In Class: First Paragraph

It's nine o'clock on a saturday evening. TCU is just about to beat Tenessee Tech. Kelly, Kylie and I are walking back to my friend Kara's house and we are very hungary. As we are walking from the stadium we walking up towards the BLUU to grab some food at 1873. Lots of other people are also leaving the game since the 4th quarter has just started and we are killing the other team. We walk up up the concrete stairs and its just getting dark. We go through this huge atrium and walk into the BLUU on the left side to get to 1873. When we walk in the airconditioning feels so good. We walking into a very luxurious room made of marble with a grand staircase on the right side. There is a mini book store on the left selling TCU spirit merchandise which is now closed. The lighting is fleuroscent and yellow. I notice there are not as many students in the foyer area as I would have thought. There were some waiting in line at the coffee place though and some that lookedl ike they were commming and going.
We walk in and the purple chairs are all empty. I figured there would be more students hanging out here after the game. I realize the game was not over yet but when we left the majority of students had already left before us....

In Class: In-Class Peer Workshops

Since I have taken this class before I have plenty of things to say about in-class peer workshops. I took this class in the spring of 2009 and I absolutely hated it. I dreaded peer workshops. I had absolutely no confidence in my writing and I really didn't want my class mates to read my work because I know it sucked. Since then I feel a lot better about my writing and I actually would really like to have peer workshop groups. The major downside about them is if you don't do your work and have nothing to give your group- which I did a lot last time around. I don't plan on letting this happen because we are moving at a much slower pace.

I also got to know other students in the class pretty well. I this class I don't intend on getting to know anyone in particular well besides the teacher since I am much older. In my last class, the others were my age so it was awesome for all of us.

I think in class writing will be nice this time around since my writing has improved and I am writing with those younger than me. This will probably boost my confidence with my writing abilities so I am looking forward to it since confidence is what I was told I lacked by my last teacher.

In Class: Public Space Observation Reflection

Some observations my peers found interesting were the fact that I was the only person using the chairs at the Union Grounds. This is ironic because the space is set up to be a hang out area. When I was there I asked a person who worked there if people ever come and sit in the chairs and he said, "no one ever does." One of my peers also found the cruise ship feeling interesting but didn't say why. Another one thinks it's weird that no one hangs out by the Union Grounds since there is always so many people around there.

Some questions people had were:
"Why do you think TCU chose marble floors?"
"How are market square, 1873 & union grounds different if they are all very similar?"
"Are they all TCU students comming through?"
and "How are they all connected?"

Last but not least the rhetorical appeals my peers tried to make...

In Class: Observation Note Expectations

I recently went out and took observation notes at the BLUU. I actually went last night to do them last night and I made some mental notes after the football game last Saturday. At first I was excited to go over to do them since that means dinner at 1873- one of my favorite resterants. Leading up to going I started hesitating and procrastinating because I was afraid I was going to feel awkawrd since I'm a senior and I expect to see a bunch of random people who I don't know who are mostly freshmen.

By the time I stopped procrastinating/ got around to going over it was around 8 o'clock in the evening. I know this week is 'PUSH week' which is a philanthropy event for a fraternity where all the sororities have to sing so I expected everyone from that to all come over to the BLUU after that was over sometime that evening. I also expected to just see a bunch of completely random people who I didn't know or have never ever seen before. I expected there to be no upperclassmen. I also expected there to be quite a lot of athletes and a lot of black people because there were a significant amount who were always in the old student union when I was a freshman.....

The Ethos, Pathos and Logos of Public Spaces

We have learned the past few weeks that it is important to incorporate Pathos (emotional), Ethos (ethics) and Logos (logic) into our papers to develop a strong argument. All of these can be found in my public space, the BLUU, as it appeals to everyone at TCU and on the campus.


Pathos: As we have learned, Pathos is an appeal to emotions. The BLUU does an excellent job at this because it is considered the heart of the TCU campus, the student  union. This is where the main reception is as well as the main restaurants on campus. The BLUU was just built about three years ago- everything is new. It is where the student ballrooms are where the Chancellor holds important assemblies. There are two restaurants here as well as a cafe. There is also a mini bookstore located here too. The way the building is designed and decorated especially appeals to emotions because it is done primarily in purple, TCU's official color. TCU has a long history of top athletics and one of the restaurants, 1873 is designed to be a sports grill. If alums were to visit, especially ones who went to TCU while LaDainian Tomlinson played football this would bring a lot of emotion to them. It brings emotion to anyone affiliated with TCU regardless.


Ethos: Ethos is about establishing credibility. The TCU BLUU is probably the most credible place on campus because it is the main student union. This is where everything major happens on campus, besides the football games of course. This is where the main information center is for visitors. The main ballrooms are here for conventions. Parking is convenient. Every college or university has a student union which serves as the heart of campus and this is exactly what the BLUU does. It is kind of located in the middle of everything. Everyone comes here to eat their meals- if they have a meal plan. Anytime any major speakers come to TCU, they speak in the ballrooms upstairs.


Logos: Logos is an appeal to logic. I feel as though logos is the hardest to identify out of the three. It can be related back with ethos as well as pathos. I know for this we need to provide hard evidence to make our argument. I was thinking about conducting informal interviews with people in the BLUU.

Unit 1 Proposal

For my public space analysis I choose to write about the BLUU. I find this space appealing because it is considered the TCU student union, the center of campus. Since I am a senior, I was around when the old student union was around and I can bring that perspective to my paper. Another reason I chose the BLUU is because I believe it will appeal to everyone at TCU.

Since the BLUU is the student union and a hang out area, I expect to find a wide variety of TCU students in this area. I expect to mostly find underclassmen because of the location- freshmen and sophomore dorms are close by. Since I am a TCU student I consider myself to be part of the target audience. I have been to the BLUU a few time over the past year to get food from 1873 or to meet up with underclassmen friends. I don't think any of these experiences will influence my observation in any way. Perhaps the only pre-conceived ideas that I could have might be from my experiences from the old student union. I expect to go in and do my observations with an open mind. I also plan on talking to my teacher about overcoming any pre-conceived ideas that I have. I am really looking forward to writing this essay and making arguments.

In Class: Ethos Artifact

Our homework over the weekend was to bring in an artifact that appealed to our ethos. Ethos is described as our ethics and morals. It took me a while to find/ think of an artifact to bring in. I was looking around my room to try and find something that could work for the assignment. I finally decided on bringing in my passport. I think it represents my ethos and character.
First of all I consider myself to be an American. Second I consider myself to be well traveled and this represents that. It appeals to everyone in the class- although not everyone is probably an american. Longstory short, you have to have a legal passport to be able to go to TCU so it will appeal to everyone.