Case Study Blog

In thinking of what type of writing I would ever pursue if I would want to make it a career, I felt the choice would be easy. As you could possibly guess, I am a giant fan of sports. Growing up, I played football, basketball, and most importantly, baseball. I mean, my first baby picture was taken with a cubs outfit on. As I grew older, my knowledge of baseball has expanded exponentially throughout the years. With playing experience through college, I can relate to major league players that someone who may not have played could not. Also, being involved in coaching junior high baseball expanded my knowledge in writing about baseball as well. Being able to relate to major league managers, though on a small scale, would also influence my writing by having knowledge on the managing aspect as well as being a player. My style of writing would be most beneficial in a sports magazine. I think with the insights I could offer because of my knowledge of playing and managing, my writing could be refreshing in the opinionated Sports Illustrated. Being able to write with the players and managers in mind rather than bashing them, in most cases, could create more friendly relationship between players/managers and writers.

Week 9 Blog

Every year, awards are given out after the baseball season like Most Valuable Player for both the National and American leagues, Silver Slugger awards, Gold Glove awards and also Rookies of the Year. One award imparticular has lost its luster and importance because of a change in how people are voting for the Cy Young award. In recent years, the pitcher who wins the award is not the pitcher who best leads his team to victory but the pitcher who can put up the best statistics to appeal to voters. While these new statistical categories have been very beneficial for Major League teams for scouting purposes, they should not play the deciding factor in voting for the Cy Young award. I feel that rather than basing one's vote on statistical categories for the Cy Young award, the award should be given to the pitcher who best leads their team to victory.

In recent years, the Cy Young award has not gone to the pitcher who has best led their league statistically and leading their team to victory. In this year’s voting for the National League Cy Young, statistics like strikeouts and earned run average skewed voters into voting Tim Lincecum the Cy Young award winner rather than Adam Wainright, who led his team to the playoffs and had four more wins than Lincecum. Also, pitcher Zack Greinke won the American League Cy Young award with a record-low 16 victories. The two pitchers who led their respective leagues in wins this season with 19 a piece lost their deserving award because of these baseball voters who are now enamored with statistics that do not mean nearly as much as wins or winning percentage.

Rather than a pitcher who has good statistics, I feel the deserving winner should be a pitcher who puts his team in the best overall position to win each and every game that he takes the mound.

Week 7 Blog

It's almost baseball season again. If I can remember correctly, this could possibly be the 103rd year in-a-row that the Cubs will not win the World Series. After hearing of the letdown against San Diego in 1984 and the awful showing in '89 against the San Fransisco Giants from my dad as just a young kid, I thought, there is no way the Cubs are cursed...it must just be coincidence. And then there was 2003. Talking about that year in Wrigley Field could get you kicked out. Finally being able to see the Cubs and their ability to underachieve made me really start to believe the curses that surround them.
The most known curse is the curse of the billy goat. In 1945, the Cubs were playing in the World Series and had won 2 of the first 3 games. But in the fourth game, a man had two tickets and decided to bring his goat. After he and the goat were initially allowed in, people were complaining about the goat's stench and they kicked him out. The man cursed the Cubs that they would not play another World Series in Wrigley Field again, and to this day, it has not happened. The curse took affect that day, with the Cubs losing the game and the World Series.
I think from that fateful day in 1945, the Chicago Cubs have been cursed. For instance, in 1969, the Cubs had the most dominant team in the entire Major Leagues. But in September, against the New York Mets, a black cat had been released on the field. Everyone knows the curse of the black cat, and from that day on, so did all Cubs fans. The cat made a bee-line for the Cubs dugout and cursed them, and because of that, the Cubs lost 17 of the 25 games in September and missed the playoffs completely.
While I can understand how people will think this may just be a huge excuse for 102 years of mediocrity, but the evidence in undeniable. For those fans of other sports teams, I have some advice: never complain about a person's goat. It could result in over 100 years of heartbreak.

Week 6 Blog

When I was really young, I sucked at writing the letter J. You may think, "Oh, that's no big deal." Being that my name is Jordan, with a J, it was a giant problem. Looking back at some of my old pictures I drew for my mom, my J's looked more like S's, which may be giving myself some credit. But after having to give up recess for part of kindergarten, I finally learned how to write my J's correctly, along with the other letters in the alphabet. I feel that just being able to write letters on a page and being able to form words would be that pivotal first stage in my own writing career.

After that first stage in my own writing career, I think that the second stage would be the junior high days when you were assigned papers, but they were nothing like they were now. After years of just writing sentences and sometimes paragraphs leading up to jr. high, now I was getting assigned full page book reports, which really made me mad. I really never read, and BSing those book reports a page long was hard. Other than having to write maybe a couple 2 page reports, the extent of my writing at that stage was only about a page or so.

And after junior high brings me to my third stage in writing, which is where I feel I'm at right now. High school and college have made me open up in writing and have taught me how to fully develop a structured essay. Learning how to write all different types of essays with lengths have made me a better writer than I was when I was in my first stage. While I know I'm not in my final stage of writing, I do know that in every one of my stages I've learned something new and become a much better writer than before.

Week 5

While thinking about a topic for this blog, it just hit me. I think that the counselors at ICC are no help to students and are too demanding. In just my two semesters at ICC, my counselors have enrolled me in classes I did not need to take, have not responded to multiple email messages sent, and given me no information about scholarship money to help pay for tuition, even after asking for information. While I can understand that they may have busy schedules at times, I find no reason to refuse a student of help just because they did not schedule a meeting.
In my friend Nate's case, they have cost him almost a semester's worth of classes because they did not put him in the right classes for his major. You may ask, did he tell the counselor about what his major is before making his schedule? The answer is yes, and because of this, he is going to be stuck living at home another half-year, at least, because of his counselors wrongdoing. In my own experiences, I have also been placed in two classes last semester that had no completion towards my degree, also after they knew of my planned major. I've had many of my friends get no responses on calls and emails about important college questions, as well. In just the cases of myself and friends, we have had multiple problems with just trying to get in contact with our counselors about the many questions and issues we may have with college searching, completing our degree, etc. I think to make ICC a more comfortable and easy experience, the counselors need to actually be a counselor to the students at all times rather than just when you have an appointment.

Week 4 Blog

When I have to write, I'll usually be found in one of two quiet places, my room or the library. The first and most important thing I know about myself is that I need to distance myself from the distraction of television, friends, cellphone, internet, etc. I found out fairly quickly in my college career that with the amount of homework, papers, and tests, distractions of any kind need to be eliminated in order to finish all the work that coincides with being a full-time student.
Another necessity for myself when I write is having music. I mainly listen to Explosions in the Sky because it helps me zone into my work. Being able to drown out any noise distraction with music helps, and I always heard that listening to music can mentally stimulate you, so I figured it couldn't hurt.
In the starting process of writing, I have now in the past year started to write using just the computer. While I sometimes jot down a messy outline, I think I write better when I process the information and decide in the flow of writing whether a paragraph should be in a certain place or a quote be used as further explanation. I've also know that using this different process of writing has increasingly took me longer to write. While the extra time may cut into fun with my friends or my little brother, I have noticed that the quality of my work has gradually improved. So, I can accept the extra time if it pays off in better grades.
Overall, I know that being able to turn in my best work and always improve in writing will be essential for myself as I grow as a student and a teacher in the future. Having the ability to get across a point in a written manner as well as verbally can only be a plus and one I can hope to improve in the next coming years.

Myself as a Writer

After reading the prompts and processing each one, I found that I do write in many places just in one day. Obviously, I write notes, papers, homework, and even the daily crossword in my classes everyday. Other than just focusing on school, I write daily at many places. At my old job at a lumberyard, for example, I would have to constantly be writing down the customers orders and then going into the yard and loading up the wood and delivering the load to the customer. As meaningless as some feel writing may be, just looking back on that one example gives me some insight as to how important writing is.
Another example of a kind of writing I've done is some graffiti. In an underpass near my house about five years ago, my friends and me spray painted some "nice" words on the concrete walls, which are still there today and something I'm oddly proud of. Outside of school, I found that the most writing I do daily is on post-it notes. Everyday, I write many post-it notes for myself to remind me of homework, tests, appointments, sister's volleyball game times, etc. My favorite post-it notes to write are the one's that I use to surprise my brother in his lunchbox usually saying something about having a great day at school or telling him that we can watch his favorite TV show together after school.
I've found that writing, though trivial at times, actually has a great importance even daily in my life alone. Sending fun notes to my brother, to getting a load of wood correct, to writing down daily notes impacts not only my life but many others as well. Being able to become more complete as a writer through this class can have a much more lasting impact on my daily life now that I connect so many of my daily habits and writing together.