Analysis Blog #1 - Popular Science

In 1872 an American monthly magazine named Popular Science was introduced into American Society. With its appeal to the general public, it gave its readers heads up on modern scientific concepts and breakthroughs within all areas of science. Technology for purposes of medical, automotive, luxuries, and little gizmos and gadgets were always discussed in the magazines articles. The catch phrase or subtitle for Popular Science is “The Future Now”, and it gives its readers ideas of what they can expect to see sometime in the future. Scientists’ ideas and inventions are discussed and explained on the level assumption that the readers have no scientific background and therefore the content is as watered down as possible to make it readable. Since then, in present day, Popular Science has not changed. After all these years, the magazine has printed the same results time and time again.

The front cover of the magazine always displays the main title in red color on a black lined background – mainly to catch the average person’s eye. The title is then followed by “The Future Now” in a small circle; also displayed in red. Then it briefly shows the main four articles talked about in that particular issue. For example, in the May of 2006 issue of Popular Science, the main photograph displays, “Laser Warfare: Scientists Race to Develop the Military’s First Real Ray Gun”, and there is a picture of a futuristic military aircraft with lasers shooting out of its main guns. This is the main attraction and appeal of the magazine. It obviously is enough to catch the average person’s eye and interests, however it seems to have a low demographic appeal.

Despite the title, it is not a particularly popular text as far as its audience size goes. It is a monthly paid subscription and is can commonly be found in Doctor’s offices and waiting rooms, so it is not likely to be seen in your average grocery market. With that said, the appeal is often geared toward middle-aged men and woman of about 30-47 years of age and future enthusiasts. It has more of a logos appeal. Of course there is always fun in fantasying over what the future would be like, such as robotic butlers and space colonies, but that does not account for common day reading literature for today’s society. As stated before, it is generated for an audience with no background in science, making the articles readable to this group of people. The younger generation can appreciate this magazine and find articles to be “cool” and “enlightening”, but many young teens and children have not even acknowledged its existence. More “popular” magazines include Cosmos, Teen, People, and Time magazine. What these offer are current topics and gossips of everyday life, which makes for a more paramount daily reading experience these days.

In conclusion, Popular Science is a decent magazine, which appeals to the average person, but has a small actual reading audience. Its cover is appealing to the eyes and curiosities. The articles inside contain hypotheses for technologies of the future. In my own experience, I am one of those future enthusiasts, and enjoy reading this magazine. I am a Technology major, so its appeal is greater to me than other magazines. Check out an issue yourself if you are feeling curious. The web address is www.popsci.com.

Blog #3 - Past Experiences with Writing

I think that I have explained most of my past experiences in my other two blogs, but I would be glad to refresh your memory. It was in high school where I began writing major papers, and English and literature were never favorite subjects of mine. I used to dread the MEAP writing portions, but as always I had gotten through it all. To be honest, I do not like beginning new papers. For some reason, I can never organize my thoughts to brainstorm. I remember in Composition class in 11th grade, when we had to brainstorm for our papers, the class would be over and I still had a blank piece of paper in front of me. I guess seeing a blank piece of paper and all its possibilities was so frightening to me that I couldn’t get past brainstorming until like 10 hours later of just thinking about it. Although, once my papers were finished, my teachers were most of the time impressed. I can be a good writer, but it scares me to begin something new.
In high school, all papers were to follow the five-paragraph format of an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. I can see now how pointless that was. It did not prepare students for Research Paper class, where you had to forget about that format and write a ten-page research paper. So in conclusion, my past experiences with writing were not too good until the final draft was turned in--a lot of the times, my rough draft was my final. But I am hoping to forget about that and move on. I hope to do a good job in this class because I have never done movie, song, or television analysis papers before. It sounds like fun though.

Blog #2 - What Do I Expect to Get out of Class

Looking over the types of papers we will be composing, I expect to learn and understand how to analyze pop culture texts such as music, movies, and the media. I have never actually written media analysis papers, so I am excited to learn how to properly cite, using MLA format, media sources. I have done research papers in the past, but sources used were always books, journals, newspapers, and interviews. I would always stay clear of picking media as a source because it was a cloudy area for me; citing these was not taught much, therefore I was always confused on how to do it. That is one thing I would like to learn in this class. Another thing would be the details on how to write the analysis papers. I too, am used to the five-paragraph format, and it is an annoying mindset to break. I hope to break this during the time spent in this class. I want to learn the concepts and common practices that create great papers in this category of writing.
I hope to further my writing skills by taking this course and aspire to become more proficient at it. I do hope to get good grades on my papers because English, if you remember, has never been a good subject for me. It is difficult and frustrating for me and I do not care for it. Maybe as this class progresses that will change, but as of right now, I will always be hesitant to begin a new paper. It just scares me flat out.
Well, I think that about explains all that I hope to get out of this class, and I look forward to reading your posts as well to see if someone is feeling the same as I am.

Self-Introduction

My name is Christopher Saputo. I graduated high school last year in 2006 from East Detroit High School in Eastpointe, Michigan and am attending Wayne State University to major in Music Technology and to earn my bachelors degree in Music. In addition, I play the alto saxophone and am currently in the University Concert Band. My current hobbies consist of playing the sax and piano, writing music, computers and technology, editing video, mixing audio, electrical work, and video games.
I have lived in the metro Detroit area all of my life and have always loved this city. On that note, I am glad to say at least that I am proud of the accomplishments the Detroit Tigers have made this past season and hope they continue to be a great team.
My family consists of my father and mother, three siblings (one brother and two sisters), two brother-in-laws, and my only grandfather. I cherish family and my Christian faith. These two values are very important to my character as a person. Once you have gotten to know me, I think that you would find that I am a caring person who values life to the fullest.
I think it would be fair of me to say that English or writing class has not always been my favorite subject, but I learn to do what is necessary to get the work done. All of my previous engagements with English have been required either by High School or the University. I do have a little apprehension towards not writing good papers, which I think is normal. I am a good writer, but like I have said, it’s not one of my favorite things to do. I look forward to exploring what this class has to offer me.