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‘Work(s) in Progress’ Category

  1. E-Portfolio

    April 18, 2013 by Francis Flores

    Hello, all. This is pretty weird just doing a WIP post. I’m not sure if I like it all that much.

    Anyway, here’s the website for my E-portfolio.

    For this portfolio, my target audience would be future employers and future deans of graduate schools. I want them to see me as not only professional, but also accomplished and dynamic. I believe that the pieces I include, and will continue to add onto, will convey that to them.

    The pieces I want to add are:

    • Definitely my blog. I don’t mean to boast or sound overly confident, but I really loved my blog posts over the year.
    • History of a Public Controversy Video
    • Rhetorical Analysis Essay
    • This I Believe Podcast
    • Online Deliberation Reflection Essay
    • Persuasive Essay
    • Advocacy Project
    • And let’s not forget the résumé

  2. Anti-Smoking Initiative

    April 4, 2013 by Francis Flores

    Well, last week, Ammara was the one who posted, so it’s my turn! To answer your question on the previous post, Anne: no, Maddie isn’t working with us. I was originally going to work with Jess and Maddie but that changed.

    1. Well, so far, to kind of just further elaborate on last week’s post, we just discussed exactly what our goal was for this project. We want to see a change in smoking habits on campus because not only is it hazardous to the ones smoking, but it’s also hazardous to everyone around them; however, we want to do this in a way that won’t sound so preachy. There are so many anti-smoking ads that sometimes it gets overbearing, which is the kind of thing we want to avoid. Ammara had also mentioned wanting to interview the people who do smoke, but I wasn’t sure exactly what she wanted to ask them so that’s something we have to work on.

    2. I don’t think we really had any questions. But I guess: is it a requirement to post this project where it’s intended to be posted, or was it just something to help us find a concrete audience to focus our video on?


  3. Persuasive Essay: VERY ROUGH Draft

    March 22, 2013 by Francis Flores

    Persuasive Essay Rough Draft

    According to the Cyberbullying Research Center, “about half of young people have experienced some form of cyber-bullying, and ten to twenty percent experience it regularly” (Cyber Bullying Statistics). Cyber-bullying may be in the form of what started as teasing and escalated into relentless tormenting, circulating private information or pictures, or even stalking and sexual harassment. With the technological revolution that has been occurring nowadays, it has become more common for bullying to take place in the vast world of the Internet. It jumps from social media site to social media site. It may often reach an extreme and the one who is being bullied does something drastic, and according to the Suicide Prevention Resource Center, 21% of those who committed suicide were bullied (SPRC). Bullying, whether it is physical, verbal, or mental, has deep psychological effects for both the bully and the victim and needs to be recognized; because it is so common amongst adolescents, it is the parents and teachers who must be educated so they can see the warning signs and know when to stop it. The problem is not just the bullying itself, but it is also the lack of laws and policies that make facilitate the process of reducing this. In order to restrict this, there need to be laws implemented that allow school sanctions and criminal prosecution. It won’t be easy, mostly because it’s the enforcement that proves to be the problem, but with the help of media attention, people will want to turn the prevention of bullying into a fad, instead.

    Bullying has increased over the years and has had fatal consequences, especially amongst adolescents. While physical bullying also includes visible bruises and scars, the emotional impact bullying can have is worse. It can take away a person’s self-esteem and feelings of self-worth. It can leave someone confused as to why someone has so much hatred towards them. The worst thing it does, though, it is manipulates any sense of trust and confidence. This is a civic issue because it entails the well-being of the upcoming generations. We live in a society that is now succumbing to feeling of depression; a place where there are multiple crisis hotlines that have no real power other than a place for a distressed person to call. Cyber-bullying impacts not only the victim, but the family if something were to happen to the person being bullied. It’s hard to even imagine the feeling of knowing your child was tormented enough to want to die and not knowing anything about it and knowing there are no consequences for the person who inflicted the damage. This policy isn’t something that is said but never done. It is something that the victim and/or their family can rely on.

    My plan is to implement concrete policies that will provide comfort for the victim, such as allow a school to take action and suspend/expel a student and allow for the state or city to fine or contain the culprit. If it is the victim who comes forward, anonymity should be enforced because that is where threats arise, and the school must take immediate action. There is no time for any warning. Because this a serious issue, the punishment must be serious as well. Suspension would occur in the unlikely event that the bully stops, but it if does continue, expulsion is necessary. Fines would be given with a $500 minimum, and if the threats include death, they should be contained. Sometimes, it is not only the bully that is the problem, but it as the adult to whom it is reported to that causes a bigger problem. To stop that, the teacher could also face the same consequences because knowing that there is a problem and not acting on it, is just as bad as causing the problem yourself. It may sound harsh, but it could scare the bullies straight and it could appease the victims; however, first, the government would need to clearly define bullying in order to implement these policies to help the bullied and their families, but it is the job of the parents to also identify the signs and the job of the victim to get help. Schools, though they do this now, need to further educate the parents and their own teachers. They will need to monitor any internet activity that takes place on their own campus, as will any government or city funded building, such as a library. The problem is often proving who the bully is and restricting the spread of their actions. To help mitigate that, the social media websites, such as Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, etc., need to implement courses of actions that one could take if in distress.

    Because bullies are different everywhere, there is no telling whether or not it could be rendered effective everywhere that it is implemented. Yes, the internet is indefinitely vast and cannot be controlled everywhere at all times, but if there were some restrictions that made it harder for the bullies to inflict any kind of emotional damage, then there is at least something being done. No, restrictions cannot be posed everywhere, but the victim does have the ability to “block” someone. If that doesn’t work, there are support links on certain websites. I know for a fact that there are places to go for help on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. There could also be arguments against the implementing of fines because it seems harsh. Compared to the emotional damage that was inflicted, there is not enough money to fix that. It will take therapy and an ability to be able to trust again that no one else could give back.

    By implementing criminal prosecution and school sanctions, the effects of cyber-bullying could be weakened. Cyber-bullying has damaged a number of adolescents of today, but now that it has even reached the media, there is no way that people won’t bring attention to it now. With every action, there needs to be a consequence. Even though they are young, they need to understand that their actions could have very permanent results, whether it results in trauma or death. It seems harsh to put that on one person, but it is even harsher to realize that their actions hurt deeply enough to cause damage and to even think that suicide is an option. With these plans of educating the adults so that they could educate the kids, alongside the plans of harsh consequences for harsh actions, cyber-bullying could be minimalized.


  4. Essay Proposal

    March 14, 2013 by Francis Flores

    1. For my essay, I want to address the issue of cyber-bullying.
    2. I want to propose a policy of action for those who do cyber-bully. The internet was not brought about to say horrid things to one another or to group together and bully one person. I am aware that it is impossible to track everyone on the internet, but if it had stricter rules on what could be posted and spread, then this problem could die down just a little bit. Bullying, whether it is physical or emotional, can affect the whole course of someone’s life and there has been a rising epidemic of cyber-bullying, especially amongst teenagers.
    3. My target audience is for the ones who run social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Reddit, etc, and also for adults, who influence their kids’ behaviors. I know they could help with restricting and with it reaching the media, it could help to create advocates for this cause who will, if not stop the cyber-bullying, help the one being bullied to reach out for help. I plan on reaching out to these people because if restrictions are placed and these adults realize how their actions affect the actions of their children, action can be taken.
    4. For this project, if possible, I would like to work with a partner. I would like to create a video that would explain the effects this has and expose the bullies of the internet while explaining why action needs to take place.

  5. Reflection on Civic Issues!

    February 14, 2013 by Francis Flores

    1. Well, I think that my writing for each blog (WIP, Civic Issues, Passion) is different. When I’m writing for my WIP blog, I have a specific topic that I need to write about, and I usually have questions that I need to answer, much like this; however, though my Civic Issues and passion blogs both pretty much give me free reign, when I write a Civic Issues blog, I look for sources that might support what I’m trying to say.
    2. I think a good CI post provokes emotion, whether it’s negative or positive (I’m just being broad), which will also spark a conversation. It has to be somewhat formal, since most of these topics are pretty controversial, but it’s always good to add a little bit of yourself in there so it actually seems like a conversation.
    3. I’ve only posted once, and the two that posted agreed with me, but Ammara did point out some technical details which made me start worrying about future posts and which details to add to make it more conversational or informative.
    4. I’m so jealous of my blogging group because they have a great way of getting out what they want to say and sounding so eloquent, but at the same time, I can imagine them saying it so it’s not exactly pretentious. I think that’s a good balance and I’ve noticed that it makes the posts easier to read.
    5. I think I’d just like to keep people updated on the news for my topic, and possibly rant about a few things pertaining to that. I don’t exactly have anecdotes, but if I have that I deem fitting, I’d like to include those too.

  6. Online Deliberation Reflection Essay: Criteria

    February 7, 2013 by Francis Flores

    Yay, another project! You got to love college, right?

    So anyway, I’m taking my ideas and criteria out of the first three chapters as follows:

    • For chapter one, I actually got them off of the outline that Anne provided for us (thank you, Anne) and to help with my reflection, I have to first do these things within my actual postings and conversations on my forum: Inclusion, Enlightened Understanding, and taking the different steps of Deliberation. With Inclusion, I have to actually put myself out there and then accept any others who wish to include themselves and respond to them too. With Enlightened Understanding, I have to understand what I am saying and then understand what another person may be saying to me. With the different steps of deliberation (found on pg. 9), this will help me piece together the inclusion and enlightened conversation so that I can deliberate with other people.
    • For chapter two, on page 25, I came across Diversity in Conversation, which I think moves deliberation along. Without this diversity, there isn’t a proper amount of opinions circulating and it’s not really a deliberation, it’s more of a friendly conversation where everyone agrees with one another.
    • For chapter three, on page 56, I came across Objectivity, Expertise, and Bias. I think that this is extremely important, especially with the diversity aspect of deliberation. I think that relevance is extremely important, because no one wants extraneous information, especially if it’s false. There is also a line that comes with expressing opinions, though, and that is the line between an opinion and a bias. If someone is biased, then they will voice an opinion, but they will not be swayed and they may even come off as rude or offensive in some cases, so that should definitely be avoided in this case.

  7. Online Deliberation

    January 31, 2013 by Francis Flores

    Hey, guys! So my online deliberation is going to correlate directly with my Civic Issues blog, so I’m super excited. I found this forum: http://www.youdebate.com/cgi-bin/scarecrow/forum.cgi?forum=18

    and it should be pretty interesting to see what different people have to see. It’s always interesting to have other insights on something, and it’s also interesting to refute them if deemed necessary (which tends to happen on the magical world that is the INTERNET).


  8. This I Believe

    January 31, 2013 by Francis Flores

    This I Believe

    Imagine this: hot tears, sweaty palms, uncontrollable shaking, a slight pushing on your chest as if someone is sitting on you, and no sense of where you are. It’s a scary thing to imagine, but that is what an anxiety attack is. How do I know? Well, I’ve lived it.

    There is always one common question when this occurs: “Why did that just happen?” The most common response would be, “I really don’t know,” but of course I do; I just don’t want to be the one to admit it to myself. I don’t want to be the one to admit that I was the trigger. Being in my head isn’t good for me.

    Now, imagine this: you’re rehearsing onstage for the upcoming musical and you can’t breathe, so you run outside for some air. Everything is spinning. Your legs don’t work. There is suddenly no reason to be happy. You start to question yourself. What am I doing? Why am I here? I hate to be that person, but this does happen. People do think this way. Again, how do I know? Because I’ve lived it.

    Once you dive into that thought process, there’s no turning back. I blacked out, and remember waking up on the floor. My boyfriend (then just a good friend) was sitting next to me and holding my hand and whispering, “What happened? Are you okay?”

    I could only look at him and stare helplessly until my breathing slowed. I was so embarrassed. “I’m so sorry,” I muttered softly.

    He pushed my hair out of my face and said, “There’s no need to apologize. Just promise me you’ll get better.”

    All I could think was, “Well, great, he thinks I’m just an emotional wreck. I must have looked awful and unstable and hopeless. I hate myself. I deserved this,” but I managed to s ay, “I promise.”

    He picked me up and helped me drink some water. He wiped my tears from my face and whispered, “I could only imagine what you’re thinking right now, but don’t think I see you any differently. And don’t you dare think even for a second that you deserved this.”

    I couldn’t say anything. What was I supposed to say? I said the only thing I could. “Thank you.”

    I was stunned. How did he know? My head was spinning until I heard him ask, “Do you believe me?”

    All I could do was nod my head. He looked me straight in the eyes and said, “You better. You deserve to be happy. No one deserves these anxiety attacks. I don’t know why you get them, or if you know why, but you have to promise me that they will not define you. You deserve better than that. You’re worth it.”

    I stared at him for a long while and I walked back inside and finished rehearsal with his words on my mind. I was still shaky and hated the fact that I had an anxiety attack but knowing that I had someone to get me through it helped me. He was right. I have too much to do. I came this far for a reason. When I had other ones, he was always there to talk me through it, no matter what time it was or where we were, and he always reassured me of the same thing: I deserve to be happy because I am worth it.

    He helped me to believe that I am not who I see myself to be. He helped me to see that I am here because I have so much going for me. He helped me to accept my flaws. He helped me to see that I do not deserve these attacks. I would definitely not be where I am or who I am if I didn’t have him supporting me, and he is the very reason I believe that everyone needs someone to help them believe in themselves. I know that no matter what it is, he will be there to help me get through it, and this inspires me to believe that there is always someone who will see your worth when you do not.

    Because of him, I believe that I deserve to be happy. I believe I am worth it.


  9. Political Communication and Deliberation: Chapter 1

    January 24, 2013 by Francis Flores

    1. Deliberation is going a problem multiple times and coming to a solution after much thought. A deliberation includes many opinions, both relevant and diverse, so that a consensus may be achieved. A deliberation should not be confused with something that one person believes for a whole group of people.
    2. The three key criterions are: inclusion, participation opportunities, and enlightened understanding. Inclusion is recognizing members of a certain democracy whether it’s an entire nation or something on a smaller scale, such as a particular community. Participation opportunities are things such as the ability to express opinions, expressing interest in certain issues, and voting. Enlightened understanding is what makes an opinion relevant towards an issue; it is the line between a deliberation and something that is unreflective.
    3. Deliberation in the democratic process is what makes something democratic. People have the opportunity to express their opinions and elect someone capable to represent them on a larger scale. Deliberation in the democratic process embodies all three criterions, and defines a democracy itself.
    4. I learned that deliberation is more than just a fancy word for “think”—it defines the way we run this country.
    5. I didn’t understand how Cuba can call themselves a true democracy. That stood out to me.

  10. This I Believe (Rough Draft)

    January 17, 2013 by Francis Flores

    Just a reminder that this is a work in progress, so sorry if it’s a bit shoddy.

    This I Believe.

    Imagine this: hot tears, sweaty palms, uncontrollable shaking, a slight pushing on your chest as if someone is sitting on you, and no sense of where you are. It’s a scary thing to imagine, but that is what an anxiety attack is. How do I know? Well, I’ve lived it.

    There is always one common question when this occurs: “Why did that just happen?” The most common response would be, “I really don’t know,” but of course I do; I just don’t want to be the one to admit it to myself. I don’t want to be the one to admit that I was the trigger. Being in my head isn’t good for me.

    Now, imagine this: you’re rehearsing onstage for the upcoming musical and you can’t breathe, so you run outside for some air. Everything is spinning. Your legs don’t work. There is suddenly no reason to be happy. You start to question yourself. What am I doing? Why am I here? I hate to be that person, but this does happen. People do think this way. Again, how do I know? Because I’ve lived it.

    Once you dive into that thought process, there’s no turning back. I blacked out, and remember waking up on the floor. My boyfriend (then just a good friend) was sitting next to me and holding my hand and whispering, “What happened? Are you okay?”

    I could only look at him and stare helplessly until my breathing slowed. I was so embarrassed. “I’m so sorry,” I muttered softly.

    He pushed my hair out of my face and said, “There’s no need to apologize. Just promise me you’ll get better.”

    All I could think was, “Well, great, he thinks I’m just an emotional wreck. I must have looked awful and unstable and hopeless. I hate myself. I deserved this,” but I managed to say, “I promise.”

    He picked me up and helped me drink some water. He wiped my tears from my face and whispered, “I could only imagine what you’re thinking right now, but don’t think I see you any differently. And don’t you dare think even for a second that you deserved this.”

    I couldn’t say anything. What was I supposed to say? I said the only thing I could. “Thank you.”

    I was stunned. How did he know? My head was spinning until I heard him ask, “Do you believe me?”

    All I could do was nod my head. He looked me straight in the eyes and said, “You better. You deserve to be happy. No one deserves these anxiety attacks. I don’t know why you get them, or if you know why, but you have to promise me that they will not define you. You deserve better than that. You’re worth it.”

    I stared at him for a long while and I walked back inside and finished rehearsal with his words on my mind. I was still shaky and hated the fact that I had an anxiety attack but knowing that I had someone to get me through it helped me. He was right. I have too much to do. I came this far for a reason. When I had other ones, he was always there to talk me through it, no matter what time it was or where we were, and he always reassured me of the same thing: I deserve to be happy because I am worth it.

    He helped me to believe that I am not who I see myself to be. He helped me to see that I am here because I have so much going for me. He helped me to accept my flaws. He helped me to see that I do not deserve these attacks. I would definitely not be where I am or who I am if I didn’t have him supporting me.

    I believe that everyone needs someone to help them believe in themselves. I believe that, no matter what it is, he will be there to help me get through it. I believe that there is always someone who will see your worth when you do not. I believe that I deserve to be happy. I believe I am worth it.


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