#14: Blog Thoughts

This blog was created with three goals in mind--so that students could

• practice the argumentative writing style (i.e., make a claim and provide evidence to support that claim)
• think critically about Seinfeld and other aspects of popular culture
• tighten their writing (e.g., postings are limited to 250 words)

For your last blog, explain which of the following goals (if any!) you met. As always, please provide supporting evidence in your response.

PS. All blog entries are due on Friday, April 25 before the Final Exam!

So long, SEINFELD...

#14 Go Blog, Go

I found the online blog portion of this class to be the most difficult thing for me to keep up with. I would often forget to post one, or I would remember very last minute and then my content and writing would suffer. I did not particularly enjoy the blog, but that really was not the point. Despite the fact that I would often space it out, I think I met two of the three goals listed. Blogging did help me practice the argumentative writing style, especially when Dr. Marshall would respond to my post and ask me to elaborate or explain my thinking. It also made me think about SEINFELD in a whole new way and look at it in a more critical and analytical fashion. I never would have noticed all the little tick-tacky Jewish references SEINFELD made, or the political, racial, and sexual stands it takes. I don't know that the blog helped me to tighten my writing, as I sometimes found it hard to make my pieces long enough. Having to think critically and then write about it is not an easy task for me.

#14: Learning?

I do not believe that I have gained or improved any of the preceeding reasons for why this blog was created. If anything, this class has eroded at my writing ability. The fact of the matter is that what's on television does not matter. It has no bearing on life, and no bearing on anything that is important. We ask questions such as Why did he do this?, What were his motives?....there is absolutely no reason to ask these questions because it is fake. Who really cares why George eats the eclair? The answer......no sane person! When an a persuasive writer must deal with such frivilous and fake topics such as what has been used in Seinfeld it destroys his expertise. My writing capabilities have been cut due to this class.

#14: Life beyond SEINFELD

Though the Blog's purpose in this class was to help students practice their argumentative writing style along with tighten their writing, I think the most important thing I got out of the blog was an increased sense of thinking critically regarding Seinfeld and other aspects of popular culture. In blog #13 (regarding gay and lesbian t.v. characters) I had to really think outside of the box as I went to a website that I would normally go out of my way to avoid, as well as learn alot about television shows I do not commonly watch. In blog #3 I compared Seinfeld with curb your enthusiasm, having to make connections between Larry David and George Constanza. In blog #6 I didn't even talk about Seinfeld, but rather the movie I had seen earlier that week, "The Bucket List", and how that movie impacted me personally.
Overall, the blog was a good change from the traditional English classes, and though I was careless with my participation, I feel that overall it helped me learn more about the subject and get more involved with what was happening inside and outside of Seinfeld.

#14: Adios, Adieu and Farewell

The first day of classes this semester was somewhat rough, considering I have classes from 8am to 2pm without a single break. I was so stressed about not having any time to eat during the day and was worried that I wouldn’t like my English or Speech classes the most. After my first three classes of the day, it was time to head to English. So I’m walking along trying to figure out where the building was. I went in the building and was convinced that I must be in the wrong place, because all I could see was that it was the nursing building, where my aunt works and I figured I must be in the wrong building. But, sure enough I was right and I stepped into what turned out to be my favorite class that I have ever taken throughout high school and college thus far. Dr. Marshall began discussing what the class was going to be about: analyzing SEINFELD.
I thought to myself, “What am I going to do? She is an expert on SEINFELD and is going to expect each of us to have some prior knowledge on the subject.” Well, growing up I didn’t have much time to watch television and when I did, I hardly ever watched SEINFELD, but I was mistaken in my assumptions. I think that I just got very lucky to have such an interesting course and a brilliant professor. I truly learned so much in this class and I know that there is still much work for me to do, but I feel as though this class helped me to get a strong foundation for my writing and it will be extraordinarily beneficial to me for the remainder of my college experience. I am so glad that I took this class, because it truly has taught me to dig deeper when writing and focus on specific detail. I have learned the best way to write from one of the best professors at TCU I am sure. Although I admit, at first I though Dr. Marshall was rather picky, she was only trying to help us to be the best writers we could possibly be. Each of the writing assignment have been very beneficial to my growth as a writer and I was surprised to learn that I have met each of the goals. My writing now is so different compared to papers I wrote back in high school. I never focused on the thesis of my papers in high school and to go back and read something that I had written back then would probably make me want to cry. Haha… but I now know how to argue something and to really support it by giving examples and expand it by stating the “they say” side of it. In conclusion, I thoroughly enjoyed this course with SEINFELD as its primary text and have learned how to break down a thought or idea to create a deeper understanding of a concept or idea that is important in our society today. Finally, I think that although I have learned so much and improved in my writing, there is still a lot of work to do. I have a better understanding of what is appropriate to be in a formal essay and what is not necessary. I used to be so focused on the length of the paper, but now I realize that it is quality, not quantity that makes a good paper.

14: The End of All Things Good

It’s the middle of August. I begin my trek to the far end of campus, and up the 6 flights of stairs to my class. ENGL 10803, meeting in the Nursing building? I was very confused, but continued to go. Maybe this would be one of the classes I would rethink before the drop date. Its 12:01 PM. My professor hands out the syllabi. "We will spend the next 16 weeks studying and analyzing Seinfeld, which aired in 1988-1999."
Oh my goodness, what have I gotten myself into?!? I was very worried, never have seen an episode of Seinfeld before, never cared to even, and here I am, at TCU, taking a class where I watch TV for a good majority of the semester. All my qualms went away when meeting with my other friends, who had essay after essay; book after book; test after test in their other English Composition courses. What the heck? I'll take it, and boy, I am sure glad I did.
Throughout this semester, I have refocused my writing skills. The essays yearn for a special, academic writing, while these blogs, a little less in length, also require the same attention, if not more, to carefully and precisely tailor them to be the average length of a blog.
The elements of technological developments were evident in this class. This blog only continued to reflect that, as we could pull images, information, and other resources and compile them onto a website anyone in the world could stumble across on.
Seinfeld has become a commonplace in my life, I often find myself quoting lines from Seinfeld just as often as I do from Vonnegut or Shakespeare or any other notable literary work. It was a very good lesson in argumentative writing and construction. One could take this and apply it to many other areas in the academics, and I know that without my Seinfeldian experience, I would not be the same person.

14: The End of All Things Good

It’s the middle of August. I begin my trek to the far end of campus, and up the 6 flights of stairs to my class. ENGL 10803, meeting in the Nursing building? I was very confused, but continued to go. Maybe this would be one of the classes I would rethink before the drop date. Its 12:01 PM. My professor hands out the syllabi. "We will spend the next 16 weeks studying and analyzing Seinfeld, which aired in 1988-1999."
Oh my goodness, what have I gotten myself into?!? I was very worried, never have seen an episode of Seinfeld before, never cared to even, and here I am, at TCU, taking a class where I watch TV for a good majority of the semester. All my qualms went away when meeting with my other friends, who had essay after essay; book after book; test after test in their other English Composition courses. What the heck? I'll take it, and boy, I am sure glad I did.
Throughout this semester, I have refocused my writing skills. The essays yearn for a special, academic writing, while these blogs, a little less in length, also require the same attention, if not more, to carefully and precisely tailor them to be the average length of a blog.
The elements of technological developments were evident in this class. This blog only continued to reflect that, as we could pull images, information, and other resources and compile them onto a website anyone in the world could stumble across on.
Seinfeld has become a commonplace in my life, I often find myself quoting lines from Seinfeld just as often as I do from Vonnegut or Shakespeare or any other notable literary work. It was a very good lesson in argumentative writing and construction. One could take this and apply it to many other areas in the academics, and I know that without my Seinfeldian experience, I would not be the same person.

#14 Learning Something Based On Nothing

When I began this class and doing the blogs, I didn't necessarily view them as learning experiences, but saw blogs as just homework about SEINFELD. Yet, after reading through the three goals, I was surprised to find that I had unknowingly met each goal! In high school the papers I wrote were uniform, using the typical five paragraph format with no variation in structure or focus on argumentative writing. I was primarily just summarizing what someone else had presented. However, with SEINFELD as a base, I began understanding not only what my argument was, but also how to properly support and expand my argument, so that my message would be clear and viable. Secondly, while television has always been an interest of mine, I had not interpreted SEINFELD, or television in general, as concrete visual texts. Nevertheless, in doing so I realized that television and pop culture are not just about entertainment, but should be conceptualized and broken down, which in turn, creates a deeper, more meaningful understanding of the visual medium in our society today. Thirdly, tightening up my writing is still difficult to do, I now understand why the extra “fluff” I add yields no actual benefit, and in fact tends to deviate away from my argument. In essence, I not only feel more confident and knowledgeable in both argumentative writing and popular culture, but I am also inspired by what I’ve learned, and excited to continue to exploring other atypical forms of literature. 

#14 Alas(t)

The last sixteen weeks of ‘seinclass’ changed my perspective of TV viewing. I came to realize that there is more to the half hour spent in front of the ‘idiot box’ than just mindless time pass.

The topics of the blogs prompted me to think, analyze and critique the episodes to try and understand the mindset and thoughts of the writers. Said to be a sitcom about ‘nothing’ with no apparent morals to be learnt it is also thought to be in line with the philosophy of the time- ‘that life is pointless’.

In the process I personally learnt to evaluate and assess objectively and put down my thoughts as concisely as possible. I personally found it hard to keep my writings short and still be able to convey my message or idea. For instance in the third blog, George Constanza was a character of many diverse traits with every one being important and to pick just one and effectively describe it without diluting the others was tough. Then comparing him to a character from another sitcom required me to use my analytical skills yet again. All in all the ‘sein saga’ was a positive learning experience for me.

#14: Farewell Blogs, I hardly knew ye

Through the course of our class on Seinfeld we have learned how one of the most successful sitcoms of all time was truly one of the most unique television series to date. We have used the blog system to practice writing, think critically, and grasp the skill of brevity while writing. While I have enjoyed learning about plot narratives, mise-en-scene, traditional character roles, and the ways in which Seinfeld shatters the norms of television, I have not embraced the blog system to the fullest. I failed to write the blogs for a number of the weeks due to my own forgetfulness, however I did learn and improve my writing with this course in different ways. I improved my ways of writing introductions, conclusions, and cutting out the unnecessary ramblings that most writing contains before revision. Coming into this class I had a completely different view of how to write an introduction for a paper such as the ones we have written, which has been blown away at this point. I have learned to bring out an argumentative point in the introduction, illustrate examples to be used in the paper, and then go into a thesis statement that can be argued from either perspective. While my performance was not as good as it should be, the class has helped me and taught me a lot abut writing, and even more about the saga of Seinfeld. 

# 14 Helpful Blog

When I heard that we were going to learn about the Seinfeld I was really afraid. I had never watched any American sitcoms before, because sitcoms are too hard to understand. After the first day of the class, I asked to Dr. Marshall that class would be too hard to me who didn’t have any knowledge of American sitcoms. And she encouraged me to take the class. The beginning of the class was too hard to understand sitcoms which screened in the class. After I read books and took the lecture, I could understand better about the sitcoms and also American cultures. As I was learning more, I could be more interested in sitcoms. Not only the Seinfeld but also recent sitcoms, Sex and the City and The Office, are interesting to watch. And blogs were the most difficult one for me. Usually other students had a lot of things to say but not me. Also I was embarrassed that others could read my writing. And I had to count the words to write the over 200 words because I am still lack of writing ability. However blogs helped me to express what I am thinking about what we learn. I think I made good choice to take this class so I could learn better American culture in the sitcomes.

Living life with Will and Grace...

One of my favorite shows of all time is Will and Grace.  In my opinion the show  is about living and getting through life.  The series is about a straight woman, Grace, and a gay man, Will, and their relationships with each other and the people in their lives.  They both have trials and tribulations; successes and failures trying to get through their lives.  It is self-referential by the characters not just getting through life but trying to get through their lives with tremendous will and unwavering grace.  It is ironic for in the show the characters live their lives with hardly any grace which creates the comedy in the series.

#14 Babbling Blogs

After my weeks spent studying SEINFELD and posting on blogs, I feel that I have greatly improved in all of the three main goals for posting on the SEINFELD blog. However, I would have to say that I have improved the most and learned the most from critically thinking and analyzing SEINFELD.

I've always enjoyed SEINFELD and have found it very humorous, but have never really dug into the sitcom and looked deeper into the shows themes and ideas. For example, the essay in "Master of its Domain" about "Parenting in SEINFELD" and its ideas about the four main characters portraying adults still in adolescence. I never really saw this side of SEINFELD until we talked about it in class and reinforced it when responding to blog topics. Furthermore, I have obtained a better understanding of the characters in SEINFELD due to spending multiple weeks on analyzing characteristics and behaviors of each character (specifically George, which I further learned about while writing my Essay 1).

I believe the blogs have helped me further understand and appreciate the genius behind Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld's writing through letting me express my ideas that I have found when analyzing SEINFELD by responding to certain topics dealing with different important aspects of SEINFELD. I will forever look differently at SEINFELD -- in a more critical, but very enjoyable way.

#14 The End of SEINFELD...

Remembering back when this semester first started, and realizing that this English class was going to be based on the sitcom Seinfeld really put doubts in my mind. How can a any class of any short base themselves with a tv show such as Seinfeld? Well, to my surprise there is an enormous amount of information that students can really study from, and create argumentative writing to. Digging deep into the characters of Seinfeld, and how every single joke or phrase meant a great significance led me to practice the argumentative writing style with the essays and the weekly blogs that were turned in. George’s character, the significance of the black and white cookie, Kramer’s eccentric personality, etc...are just a few of the subjects one can write about. With much practice, I realize how a good thesis and paper should be written. The thesis must be clear and understandable, and with everything I write I must relate all the times to it. I have also learned to get start to the point when writing an argumentative paper. If I want to get my point across then I must state what I will be writing about, use examples to support my statement, acknowledge on how some may argue against my views, but remind them of the major picture I am trying to get across. Thanks to Dr. Marshall, the many essay practices and blogs, and even to Seinfeld....I believe I will take everything I have learned and incorporate it to my daily life.

The Blog Finale

I began this class as a moderately educated Seinfeld fan; however as the semester went on I learned to appreciate mise en scene, they say, I say and the freedom to state my opinions. The first challenge I encountered was to look beyond the hilarity of each episode and uncover the hidden metaphors and precise blocking. Exceptional examples of these two would be "The Couch" (Oct. 27, 1994) and "The Subway" (Jan. 8, 1992). In "The Couch" the controversy of abortion arises throughout the episode, concluding with Kramer and Poppy arguing whether a pizza becomes a pizza before or after it comes out of the oven. In "The Subway", the importance of blocking structures the entire episode. It was, and certainly still is, difficult to identify these aspects on my own but I have learned to understand this complexity.
An enjoyable part of this course was combining my creativity and specific aspects of intertexuality, narrative structure or self referential material. It's been really interesting to discuss these new terms and to be limited to using argumentative writing. I have definitely improved integrating an essay and utilizing this skill.
This course has helped me to discover more about a topic (specifically aspects of a sitcom) and how to effectively convey an opinion that opposes another.

#14 Blogs very helpful

First of all I would like to thank Mrs. Marshall for having made the English 10803 more enjoyable for me. The blogs and the episodes that we watch in class were the best aspects for me. With blogs I learned to watch the sitcoms on TV in other way more critically and argumentative. For example I will do a contrast between Seinfeld and Family Guy for the 3rd. Since I started to understand the English language, I loved Family Guy. I never thought about reactions or consequences that this cartoon may have to the American society, I always thought they were funny and that was the main reason I used to watch, and this class and blogs help me to see many TV shows in other side. I also learned how to think critically about Sienfeld and understand that for any joke made they have a really important meaning for the creators of the show. The blogs also helped me alot to develop my argumentative writing skills, in which I am pretty weak and every help is welcome.
Finally, I really have to agree that I will miss the blogs.

Blabbing on Blogs

I did not really realize the purpose of the weekly blogs until i was reading what this blog was supposed to be about. Now I understand and can see why we did these. It really did help me look at Seinfeld and other sitcoms in ways that I never did before. Before this class I looked at t.v shows in entirely entertainment purposes, but now when I watch t.v I look deeper into what it is about and what things mean. I also learned how to improve my argumentative writing skills. Before this class I had trouble putting my thoughts and arguments into words, but now I can write what I mean and logically organize it. I am also doing a lot better about not rambling and saying pointless things in my papers. I can say what I want to say and be done with it. Overall, the blogs have really helped my writing without me even realizing it. 

#14: Learning from SEINFELD?

Over this past semester, I believe I have become a much stronger writer and much more confident in my ability to think critically. Before this class, I had seen Seinfeld episodes and thought it was just a funny sitcom. However, now after becoming the Seinfeld scholar that I am, I now know that the show is humorous on a much more complex level. In addition, I had no idea that the show dealt with so many political issues such as race, sexuality, and religion, and what the importance these issues brought to the show.
For example, in the episode “The Outing,” the issue of homosexuality is addressed and the catch phrase, “not that there’s anything wrong with that” is stressed over and over again. After studying this, I am able to understand that Seinfeld did this for two specific reasons. The first reason is for comedy. The show uses this topic as its main source of humor involving the mass confusion of whether or not Jerry and George are gay as well as their family’s reaction to the news. The second reason is to make sure the show’s position on sexuality is neutral. The show uses this topic as its main source of humor throughout the episode the obvious over use of “not that there’s anything wrong with that” is something that is used by most of the characters and their intent to not to offend anyone is certainly clear. With my improved critical thinking ability, I am able to break down the show’s ideas and have a greater appreciation for Seinfeld as a result.

#14 Whats The Deal With Blogs...

I have been a fan of Seinfeld since midway through the original airing and continued watching the occasional episode well after the series had ended. For all these years I had been an just an average Joe who enjoyed the series. There was no real thinking or analyzing of it’s content, it was a good show and it made me laugh that was enough. On the first day of class when I saw that we would be looking critically at Seinfeld and learning about argumentative writing I was fairly skeptical because to me it was just a show. After viewing a few episodes that week at home I realized that Seinfeld wasn’t just a sitcom it is a window into American culture. This realization was further compounded after doing the blogs.
With the blogs, not only was I forced to think critically about Seinfeld, but I had to learn to focus my writing to fully address the topic in a limited number of words. I, like many students, tend to ramble and drift from topic. Having to rework blog entries a few times to effectively address an issue in a limited amount of words has helped all of my writing. By practicing the writing techniques taught in class in the blogs we are able to polish the skills needed to be a good writer and hopefully present ourselves as more educated people in all our work.

# 14 Thinking outside the english box

Blogging weekly about a sitcom isn’t what normal English comp students get to do. Not only was it something new and exciting, I learned a lot from them. The argumentative writing style makes the most sense to me while writing a paper compared to how high school teachers taught. The argumentative style makes the reader either agree, disagree or both; which I like because it allows them to have an exciting opinion about the topic. After explaining both sides in the thesis backing it up with examples made a lot sense. Before writing what I thought about the topic, I used to include useless information that wasn’t needed. After writing several blogs it has really helped condense my writing having the 250 word maximum. As it goes for an English class this is the most exciting one I have been in! Watching Seinfeld in and outside of class really made me realize that there is more to it than just the humor. Studying Seinfeld, I learned about all the little quirks in the show as well as, culture, race, sex and more. Now by being an avid Seinfeld watcher, I see all the hidden stuff that newcomers wouldn’t. Not only did I learn about sitcoms, I learned how to write in a new way that actually makes the reader excited!