The author utilizes a survey he conducted as primary research for the basis of the essay. He also uses a semiotic analysis in order to show the differences between the two schools. The evidence concluded about the schools is very effective in my personal opinion; however, there are some changes that I would suggest to make the paper stronger. He ends a paragraph with a quote, which is something that I think is bad because it makes no sense. There is no explanation of the quote that way and so it seems as though he is adding the quote randomly into the paper and makes it confusing as to why it is there.

The author makes his claims credible through the people he quotes, who are credible people such as school officials. He also uses statistics that help to clarify the racial differences between the two schools.

The style of this paper overall is well written and I liked it a lot. It was easy to read and organized in a smart way. One thing that I think could use a little help is the thesis. This paper needs an evolving thesis and I felt like after reading his I knew for the most part what the rest of the paper was going to be about, not much was there to intrigue me to continue reading the essay. Other than that I felt the authors writing was good and the paper read fluently.

There are a lot of sources used in this paper that does boost the ethos, but I think the author may have used too many sources for a paper this short. The citing and in text annotations are correctly done. Overall I would probably give this paper a B+ because although it is a strong paper, the number of sources for a paper of this length does take away from the paper slightly. He integrates his primary and secondary sources into the paper well and for the most part does a good job explaining them well to back up his claim. However, as stated before the thesis does not seem to be evolving and is basically a layout of the rest of the paper, which also takes away from the paper.

2. Based off the interviews that I did with people around Syracuse Campus, there was not much that I found out that I did not already have some idea about. It was interesting to find out that a lot of the people who played the game very easily came together as a team, even without having any idea who most of the other players were. The research I did through this game helped to open up my eyes to the fact that there are many things on campus that make it possible for people to expand their horizons, it is simply that most people do not take advantage of these opportunities. This knowledge helped to give me more direction on what I could find for my secondary research.

3. At this point I still need to know more about what exactly it is that may cause someone to limit themselves in social atmospheres and what opportunities there are for people to expand themselves. I plan on searching for sources that foster peoples need to avoid change and others that are more geared towards people who are looking/open to meeting new people and having new experiences.

4. So far I have not found gaps in my research, although I have not done that much research yet. Through finding my secondary sources and connecting them with my primary interviews, I think I was successful in finding an idea that is original to me and my inquiry. There are some sources that say that activities that some people may view as ways that they are expanding themselves is in fact, not that at all and simply reinforces specific qualities that people already have and continue to follow. From what I have concluded from my primary research, I agree with what I have discovered. The sources I have found have greatly supported my ideas of people thinking they are going outside their barriers but are really not. The example of facebook is my main one for that idea since many people on facebook are not looking for people they do not know and for the most part are only friends with people that they already know or have similarities with.

5. Original ideas that are starting to brew in my head are basically that most people think they are stepping outside of their comfort zones when in fact they are not. People do not normally tend to look for things that are different from what they are used to or people who are different from them. If I had to make an argument right now it would probably be that many people do not take the opportunity to expand what they know and have new experiences because of the comfort stigma that many people fall into. My justifications for working this hypothesis are sources that discuss this idea with facebook and other social networking sites.

6. People use sites such as Facebook for social networking. However, such sites do not force people to break their barriers. Other opportunities do exist where people can expand themselves and become a more dynamic person.

I think that the writing in this essay is well done. She clearly makes a point, however, she does not come right out and say her point, she lets it evolve throughout the work. With the addition of quotes and historical information it boosts the ethos and also helps to make the argument stronger. The organization of the paper is coherent and fluent. The examples used were intriguing and continued to make me want to read on to see the overall point the author was trying to make.

1. I want to discover how certain advertisements placed in a public area where many people will see it react to it.
2. I am going to hand out questionnaires to be filled out that will ask people questions about advertising and how certain ads personally affect that person.
3. I am going to ask young adults because they are the main people who view advertisements and are usually part of the audience that the ad is geared towards.
4. My plan for handing out these questionnaires is to stand in a public area where the people who participate will be unbiased. The questionnaire will depict a controversial advertisement at the top and ask the person to answer various questions about how they feel about the ad and how they perceive it vs. how they think the advertising agency may have intended for it to be perceived.
5. Some biases for this project is that everyone has their own opinion and sometimes are easily persuaded to believe what others want them to.
6. I want this bias to be shown in my research because my paper is about personal opinion and how affective advertising can be in persuading its viewers to believe what it wants even against their own beliefs.
7. I am hoping to discover the differences between effective and ineffective advertising and how the two are separated.

During this semester I enjoyed the primary research for the group projects. It was fun to decide on something to research and then see it play out right in person. My group decided to make signs from the University saying that the center sidewalk on the quad could not be walked on. At first we only put signs up and people would either not see them or would and continue to walk on the sidewalk. Once we put tape across however, people stopped walking on the center sidewalk and more people even went so far to actually stop and read what the signs said. The comments made from some people as to why the sidewalk was closed were also entertaining.  I also enjoyed the first reading that we did about public space. The discussions we had about the term public space and what that meant were my favorite and also the most intriguing ones in my mind. It is difficult to actually find a public space and exploring that idea is one that interests me.

I would like to explore more deeply into the idea of parks being a public space. There are usually cops and other surveillance systems around a park. There are many rules and regulations that seem as more surveillance. There were also many gated off areas where people were not allowed to walk on the grass. Although many would think the park is a place open to anyone but there is monitoring on that especially at night to avoid homeless people sleeping there at night.

After having my meeting on my paper however, my idea for what I wanted to base my paper on changed completely. Instead of looking more into what public space means exactly, I am going to examine the effect of advertisements in public areas. How people perceive and advertisement that seems to be controversial and how they react to those ads.

Concert Venue-Auditory

Apple Cinnamon Candle-Olfactory

Beach-Thermal

Toy-Tactile

This is an icon because it is an image representative of an object. When people see this picture they immediately associate it with mail. The unopened envelope means that there is a new piece of mail that has yet to be opened.

This image of biohazard waste is a symbol because it represents something to the person who sees it. When a person sees these images they think of danger and hazardous waste.

This image of a sign can be considered an index. This image of a person in a wheelchair signifies a handicap person. Add in the word parking underneath and it is a easily recognizable sign for handicap parking. The sign is always blue and always has the figure with the word parking beneath it to show the reserved parking spots for handicap people.

One day my dad began getting letters of threat towards my family based on the fact that we were Jewish. Being a lawyer, my dad has dealt with many different types of people with all different personalities and problems. When he was in the District Attorney’s office he would receive many threats and had a few break-ins too. So this type of behavior was something that he had seen before and figured it was something that would pass or was just written words. However, as time progressed and my family didn’t follow the wishes of moving out or my dad stepping down, the threats began to get worse and worse.

It soon got to the point where my dad would receive phone calls all day long about our apartment on fire and my mom sister and I were dying in the fire. When these calls did not stop my dad decided that it was time to make a change that would be most beneficial for my sister and me. And so we packed up and moved to the suburbs in Westchester, NY. So at the age of 2 my family packed up and moved to what at that time was a small, unknown town in the middle of the woods.

As the years went on and my sister and I grew up, our town began to slowly upgrade itself. There were many differences between my two homes. The first one had been a city that was predominantly not Jewish, where this new town was closer to being 50 percent if not more Jewish. In Armonk there are more temples/synagogues. Being Jewish in this town did not stand out as much as it had in Englewood and that helped for my family to adjust. My dad was also happier because it meant that he could leave my mom, sister and me at home without having to worry about anything happening to us.

By the time I was 12 years old, there were so many Jewish people in Armonk that I had at least 3 Bar/Bat Mitzvahs a weekend. It got to the point where people would joke that our town was majority Jewish with some Italians and no other races. Most of the surround towns were very similar if not the same so it was easy to get used to this ratio of Jewish people and forget that there really aren’t that many Jews in the world.

Coming to Syracuse it feels more similar to the real world. Well there is still a large group of Jewish people, at this university I’ve come in contact with a lot of other religions and races that are minorities too. Everything that has happened to me regarding my religion and my roots has only made me more proud of who I am and where I come from.