Project 1 Reflection: underestimated

Writing this essay wasn't as easy as I expected it would be. I expected a quick observation where some obvious overall meaning of the SRC would arise. I did well with having proper length as well as observing the appearance of people, especially females, in the SRC and how people there observed each other. Also, I observed that what other people noticed about each other had an influence in the values of the SRC itself. The people in the SRC were very observant, usually, about other people’s appearance, which made appearance highly valued at the SRC. I struggled with having a variety of backup from the lenses. I struggled with my use of rhetorical questions; I had far too many. I didn’t have enough evidence to back up the points I was trying to convey because I didn’t take detailed enough observations. I focused too much on the possibilities of what could be going on or what people could be thinking, rather than what was actually going on. I relied too much on questions of analysis. I struggled with relating the lens I used in more than one way; once I found a way that was easy to relate my paper with, I kept using that one without much variety. I learned that there is a lot more to a place than you'd think and that paying attention to the things around you is mind-opening. I learned that taking incredibly detailed observation notes helps a lot when actually writing the essay. I learned that an analysis is all about the “why” of things, but instead of asking the “why” in the essay, explain it, prove that the answer you came up with is true. I learned that a place goes far beyond just a location and that it has meaning and values. I will alter my writing process by taking better notes and concentrating more on the lens. In order to focus more on the lens I will reread it throughout writing the paper and possibly take notes on how many points I can use from it so it is easier to apply them. I will also focus more on the arguments and have better evidence to back them up. I feel as though I didn't reach the depth asked for and to improve I can delve deeper into the lens and use it more throughout the essays. I can also improve by spending more time observing, maybe actually talk to some people. Outside the university, I will pay better attention to what is going on around me wherever I am and assess if it is a place I really need to be. If the place I go portrays bad values, I shouldn’t be there.

Analyzing a Place Worksheet

Project #1 Worksheet                                                          

Your Place: ______________The SRC__________________

What are the intended functions of the place?                       

To work out, socialize, study, grab a healthy snack

What overt messages does the place send (i.e., openly communicated through signs)?

Here is a place where you can come workout. There is access to an abundance of equipment among other perks.

What covert messages does the place send (i.e., hidden messages)?

You can do other things here than workout. Socialize, eat.

Have previous users left traces behind in the place?

Sweat, dirty equipment. Rags from cleaning their equipment. Food trash. Body odor. Certain settings on equipment. Fans on or off in certain areas.

Has the place been re-appropriated (i.e., beyond its original functions)?

Yes, now houses computers in the gym. Is a meeting place for some groups. Is now a major means of socializing because of the pool.

What social or cultural customs did you observe (i.e., rules governing appropriate behavior)?

There is a policy for using the equipment and obvious etiquette like cleaning the equipment after you use it and throwing away your trash and putting your dirty rags in the dirty bin after using it

Who has access to the place?  Are there insiders and outsiders?

Students. Staff and alumni who obtain a membership

Who owns the place?

ASU

What is the place’s value (i.e., monetary or otherwise)?

Place for students and more to workout. Paid for with tuition and membership fees.

Are there official representations of the place (i.e., online, in promotional materials)?  Do they accurately capture the place as you experienced it?

Online representations. Very accurate, except doesn’t describe the food bar.

Is the place in transition, a changing place?

Very much so, construction is being done.

What conflicts or tensions are there in the place?

The construction makes certain areas of the gym close early or open late sometimes.

What is the place’s history?  Do you see evidence of the past there in the present?

Been open for many many years, In very good condition. Technology up to date. Not much evidence from the past.

How does this place differentiate itself from other places?  What other places is it similar to, but how is it different from those places?

Special equipment. Many options. Personal trainers available. Classes and equipment available to buy. Other gyms are similar like vista gym, but the SRC has better air conditioning and much more equipment.

What questions do you have about your place?

Cost of everything for college students and non college students such as staff and alumni? What is the cleaning schedule? How much do employees get paid?

Key Features / Profiles (taken from the Norton Field Guide (Goggin and Bullock) Chapter 16, pages 165-166)

An interesting subject.  What is unusual about your place?  Alternatively, is there something ordinary about it that you can show in an intriguing way?

Unusual is the numerous racquetball courts, not at most gyms. Ordinary is the cardio, but all the second floor is cardio, as opposed to there being variety up there.

Any necessary background.  What background information will you need to include about the place in order to situate readers?

What the gym looks like. What the point of it is. Who goes there and why. How much it costs them to go.

An interesting angle.  Rather than trying to tell readers everything about the place, what angle(s) might you use?

An angle of  member, such as an alum.

A firsthand account.  Did you interact with people in the place or participate in some way?  What experiences did you have there that you can write about using “I”?  (Yes, first person point of view is encouraged, especially for this paper.)

I workout at this gym on a normal basis. Firat hand experience with the cardio equipment.

Engaging details.  What specific information must you include in your description of the place?  What potential does your place have for the use of sensory images, figurative language, dialogue, anecdotes, and showing rather than telling?  What do you want the dominant impression to be?

Must include all physicality of the place and who attends it. Potential for sensory images, dialogue, and showing rather than telling. I want the impression to be that the SRC is more than just a gym. It’s a place for people to go to make themselves feel better, either by working out, the healthy food, or socializing, even getting some sun at the pool.

Generating Ideas and Text (taken from the Norton Field Guide (Goggin and Bullock) Chapter 16, pages 168-169)

Explore what you already know about your subject.  Why do you find this place interesting?  What did you already know about it?

It’s interesting because so many different types of people go there. Some for similar or different reasons. It’s interesting because I want to make myself feel better by going there and wanted to see if I could observe how others felt.

If you’re planning to interview someone, prepare questions.  What would you like to ask someone in the place in order to better understand it?

Why do you go there? What do you think about others that do? How do you feel about the equipment, is it satisfactory? Do you think that everything is useful, or that there are excessive amounts of some equipment and too little of others?

Do additional research.  Does your place have an online component?  How else might you gather additional research?

There is an online information page and an information desk at the SRC itself.

Analyze your findings.  What patterns, images, or recurring ideas or phrases did you use to describe your place?  What contrasts or discrepancies do you see?

Lots of people in shape and lots out of shape. All images of gym equipment and people working out. A place for working out, socializing, and healthy eating is major phrase.

Come up with an angle.  What is most memorable about your subject?  What most interests you?  What will interest your audience?

Most memorable is the people that attend the gym and there possible reasons. That is what interests me. How I described these people will interest my audience.

Observation Notes. SRC building

Intense workout music, not too loud that someone who needs the concentration of their own headphones would get distracted.

White and brick walls.  Plants in every possible corner, greenery.

A health bar for those who need to eat before or after a workout.

A wall of physical clubs to get involved in when you walk through the entrance.

When you open the door, the blast of breeze that hits you, a refresher coming in after a hot walk to the gym. A refresher leaving the gym after a hard workout.

The maroon couches by the entrance, maroon because ASU’s colors are maroon and gold?

People of all ages, college students to the elderly. Why do the elderly come to this gym, alumni, close to home?

Some not in workout gear, do they come to pine over the opposite sex working out? Or do they come just to feel the intense energy.

People in shape working out to the highest potential, to keep in shape? Or are they not yet secure with their already inshape body, striving for perfection.

People not in the best shape working out, trying to get themselves in shape because of a health issue? Or because of bullying because of their not so perfect physique.

Lots of people sporting ASU tops, proud to be part of this facility,

Girls walking in with bathing suits and towels, trying to strengthen their arms swimming, or trying to catch a tan in the hot Arizona sun.

A girls locker room and a boys locker room. Two different universes. Self conscious, or cocky people in both.

People in work out clothes leaving with not one drop of sweat. In here to pretend they work out, or showing without bringing a change of clothes, or not having whatever chemical in your body that makes you not sweaty.

People of every race working out. Does what race you are make a difference in your workout ability, your stamina, your speed.

Staff, socializing with other staff, smiling and cheerful to the users of the gym. Glad to be in an airconditioned building, getting paid to scan SUNcards or happy to watch people work out.

The weight room: pretty much all guys. The few girls brave enough to enter getting wide eyes from the boys. Could it be appreciation that a girl has the strength physical and mental, to go in the weight room, or the eyes of the typical pig, staring at assets of girls. Treadmills lining the pool view and a view of the racquetball courts. Entertaining to say the least. Guys next to each other, competing, each upping their speed to go faster and farther than the one next to him. Guys working out with other guys, a workout buddy, or a personal trainer.

Out of 4 public computers, 3 out of order. Would they get any use if they were working? Tv’s installed into the cardio equipment. Convenience, entertainment.

What are people watching on the installed tvs, there are enless options.

Technology of equipment advanced enough that you can select multiple different workouts on one machine.

People working out in clothes that aren’t workout clothes. Aren’t they hot or uncomfortable, is it a way for them to lose more weight by sweating more because of the heavy material.

A boy walking in with a boot cast, workout injury? Coming in here to work out his upper body because of his new found difficulty to run?

Guys in the weight room without a spotter, dangerous. Are they strong enough, are they trying to impress, do they just not have a friend to workout with, or no friends at all and that’s why they are trying to workout.

People on these comfortable maroon couches, studying, waiting, relazing after a long workout.

Basketball and racquetball courts, being used by groups of rowdy boys.

Cleaning spray and a baskets for clean and dirty rags. How many people, after a workout, clean their area? How many assume someone cleans it before they use it? How many do clean in before they use it.

Staff walking around with the cleaning spray and their own rags. Cleaning the machines that aren’t being used. How often do they do this. Do they track which ones have been cleaned so they can go back and clean the ones that were being used while they were being used.

Girls, in shape girls, wearing lose fitted clothes at the gym, uncomfortable with their body?

People working with definite personal trainers, the trainer’s shirts reading staff. The trainees all ages. Keeping in shape, getting in shape, or using a personal trainer until they feel safe enough handling all this high tech equipment on their own.

All types of ways to workout. A weightroom, a pool, cardio, yoga mats, ab machines, bikes, racquetball and basketball,

People jogging up the stairs, anxious for a workout. People jogging down, proud of their workout. People huffing and puffing up the stairs, in the gym to soon get rid of that. People huffing and puffing down the stairs, their workouts kicking their butts.

People with braces on their knees, their shins, their arms. Injury from a sport, or an accident but still determined to keep in shape.

Huge fans spread out around the facility, people surrounding them after a rough workout.

People walking in with huge water containers and leaving with empty ones. How many times did they fill it up, if at all.

People with huge backpacks, coming straight from class, or going to class after a workout.  Do they use a locker, or do they toss their bag on the ground by the piece of equipment theyre using.

People stretching, before, after, or before and after a workout, which is better for your body?

People looking around at others while they work out, judging. Jealous, pity, disgust.

All different kinds of people in the gym, tons of different personalities. But how would you know, most workout clothes are the same. Either lose or baggy. But are the shorts tight or lose, and what about the shirts. And what about the brand of the clsothes and shoes. Who’s got on nikes,, and who’s got on sketchers. And what do the shoes you work out in say about you.

A girl not in shape working out with another girl, obviously in much better shape, the two obviously friends. Is the more in shape girl motivation for the non?

People with yoga mats, actually doing yoga? Or using it as a mat to do ground workouts. People stop to look at the entance art obviously made for the gym. An abstract piece of people excersizing. Do they like it? Are they criticizing it?

An Analysis of An Image OK USA

This OK! Magazine cover features three teen moms with the headline "Nastiest Fights Ever!" Each mom has a look of pure disgust plastered on her face. Why? No reasons other than rumors and drama of course. The fiery topics underneath the photo reveal a bit of the story to come. Who is going to read this magazine? Without a doubt, viewers of the hit show. These viewers crave the drama of the teen moms, always curious about who got dumped or committed such and such a crime. So, when the cover depicts these mom’s facial expressions the way OK!  does and adds in the current topics of drama, they are setting the teen viewers up to open the magazine and find out what juicy drama awaits inside. The magazine’s marketing technique is clearly drama. The girl who looks at the cover of this magazine is going to wonder, “Why does Jenelle look so shocked?” and “Why do Farrah and Maci look so angry?” Each of these moms has a story of their own. Farrah, Maci, and Janelle each have something personal going on and their facial expressions give way to a wide range of girls with crazy imaginations. A reader sees this cover and a thousand potential scenarios run through that reader’s mind. What does this say as a whole? A bunch of teens thrive off these dramatic stories of teen mothers. Society, with the help of this TV show and magazine covers like this one, has made teen pregnancy acceptable. The girls on this show are being so negatively exploited. Their lives are going so far south and all society does is exploit them even further, publishing these rumors and greedily feeding off of them. With conformity steadily increasing, many teens now face unwanted pregnancy or even planned pregnancy at an age that is normally still considered adolescent. Some readers could consider this article a promotion for teen pregnancy. These three women are getting so much publicity. Their young pregnancies have made them into quite the celebrities. So, teen girls read this article and thrive for the attention that these other young women are receiving. Attention isn’t always a positive thing, as this article proves, the publicity of these women’s lives is making them go even more downhill.

 "Teen Mom." OK! Magazine. 3 9 2012: cover. Web. 10 Sep. 2012. <http://www.teenmomjunkies.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/ok-magazine-rumors.jpg>.