ERH 101

Maxwell Horowitz

In my past months in ERH 101 my writing process has seen much development, but not as much as I would have liked to see in my writing. The amount of writing I have done in this class and varied styles have allowed me to progress in my writing, but while things have improved there are still several issues that I need to work on and fix. These issues are creating a good flow to my work, and adding detail into my work to make my paper more interesting. Through the portfolio I have created it shows where my writing began and how it has evolved through reflective introductions and the papers themselves that show the development as a writer.

In my writing for this class I have found one of my biggest issues is that in my essays I have written I often don’t put in enough examples which leads to my writing not being as good as it can be. Although I have gotten better about my writing and putting in these details I still have not improved in this aspect as much as I would like to. In my first essay I wrote for the class there were very little specific examples that showed what I wanted to say instead of telling the audience. This I felt made my paper boring, but on a more recent essay about genres I was able to put in many more specific examples Which I feel contributed a lot to the quality of the paper and its readability. To fix this in the future I think I need to choose more variance in the examples that were given and that I should also put in more examples. I did work on fixing this a lot in my essay about German metal music in which I gave specific examples of the music and bands that made the music. I feel this essay was one of my better essays because it had details that were meant to engage the audience and had more interesting points than some of my earlier essays. I feel this essay while better than previous essays that had been written it still feels more boring than some of the example papers we have read, and I feel that it falls short because it tells the audience instead of showing them which makes what I write boring.

In my ePortfolio the reflective introductions I have written while providing a quick summary that lets the reader know what they are going to be reading and the background to it they have also given me an opportunity to look back on what I have written and look at what I’ve done wrong and what I’ve done write in my papers. I’ve noticed in many of my papers that my writing is choppy and a times has a poor flow of ideas to it and the order of Ideas doesn’t make sense sometimes. I feel that in my papers this has not improved at all. In my essay about  writing in a genre where I chose to write about recreational shooters my flow of points in my essay was bad because I had changed my thesis in one of my revisions, but I did not adapt where my points were or what they were to properly reflect my change in thesis. Many of the problems in my flow of my writing could be fixed if I spent more time planning my essays out beforehand I feel the planning would give my essays a better and more readable structure.

One of the other issues I noticed while revising my essays for my portfolio and reflecting back on them I noticed that one of my issues keeping my essays on track and following the guidelines that were originally set for the essay. When writing my essays I would often get caught up in what I’m writing at the time and have it veer off track from what the essay is actually supposed to be about. When I was writing my essay on the genre of German industrial metal I had trouble at points on keeping on track with what the essay guidelines were supposed to be about. When I wrote that essay instead of showing what made it a genre many parts of the essay ended up instead being about the bands in general rather than making specific examples and showing what its listeners may appreciate and what would make it its own genre at times. One of the reasons I think for this is because I didn’t put enough time into pre planning of the essay and another issue was that I find it easy for me to get side tracked in what I’m writing without realizing that I am going off topic. I think some solutions for these faults in my writing would be again better pre planning and another thing I could do would be to always have open the requirements for the essay while writing and to ask myself if I am meeting those requirements while I am writing.

While as a whole my writing has seen much improvement over these past few months many of my same issues in my writing still writing. I have found that while my details in my writing have improved they still have not gotten to level where I am happy with. For example in my most recent essay on discourse communities I felt that I didn’t put enough specific examples and that they were still too general to have an effective impact on my essay. I also found this to be one of the contributing factors to another issue in my essays which was the flow of my essays. While these problems still exist in my writing there has been much improvement since my first essay for the class.

Maxwell Horowitz

ERH 101

Mr. Hamilton

Recreational Shooters

People who go shooting for fun are a bunch of uneducated and dangerous rednecks, but what if this wasn’t the case. This stereotype of recreational shooters is one that is incorrect, but still many people believe it. If this was true then there would be no community of recreational shooters. This community has its own lexis acculturation, and publications that all show how the community is much more than a group of ignorant rednecks. If they were nothing more than a group of idiots like the stereotype would have you believe then a community of shooters would not exist.

While many people would have you believe that people in the community of recreational shooters are mostly a group of dangerous rednecks it can be seen from the values that they have as a community why they are more than just that. The community has a set of shared values through the community. Some of these being getting better at shooting and getting better groupings on a target. Another goal that many share is to keep the hobby safe from legislation that would ban certain things within it. One of the most important goals that the community as a whole shares is maintain safety while doing anything with shooting. Safety is an extremely important value to this community, because if proper safety measures are not taken people can get seriously injured which would be bad for the people involved and hurt the sport. People who chose to be unsafe are looked down upon in the community and those who are unaware are corrected. Articles about safety are often written in online communities. For example an article explaining what mistakes new shooters often make and why they are 1and how it affects others negatively was written on one website, but it also shows ways in which the shooters can stay safe.[1]

The discourse community of recreational shooters shares a large amount of common goals. Its goals revolve mostly about becoming better within the hobby and contributing to the hobby as a whole. Many people in the discourse community of recreational and sporting shooters as a common goal they have is to improve their marksmanship and get their shots on target to be closer together. Some of their other goals are to keep their firearms maintained and to make their collections larger. The reason people in the community want to have their targets have closer groupings is because while on the range and practicing it is fun for them to improve which opens up more opportunities to shoot farther or hit smaller targets. Another goal of the community is to make their collection of guns larger because it allows the shooters to have more options to enjoy their time at the shooting range and because many shooters have their own interest in different types of firearms and expand their collections based on their interests. One of the more important goals of the community is to improve marksmanship. This goal is important to the community and helps disprove the stereotype because it takes skill and practice to become proficient. Many articles are written on the fundamentals of shooting and how to improve   [2]. Many online forums also post help on the fundamentals for beginners and more competent shooters alike.

The recreational shooting community has a large lexis of many words which may not be understood by someone outside of the community. There are many different words used by this community such as grouping, bubba, fudd, operator, tactical Timmy, mall ninja, Kentucky windage, and zeroing are all terms that are common in the lexis of the shooting community. The terms bubba, fudd, tactical Timmy, and mall ninja are derogatory terms used within the community to refer to certain types of people within the larger community. Fudd is usually used to describe people who only would use their guns to hunt or believe that any upgrade or alteration to a gun is pointless and only buy firearms that are made out of wood and are hunting rifles. Bubba is usually used to describe people who think they are gunsmiths or upgrade their guns in unusual or dumb ways. The term bubba also refers to a poorly done modification and is referred to as bubbaing a gun. These modifications are done cheaply and dangerously. The terms tactical Timmy, and mall ninja are used to refer to people who buy every useless thing that is marketed as tactical and are people who will fall for every ad they see. Some more practical terms like grouping, zeroing, and Kentucky windage are more often used and are a more commonly used set of words. Many of the terms within the firearms community can be found often on online forums and sometimes are used in publications. This lexis created by the community of recreational shooters is something that shows unity and a sense of common values. The stereotype that shooters are redneck hicks can be found to be incorrect often through the fact that the community has formed its own lexis and often pokes fun at those who are uneducated or would be considered to be rednecks or unsafe people. Many people in the community are often picky about what words are being used and if they are the correct term. People outside of the community and sometimes within often misuse words to describe things in the gun community, but are wrong on the use of these terms. For example an article written in Guns and Ammo makes a list of many of the terms and their incorrect uses. [3]

The community of recreational shooters has a large amount of online publications, online forums, and print publications as methods of communication and as a method of dissemination of information or ways of advertisement. The stereotype of shooters being uneducated or being dumb would make you believe that their community would not have anything like this and would make it seem as though they would just be a small community with a very limited reach. These methods of communication show otherwise. A popular method of communication are online forums such as ar15.com, thefiringline.com, akfiles.com, and many other forums. There are specific forums like the akfiles.com[4] that focus on certain types of firearms, but there are also more general forums. All of these are forms of discussion about aspects of the sport. Magazines like American rifleman, recoil, and guns and ammo often put out reviews and speak about upcoming products and spread political messages at time or try to rally the community. There are also online blogs such as the firearms blog, and the truth about guns which put out at times political articles and interesting things happening in the industry or just tips in general about shooting or maintaining guns. With this large amount of publications and media for the community there are many options for those in the community to find ways to meet their goals and be able to interact with others and have fun within their hobby.

The stereotype that the community of recreational shooters is mostly uneducated dangerous, and a group of what would be considered rednecks is simply wrong. It is easily disproven by many aspects of the community. The community’s ability to have its own lexis and terms specific to them demonstrates that there is a unity and some amount of thought put into what they are saying and their culture. They also have a set of values that is very important to many shooters and one of their most important values is safety. This shows how wrong the stereotype is because people who are rednecks are unsafe and people who are uneducated would not spend the time trying to learn how to become safe. The large amount of methods of communication within the community very easily demonstrate how the stereotype is wrong because of the wide amount of input from around the country put into these forums along with how much time is spent on putting these things together. While it would be easy to just accept the stereotype about people in this community it just is not true. If this stereotype was seen to be false by more people it would be easier for outsiders to view this community for what it is and be able to communicate with them more easily.

[1] http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2014/06/daniel-zimmerman/p320-entry-top-ten-shooting-range-pet-peeves/

[2] http://www.outdoorlife.com/blogs/gun-shots/2012/08/shooting-tips-8-mistakes-rob-rifle-accuracy

[3] http://www.gunsandammo.com/gun-culture/9-misused-gun-terms/

[4] http://www.akfiles.com/

The essay that was written was written for an an audience uneducated on the subject to try and persuade them that the stereotypes about recreational shooters are wrong. The essay uses examples of how recreational shooters are a discourse community to disprove the stereotypes about this community. In my drafts I worked on trying to better understand how to write a more academic focused paper along with connecting what makes it a discourse community to supporting a thesis. What I developed the most in writing this was connecting my thesis to how a discourse community works and supporting that thesis while still making the paper about a discourse community. I need to work on better connecting my thesis to the rest of my paper along with making my paper more interesting. Another thing that I need to work on is making my paper have a better flow. For example I found it hard to come up with a thesis in my first draft that was supported by a discourse ethnography, but while I did make a thesis I still had the problem of being able to make this thesis be integrated smoothly into my paper.

The essay that I wrote was about German Industrial metal music and what its conventions are and its musical style. The essay was written for those unfamiliar with the topic and to complete an assignment about writing in a genre for ERH-101. I worked on using specific examples and trying to engage the audience more along with explanations of a topic and trying to project ideas to an audience unfamiliar with a topic. I developed the most my ability to project a topic to an unfamiliar audience which is important in trying to make another group understand my perspective. I still need to work on being able to show an audience instead of telling them, but in this essay I feel it is a little bit better. I also need to work on the flow of my essay to make it be less jumbled and less confusing. In my improvement on showing an audience what I wanted to tell them by giving examples of performances by bands and examples of their songs and the sound of the songs.

Maxwell Horowitz

Mr. Hamilton

ERH 101

17 September 2015

As a writer I’ve always felt that I’ve sucked at writing and it’s always been something I would dread having to do. Although writing was something I didn’t enjoy I always thought that I could skate by and be able to finish with at least a B. I would always be able to get away with barely working this was until I went into my AP World course. Then I saw my writing change and my process change. I also learned a lot about how I would write.

I got my first essay in AP world within the first few classes. I didn’t study or plan my writing out as usual and when I had that in class writing I thought that it would be the same story. A low effort time writing and an alright grade would follow. Instead of the grade I thought I would be getting I ended up getting a 1. It was the first time I’ve ever failed a writing assignment ever. I didn’t understand it. It was something that never happened to me. I always had an easy time with making papers that could hit all the requirements, until then.

This showed me that I wasn’t going to be able to write like this anymore. I knew Writing was difficult and something that I hated.  School told me that writing was formulaic and I never put any thought into my writing it was always done by the formula and I did the same for my history class. It wasn’t enough though for this new type of writing I found.

I always felt writing to be a tedious process and one that I dreaded when it came. This class made me think not only was I bad at writing, but my time of just following the formula had run out.  I couldn’t just do writing the old way I had been doing it.  I couldn’t find a way to make school writing something I could enjoy. Although when writing small things rather than essays like words of advice or having a conversation with a family member or through snail mail writing doesn’t feel like writing usually does. When writing in that manner I can feel writing to be a fun and sometimes even relaxing process because I know the audience well and the topic is usually something I enjoy or am knowledgeable on.

I think my feelings towards writing have come from my classes in school which I have always found boring and I usually have disliked my teacher for the class. I also find that writing for school and having to either present or have my writing be peer graded would often make me feel uncomfortable and make me not want to turn in first drafts or early essays to avoid having peers see my work. Peer editing or presenting for me was like SAW with the walls closing in. I would stare up at the clock hoping that the class would end soon before it would be my turn before the wall would close in and get me, but usually I didn’t escape and my fear about showing my work to others would follow.  Every time at the beginning of a new year in high school I would hear the same thing from my teacher what you learned last year was wrong. It was always about how we learned to write last year was wrong and that this year we would be learning how to really write. I also was told a different method of writing by every teacher I had through high school and all of my classes had a different way they wanted their writing to be set up. I feel that because of this I gained a dislike for writing, but it also set up how I write. It changed how I write into formulaic way in which you would pick three points and write a paragraph on each and have they all linked into a thesis statement.

I do find writing to be comfortable and even enjoyable at times when am writing in online posts or when speaking with family or friends. When I do writing online it’s usually on forums or other online chatting areas and usually my when I make a post I am writing to try and help people or teach them a concept and solve some kind of problem for them. When I write to try and help others I find it extremely enjoyable and it is something that I try to do as often as possible. The other type of writing I enjoy Is if I’m writing to my family, but I think that I can find this writing especially relaxing and enjoyable because I know my audience well and it is a way to stay in touch and be able to talk to some of the most important people in my life when I’m far away from them.

AP world  and its constant stream of essays in the gray classroom almost every day hit me with how my writing methods weren’t going to cut it anymore and while in a basic English class I could just skate by with my bad writing it taught me how things would be different. From my first 1 I saw on an essay ever as time went on things improved. While sitting in class dreading seeing the next failing grade my teacher handed me the sheet of paper back. I turned it over as I always would expecting to see a bad grade, but this time when I turned it over I had gotten a 6 instead of the usual one or three. My writing improved I had finally figured out how to make my papers more effective. My thesis had tied my essay together better and the more detail I put in had paid off. I finally had my writing going in a good direction. I was able to improve instead of just skate by, but it only took failing to change.

The essay was about my experience in my AP world class and how my school experiences changed how I wrote and how I learned about my own writing. The goal was to show this change in my writing process to my class and myself. The purpose of this essay was to complete my assignment for ERH-103 and to also learn more about myself as a writer.  In between drafts I tried to make my writing more focused and I worked on trying to incorporate more stories rather than telling the message. I also tried to have tied everything together with a strong thesis. I feel I developed most my skills in putting in stories rather than telling the audience, but what I need to work on the most is still trying to add more detail and stories into my essay. On my first drafts I had no examples from my life and the essay was completely told. As my drafts progressed I put more examples, but It would be better if I put in more specific examples to help with my thesis and It would make my essay less boring. I think another thing that I need to work on is making sure that my essays all follow one specific train of thought and follows my thesis rather than having a lot of smaller break off ideas that detract from the story overall.

I feel that as a writer now I am inspired by books that I’ve read and im inspired by trying to get the writing done. I struggle with making my writing vivid and creative. I also struggle with coming up with ideas and keeping my writing flowing. I am comfortable with making  my writing for history writing, but I have trouble with creative writing. My background as a student in writing is mostly lower level courses . I have never taken an honors course for English. Ive hated the writing aspect of these classes, but I find a lot of enjoyment in reading.