My Thoughts on Comments

In this post, I will be looking at four comments on the Fantastic Four controversy article's thread. This article is from the website ScreenRant.com and its commenting thread has 249 comments.

Commenter A: hacknslash

 

http://screenrant.com/fantastic-four-2015-casting-controversy/

1. Hacknslash seems to be upset that ScreenRant is supposedly changing their stance on this controversy from an earlier article, possibly from a different author. Hacknslash claims they are "stirring the pot."
2. This commenter seems to have a big ego because he's criticizing a popular site.
3. This commenter lacks credibility because of their username of hacknslash, their use of the words "sum" and "mofo," and generally angry tone.

Commenter B: Timmy

http://screenrant.com/fantastic-four-2015-casting-controversy/

1.  Timmy seems to be upset that other minority groups are not as well-represented as black people, while ignoring how the most well represented group in the media by far are white people. He almost seems upset that black people are getting so much media representation.
2. This commenter seems misguided and off-topic. He wants other minority groups to have more media attention, but seems to say that black people have too much representation.
3. This commenter seems unreasonable because of how much he simplifies the issue of racial diversity in media. He never acknowledges that white people have a huge amount of representation, but still claims that black people have too much.

Commenter C: Ellie

http://screenrant.com/fantastic-four-2015-casting-controversy/

 

1. Ellie seems to be supportive of the article's stance against the racist comments. She urges people to focus on the unimportance of the character's race for the plot, and points out Michael B. Jordan's talent.
2.  This commenter seems to value the quality of the movie over the appearance of the characters. She also points out how if movie characters races are changed, many are changed from a minority to white.
3. This commenter seems reasonable because she uses correct grammar and complete sentences. She also has solid logic and three labeled key points. She also establishes her credibility by telling us she is a writer herself.



Commenter D: commonsense



http://screenrant.com/fantastic-four-2015-casting-controversy/



1.  Commonsense expresses anxiety about the siblings in the movie having two different races. He points out that it seems odd and "hard not to notice," suggesting it takes away from the quality of the movie as a whole.
2. This commenter seems to value the flow of the movie. Commonsense is saying that these siblings having different races is distracting and doesn't help to make the movie as seamless as possible.
3. This commenter subtly establishes credibility with their name, commonsense. This subtly suggests that what they're saying is common knowledge and everyone else should agree with their opinion. Also, this commenter says that they're fine with casting Michael B. Jordan before going on to talk about the problems it causes within the movie. So, commonsense is making sure we know that they don't have these opinions just because they're racist.

Update:
I read Cynthia Doan's and Breanna Featherston's posts. From Cynthia's, I have noticed that the more reasonable people spent more time explaining their opinion. Many of the people that write just a sentence tend to come across as more unreasonable. From Breanna's I've learned that I should use more direct quotes when I write. She used a lot of quotes and they helped point out exactly what she was referring to. They helped a lot with the flow of her writing!
Overall, I've learned that people tend to express their opinions much more aggressively on commenting threads than usual. Also, it takes a very calm and collected commenter in order to establish credibility because people are already prone to thinking that any comment is from an extreme source with no credibility, even though that may not be the case.

My Controversy

http://screenrant.com/fantastic-four-2015-casting-controversy/

The controversy I chose to address was about the casting choices for the 2015 Fantastic Four movie. This caught my eye scrolling through my google search results because I'm very excited to see this movie. I love superhero movies and I thought this re-vamp of the Fantastic Four franchise looked great.

I found out that the controversy surrounding Fantastic Four had to do with the director Josh Trank's choice to cast a black actor, Michael B. Jordan, as the Human Torch. Even though he is a fantastic actor with an impressive background, many people spoke out against the decision because he was black. The article on ScreenRant.com explains that many of these comments are hateful and racist. I was very disappointed to see this ridiculous and racist criticism.

Calendar Reflection

Pruitt, D. Sharon, "Free College Pathology Student Sleeping Creative Commons," May 3, 2011, creative common license

In this post, I will be reflecting on my time management for the semester. I need to schedule 6 hours of homework time a week for English 109 outside of class and that sounds daunting to me.

I normally am poor at managing my time, but I've actually found it a little easier at college so far. Because I have so much more time that I'm not in class compared to high school, I've been finding it easier to get everything done.

I plan to go to the library or other places to study during my breaks between classes. This makes use of all the time that I have, especially so I don't spend it walking all the way back to my dorm just to study.

I'm very optimistic about my ability to manage the college workload.

But I'm worried that I might have false hope.

Update:
After reading Chloe's (http://chloeenglish109h.blogspot.com/2015/08/calendar-reflection.html?showComment=1440916985582#c6978151731256986858) and Lauren's (http://97laurenhart.blogspot.com/2015/08/calendar-reflection-when-i-first-looked.html?showComment=1440917229463#c5371228545198723121) blogs, I feel encouraged to have a positive attitude about my weekly schedule in college. Both of these girls are managing their time so well, and their posts have given me hope for having success with my own time management. I definitely agreed with Lauren's idea of using the library to study because it's so close to my classes.

My Writing Process

abac077, "Computer World," Sept. 27, 2007 via flickr, attribution non-commercial share alike license

My first blog post is a reflection on my personal writing process.

1. What type(s) of writer do you consider yourself to be?

I consider myself to be a heavy reviser. Often when I start writing I get into a sort of rhythm. Soon into the process, phrases start coming to me before I'm ready to type them and so I just hit "enter" a few times and leave them at the bottom of the page. Then once I get to the section where I wanted that phrase or sentence to go, I put it in as I type. I normally work through the paper from beginning to end and then go back and revise it more.

2. Does your writing process include several approaches?

I also tend to be a bit of a procrastinator. I believe this is because when I do schoolwork, I often do a lot of one subject at a time. So then I'll have a lot done for Math, but not so much for English. I also tend to convince myself that I need a lot of time to write all at once, because most of the time I do. Once I start writing and get into a rhythm, I feel as if I can't stop or else I'll forget to put something that I liked into my paper. So because of this, I often write my papers in one day or afternoon...which unfortunately often happens to be the last one.

3. Does your writing process seem to be successful? What are the strengths and weaknesses of your approach?

I think my writing process if successful for me. At the end of it I am often very happy with the paper I've written. One of the biggest strengths of my process is that it allows me to write the end of my paper in the same rhythm as the beginning of my paper. This often keeps my voice consistent and helps it flow better. Probably the biggest drawback of my process is that it encourages procrastination. So as a result, some nights before big deadlines end up being filled with a lot of stress and not a lot of sleep.

4. Do you think it might be beneficial to you to try a different approach? Why or why not?

I have tried to write by creating outlines beforehand, but that often doesn't work for me. I normally just end up starting to write sections of my paper instead of planning an outline. However, I sometimes make an outline as I'm writing my paper to make sure I include everything that I want to.

Update:
After reading and commenting on Annelise's (http://adutcher109h.blogspot.com/2015/08/my-writing-process.html?showComment=1440916405086#c1349054367934476623) and Betsie's (http://bdries109h.blogspot.com/2015/08/my-writing-process.html#comment-form) blogs, I feel better about my tendency to procrastinate. I still don't think it's a good thing because of the stress it causes, but I know that not all writing after procrastination is bad quality because of how well these two girls write. I really enjoyed reading their blogs and it gave my insight into different styles and voices for writing.