assignment #9

My first pattern of error tends to be my lack of explanation. I've realized this because most of the comments on my papers are "expand" or "explain more. Sometimes I forget that the reader may not know much of what I;m talking about or have any background information. I also just don;t know how to further expand and develop my ideas because I don;t have much of a second opinion besides peer review. I think by getting a couple opinions of people who don;t have much knowledge about what I;m writing can help my writing.
 My second problem is concluding my papers. I have horrible time wrapping up a paper with a strong ending rather than just summarizing what i wrote. I'm not sure what it is because i can write well for the main body of my paragraph but it's liek pulling teeth to end it. I think i over think what to write and it throws me off. I also think another opinion would be helpful to my writing and help me understand what would make it stronger.
My final pattern of error would be developing my idea, I don;t take the time to jot down my ideas and help em sort out my thoughts. I just start and go from there. It either ends up good or bad. If I took a couple days to really put my thoughts together my papers would probably be better.

Assignment # 8

     The article I chose was "The $78 million dollar bag". The article is written about what the city and county have payed and charged taxpayers for arrests made over marijuana. The article starts off telling us that even though there are cutbacks being made and taxes are increasing we are still spending millions of dollars on expenses for charges against marijuana. The article continues through out to prove that and also explain why the laws should changed but aren't being addressed. The article states that also that our courts are so clogged with these that apparently dealers with guns "get a slap on the wrist" and for some reason people with small amounts are the ones that suffer. The amounts of arrests that are made for having marijuana are equal to a couple crimes combined and has a huge budget. It also takes a very long time for police to process each charge and seems to include the time the police spend messing around in between. Even though they could be spending time on fighting real crimes the get paid for three hours of work in court even if they are only there for a couple minutes.
After a bunch of numbers are thrown around the article comes up with 78 million. That is the total cost that is spent on " jailing and prosecuting a bunch of black guys with reefer". They could not be anymore politically incorrect. After it states that legalizing marijuana was a huge suggestion for Rahm Emmanuels budgeting ideas the topic was never brought up. They also tried to reach plenty of political officials but hardly anyone responded. In certain parts of cook county people just get ticketed but that makes it confusing in the rest of the area to know what the law is. The article sums up with saying we are stuck at where we are at.

     This was actually the first article I chose and I;m glad i did. this is actually an issue that i am interested and have a strong stance on. I defintately agree that we waste time space and money on such small and ridiculous charges. Marijuana is hardly anything that should be worried about or be the reason our jails are so filled. There are plenty of studies that prove the legitimate benefits of marijuana.
    Besides my stance I find this article to have alot of flaws and some of the things said are astonishing. These writers sound like rookies, and maybe they are. There comparisons weren't very good and they lacked a counter argument. They also said plenty of things that were questionable and not very believable.

Assignment #7

Reflecting on back on the beginning of the semester I didn't have alot of goals set for myself. I just told myself do good and pass, not much beyond that. After starting the class though I really wanted to develop my writing abilities. I also wanted to be able to analyze and understand texts with deeper meaning. So far I fnd that I am doing better and pushing myself further. Though my teachers grading isn't the easiest I like that it provides more of a challenge.
    Some things I've found helpful are the class discussions that provide more insight into the text we are reading. I enjoy hearing other peoples thoughts and perspectives on things. It also helps me realize or look at something in a way I didnt before.
    So far I haven't found much wrong with this class. I find almost everything we do has a purpose and helps facilitate our learning better. Sometimes when we have discussion though we do focus on one thing for too long and then we have to hurry up on discussing something else. So we tend to let other things become less important.
     It really hasn't changed much. I still just dive right into what I'm writing and when I'm done I make revisions and corrections. However I do spend more time on it rather than do it the night before it's done. Which is better because it is a stress reliever and I'm not up all night.
    So far I'm not sure it's drastically changed from where I started which wasn't a bad place to begin. However, i;m not the writer I want to be yet but I don't think i will achieve that in one semester. I am learning new and important things and enjoy discussing texts more.