Cover Letter

At star of this letter, I have many words want to say, but when I face to the computer, I don’t know how to explain my emotion and feeling. In this half year, there are many things happened, joy or sad, everything was the new experience in my life. I am so lucky I can enjoy the process. 

 

Portfolio Reader

English 113A

Cal State Northridge

18111 Nordhoff Street

Northridge, CA 91330

 

December 4, 2013

 

Cover letter

 

Dear Portfolio Reader,

 

As my first year in college and in America I have the superb experience. Before I come to America I thought how hard about the college, but the truth is how fun about my college. When I first time walks into the campus for fresh man orientation I felt the enthusiasm, the seniors was patiently explained to us and took us on a tour of the campus. For my study, college have the Learning resource center tutors help me edit essay and homework. And my advisor gave me many useful suggest and help me chose the class, I am so luck to choose this English class and have a nice professor.

 

Why I say I have a nice English class and professor, because before I come to class, I am a bit of nervous about my English class, I'm not very good at expressing their own ideas, I was afraid to meet Professor is like the students to answer, it would make me very embarrassed. But my professor won’t, the nice women who named Kelly Rowley always take care of me, take care of my feelings. And when I have the question with my study, I send the email to her, she always as soon as possible to answer my questions. I learn many form my English class, such as the essay write and the form of MLA, I never know the form of MLA before, at start I am so hard about it, Kelly help me more about my grammar and essay’s form. Right now I can’t say I can write a nice essay, but I trust it will be better than before. On the other hand in this English class I am step by step to compete my write skills and grammar, at the same time I met many friends. After class we always chat with our class and exchange learning method to help us improve our study.

 

At this semester become end, I start have interest for my next college life, I expect there will be something interesting and unknown, expect to know and meet more friends, looking forward to learning more different culture. I hope I can graduate from this university, because this university’s style is what I want. And I expect the next class for 113B; I expect my professor Kelly and my classmates. On the road for study, I am glad I have a scholarly mentor and beneficial friends, I hope us can learn and enjoy in this college and this class.

Essay 3 Draft 3

Ke Ning

Professor Kelly Rowley

English 113A

8 December 2013

 

Network Communication in Our Society

Network communications are the main part of our life. According to Experian Marketing Services, Americans are so fixated on social networks that they spend an average of 16 minutes out of every hour on them. Many people also use online shopping, online video call and online businesses. With the development of a variety of network communication businesses, such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, many people are willing to choose to use the networks instead of the old way of communication. Obviously, network communication is important in our society. Computer networks are inherently social networks, linking people, organizations, and knowledge. They are social institutions that should not be studied in isolation but as integrated into everyday lives. In “Computer Networks as Social Networks” Barry Wellman says the proliferation of computer networks has facilitated a de-emphasis on group solidarity at work and in the community and afforded a turn to networked societies that are loosely bounded and sparsely knit. So the social network’s communication advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

But the distinction is, some people think that the network is not reliable. For example, many teenagers prefer online shopping because it is convenient and saves money, but there is Internet fraud. Sometimes, a person can leak the information or trust someone’s frauds. It will bring unpredictable consequences, lose some money, And the disadvantages of the online date and online chat or video have the same hidden danger that can leak important information. The networks always have a lot of phishing websites. The phishing websites means fraud websites, but use and false things to entice visitors. Then, they put a virus into people’s computers and steal information. Some teenagers are addicted to online games. Those young men who abandon themselves to the net games are likely to do some silly things.

I think the social network’s advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Although there are many computer viruses that try to steal the information, and we have antivirus software, when faced with some seemingly unsafe websites links, we should protect our private information. Do not in any website station fill in us true data. Take care and don't give a person the important information who we never meet and have a long time conversation. Guard against various Internet frauds, most people easy to see benefit leave, which would gradually small homes largest seizure of sesame lost watermelon.

For some people, especially teenagers, they would rather speak on the network. In the network, they felt freer and have better communication. They have greater scope to befriend strangers. Over the past decade, technology has become increasingly important in the lives of adolescents. “As a group, adolescents are heavy users of newer electronic communication forms, such as instant messaging, e-mail, and text messaging, as well as communication-oriented Internet sites such as blogs, social networking, and sites for sharing photos and videos. In "Online and Offline Social Networks: Use of Social Networking Sites by Emerging Adults," Kaveri Subrahmanyam and Patricia Greenfield examine adolescents' relationships with friends, romantic partners, strangers, and their families in the context of their online communication activities. So we need to trust the network to give us to the benefit more than the disadvantages.

I prefer to use social networks because I can find anything on them. I want to chat with friends at any time I want, and I can know their new things from the network. I can also share my things which are interesting on the network, such as Facebook and Instagram. They can make me have more fun and communication and comprehension, Social networks solve a problem with distance. I can make an online video call for the business or someone who is far away from me. For example, right now I am living in the US. But I can take the video call with my family, and I can use Weibo to find out what happened with my friends. Although I’m not living in China, I still can know what happened every day, and I always like to search the meal online. Sometime, I miss my country’s dishes, I will search how to make them online, and go to Chinatown to buy the ingredients. That is really a good thing. That is the magic of the social network. And around my friends, most of them prefer to decorated themselves on social networks. This article explores teenagers' practices of social networking in order to uncover the subtle connections between online opportunityes and risks. In "Taking Risky Opportunities in Youthful Content Creation: Teenagers' Use of Social Networking Sites for Intimacy, Privacy and Self-expression." Livingstone, Sonia says while younger teenagers relish the opportunities to recreate continuously a highly-decorated, stylistically-elaborate identity, older teenagers favor a plain aesthetic that foregrounds their links to others, thus expressing a notion of identity lived through authentic relationships. I can search the resources on the network and if I have some problems, I can ask the questions online. There are always some nice people to answer my questions. Social networks really have many tricks, but more it is for communication and help.

A lot of people disagree with the social network communication because they did not get real contact network and they will not touch the social network. Right now the people who even though grew up with you, but in the future they would still have lie and deception. So we just need to use objective thinking to look at social networks, because the social networks are grown up day by day, in the future we will need the social networks.

 Works Cited

Sharon Gaudin. "Americans Spend 16 Minutes of Every Hour Online on Social Nets." Computerworld. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2013.

Wellman, B. "Computer Networks as Social Networks." Science (New York, N.Y.), 293.5537 (2001): 2031-2034.

Subrahmanyam, Kaveri, Stephanie M Reich, Natalia Waechter, and Guadalupe Espinoza. "Online and Offline Social Networks: Use of Social Networking Sites by Emerging Adults." Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 29.6 (2008): 420-433.

Livingstone, Sonia. "Taking Risky Opportunities in Youthful Content Creation: Teenagers' Use of Social Networking Sites for Intimacy, Privacy and Self-expression." New Media & Society, 10.3 (2008): 393-411.antivirus software antivirus software antivirus software antivirus software antivirus software antivirus software antivirus software

Essay 2 Draft 2

Ke Ning

Professor Kelly Rowley

English 113A

8 December 2013

 

Sexism in Beer Advertisement

   Advertisement plays an important role in society. As a phenomenon of society, advertising naturally reflects all sides of human society. We can see many kinds of advertising in our daily lives. The problem of gender discrimination in the advertising industry shows a trend of excessive expansion. In modern society, advertising every hour and moment not filled with our vision. Some advertisements exploit gender stereotypes to show their products; this phenomenon has not been stopped but has seriously evolved into sexism. Overall statuses of women in advertising reveal them to be marginalized, vulnerable, and passive. This is a terrible phenomenon, whether male or female, once formed the habit, will be regarded as not see, will become be accustomed to, and it is this indifference.  Female sexism in advertisement should not be so easily neglected; we should never turn a blind eye to it. The most common error made in marketing to women is addressing this mass demographic as just that—an amorphous mass of female hormones that are wired to think in a similar fashion. It is also a mistake to divide this group into either “stay-at-home mums” or “businesswomen,” when; in fact, there is a tremendous overlap between the two categories.

   There are many demonstrations of sexism, such as in the advertising of the 2005 San Miguel beer in China. In this advertisement, there are three young men drinking in an open-air bar; suddenly, it begins to rain, and the drinking patrons hurry away. Three men with their hands on beer bottles are sitting in the rain, and they do not leave. Suddenly, there appear near the three men some young women whose, clothes are drenched by the rain. They are running to the bar; this, action, along with their curves, is very sexy. Three men look at the women, with facial expressions of joy, and then they drink the beer. In this advertising, I cannot see any introduction of this product; rather, the company sends sexist messages to the consumer. The consumer just watches the beautiful women, holding beer, with flirtatious glances looking at him or her from the television. In this way, the advertisers are exploiting gender and using sex appeal to sell the product. They know that if the consumer sees these images, he or she will believe that this beer equals getting the attention of sexy ladies. The commercial does not even introduce the product. In actuality, this advertising is effective to some men. I found this advertisement on the company’s website, and it was chosen as one of China’s top ten examples of sexism in advertising. A large percentage of people cannot accept this form of advertising. Our study suggests that sexism in advertising is a cross-cultural phenomenon, and Western advertising models are the trendsetters of sexual images in Chinese magazine advertising. Chinese advertising is not only a “melting pot” of cultural values; it is also a “melting pot” of advertising practices.

   Tsingtao Beer is another type of beer, but this company’s advertisement catches my attention. I became interested in this company’s advertisement because I saw a group of dynamic young people at a party drinking Tsingtao Beer and chatting together. This allowed me to feel and think about my friends. This advertising does not include the use of a sexy model to attract the consumer, and it is actually more effective than the San Miguel beer. This company sends a positive message to the consumer without the use of sexism, and they do not exploit gender stereotypes. Thus, as the viewer, it gives me a positive feeling toward their product.

   In these two advertisements, we can understand that most of the audience will agree with some ideas: a man needs a good wife or a sexy lady, and a woman needs to be pretty. Thus, the role of women is rigid in advertising. Therefore, most of the psychological needs of the audience are based on the fact that advertisers want to sell products. Advertising works intentionally or unintentionally to promote a role model, represented in the stereotypical image, further strengthening the audience’s idea, this, in turn, leads to businesses using more female stereotypes, thus forming a vicious cycle. Advertisements are becoming more and more likely to exploit females and employ the use of sexism. In the first advertising of San Miguel beer, it used the male beauty market value and ignored the product information on its own. With the increase in time, we should reduce the sense that females are merely appendages, that in the advertising industry, they must depend on males to exist. More and more women are joining the professional ranks. Their perceptions of gender role portrayals in industrial advertising are of high importance to marketing strategists, who are concerned with not only sales but also with their own public image and public relations. A study provides empirical evidence concerning gender differences in perceptions on this important issue and discusses the crucial relevance of these findings to industrial marketing strategists. (LaTour, Henthorne, and Williams 247-255). By contrast, the advertising of the Tsingtao beer is to show the actual product to the consumer, rather than to rely on women’s eroticism to gain the audience’s attention and interest.

   Overall, advertisements should pay more attention to the product itself, rather than relying on women’s sexiness. Now, television advertising and outdoor advertising are the most beautiful. With Tsingtao beer, for example, I will choose to purchase this product because this advertisement catches my attention and gives me a positive feeling. This advertising focuses on the product, the taste, the process, and the information of the product. I can understand this product and decide whether to buy it or not, but I have a good first impression of this product. In my opinion, advertising can use the preferences of the audience to advertise to them, but these preferences should be employed purposefully.

 

 

Works Cited

Miller, Michele. "Sexism in Advertising and Marketing to Women." International Journal of Advertising, 24.1 (2005): 113.

Tsingtao advertising: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2HN8GEmaGc YouTube. YouTube, 03 Aug. 2008. Web. 20 Oct. 2013.

San Miguel advertising: http://v.ku6.com/show/Pa6pA2xkP2CDZ4SN.html N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2013

Huang, Ying, and Dennis T Lowry. "An Analysis of Nudity in Chinese Magazine Advertising: Examining Gender, Racial and Brand Differences." Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, 66.7-8 (2012): 440-452.

LaTour, Michael S, Tony L Henthorne, and Alvin J Williams. "Is Industrial Advertising Still Sexist: It's in the Eye of the Beholder." Industrial Marketing Management, 27.3 (1998): 247-255.

Essay 1 Draft 3

Ke Ning

Professor Kelly Rowley

English 113A

8 December 2013

New Environment, New Situation

  In a person's life, they will be exposed to many different environments, some environment gave us joys and sorrows, some environment gave us many valuable memories. As the change of different environments, we are also changing. Include me in this situation. I always made the change, but just a little. After my high school I made a big choice. This choice was enough to change myself.

  Looking into my past, the whole high school life is just like a vacation, I can’t believe how fast the time goes by. In retrospect, it seems like yesterday I was a high school freshman. I felt I had nothing done in the high school until now. I never tried to challenge myself to do new things, no goals, no purpose, no surprises in the high school life. I repeat everyday life, getting sleepy. But faced with the coming college entrance examination, I felt helpless and afraid, afraid of my parents’ disappointed eyes, afraid relatives and friends laugh at eyes. I was afraid. I want to change myself. Not only in the high school, but also in my next way of my new environment of college.

  First, I changed my work and rest time. I become to have regular timetable. I irregular work and rest time is no longer what I did. I had the concept of time. I no longer procrastinated, I did things I should do immediately, not until the second day. At the beginning, I was not accustomed to it. When my friends called me, I went out. I always have no reason to refuse. But gradually, I had to learn to control my time. I became orderly.  Life was no longer confusing.

  With my high grade I ended high school life. I was faced with the choice of university. My parents wanted me to go to the United Kingdom with my sister, but I wanted to go to a new place where everything is new so I could create a new self. So, I came to America. At first, when I came to America, I was excited and scared. Excited was because it was a new environment and I could do everything by myself. Scared because it was new situation, I had no interpersonal relationship in the America, and it wasn’t like in China where my parents had many interpersonal relationships, and I never care about my problems. But right now I don’t want have the interpersonal relationship by my parents. Since childhood they take care of me, I am grateful to them, but I think something I still need to be by myself. Of course, they also agree with my idea. So they decided to let me have a try.

  Before I came to college I made a plan for the new environment. High school is different than college. So I needed to the change to suit the situation. Since I stayed a few days in America, I had a lot of problems, such as the culture difference and the customs. The customs of America are totally different from China’s customs. For example, in China’s restaurants we don’t pay for the tip, because the tip is included in the. Waiter’s salary. Sometimes, I would forget the tips. I felt embarrassed. Also, once I worked on my math class, that’s really easy and I always like to do the work by myself. So, when the math professor said group work, I still worked by myself. After class, my math professor told me needed to learn how to work together, not only by myself. After that, I tried to chat with my group mates, and discussed the work together. English is not my first language, so sometimes I would be too shy to talk with other people, American are more open than Chinese, In China, people conversations will be more tactful, so sometimes when I made a mistake they would tell me directly, and I would feel embarrassed. At the start, I just had a few friends. I felt lonely.

One day in the night I did Facetime with my mother. I cried and said I wanted to go back home. My mother gave me two choices and said: Going abroad was your choice, there will be problems. If you try your best to change but it still doesn't work, you can come back. Mother won't blame you, but you didn't do your best to solve the problems you want to escape. You can come back, but I will despise you. I remember before I left my father said to me: I need to strive at work. You do, too. Then I chose to stay here to try to be more by myself. After that, I tried my best to suit the environment. I studied America’s custom, I tried to talk with classmates and friends, and even though I have some pronunciation issues, I still tried to correct them. I tried to blend in to this new environment, to participate in more activities and meet more friends.

  Right now, I’m on my way to changing myself, I just want to prove my abilities in my friends and my family’s relatives eyes. I’m not a baby. I can create the interpersonal relationships by myself. I don’t need by my parents to solve everything. I can prove to myself that when I left my parents, I still can do all things. At the start I needed to assemble the furniture by myself. I needed walk a long time to find a market. Leaving a familiar environment was a very painful thing, but this was not a kind of torture, it was a kind of growth, the growth of courage, ability of growth, the growth of the self.    

  I am not just staying in my parents’ arms. I made a big change in my high school; certainly I can do it twice.

Observation

Ke Ning

Professor Kelly Rowley

English 113A

10/13/13

                                   This weekend observation was in the Chinatown, I went to the Chengdu taste last night. Although it is almost close midnight, there were still a lot of people waited outside in order to eat in this restaurant. For Chinese, this restaurant is very famous. But I am so surprise that many American also waited outside. In my memory, American is not good at eat spicy food. When we entry the restaurant and begin to order, I heard a conversation which was came from three people who are sit next table to us. There were three beautiful women and they all dress up a lot.
Woman 1: “oh my gosh! This tofu is very spicy! I cannot stand it! Please give me a cup of water.”
Woman 2: “what! You must be kidding me! This tofu is delicious. I like it. You would better to eat hamburger haha!”
Woman 3: “hahahahaha! You so funny today, Nancy! When did you begin to eat spicy food? I remember you hate it because spicy food is not good for skin.”
Woman 1: “oh right, what is up? You are falling in love with another man?”
Women 2: “oh come on! I am single lady a long time ok? I am just trying new thing. You know my father likes spicy food. He has a Chinese friend and he is learning a lot of spicy food from his friend. Once I came back home after work, I was so striving! So I opened the refrigerator in order to find something to eat. Unlucky, I only find my father‘s spicy to eat. You know what? I started to love spicy when I eat that food at first time. Anyway I like spicy food now. You guys should try this fish. That was awesome!”
Women 1: “do not let me try! I even cannot eat this tofu. How can I eat fish? There is a lot of red chili. It looks so dangerous. I will die if I try this fish!”
Woman 3: “well, I want to try, Nancy.”
Woman 3 got her chopsticks and tried to eat fish. But it seems she is not skillful to use chopsticks. She tried three times and still cannot get fish meat to eat.
Women 2: “let me handle it, sandy.”
Woman 2 began to teach woman 3 how to use chopsticks and give women 3 a piece of fish with chili.
Women 3: “oh my god!!!! That is so spicy! Nancy, are you seriously? I never want to try that food again! Windy give me water please!”
Woman 3 was shouting, she looks so funny and the tears are coming out from her eyes.
Women 1: “I told you do not try that! Nancy is crazy girl! She never stops to adventure!”
Women 2: “All right, you two can order other not spicy food. I will eat the whole fish. You guys should be brave to experience new thing.”
Woman 1&3: “Okok! You are so brave girl. Let’s eat diner! We are hungry and do not let us try spicy again!

Three women seem really hungry. They eat so fast. When I finish my order, they already had gone. Now I know why my America classmate does not want to eat spicy food with me.

Letter to family member

Ke Ning

Professor Kelly Rowley

English 113A

8 December 2013

 

Letter to family member

Dear keke,

   At the begging of this letter, I have to tell you how much I miss you after you left us two years ago. Although you didn’t left any word to me, I could still feel how much you love me, and what I want to tell you is as a dog of my family you are not only a pet but also a family member to us.

       Even there were two years passed by, I still feel pain when I think about that day you left us, I remember what happened in that moment, when the car hit against you I saw you comes flying in, but in that moment I even cannot move, I couldn’t believe my eyes, when I crushed to your side, what running in my mind was “that’s impossible, you won’t leave us.” Later, my mother and I took you to the hospital, but the doctor said you might cannot with us anymore. I was so sad but couldn’t cry, even couldn’t think, I got many of your smell in my mind, I was thinking about the first day you came to my life.

       I remember clearly the first day you came to my home, you was only 4 months young, you were full of curiosity, and when we made the first eye contact, you smelled to me and came to my side licked my hand with your tongue. At that time, I thought I cannot lose you as a family member. With the time passing by, since we first met each other, there were 7 years passed, you grown up with me during the last 7 years. Do you remember my first friend lin in my junior high school? I was really shy during that time, and when I got to my junior high school I didn’t make any friend at first, later then, I found a girl in my class lived near to me, I was eager to have friend to her but I didn’t know how to start. Who changed everything was you, even though you can’t speak in my way, but I believe you can understand me and also I can feel you, I remember that was a Friday evening after dinner, I walked you in the center park, and I saw lin was also there with her friends, I want to join them and make friends with them; however, I didn’t do anything but watched them, and then, you suddenly rushed to her and barked loudly, I run to you and said sorry to lin and her friends, but to my surprise, them were really interested on you, and lin said she remember me in the class, she wants to make friend to me! That moment, you smelled to me like the first day we met, I thought you are the present in my life.

      After that, I changed to outgoing and started to make more friends, I felt that was not that difficult as I thought before. I think what changed me was you, you let me know if I want something I have to strive to get that, I cannot just wait there and wait the chance come to me, every chance is prepare to the people who has already prepared. Now I becoming more and more confident, and when I meet new friend I am not that shy anymore, and I don’t need your to help make friend anymore. Although I changed a lot, I still feel I need you; however, I know I can only live in now, so the last lesson I learned from you when you died was cherish, I started to know the life is so weak some time, what I have to do is cherish everyone around me.

      Right now I always miss you, i can feel you around my side, i can many things by myself, that








you give me the power to do it. Hope everything is good on you when you in the heaven, and we miss

you as your family member all the time.                                                                                        

The Veldt

     George is a father in a short novel which is talking about a high techology house with a family. He built a house on grassland. This house is very smart that can help parents to take care their children very well. For example, children can get a nice shower from house technology. When parents are too busy to make meal for their son and dauther, the house can help them to make a good meal for children. They also can go travel by using house technology such as they came to Africa before. Although this technology is benefical for their family, it still harmful for children in some filed. Children cannot know the real world and have many time stay with their parents. Dut to the house will give children everything, parents are focus on their work. That caused parents and children cannot commuitate a lot. They may argue with each other frequentlly. At the end of novel, the children call some lions to killed his father and mother. I was so surprised about this end. How can children kill their parents? In my opinion, i do not think this technology is good for a family. As i mentioned before, parents and children cannot get a talk in order to share their story. Parents have responsbility to take care their son and dauther instead of a machine.

24-hour Tech Assignment- using cellphone and computer

  When i wake up, my first time was pick up my cellphone. When i go sleep, my last thing was turn off my cellphone. Everyone have the laptop, with the progress of the times, computer is becoming more and more convenient, we can do many things on it.

  On my Monday to Thursday I have the class whole day, sometime i will bring my laptop with me to class, because use  laptop made notes are more convenient than use the pencil wirted on the paper. After class when I come back home I will first check my email, if there have nothing important should I immediately to do it i will contanct with my computer. I always like play the online game, such as the
League of Legends, it would made me relax and have a nice mood. I had a bit of procrastination, so I have to remind myself what to do to set a good time. I spend many time in the school and my class, when I after class i would chose a place or walk long time come back home with my cellphone, sometimes I watch the video and sometimes read the novel on the way. I don't know why but i like this feeling, after class use a nice mood to do somethings are commonplace in my life. And i can chat with friends and read their new and interst things on their weibo or wechat. Although we have the long distance, but the internet and eletrinoic made us close.
  I do not oppose the use of electronic products, as long as they can in good control of time, for me it is a good way to relax.

The Electronic Addiction

                                              

                                                          The Electronic Addiction

  In this article, the electronic addiction. Let me remind recently, there are several teenagers absorbed in the electronic, primarily Internet of the online game. And I know there is many news about the people play the online game make their self sudden death. Maybe are not just play the online game, some IT staff have the hard work, sometimes they will work the whole night and did not stop.

  But in my opinion, I think the electronic such as computers and cellphones are make me relax. Bacuese when I felt tarried and boring i will play my phone or watch the movie. I do not think the electronics are the disaster for people, in the contrary they make me life have fun, and I know the news when i want. But we should also pay attention to the side effect of the electronic addiction, we should control our time, reasonably to plan the time.