Meta-Cognitive Analysis

Lesly Alas

Sean Pessin
English 114 B

April 24, 2013

Meta-cognitive Analysis

College is really a different experience from high school. The moment you walk onto campus there is a feeling of freedom and independence, but along with those feelings there is also responsibility as a student to do your best. The reason I mention this is because as a student my class mates and I were responsible of creating a hybrid essay which is something that I had never heard of before. We had great guidance and lots of time but most relevantly we are becoming well rounded students learning different ways to display our work.

            Having to write this essay I came to the realization that there is more to writing than just words. As this essay taught me a picture can say a lot more than many different words put together. The example hybrid essays that I read were very powerful because they explained a lot some with a few words and pictures. Every time I thought of an essay I always imagined pages and pages of words never pictures and a few sentences. What I was delighted with was seeing how each of the authors decided to use the pictures. Although one of the examples that I read did not use pictures the writing style they utilized was completely different to a simple essay. They repeated the same word like a million times and yet the essay still made sense. In a non-hybrid essay I am sure the teacher could mark off a lot of words, but here it’s ok because it is a type of style that is being used.

            The challenging part of this assignment for me was being able to get it too look presentable in way that made sense. What I mean by this is that I wanted the pictures that I included to help enhance the visual in my essay. I was not able to make it look the way that I pictured it in my mind. I think this is where it comes in the fact that I have a lot to learn about posting things on a blog. As I was working on my essay on Microsoft everything was O.K but when I attempted to put it on the blog everything went downhill. I was not sure how to wrap the pictures around the text and I couldn’t make the pictures be where I wanted them too.

On one the example essays as I read it, it gave me the sense that I was walking alongside the person that was telling the story. This is something that I tried to incorporate in my essay. I wanted my essay to sound more of like a story so that it gives my essay the feel as if it is an adventure that I had as I completed the assignment. I also think that I went even a step further and I changed the point of view of my essay. I was going to write it in first but I felt it would be more fun to do so in the third person. For this essay I did fail to add a video because I was not entirely sure where I could fit one in and have it not be too random. All of the videos that I thought of were cute pandas doing silly things and I did not think that, that would go well with the way I was telling my story.

They Hybrid Essay have been by far one of the most fun assignments that I have ever done so far in my years of school. I honestly would have never thought that a teacher would ask me to add pictures into my essay. It had always been that I had to use quotes with my essays never a picture. This assignment has also been inspirational to me because now I feel like I should blog about something. Overall I am very proud of my work because this is my first hybrid essay and I know for a fact that there are a lot of more cool tricks that I need to learn about blogging and hybrid essay writing.

Hybrid Essay

Lesly Alas

Sean Pessin

English 114 B

April 24, 2013

HyBrid Essay

   The moment a student walks into a classroom they expect the teacher to assign homework but you never really know what exactly it is going to be. As it turns out for a classroom in CSUN they were assigned to work on a blog. This blog could be about anything that the student wished, but let’s not forget that there were also boundaries and that meant the topic chosen by the student had to be approved. For any of those who are wondering what blog is it is a web page that has information about a certain topic. The topics could be any range of things and they could be informative or just fun. The story I am about to tell is the one of a student who decided to make her blog about an animal that she has been obsessed with ever since she was in the third grade. This animal is known as the Giant Panda and in her blog she wrote about the endangerment of the Panda, its habitat, its main staple food, and occasionally a random picture or video that she had found on the Internet.

            Her blog begins by talking about how she decided to start her research for her it was very easy to know that Pandas would be her main topic. Although at some point she did feel that maybe she should talk about an issue that surrounded her on a daily basis and this was finding a good restaurant. She was divided at this moment not knowing what to choose but after careful consideration she made the decision that it would be very much worth her time to write about the endangerment of the Giant Panda. For her this was all an amazing learning experience that she didn’t think that she would enjoy after all it was a homework assignment. She had never done a blog before so she was not sure what to expect at first she wasn’t even sure what exactly she would write about. There was a variety of things that she explored the most important to her was letting people know that Pandas are cute and that they are endangered and that they need help so that they won’t go extinct. She tried to spend a lot of time emphasizing to her readers that they had to do something to be heroes to the entire panda population.  

            The student had known for a long time that her Pandas were endangered but she did not know why they were in danger. The research helped her understand that the dying Pandas were due to a lack of a healthy habitat. As it turns out this was how she had to begin reading about bamboo. She learned many surprising things about bamboo that she would of never thought to look into on her own time. Some of her friends had even began to complain to her that she was learning to much about bamboo and that she should stop blurting out random facts about Pandas and bamboo. This project was beginning to interfere with her daily life and even the patience of her friends. But it was not all bad because she also used this knowledge to make friends. In one situation that she found her-self she used a random fact as an ice-breaker and just told the girl next to her “Did you know that the Giant Panda is the only bear that doesn’t hibernate?” She did get a weird look from this girl but soon after they began to talk.

 As the project was coming to end she realized that there was a giant thing that she missed. She should have talked about the WWF. This organization even has the Panda as its logo. She doesn’t understand how she missed out on talking about them when she read about them and she even said to herself that she would talk about them on her blog. All of this time she had thought that the Panda was the permanent logo of the WWF but as it turns out the logo wasn’t always the Panda. The fact that she failed to mention a crucial supporter of the Pandas bothered her but now there was nothing that she could do. Now all that was left was to reflect and think about why she had not done a post on them.

            All of her post she tried to make them tie back to the well-being of the Panda. For this student that was her absolute and most significant thing that she could mention. There are no words to describe how much she wishes that everyone would understand the hardships that Pandas have to endure. The pictures and videos that she posted she tried to appeal to the emotional side of her reader so that the adorableness of the Pandas would make them feel the need to want to help them. She wanted her readers to have the urge to go up to a Panda and just give it a giant hug.

 One of the post that was on her blog was a poll that asked if Pandas were dangerous and although they did not get many answers people did not really think Pandas were dangerous. The student was expecting to get more negative answers because even though Pandas are adorable they are still wild animals that may react in an unexpected way if presented with danger.

            To this particular student the issue of Pandas going extinct was of great importance. Ever since she received that giant stuffed Panda Bear from her father she had a connection with this beautiful creature. To her the uniqueness of this bear has to be saved.  At the end of all of this she has realized that homework can be fun even if it involves some work. This blog taught her that it is not that difficult to start a blog and talk about something they like. To her what made the project easy to enjoy was that she was able to write about anything that she wanted about the Pandas. Every time as she sat down to write her next post she tried to add some of her personality to it. She wanted the reader to have fun while they read, but she also wanted them to understand what they were reading.
          The student responsible for this blog felt accomplished after all of her hard work. She is happy that the teacher decided to give them such an assignment because this was a great learning opportunity for her not only computer wise but also a Panda learning opportunity. She doesn't like to admit it but she is not very good with computers.
 And so it ended. She was finally done with the assignment. So she and her thought of the Pandas lived Happily Ever After.

           

Conclusion

Unfortunately I have to inform you guys that this blog has come to end. I have to admit that I did enjoy this experience because I learned more than I thought I would from researching the Giant Pandas. I even learned about bamboo because it is connected to the daily lives of Pandas. I even had a complain from one of my close friends that I knew too many random things about bamboo and Pandas themselves. Having written this blog also made me want to start a different blog about a topic that is still unknown to me. The reason I made this blog was because it was a homework assignment, BUT the topic I chose was very important to me because I love pandas. It is very hard for me to explain the way I feel about them because I wish I could protect every one of them like if they were the children I don't have. These creatures are beautiful and they are part of the world that we live in and we have to take care of everything on this planet because if we don't no one else will. If there is anything that I want all of my readers to take from this blog its that we have to become aware of the well being of the all the animals that surround us because they depend on us to care for them even if it only means not ruining their habitat. Thank You to all of those who took the time to follow my blog you guys made one one very happy blogger.

My Territory

As I have recently discovered Pandas mark their territory. I thought that this was only a thing that dogs did but I guess not. Although for Pandas it is more on letting their mates know where they are. This is one of their ways of communication ( it is possible they still don't use cellphones). This  way of communication is mainly used by the Panda when they are ready for mating. On one of my earlier post I mentioned that research showed us that they are not always in isolation, but for better communication this is one of the methods that they use. The study found that the Pandas have high standards for the locations that they use for scent making. There are specific things that they look for when deciding where to mark some of those factors  that they consider are the roughness of the bark, there also has to be moss on the tree bark, the diameter of the tree bark, and lastly the distance of the tree to the trail. Before you think that Pandas are picky let me mention that they have really good reasons behind this criteria. These simple things decide how strong the scent will be, or how long it will last, and this enhances the communication between them. Researchers are not surprised that they are efficient with their communication because they believe their poor diet plays a role in this as well as they do not get a lot of energy.

Science Daily

Cute Pic

Awww So Adorable. Random Pic I found.

Ethnography

I went to a reading by Jeffrey McDaniel, which was located in Chaparal Hall.

The following picture shows how I saw the location of reading. Please take a look at my amazing diagram.

Daily life of a Panda

Have you ever wondered what a Panda does on a daily basis, because I know I have.To be honest when I thought of a Panda I just pictured them sitting and eating and of course sleeping. My thoughts were correct except that for them it is a little more complicated than just finding food, eating, and resting. Although it sounds simple enough it is on the contrary very difficult for them because with the way that their habitats are now finding food can become a challenge. In some way it was easier for past generations of Pandas to find food in that they had healthier habitats, but they still had to face dangerous things like hunters who kill them. Now a days their are more laws against hunting Pandas and their killing has slowed down a bit but some hunters still get away with such things. Now moving on to a  much happier subject recently research has shown that Pandas like to live close to other Pandas. Before it was thought that they preferred to be isolated and only get together when it was breeding time, now we know that Pandas come together even when it is not breeding season. Things are not always as easy as they seem, I hope now you understand, even when it seems that Pandas have it easy because they just eat and sleep there are other dangers that they face. Lastly you should know that  Pandas are such unique bears that they don't hibernate.