Metacognitve Essay

Jayson Farin
Sean Pessin
English 114B
4 March 2013

Metacognitive Essay

I honestly did not know what a hybrid was when it was first introduced. After reading some of the examples that were provided to the class, I had somewhat of an idea of what a hybrid essay was. From the readings, it was clear that a hybrid essay does not follow the conventional format a traditional essay would have.  With that in mind, a hybrid essay can include other means of communication such as visual content, works of other writers, or even just a unique format. One of them was composed mainly of photos that did the telling of the story, while another one was structured such that it imitated some kind of legal document. Personally, I enjoyed the one that was made up almost entirely of photos. I found it interesting how the author let the photos do all the talking. Inspired by the layout of that essay, I decided to incorporate some of its conventions; I knew I wanted to provide visual content that helped explained my thoughts in my essay.    

I started with my essay with the usual introduction and talked about how my experience with the blog was very similar to social networking cites. Then I went on and talked more with what I learned through my research for the blog.  The way I formatted my essay was very similar to the conventional essay format with an introduction, three main ideas (my newfound knowledge of football history, the argument my blog presented, and the significance of my topic), and a conclusion. However, I added some photos to provide visual aid of what was going on in the essay. I mentioned some history on my hybrid essay that talked about how football has evolved through the years, and below this paragraph were some photos that show how much the game has changed. I did the same thing when I briefly talked about proper tackling techniques and how the style of playing has changed. I wanted to post pictures on these specific parts in order embed a clear picture in my audience’s mind on what I was trying to say. After the conclusion of my hybrid essay, I decided to repost a video that I put up on one my first blogs. I felt that this video did an excellent job in summarizing many of the key points that I covered or wanted to cover in my blog.

My experience in making this hybrid essay was not as enjoyable as posting material on my blog, although the hybrid essay was a blog post itself. I did not enjoy the process in making a hybrid essay as much as the process for the flash fiction stories, but I liked the idea of how we can structure the essays the way we see fit. Despite my not so enjoyable experience with the hybrid essay, ironically, I feel like all my blog posts were mini hybrid essays themselves. They were short paragraphs along with either a photo or video that helped the audience understand the blog post. To conclude, I can see myself blogging in the future, but making another hybrid essay not so much.  

Hybrid Essay

Jayson Farin
Sean Pessin
English 114B
24 April 2013

Hybrid Essay

This semester was the first time I had experienced making a blog and keeping it up-to-date. I found it very similar to Facebook in a way that we could post our thoughts or even photos of a certain topic or activity that took place. However, with the blog that was assigned, our focus was centered on one topic of our choosing. With a blog page and a topic in mind, our goal was to provide a way to communicate to our audience through electronic writings and other multimedia components. In other words, the blogs presented to the audience photos, videos, and other forms of communication that were suppose to make sense of what the blog was all about. With my blog, I had to research and provide information about the health of football players and how that has shaped the equipment being used today; I wanted to blog about something that I can relate to, which was football.

 Before this blog assignment, I already had knowledge and even experience in playing the game of football. I thought I had known pretty much all there was to know or needed to be known about the game. Turns out there was so much I did not know about. I found it very interesting and entertaining to learn more about the game and discovering things that I had no idea about. Learning about the history especially is what really interested me the most. Looking at some of the equipment that was used back in the day really made me wonder, "Did they really play in THAT?" It seemed liked player safety was not the main issue during the humble beginnings of the sport. However, I also discovered that President Theodore Roosevelt prevented the game from permanently ending by enforcing the players to wear proper safety gear in order to ameliorate injury occurrences and even to prevent fatalities. After Roosevelt's actions, football was able to continue and evolve and become what it is today. This was really surprising for me to learn how football almost came to an end had it not been for the actions of President Theodor Roosevelt, which gives me, or any other football fan, a reason to appreciate football more.

                         

 

 

As the game progressed and evolved, so did the style of playing. With more sophisticated equipment, players now seem to be impervious to any type of injury or even long-term health effects, and therefore, tend to collide with other players with greater impact. Throughout the process of my research, the question whether or not football has become safer came to mind several times. With modern equipment, is football safer than it was decades ago? Like I said earlier, the style of play has changed dramatically through the years. Back then, players had less equipment so players had to rely on their teammates for help when making a tackle and would often result in a pileup of heavy players. In these pileups, players would come out with crushed bones or fractured rib cages. Nowadays, with state-of-the-art equipment, engineered by top manufacturers, players often ignored the fundamentals and go all out when making contact against opposing players. This style of tackling is very similar to mini car collisions and has proven to affect the long-term health of many athletes. So, is it safer? Whether it is a broken rib cage or a concussion, any injury or health issue is worth taking a look at and treated properly; in other words, any injury is just as serious as the other. Furthermore, I believe wiping out injuries completely in football is absolutely impossible and that they will continue to happen regardless of how technologically advance the equipment may be.

So what is the significance of this topic? Even with carefully designed football gear nowadays, players are bound to get injured; it's a physical sport and it is just the nature of the game no matter how you look at it. So the significance for this blog was to bring awareness in a way. Awareness about the dangers of the game and how it is just as violent and physical now as it was years ago. The goal was not to scare or talk aspiring football athletes out of it. I simply wanted to inform people who want to join football for the first time and let them know what they are getting themselves into and the consequences that potentially lie ahead. This blog research has taught me a lot more about the game that I had no idea about when I was playing. It made me realize how all the hard hitting and the physicality could have affected my health, let alone my life, while I was playing. However, I will never regret ever joining my high school team the summer before my freshman year; it was one of the best experiences I had during my four years in high school. Moreover, if I had known then what I knew now, I probably would have been more careful with the way I made tackles. Looking back now, I honestly can say that my method of tackling was not very smart. With that said, I strongly encourage younger football players to return to the fundamentals of tackling in order to lessen their chances of getting seriously hurt. Just remember, when tackling an opposing player, NEVER have your head down; that was my issue then.  

Player safety and the development of equipment was my main topic, and researching for these information led me to learn some interesting history facts. My blog talked about some of the football equipment and the history behind them and how concerns for the safety of the players played a crucial role in improving American football. History about the equipment was interesting itself, but I wanted to further explore how the game grew to become very popular and become part of the American culture. I also wanted to learn more about the changes in style of playing and find out whether or not new equipment actually helped revolutionized the players' style of playing and also learn more about which players had the biggest impact in the game. 

Learning the material I discussed on my blog and the history of American football has really made me appreciate the game all the more. It gives me a sense of pride knowing that I was a part of something that has been around for more than century. It has made me realize how little I knew about football and the significance of its past. Now, as a football fan, I am looking forward to what the future holds for this game. We are still continuing to see changes within the sport, but all for good reason to protect the athletes; some people may think otherwise. Other than learning more about the game of American football, this method of electronic writing has taught me many new ways to communicate to certain groups of people whether it be through photos, videos, or even writing. Though I found it to be very similar to other social networking cites such as Facebook, I learned that these blog cites target a certain group of audience depending on what the blog focuses on. All in all, this whole experience in making a blog about one of my passions in life was indeed a positive one, and I can honestly say that I might continue with this blog exploring other topics and issues that are continuing to help shape American football for future generations who are dreaming of joining the NFL one day.