GTA5 Proposal

I will be discussing how Grand Theft Auto is a gratuitous, violent video game that, if played in excess by younger children, can lead to a lack of empathy as well as aggressive behavior. Whether or not Grand Theft Auto should be played at all is a huge controversy. The United States has rated the game Mature so that only people aged 17 and older can have access to it; however, many parents buy the game for their younger children. Whether or not the parents realize how violent the game is, they are still putting it into the hands of their children over and over again. Hence the amount of research conducted studying children as young as 8 playing GTA. Even though parents are providing the game for their younger children, this game is still gratuitous and unhealthy for people above the age limit when played in excess. Many young adults spend numerous hours a week playing this game. Playing GTA can lead to raised blood pressure and heart rate due to the stress of the game which can make people feel highly stressed, impulsive and aggressive. Even worse, people find pleasure and enjoyment out of breaking the laws and crossing boundaries such as murder and prostitution. Why is this an issue? Why is it bad that young men and women are seeking pleasure from killing people? Well, feeling excited by the thrill of murder and prostitution leads people to lack empathy for these situations in real life. Even worse, they may feel more aggressive due to their exposure to such awful crimes and be more inclined to commit violence themselves.

My research question is basically this: When younger children and young adults play Grand Theft Auto excessively, does it lead to a lack of empathy and increased aggression? This would lead me to argue that yes, playing grand theft auto excessively, especially at a younger age, leads to more aggressive tendencies and a lack of empathy.

I am interested in this topic because I believe I am disturbed by the fact that people seek joy out of murdering, kidnapping, heists and prostitution. I believe it is unnecessary to use these serious topics as a way to pleasure oneself. There are thousands of video games one can play that can satisfy their gaming needs, why does one need a game that takes serious crimes so lightly? It is almost as if Grand Theft Auto is making a mockery of intense crimes. 

I will continue to research the rest of the week as finish a working draft/argument by April 13th. Then I will proceed to use visuals to present my argument.

Project 4 Proposal

Mental health awareness is a huge topic today within the medical and psychology world. People are sometimes unaware of disorders they have, like anxiety and depression, or that the symptoms they are experiencing are actually not normal. This has led me to study the topic of treatment of anxiety disorders. There have been many advances in drug technology that have allowed many anxiety drugs to come onto the market. These drugs can be very helpful for some, but for others, these drugs become an addiction that they rely on. Some people take anxiety medication to relieve their anxiety without focusing on the route cause of their distress. My topic is to discuss how holistic approaches to anxiety treatment, relaxation, diet, exercise, therapy, can be more effective than drug therapies. My research question is: "How are holistic approaches to treating anxiety more effective than medications?". My research will be focusing on the benefits and effectiveness of certain holistic approaches on alleviating anxiety. For example, I found a book focused on how different therapeutic approaches can help treat anxiety.

I am interested in this topic because I want to work in the medical field when I am older. I am also an advocate of mental health awareness. I am also interested in the fields of neuroscience, endocrinology, neurology and abnormal psychology; therefore, the topic I have chosen is very interesting to me. 

Most of my research will be through internet databases. I am looking mostly for scholarly books written about anxiety treatment. I also am looking through scientific experiments and proposals that prove how the biology of different diets or exercise regimens can lead to less anxiety.

Schedule:

March 11-18 Finish researching and refining my research question/thesis

March 18-24 Finish a rough and second draft

March 24-29 Finish my final draft

Project 3

I have never written a professional piece of writing before, so this road-map is subject to change as I am working through and learning what processes work best. I am almost certain that I want to be a Physician's Assistant; therefore, my goal is to attend a graduates program right after I finish my undergrad. After those two years I would hope to be employed with a Physician's office. With this in mind, I have decided that I would like to write a cover letter as if I was applying to a Physician's Assistant job.

I thought writing a cover letter for a Physician's Assistant career would be the best for me because I will be needing to write cover letters throughout my undergrad applying for volunteer positions and internships that will prepare me for my graduate studies.

As for a Road-map, I thought I should start by finding multiple examples of cover letters for a Physician's Assistant position. I have already found one that has been helpful. I will use these examples to identify what the components of an appropriate cover letter are. After defining what components make-up a good cover letter, then I will begin to compose my own letter. I will find a particular job opening for a Physician's Assistant position that interests me. Then, I will write up the correct formatting with my name, address, signature, etc. After that I will complete the cover letter writing about things like why I want that position, how I could thrive in that position, and thank the company for their cooperation. Those are just some of the components of a cover letter that I have already seen in the example I found already.

Second Entry 02/02/2015

Completing project one for me was somewhat of a difficult task. Writing has never come easy for me, I always feel like I need to have the best version of my writing the first time I write it. This leads me to slowly writing paragraphs, deleting them, then trying again. I started my project early in order to give myself enough time to go through my process of brainstorming, a "shitty" first draft, and second draft and a final product.
Brainstorming took me a long time because I was originally going to use a poem; however, I quickly realized that I would have a lot of trouble proving that to be a form of authoring. I then found a credible, nutritional blog that interested me, (I am very interested in nutrition as I have many food allergies). Then created a web in order to discover my four points to prove in my essay.
Then came the "shitty" first draft. It had the main points I wanted to prove but lacked sources to back up my claims. I felt good about what I had to start, but after conferencing with Eda I felt that I had more direction for my essay.
Once I found sources to back up my claims, I felt much better about my essay! I kept editing my sentences to make sure they were clear and concise. I also edited my word choice. I feel much more confident with my essay now! Another thing I always do just to make me feel better about my writing is to send the draft to my mom to read.

Blog Post 1

Hi! My name is Caroline Dudas. I am a freshman here at Clemson, majoring in Psychology B.S. I am a part of Clemson's Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity. I lived most of my life in Northern Virginia. I moved to New Hampshire in 2010. My final destination, as of July 2014, is Tucson, Arizona. I have three siblings, two brothers and one sister. I'm the second oldest of the four! The sport I participated in most of my life was Cheerleading. I was also a coach for younger cheer teams for five years. My favorite foods and drink are salmon, super dark chocolate, and green tea!

The majority of the authoring I have done in my life has been through posts on social media sights like Twitter and Facebook. I have had my Twitter account since May of 2012. Sometimes I use it to have conversations with other people. I more frequently use Twitter as a way to promote events or to express personal thoughts. Examples of promoting events through Twitter would include telling people to attend the high school football and basketball games, telling people to attend the cheerleading competitions, and about fundraisers that I was having. Twitter is definitely a great way to transmit information to people in my generation very quickly. As for personal thoughts, most of them were passive comments or just lyrics that I felt pertained to how I felt. 

I made my Facebook in the Winter of 2009. When I was younger I used Facebook mostly for personal thoughts. Nowadays I use Facebook mostly to catch up with other people and promote events. I occasionally am on Facebook reading articles taking quizzes I found on the home feed and I share them for the rest of my followers to see. I enjoy sharing articles that I find are meaningful to my morals and beliefs.