Final...wow that time already

In picking a topic for this final assignment was a difficult one for me at least, I through a few ideas around in my head. One being a research paper about something to do with horses, and then I remembered I probably include my hobby of horses into too much of my academic life. So this time I am going to try something different. I am planning on taking a more creative approach to this assignment rather than an academic approach. This meaning I have decided to create an English syllabus for a high school class. I am going to use the handbook from the high school I attended(Hartland High School) in part because I have access to a paper copy of the handbook, along with an electronic copy available on their website. I chose this because I am thinking of becoming an English teacher, and most likely in the high school age range, I have been told I am crazy. (I have no idea what their talking about)

Professional...hmmm

For this blog post I got the email with the attachments and the two posted websites as assigned readings I attempted to open the attachments but with no luck. I tried and tried to unzip the files that were attached to the email, just the zippers were stuck, I am so punny when I want to be.

So for the first reading, I chose “How to write a cover letter” naturally because it was the first article listed.(I apologize for the sarcasm, had a moment from when my internet was not working, then just not being able to open the attachments kind of ran into one another). Also when I was reading this I was thinking to myself, a cover letter is not always for a resume, it can be for many other things in the professional world like a fax, a change to a manual, anything could involve a cover letter. I for one have created many cover letters. I work at a company, in the trade compliance dept., inside this company we deal with many of these cover letters in the context of the working world they do not have to be as formal, but close I usually will state at the top of a fax cover letter for example the ATTN: line and from, to, date, a brief paragraph stating why the fax is being sent and then usually conclude with a thank you and nine times out of ten I print it off on company letterhead. This is just one instance in how I use letterheads in my work as an trade compliance. But it was a really good basic outline for a cover letter for a resume.

First of all for the second reading “Writing the Personal Statement”, I have to mention I love owl, such a good website. I did not know that they had a guide to writing a resume…. I will probably look at this and recommend it to individuals that I know who would utilize it to its full potential. I always knew they had something for APA and MLA, now I am going to have to do some snooping around. I also like how owl just makes things seem so much simpler for whatever reason, this is how you should do it, and this is why, sometimes cut and dry, if life was like that, we would be having no fun. Fun should always be included in everything you do.

About the bringing in of something professional writing, yes so had something printed out at work, from work, but went to a five hour meeting and sort of forgot it on my desk. But the important thing in my eyes is remembered.

Equestrians

For this particular assignment entitled “Pop –UP-Scholarship” I had a hard time choosing a topic, I originally wanted to do a few chapters from a book about no other topic then horses what a surprise. Well I realized this was not on the versions of composing we could choose from on the assignment sheet. So I went then went to Google and when my friend Google could not help I went elsewhere. I was perusing all my usual cites before beginning the homework process, facebook, yahoo mail, um-flint mail, and while checking my yahoo mail I realized that there was an email from myself at work reminding myself that Rolex tickets have gone on sale and that I need to purchase them for 2010. So I open the site and I realize this would be the perfect idea for this pop up assignment. I then went to back to my old friend Google and searched the deaths at Rolex. Because as some, take that back most of the people did not know that the equestrian world of eventing lost another star this year. The star that only shines up in the sky now is Kingpin. Kingpin was one of the equines competitors in this year’s Rolex. I chose this because there have been deaths of not just horses but riders alike. Through Google I found a post, believed to be a blog, but I am not sure at this point, the post was entitled “Is Eventing Too Dangerous” and mentioned in this was an article from The New York Times “Equestrians’ Deaths Spread Unease in Sport” this was a really good article that really focused on the riders while they are important I want to know more about the horses that are no longer on this earth because of the famous event.

To answer the question of who’s horses and why and where they died, I cannot locate a list. So I had to settle with the most recent Kingpin. Kingpin’s story is an unusual one because this horse did not die from any injuries he acquired from missing a jump, stepping wrong, misjudging distances etc. this horse died from a rare but natural cause. (a hemorrhage of the large vessels in the abdomen). Also after reading the assignment more clearly I probably should have not chosen this topic but too late for that now.

For the pop up part of the assignment I mainly just gave my opinion of the readings I chose. The reason why I did this is because no one wants to joke about the serious aspect of losing a partner. Some of my comments seemed sarcastic in some of the articles I chose, only because it was a duh moment in my opinion. I dread the day when I have to lose my partner, hopefully it won’t be due to something we do together. There is another reason why I chose this it is because I was down in Kentucky, and at this very particular event when this horse lost his life. I thank goodness did not witness it myself but I did witness some pretty scary falls of riders and horses alike.

I did little correcting of the articles but I still attempted, the ones from the Rolex site were the ones that needed the most editing because the paragraphs were not even paragraphs and some of the way they even cut their “enters” of the lines was not the way the rules that I was taught by. The other article that was written for the New York times is well written and just flows, but then again those articles are suppose to.

In comparison the articles that I ended up choosing were not all the most “creditable” ones but they all had the same important message, when you point a finger to whose fault it is you always have three point right back at you. The New York Times article and “Is Eventing Too Dangerous?” are similar in tone and subject matter, what I liked better about the “Is Eventing Too Dangerous?” was that there was a part in the essay where the author mentions a way that the eventing committee are proposing a way to change the way the jumps are built. On the other hand I liked The New York Times article because it has good solid quotes and that does a lot for the reader.

All in all I ended up “editing” more than one article because I felt that it was necessary to understand why I chose this particular aspect of the equestrian world. It is truly sad that the USA has to be the “big man on campus” at everything we do, and to no one’s surprise someone ends up getting hurt in the end. I wish this would not happen this way but accidents happen and there are not much one can do once the star finally takes its trip to heaven and then to shine down on the rest of us.