BINKLEY,+Brandon

 A8 **CHECK-MINUS (This does not meet the assignment requirements)** "The neuroendocrine regulation of behavior" 3.2 (1999), Jay Schulkin. ProQuest. Alma College Library. Alma MI March 29 http://www.proquest.com Summary: "The Psychological effect when on steroids". Tells about the physical advantage steroids give to people who take them.

"10 questions A-Rod needs to answer" C.6 (2009), AJ Perez, ProQuest. Alma College Library. Alma MI March 29 http://proquest.com Summary: 10 questions A-Rod needs to answer, the famous baseball player who was found guilty of the use of steroids.

My research paper is going to be about steroids and baseball. This controversy has been going on for some time now and is getting very important in the game and is tainting it. Famous baseball players have gotten caught over the past couple of years and is putting a black eye on the game.

**Brandon, You could focus your research -- to begin with -- on any one of these questions. It just depends which one you are most interested in: penalties, testing, or performance. You need to decide. Start with one and see what you come up with during your research. You may find that just one question is too narrow...but perhaps not. If just one of these questions is too narrow, broaden your topic out to include a second question. You just want to make sure that your questions work logically and naturally together. For example, testing and penalties seem like they would go together better than any other combination of these three ideas.** 1. What should be the penalty for steroid users in baseball? 2. Should all players get tested before the season? 3. Do steroids really make that much of a difference?

Into the Wild, a film written and directed by Sean Penn is an adaption of the non fiction best seller by Jon Krakauer. This film, made in 2007, is a story about a top student and athlete named Christopher McCandless. McCandless has just graduated from Emory University with top notch grades, and instead of using his education like most graduates to obtain a job, McCandless abandons everything. McCandless abandoned important posessions and gave nearly 24,000 dollars to a charity. He burned his drivers license, social security card, and credit cards and hitchhikes his way out of Atlanta in hopes to get out of civilization and live in Alaska. McCandless meets many people through out the voyage to Alaska. It seems as if he touches every single one of them and leaves them a different person when they head their seperate directions. That is what keeps the viewers attention, the fact that new characters are always popping up through out the movie and a meaningful interaction is occuring. Many important elements go into making a good movie. The most important of those elements are to have an excellent plot and visual display, have great characters, and to touch the viewers feelings. Into the Wild establishes all these elements, which makes it a very entertaining and thrilling movie to watch. **A decent summary until the sentence that begins with "It seems as if he touches..." A summary should be completely objective; at this point, your writing becomes subjective. You will want to work on this in your paper.** Stumbling through the snow, passing over cold rivers, and hunting game were all daily feats that McCandless endured while on his adventure through Alaska. While McCandless was doing this, it seemed like you were doing it as well. The camera angles and views in the movie are the main contributer to the reason why I felt sometimes like I was the one on the voyage. The camera angles and views give you the most realistic feel for the movie which would give any viewer the feel for what is going on. I noticed how well the cinematography was at the very beginning of the movie. The movie starts off with the camera focused out for what seems like a mile away, which gives the viewer a feel for how tiny McCandless is compared to the wildfront of Alaska. Although, the cinematogpraghy goes often unnoticed and not thought about by most viewers, it is what makes Into the Wild such an exciting film.

McCandless meets many people through out his journy. He touches the lives of the several people he meets and gives them a new outlook on life. He meets a farmer, a hippie couple, and a world war II veteran and touches them all in the process of meeting them. These character interactions and the circumstances in which they met and where, keep the viewers focus and attention and leaves them to wonder what is going to happen next. McCandless has my vote as the best actor in the movie. The way McCandless goes about treating life and having an outlook on life, makes the viewer want to get up and leave society right then. While watching this movie I felt like a kid again wanting to leave everything and go establish my own civilization out in the wilderness. Acting is what makes or breaks a movie, and the acting in Into the Wild is most definately what made the movie.

Before watching this movie, I had looked at reviews of it online since I had never really heard about this movie before. One of the reviews online was a post by a viewer. "Sean Penn did something that brought me to something I never could understand of what either i have to do or what i need to do in my life. If you want a movie from the heart this is it, if you want a movie of love this is it, if you want a movie with real life emotions well this is all of them." As i said above, touching the viewers feelings is another one of the most important compenents of what makes a good movie. This review posters feelings were obviously touched as were mine while watching Into the Wild. The movie touched my feelings in a way I have not felt from a movie before. I wanted to leave right then while watching the movie and forget about all my obligations and duties that I had to perform that day.

The camera angles and visual display, actors, and the feelings that are touched while watching this movie are what makes the film so enjoyable. All those elements combine to make one amazing movie.................................................................................................................... 
 * In your revision, you will want to make your analysis more specific and concrete. What you have said above -- while they are good observations -- are very general comments. You leave your reader with a lot of questions, such as how did he touch the people that he met? Why exactly does McCandless have such an effect on the viewer? What kinds of emotions does the film inspire or touch? Etc...**

A6 Roger Ebert Review

I felt Roger Ebert's review of the movie Into The Wild was very dead on and it is the review that I agree the most with. Ebert complimented the movie story, and praises the acting. They start off the review by saying that Chris' desire to go into the wild was a child hood phase that he did not grow out of. Which made me think about all the adventures I had taken when i was younger. I always wanted to go out in the wild and explore, but I grew out of that stage, and Chris didn't. Ebert used personal experience in his review which made the review interesting to read.

Christianity Today Review

I also agreed with many statements made in the Christianity Today Review. The Christianity Today Review talks about the difference between the movie and the book. I have not read the book but it sounds like the book is much different than the movie. The reviewer states that in the movie Chris is an intelligent independant individual where as in the book Chris is portrayed as a poor sad human being. Christianity Today states also that the actors made the movie and I couldn't agree more with that statement. If the actors weren't as good as they were I would have turned the movie off 20 minutes into it. The actors definately made the movie.

TV Guide Review

Another review I read was the TV Guide Review. The TV Guide's review for the most part was saying the movie was too long. I agree the movie was way to long and dragged on forever. I have trouble watching movies and keeping focus for an hour and a half let a lone a little over two hours. I wish the directors would have somehow cut back time because by the end of the movie my attention was starting to get turned away from the movie. 
 * While you have identified a couple of good points here, your analyses are very brief and general. You were supposed to identify quotes that you might use in your essay, for example.**

A5

Based on the true story of Christopher McCandless, the film Into the Wild is a very interesting film. The movie is about Christopher and his ventures after graduating from college. Chris wasn't your typical college graduate. Instead of getting a job like most college graduates, Christopher traveled around the Western part of the United States through out the film.

Christopher and his sister are the narrators of this film. Chris sister talks about what life at home was like while Chris was on his venture, and Chris talks about what is happening around him. Into the Wild is set mostly in the United States. The first scene in the movie shows Chris walking in a snowy place, which was Alaska. After the snowy scene there is a flashback to his college days and there are continous flashbacks during the movie to America. Through out the movie Chris tries to make his way to Alaska. The movie helps in telling where he is by writing blurbs of where he is and the date and time so you can tell how much Chris has traveled. That is what made the movie so easy to follow, because, if he is at a different place they would mention where he is or writing would come across the screen.

The most signinficant part of the film was finding the magic bus in Alaska. It played an imporant role in the movie because that is where Chris spent all his nights while in Alaska. Another significant part in the movie was when he left home he cut up all his cards and donated all his funds to charity. I thought the cinematography was decent. The cinematography made you almost feel as if you were him. The camera angles played a large role in the movie and helped show if he was scared happy or angry. The camera angle was able to maintain my focus and show things in Christophers perspective.

This movie was a great movie with many significant events along the way. I felt that everyone Chris came into contact with he valued and learned something from. I also feel that in return they got something from Chris and took something away from him. This movie shows how Christopher goes out to try and figure out himself and the world but instead only figures out himself and finds peace with in himself.

**Brandon -- you must break away from being so general when you write, and you need to work on following directions better (check the assignment instructions). This analysis is just the "tip of the iceberg." There is so much more you could (and need to ) say by being specific and including details and detailed explanations of your claims.**

//**I have graded A3, A4, and the journal on intros & conclusions. You may now delete these assignments from your student page, but please retain a copy for your records.**// Journal on Introductions and Conclusions I had a title already for my persuasive essay, so I’m all set with the title. My introduction in my first rough draft is pretty straight to the point, in what I am writing the paper about and where the paper is going. I used the descriptive strategy in my introduction and just made clear what my topic was going to be about and where I stood with that topic. I will be revising it quite a bit before the due date on Friday. I will revise it by looking over pointers from the chapter and taking the advice I will be getting from the writing center. This will improve my introduction because people will look over it that have great writing knowledge and experience. My conclusion in my persuasive first rough draft is solid and straight to the point. I believe I do a better job of writing the conclusion then I do the introduction. I didn’t really use a particular strategy, rather I just went over what I said in the paper and emphasized where I stand with my topic.

Definition essay I do not have a title yet for my definition essay, therefore I haven’t revised or changed it. I have a few ideas for a title such as “full of joy, homosexual or lame.” Something along the lines to get the reader to start thinking what the essay is going to be about. My introduction is smooth and to the point and gives the reader an idea of what I will be talking about. I don’t use a particular strategy, rather I make it clear what I will be writing the paper about. My conclusion is still a work in progress, I plan on working with the writing center about the conclusion. I also plan on working with them on adding length on to my paper, seeing how I am struggling with that as well.

A3 The word I chose for this assignment is “gay.” When brainstorming for this assignment I was trying as hard as I could to think of a word that has changed very much over time. I could not think of a better, more common used word today then the word gay. Dictionary.com defines the word gay as, having or showing a marry and a lively mood. Someone who is bright or showy then of course, homosexual. In 1178 the term gay had one main meaning and that was to define something or someone that was full of joy or mirth. However, in 1951 the term seemed to changed a little bit. It is believed that 1951 was the earliest date for the slang term meaning homosexual. The online Etymology Dictionary disagrees though, The “Dictionary of American Slang” reports that gay was used by homosexuals, among themselves, in the sense since at least 1920. The Online Etymology Dictionary does not recognize the definition of gay as I heard it all through out middle school and high school though. This word has obviously changed quite a bit over time. First it meant someone or something that was full of joy, then it went to describing someone or something that was homosexual, and in my lifetime I have heard it used by many teenagers in context to something that is not cool. Atleast once or twice a day, I would hear someone in my school say something along the lines of “This class is gay,” or “This movie is gay.” Those teenagers weren’t referring to the actual thing they were talking about as being full of joy, or homosexual. Rather they were referring to it as it not being cool, or it was lame. The word gay has changed much over time, and I think the way I heard it is the most common way it is used now.