Article- 3-30-09

As I am from Tampa, Fl, I have chosen an article regarding the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I am choosing an article from the Tampa Bay Tribune that was written by Anwar Richardson and was published on March 27, 2009. The title of the article is "McCown Eager To Prove He Is Bucs' Best Choice At QB". The article is about Tampa's quarterback dilemma and how former backup Luke McCown is ready to be the starter.
The quarterback dilemma is a hot topic in Tampa right now as the Bucs are the city's favorite sports team, and that is why I chose this article. I also chose an article related to the Buccaneers because I worked for them in the summer of 2005 and 2006, so therefore I have a personal attachment to them. I also was friends and neighbors with a former coach who was let go over the winter as he was part of the many "changes" that is happening with the team currently.

3-25 Topic Possibility

I am thinking about writing a response to an article regarding the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and their current quarterback controversy. Being from Tampa, the Bucs are the biggest thing in the city as everyone follows them very closely, especially after they won a Superbowl in 2003. When it comes to Tampa, the Bucs are the topic of the town, even though the Rays are gaining some ground after going to the World Series last year. I find football very interesting and I feel that if I were to write about football I would be involved in the topic. I was a very big Bucs fan for the last few years as my next door neighbor worked for them and got me a job as an intern. However, over the last few months the Bucs have been rebuilding their team and he, like many others, was let go. I now am not such a big Buccaneers fan because of this but I still think I would have a good time writing in response to these articles. As I have a personal connection to the Buccaneers, I feel that this topic would suit me the best..

Portfolio 2 Final Author's Note

I feel a great sense of relief now that I have completed portfolio number two. I feel that my final paper is where I want it to be, and that it has come together nicely. I believe that I incorporated all of my sources into my paper smoothly and that it hopefully is a well done rhetorical analysis of the issue of Facebook's Terms of Service.
I listened to the input from my peers when they reviewed my paper, as well as that of Ms. Patrick. I feel that I did a good job breaking up my larger paragraphs into smaller ones thus making the paper easier to read as well as more coherent. Hopefully I submitted everything that I was supposed to include in the portfolio, and I am very happy to have it all completed!!

Case Study Development & Author's Note 3/23

As I have been revising my Rhetorical Case Study, I have been listening to the suggestions of the people in my group as well as those of Ms. Patrick. Over the break I did not have as much time as to go over and revise my paper as I would have liked, but I have made some changes due to the suggestions and I feel that I will have a solid paper ready for Wednesday. My paper has developed since the earlier drafts because I feel that I am a bit more focused on my topic than I was earlier. By this I mean that I feel a little more secure about my topic, as my topic was one that seemed to be changing every day that I researched to do it being such a hot topic in the news.
I believe that I have a decent paper so far on my draft, and with some further revisions and additions today and tomorrow, it will be where I want it to be. I still feel that I need to break up my paragraphs better and analyze them as smaller individual ones. By doing this, it will make the paper easier to read and more concise. I also need to work on my conclusion a little bit more. Once I do these things I feel that my paper will be fine.

Author's Note 3/09/09

After writing my rough draft I feel that my paper has a lot of room for improvement. I feel that I need to incorporate all of my sources together more cohesively through transitions, as well as not focus on just giving descriptions. I think that I need to give more rhetorical analysis to my essay and explain how it relates to my community. I did not focus on these so much aspects so much so far, but I still need to add at least two more pages to my essay so this will definitely give me something to add and focus on. Overall I think that my paper is coming along OK considering it is just the rough draft, but I definitely have a lot to improve!

3-09-09 Community

I think that my topic of Facebook and its changing of Terms of Service has effected my community greatly. I think not only has it effected TCU, but it has effected college campuses throughout the nation. I believe this to be the case because Facebook has over 175 million users and most of them are of the college student age within the United States.
I know that this issue has effected the TCU campus directly because I first discovered the change of terms due to one of my friends telling me about it. This friend who told me was so moved by the change, that he actually deleted his account. I do think however that he overreacted a bit by deleting his account, but this does prove that my community in TCU had been effected by the change. I have recently noticed that a bunch of my friends have deleted there accounts in the last couple of months, however I do not know if this was because of the change in terms. I believe that it could be a mix of the changing of terms as well as the possibility of future employers looking at their profiles. The changing of the terms certainly did not boost Facebook's new member signups around college campuses!

3/4/09 Rhetorical Analysis

After writing each analysis of my sources, I realized that each source had similar information but took a different stance on the issue. The first analysis that I did was that of the Chris Kelly interview on CNN. His stance of the subject was very obvious as is the Chief Privacy Officer for Facebook so therefore he defended the site's change of TOS and said that the whole issue was a giant misunderstanding. I found this to be obvious because he had an invested interest in what he was saying because he works for Facebook. Within the other article I noticed that the source was saying that Facebook was trying to do something sneaky to make money through a new business model, but it failed.
Overall I think that I still need to add another source to get another perspective on the issue. I am thinking that I will get a source that is a reaction to the change by an actual member. This should not be difficult because there are so many users of Facebook who had such strong reactions to the issue. Like one of my articles said, the group on Facebook that is against the TOS was 88,000 strong by 2/18/09, so therefore I should be able to find a good blog by one of them that gets the feeling across. I feel somewhat more comfortable about my topic, but I still think I need some help and there is a lot of room for improvement.