Self - Eval

Stephanie Riccio

Eng 112

Self-Eval

Prof. Guarino

Coming to college is a frightening thought for many, how much work will I get? Are the professors mean? Will I fall behind at the fast pace in which we move? Personally, the college classes I’ve enrolled in have been nothing but a positive impact on my life and education.  I have tremendously improved as a writer throughout English 112; I’ve gone through multiple drafts, peer review, and lots of classes to get me where I am. Whether it was learning how to in cooperate logos, ethos, and pathos or how to organize my paragraphs in an essay…it all contributed to my success.

The first essay that we were assigned in this class was an autobiographical piece, and it was to be four to six pages. When I first heard this my heart dropped, it was the longest essay I have ever been assigned. When it was time to bring in our first draft I was only two pages deep and I was nervous for the reaction I was going to receive from my classmates and professor. When I got to class I heard that we were doing an exercise called peer review. I have heard of this term but have never gotten the chance to practice it with my writing. My first draft was a D, after the peer review session I went back and revised my essay. I made changes in the amount of information that was used, the thesis statement was strengthened, and the organizational structure was altered.  For example, I changed the story line to be just about my mother’s and I relationship, not my whole life in general. My new thesis statement was, “My relationship with my mom throughout the rollercoaster ride of my teenage years has taught me that even though I don’t understand the reasoning behind some of the decisions she makes for me; she is always looking out for my best interest.” My final grade was a B+ after the revisions I made.

Furthering on in this class, we had lessons on argumentative writing; how to structure the essays, adding in logos, ethos, and pathos, and mentioning the opposing side. In an argumentative essay we had to write for our third assignment, I had to write about the living conditions here at Southern Connecticut State University. When writing this kind of essay you need to prove your position in the thesis, For example my thesis was,” Due to the rude RA’s, absurd rules, and filthy bathrooms, the quality of living on campus needs to be a better experience socially and physically here at SCSU.” Here you can clearly notice what side and position I took with the argument. When adding logos, ethos, and pathos into your writing it helps you gain creditability. This makes your essay stronger and more interesting for the viewer.

One aspect of English 112 that helped encourage me and push me as a writer was the one on one time that Professor Guarino provided for every single one of her students. While in these meetings she provided helpful information to strengthen our writing skills. She took a lot of her time going through every essay and specially pointing out aspects that needed to be fixed and even offered alternatives for you to turn to. When ever I had a question of=n any of the work in this class, she was there with her helping hand to guide me along. I strongly feel that Prof. Guarino encouraged me to strive to be a better writer; she always had uplifting things to say to me or a positive remark to help.

After all of the practice I have had in making my writing “perfect”, I am confident in the writer I am today. Over the past four months my writing has lengthened, strengthen, and greatly improved due to my English 112 class.

Essay 3 Final Draft

Stephanie Riccio

Eng 112

Essay 3

“College Gone Wrong”

                  When you think about college dorm life, you picture what everyone imagines… freedom, your own room, awesome food, and a bunch of friends that are always there for you to hang out with. Sadly, Southern Connecticut State University is misconstrued as a clean and positive environment for students. After living here in Hickerson Hall for the past eight months, I have noticed all the underlying problems that exist in the dorm halls. Due to the rude RA’s, absurd rules, and filthy bathrooms, the quality of living on campus needs to be a better experience socially and physically here at SCSU.

                  Living on campus doesn’t mean total and complete freedom, you still have someone who will keep an eye on you. While living in an SCSU dorm, you are required to have two RA’s (resident advisor) to watch over the halls and make sure if there are any problems or concerns you have someone to talk to. Over my time here I have realized that the RA’s like to take their form of “power” and run with it.   Personally, I have been harassed by multiple different RA’s; making comments towards me about the people I bring into the building, the times I go in and out of the building, or just to me in general. For example, my roommate and I recently had three of our male friends here at SCSU to visit. Meanwhile one of our best friends had just tragically passed away; we wanted to get our mind off things and cheer up for a little, not knowing us having our friends there would cause the RA’s to act in such a way. As we were signing the three boys in, on the of male RA’s said out loud in front of the whole lobby,” so which one are you guys fucking tonight?” You can imagine the shock we were all in as the rest of the RA’s who were at the desk laughed it off as if it were a joke. Another problem with authority is that they think they are able to talk to the residents any way they want. I’ve heard an RA call a resident a bitch, annoying, and even ratchet. Not knowing what to do the student simply walks away because an RA is supposed to be a positive authority figure that you should respect. There has been many times where students forget their hoot loot. Living here at Southern you know that you need your hoot loot to unlock the door to get into your building. I have seen multiple times and even experienced myself when the RA’s who are on desk duty will not unlock the door for you and leave you outside until someone who is walking out of the building opens the door for you.  If this is not absurd than I am not sure what is.

Keeping your room clean and up to standard for the rules that are set here is a guideline all residents must abide by. Every other week we have something called room checks where the RA’s on your floor go from room to room and look for anything illegal or that is prohibited by the fire marshals. They will also ask you questions trying to get to know you such as what’s your favorite color or food. My roommate and I have gotten compliments from the resident advisors about the décor in our room, never once have we been told to take anything down or put anything away. While we were on break, there was a candle taken from our room, but it wasn’t just any candle. This candle was the one that we lit at our friends candle lit vigil after he was murdered. The candle has not been used nor was it lit when it was taken away. Now we will never get that back and our RA’s were fully aware of the circumstance and what the candle was for. One of my close friends is in our dorm room every day, and she sleeps over almost every night during the week. We are not allowed to go get food, or attend the gym without having to sign her in and out of the building every time. When my little brother came to visit me because he has never been to a college or on a campus… he was not allowed into my room because he was 14 and did not have an ID. To me that was a slap in the face that my own family member was not allowed in my room as if he was going to start trouble. How are you supposed to be comfortable in the place you call “home” if they won’t allow your own family into your room?

Cleanliness is a must when you are living with 50 other girls on one floor who all share one bathroom. In each of the residence halls there are janitors that “clean” their assigned floors every morning. Janitors are supposed to be there to fix any maintenance problems, leaking, or flooding. How are they doing their jobs when on my floors bathroom there are only three showerheads on the showers. In total there are nine different stalls in which you are allowed to shower, three of them have the correct showerhead on them and the rest spray a powerful beam of water directly onto your body. Never mind the fact that you are in a three foot by three foot box and have nowhere to move out of the way from this stream of water because there are clumps of girls hair, dirty tampons, and gum stuck all over the walls. . A statement made by current student Karoli Rodriguez was,” I have never been more disgusted by the living conditions I am in, in my entire life.” This was said as she sprayed the hallway with Lysol to cover up the smell of fish and throw up. The worst part about being stuck in a building with a bunch of dirty girls and no one to help the situation; is that we all get billed for it. For example, a female on our floor decided to flush her pad. Not thinking it would over flow the toilet, our bathroom was swamped with bloody water. No one would confess to this gruesome act so every resident on our floor got charged $35.00 to help fix the problem. How is that fair to the other 39 residents who clearly did not do it? As you leave for vacations such as spring break and Christmas, you have to clean things out such as your fridge and cabinets of food that may go bad. That is a common act that happens at every college, yet here at SCSU there’s more to it than just that. We receive a list of tasks we must complete or yet again we will get billed. For example we have to tip our fridge over and let the ice melt onto our floor from the freezer, then wait for it all to be out and mop up the puddle that is left on the ground of our dorm room. My roommate and I had no ice to dissolve so we cleaned out the freezer and left our fridge off. When we got back we were billed $13.90 because our fridge was not tipped over for the RA’s to see. Enough becomes enough after you take a long time of abuse.

I believe that a solution for this problem with the RA’s having too much power is for them to go through a different training. Clearly if they think they can treat us like were under them and disrespect us, something was not done right when they were trained for this position. After doing some research I found a website, www.reslife.org that offered many tips to new RA’s. They offer activities that you can endure with your new residents to help everyone get to know each other and start off building a healthy relationship between one another. The website stated, “This training is designed to help RA’s prepare for any difficulty that they come in contact with”, and I think that is a positive way to help with any problems that may occur.

A solution for the dirty halls and bathrooms would come along with stronger guidelines that are set by the hall director. As a whole building it should be very clear of what you are and aren’t supposed to do in these dorm halls. As the rules are now; they state that if they have to call a janitor after the hours that they have already been there then every resident on the floor gets billed. I think this is completely wrong because that gives girls who don’t care about cleanliness a free pass to do whatever they want. How would they get caught if every one will be getting billed? We all go down as a group even the residents who spend barely any time here; and that is truly unfair to the other residents. An idea to help prevent further problems is outside of the bathroom could be a sign in sheet for who enters and exits the bathroom to keep track of who is truly making the mess. Yes some may say this is drastic; but what about the innocent ones who constantly are having to pay for the messes that other females make?

 A positive solution for the guest policy here at Southern Connecticut State University would be that the students who do live here do not have to sign in and out of other buildings on campus. I do respect that all incomers who do not going to school here should be on file due to safety, but not the students who live here. There is a guest system at Central Connecticut State University that I believe we should adopt into our system. They have to only sign guests in after eight PM and it is only the guests who do to attend CCSU. There is way less confusion and commotion and the residents who live there are a lot happier.

NBC recently ranked New Haven as the fourth most dangerous city, and we understand that going to school here can put some parents on high alert for their child’s safety. Yet the students who go to school here should not be looked at as strangers or intruders to the dorm buildings. The safety of the students and residence here should be a number one priority, stated on SCSU’s website is” Southern is committed to maintaining a secure campus environment for its students, faculty and staff” and that is well understood especially in the area in which we live. Yet the students who do live here should not be treated as if they are criminals when they enter into another building to visit their friend/boyfriend/classmate etc.

A question to ask many, how would you feel if the place you referred to as “home” for nine months was a placed you hated?  Living somewhere in which you feel uncomfortable and personally attacked by the authority figures who are in that building is an awful feeling.  It also comes along with added stress; as if what first year college students are dealing with is not enough? To have a healthy and successful freshman year of college, you need to have all of the proper aspects of your living situation to be able to function. Something needs to be done to set a better path for the incoming freshman.

  

Essay 3

Stephanie Riccio

Eng 112

Essay 3

                  Southern Connecticut State University is misconstrued as a clean and positive environment for students. After living here in Hickerson Hall for the past eight months, I have noticed all the underlying problems that exist in the dorm halls. A statement made by current student Karoli Rodriguez was,” I have never been more disgusted by the living conditions I am in, in my entire life.” This was said as she sprayed the hallway with Lysol to cover up the smell of fish and throw up. The dorm life here at SCSU needs to be positively renovated to give the students a better experience of on campus housing.

                  While living in an SCSU dorm, you are required to have two RA’s (resident advisor) to watch over the halls and make sure if there are any problems or concerns you have someone to talk to. Over my time here I have realized that the RA’s like to take their form of “power” and run with it.   Personally, I have been harassed by multiple different RA’s; making comments towards me about the people I bring into the building, the times I go in and out of the building, or just to me in general. For example, my roommate and I recently had three of our male friends here at SCSU to visit. Meanwhile one of our best friends had just tragically passed away; we wanted to get our mind off things and cheer up for a little, not knowing us having our friends there would cause the RA’s to act in such a way. As we were signing the three boys in, on the of male RA’s said out loud in front of the whole lobby,” so which one are you guys fucking tonight?” You can imagine the shock we were all in as the rest of the RA’s who were at the desk laughed it off as if it were a joke.        

 Another problem with authority is that they think they are able to talk to the residents any way they want. I’ve heard an RA call a resident a bitch, annoying, and even ratchet. Not knowing what to do the student simply walks away because an RA is supposed to be a positive authority figure that you should respect. There has been many times where students forget their hoot loot. Living here at Southern you know that you need your hoot loot to unlock the door to get into your building. I have seen multiple times and even experienced myself when the RA’s who are on desk duty will not unlock the door for you and leave you outside until someone who is walking out of the building opens the door for you.

Every other week we have something called room checks where the RA’s on your floor go from room to room and look for anything illegal or that is prohibited by the fire marshals. They will also ask you questions trying to get to know you such as what’s your favorite color or food. My roommate and I have gotten compliments from the resident advisors about the décor in our room, never once have we been told to take anything down or put anything away. While we were on break, there was a candle taken from our room, but it wasn’t just any candle. This candle was the one that we lit at our friends candle lit vigil after he was murdered. The candle has not been used nor was it lit when it was taken away. Now we will never get that back and our RA’s were fully aware of the circumstance and what the candle was for.

In each of the residence halls there are janitors that “clean” their assigned floors every morning. Janitors are supposed to be there to fix any maintenance problems, leaking, or flooding. How are they doing their jobs when on my floors bath room there are only three shower heads on the showers. In total there are nine different stalls in which you are allowed to shower, three of them have the correct shower head on them and the rest spray a powerful beam of water directly onto your body. Never mind the fact that you are in a three foot by three foot box and have nowhere to move out of the way from this stream of water because there are clumps of girls hair, dirty tampons, and gum stuck all over the walls.

The worst part about being stuck in a building with a bunch of dirty girls and no one to help the situation; is that we all get billed for it. For example, a female on our floor decided to flush her pad. Not thinking it would over flow the toilet, our bathroom was swamped with bloody water. No one would confess to this gruesome act so every resident on our floor got charged $35.00 to help fix the problem. How is that fair to the other 39 residents who clearly did not do it? As you leave for vacations such as spring break and Christmas, you have to clean things out such as your fridge and cabinets of food that may go bad. That is a common act that happens at every college, yet here at SCSU there’s more to it than just that. We receive a list of tasks we must complete or yet again we will get billed. For example we have to tip our fridge over and let the ice melt onto our floor from the freezer, then wait for it all to be out and mop up the puddle that is left on the ground of our dorm room. My roommate and I had no ice to dissolve so we cleaned out the freezer and left our fridge off. When we got back we were billed $13.90 because our fridge was not tipped over for the RA’s to see.

I believe that a solution for this problem with the RA’s having too much power is for them to go through a different training. Clearly if they think they can treat us like were under them and disrespect us, something was not done right when they were trained for this position. After doing some research I found a website, www.reslife.org that offered many tips to new RA’s. They offer activities that you can endure with your new residents to help everyone get to know each other and start off building a healthy relationship between one another. The website stated, “This training is designed to help RA’s prepare for any difficulty that they come in contact with”, and I think that is a positive way to help with any problems that may occur.

A solution for the dirty halls and bathrooms would come along with stronger guidelines that are set by the hall director. As a whole building it should be very clear of what you are and aren’t supposed to do in these dorm halls. As the rules are now; they state that if they have to call a janitor after the hours that they have already been there then every resident on the floor gets billed. I think this is completely wrong because that gives girls who don’t care about cleanliness a free pass to do whatever they want. How would they get caught if every one will be getting billed? We all go down as a group even the residents who spend barely any time here; and that is truly unfair to the other residents. An idea to help prevent further problems is outside of the bathroom could be a sign in sheet for who enters and exits the bathroom to keep track of who is truly making the mess. Yes some may say this is drastic; but what about the innocent ones who constantly are having to pay for the messes that other females make?

A question to ask many, how would you feel if the place you referred to as “home” for nine months was a placed you hated?  Living somewhere in which you feel uncomfortable and personally attacked by the authority figures who are in that building is an awful feeling.  It also comes along with added stress; as if what first year college students are dealing with is not enough? To have a healthy and successful freshman year of college, you need to have all of the proper aspects of your living situation to be able to function. Something needs to be done to set a better path for the incoming freshman.

  

8R

Over this past week we have done a lot of work with arguments. I have learned a lot of different techniques to prove an argument wrong. Before this class I have never heard of logical fallacies before; therefore these skills that you taught me helped me a lot with the homework because other wise I would be lost. Also we went over logos, ethos, and pathos. I learned about these terms for the first time last semester in english 110. I feel as though these terms help you when analyzing a piece of writing, and they also help you to reach your target audience. Our homework for the weekend is to analyze an essay of our choice from our book; without this weeks classes I would be stuck and not be able to complete the homework to the best of my ability.

8T

Logos: Appeals to the readers logic. Things that you can not argue with for example statistics and experiments.

Pathos: Appeals to the readers emotions, for example guilt, love, or sadness.

Ethos: Appeals to the readers morals, what is right and wrong. For example animal cruelty or deprived children.

Logical Fallacies: Faulty reasoning, an error in an argument, or poke holes in an argument.

Observation

Being students that live on campus, everyone is familiar with a building we call "Conn". Coming in as a freshman it seems like such a luxury to have so many different option of what we can eat through out the day. Sadly, that idea that was so bold in our heads slowly died down; it died down enough to become a hate for that building which served us what they want to call "food". Opening the creaky glass door, being hit with the aroma of fried chicken and moth balls, and seeing Ms. B at the door to slowly swipe your card is the usual routine. Often Ms. B will make a mistake and think you are trying to sneak in and using someone else's hoot loot, yet thats just her. As you walk closer to the stair case the smell if the fried food becomes stronger, once you step foot onto the stairs you hear them creak because students often run up them with eagerness to indulge. Once you are hit in the face with the fast moving walkers who are rushing from one side of the cafe to the other you realize its not all that it seems to be. The burnt rubbery hamburgers, or the old greasy hotdogs are normally your first choice. Then you walk over to the next station which is stir fry. You think to yourself why wouldn't this be a nice option its cooked in front of you… yet the workers with their tight hit nets and cranky attitudes seem to always al ass your order. Often receiving one piece of broccoli and one slice of a mushroom in the dish, then on top of that is not even a tea spoon full of teriyaki sauce. Slowly moving on from there you'll find the main entrees. Conn tries to offer options not realizing that the "chili" they are serving looks like a plate of baked throw up, with a few left over cut up hot dogs from last night' chili dogs they had for dinner. Is conn somewhere us students want to eat everyday; better yet we are supposed to be getting nutrients and eating correctly to keep us healthy.

7R

This weeks class contained a lot of different elements. On tuesday we handed in our essays, that took us a little to accomplish. One of the main points that I liked about this essay was the chance to peer review and better our paper before handing it in for grading. Also this week we had to take a quiz on the short story Soup. Then we had a homework assignment on another story. For both of these pieces of writing we had to write the contrast. Look deeper into the reading to see what the main points were. We also worked a lot on observation. Another homework assignment assigned to us was to write and observational piece on somewhere at Southern. This week we have learned a lot of new information.

7T

Observer- A person who is active in group discussions, and uses their 5 senses to make statements.
Observational Writing- A form of writing where you write about what your 5 senses are telling you.
Perspective- The different ways to look at a situation.
Assumption- An ideal form of the truth that one gains before knowing the actual truth.

6R

    Through out this week, we have spent a lot of class time doing peer review. Peer review is a new skill that was introduced to me this year. I had heard of it before but never got the chance to practice it during high school. I feel that this weeks classes have help me improve my writing. I was able to get feed back from my
other class mates about the first draft of my autobiographical essay. Every element of my writing the was brought up to me that needed improvements made sense after hearing others opinion. Overall, I need to work on creating longer and more detailed sentences, also the same goes for my paragraphs. I am not wait to have peer review for my next essay In this class because I believe that peer review helps me meet my full potential and helps me earn the highest grade I can achieve.

Rough Draft #2

Stephanie Riccio

Eng 112

Autobiography Mix Tape

Draft 1

Life is a journey in which we all endure. There are so many different paths that anyone can go down; whether it be negative or positive. My life is an open novel, and I am the author… what I plan to do is a blank sheet of paper and still unwritten.  In a short nineteen years, life has knocked me down.. then picked me right back up, thrown me sixty five mile per hour fastballs.. then handed me loopy curveballs; life is almost something comparable to the game of chess… unpredictable.

The roller coaster ride that they call life started for me in about tenth grade. I was no longer the “fresh meat” of my high school, I was a sophomore and had a name to make for myself. All throughout my freshmen year I had a boyfriend whom in which controlled my every move, down to the clothes that I wore and not even being able to hang out with my friends. Now was my time to start living life, begin an adventurous journey that had no limits.

As a child I had always had a very close relationship with my mother Linda, from the moment I was born she treated me as a queen. She always seemed to know my every move or thought, which made her such a great mother. As my sophomore year started my mom began to tell me about the difference from right and wrong and how high school can bring you many challenging situations. Since I was born I have always had such a strong personality and my mother was well aware. People often referred to me as a “crazy child” because I would get thrill from living on the edge, which turned the guard that Linda had up to protect me turn into a steal wall.

I loved acting older than I was. In the tenth grade I was going to the senior parties and hanging out with all the older kids. Sooner than later I started lying about where I was going, or what I thought was lying but Linda knew. She knew where I was even when I would tell her otherwise, she knew I was out when I said I was home. This started to tear our relationship apart. The yelling, crying, and fighting got old. Our relationship was not the same anymore, she had become my number one enemy. My mother. Awful and painful to say, but what my young immature mind thought. I would think to myself, how did things get like this? Why wasn’t she “cool” anymore? Was she out to get me? My mom knew I was too young understand why she took the actions she did, to protect me and later on in life I would thank her.

The beginning of my junior year came and our relationship was still held together by tiny strings. Coming up was my sixteenth birthday and Linda’s fortieth birthday. I was sat down at our dinner table and asked by her to join her on a trip to Los Angeles to celebrate. As a reckless teen I thought this was the worst idea and I dreaded it. Why would I want to go spend a week with the woman who tried to ruin my life? Three weeks later I found myself on the plane sitting next to my mother landing in L.A.X. The journey was about to begin. Through out my whole week there, I gained a new perspective on life. Spending time with my mom changed everything for me, I now began to appreciate the little things that mattered instead of everything that only made me happy. Linda is a very unique person. She has her own opinion and insight on every situation. She will speak her mind no matter the environment that surrounds us.

I feel as though the trip with my mother matured me a bit. Yes I was still a junior in high school but I learned that everything m mother did was out of love and compassion. She always had wanted what’s best for her daughter. My mom had saved our relationship by showing me that we can bond and spending time with the people I loved was also fun, for that I will always thank her. Linda is my rock, and the most important woman in my life; an independent, responsible, and caring figure she was and will always remain that.

When it came time to start looking at colleges I got very eager to see what was to come. I loved exploring new adventures and there was a new level of independence coming my way. I couldn’t wait. I had no idea where I was going to go, who I was going to live with, or what major I was going to further my education in but I knew I was ready to find out. Living on my own seemed amazing to me. As my senior year furthered along I decided to attend Southern Connecticut State University. This came as a shock because even as a child I said that I was going to only apply to schools out of the state. I hate Connecticut, the weather, the prices, and even the atmosphere. I hate it all. Yet I stayed in the state to go to school. My roommate ended up being the best choice I’ve ever made. I picked who I was going to be rooming with and that decision was Danielle. Her and I seemed to go together like bread and butter.

Our parents knew us together was trouble, but they let us see what was in store for us. The first night here was parties and late nights. It was everything we dreamed of. No curfews, eat whatever you want, have who ever you want over…what could be better? Were we too young for all that? Too young for bars and clubs and to be with the seniors? Well we loved it. Freshmen didn’t seem to interest us, going to the usual “FLOP” house or De Javu. We didn’t predict this, just seemed to fall into place. Our adventures were and still are endless and we have yet to see what is to come.

One memory that will forever stick with me is Saturday January 25^th.  3:00 in the morning I woke up to Danielle hysterical, screaming, and in panic. Just making up I had no idea what was going on. I was scared and confused. After making sense of her mumbling, I realized that our best friend was murdered. How was this real? Can this of really happed to us we were only 18 years old.

I couldn’t handle the emotions that were going through me. I was way too young to experience death, especially the loss of someone so perfect and special. This brought my life to a screeching halt. I was lost, and scared. This incident made me realize that life is truly a gift that we need to honor everyday. In a matter of a few minutes anyone can be taken from us.

Throughout my journey in life I had came to the conclusion that life is unwritten, and no one can tell the future. The events that take place and the people you meet are random. Even though this is a scary thing to think about it, it is what I love most about life. I do not know where I will be in ten years from now. It would be Florida or it could be Europe. All I do know is that I am going to live a life well worth living, and whatever curve balls are thrown at me I will handle and conquer.