Blog Post #1

Elissa Forsyth

Blog Post #1
Part 1:

In this composition class, I have learned a multitude of things so far that have bettered my abilities as a writer. Among those things, I have learned how to create an academic summary, how to think critically, and how to look at text in various forms to get information about the writing.

Being able to summarize any written material given to you is an important skill. It allows you to pull out the purpose of the writing and concentrate the main ideas and important evidence of the writing into a shortened version. This will be useful as we move forward in this composition class because a summary not only shows that we thoroughly understand the text, but it also gives a quick overview of long texts so that we can quickly go over the purpose and main ideas without having to reread an otherwise lengthy piece of writing. Overall, being able to write summaries will be extremely useful not only for this class, but for any time reading has to be completed and you must pull out the important parts.

It is incredibly valuable to be able to think critically as a writer and person in society for many reasons. Thinking critically means to take in information, analyze it, ask questions about the subject, and come to conclusions based off of your new understanding. As a writer, it is important to think critically to share your well thought out perspective to provide readers with new information or new ideas to contribute to their understanding on the topic. As someone living in society, it is also important to think critically to recognize problems and find solutions. Critical thinkers in society can bring a positive change by not allowing problems to continue for an extended period of time. Thinking critically is important in the classroom and outside of it. Check out this link to see a website that is entirely devoted to the practice of thinking critically:  http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-critical-thinking/766.

Looking at text in different forms, whether it be in a newspaper, on social media, in a picture, or on a website, has allowed me to interpret signs. Knowing the genre of the text can help the reader understand the point of the text. For example, a message on social media may be less formal, more geared towards friends, and can hold more of a light-hearted message while text in a newspaper may have a more professional edge to it, sharing facts, and important headlines. Knowing the form of the text can help the reader analyze the intent of the message.

Creating summaries are an important part to being able to have a take-away from a reading. Critically thinking as a person in the world and as a writer allows you to see new problems or ideas and address them. Seeing the different forms of sharing text helps readers understand the point of the text. All three of these actions are necessary parts to being a conscious interpreter of information in the world and in class.

Part 2:

The article, “Senate Legislation Targets Aggressive Recruiting of Veterans by For-Profit Colleges”, was written by Chris Kirkham, an author for The Huffington Post. This article addresses the corruption of for-profit colleges, trying to pull in veterans to use their educational financial benefits from the government. This source of money is considered a private fund, not a source of federal aid, so these for-profit schools chase after this private money to reach their need for 10% of their income to be from a private source. In an effort to prevent the for-profit colleges from doing this, Sen. Richard Durbin is proposing to make the money for the veteran’s education to be considered public federal aid.