Dear Ms.

Hofmann,

My favorite activity/reading we have done is the Alcohol and Culture article. The
reading talked about due to the religion reason, teenagers in Mid East cant drink
alcohol, which creates a huge market for alcohol-free beer. After finished reading
the article, you asked each team to draw pictures about the article and the topics
we wanted to investigate on. First of all, I think it was a very good practice for us
to think as a curious researcher. When we get a material or story, it is important
that how we understand it and where (which direction) do we want to do further
research. I believe there is no right and wrong idea, but research should always
be interesting or at least meaningful to the readers. Besides for the topic-picking
practice, I love the drawing part of that class too. Since drawing is so interesting
and relaxing, it makes people think deeply without realizing it.

Another activity I love is the speed dating class. Firstly, it was a good
practice/check for our working knowledge. It helped us to notice that whether
we prepared enough for our topic or not. Secondly, for me, I think it was a good
chance to meet and get to know my peers. Since I sit in the left side of the
classroom, I barely talked to my classmates who sit in the middle and right. The
speed dating was for our working knowledge, but it also let me communicate
with some people who I had never talked to.

My group members are Jessica, Basma, Jamal, Stephanie, Ebone, and I. Honestly I
dont know Stephanie and Ebone very well since we just worked together once,
but I feel like Stephanie has many good ideas and always wants to share with and
help her peers; while Ebone is a very good listener, she has good thoughts too.
Our group works very well since Basma is always willing to listen to the others
and discuss about it and give her own opinion. Jessica is interested in everyones
idea and she always tries to make sure that everybody is involved in the group
discussion. Jamal is very funny but has deep thoughts. I benefit a lot from my
group since I feel like everyone is being highly respected by others. My group is
also the most diversified one, which provides all of us ideas from many
perspectives.

I think Im not the most talkative one in my group but Im not afraid to share my
ideas with my group, especially with the environment in my group that everyone
is encouraged and respected to talk. Speaking of my class, I always prepared
myself enough for the class, read the articles and wrote the assignments, just so I
can keep up with the class and contribute myself into class discussion. Whats
more, although maybe not everybody is interested in my culture and background,
Im always willing to share my unique experience with my peers. I hope that my
perspectives and stories can make my peers interested in Chinese culture or the
group of international students!

My favorite in-class writing is the respond to the fishermans story (Jan 13
th
). I
love this writing because the article is like a philosophy story. Its about the
meaning of life, which makes me think and probably remember for a long time,
far beyond just in class. Whats more, besides for my thoughts, I found my peers
came up with so many different topics and concepts from reading this story,
such as Success, Happiness, Education, Time, Money and etc. I found it very
interesting that how different people look at and understand one thing.

The second in-class writing I want to talk about is the one about everyones
culture (Jan 15
th
). You asked everyone to bring an object that can represent our
culture and writing a brief introduction about it. The writing itself is not a big
deal, but I appreciate and love your idea about that one class. Firstly, giving
everybody a chance to introduce our cultures at the beginning of this semester is
a wonderful way to start. It changed my impression of this class too. Compare
with my peers from ENGL 1101, I thought this class it far less diversified since
Im technically the only one from the other country. However, after the
introduction, I realized how wrong I was to judge people like that. Just because
everyone grew up in the States doesnt necessarily mean they share the same
culture, and instead, my peers have so many different backgrounds: Italy, Russian,
Puerto Rico, Mexican, and so many other cultures that I cant even remember. Its
amazing that everyone considers herself/himself as American but at the same
time they have another identity as well. I guess thats why the U.S. is called
culture melting pot. Its amazing that how different we are with each other but
we end up sitting together in one classroom!

The third one I want to talk about is the writing about Friend and why its so
popular in China (Jan 27
th
). As a Chinese, I know exactly how popular that
American shows are in China and especially among Chinese teenagers. Watching
American shows is like something so normal to do that nobody bother to think
about why anymore. Therefore, it was an interesting process for me to stand back
and think about why.

The same as last semester, I still prefer to write in my notebook instead of typing
in my laptop. I have the habit of writing journals. I like my handwriting and the
old-fashion style of writing. Im not an electronic-oriented person, I prefer the
hard copy of everything. I also think the hard copy of collection of my works is
more organized and easier to be reviewed. Whats more, Im not limited by the
format or any other kind of control when I write on my notebook. I can write in
whatever format that is clear to me. I can also write in Chinese when I couldnt
come up with the right English word to express my ideas. All in all, I think
notebook is easier to use than my laptop, especially for in-class writing (when I
want to capture my ideas before they fade away).

I have already missed two classes so far. Honestly, one of my absences was
because I woke up too late in the morning. I know that we can have three
absences without penalty, and the fourth absence will reduce the final grade by
one letter. Realizing that I only have one more chance to miss the class if I have to,
I will be more responsible as a student. At least situation like getting up too late
in the morning and missing the class because of that wont happen again! Since I
know that the majority time of our class is discussion and brainstorming, which
cannot be made up later on, every one missing is a huge loss to me.

I think I took all the assignments seriously, but certainly I can do better. The
introductory letter is the one I like the most so far since that was an assignment
about myself. I enjoyed reading the letter you wrote to us and I believe if I had a
chance to read all of my peers introductory letters, I would definitely do that.
Reading life stories is always fun because everyone are so different and its
always been a good way to know people. Although things I mentioned in my
letter may sounds random, they are the summary/conclusion of my 20 years
experience.

I also like my respond for closed for business. Open or closed on Sunday is a
controversial topic in western countries for many reasons, such as religions and
sociological reasons. No matter what, closed for business on Sundays was a very
strange phenomenon for me since Ive never heard of any shop or restaurant
closed on Sunday back in China. I respect the owners decision regardless of their
reasons, but I also claimed my idea and what I would do if I were an owner in my
response. I like this assignment because topic about controversial sociological
issues always seem interesting to me.

Compare with my uploaded documents, my forum postings apparently had less
investment from me. I thought the forum postings were just summaries of my
in-class writings or my thoughts about class activities. However, when I went
back to check my postings, I realized maybe the setting of the forum is for
brainstorming. Just like I read all of my classmates postings for Young people, TV,
and Values, maybe my peers checked my postings too. It reminds me that if my
uploaded documents are my works that can only be read by you and me, then my
forum postings are also for my peers, which may give them some new ideas too.
So I think I will take in-class postings more seriously from now on.

We did spend a lot of time on choosing topics and finding specific research
questions. Almost three weeks discussion and several times building-up, I
narrowed my topic down from how brewers differentiate special beers for
different group of people to how brewers target on women; and then after I did
more research on my topic, I found myself more interested in investigating on
what are the main reasons for women not drinking beer and how beer
commercials affect its customer groups. Apparently, my topic is becoming more
and more specific. What I should do at this point is finding more sources to
enrich my topic in order to make it a 7-pages-long comprehensive research paper.
Whats more, in order to make my paper more credible, I want to interview
women from different ages about my research question (how do you feel about
beer commercial and do you think women-sexualization in beer commercials
stopped you from drinking beer).

My topic is about women, and all of my researches come up with the results that
assumed women this group as all women instead of the majority of women.
It concerns me because certainly no research can cover everyone in the group.
Therefore, the risk I have to take might be the fact that my research cant be
certainly accurate. Specifically it means even though most women feel that the
women-sexulization in beer commercials make them dont want to drink beer,
there are must still some women feel differently. Ive heard one of my friends told
me that the sexualization may actually encourage some girls want to dress sexy
and go drink beers.

I think my research will make me want to try beer more often (actually Im
already willing to give beer a try!) and certainly I will start pay attention to beer
commercials. Since Im major in business (concentrate in finance, but Im very
interested in marketing), maybe I will have a chance to market some beers in the
future. In addition, I believe the first step I will take is making sure that the
commercial of my beer is not gender-oriented. As for my readers (especially
females), after they read my paper they will realize that there is another drinking
choice for them beer, even though it seems like beer and women have been
ignoring each other for a long time!

My first question about this research project is how can I write my paper as a
non-report? Since I feel like all the material I collected or will collect are leading
me to a report. My second question is how professional should my paper be and
how can I make it professional? The third question is even though there are
many results showing me how and why women dislike beer, there are still one
article I read talked about women dislike beer was a stereotype since a lot of
women love beer a lot. I dont know whether if I should just ignore this one
different voice (since its different than the result I want) or should I mention
about it and other different opinions I may find later on in my paper?

The first goal I want to set for myself is not missing more class. Missing classes
creates loss I cant make up, not to mention I have already missed two. The
second one is I want to involve myself more in the class discussion, such as
asking questions after my peers presentation. The last one is showing my paper
to someone professional (for example, writing center) before I submit it. Revising
my work by myself is very important, but I still need other peoples help since
English is not my native language.