Wow! What a week it’s been. I’m happy to announce that my cultural research project on Cher Wang is complete. I’m thrilled with how it turned out. I’ve had lots of help from peers, OSU librarians, and the instructor to bring it all together. The easiest part of the project was gathering information and images. There seems to be an abundance of information on Cher Wang because the amount of recent interviews with her and articles published in her business decisions. Of course, this meant I had the task of sifting through all this information and deciding what deserved a place on my web pages. Prepping the images was easy. I plan on starting up a blog this summer to mark my progress through my favorite video game, so having experience with uploading media will be good to have.
The hardest part of the project was formatting and determining what information went where. I had a difficult time distinguishing between what belonged in the culture and trend sections of the project. After looking at some examples and asking the instructor for help, I think I’ve figured it out.
This project gave me a lot of new experiences in regards to writing a paper. Up until now, I’ve never used the OSU librarians for help. I didn’t even know I could email them and ask them for help in finding resources for a paper. I almost felt like I was cheating. This exercise really helped though; I was able to write most of my culture and trend sections using the three articles provided to me. I also had never used SafeAssign before. My experience with it for this project is pretty small; after submitting my paper, the database came back telling me it didn’t have enough entries on my subject to provide me with useful feedback. I think writing instructors should make SafeAssign more prominent in their courses so students can add to the database and expand its capabilities.
Finally, I had my first experience using the Online Writing Lab at OSU to provide feedback on my paper. I had heard about this, but for some reason had never considered using it. The feedback I was given was incredible! Jaime was able to point out some past and present tense issues in my biography section, and she also suggested places I could expand if I wanted to. She confirmed that my organization and ‘voice’ of the paper were clear. Now it’s time to take a sneak peek into what I’ll be working on next week: the gender lens project. I shall now relate to you my experiences with LEGOs as a child.
When I was very little, I received two gifts for my birthday. My parents gave me a large box of LEGOs, and my grandmother gave me a themed Barbie set (I think it was Barbie Dentist or something like that). I was immediately drawn to LEGOs, while poor Barbie sat on my shelf and collected dust. My grandmother, thinking I didn’t have enough Barbie sets to compliment my Dentist Barbie, bought be a Barbie Dreamhouse (again, names are approximate). After that, I only played with Barbie when I had friends over who wanted to play with her. I always preferred LEGOs. I guess I always liked the fact that my imagination was the only limitation on what I could do with them. Even as I entered middle school and high school, I kept them around (until my junior year actually). I continued to purchase sets so I could have access to specialized pieces, and then I would build large extravagant mansions and vehicles. I would customize my own little LEGO person, and then my best friend and I would roleplay a variety of situations where we would trade stuff, build additions to our mansions, or go on crazy adventures. I could sit on the floor for hours with LEGOs. It’s one of the best childhood memories I have.
