Essays Editing for portfolio!

Course Reflection / Portfolio Introduction Comment by Russ: Clearly what you take here is that you need others to help you write better, if only to test what you’ve attempted. This is a very big step, and I’m glad you’ve been able to take it as a result of the coursework.

A new writing habit I picked up from in this writing class is to let other people read what I write and let them give me there opinions on it. Before this class I was scared to death to let anyone else ever read anything written by me for fear of something like being said like “what even is this?”. Realizing that having other people read and critique my paper was key to writing a better paper helped me in so many ways. Too often we see people writing their points of view and not making a clear argument. This leaves the reader with an unclear understanding of the point trying to be made in the writing. I think if I write in the future I would like to be able to use what I have learned to write persuasively in a way that is not opinionated to the point where it is a turn off to people. But I hope to be able to write logically so people can understand my point of view and then agree or disagree but still understand the view I hold. One thing that helped me immensely in the writing process was, IW’s. It helped me start to just write good or bad without too much fear of trying to make it perfect. I think free writes helped me just start to write which in turn gave me more confidence to just start writing something even if it wasn’t very great in my opinion. Writing in the IW’s and free writes and getting some feedback on how I could improve them helped me realize I wasn’t as far off as I thought. And soon I felt much more comfortable writing outside of free writes and IW’s. I think this course did one thing in particular, and that is to make me a better writer. If one looks at one of my first IW’s and then compares that to one written later. I believe I can see a more comfortable writer making a bit more sense than at first. I think that the progress I see is the most triumphant point for me in my own work. Just seeing that I can write on different topics and then improve them over the semester was quite rewarding to be seen. Being instructed by a teacher who would cares about how my papers turned out and gave helpful insights into how to improve them helped me a lot. Without some helpful comments and tips on the directions to take my paper I would have had a much harder time making the papers turn out as well as I could. Having someone give helpful insight in papers I write in the future I feel is something I must do. Having someone else give you ideas of where you can change certain things and improve is something I have found key to writing. Getting feedback from other people who read my papers is a must to improving.

WRIT 095

Name

Van Paepeghem

4 May 2012

Analysis Comment by Russ: Feels like the piece has taken a great revolution from where it first began. There’s good insistence on the material from the blog, and good critical analysis of the blog’s shortcomings. Perhaps a better article would have been even more useful for you, but this works well.

Adding Slabs of Muscle to your Chest.

In an blog I found called “Pound Your Chest” by  Bodybuilding , I found an informative workout routine for anyone who is interested in bodybuilding and gaining muscle particularly on your chest. This article mainly appeals to bodybuilders and people interested in a routine that focuses on your upper pec muscles. 

This blog is by an unknown writer called “bodybuilding”, I am not sure how reliable they are, but they seem to blog factual material because of the positive feedback they receive from users. I find them somewhat misleading at times, such as in this blog, when not enough information is given. They have an interesting philosophy, as it shows here in their blog, that heavy weight lifting will add “slabs of muscle to your chest”. 

This blog starts out by stating the following: “Is heavy weight with low reps the best way to train chest? Or lighter weights with moderate to high reps? The simple yet somewhat convoluted answer: All of the above. The workout below is designed to help you build size and strength simultaneously. The heavy weight and weekly progression in the amount of weight used in the 5x5 portion of the training will add pounds to your bench, while the relatively high volume, rest-pause technique on dips, and stretching of the pecs on flyes will all work synergistically to add slabs of muscle to your chest.” The theory behind this is that pausing when doing dips will stretch you peck muscles out and give room for more growth.

This article has some good ideas, but fails to mention some of the key things to the success of bodybuilding. Such as the great importance of nutrition. And this blog does not seem to be very useful, it does not seem to be something you could take to the gym.

This blog article seems to be able to provide some ideas, but bringing it to the gym to actually use is something it lacks. It is not very useful as an actual workout program because it does not have a way to keep track of your workouts or progression in the gym. It ends up being something somewhat knowledgeable but not very useful for actual gym users. While having tried the routine myself, I found it seemed to work well along with the proper diet. Along with the proper diet, different body types respond differently to building muscle. This routine is will not automatically work for everyone who tries it. This blog informs us this routine that will help to add a substantial amount of muscle. 

In the blog it also states: “The key to gaining size and strength for any muscle group is to lift heavier weights as you go. start your first working set of bench and incline presses with five pounds more than you did the previous week. This will keep your strength levels and muscles growing steadily”.

Their theory of this workout appears to assume the key to building muscle is to just use their routine of lifting weights. This is only a half truth, and misleading at that. I would estimate that weight lifting is 40%, good nutrition is 40%, and 20% is probably based on body type. 

Having tried this workout myself, I found it to work well when I ate the right diet. But when I did not have the proper diet, I did not see the increases they speak of. They seem to focus a lot on just a part of what you need to add those “slabs of muscle” instead of also talking about the importance of the right diet and nutrition. They show a picture of a massive body builder as if to say, “just do this workout and you will look like him”. In reality, that body builder took years of dedication and diet and the right body type, along with a lot of workout routines such as this one, before he “added those slabs of muscle. In my own experience body types play a huge role in how easily you can develop muscle. I, for example, seem to build muscle quicker than some of my thinner built friends doing the same routines and having a similar diet. This blog seems to overlook what huge difference body types play in building muscle along with nutrient. The two other main components of building muscle. I believe this workout article is not a bad workout, but I do find it somewhat misleading by making the reader get the wrong impression. The overly ambitious claims that just doing this one workout will suddenly “add slabs of muscle to your chest” seems to exaggerate the actual gains a person would see when following this blog. I found this article informative to a point, but it lacks adding in the great importance of getting the proper nutrients your body needs and having the right body type. I think this blog puts too much focus on just weight lifting, which is only one aspect of bodybuilding.

This blog may not deceive a bodybuilder who already knows that you must have a solid diet in addition to routines such as is talked about.  A beginning bodybuilder would most likely be misled, I feel, because they fail to talk about the importance of the right diet or body type.    I would make sure you are not forgetting to just follow what this blog says, not everyone has the right body type to look like the massive bodybuilder they have pictured. It is almost as if they are saying, “just follow this workout and you will look like him”, which is not the case at all!

I would encourage you to try the routine for yourself next time you’re at the gym. Don’t expect “slabs of muscle” to suddenly appear after following this workout, without a proper diet and body type in addition to this workout.

WRIT 095

Name

Van Paepeghem

4 May 2012

Report Comment by Russ: Wow. Much better! We jump right into the subject without mincing words. Really quite incredible the kinds of information you were able to find and use in this piece. Some choppiness, but overall well researched and well developed.

The evolution of the football helmet