My experience with writing has greatly improved over the course of the second half of the semester. While thinking about what helped me and made me think the most on each assignment, there were a couple that stood out the most to me. Overall, the class itself has allowed me to think more freely and take in more information about writing in general and understand new styles of writing. The past 6 assignments have challenged me and brought me to a point where I am fond of researching, analyzing, and writing my thoughts out on a screen. The essays I have written are different than the type of essays in high school and freshman year, they allow you to think back on your past and research new styles of writing to perfect your own style. Also, in the class, we have had many opportunities to work with other students to increase our knowledge in word building and team effort. The personal essays are where I find to have the most research and thinking to myself. I would say this is a good type of challenge because when you overcome it, you are left with more knowledge about writing than when you started. Together, the final assignment, creative project, and Wordplay days have given me more viewpoints on writing in different styles and writing for other viewers’ attention.
One project that has given me more viewpoints in writing has been the final assignment. As I wrote in the essay, “The digital era has procured many young savvy investors into the stock market. On social media outlets such as Reddit, millions of people came together to “pump” or buy a certain company that hits close to home”. This essay was challenging in the fact I had to research a topic I wasn’t very clear on and had to understand the topic completely. It was interesting to see how I would convey this information in a way that’s clear and easy to read. This inevitably allowed me to find things in the story that was missing in my mind and showed me how to write an essay displaying information to a viewer that didn’t completely understand.
This in itself was a great way to show a new writing style but also helped me find how to put my thoughts on a page. Overall, this essay was the pinnacle of the course and made me think and understand the most at the topic upfront.
Another project that made me think differently about writing was the creative project. Although simple, this project had a great meaning behind it that showed me something that I thought I forgot but I’m grateful that I remember. This project had me think in the past of a time when I wasn’t enthusiastic about writing and where it changed for myself. This was a clever thought to review that time frame because it proved that there was a time where my brain “clicked” and writing was something I actually enjoyed. The creative project was new to me because I have never written in that style but now looking back I understand why it was an assignment for our class.
The casual Wordplay Days might just seem like a simple board game played among peers. However, it is designed by the manufactures and teacher, to stimulate your thoughts in finding words with letters given to you and collaboration. Although simple, this project had a great meaning behind it. We were faced with new challenges such as how to use a rack full of letters (vowels or consonants) to form words or multiple words on a board. Using my group’s collective skills and understanding of the English language, we formed words with the letters given to us in an attempt to gather more “points” than the other team. This helped me que out words that I thought were valid and improve on my groups’ creative problem-solving. This in turn allowed me to improve my skill in scrabble and writing in general.
As I look back at the work I have written over the course of the semester, I feel a sense of pride and accomplishment among the long pages of writing. Although not perfect, it is certainly better in form and style than what I was capable of last year. This content allowed me to gather new information, new viewpoints, and new research capabilities than before. I have also learned that it’s ok to listen closely to the teacher’s guidelines and precautions because they’re there to help you. The work I’ve done has shown me many things inside and outside of writing that I will remember and keep with me for long.
Works Cited
Colletta, Christian. “Reddit Posts and Cash Flow.” Christian Colletta 28 Oct. 2021, https://document/d/1idIXlPIGsKcsN735C2_TOwg1CEhv7XUS5drw4g-PI2E/edit
Colletta, Christian. “Creative Project.” Christian Colletta 17 Nov. 2021,
https://document/d/1AIg1raDVAhnmHAbJI4VVa1URiHGdlfJa9cPosTxcflg/edi
Analysis of Matt Richtel’s Report on Old-school Term Papers vs the
Present-Day Blogs
In The New York Times article “Blogs vs. Term Papers,” Matt Richtel reports on the key differences and takeaways of how students in the present-day digital era can learn to write and be taught in a more efficient manner. In Richtel’s article, he brings up many valid points executed through certain individuals by the names of Cathy N. Davidson, William H. Fitzhugh, and Douglas B. Reeves all hailing from respected and informed backgrounds. While each discerning
takeaway by each of the individuals’ inputs in the article has valid points, it ultimately comes to whatever the new era of students most desire. Lundsford and Davidson argues that although a complete change is not necessary, an evolution in the way students are taught is a great idea considering the impact it could bring considering the new generation is so accustomed to the internet. Lundsfords students are required to write papers that include some form of a digital aspect whether it be a website, video presentation, or blog. On the other hand, Fitzhugh and Reeves deny that these digital publications require critical thinking, and it breeds a languorous work ethic. Richtel’s article includes discerning inputs regarding both sides of the argument, however, the gift of the internet by humanity has proposed a crossroads between digital learning and lengthy-term papers as described by the four in question.
The term paper has been described by the defenders of Davidson and Lundsfords input as an essential component of writing that requires critical thinking and logic whereas the blog post could lack not only that but also a connection to writing in general. They also claim that the blog post fails sorely to teach key aspects of thinking and writing, as well as how writers of blog posts put time into making the blog presentable and fashionable instead of hard long work. The defenders classify that the term paper teaches essential components on writing and thinking that blog posts, websites, and powerpoints may be lacking. Richtel then undercuts their claim with a statement of his own.
The opposing side claims that the term paper is a cause of angst and profanity among high school and college students whereas blog posts have a way to connect with their students on a level playing field. Richtel not only puts Davidson on a pedestal for being a leader in stopping student angst on term papers but he also agrees with her claims stating “On its face, who could disagree with the transformation? Why not replace a staid writing exercise with a medium” “practical connection to contemporary communications?”. Davidson published a book titled, “Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Change Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn.” which basically proves her point and rallies against the term paper.
“As a writer, it offends me deeply,” says Davidson while implicating heavy use of blogs in a format of 500- to 1,500- word entries on internal class blogs on issues and reading of what they are studying in her class, along with essays for public consumption. Richtel states that blog writing has become a basic requirement in everything from M.B.A. to literature courses. Richtel also states that the term paper has been falling from favor for some time quoting a study from 2002 that estimates about 80 percent of high school students were not asked to write a history term paper of more than 15 pages. “Educators shy away from rigorous academic writing, giving students the relative ease of writing short essays.”
Lundsford illustrates that choosing to either use blog posts or term papers in your teaching is in bad nature, it’s possible to do both. She illustrates that blog posts exercise personal expression and could be well crafted and meticulously researched. She also agrees with the fact that others find the term paper fundamentally anachronistic. She started her teaching at Stanford with a paper constructed over the entire term, now students start by writing a 15-page paper on a particular subject and use those ideas to create blogs and websites that use more expression. Her conclusion is that students feel much more impassioned by the new literacy.
The crossroads between being taught with lengthy-term papers vs the digital era blog posts has mixed arguments regarding revolutionizing the new generation and their successes in doing so. Technology can be helpful in certain ways and in some minds allow students to be paradoxical and lazy, there’s no doubt that in some circumstances going digital is necessary. Richtel may have a preference for blog posts as presented in this article, and his points are valid considering the world is always changing, and staying with old rules of teaching and not changing a single thing may be downright wrong.
Works Cited
Richtel, Matt. “Blogs vs. Term Papers,” The New York Times, 20 Jan.2012,
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/education/edlife/muscling-in-on-the-term-paper-tradition.html.
A New Viewpoint on Writing in General
Throughout my time in elementary, high school, and college, I have written many essays and papers with particular formatting. However, this semester brought a new style of writing that I was unaware of and very new to, analysis! Not only is this style of writing new to me, using blogs as a technique to learn and write is also new to me. In my opinion, this form of writing is great not only for me but also for my generation because as new technology comes into fruition, teaching should adapt. Certain papers and assignments I have read in this class have given me a new perspective in writing which I am willing to learn to better myself as a writer. I have found myself researching and analyzing everyday texts to understand their composition and trying to find out the author’s intention while writing it. The work itself in the course helped open my eyes to new ways to write and analyze. Throughout the first half of the semester, the check please assignments and analytical essay benefited me as a writer and/or critical thinker, specifically in the way I view writing as an art.
Not only has the “Check, Please!” assignments throughout the semester taught me key elements on how to write more clearly and thoughtfully, they also benefited me on how to find reliable sources, how to find hard research instead of bland commentary, and taught me the SIFT concept. While reading these lessons I learned to research a source before reading and believing a story submitted by said source. This is a problem with many people including myself which is
why I am glad I caught myself. This correlates to Wordplay Day during the course because when I play I tend to miss certain plays and wonder why I didn’t see them before. Currently, I understand that I should think before I act and plan because once you perform and act, write a paper, or place a tile you cant change it. “Sometimes we can’t determine the reliability of the source. And most of the time we don’t care about the source at all. We just want to get an accurate story on the subject from somewhere.” This led me to more deep thinking and more time beforehand researching and overall, benefited me as a critical thinker and reader.
The most significant piece of writing in this course has to be the analysis essay. It put my knowledge to the test on how an analysis essay should be written. This feature taught me beforehand and after how an essay with this writing style should look like. Looking back at the essay I submitted, I notice there are unimportant sentences and quotations missing from the introductory paragraph. “all hailing from respected and informed backgrounds. While each discerning takeaway by each of the individual’s inputs in the article has valid points, it ultimately comes to whatever the new era of students most desire.” I consider this article as the most significant because it allowed me to do research on a new topic and try to understand how to find meaning in these types of essays. I could also relate this to Wordplay Day because both contributed to me learning new strategies whether it be in vocabulary, preparation, or finding meaning in something new.
The new writing styles that come up to me might be a challenge to learn and understand, but I am determined to make it regular for me to switch between different types of writing like a switch. This course is proving that new writing can be learned and new forms of technology can be used to teach. The analytical essay and Check Please assignments helped me think in a
In a different way than regular writing, both contributed to my critical thinking and writing skills in their own fashion. I think they were great choices to inform and improve the students’ ability. Not understanding the writing style, which words to play in scrabble, or how to find the proper source is understandable for a student, but finding the answers and learning is part of the course’s plan. Overall, these lessons have a goal in mind, to help the student increase their abilities in critical thinking, development as a writer, and development as a reader.
Works Cited
Colletta, Christian “ENG 1103: “Analysis of Matt Richtel’s Report on Old-school Term Papers vs the Present-Day Blogs. ”https://docs.google.com/document/d/12oFS83L0kAFw9liD5rPPhYsK85xiSvZ1wnwTnD4VjQE/edit?usp=sharing
https://www.notion.so/checkpleasecc/Check-Please-Starter-Course-ae34d043575e42828dc2964437ea4eed
Creative Project
Dear Christian,
This summer, you will have the “unfortunate” task of reading Hatchet by Gary Paulsen.
You may think this assignment is boring, tedious, and lengthy however it will actually be enjoyable and teach you two great lessons. You will procrastinate and ignore the assignment for a couple of months but eventually, when you finally pick up the book, you will understand. This book will help you understand that reading (especially with an action or survival novel), is actually quite entertaining. Also, this will be significant to you because you will learn that leaving lengthy writing tasks until you have a short period of time to complete or until they’re late, will just make it harder.
This is a letter to my former self right before I was assigned summer reading in 2015. The book Hatchet by Gary Paulsen helped me develop as a reader and writer because it taught me that books arent as boring as I thought they were and putting off essays and reports just makes it more stressful with less time to complete. This felt like a significant moment because it caused a shift in my judgment towards reading and helped my schoolwork for the better.
Reddit Posts and Cash Flow:
How an Online Brokerage gave a Failing Company a Second-Wind in the Digital Age
The digital era has procured many young savvy investors into the stock market. On social media outlets such as Reddit, millions of people came together to “pump” or buy a certain company that hits close to home. Most people know that such a company like Gamestop is a failing business. Non-adaptable, brick-and-mortar, and old. However, these young investors do not want to see it fall. After some thorough digging on the internet, a user by the name of DeepF*ckingValue (Keith Gill), an administrator of a SubReddit on Reddit found something pretty peculiar. Keith knew what could be done and with the help of those savvy investors, something hedge fund managers couldn’t do for decades was about to happen. The digital age has given these investors the tools to (in their eyes) make them easy money with just a few clicks. This in turn has led to envy and eagerness to find the next gold mine to invest in to make them money and others. But as the rules of investing go if one wins one must lose. The “pump” of an over-shorted nostalgic company with power procured by the digital era.
“Since then, Robinhood has opened up the world of finance, broken down barriers, and demonstrated that everyone can be an investor. I am immensely proud of what Robinhood has achieved” (qt. Hammer) An online brokerage named Robinhood is where this all starts, such a platform where you can buy and sell shares, options, and spreads within seconds. Robinhood saw a very high volume of traders after they opened up on the app store, mainly younger investors between 18 and 30 with ties to social media platforms. “Interestingly, a substantial number of these new investors are from smaller towns and the average age of such investors is between 25 years and 30 years.” ”He said the pandemic has created a unique set of circumstances where people are looking at generating new sources of income, and additionally have more time to partake inequities.” (Press Trust of India). What used to be a lengthy process is now fast and easy, allowing these people to invest in whatever they want as fast as possible. And with a situation quite like this, all of these Reddit users are eager to hop into their next gold mine.
Keith Gill started researching after seeing his favorite store as a child (Gamestop) is most likely declaring bankruptcy as its stock price falls to its lowest point ever when he found something. He noticed that more shares were being shorted (bet against) than were commercially available. This is called over-shorting and it’s a big risk if the stock goes up but very profitable if it goes down. A hedge fund by the name of Melvin Capital held such short positions and for good reason. However, Keith understood the definition of a “short squeeze” and knew if he put his traders behind this stock, it could force the hedge fund to liquidate their investment and buy up thousands of shares instantly, skyrocketing the price. So Keith opened up Reddit and started a buying war. “While the hedge funds and other professional money managers had been shorting GameStop’s shares, betting that its stock was doomed to further decline, the retail investors — online traders, mom-and-pop investors, small brokers, and others — have been pushing the other way, buying shares and stock options. That caused GameStop’s market value to increase to over $24 billion, from $2 billion in a matter of days. Its shares have risen over 1,700 percent since December.” (Phillips).
Gamestop stock soared as hedge fund managers raced to cover their losses by buying as much stock as possible bringing the total value of the stock from $17 per share to nearly $500 per share within days, gifting Gamestop a hefty 20 billion dollars in funding. Many high-up Gamestop employees woke up to their stock prices through the roof and were confused after years of neglect. For the average Reddit user, this was both a financially life-changing event and a moment in history where a few “broke” internet users were able to beat the cold-blooded short-sellers that have destroyed companies and dreams just to make a profit. All of this occurred over one big factor, the rise of online brokerage and social media pages. Without Reddit, Keith wouldn’t have had a community of eager investors to get the results he wanted, and without the ease of a brokerage on your phone or laptop, these investors wouldn’t have been able to tap into what is called the “biggest wealth transfer of the 21st century”. But as the rule of investing goes, if someone wins then someone else has to lose.
“Investors selling GameStop short – betting the stock price would decline – posted $664 million in mark-to-market losses as shares of the gaming retailer rocketed 104% into the close, according to financial analytics firm S3 Partners. The stock’s 84% intraday gain fueled another $1.19 billion in losses, bringing the two-day total to more than $1.85 billion. To be sure, the losses pale in comparison to those fueled by the January surge. GameStop shorts are down $10.75 billion year-to-date on their bearish bets, according to S3. The sum includes Thursday’s intraday rally.”( Markets Insider). The biggest loser of the bunch was a hedge fund named Melvin Capital which took serious losses after a large winning streak that allowed them to gain over $1 billion in investor funding. Although it could be easy to feel bad for the hedge funds that lost money, think about the people behind Gamestop watching their stock price fall day by day. The hedge fund managers do this for a living by spreading lies and bad news about companies with their ties to social media (Digital age) pushing the stocks down and making a profit for the hedge funds. Also, Melvin Capital had ties to Robinhood and threatened to take their business elsewhere if they didn’t do what makes them the most money (restrict trading).
No one using the Robinhood app thought there could be some form of treachery and fraud, but the digital world can bring anything. “The fall in GME’s price would seemingly benefit Melvin at this point. However, for a trading app like Robinhood, which claims to “democratize finance for all,” many were questioning the motivations behind the platform suddenly restricting trades for many of the stocks Redditors were pumping. Within a few days, Robinhood would go on to restrict trading for GME and others, effectively preventing retail investors from purchasing more shares of the stocks. Within a few days, Robinhood would go on to restrict trading for GME and others, effectively preventing retail investors from purchasing more shares of the stocks.” (Coin). This nearly caused Gamestop stock to return to where it all started, but the owners held strong and administrators told their members to hold onto their positions. Eventually, with the losses for Melvin and others, the everyday digital users were declared the victory for such an amazing occurrence.
The entire fiasco had a major payout for the administrator that started it all. From a “crazy” Reddit user to a multi-millionaire, people took him seriously after the incident. Keith took this time to send video messages to the users and fans basically saying “I told you so”. Keith is far from the stereotypical analyst on Wall Street, the major difference is that he sleeps until noon and has an army of “broke” Reddit users behind him. The digital world has helped Keith win over a fortune most people will never see in a lifetime. “Reddit user DeepFuckingValue (DFV) invested $53,000 in GME stocks and calls in 2019. Today, his position is worth more than $40 million. This article summarizes his investment style so that you too, can find the next diamond in the rough.DFV is a value investor that uses technical analysis (using price charts to determine price direction) to time his entries. His portfolio is diversified and holds 10 to 35 stocks at a time. During crises, he diversifies even more. In mid-2020, right after the market crash in spring, he owned more than 150 stocks.” (FinanceTLDR).
The digital era has given savvy, eager, and envious investors power. With the newfound ease and usability, many things that were thought to be impossible could be achieved within a couple of days. Overall, this occurrence has resulted in a large money transfer from wealthy hedge funds to everyday people. This relates to the old novel Robinhood where Robinhood would steal from the rich and give to the poor. Although the brokerage is in no way helping this happen, it wouldn’t have been possible without their platform and the rise of the digital era. Keith Gill, using his “army” of investors achieved what they were hoping to do and became a multi-millionaire in the process. All of this occurred to help a nostalgic company that everyone on Reddit loves to talk about, Gamestop. With their new funding, they plan to take the company to new levels and do the things they failed to do over the past decade. Their share price is still well beyond the past, and overall the savvy investors are pleased with what they have accomplished. The rule on Wall Street is that if someone wins, the other must lose. And for Melvin Capital, many would argue that they deserved it because of their manipulative behavior and evil plan to destroy GameStop.
Works Cited
FinanceTLDR. “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest” FinanceTLDR, 17 Sep 2020,
https://www.financetldr.com/posts/what-is-deepfuckingvalues-gamestop-decamillionaire
“Online brokerages see growth in new investors, trading activity in Mar-June.” Business Standard, 19 Jul 2020, https://www.business-standard.com/article/markets/online-brokerages-see-growth-in-new-investors-trading-activity-in-mar-june-120071900734_1.html
Wright, Turner. “Financial ties between Robinhood and funds shorting GME fall under scrutiny” Cointelegraph 28 Jan 2021,
Christian Colletta: Blog 