Posts by Mehzah

Mehzah

Dec 8, 2016

Research Papers / Negative connotation of feminism and reasonings of why women today do not identify with the movement [3]

@ratoberry

I appreciate the stance you took at the beginning of this essay. You started as a person timid to the subject but dipped your toe in and got a first hand experience. As a male, what I respect is that you were able to cover many topics/reasons and get through your paper without ending on the note of "Men are pigs, death to all of them!" (Hyperbole ;D). To me, there isn't anything more off putting than to have someone who read a poorly written Buzzfeed article use that as their foundation of a "logical argument".

Where you start to lose me is when you move into the real "meat and potatoes" of you essay. Most of the body paragraphs seem more like summaries than true reasons. For instance, you mention a few times how changing the name could be beneficial but could also cause controversy due to where the focus is put (word or movement). That's all I got from that subtopic though. Really reach in for WHY this could be the major turning point or the possible huge mistake for the movement and apply this rationale to your other points.

You also mention the opposition dualism dichotomy we face right now. Dig deeper on how this could be reversed and would prove useful for the movement. Like you said, our media is quick to tag things like "-ism" onto whatever they can but many times those tags divert our attention from the true argument at hand and feminism as a whole. Prove to me why articulation like this detracts from the feminist movement, more specifically how the media has put their own spin on these ideas.

Wonderful job overall, you are a very concise and clear writer but dig deeper to persuade me to your thoughts :)

Mehzah

Dec 8, 2016

Undergraduate / Intra-university transfer statement detailing why you want to join School of Information Studies [5]

@Holt

Thank you very much for reviewing my paper, you have included some very helpful constructive criticism.

The only question I have regards my potentially new major at the iSchool. They have a system out of the ordinary, there's only one major for undergrad students which is a BS in Information Management and Technology. There are concentrations that allow one to move down different paths (web design, cyber sec, comp sci). Does this change the approach I should be trying to convey in reference to the majors?

Mehzah

Dec 7, 2016

Undergraduate / Intra-university transfer statement detailing why you want to join School of Information Studies [5]

Note: The prompt is very vague, but what I was given was "A one page personal statement detailing why you want to be in the iSchool" It's a bit longer than a page so anything that doesn't seem necessary can be cut out. Thank you!

When I initially began my journey here at Syracuse University, I was unsure what direction I wanted to take my education. I started as an Economics major in the College of Arts and Sciences from its appeal to reinforce what I believed were my interests from high school. Despite having an extensive list of courses and majors to choose from, I found that the option I selected wasn't appropriately fitting my needs as a student or as a person. Even though the College of Arts and Sciences was not what I was seeking in my academic endeavors, what it did accomplish was helping me to narrow down the field I wanted to pursue. The broad amount of courses supported exploration in various areas to try different things, but I hope to find a new home at the School of Information Studies.

When I received my first inexpensive and mediocre laptop around the age of eleven, I was almost completely illiterate to the world of computers. As I embarked upon my exploration of the new machine in my possession I started to see the endless possibilities of what it could do, but I also uncovered the many glitches and issues that accompanies them. It began with simple solutions: deleting programs, troubleshooting or the general maintenance that occurs from daily use. I continued to delve deeper becoming ever more fascinated with the knowledge I was gaining through its basic use. As I became more experienced I lusted for increasingly better performance, and quickly understood how inadequate my current computer was even for light tasks. Although at the forefront this appears to be a terrible encounter to undergo, when I look back upon the ordeal I realize it was an excellent learning opportunity hidden behind my juvenile frustration. Since my laptop lacked pure strength I was forced to do anything I could to maximize my computer's power, whether that was tweaking settings or frantically trying to cool down my scorching hot machine so it didn't melt in my hands. This unforeseen challenge intrigued me to keep digging deeper into the depths of my computer and ultimately cultivated the beginning stages of my passion for computers. It eventually led me to become interested in staying up to date on cutting edge tech, participating in a Cyber Security workshop where I learned about networking and the fundamentals of the internet, to finally having the proficiency to build my own desktop by hand.

For the greater part of my life, my background with technology and computers has been a very self-driven learning experience. While I have made gratifying progress throughout my own ventures, in the broader sense of the seemingly infinite world of technology I haven't even scratched the surface. I would like to be admitted into the iSchool because I have the ability to utilize the expertise of devoted and highly decorated educators to push my passion even further. My aspiration is to improve upon my skills in the ever changing field of tech by collaborating and networking with peers through hands on experiences enabled by the iSchool. My long-lived attraction to technology has provided a medium to facilitate personal growth through practical application for which I hope to continue here at Syracuse University.