Voting

Withing the United States every citizen in born with the privileged to vote. Throughout someones life they could lose this privilege but majority of Americans can vote. I am in the majority with the ability to vote. In this election I was unable to vote. For the past 4 years I have been a student at Northern Illinois University and lived on or near campus. Currently I am registered to vote in my home town of Highland Park IL. This is because I turned 18 in high school and wanted to vote in the first election I could. So when attempting to vote in Dekalb I was denied the right to vote as my address isn't in Dekalb. This can be solved if I provide proof of address for my Dekalb address. This is tricky as the provided mail needs to be from the government or a bank statement. As previously stated I don't permanently live in Dekalb and will not change the addresses on any of my mail. This leaves me with only one option to drive home. This too was an unrealistic option as I had an exam and large project due that day as voting was on a Tuesday. If I wanted to miss critical assignment I could have paid $30 and drove home but this would hurt my future. Currently this system is in place to prevent people from voting more than once along with other crimes. One solution I heard is to scan someones drivers license and send that information to a data base. This would work but it cant as not everyone has a drivers license or is required to. Although at birth every person is required to have a social social number. This number is unique for every person and everyone in the states has one. This has already been proven as a working form of identification as banks and many government form use this ID number. This system isn't without its flaws but would be a simple way to make voting more accessible with the new database technology.

What is Fire

Within the short video TED-Ed goes into detail about the nature of fire. At the start he addresses a common misunderstanding that fire is a plasma.This was quickly disproves as plasma only occurs at a much higher temperature than wood burns at. In summary fire is doesn't exist and it is just a combination of many sensory organs. Therefore fire is neither a solid, liquid, gas or a plasma. It is just our brains way of interpreting its given inputs. All in all, TED-Ed does a great job of presenting lots of information in quick and easily consumable way.

Reframing

Alec Mecklenburger

English 308

10/15/18

Reframing

1)      Although we are only halfway through the course the words “Technical communication” has a whole new meaning. Originally going into the class I expected to be writing technical operating manuals and simple instructions. After spending a couple months in the class my personal definition has changed dramatically. Now the definition is much broader than expected. Technical writing is any form of writing where the overall goal is to transfer an idea or information to another person via a medium. Looking towards the future I am eager to refine my unstinting of technical writing and continue to practice my skills.

2)      Story telling is a useful tool that is usually used for entertainment. Story telling can be incorporated into technical writing. All stories have a deeper meaning to them and the writer tries to get the consumer to agree with these ideas usually using pathos. Attaching ideas to emotions using pathos has a stronger and longer lasting effect on the reader witch only strengths the wiring.

3)      Good technical writing effectively transfers an idea to another person. Implementing stories into the writing can provide many benefits. Pathos is one of the strongest apples so incorporating it into wiring can strengthen the message. Story telling will also make the reading more enjoyable. Personally I didn’t go into law as the reading in the class I took was very dry and I didn’t learn much. I went into engineering as many of the readings were backed up with stories of how companies would implement various manufacturing techniques. The addition of the stories helped me enjoy the reading well also helping the ideas stick. The stories were not the main focus of the readings but drastically improved readability well strengthen the core idea or instructions.

4)      I resonate with a couple of the key words; creative and focus. I have taken many English and writing courses in my past and creativity has not been for focus of them. Although my writing might not reflect it I have been focusing on implementing creativity into my wiring after working on the documentary project. Writing a technical paper about a story almost helped me reverse engineer the process and add story elements to my writing. Focus is something I have always been working on with my writing. Many of my writings go off on tangents that don’t help transfer any useful information. Writing a technical review of a documentary helped me stay focused on the goal of avoiding ranting as the documentary takes a linear path.

Zombie Dogs Review

This week the Infographic show looked into recent lab tests on dogs. The testing focused on slowing a dogs heart until clinically dead using a saline solution. Once death was pronounced blood was reintroduced bringing the dog back to life. The human applications for this would be revolutionary as previously lethal injuries can now be treated and the victim will now have much more time for a life saving operation. Yet, there is large push back from the public eye as many see this practice as bring unethical.The Infographic show does a great job of layout the data in an unbiased matter.

Homework CH 2,3,4

Alec Mecklenburger

Z1765414

English 308

Homework

Chapter 2

11)      Summer work is something every college student looks for. The question being posed is if it’s ethical to lie to an employer for personal benefit. From a moral high ground perspective it is never ok to lie for any reason unless it benefits all. In this scenario the employee would be lying to the company to obtain a summer job. This hurts the company as they have to invest time and money into the new employee’s onboarding process. In result this lie does not benefit all and should not be done. A better approach the new employee could make would be to disclose this information but focusing more heavily on how well you can do the job

22)      Donating money to charity is always a good thing. In this case the money being donated is gathered from selling unethical information. The information is unethical because it gives wealthier students better grades well also learning less. This would create a toxic environment on campus and overall negatively affect the university. From a basic perspective the money should not be donated as it is coming at the expense of other students that those scholarships are supposed to help.

Chapter 3

11)      Other Doc

22)     Other Doc

Chapter 4

Document Analysis;

11)      The comments are vague and not constructive.

22)      The collaborator addresses the issues inappropriately. They are vague with solutions well also attacking the writer instead of the writing.

33)      The collaborator uses words like we and I which is bad edict. The collaborator should only address the writing

44)      The collaborator does this poorly as they continually address the writer as a person versus addressing the writing.

Deep Water Reflection

Alec Mecklenburger

Dr. Bonnie Lenore Kyburz

Technical Writing

12 September 2018

Reflection of Deep Water

            Deep water is a Documentary that follows the tragic events of the Golden Globe. This was a round the world sailing race where the sailors were alone and were not allowed to land their boats. At the start of the race there were nine competitors. These competitors gathered from all around the world for the 5,000-pound cash prize. Deep water focuses strongly on Donald Crowhurst’s tragic journey. Crowhurst was an engineer with little sailing experience. He gathered the funds for a boat on a deal that he would finish the race. In the event he didn’t finish he would go into financial ruin. I strongly connected to Crowhurst as I am studying engineering and I race sailboats in my free time. During the race Crowhurst’s boat had many issues which’d caused him to be much slower than the other boats. The combination of the slow boat and stress of the deal he made caused him to cheat the race. Crowhurst’s plan was to wait near the finish and jump in near the end and win. As the race continued many contests dropped out of the race for various reasons. In the end it was between the three sailors Crowhurst, Johnston and Tetley. The first one to finish was Johnston winning the Golden Globe. As the end closed in Tetley’s boat sank leaving Crowhurst alone to finish in second. The stress of finishing the race and being caught faking the journey drove Crowhurst mad. He ended up rambling about cosmic beings in his journal and the sins of man. Later they found his boat abandoned in the ocean. It is assumed Crowhurst died. The film ends with shots of his decaying boat on the shore of a Caribbean island. All in all, the root cause of Crowhurst’s tragic journey is the result from media pressures and the boat’s owner. If he didn’t finish the race both parties would demand large sums of money destroying him and his family. Worried about being discovered as a fraud and having his life ruined he went crazy and disappeared.

Work Cited;

Osmond, Louise, and Jerry Rothwell. “Deep Water (DOCUMENTARY).” YouTube, YouTube, 19 Nov. 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9NS6Uq9-zk&list=WL&index=48&t=1505s

HW Chapter 1 #1

Alec Mecklenburger

Dr. Bonnie Lenore Kyburz

Technical Writing

17 September 2018

Chapter 1 Exercise 1

            Northern Illinois university’s website was professionally made to inform the reader about the university. The first thing I noticed is the color scheme of red and black representing the school’s colors. All the font is easy to read and is displayed very large. In addition to the large font there are a couple high quality images of students that scroll across the welcome page. At the top of the page there are links the user can follow. The links lead to more detailed important information. For clarity the website does a great job. The page feels open and all font is in a large text well also contrasting the background. Next, the welcome page has great accessibility. From this page the user can easily navigate to more information using the links at the top. Finally, the combination of the previous two factors lead to an overall professional look and functionality.

https://www.niu.edu/index.shtml