I - SEARCH In Class Blogging

The reason I was interested in the topic I chose, The Media, Family, & The Rise in Teenge Pregnancy, is because it is an issue that I deal with a lot at home. In my hometown, many girls my age have children. I can count 13 girls off hand that were/ should have been in my graduating class, that are now pregnant or teenage mothers.

Just 4 short months after I graduated highschool, my very best friend told me that she was pregnant. I now, am a godmother to a beautiful baby boy because of my best friend. I have never looked down on her because of her choices, but it is so much easier to look down on others around me, that I may not know on a personal level when they become pregnant.o

This passed summer, I found out yet again, I would be losing one of my friends to the rise in teenage pregnancy. Both girls that I know came from decently well off families, with guidance and structure to their years of growing up.

I chose this topic because I would like to know, or at least have an idea of the possible "root" of this "problem". I believe that many older people look down on my generation because of our "lack of morals" and they believe that we are setting ourselves up for a major fall. I would like to know how much the media may have an effect on a young girls' thoughts, ideas, beliefs, and overall standards. I would also like to look at the family as an institution. Is it the families' fault that these girls are becoming pregnant? No, they are not physically putting these girls in these situations, but perhaps because of the lack of communication and guidance, our older generations are to blame. Maybe the ignorance that is being passed on is setting us up for the fall.

I will be interviewing now pregnant teens, and teenage mothers to see their opinions on the matter and if perhaps their fate would have been changed if the media would have been less present and family support had been more present.

In Class Paraphrasing

One mistake that many students make in writing academic papers is the overuse of direct quotations in both notes and then their final paper. Although quotations may be important components to a paper, a students final paper should only have around 10% of direct quotations. Excessive use of direct quotations in note taking will lead to an overall paper having more quotations than necessary.

English Conference

Session # 1 - Early Cases of Media Negatively Influencing Behavior

In this session, there were 3 different speakers that each gave a separate presentation.
The first presentation was about a British Literature poem, " The Goblin Market." Before this presentation , I had never heard of this poem. I learned that it was written in the Victorian era. The poem tells of two sisters, Laura and Lizzie , that hear the goblins crying to them to come buy their fruit. Lizzie does not give in to the goblins' requests but her sister Laura is quite interested. Laura has no money, and in exchange for the goblins' fruit she gives a lock of her long blond hair. After this, Laura becomes infatuated with the fruit and longs for more. Laura looks for the goblins but can not seem to find them to buy more of their fruit, while Lizzie still sees the goblins trying to convince her to take some of the fruit they have to offer. Religious symbolism is used in this poem, by the use of "forbidden fruit" tempting the young maidens.

The second presentation was about Sherlock Holmes' " The Man with the Twisted Lip" and it's connections to "Opium Eater." This presentation covered the mental and physical addictions that a man has to the drug, opium. The story is split into two sections , phase 1 and phase 2. In phase 1 , the character speaks of all the wonderful results he has due to his consumption of opium. In phase 2, the character speaks of the horrible things his addiction has brought him and the remorse he feels due to his use and addiction.

The third presentation was about the portrayal of women in horror films. The speaker covered films such as Dracula, Phantom of the Opera, Misery, Silence of the Lambs, and films produced by Hitchcock himself. Although some roles played by women throughout history are those of power, many are focused on the sexual being that the woman represents. In earlier films, the woman always seems to be the damsel in distress, the weaker of the two sexes, and the dependent that "needs" a man to make her life enjoyable. In films such as Misery and Silence of the Lambs, the woman roles covered are that of power. If a woman is in power according to the speaker, she is often considered to be psychotic or obsessive of the men in the movies. If a woman is present usually plays the victim and if she is actually part of the plot , in a progressive way, she may be hyper-sexualized to still bring attraction to her feminine side.


Session # 2 The Writing Center

This session was held as a panel discussion by 5 employees of our campus Writing Center. As part of the Writing Center's services to students , they offer tutoring sessions where a student may bring in a paper and receive help in writing it , making their thoughts more clear, etc. The Writing Center employs 11 tutors and also has 2 volunteer workers. For a successful tutoring session both the tutor and the student must be active listeners, a set amount of working time often helps in decreasing the chance of either the student or tutor burning themselves out on work, and of course participation from both. Some signs of an unsuccessful tutoring session may be that the student is in the Writing Center just because their professor offers extra credit for a tutoring session or refers them to the Writing Center. You can't possibly bring your paper to the Writing Center without any specific troubles in mind.

One "service" that the Writing Center is used for by students seems to be copy editing. This is not an actual service that the Writing Center offers, but students expect this because punctuation/ grammar seem to be a major concerns when writing papers. Instead of offering this as a service, the Writing Center provides workshops for professors to bring their classes to, and the Writing Center is now offering workshops that students may individually sign up for. The Writing Center tutors are willing to help with thesis statements, brainstorming/expansion of ideas, and minimal grammar/ punctuation errors.

For an overall fulfilling trip to the Writing Center, a student may want to proofread their papers thoroughly for punctuation and grammatical errors, prepare specific questions for the tutors to help with, and bring text resources that may be helpful in preparing the polished piece of work.

Chapter 2 In Class Activity

Chapter 2 of " The Tipping Point " brought to my mind , a few people in my life. In coming to IUP, I am about an hour and a half away from my hometown. I was nervous about meeting people, and right off of the bat at the beginning I met a connector. Someone who I see on an almost daily basis, that always says hello to me, and seems to know more people on campus than I could ever imagine knowing.

I can't really pick out a Maven in my life, although one friend comes close to it. If a problem arises, this person knows exactly who to go to when trying to solve it. He is always the first person to give his advice and tell you what he thinks that you should do in a certain situation.

As part of my job, I have to sometimes act like an item on our menu is truly enjoyable ( even if in my own opinion it is horrible). I believe that I live the life of a salesmen in some aspects, although I have been told that my true opinion shows by my facial expressions and gestures.

Compare/ Contrast Reading In Class Activity

Compared to " The Tipping Point " by Gladwell, I normally read more upbeat books. While reading to enjoy my time , I tend to stick to teenage novels. One of my favorite books is " The Lovely Bones" , which was recently made into a movie. The difference between these two books is that " The Lovely Bones " is a beginning to end story, while " The Tipping Point " is broken up into chapters that differ in subject. When done with " The Lovely Bones " I felt that I was walking away knowing one detailed story that I could tell others about. After reading " The Tipping Point " , I believe that I will be able to tell many smaller stories and be able to back them up with examples from the book. Because trends seem to come and go so quickly, you never stop to think about where they began and where they will end. While " The Tipping Point " is not a book that I would normally read , I would hope that after reading it I will be able to understand these small life processes that may normally go un-noticed.

The Family in the U.S.A

The Family in the U.S.A



1.Nuclear Family - mother, father, children in one household

2.Extended Family - grandparents, older generation aunts & uncles, perhaps cousins living within an originally nuclear family household

3.Single Parent Income - a single parent working, keeping up the household, & making sure children have adequate care while they are away at work

4.Dual Family Income - both parents work to bring in a reliable income, making sure children are taken care of while they are at work

5. Dual Parent, Single Income - a fast fading way of life, one parent working ( usually the male ) and another staying at home being the main provider of childcare


6.Life Basics- daily routines, manners, unwritten rules that parents are in a way, obligated to teach their children about

7.Education - speaking, writing, reading that may be left up to the school system to teach their children, or may take it upon themselves to begin at an early age


8.Culture/Rituals - Annual events that may take place in the family, due to their culture/religion/ethnicity , these should be taught by parents

9."Different" Ways of Life- homosexual living & adoption, one parent deceased families, parents not having to work due to stable financial situations (ex. inheritance)

Extra Credit Movie Review "Precious"

I wasn't sure what to expect from the movie Precious. After seeing the previews on television, I wasn interested in seeing it but never got the time. I appreciated the African American Cultural Center for showing it, and even more that it was an extra credit oppurtunity for English 202.

In my opinion, the genre that the movie fits into is drama. I'm not too sure what the critics would say, but this movie was very emotional. It was about an African American teenager that was a victim of sexual abuse ( committed by her mother's boyfriend and her biological father). As a result of the ongoing sexual abuse, that began as she was an infant, Precious became pregnant with not only one child, but two. She lived in an abusive home, with her mother and her daughter. Her mother lived in envy of her daugter, because her boyfriend had given her daughter two children, one more than he had given her. She was also jealous because her daughter had chosen to go to an alternative school for troubled teens, and was mad that she was trying to better herself (something that her mother had never really tried to do.)

Precious ends up leaving her house with the help of many people in her life (friends, a teacher, and a social worker.) Overall Precious was a very good movie that I would consider watching again.

Social Action In Class Activity

I would like to research about teenage pregnancy. Between the year I graduated highschool (2008) & now, I can count off hand 5 teenage girls that I know have become pregnant. Out of my close group of friends 2 out of 4, not including myself have become pregnant & have given birth. So what made us become close friends to begin with? We had many things in common. Common interests, families that were much like each other, and obviously the same groujp of friends. I had always looked down on teenage pregnancy, wondering where did those parents go wrong in having a teenage daughter become pregnant? Although I am an over-all open minded person, I could never stop myself from staring just a little bit longer than I normally would, if the girl were pregnant. This whole train of thoguht was blown out of the water when my very best friend from highschool became pregnant, was kicked out of her house, eventually gave birth to a beautiful baby boy & gave me the honor of being a godmother.

I believe that my research will be beneficial in conjunction with my major because, as a sociology major I am constantly looking at families and how they work. So what was so different about those 2 friends, that they came from families like mine, and they became pregnant? I would like to research about how much a young girl's life changes with a pregnancy. I would like to research about the obstacles and rewards that have been brought their way with the pregnancy and now motherhood obligations. I would hope that from my research, the class will see a small bit further into the life of a teenage mother, and maybe not look down on them so much as even I may have done in the past.

In doing my research, I would like to include interviews with the new mothers, find out what a day in their life consists of, how they may feel that their family played a major role in the 1.pregnancy and now 2. the upbringing of their child. I would like to hear about their hopes, fears, and even possible advice for parents & teenagers alike.

My Linguistic History

Writing as a child was never really hard, from what I remember I caught on to both reading and writing fairly quickly compared to my peers. The tasks that the teachers would have us do in school were simple exercises such as writing our letters, names, addresses, and eventually forming short sentences. I never wrote much in my childhood, although one memory I do have of writing is sitting with my father and him making me write my alphabet over and over so I would have it just right for school the next day.



Since I was able to write and read at an early age, I don't really have an memory of either of them being a challenge for me. For as long as I can remember I have always had a book in my hand. As a young child I would always wait for family visits so that I could have a "new" person to read to me. As I grew older, I remember grabbing 2-3 Baby sitter's Club books and heading to the pool for the day, coming home after reading every single page. For the most part , I've always enjoyed reading. It never really mattered what I was actually reading, just that I had SOMETHING to read. I remember reading teenage novels at the age of probably 10 years old, not being able to wait to get my hands on a new edition of a magazine, and even simple things such as reading the labels on the back of household products.

In the past, I was never really interested in writing. As a young girl, I kept a journal about silly things that probably maker no real difference in my life today. It felt more like a chore to write in my journal every day rather than a therapy method that I use it for now. I just recently began to keep a journal but I have changed what writing in my journal means to me. I don't make it so that I have to write in my journal every day, only when I feel the need to write and to get things off of my mind. As part of my English 101, I was expected to write a 20 page grand narrative. The subject was left up to us as individuals to choose for ourselves. It ended up being a piece of writing that I value now, because it was a story about more or less the last few years of my life. Besides my journal, I use writing in my every day life. I write emails once to twice a week, use AOL Messenger to keep in touch with friends from high school, and write at least 100 text messages a day. I have never been expected to write letters, formal or informal, outside of school.

Growing up, I was surrounded by my family, friends, and teachers. I attended a Catholic School that had high expectations in it's students and our writing. In 5th grade we began to do yearly projects where we were expected to pick a historical event and eventually make a skit about it. Although it seems like an easy task, it took a lot of effort. The project included going to college campus libraries, indexing and using past magazine articles, writing bibliography cards for each fact used by our group, and then writing an overall paper. In the overall paper we had to include each bibliography reference that we had found, sometimes reaching into the hundreds and triple alphabetic filing. In the classroom, it was usually a very formal atmosphere. Formal speaking, formal actions, formal reading and writing. Outside of the classroom, my friends and family were both laid back and informal in their speech and writing. I feel as if the expectations placed on me at a young age helped in my transformation of formally speaking and writing.

I have been taking Spanish as a second language since the age of 5, starting in kindergarten. I have always caught myself trying to say things in English and then translate them to Spanish. I feel as if two languages should cooperate with each other, if it says something in English it should say the exact same thing in Spanish. Obviously, that would have been to easy because anyone that has taken Spanish knows that the words don't always mean the exact same thing and the structures of sentences are generally different when comparing English to Spanish.

asdfghjkl; English 202

Hello to my fellow English 202'ers ,

My name is Elissa Kopf. I am a Sociology major here at IUP. I am 19 years old standing at sophomore status. I am not very active in the university as far as academic associations/clubs go. Much like many other students, there always seems to be something more important in my mind rather than going to club meetings. I enjoy writing on a personal level, attracted more so to lyrics & quotes than actual pieces of writing, although I do enjoy my fair share of reading. I hope to come out of English 202 with perhaps an appreciation for writing my own work rather than just getting enjoyment from reading others'.