Qualitative stiiiiinnnkksss

Clearly I am writing this blog post later than the due date and because of my timing it is after the last class session where I think I asked all my questions. I cannot remember all the questions I asked and because I do feel that they were adequately answered I do not feel it quite necessary to re-ask them on this blog post. But since I want a good grade on my blogs I will attempt to remember what I was feeling before our last class session where we discussed the paper in great detail. I remember struggling with not fully wrapping my head around what this paper really wanted. It is not quite an opinion paper, it is not a research paper and it is not a comparative paper. Meaning it is not a paper of what I personally feel about two different mediums of one story, it is not a paper where I gather all this hard research found all over the internet and it is not a paper simply comparing the similarities or differences between the two. So what is it?? It is very tricky. You have to pick a two types of mediums with which one common story is told, then you must somehow form some kind of a thesis between the two, then form open ended questions related to your thesis to retrieve qualitative data on what other people think then you have to someone form a 6 page paper about what you people said and how it relates to your thesis and sum it all up by saying what the point of the paper even is to begin with. It is just way too confusing. Then not to mention the fact it was told to us that you may not even be able to form a thesis or clear aim for the paper until after the interviews or after a lot of the writing is done. I thought I did not like quantitative writing but it has hit me that I like it a lot better. It is clear and easy to understand and write a paper on. I am just extremely confused and overwhelmed by this paper. I do not know how I will use the people’s answers to back up my original claim or if that’s what I am even supposed to be doing. I think because feelings are so ambiguous, qualitative research and writing based on what other people think not personal opinion is difficult. At this point, in my frustration I am sorry to say I cannot give a “best” aspect. But once I have the paper done, ill let you know. All these above concerns are challenges I am currently facing and I will overcome them somehow by simply trying to get the paper done, I feel like all these concerns are ones that can only be done away with a completed paper. So at this point whatever confusion I still hold needs to just be put aside and I need to concoct a qualitative paper out of it. So here I go…

experience learning

Learning is something I find you cannot escape. It is all around you and in every experience.  I have learned a lot from many different experiences. I feel like that is how a majority of your learning is gained and maintained, through experiences. You can sit in a class and be taught something over and over again but until you actually experience it for yourself to you fully grasp, appreciate and exemplify whatever is being taught and that is true learning.

To answer that question I simply reflected upon my own life. On a lighter level I reflected upon when a teacher may tell me something in class, for example, don not put a comma there but until I actually had to type the paper on my own, determine if a comma went somewhere and then got a poor grade back for misplacing commas I would learn from that experience to first to take heed to the words my teacher says and second to place the commas where they rightly belong.

But on a more personal level I looked back upon the time in my life where I did not to what I was taught because I had yet to learn it. For years I had been taught through teachers, relatives’ even books that lying only makes things more complicated. That one lie only leads to another and another until your stuck in a mess of lies. This being taught to me was put to test when one day I said one lie. The days proceeding I was forced into conjuring up further lies to mask to first lie until months later I was in a web of lies and had no other choice but to finally tell the truth. Although all those years prior to this messy little lie I was taught not to do that even shown examples of why and what it would cause, it was not until I actually experienced it all for myself that I truly learned what lying is and why we should not do it. I experienced the true fatality of a lie first hand and had to forge my way through the lies all by myself. This experience not only taught me not to lie but I in turn learned why not to, what is does, how horrible it is and it developed me into the honest and transparent person I am today.

I do find that things learned through experience change your worldview. If you are made to live in a slum in Africa suddenly, I am sure; your worldview on poverty would change.  I do confess that everyone’s experiences are different, they have different affects, play different roles and for different results. Learning is not restricted to a certain classroom or certain class of people every single human being has the ability to always be changing and learning and through experiences day in and day out oftentimes cannot escape this learning experience called life. 

Superficial Sarcasm

This literally left me laughing! It hit everything right on the head! It is as if he had my popular article sitting right in front of him! He began by overdramatizing the simplicity of a popular article title. The irony is, the title for my popular article about lactose intolerance was “Lactose Intolerance”.  He was correct to establish that journalists tend to begin by attempting to clarify this is not an article of their own opinion but rather on a scientific topic by using statistics or quotes. He the goes on to exaggerate that no paragraph should me more than one line, although joking his sarcasm is sprinkled with truth. The mentality that I have found a lot of popular articles hold is the mentality that the shorter the article the better. The more quickly we get the point across to our lazy and uninterested audience the better. The less they have to actually read and think the more people will read it. I also found his mentioning of popular articles sympathies to reign true. Often I find popular articles, especially on a health topic to draw in those who are hurting and then provide hope and compassion for those reading. It is a clever way to appeal to an audience and gain quick respect and appreciation for the article. The article about popular articles also mentions quotes a few times in a humorous manner. Quotes within popular articles, as I have just noticed, are almost always short and upon review very vague. The portion midway through about the picture was hilarious. My popular article I used for my paper did indeed have a picture halfway through and it did indeed keep me reading the article. Also my article stuck with short paragraphs and even some one-liners as he poked fun of near the bottom. The portion about how the general audience will choose to read the first article that pops up in a search is incredibly true and because of that the information in the first found article is often built upon information the author found in general searches as well. This article was very entertaining and took the raw form of all popular articles and showed us all how silly they truly are!