Marketing Key Term

The term I've decided to identify is actually two terms that together make up one of the more clever ways of advertising. It's called product placement. Product placement is a kind of way of sumbliminal messaging. Actors drop a quick line or two about a product in a television show or in a movie (sometimes in songs too) . By doing this type of subtle advertising companies can cheaply get their product out there in a less forward manner. The route of product placement still works because people still have an unsaid dsire to be more like the big actors and actresses. If the "cool kids" on TV have those things people will want them too. This type of marketing works and can help boost sales without necessarily decreasing the pocket books of big companies as much as normal ads would.

"Shitty" Response

In Shitty First Drafts the author, Anne Lamott, makes a lot of interesting points about writing in general. She talks about how everyone is really self-conscious about their own writings and they are afraid to let people read them because they are embarrassed and what not. I personally love letting people sift through my early writings because by doing so maybe somebody else can make sense of all the nonsense I was unable to figure out in the first place. I am always willing to take constructive criticism from others because I feel by doing so I am able to fully expand my writing and make it the best it can possibly be. I think writing is created from my previous experiences and the reactions to those experiences I have gone through that have led to creating me as a person.

Everything we have done or how we react to certain situations is formed from years upon years of various experiences we have gone through. I feel like writing is very similar in the sense that what we think about and what comes out of our pens is shaped by our past experience. Writing is a very broad subject matter and if you give the same topic to five-hundred people to write about, you won’t get any two that are alike. It’s just how writing is and that’s the thing I love about it. As long as you write your ideas and support your ideas then nobody can tell you that you’re wrong (as long as you stay on subject that is.) I like the idea that Lamott had about just writing everything you possibly can think of and every little thing that comes to mind when writing and then try and sort through it later is a really good one. Just start writing and don’t stop until you’re out of things to put on paper. After that maybe a few days later look through it again and try to figure out the nonsense. Then a few days after that finish it up and you should have a pretty legitimate essay. In only three sittings you can polish off a good piece of work. I like that idea, only three sittings.

Literacy Narrative First Page

I arrived to the gymnasium—the same one that I played midnight tag and dodge ball in years ago—early because I was pretty excited to start tutoring and helping out the kids in my old elementary school. I looked around the gym and saw kids I knew from my classes at the high school already working with some of the younger kids. As time ticked by I sat going through some things I wanted to make sure to work on over the coming months. I was beginning to think the kid I was supposed to be tutoring wouldn’t show, so I began gathering my things to leave. I started to walk out the door when the Kidz 2 Kids organizer approached me and introduced me to a young boy in the second grade. His name was Jaymz; yes, Jaymz, that isn’t a typo that is really how his name was spelled.

Jaymz was a scruffy looking kid—showing signs of a rough life at home—that he hid behind grungy clothes and ruffled hair. It looked like he had seen more pain and suffering in his eight years of life than I had in my seventeen. A black eye and fat lip were marks he wore of an abusive father. His parents were probably drug addicts who were rarely around, but when they were, they made sure to abuse him either mentally or physically: as the marks on his face would show. His clothes were covered in dirt and getting raggedy from the many days straight he probably had to wear them. The thing that shocked me the most about this boy is that behind the dirt and wear of a life too rough for an eight year old, his eyes showed happiness and an unforgettable eagerness to learn.

After the introductions, we sat down at one of the lunch tables set out for the Kidz 2 Kids tutoring session. Jaymz looked at me and said, “You don’t hafta help me ya know. I know I’m a good for nothing dog that won’t go anywhere in life.”

How I Write

When I write I don’t consider myself very ritualistic. I will have YouTube and espn.com open along with my paper while I search for the motivation to begin. I’ll just be clicking along on the internet and a thought will hit me and the floodgates of writing are let loose. I can generally write about a thousand words before I begin feeling like I have writers block. At that point I rock back and forth in my chair—more commonly known as teetering—a few times. If nothing comes to me I will set the paper down and go waste time doing other things. I feel like I have these fidgety rituals because I’m ADD. I also have a Rubik’s Cube I will do and scramble repeatedly until I feel like starting again. It’s all part of my ritual. My best ideas usually come when I am thinking about the various things I need to do for homework that evening when walking home from practice at night. I’ll begin thinking about the paper and ideas will just start coming to me. The only thing that traps me from writing used to be video games, but since I rarely if ever play video games anymore that is no longer an issue. My new distraction comes from fantasy football. I had never done a league before, but now I feel like I waste more and more time every night on it. In the future I probably won’t change much about what I do, but if I had to I would try the rotten apple trick; after all everyone could use a little bit of stress reduction.

Article on Marketing

The article on marketing I found did not contain much to it. It mostly talked about how marketing and sales are both individual entities of a company and that neither can live without the other. They are both important in gaining partners and creating revenue for the company. The article talks mostly about how marketing should be directed mostly towards “warm leads.” Warm leads are people or other companies that you feel have the best shot of signing a contract with your company and by directing your marketing strategies towards them you are able to land that big contract deal with that other company. The article also talks about “cold leads” which are other companies who are interested at a very small—if at all—level. And lastly the article mentions that if you feel your marketing strategies are inadequate you can subcontract to other companies in order to better market to your specific audience.

http://marketing.about.com/cs/advertising/a/mrktingvssales.htm

Literacy Definition

I looked up the definition of literacy on dictionary.com and received three definitions. I’m going to list them and write a brief piece on each of the definitions.

The first definition is “the quality or state of being literate, esp. the ability to read and write.” This is most basic form of literacy. When the majority of people think about the word literacy they think about reading and writing. I know I always did until starting English 289 when I realized literacy can be more than just reading and writing.

The second definition given is states as a “possession of education.” This definition actually brings up more questions to me than answers. How much education would one have to possess in order to be considered literate? Who is it that would determine the cut-off saying that someone of an IQ of say 90 is literate, but 89 is considered illiterate? Also possessing education is a very broad term. Some people are educating in a variety of different fields. The frat guy is probably a lot more educated in “getting women” than say the astrophysicist who is way more educated in astrophysics. The example I used probably isn’t the best, but my point is there are a gigantic number of ways to define being educated.

The third definition is “a person's knowledge of a particular subject or field.” This definition is probably my favorite because I feel that literacy pertaining to reading and writing is too narrow-minded of a view on literacy. This definition leaves the door wide open for people to be literate in multiple facets of life, not just when things pertain to books. Literacy I feel is different for every person and the only person that should determine what literacy is for that person is that person. There shouldn’t be a set of standards laid out by some English board somewhere that says you must score at least x or higher on this standardized test in order to be considered literate. There are ways of being literate beyond the reading and writing norm that most people consider.

Yagelski Response

I want to say right off the bat that when I originally read the Yagelski piece I thought it was one of the driest most boring things I have ever had the “privilege” of reading. Then I went to class and the discussion that ensued really got the gears in my head turning. I guess I just needed the perspective of others to really get the most out of the piece and realize how much the work by Yagelski contained in terms of thoughts and ideas on literacy.

The biggest thing that came to mind about the piece by Yagelski is the idea that literacy was used to control people. Literacy in this sense means knowing how to read and write. The idea that it has been used to control people makes sense. Way back “in the day” only certain people actually knew how to read and write. These people were usually church officials and noblemen. By being the only people in society who could read and write it was easier to manipulate and control the common man. They had to listen to everything you said to them because they had no other means of obtaining information on their own.

Gradually the common person gained literacy, but now that they have literacy, do they still have the ability to read and write whatever they want? Some would say, “Yes freedom of speech,” but at the same time is our freedom of speech truly free. There is still some degree on censorship that goes on in the United States. When a book is being published, someone along the line, other than the author himself, has to decide if it should be published or not. If the book is not considered something that people should read because it is too offenseful or some other reason, it won’t get published. Also, some people think that posting on the internet is completely free reign and you can say whatever you want when you want to say it, but even that is not entirely true. If you post in a forum or blog on a site and one of the site moderators does not like what you post they can take it down. There is freedom of speech to an extent in the United States, but not entirely. U.S. citizens do have more freedom than many other controls that control what the press puts out, what internet websites can be accessed by its citizens and what you are even allowed to say in public without some kind of punishment.

Basically when it comes down to it, write freely. Write long, write jibberish and write in pig-latin. Just write because we all have the freedom to write and that is something that we should take advantage of.