last in-class writing!

What have you learned? What have you enjoyed? Not enjoyed? What will you take with you to other classes?

My primary goals with this class was to get more efficient with my writing. I used to start writing assignments, get distracted, lose motivation, got bored, and feel repetitive, then give it a last-ditch effort to make a page requirement. This class has allowed me to remember what it was like for writing to feel natural because we can write about things that are relevant and things we are passionate about. I will definitely take the new strategies for "Shitty First Drafts" and pre-writing with me  since I had been just outlining and winging it before this. I enjoyed work-shopping and getting an idea about what everyone else is doing. Sometimes I write papers and feel like I completely miss the point and it's drowning in my point of view, but this was productive. This is one of the only settings where I have felt my writing was "at home" since my major requires almost exclusively scientific research and APA ramblings. I'll save the essays I wrote in here as personal creations, and part of the spatial analysis for paper 1 was sent out to my family after I had sent it to my boyfriend for him to proofread - that paper ended up being about the place where he became the fiancé!

pansy first drafts

Oh, how I wish I could adopt the reckless, carefree prose style of Anne Lamott. I am someone who labors over the first page and needs a remarkable amount of motivation to start because I know how long it takes me. I am guilty of treating a first draft like a second or third. I can do the hasty, unfiltered writing in brainstorming and prewriting exercises, but I would be mortified to put such thoughts in a document I would turn in for any kind of grade or recognition. I'm afraid in editing I'll run over it and leave that poor lonely thought alone in its unrefined glory and never come back to it again. Most of what I consider to be revision includes rephrasing repetitive sentences and messing with the flow of the story. I get frustrated when revisions I receive in work shopping processes are minimal, I want to have a lot to look over and think about - seeing things from only my own perspective is boring to read and write about. I like having things to argue and defend on paper.

in-class writing 11/3

This class discussion helped me re-frame the argument I was trying to make. I don't think my topic is as huge of a cultural phenomenon as we were talking about today, but the papers and the way they re-framed the conversation about wither topic were helpful in structuring mine better. The reading we did for today wasn't totally helopful intil we put it into flowchart form - could make for some very well-put-together paragraphs here pretty soon. This also gives me some more ideas on topics in general since some of the samples in the file reminded me of the film paper where I tackled stereotypes and pre-conceived notions about groups. Definitely should be better. I got a political cartoon related to running/redefining the running shoe like my argument, so maybe that can tie in as well.

getting started

I'm lucky I work in the industry I'm looking to evaluate. I have hands-on experience and connections to the representatives of the brands that shape the footwear industry. Aside from hundreds of footwear catalogues and technical speification sheets for several shoes, there's a lot of promotional material that goes out to customers - a direct insight into a companies' motivation to push a shoe or lack thereof. There's a lot of exercise physiology and biomechanical research going on right now concerningthe shod vs. unshod foot and how it behaves in the running as well as walking process, and databases in EBSCO like SportDiscus and the ACSM database have great representation of this ongoing trend. There's a lot of information riht now since this movement is so huge, so I think this paper is all abot filtering the outspu and making sure sources are reliable and unbiased about the industry.

In-Class: The Forrest

The Redwood trees here just might be poking holes in the clouds that would otherwise be drifting by, but instead are pinned down by spears of pines. These pines coat the floor of the forrest along with the paved pathway that once could be seen below it. The pavement winds casually between the trees, but some of the most aged trees lifted up enough root to let the pavement wind seemingly through the wood as it stands - exposing dozens upon hundreds of rings showing age. Massive and hauntingly vacant holes in the sides of these trees were once home to any imaginable woodland creature, but now they only have space to call their home.

The pavement that winds through the otherwise thick foliage appears to have been abused by millions of feet, wheels, tires, and raindrops. The path it takes seems too long and too far gone. The twists and turns it makes don't appear to have a clear end destination in mind. "Scenic Route" was the name it was given, demeaning its purpose to one of just wandering or crime.

When all that is organic is all that is on the ground, a shiny car key stands out more than it would in any other place. There wasn't a car here at this point in time, and the car probably isn't in any sort of reasonable radius to the key. This key wasn't here on purpose. This key was left behind. The only other man-made sign of life tto be found within yelling distance from this key was a decrepit plastic cup. This cup was the red kind, white inside, bumps all around to ease the grip. This was the kind of cup you don't just use with dinner. It was the kind of cup you find at a bad party and when you're done drinking, you play with it enough to break it, and then throw it away: a similar fate to the one this cup found.

There was one tree in particular that had finally served this forrest long enough. It gave up its reign in the San Francisco skyline, and laid itself down right across the pavement path it had bonded with the past few years. Perhaps it just wanted to give itself to the land, or maybe it was a warning to the next visitors to the path who left behind a new kind of home. Trees and cars don't seem to agree on much, especially when push comes to shove. The self-sacrificing tree had met its match with the last car to wind down the path, perhaps too quicky. The car came to a forceful stop at the same place where the tree had given up just hours before. The ones responsible for the car driving were gone, but the now foregone vehicle had become a new home for the wanderers of the forrest and the creatures surrounding it. What was once a trunk now plays shelter to a small group of birds who once called the tree home.

The edge of the forrest was bordered by a fence. This fence was new. Brand new. The tree that gave its life to this fence was freshly gone. This fence was apparently just for looks, because it wasn't high enough to keep out anything but the lowest 3 feet of wind through the forrest. Just over the fence extended a stretch of field that was being worked over by dozens of colossal machines, flattening, paving, excavating, and smoothing. A highway laid in the horizon line that abruptly ended right before the forrest began - or moreso where the forrest was about to end.

In-Class for 10/27

Talk aboout what went well with your paper and what didn't go as well. What writing exercises helped? What didn't?
I don't think this paper came along as easily as the last one for a few reasons. With the space assignment, there was a lot of room for imagination and argument because I was the only one who experienced that space in the wat that I did at the time that I did. With the movie paper, the sources of information were definitely more concrete and the arguments had a be a little more solid. Also, I had a harder time finding a film in the first place. I went with one I enjoyed from the get-go because it was a very happy-go-lucky-feel-good documentary. It was a little more mindless than I would like for it to have been - but I suppose this is all about learning experiences anyway, right? Either way, I really appreciated  the quoteburger exercise. It wasn't a super new concept for me, but at that point I was really struggling with overall length and content of my paper. I felt like I had a few solid ideas, developed them, and had like 4 pages. The more thorough introduction and analysis of the quotes gave me a lottle more direction to give the quotes some body.

quoteburger

Benjamin Franklin satirized British policies toward America by writing a letter that argued, "A great empire, like a great cake, is most easily diminished at the edges." While Franklin jokingly suggested that Britain should rid itself of its outermost provinces first, he directly targeted how Americans should feel toward the monarchy that disenfranchised them.

I'm a big quoteburger fan. We got beaten around with "blending quotations" in high school, and I think they did a pretty effective job. I have a hard time looking at a stand-alone quote without wanting to fix it now. I think it takes a lot of the work out of reviewing and analyzing works because all you have to have is a good eye for words. If someone can just pick out a string of words in a really pretty order, and then understand the intent of the phrasing the author has, quoting isn't too tough. Quoteburgers are all about context. I think tabloid writers and newspaper editors are professionals at liberal quoteburgering. They can take almost anything a celebrity/official said, throw it in some new quotes with an artistic set-up, and say something completely new and different. I hope to get a little QB-ing in with reference to the NETSationals. The dancers have awesome little snippets in their 60+ years of conversational experience - so their quotes are priceless.

where to go from here

This workshopping experience was very productive - I had a lot more complete than I did the last time around with the space analysis essay (The page requirement certainly helped.) A lot of the changes were oversights in a grammatical sense, where I couldn't quite figure out the wording I was looking for to get through my thought process. All of teh comments were really helpful, and I intend to use all of them. The direction the paper is taking is where I want it to go, and I hope to bring in a few more characters for the sake of specifica and a few more outside sources with credible reviews since this film was a Tribeca Film Festival release, not a first-run theatrical. Also, there were comments about doing some more work on common stereotypes of elderly people and how the characters in Gotta Dance defy those stereotypes.

where to now?

          I should probably get going on that here pretty soon. The prewriting is really productive - I feel like I have a lot more things to write about than I did writing the space analysis. With a work that so many people have seen and reacted to there's a lot more in the public domain to reference as far as arguments. I would like to study up a little more on the team themselves and poke my head around for some outside reviews to see where the points of controversy hit with people who actually make a living by reviewing film. I might also explore the possibility of checking out one other film I haven't seen in a while and see if I get immediately inspired to start this process over again on a new topic. We'll see. I need to get my thesis for this film to take more of a stand than introducing the general themes of the film and collect some quotes from the interviews that support all of my claims. It might be nice also go go back through my favorite scenes (since I watched it on Netfilx) and screen-shot the still images of the most poignant settings to see if I can do a little visal analysis on camera work.

marie and juno

  I can see a lot of similarities between the two young women featured in the films themselves. Juno and Marie Antoinette were both just teenagers when they both had more dumped on them than they could handle at once. Whether it be a country in turmoil or an unplanned pregnancy, both films are pretty counter to the usual pop movie about teen girls. They're not all glamorous, even without costumes and pomp, the films expose an uglier side to ruling a country or trying to coordinate an open adoption. Between the two readings, we see the films evaluated as packaged products; and a tool to evaluate a cultural group. The hipster Juno image of I-don't-care-what-you-think contrasted with the high French criticism of Antoinette make a soemtimes unwanted social message more known. Both authors were pretty successful sending this message by putting out some more concrete examples of the reception of the films, direct quotes from the script, and some statement about the authors' intentionality in writing them.

most buzzkill movie experience, ever.

          It was senior year of high school when I found out that there was a theater on Inwood in Dallas that had a room that had no reclining stadium seats - but only LoveSac chairs, ottomans, pillows, and all the fixings of a great relaxing movie watching-experience. I was erally excited to get down there and try it out. At the time I was pretty into the indie movie scene and limited releases, so when I saw they had Boy in the Striped Pajamas, I very vaguely knew what it was about but I bought two tickets. I dragged along my now-fiance and he was excited at the prospect of a good movie but moreso comfy seats. The disappointment started at entry. There was only one screening per night in the LoveSac theater, and it wasn't ours. We sighed, and moped over to the theater where our movie was going on.
          If you haven't seen Boy in the Striped Pajamas, don't. While it won a slew of awards, it was horrifyingly sad, comlpetely depressing, and the worst date movie in history. It's a Holocaust piece, the good people die, and the seats were not LoveSacs. Not cool.

preparation and changes

         For this last paper, my style of preparation to write, prewrite, and take notes was more unique. I don't think I have ever sat and observed a space alone, with my laptop, writing fragments, and coming up with a very very rough draft to start. I'm someone who usually takes a lot of time and effort for the first time I write a paper because I don't like looking at things that are going to require future closure. Taking notes of just a few words at a time was difficult, and going back later and attempting to add meaning to little blurts I thought were worth mentioning was difficult. I look forward to an assignment about moves because of the more concrete nature of the art. If I feel like I missed something, I can pause it, rewind it, fast forward it, and get to the part I need to far more expeditiously. I can watch what I observe over, and over again to catch the small details and nuances of characters that I might have missed while trying to rush through and catch plot changes. I am also pretty thrilled I will have a reason to hang on to my Netflix subscription for just one more month. With a wealth of documentaries and quite a few on my instant queue, I can have a chance to catch a new movie for a fresh perspective on things instead of drawing on my experiences seeing a movie when I was younger with the assumptions I held back then.

obituary: ryan dunn

          Ryan Dunn of MTV's Jackass franchise died in a horriffic car accident in June of 2011. A Philadelphia paper wrote an Obituary on the 34-year-old that was less than a celebration of a short life ended too soon than a review of past misjudgments. They make several evaluative arguments by noting "Mr. Dunn's reputation for bad driving" and an occasion where he "once flipped a car eight times into oncoming traffic with Mr. [Bam] Margera inside." They discuss his friendship with his best friend as "enduring, if hazardous to their health." The claims made about Ryan Dunn in this article were poorly timed, just 2 days after his death and 1 day after they could confirm his identity due to the particularly violent nature of the accident. Claims made by the Inquirer of his "daredevil streak" and his making a "career out of cheating death" were only supported by legal evidence of tickets and movies. Such claims without personal evidence, interview, or any personal relationship without Dunn were out of place in such a strongly worded piece. No matter teh nature of the death or career history, nobody is perfect and I don't think anybody would wnt him to be rememberes in that fashion.

 Obituary: Ryan Dunn/'Jackass' star killed in suburban Philadelphia car crash

In-Class for 8/30

                The logos and the American flag are a shocking image at first, but I think they really go hand-in-hand. I think this is an appeal to Pathos, because not all of the 30 logos on the flag are corporations Americans are proud to be associated with. Not every American wears Nike, buys Playboy on a monthly basis, or buys their pharmaceuticals from Eli Lilly, but that's what our country is all about. Everybody is so different, and the 13 stripes on the flag remind us that we're all on the same page, even if we're different colors, lengths, or run into certain obstacles. The flag might also argue a Logos appeal because regardless of the undertones these corporations present, they are hugely successful and uniquely American. We can be proud of the millions of dollars these companies bring in and the millions of people they employ whom might not have a job otherwise. I could call it the United State of Everything.

In-Class for 8/25

Do you agree that everything is an argument?

I do agree that everything is an argument for SOMETHING. Sometimes it's a little bit more unclear what that something is. Nobody would write a table of statistics and numbers that look like they could be another language if they didn't mean something, explain something, or do something. Every research paper that I mope my way through feels like it will be scanned over once, given an arbitrary letter grade, and deleted forever. If nothing else, turning in that paper make the argument that I put forth enough effort to earn a grade at all. I made an argument that I care about that given document. At base level, I argued that I can use a word processing tool competently (a skill not to be taken for granted after attempting to use number processing tools like Excel.) I think advertisements and opinon pieces are much more ouvert about their argument than choosing an outfit for the three hours of class I attended today, but all three make an argument for something like what you should buy, what you should think, and what kind of respect you deserve (respectively.) The first chapter of the book makes the point that everything is an argument, and there are several different cetegories of arguments. Once you label something like an my empirical research article as "academic argument," it has a more defined purpose for persuasion.