As a reader of culture, my eyes have been opened to the scary influences of class, gender, and race and along with the general priority of consumption in American society. Whenever I watch TV or go see a movie, I always smile to myself as I uncover the hidden messages everyone else subconsciously sucks in, but I learned not to actually say them out loud among people who have never heard of semiotics: they do not seem to appreciate the way I read culture at a deeper level. I have even stopped myself from feeling the desire to have every product I see a commercial of; my spending level has gone down since I learned semiotics. Because I lifeguard as a part-time job, writing about what I observed during my four hour shift of just watching people swim fit smoothly into my blogs. Among all the people I observed, I found children to be the easiest to analyze. Possessing only a few years of life under their belt, children have yet to master the art of knowing what is socially acceptable; therefore, their thoughts and feelings bluntly unfold to the public, making my job of reading culture much easier. Using semiotics has also given me a method to apply my studies of sociology and psychology outside the classroom, helping me better understand my majors. In the end, I may have lost the luxury of mindlessly watching TV and movies, but I honestly do not miss it. Reading culture made me transform from a student into an intellectual.
Not only has my understanding of American culture improved, but my writing skills have noticeably strengthened in style and organization. Before taking this class, my sentences did not flow together or transition well, and the sentence structure contained little variety. Now as I write, I use more active verbs and more interesting writing styles. As for my blog posts, I rewrote all of them and actually only kept one observation from the blog drafts; I simply had no idea what to do with my past analyses, I never experimented with links and pictures, and the details weakened the blogs to the point where I just had to start over. After redoing the posts, however, I found my sentences flow much more nicely, vivid details improve tremendously, my sources integrate smoother, and my overall analyses strengthen. The only observation I kept from the blog drafts, “See Ya: The Best Words to Describe How Badly I Just Kicked Your Ass” shows the improvement I have made in my writing the best. Before I redid this piece, its details and lack of content bored readers, and I never even answered the guiding question. However, after hours of gruesome editing, my blog, along with the other three, includes helpful links, a careful analysis of American culture, a stronger quote, and more striking detail. After weeks of extensively working on my writing skills, I improved my writing the most by just using active verbs; active verbs have become an easy fix to connect my sentences and use smoother transitions.
Girly Bunnies and Many Rabbits
See ya!: The Best Way to Describe How Badly I Just Kicked Your Ass
You Want Me to Play with Those MEXICANS?!
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