SOCMED s21 : My PLN/PLE and Social Connections Diagram

ENGLCOM: Not Your Ordinary English Subject (Exit Essay)

I have learned and realized many things about English because of ENGLCOM. First of all, I learned that following a certain process like brainstorming, forming a thesis statement, and making an outline can really help in writing an essay; in fact, I now think it’s a necessity when writing an essay. Before, I just wrote whatever came into my mind when writing an essay. In short, I was brainstorming while I was writing, which turned out to be wrong. Another thing that I learned about English was that writing an essay is not all about writing based on emotions and feelings; sometimes, writing based on facts is also a must. I also realized that substituting certain words and phrases in a passage was not “rewording” or “summarizing”, but it was just plagiarizing. This realization is one of the most important things that I learned as I used to do this on my high school days. I am actually glad that ENGLCOM made me realize this before I start making thesis papers. One more thing that I learned about English is that writing in a first-person point of view when writing an essay especially definition, is a “sin”; meaning it should be avoided as possible as you can. Before, I always used words such as “I” and “We” while I was writing; I thought that my opinion about the topic was always required. Lastly, ENGLCOM taught me how to respect other people’s opinion. I’ll admit, I’m a person with pride; I don’t like it when other people correct me. ENGLCOM made me mature in this aspect as I now respect and consider each and every correction I receive.

Overall, ENGLCOM was a tiring, yet fruitful course. At first I thought it was just another regular English subject, but I was proven wrong yet again. Most of my expectations about it were met, and it helped me realize crucial things. I hope that my other English courses will be as fruitful as ENGLCOM.

My English: How Strong Is It? (Entrance Essay)

In writing in English, I think that I should improve my skills in using proper punctuation, spelling, and capitalization. I am having a hard time in these areas mainly because of texting. I tend to remove all the vowels while writing because of it. Also, with regards to the usage of proper punctuations, I often put commas in places where there shouldn’t be any. Fortunately, I’ve managed to improve in capitalizing words thanks to my English classes back in High school. It’s still not perfect though, and that’s what I’m expecting in Englcom. I want to improve even more. Not only in these areas, but also in others. I feel confident that this subject will help me achieve my goals because it involves writing in different perspectives as well as using various techniques.

Abortion: A Solution or An Excuse? (Argumentative Essay)

Over population, it is one of the most common problems that most countries experience today. Leaders of different countries have tried various methods to solve it such as family planning, encouraging the use of contraceptives, and even implementing laws that limit the number of children that a married couple can have. Among these solutions, there is one that remained debatable up to now; abortion. Abortion is the process of removing the placenta from the uterus before it becomes a fetus; thus aborting the birth process. Although abortion can help in controlling a country's population, it does not justify the fact that a life is taken because of a "mistake" that people themselves have committed.

In spite of these arguments, one can still say that abortion can also prevent the incoming child from unwanted circumstances like the inability of the parent to care and provide for the child. In much simpler terms, it can be said that abortion helps decrease poverty rate. Despite this fact, it is still uncivilized for a society to permit one human to intentionally harm or take the life of another without punishment; abortion is no different. Abortion is akin to murder as it is the act of taking human life. Officially allowing abortion can be compared to officially allowing people to kill.

Of course this fact is also debatable as it somehow violates human rights. At this point, it can also be said that in any case where women demand complete control over their bodies due to unwanted pregnancy, they should be told that they should have just exercised abstinence in the first place; abortion is not the solution for their "mistake" and irresponsibility(Linda Lowen, 2007).

The constitution also states that all men, no matter what age, are created equal, meaning they have equal rights; including the pursuit of happiness. This means that babies still have their own rights to live and be happy in life no matter what or how tragic the circumstances are. Poverty does not guarantee a child's unhappiness; being poor does not necessarily mean that one will be unhappy with his or her life.

In the end, abortion, can in fact, help control a country's population, but its disadvantages are too heavy to be pulled out by its advantages. Abortion is not the solution to everything, especially not to a "mistake" that has been committed. An innocent life still has rights to live, even if it is unwanted. If people did not really want to come to a point wherein they are forced to choose between suffering some consequences or killing an innocent life, then they should have analyzed their situation more carefully instead of making an innocent life suffer the consequences from their own actions.

References:

Kendy Anderson - "Arguments Against Abortion"

http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/arg-abor.html

Linda Lowen - "Ten Arguments For Abortion"

http://womensissues.about.com/od/reproductiverights/a/AbortionArgumen.htm

G. Stolyarov II - "Ethical Arguments Against Abortion: The Cases of Rape and Life Endangerment"

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/279403/ethical_arguments_against_abortion.html?cat=17

Precognition: Have You Experienced It? (Definition Essay)

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, he was a successful president from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Overall, he is a man to be respected, but six weeks before his death, something much more amazing had happened to him; he dreamed of his own death. Although he did not specifically dream about being shot and dying, he dreamed of being an observer after his death. He saw people outside the White House mourning, and when he finally entered the White House, he passed a coffin only to be shocked finding himself looking at his own body. Perceiving one's own death, this phenomenon can be referred to as precognition. Precognition, as defined by the dictionary, is the direct knowledge or perception of the future that is obtained through extrasensory means; particularly through a person's dream. Rosemary Guiley, author of "Harper's Encyclopedia of Mystical and Paranormal Experience", concluded that precognition may also occur spontaneously in waking visions, auditory hallucinations, random thoughts, and "sudden" instincts. She also said that the majority of precognitive experiences usually happen within a forty-eight hour period prior to the foreseen event; it is considered unusual when the precognitive experience occur months or even years before the actual event.

So how can precognition really be explained? One explanation about it involves the constructive role of human observation. According to some observational theories, it is through an observation of a future event that the event is in fact, determined. This future observation informs the present observer under several conditions of motivation and feedback. Observational theories is one, but there are still several ways to explain precognition as a form of extrasensory perception. One of which is the theory about a person's subliminal awareness. Subliminal awareness is classified under the parapsychological approach in explaining precognition. As Dunne(1927) and Saltmarsh(1938) discussed in their respective books, subliminal awareness supposes that awareness is fundamentally transtemporal, acquiring information beyond the "specious present" of information that is typically available for immediate awareness. Another theory about precognition under the parapsychological approach is called the Psi-mediated instrumental response (PMIR). This theory, as offered by Dr.Rex G. Stanford(1993), proposes that humans look at their surroundings unconsciously trying to find motivationally relevant information that will be used to place a person in a goal-relevant position with respect to his or her environment. This process is the one that creates the experience of precognition.

As there are different explanations about precognition, there are also different studies about it. One particular study about precognition is through its case collections. History has records of many instances of precognition and of belief in its occurrence as a form of "looking into the future". A notable example of this collection is when J.W. Dunne, an engineer, recorded each of his dreams as they occurred to him. He then identified correspondences between his future experiences and his recorded dreams. When he reported his findings to "An Experiment with Time", he found out that 10% of his dreams appeared to represent some future events, particularly some major news events appearing a day or so after the dream. Experimental approaches are another way of studying about precognition. There are two kinds of experimental approaches, free-response studies is one. This kind of experimental approach is conducted in sleep laboratories wherein participants are initially free to respond in any manner that spontaneously occur to them through their dreams. The other kind of experimental approach is forced-choice studies, wherein participants use the method of forced-choice matching. This kind of method is basically focused on guesses made by the participants.

In the end, even though precognition is also referred to as "future sight", or the ability to acquire future information, it does not mean that the foreseen event will really happen; it does not mean that the person has no other choice but to accept his or her "fate". After all, free will can change even the perceived future.

References:

http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/p/precognition.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precognition

Advanced Technologies: They're Not Always Beneficial (C&E Essay)

PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, EyeToy, and supercomputers. These are examples of some of the advanced technologies available today. They may be expensive, but they are worth it; they are products of scientific progress. These kind of technology may most be beneficial, but be wary as having some of these advanced technologies can also cause various effects that eventually lead to a person becoming ignorant of his or her surrounding.

An advanced technology is essential to having or enhancing computer graphics, because of this fact, it has been proven that advanced technology cause teenagers to become more addicted to video games. Teenagers can easily be hooked to video games with enhanced graphics; a boy may get more addicted to his favorite video game once it is released on a better console, causing him to become too addicted with it that can lead to him being "stuck" in the virtual world.

Most addicted players nowadays prefer the virtual world over the real world; players therefore tend to run away from reality by playing video games. Take for example a person who is too addicted to virtual girls, he may find it more interesting to play a dating game with all his "perfect" virtual girls than to date a real girl. In conclusion, preferring the virtual world over the reality is the cause of a person having less social life.

As stated earlier, being "stuck" on a virtual world causes a person to become less sociable; these kind of people usually have the tendency to be left alone by his or her own friends. A person may have insufficient time for his or her real friends because of spending too much time playing with his or her "other" friends. This fact is the reason why it is also proven that having less social life eventually causes a person to become ignorant of his or her own surrounding.

Once a person becomes ignorant of the things surrounding him or her, he or she will eventually not know how to interact with others properly. An example of this can be compared to an ignorant boy not knowing how to properly talk with a girl.

In the end, having the latest and most advanced technologies today has its advantages, but they are not always beneficial. Although it may have several side-effects, it does not mean that they cannot be avoided. A person should just learn to have proper control and management over his or her actions.

Real Love vs. Infatuation: I Love You, I Love You Not (C&C Essay)

"I Love You". These three words can be easy to say, but can be difficult to understand as they hold different meanings. "What more can it possibly mean?" A person might wonder, but saying "I Love You" does not necessarily mean that a person is showing his or her love. Ironically, it is more like he or she is showing another kind of feeling; which is called infatuation. Love and infatuation can easily be mistaken for each other, but even though most people think that they are the same, being in love and being infatuated have major differences in terms of their basis, characteristics, and effects.


Ideal guys and ideal girls, this is what a person searching for "love" usually looks out for; but can it really be called love once you meet your ideal partner? Most people think so, but that feeling cannot really be called love; it is infatuation. As Samson Itoje stated in his 2007 article, infatuation is another kind of feeling that focuses more on a person's physical aspect and satisfaction. When a person claims to be in love at first sight is a concrete example of being infatuated. How can a person say that he or she is already in love when he or she just saw the person? It just proves that the person was just being infatuated with the other person's appearance. Real love, on the other hand, is not just focused on a person's physical aspect. As Samson Itoje also stated in his 2007 article, real love is mostly focused on reality; it also involves making sacrifices for the sake of the other. This kind of feeling can usually be found in "unexpected" couples, or couples that most people find incompatible. When people see an ugly guy going out with a beautiful girl, or vice-versa, they usually say that it is real love. Why? Because people can be assured that it is not based on physical attraction. Cruel, yes, but it is the truth; hence the saying called "Real Love is Blind".


Basis is not the only difference between love and infatuation, they still differ when it comes to their characteristics. Infatuation is selfish; it is primarily interested in personal "feelings". Also, infatuation can easily be weakened by time and separation. Infatuated people have the tendency to forget about people whom they spend less time with. On the contrary, real love is selfless; it seeks more to give than to receive. It unselfishly seeks the highest good for the other person. Also, unlike infatuation, real love is strengthened by time and separation, but it does not mean that there is no pain in it. Rather, there is much more pain in separation when a person is really in love.


The last notable difference between these two feelings are their effects. After being infatuated, people usually feel that they had wasted time. Eventually, they realize that they did not really fall in love. There are also times when people feel irritated as they think that they just made a fool out of themselves for believing that they had been in love. Being in love, however, makes a person feel satisfied and committed. It makes people appreciate life even more; sometimes, they even feel as if they can live forever as long as they are with their partners.


In the end, infatuation and real love are two very different feelings, but it does not mean that one cannot lead to another. Infatuation can eventually lead to real love; it just depends on a person's choice and effort in his or her life.



References:
http://psychcentral.com/library/love_infatuation.html
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/28170