Final Week Question #1

1). (Regarding Chapter 13) Which of the research methods listed in Table 13.3 seem the most interesting? Assume you want to study some aspect of deception. Frame a research question. Which method would you choose to answer the question. Why?

I can't believe we actually made it to the last chapter in the book. Wow, how time flies. It is hard to choose just one research method because they are all very interesting. Each is so different yet very similar. If I wanted to study some aspect of deception a research question I may use would be: How can you judge the level of deception a human exhibits in a job interview? I think the conversation analysis would be the most useful in this study because the basics of the study come from the conversation and rhetoric used during the interview. I think the research question would be good because people often tend to embelish the truth during interviews and on resumes. This causes the people that are honest to loose job oportunities to people who embelish the truth.

Final Week Question #3

3). Pick one other concept in the book that you feel needs further discussion?

A concept in the book that I feel is worthy of further discussion is Ethnography and Auto-ethnography. I find this topic to be of great importance in the communication field because it gives communication scholars the opportunity to apply critical theory to everyday life types of situations. In my qualitative communication class we all did an ethnography of some sort and then presented it to the class. There were so many everyday activities that had critical theories applied to them and it was eye opening to learn of them. Mine was on a nursing home that is in Gilroy. I looked into traditions in this sort of environment and applied a critical theory. It was very interesting and I think if there was more about it in the book other students may be more encouraged to become involved in Ethnography.

Chapter 11 Discussion Question #2

Marshall McLuhan first stated that the medium was the message when he was attempting to get across to people that the channel through which the message is transmitted is just as important as the message itself. I do agree with Marshall McLuhan that the medium is the message. Without the medium the message would cease to exist If we made television shows but had no way to broadcast them then they would be pointless. No one would see the message because the medium would not be there to support it. The cool medium idea is interesting. I am not sure I completely agree with it though. I don't find the comparrison between the coolness to the hotter to make a lot of sense.

Chapter 11 Discussion Question #1

I have never made friendships that exist exclusively through cyberspace. The reason I have never done so is because I do not trust people. I have seen to many Dateline NBC, Dr. Phil, To Catch a Predator type shows where the person does not even begin to resemble their online persona. It is to easy for people to lie. I had a friend become very close to a man she met on an online dating service only to find out months after meeting him and becoming sexually involved with him that he was not who he claimed to be. He had a wife and a family. My friend was very upset when she found this out. She found out this information when his wife called her. That was the end of her first online relationship. She continues to meet men online but they never end up being who they embody online in person. I think that if you have to meet people online than you have some problems you need to deal with, within yourself so that you can build self esteem to meet people face to face.

Chapter 8 Discussion Question #3

A section I found interesting in chapter eight is promoting professionalism in workplace relationships and especially the section pertaining to office romance. Office romance often happens at the most inoportune of times. I think office romance is fine as long as you keep it at home and not in the office. Keeping your romance at home is virtually impossible. I think people we work closely with and spend a lot of time with are often who we end up feeling attracted to because of this close link through work. We see them most often five days a week and at outside company events. I once owned a business and made the mistake of hiring one of my employees girlfriends. They worked horribly together. She would get jealous of the way other employees looked at him while he would get upset if she talked to a customer for to long. I ended up losing a good employee over this and would never hire two people who are romantically linked again. Office romance success depends a lot on the level of maturity you posess as well.

Chapter 8 Discussion Question #2

I think the etiquette rules suggested in the text are very interesting. I know I am guilty of breaking the cell phone etiquette rules. I have answered the phone while having dinner in a restaurant, but only because it is either my husband or parents calling and it must be important. Answering machine etiquette is strange to me. It makes me think back to George on Sienfield who recorded a singing message to that song from some show. I thought that was a cool idea. Confrence calls are great as long as you can mute yourself out. I hate when people think they are muted and then proceed to talk or chew into the receiver for everyone else to hear. I never thought about faxes as having etiquette rules, but it is annoying to receive junk mail from people via fax. I am not the best at timing my communication. I usually just want to get it done and don't pay close attention to time. I have seen quite a few lude screen names and heard some strange ringtones. I try to make sure that my screen names and ringtones are ones I would feel comfortable with my family seeing in case by chance that happened. Call waiting is great but I often find myself ignoring it when I am having a conversation. I hate when people click over and leave me on hold so I guess I am trying to avoid what I hate.

Chapter 8 Discussion Question #1

Organizations are tied to the environment because they depend on their surroundings for resources and energy. Just like humans, organizations can not survive without a healthy environment to thrive in. Some examples of an organizations ties to the environment are energy, transportation and housing needs. The relationship between the school I attend and the city in which it is situated is that the two form a bond and feed off of one another. The college being in San Jose creates an environment rich in jobs and students. The college also draws people to the area it is in. In response to the demands of the college buildings are constructed and the area continues to thrive and grow. Their also is a negative impact on the environment caused by this tie as well, such as over crowding and pollution. The college has many obligations to the community. Some of the obligations include supporting the growth and development of the downtown area, expanding and allowing the entrance of new students as the metropolitan area continues to grow, and also being a self sufficient entity that not only takes from the city but also gives back in return.

Chapter 6 Discussion Question #3

The concept from the assigned reading that I have found to be useful and interesting is rules for disclosing. Rules for disclosing talks about the appropriate amount that an individual should or should not divulge in a particular setting. An example is that you should not walk up to a checker at Wal-Mart and tell them about the sexually transmitted disease you caught from a one night stand last month. This is because the checker does not have the knowledge to help you and although you may feel sharing your story is important, you may be burdening the other person. You may want to share that information however with the person you are about to become intimate with because you may be unfairly putting them at risk. The movie Closer has really great examples of the ways in which we disclose information about ourselves to significant others and also other people in our lives. Sometimes too much information is abd for a relationship. Being a girl I naturally want to know all there is to know about the people I choose to surround myself with. Men seem to stick to the disclosure rules much better than women.

Chapter 6 Discussion Question #2

I think we all have our own individual filtering system we use when looking at a person as a potential romantic partner. I think much of our filtering system is learned through our upbringing and we tend to look for qualities that are valued in our own culture. Ignorance leads me to judge others as unattractive because I feel everyone has a right to their opinion and a closed minded ignorant individual tends to not give others that respect. Duck's theory makes a lot of sense to me. It is like a roadmap of every relationship you have ever been in and can compare and contrast for future relationships using this tool. I have used pre-interaction cues which are non verbal impressions to determine whether you want to interact with a person and then changed my mind about the person based on cognitive cues which are strong factors in creating long lasting relationships through forming a psychological connection.

Chapter 6 Discussion Question #1

The pattern I think would be the most difficult to change is competitive symmetry which is when two individuals fight for the one up position. I think this pattern would be the most difficult to change because it requires one person to back down taking on a more submissive role. It is like a power struggle. I think competitive symmetry would be the most damaging to a relationship because it puts the two individuals in a constant state of fighting to feel superior over the other person. I also think that competitive symmetry would have the most potential damage to the self esteem of the individuals involved because someone would always be feeling they had lost while the other person would feel they had won.

Chapter 12 Discussion Question #3

A concept from chapter twelve that I found useful and interesting is culture and role identity. I found this interesting because we all value things like age so differently throughout the world. In America we want to stay youth like whereas in countries like China age is viewed as a way of growing wiser. I also find it disturbing that the difference between men and women is so large in the Middle East and Asian cultures. I think women in these places are treated as commodities that can be bought and sold rather than as a member of the family. It makes me very happy to be an American and in the ethnic group I belong to.

Chapter 12 Discussion Question #2

The thought that Americans hold three basic beliefs about human nature: that humans are at heart rational; that humans are perfectible; and that human nature is highly susceptible to social and cultural influence is quite interesting. I find myself only believing in two of the three premises. I think that the rationality premise, the belief that most people are capable of discovering the truth, is a premise that falls true to human nature and also because if the resources available in our world today. I also think that mutability premise which assumes that human behavior is shaped by environmental factors is also quite true. We are a product of our environments and this premise is basically stating that. Some examples of social institutions and practices that are based on these beliefs would be universal education and non democracy type American Institutions.

Chapter 12 Discussion Question #1

I completely agree with anthropologist Ruth Benedict that we are “creatures of our culture” and that our habits, beliefs, and impossibilities are shaped by our culture. I agree because I notice many cultural differences in my life that are very different from my friend’s lives. I come from a very close knit Italian family. We celebrate birthdays and holidays together even if it means one part of the family must travel a few hundred miles to be together. Another thing I notice about my family that I find to be quite rare is that everyone has at least a bachelor’s degree. That is a custom started in our family by my mother’s generation. It is not an option whether or not you go to college, everyone just does. I think we can break through the limits of our culture by exploring and learning about other cultures without bias. Going outside the comfort of our culture is healthy in that it teaches us not to be ethnocentric and devalue others cultures just because they are different then our own.

Capone's Mom

Chapter 5 Question #3

A concept that I found both useful and interesting from this weeks reading is Personal Space. Personal Space acts as a kind of portable territory that we carry with us where ever we go. I chose to discuss personal space because I find it is one of the most violated and ignored nonverbal messages. I personally can not stand it when someone stands to close to me in line. I feel like they are breathing down my neck. Being only five foot one makes me feel even more vulnerable because most males are taller than me and I feel like the tall people out there are running us short people over. When you are talking to a friend it is often less uncomfortable if they invade your personal space because you know them as well as when you are with a person you like. On Friday I went to the bank to withdraw money. There was a line with about 5 people ahead of me and about 8 people behind me. I was very annoyed because the man standing behind me kept creeping into my personal space. To rememdy this I would scoot up a little closer to the person in front of me who was still a considerable distance away. When I would move up so would he. I was then doing what I absolutely hate, violating the personal space of the person in front of me. I felt very uncomfortable being crowded and felt like saying back off but didn’t because I didn’t want to look like a jerk. I think people really need to respect others personal space.

Chapter 5 Question #2

I have lived in the bay area my whole entire life so I have not encountered regional differences in nonverbal meaning. I also have not traveled to other countries so I have not experienced the nonverbal messages from their either. Some things I have learned from working at a bookstore in the past and reading a small book called Notes for Licensed Vocational Nurses is that each culture reacts differently to our nonverbal messages. One of the topics emphasized was making eye contact. They discussed eye contact as disrespectful in the middle east culture. They said that women were taught to not look men in the eyes because this was a sign of challenging authority. It was also very similar for Asian cultures to not make eye contact and to remain very quiet throughout your interaction with them. This was to show respect. I think the two are different because one culture uses no eye contact to show respect and the other uses it to dominate. I personally use eye contact with my nonverbal behavior because I think you can speak volumes with your eyes.

Chapter 5 Question #1

I think at some point in life we have all misinterpreted the meaning of someones nonverbal message. My husband is espescially hard to interpret because he always keeps his guard up for the most part. When we were first dating I interpreted his shyness as not being interested in me. This was due to the fact that most of the other guys I had dated were total creeps and very forward, so when I dated my husband and he actually had manners and acted like a gentleman I mistook that for not being interested in me. Ends up he was interested in me and here we are almost nine years later. He could have avoided me thinking he wasn’t interested by communicating more openly with me about his feelings. I could have not placed expectations on him as to how I think a guy who is interested in me should act. Interpreting nonverbal messages is not an easy thing to do since most people already have stereotypical (for lack of a better word) views on what they think some gestures mean.

Chapter 3 and 4 Question #3

The concept I have chosen to use is Expressiveness from chapter four. I picked this concept because I found it to be both useful and interesting. Expressiveness/Expressive Cultures are open when it comes to emotion. I found this interesting because it points out the different values in our cultural belief systems. Whereas eloquence is valued in my culture, it is not valued in other cultures. I find what the author states to be very true that the European Americans are somewhat in the middle of the spectrum. We are not overly emotional, but we are also not overly passive with our emotions.

Chapter 3 & 4 Discussion Question #2

I agree that men and women use language differently. Men tend to use more text oriented messages that are short and sweet, while women tend to go into greater detail with their messages. An example of this is when I hear my husband talking to someone he works with. He is non emotional in his message and just says straight out what he wants done or needs to be done very bluntly. I on the other hand approach these types of situations much differently. I try to make sure that what I am saying comes out as kind and I am not blunt. I think I actually use a lot more emotion in my messages than he does. Men and women are very different and it shows espescially in the way they use language.

Capone's Mom

Chapter 3 & 4 Discussion Question #1

I believe it is not possible to perceive others without in some way judging or categorizing them. The reason I believe this is because everytime we are in the public eye whether it be at the grocery store or a fancy restaurant we are constantly checking out the people around us to compare them to ourselves, either to boost ones own self esteem or to make you aware of what you are lacking. I know my husband always gets a kick out of going to quickstop and seeing the 40 year old white trash clerk who is missing teeth because it makes him feel good about all his hard work to get the job he currently has. He feels very greatful for his career choice as an engineer, yet also superior to the clerk who he has judged to be white trash. This is horrible to do, but because of the stigma media has placed on material things I don’t think it is possible to not judge. I notice I find myself often judging women by the type of purse they carry. If they carry a Louis Vuitton I tend to view them as having money or trying to give the impression that they have money, espescially if it is a fake. You can actually learn to tell the fake bags from the authentic. I think the people who are carrying the fake bag are trying to be judged by others as having money though they either don’t or are to cheap to buy the real thing.
As long as we are in the media age I am not sure that we can make our judgements more fair. All that is talked about is who is on top and wears the most expensive items or has the most money. Sadly I think we have used this as a scale to measure our own and others self worth and class level. We should try and look at each person as an individual and not a member of a group. We also should get to know someone on the inside before making a judgement as to what we see on the outside.

Chapter 9 Discussion Question 3

A concept from Chapter 9 that I found interesting and also useful is rhetorical situations. Rhetorical situations are something that consists of three parts. The first part is exigence which is some sort of problem and the speaker chooses to speak about it because they feel that something is wrong and hope by speaking about it to make it right. The second piece is an audience that is addressed in order to try and convince them to take some sort of action or change their belief or attitude. The third is constraints which are the factors that control and shape the nature of communication. Current beliefs and values of the audience could be considered a constraint. Every rhetorical situation needs to have a fitting response that meets the demands of exigence, takes the audience into account and is sensitive to constraints. I think a good example would be the argument over Proposition 8. I believe that if two people are in love and want to get married they should be allowed to whether they are two males, a male and a female, or two females. It is their constitutional right. But then you have these crazy people bringing religion into it and using scare tactics. What happened to the separation of church and state? I could use the above argument to create a rhetorical situation.

Capone's Mom

Chapter 9 Discussion Question 2

I am going to use President Obama as my well known speaker. I think the new President of the United States is a very eloquent speaker which makes him really stand out. I did not find President Bush to be a good speaker. He seemed to make up his own words and did not come off as polished when he spoke. President Obama’s strongest characteristics as a speaker are his ability to communicate a message in a clear and precise manor. He comes off as well educated and versed in his speaking. He also makes a tremendous amount of sense which I found our past President did not. I think it is credibility, attractiveness and power as a package that make him come off as such an all around good speaker. I am not sure if I would be giving him such praise if I didn’t feel so poorly towards our last President. But our last President has sure made our new President shine like a gem. I actually think he is building ethos in the above three area’s because we see him as a father, husband, leader, and overall someone we can trust to reshape our future in a positive way. The American people have put a lot of trust in him and I think it is because of his ethos that we expect so much back in return.

Chapter 9 Discussion Question 1

I have been influenced by a speaker. The speaker I was influenced by was a man by the name of Mr. S, who runs a non profit organization called Youth Focus that puts on several talent and scholastic competitions a year. He was one of the best speakers because his speaking made everyone in the room feel as if he was speaking directly to them and we could all relate very well to him. When I was Miss Santa Clara County in 1999 he was the head of the organization behind the competitions. As Miss Santa Clara County I attended a week long competition to run for California’s Young Woman of Achievement. During our week long stay we had an intensive two day training session which focused on mainly communication and how we could continue to impact our societies through our continued involvement and volunteerism. One thing that always stuck out to me was how fulfilled and encouraged I always felt after these conferences. We were given little ribbons one day that said Who I Am Makes A Difference, because no matter where you are in life or what you are doing you can make a difference in others lives. His speaking is so memorable because it showed so much compassion and care.
I think one of the worse speakers I ever heard was Miss Teen South Carolina 2007 at the Miss Teen USA pageant. It made me cringe as I listened to her answer a fairly simple question. The question was: Why do you think one fifth of Americans can not locate the US on a world map? Her reply; “I personally believe that US Americans are unable to do so because uh so many people in our nation don’t have maps and uh I believe that our education like such as South Africa and the Iraq everywhere like such as and I believe that they should our education over here in the US should help the US or uh should help the South Africa and the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future for our.” The main thing I remember about her message was that I just wanted her to stop speaking. It is literally painful to watch her speak. As a person watching this you feel so awful seeing someone make such a fool of themselves. Needless to say she didn’t win Miss Teen USA. Here is the link to the horrible speech if anyone is interested in viewing it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww

Chapter 2 Discussion Question 3

A concept from this weeks reading I found interesting was the ethnography of communication in which a student must place themselves in a position to develop sensitivity to different speech communities. This concept reminds me of a course I took last semester in which we had to find a cultural site and go through several steps in order to create an ethnography. It is so interesting because you have participants and situations which you record during your visits and in my case I actually grew quite fond and close to some of the residents. My ethnography was about a living facility that accepted patients that did not have any other source of living arrangement and that were older adults no longer able to be in the workforce or care for themselves. I actually came to feel quite upset with the administration of this old folks home because I found through my observations they commonly did not act in the best interest of the resident. I still visit the site of my ethnography.

Chapter 2 Discussion Question 2

The pragmatic view believes that communication consists of a system of interlocking, interdependent behaviors that become patterned over time. I believe it does make sense to think of communication as patterned interactions. The book gives some great examples of these interactions, such as the chess game in which you become interdependent on your partner in order to make a move and continue on with the game, if you don‘t you are forfeiting and thus the game ends, which is essentially ending that link in the communication chain. Communication is like a game because it depends on two independent behaviors that have become interdependent to continue. The ways it differs from a game is that it can be applied to many different aspects of communication like relationships. My relationship with my husband could sometimes be considered similar to the chess game. There is an interdependence on one of us making the next move in order to communicate. And like the book states sometimes silence or no reaction can speak volumes. Unfortunately silence isn’t in my game book.

Chapter 2 Discussion Question 1

The social constructionist perspective is the idea that communication is something that surrounds people and holds their world together. Through communication, social groups create collective ideas of themselves, of one another and of the world they inhabit. With that being said, the ways in which we build worlds through communication is through our social networks, family, employer, hobbies, etc… For a few years I was a member of an animal rescue group. During this time I tended to take on their beliefs about who was the right or wrong home for any of our fostered animals. A lot of the people in the group were older and quite set in their ways. I grew up with outdoor pets. We didn’t keep them inside because my grandmother who lived with us thought they were dirty, that was the cultural perspective she had been raised to believe. Our animals always had a good home and were well taken care of. If I would have approached the group as a potential adopter I would have been turned away because in their eyes I was a bad home. After fostering for some time I found that I took on their belief system. I frowned upon potential adopters who checked off the indoor outdoor answer on the questioner, when I myself had never seen anything wrong with an animal staying outside for all these years. This rescue groups social construct was something I adapted to because at the time it was the right thing to do if I wanted to be a member of their group and an animal foster home. Yet I found after time that their way of thinking was backwards because they placed more of an emphasis on judging the individual and the individual’s knowledge rather than focusing on what was the right thing for the animal. The best interest for the animal is to be placed in a regular home where it is not exposed to 30 other foster cats and is able to get the attention it deserves. I stopped fostering quite a while ago and have since changed my perspective. I have an outdoor cat and he loves being outside. The social constructionist perspective can contribute to our success because it allows us to seek out other representations in a broader form should what we are currently working with not be the correct fit.

Chapter 1 Discussion Question 3

The concept I found interesting in chapter one is the Five Canons of Rhetoric. The five canons of rhetoric are invention, style, arrangement, memory and delivery. I found this particularly interesting because I believe this to be one of the foundations for the study of communication. Invention covers the process of discovering information and deciding on appropriate subject matter in which to use that would lead to a conclusion. Style is where you develop the proper words or language that set the tone for your speech in order to convey your message. Arrangement is where you organize your ideas into the form that makes sense. An example of a form would be to open with an introduction, then follow with a statement of purpose, lead into the arguments, and end with some sort of conclusion. Memory is the next step. It is the ability to hold content, style and arrangement in your mind. I think this step would be the most difficult of all. The final canon is delivery in which the speaker was judged on vocal tonality and gestures. If the vocal tone and gestures were not pleasing the effect of the speech would be undermined.
The reason I found the Five Canons of Rhetoric so interesting is because I think we use them in everyday life. Whether we give a small presentation at work or speak one on one to a superior the five canons of rhetoric come into play. I know I have used this method on my parents at one time to convince them I needed a new car and it worked. I researched information on the make and model I wanted and why it was far superior to what I was driving at the time which led me to the conclusion of safety. By putting an emphasis on safety in my arrangement and style I reached my parents on an emotional level because safety is always any parent’s biggest concern for their child whether they are 2 years old or 20. By educating myself on my facts I was able to memorize and deliver my message in a way in which they agreed with my argument and conclusion. Although you must be careful with how well you sell something over because now anytime I talk of getting a new car I am reminded of my argument for the safe car I currently have. For all the above reasons the Five Canons of Rhetoric is my chosen concept for this chapter.

Chapter 1 Discussion Question 2

2. I find myself disagreeing with the Greeks belief that in order to be an orator an individual had to be morally good. Moral goodness and the ability to speak on a subject in front of an audience are two separate acts. Now a very persuasive speaker may come off when speaking as a morally good person but in reality they are really just a persuasive speaker who is good at making others believe in what they have to say. A car salesman may be a wonderful orator, trying to convince you that you need a car you can’t afford. So you fall for it and you buy the car because the salesman seems like such a nice guy. He has a family to care for and he wants you to be safe out on the dangerous roads so he persuades you to buy that huge SUV rather than the Geo Metro which was forty thousand dollars less. You are now convinced that for the safety of you and your family you must have this unaffordable beast of a vehicle. He prayed on your emotions, with his story of his sick child at home and how it has been so slow that he may lose his job. You were persuaded by the character of the person to believe he was honest, when you were being lied to hook, line and sinker. An orator can be a person who has no morals, but has the character ability to make you believe they do. Many great orators include politicians, some of whom are the greatest persuaders of all. The connection between goodness, truth and public communication is one of the greatest non connections of all. As a public we would like to believe that we can connect goodness, truth and public communication because it brings a sense of security to know that we can let our guard down and not have to worry. But what we believe to be the truth may be the biggest lie of all.

Chapter 1 Discussion Question 1

1. This question has really made me think. I never have really focused too much on any particular speaker. When I think about a speaker what automatically comes to mind are politicians due to our recent Presidential Inauguration. President Obama speaking of change and our future is a person I admire. His speeches promote positive messages of hope and change for a brighter future. President Obama’s power to persuade comes from pathos because it is on a very emotional level that reaches out to people. I believe this helped him to succeed in winning the election since there has been such a sense of hopelessness in our country due to the ongoing economic failure and war. My ability to persuade others comes from ethos because I feel my personal character when necessary can be persuasive in an unemotional way. Being a woman I try to stay away from showing emotion when it comes to persuasion because I think people may interpret that as a weakness. I think the personal qualities I have that make me persuasive are my ability to speak to others, my strength and perseverance on issues I feel strongly about and a track record showing the progress I have made throughout the years. I find for the most part that Aristotle’s classification scheme does work for them because it is pretty broad and open to individual interpretation.

Introduction Continued

So looking back I realized I had not answered all the questions in my introduction.
My communication story is that I came to be a Comm. Major after a horrible 3 semesters as a Music Major with a concentration in Voice. There are a few things you must possess in order to survive in the music department. The first and most important is an Ego made out of steel, because nobody wants to see you succeed or get further than them. The second is an interest in classical music, I sing Jazz, R&B, the more popular and contemporary music of today. I HATE CLASSICAL! The third is to get used to Grouchy, Old, Unhappy Musicians who are only teaching because for lack of better terms, they failed as musicians and are forced to watch and crush the dreams of aspiring young musicians.
The Comm. department and major to me was like a breath of fresh air which has revived my spirit. I knew of another student who was a Comm. major and I had talked to her about it and decided it was the best choice for me. The communication major was the peanut butter to my jelly!
I have had some wonderful experiences in the comm department. Dr. Jaehne has always been such an inspiration and wonderful guidance provider throughout my time in the department. Last semester I took 156 in which I completed an Ethnography titled "Those We Left Behind", in which I performed a critical analysis of a nursing home and the troubles facing America's elderly. I made such wonderful friends at the nursing home and life long friendships.
My goals for this course are to learn all I can and of course get an A+! :) I hope to broaden my knowledge base and horizon with what I learn in this course. I really look forward to getting to know some of the other students in this course as well and hearing their communication story!
Capone's Mom

Introduction

My name is Andrea and I am an Open University Student. I decided to finish my degree after losing my job last February and now aspire to go to Law School. I started attending SJSU in 1997 after graduating from High School. Here I am still at SJSU after 12 years. I did not attend for all if those 12 years though. I am now cleaning up the mess I made out of my academic records and have completed all requirements to graduate. I am a completely different student now than I was 12 years ago. Grades matter to me, my education matters!
I hope to learn quite a bit in Comm 105 this time around. Scarily, I do not remember taking this class in Fall 2002, I mean I remember nothing about it at all (And NO it wasn't because I was a partier or anything like that).
I am 30 years old and married to a man named Mark. We have no children but quite a few pets we consider our children. We have 4 Dogs, (Buttons- a Westie Mix, Bella & Little Man- Chihuahua's, & Capone- a Rottwieler) Many Cats, (Jenna, Estelle, Timmy, Marcellas, Tigger, & Mr. Blackie) 1 Umbrella Cockatoo-Lola, 1 Indian Ringneck Parakeet-Paris, 1 Parakeet- Chickie and a fish tank. I feel like I am forgetting an animal but I think that's all of them. They are a lot of work but very worth it! Someday we will have human children, but not yet.
So this concludes my first blog! If you have any questions feel free to ask!
Andrea