Bolwing Interview

In Nicole's essay about the Hanover Bowladrome she started it off by giving a brief history about bowling. Then Nicole gives us an inside look at the staff and customers at the bowling alley. I thought that the flow of this paper went along very well with the two previous essays we had read. The thing I found most interesting about this essay was that it was more than just an interview. The descriptions once again made everything crystal clear. I could not believe that some of the women bowling in the league had been doing it for over 20 year. I was surprised that it was not competitive unlike the men's league.

I was not expecting this interview paper to go into as much detail as the other papers. However I still managed  to find out about how carol her kids love to bowl and they have birthday parties at the bowling alley each year. Also, that bowling runs in the family. This bowling alley is very family oriented.

After reading this essay I got a very good idea of how my paper is going to shape up. At the Abington Police Station I am not sure how I am going to split up my interviews. I will definitely interview some of the officers. However every time I have been in the station everyone is soft spoken so it will be hard to get my  annotated information. I cannot wait to dig deeper into the inside of the Abington Police Station.

Group Projects: Design Principals

This past week our English 102 class had to prepare and present a group project. My group, The Hangover, picked to do our presentation on Design principals. We had to inform the class about the four basic principals of design; proximity, contrast, repitition and alignment. We did so with a powerpoint presentation. One of the challenges we faced was to effectively use powerpoint.

Aside from the actual content of our project, I learned alot from this group project. First of all, it is very important that the group stays on task. There was limited time to put together  a "killer" presentation. Not only was it important for the sake of our group, but because in the real world there will also be limited time to prepare presentations. Also, it is important to use time effectively, because in my case I commute to BSU so I was not going to be able to make it back to school to finish the project if it was not finished in class.

Another improtant thing I learned from this presentation was performance. Making eye contact with the audiece so they feel engaged is important. Also, I learned how to gesture and move around just the right amount so that I was not uptight, but at the same time I did not distract from the presentation. When one is not the focal point of the presentation, it is important to not be distracting because it can take away from the presentation as a whole.

This website has great tips for presentations, check it out http://www.nvcc.edu/home/npeck/speaking/tipsforpreparinggroup.htm

Midterm Portfolio

This is the link to my midterm portfolio for my English 102 class.

http://english101portfoliobyjohncosta.weebly.com/index.html