• Culture is learnt and human beings are flexible enough to learn vastly different ways of living.
• It gives meaning to practices and institutions.

Culture addresses the fundamental issues of family, power and death.

It is distinguished from human nature on one hand and personality on the other.

• Culture is cultivated; it is based on a set of behaviors, attitudes and ideas that human beings learn while living together.
• Personality consists of the traits that are unique to an individual human being. It is partly genetic and partly learnt –because much of the personality is acquired, it is influenced by culture.

A culture can also be distinguished from an ethnic group.

• Ethnic groups form when large numbers of people immigrate, or when a state expands its control to lands occupied by exotic cultures.
• A subcultureis a group that differs in some cultural respects from the larger society. However, a subculture may be identified with no particular national heritage
  • An ethnic group may be scarcely distinguishable culturally from the mainstream of the population.
  • Ethnic groups may try to emphasize their difference and even fabricate ethnic traditions to foster a sense of solidarity away from the mainstream culture (this is a form of revitalization).

The traits in the different races turn to explain cultural differences in wealth, literacy, social organization and level of development making this a racial determinism.

Reduced Summaries

What is Culture?

Rrefers to the way that human beings learn to live with one another and their environment.

• Human beings are flexible enough to learn different ways of living.
• Gives meaning to practices and institutions.

Culture addresses the fundamental issues of family, power and death.

Distinguishes human nature on one hand and personality on the other.

• Cultivated culture; bases on a set of behaviors, attitudes and ideas that human beings learn while living together.
• Personality consists of unique traits to an individual; partly genetic and partly learned because much of the personality: acquired and influenced. (100)

What is Culture?

Rrefers to the way humans learn to live with each other and their environment.

It addresses issues: family, power and death.

It distinguishes human nature and personality based on a set of behaviors, attitudes and ideas that humans learn together. Personality consists of unique traits. (48)

Culture refers to the way humans learn to live with each other; by distinguishing human nature and personality based on behaviors, attitudes and ideas. (24)

My writing process is really not a practical one. I tend to think a lot, for many days, about the topic at hand and mentally start gathering main points that I will address in the paper. I usually research online for articles that support my ideas and also look for alternative points that may counter my arguments. Every time, I think back to my middle school years when my teachers would explain how the introduction to a paper needs to have all the points that will be discussed throughout the paper. At that time I start writing about the main points without much thought to the structure of the paper. I do this to have all my points down and later go back and develop them into paragraphs or even pages filled with facts, comments and details about what I´m trying to get across. Outlining my entire paper has never worked for me since many times I decide to alter the main discussion points for my paper.

One important thing about my writing process is that I cannot write in parts. I have to sit and fully write the paper otherwise, many of my ideas and points are rapidly gone. I have the bad habit of writing supporting sentences or facts to strengthen a main topic of the paper but when I reach the main topic I forget what I want to say so I have to reread everything in order to recapture the idea. Another bad habit but that works for me, is pressure. When I have a deadline close, I concentrate more on the paper and tend to get things done faster. A perfect example happened last semester. I had gotten to class and became aware that the midterm due date had been moved to that same day and had not been informed.  Like I had mention at the begging of this post, I think about the topic for many days so on this occasion I pretty much knew what I wanted to write and thankfully I was able to answer the midterm question in less than three hours and wrote a total of nine pages.

When I write, I see it more like an experiment because I start with a hypothesis and sometimes the points that are made throughout the paper do not support my thesis. For that same reason, I leave my introduction and conclusion to the end. That way I can rephrase my introduction to make it coherent with the entire paper. Myconclusions tend to be strong since by the time I finish writing, I´m so pumped that I recapitulate everything with more enthusiasm and even enjoy twisting some of the final thoughts to leave the readers questioning more about the topic.

Original Paragraph:

The film starts with a grown man in El Salvador heading toward the US in an attempt to evade his forceful participation in the civil war. The social identity theory is broken at this moment as far as the Salvadorian society is concerned. As stated in the film, “Those who leave, leave as weepers and those who stay, FIGHT”. He left his wife, daughter and two sons behind. The eldest boy, an 11 year old, is left as the “man of the house” with all the responsibilities of a grown man. He feels proud of being the man of the house although he also fears the pass of time because at the age of 12, all male children were to join the military to help fight in the war. Here, we can see the cultural and social violence from both the father and the government. Even though the young boy is proud of his responsibility, he is deprived from being a child and having someone to take care of him. In regards to the government, it is more like cognitive dissonance since although it is wrong, not one person goes against it. Rather, they sit, wait and accept the cruel situation.

Revised Paragraph:

The film starts with a grown man in El Salvador heading toward the US in an attempt to evade his forceful participation in the civil war. The social identity theory is broken at this moment as far as the Salvadorian society is concerned. As stated in the film, “Those who leave, leave as weepers and those who stay, FIGHT”. He left his wife, daughter and two sons behind. The eldest boy, an 11 year old, is left as the “man of the house” with all the responsibilities of a grown man. He feels proud of being the man of the house although he also fears the pass of time because at the age of 12, all male children were to join the military to help fight in the war. Here, we can see the cultural and social violence from both the father and the government. Even though the young boy is proud of his responsibility, he is deprived from being a child and having someone to take care of him. In regards to the government, it is more like cognitive dissonance since although it is wrong, not one person goes against it. Rather, they sit, wait and accept the cruel situation.

1. Climate Change and Food Security in Peru

In 2008, on the World Food Day (October 16th), the Peruvian Government issued the Declaracion de Lima (Declaration of Lima) which points out “the urgency to implement mechanisms to facilitate the social and economic development of the country guaranteeing the future of food in a framework of equity and fight against poverty, although considering the sustainable use of natural resources, the adaptation to climate change and the protection of the national ecosystems” (Agrobolet’n, 2008). However, even when this declaration is full of good intentions –as all of them are, it does not necessarily reflect the current policies and actions taken in Peru.

2. Although the idea is there, I struggled to see the point after one reading. The sentences is too long and has many unneccessary phrase conjunctions, making the sentence difficult to understand.

3. Media affects Spanish Speaking Audience in California

Throughout the United States, a huge percentage of the population is of Latin origin. The media for the Spanish speaking is of great importance and it also impacts the Hispanic population as a whole. In general, the media is not only a source to having news reports but is also a source of language comprehension and should also be a source for the correct use of the language. To this extent, the Spanish media is no exception; it reports news that has occurred throughout the country and even internationally but the transfer of the correct use of language appears to be lacking.

Having have lived in the United States, many Spanish speaking people are facing challenges with the correct use of the language. A large part of the problem is due to the insufficient amount of formal education they had when living in the native countries but another part of the issue is due to the incorrect usage of the Spanish language by the media.

4. This is part of a news article that targets the Spanish speaking population in California and the nation. There are many bilingual hispanics in California who are not necessarily obtaining the correct usage of the Spanish language and that only decreases the level and importance of the correct usage of the language. I am uncertain if there is cohesion and coherence within these paragraphs; or if it´s simple and specific enough for the readers to grasp main point.

This is an introduction of a paper written when comparing cultures and conflicts in different societies.

Upon discussing some conflicts that the world population has, I came across a person
who, like me, has dealt with many difficulties when attempting to escalate in society
due to many obstacles. My interviewee and I both concurred on having had some
type of discrimination and deprivation because of our resistance to “social
norm” and to having a satisfactory outcome after confronting our respective
conflicted situation. Of course, both of our conflicts are different but at the
same time, the conflict becomes identical due to its developmental growth and
the similarities; in this paper I will present the tie between both conflicts.

– Cobian, Jose