Group Evaluation

I feel that our group worked well together and the work load was fairly distributed among us. I enjoyed working together even though our schedules clashed when it came to organizing everything. In the end, everything came out great! I think we all had fun!

Journal for Group Project

(I seem to have misplaced my notebook that I wrote my journal in, so here is what I remember from it.)


We have started a group project and my group seems pretty good so far. We were all assigned to bring a topic to class based off the mission statement that we wrote on our blog and I feel that we had a lot of passion and good ideas in our group. We couldn't decide on one thing write away, but sharing our ideas with the rest of the class helped us gain insight on the direction we should go.


We decided on our project and it is litter clean-up with a twist because we made it into a game. We are going to go around taking pictures of trash that we pick up off the ground and then post then to a website for people to rate our trash.


The website has been assembled and we are all doing research. We have started a facebook group for us to converse on and share information that we find. Its really helpful since facebook is something we all regularly use anyway.

We had conferences today and I think that it went well, but I think that there is a lot of work that still needs to be done. I have done quiet a bit of research but we all need to come together and organize our thoughts. I am enjoying taking pictures of trash.

Today was our work day and I think that we really pulled everything together and distributed the rest of the work in a good manner. I took care of the interview and it went great! I am ready for presentation day!

Questions for tuesday

Do you feel that the author's intent has changed over the course of the reading?
If so, how?

How does the author keep you engaged in the reading from the beginning to now?

Discussion Questions for reading

What is the audience for this writing?

How was ethos, pathos, and logos used?

Bad Apples

Have you ever been in a group with a bad apple? How might you deal with a bad apple? Is there another kind of bad apple that the podcast did not mention?

I have been in a group with a bad apple several times and in most cases, its always the slacker. It seems that I or other group members get stuck with all the work and this one person always rips the benefits of our labor. I am normally a person who likes to take charge but have been learning that I can't always do that because I can get bossy and become a bad apple myself, the jerk. It seems when I work in a group where there is a bad apple, I will tell them how they are acting and they need to stop, or I will ignore it and do my share of the work if not more.

Group experience from the past

Last semester in my English 150 class, the last assignment was a group project to write an article on a current issue individually and come together to compose a news paper. For me, it was a terrible experience because there was a lot of language barriers and people turned in their articles to me in their native language rather than English. It was frustrating. When it came time to compile the newspaper, they all had an opinion but didn't want to do any work, leaving me to put the whole thing together. Our class presentation was very similar. They all wanted things to be their way but did nothing to make it happen. In the end, I took charge and put together the whole project and presentation and let them whine about it afterward because they didn't help when it was time to. The grade turned out great for me but their's reflected their effort for sure.

Annie Dillard writing

There are so many parts of life that the average person overlooks. No matter if you are a bustling, city dweller or a perfect, suburban housewife or a homely, country farmer there are things within your everyday life you are overlooking.

I grew up on a farm where crops and livestock are our livelihood and without them we would be lost. We do everything necessary to insure that they are cared for and nothing will get in the way of making a profit. Animals are given immunizations so that they will not catch disease. Their grains and forage is locked away in sheds that rodents and other pests will not be able to lay their excrement on. Water supply tanks are cleaned regularly to stop the build up of fly larvae and algae. The horses are sprayed down so that flies, bots, and ticks will not bother them. The crops in the field are hosed with chemicals to prevent pests from devouring them and using their leaves as homes from their young. Irrigation provides a constant source of water guaranteeing drought will not affect the harvest's outcome. Everything is planned and monitored so that nothing will int interrupt they way we believe life should be.

But in the means of insuring our way of life, who is it affecting. We see bugs and other pests and evil creatures that are harming our lives, but what is behind their pest behavior? The answer is survival. They are just like us, trying to survive, to make things better for their young and make certain that they will live a full life; just like us. Is that really so wrong? Plants are food for bugs just as much as they are for us. They also serve as a home. We cannot live without a home so how can we expect these critters to? We are all fighting for the same basic necessities but why do we prevent others from them?