Sometimes you experience things so shocking that upon their happening, you are left in a mental state of shock. You are unable to reshift your focus to those assignments due on Tuesday and too shaken to call your girlfriend at the time she told you to call her. You get caught in resounding cycle of replaying that experience second by second, dissecting and then analyzing each detail in order to obtain clarification, hoping for relief that what you just witnessed wasn't it; that it was something else thats not so bad as what you had initially percieved. However, this festering never leads to those results. In fact it does just the opposite, it festers in your brain until that mystery, that experience is a big gapping hole, a blemish that can’t be covered up with a layer of encyclopedic information, or mindless TV shows
Of course you are probably wondering what I am talking about.
Tonight, I was taking a break from doing my homework, and went to go hang out with some friends who live by the U. Once I got there, we didn’t have much to do, so we went on a bike ride. As we were going up fourth I decided to stop at brooklyn’s pizza and get some free water. They didn’t want any, so they sat on those flimsy metal chairs just outside the store and I went in and stood in line.
Well once I got in line I saw one of my friends sitting at a table (which was right by the end of the line) so conviently, I got in line and started to have a small conversation with him. As we were talking, the line started to move forward and I was kicked out of line and instantly cut by some guy with a walker, some lady, and a little girl in maybe kindergarden. Well when these people went in front of me, the guy with the walker looked at me; since I was engaged in a conversation, I interpretted the glance as a way of asking without interupting my conversation, if I was in line or not. I was still talking to my friend, so I motioned them to go in front of me. Then when the guy was moving forward, I noticed he was still discreetly looking at me.
As always, the line was moving slowly and I was beginning to zone out. I had told the friend that I was talking to that my other two friends were outside, so he went out there to talk to them. My eyes were wondering around the room for a while when my focus landed on the TV mounted on the wall that has a slide show playing about how ecologically effiencent solar power is. Out of my periferalls, I could see the guy with the walker lean over, and when he leaned back up, he quickly glanced backwards at me, then stood up again.
He wasn’t an old guy, probably from what I saw, mid to late forties. His body was frail, and through his baggy clothes you could tell that he was incredibly skinny. And every now and again he would take his hands off the walker, as though the walker was nuscience, but everytime, after about ten to fifteen seconds, his wobbly, crooked stance couldn’t support him, so he had to quickly grasp the walker again.
I then noticed that my attention was fully diverted on to him. When I saw him glance at me with my peripherals, I caught a good glipse at his face.
…to be continued tomorrow. The ending is good, kind of heart breaking.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
intervention from project (for saturday)
This portion deals with giving my audience suggestions for anonymous interventions. since my audience is very socially orientated, i felt that in order persuade them to do something that defies their social solidarities (such as narcing on their friend, they need to be offered a method that won't comprimise these solidarities and social ties, and i feel anonymity is that best method
Problems with Direct Intervention:
Confrontation is a very intimidating and unattractive method of seeking help or rehabilitation for your friend/loved one, and rightly so. The consequences of direct confrontation can be extremely damaging to a teenagers reputation among his/her peers and usually yields repercussions such as ostracization, tormenting, and/or physical fights. These threats, along with their desensitization to drug use, in effect, have incited apathy and have averted teenagers away from confrontation which would be beneficial, or possibly even save their friend/loved one's life.
Indirect/Anonymous Intervention:
However, there are other methods of intervention other than doing it directly, those being indirect/anonymous intervention. This form of intervention is dramatically more effective that directness in that it enables you to get help for your friend/loved one without having to compromise your the social ties you have built with that person or friend group.
Methods:
Anonymous letter to your friend/loved one's parents/guardians. Here, you can explain the severity of your friend/loved one's addiction and strongly recommend that the parent/guardian considers getting help for their kid. The best way to approach this method is to be as empathetic as possible. Since the parents/guardians are most likely not aware of their kid's addiction, this letter will be very devastating, and will incite a vast array of emotions. To compensate for this, as I said above, empathy is the best approach, not only to somewhat provide comfort for the parents/guardian, but also to legitimatize your letter. If your voice is too bold or forthright, the parents may think it was a joke, throw the letter in the trash, and your efforts to help your friend/loved one will go unheeded.
To ensure anonymity, you must take a couple precautions.:
When you are sending a letter be sure to leave out a return address. If you are worried that UPS or the Postal Service will lose your letter, you can always put it in their mailbox, if they have one that is accessible from the front yard or if not, slip it under their front door.
Make sure not to sign you name at the end. Instead you could always write something like "Sincerely, A concerned friend"
If you have distinct handwriting, or you think your friend/loved one will recognize your handwriting, you can always type it.
Anonymous email to your friend/loved one's parents/guardians. If you are uncomfortable, or unable to write a letter, the next best from of anonymous intervention would be email. Treat this method similarly as you would with the letter. However, the benefit of using email is that if the parents/guardian disregard your recommendation for help, you can keep sending the email, creating new accounts if you have to. The relentlessness alone (if first email is not accepted), would demonstrate your legitimate concern for their child, hopefully instilling suspicion in them, and causing them to be more attentive around their kid. This in effect, would hopefully lead to the proper help and rehabilitative care your friend/loved one needs to get off drugs and progress in life.
To ensure anonymity, again, you must take a few things into consideration
If you have an easily recognizable email address , make sure you create a new one, possibly with a name that is suggestive to your cause.
Again, be sure to omit your name. Probably the most classy and empathetic way to sign this email would be "Sincerely a concerned friend."
Problems with Direct Intervention:
Confrontation is a very intimidating and unattractive method of seeking help or rehabilitation for your friend/loved one, and rightly so. The consequences of direct confrontation can be extremely damaging to a teenagers reputation among his/her peers and usually yields repercussions such as ostracization, tormenting, and/or physical fights. These threats, along with their desensitization to drug use, in effect, have incited apathy and have averted teenagers away from confrontation which would be beneficial, or possibly even save their friend/loved one's life.
Indirect/Anonymous Intervention:
However, there are other methods of intervention other than doing it directly, those being indirect/anonymous intervention. This form of intervention is dramatically more effective that directness in that it enables you to get help for your friend/loved one without having to compromise your the social ties you have built with that person or friend group.
Methods:
Anonymous letter to your friend/loved one's parents/guardians. Here, you can explain the severity of your friend/loved one's addiction and strongly recommend that the parent/guardian considers getting help for their kid. The best way to approach this method is to be as empathetic as possible. Since the parents/guardians are most likely not aware of their kid's addiction, this letter will be very devastating, and will incite a vast array of emotions. To compensate for this, as I said above, empathy is the best approach, not only to somewhat provide comfort for the parents/guardian, but also to legitimatize your letter. If your voice is too bold or forthright, the parents may think it was a joke, throw the letter in the trash, and your efforts to help your friend/loved one will go unheeded.
To ensure anonymity, you must take a couple precautions.:
When you are sending a letter be sure to leave out a return address. If you are worried that UPS or the Postal Service will lose your letter, you can always put it in their mailbox, if they have one that is accessible from the front yard or if not, slip it under their front door.
Make sure not to sign you name at the end. Instead you could always write something like "Sincerely, A concerned friend"
If you have distinct handwriting, or you think your friend/loved one will recognize your handwriting, you can always type it.
Anonymous email to your friend/loved one's parents/guardians. If you are uncomfortable, or unable to write a letter, the next best from of anonymous intervention would be email. Treat this method similarly as you would with the letter. However, the benefit of using email is that if the parents/guardian disregard your recommendation for help, you can keep sending the email, creating new accounts if you have to. The relentlessness alone (if first email is not accepted), would demonstrate your legitimate concern for their child, hopefully instilling suspicion in them, and causing them to be more attentive around their kid. This in effect, would hopefully lead to the proper help and rehabilitative care your friend/loved one needs to get off drugs and progress in life.
To ensure anonymity, again, you must take a few things into consideration
If you have an easily recognizable email address , make sure you create a new one, possibly with a name that is suggestive to your cause.
Again, be sure to omit your name. Probably the most classy and empathetic way to sign this email would be "Sincerely a concerned friend."
effects from project (for friday)
What are the short-term effects?
After alcohol consumption, the alcohol is absorbed in the stomach, and distributed throughout the bloodstreams where it is then carried to and absorbed by all the bodily tissues. Once a person drinks alcohol, they are highly susceptible to experiencing a number of effects such as, nausea, vomiting, slurred speech, dizziness, and impaired judgement and coordination. Also, since alcohol chemically alters the brain by means of tissue absorption, some people may experience temporary psychological transformations such as aggressiveness, which often leads to domestic abuse or child abuse.
What are the long-term effects?
After extensive exposure to heavy binge drinking, a person is highly susceptible to damaging organs such as the brain and liver. Furthermore, a sudden stop in using alcohol (once addicted) is likely yield excruciatingly painful withdrawal symptoms such as tremors, convulsions, hallucinations, migraines, and in some severe cases, even death. It is these restraining threats which are the main cause that deters people who are seeking to quit their addiction from doing so.
What are the short-term effects?
Upon snorting or smoking cocaine, a person will experience increased heart rate, blood pressure, insomnia, loss of appetite, irritability, and anxiety. Once the short-lived euphoric effects begin to fade away, the user will then experience what is known as a "coke crash" which includes fatigue and depression. Often times, in order to avoid this "coke crash" new users will begin to ingest more cocaine just before euphoria subsides. This in effect develops a physical dependence among these users, and many times results in addiction.
What are the long-term effects?
Prolonged usage of cocaine often results in aggressiveness and paranoia, often causing unprovoked fits of rage among users and constant jitteriness. Excessive snorting of cocaine can also cause ulcerations of the mucous membranes in the nose. This damage, being permanent, results in hyper delicacy of the nose where bleeding occurs frequently, and in some severe cases even causes the nose to collapse
What are the short-term effects?
Upon using ecstasy, users can show signs of teeth clenching, blurred vision, and nausea. Ecstasy has also been proven to increase heart/blood pressure, which then raises the chances of a seizure, which do occasionally occur. Ecstasy also enables people to engage in prolonged activity such as dancing, which is commonly done at "raves" and concerts where ecstasy is primarily used. This relentless activity coupled with the body heat of the crowd can lead to severe dehydration and high increases in body temperature which can then lead to kidney, liver, and cardiovascular failure.
What are the long-term effects?
Long-term exposure of ecstasy usage has been observed to damage the cells that produce serotonin. This chemical is vital in the regulation of mood, appetite, pain and memory. Considering that ecstasy is a relatively recently introduced drug, the amount of data collected on long-term effects are scarce. However, of the developing research out there, it has been reported that ecstasy dramatically damages memory cells in the brain.
What are the short-term effects?
Once the initial euphoric surge begins to subside, users experience many languid after-effects. This "nod", as it is commonly referred to is attributed to the depression of the central nervous system caused by the flux of heroin absorbed by brain tissue. These effects include alternating states of extreme drowsiness and awakeness, vomiting, constipation, slurred speech, and slow, uncoordinated motor skills.
What are the long-term effects?
Like people effected by alcoholism, many long-term heroin users are often apprehensive about quitting their addiction due the painful withdrawal symptoms produced by sudden cessation of use. These symptoms typically include, intense pain to muscles and bone, restlessness, insomnia, diarrhea, vomiting, cold flashes, and kicking movements. Depending on the severity of the physical dependence, these symptoms can last anywhere from two to seven days.
Furthermore, long-term heroin users are also at a risk of collapsing veins, destroying protective lining on the heart and lungs, liver disease, cellulites, and abscesses (a swollen or inflamed area on the skin caused by high concentrations of puss).
What are the Short-Term effects?
After the euphoric effects of meth subside, users will experience feeling numerous side effects which include, insomnia, loss of appetite, irritability, convulsions, and possibly a heart attack.
What are the Long-Term Effects?
Chronic usage of meth often leads to what is commonly known as "bingeing". Here users will involuntarily deprive themselves of sleep and food to satisfy their body's dependence of the drug. Bingeing can last for as long as three to four days and typically ends when the user is either too malnourished or fatigued to continue.
Prolonged exposure to meth is also psychologically and physically damaging, such as hallucinations, strokes, paranoia, toxic psychosis (which leads to aggressive behavior), and death. Some heavy users, as a result of acquired, semi-permanent hallucinations have been observed preforming repetitive behaviors similar to that of OCD such as constant cleaning, and constantly disassembling and reassembling objects. Another common occurrence observed in chronic users is a delusion of insects or parasites living inside of their skin. As a result of this hallucination, users will incessantly scratch at their skin, which eventually leaves the body scarred with scabs and open wounds.
What are the effects?
Prolonged use of central nervous system depressants commonly leads to physical dependence. When used excessively, they will slow down brain function (damage brain cells) produce an irregular heart beat, and depending on severity of dependence could cause seizures. Furthermore, these medications are especially dangerous when combined with other medications or alcohol. Here, this combination often leads to extremely low heart rates and respiratory levels.
After alcohol consumption, the alcohol is absorbed in the stomach, and distributed throughout the bloodstreams where it is then carried to and absorbed by all the bodily tissues. Once a person drinks alcohol, they are highly susceptible to experiencing a number of effects such as, nausea, vomiting, slurred speech, dizziness, and impaired judgement and coordination. Also, since alcohol chemically alters the brain by means of tissue absorption, some people may experience temporary psychological transformations such as aggressiveness, which often leads to domestic abuse or child abuse.
What are the long-term effects?
After extensive exposure to heavy binge drinking, a person is highly susceptible to damaging organs such as the brain and liver. Furthermore, a sudden stop in using alcohol (once addicted) is likely yield excruciatingly painful withdrawal symptoms such as tremors, convulsions, hallucinations, migraines, and in some severe cases, even death. It is these restraining threats which are the main cause that deters people who are seeking to quit their addiction from doing so.
What are the short-term effects?
Upon snorting or smoking cocaine, a person will experience increased heart rate, blood pressure, insomnia, loss of appetite, irritability, and anxiety. Once the short-lived euphoric effects begin to fade away, the user will then experience what is known as a "coke crash" which includes fatigue and depression. Often times, in order to avoid this "coke crash" new users will begin to ingest more cocaine just before euphoria subsides. This in effect develops a physical dependence among these users, and many times results in addiction.
What are the long-term effects?
Prolonged usage of cocaine often results in aggressiveness and paranoia, often causing unprovoked fits of rage among users and constant jitteriness. Excessive snorting of cocaine can also cause ulcerations of the mucous membranes in the nose. This damage, being permanent, results in hyper delicacy of the nose where bleeding occurs frequently, and in some severe cases even causes the nose to collapse
What are the short-term effects?
Upon using ecstasy, users can show signs of teeth clenching, blurred vision, and nausea. Ecstasy has also been proven to increase heart/blood pressure, which then raises the chances of a seizure, which do occasionally occur. Ecstasy also enables people to engage in prolonged activity such as dancing, which is commonly done at "raves" and concerts where ecstasy is primarily used. This relentless activity coupled with the body heat of the crowd can lead to severe dehydration and high increases in body temperature which can then lead to kidney, liver, and cardiovascular failure.
What are the long-term effects?
Long-term exposure of ecstasy usage has been observed to damage the cells that produce serotonin. This chemical is vital in the regulation of mood, appetite, pain and memory. Considering that ecstasy is a relatively recently introduced drug, the amount of data collected on long-term effects are scarce. However, of the developing research out there, it has been reported that ecstasy dramatically damages memory cells in the brain.
What are the short-term effects?
Once the initial euphoric surge begins to subside, users experience many languid after-effects. This "nod", as it is commonly referred to is attributed to the depression of the central nervous system caused by the flux of heroin absorbed by brain tissue. These effects include alternating states of extreme drowsiness and awakeness, vomiting, constipation, slurred speech, and slow, uncoordinated motor skills.
What are the long-term effects?
Like people effected by alcoholism, many long-term heroin users are often apprehensive about quitting their addiction due the painful withdrawal symptoms produced by sudden cessation of use. These symptoms typically include, intense pain to muscles and bone, restlessness, insomnia, diarrhea, vomiting, cold flashes, and kicking movements. Depending on the severity of the physical dependence, these symptoms can last anywhere from two to seven days.
Furthermore, long-term heroin users are also at a risk of collapsing veins, destroying protective lining on the heart and lungs, liver disease, cellulites, and abscesses (a swollen or inflamed area on the skin caused by high concentrations of puss).
What are the Short-Term effects?
After the euphoric effects of meth subside, users will experience feeling numerous side effects which include, insomnia, loss of appetite, irritability, convulsions, and possibly a heart attack.
What are the Long-Term Effects?
Chronic usage of meth often leads to what is commonly known as "bingeing". Here users will involuntarily deprive themselves of sleep and food to satisfy their body's dependence of the drug. Bingeing can last for as long as three to four days and typically ends when the user is either too malnourished or fatigued to continue.
Prolonged exposure to meth is also psychologically and physically damaging, such as hallucinations, strokes, paranoia, toxic psychosis (which leads to aggressive behavior), and death. Some heavy users, as a result of acquired, semi-permanent hallucinations have been observed preforming repetitive behaviors similar to that of OCD such as constant cleaning, and constantly disassembling and reassembling objects. Another common occurrence observed in chronic users is a delusion of insects or parasites living inside of their skin. As a result of this hallucination, users will incessantly scratch at their skin, which eventually leaves the body scarred with scabs and open wounds.
What are the effects?
Prolonged use of central nervous system depressants commonly leads to physical dependence. When used excessively, they will slow down brain function (damage brain cells) produce an irregular heart beat, and depending on severity of dependence could cause seizures. Furthermore, these medications are especially dangerous when combined with other medications or alcohol. Here, this combination often leads to extremely low heart rates and respiratory levels.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
prolouge to narrative
The development of a group identity is determined largely in part by the individual identities that comprise that group and through the experiences shared amongst those individuals. The group I hung with back in high school was initially drawn together through the similar personalities and interests we each had our solidarity was further bounded largely by the experiences we went through in eighth and ninth grade. During this time, these experiences were built upon the classical angst and curiosity inherent in most teenagers, in which drugs (amongst other things) were one of our outlets.
I had known who Dylan was back in middle school, but in ninth grade our mutual friends had lead us, almost inevitably to form a strong friendship with each other. In present memory I can recall Dylan and myself hoping the back wall of his parents house where we would meander through the desert towards some hidden spot behind the shelter of a sprawling mesquite tree or creosote bush. Crouching, I can watch him pull out some beat up, crusty looking tobacco pipe out of his sweatshirt pocket and gingerly load it up with a clumped nugget of weed. I remember the eye drops, and the spray cans of axe or old spice, and the paranoia I felt walking back into his house, hoping to God that his mom doesn’t get a whiff of any lingering potency.
However, this ephemeral period was not to last forever. By senior year our interests had gone eschew and drugs, which had ironically been one of the affinities that brought our group together, had divided us into two different groups. There was no bitterness between us, and there wasn’t a dramatic fight; in fact we occasionally still hung out with each other. But as I mentioned before, our interests had gone eschew and that had prevented us from regaining that strong bond we all once shared.
Dylan’s path was drugs, but it didn’t happen over night. It was in perennial with the sketchy "smoke sessions" behind his house, which then evolved to coke he bought from some dude named "G", sizzurp, meth, and finally heroin. And although our friendship was not as strong as it had been the four years prior, I can say that until the morning Dylan was found lying dead on his bedroom floor, myself as well as the rest of my friends knew about everything that he was doing. This is the story of our silence and inaction.
I had known who Dylan was back in middle school, but in ninth grade our mutual friends had lead us, almost inevitably to form a strong friendship with each other. In present memory I can recall Dylan and myself hoping the back wall of his parents house where we would meander through the desert towards some hidden spot behind the shelter of a sprawling mesquite tree or creosote bush. Crouching, I can watch him pull out some beat up, crusty looking tobacco pipe out of his sweatshirt pocket and gingerly load it up with a clumped nugget of weed. I remember the eye drops, and the spray cans of axe or old spice, and the paranoia I felt walking back into his house, hoping to God that his mom doesn’t get a whiff of any lingering potency.
However, this ephemeral period was not to last forever. By senior year our interests had gone eschew and drugs, which had ironically been one of the affinities that brought our group together, had divided us into two different groups. There was no bitterness between us, and there wasn’t a dramatic fight; in fact we occasionally still hung out with each other. But as I mentioned before, our interests had gone eschew and that had prevented us from regaining that strong bond we all once shared.
Dylan’s path was drugs, but it didn’t happen over night. It was in perennial with the sketchy "smoke sessions" behind his house, which then evolved to coke he bought from some dude named "G", sizzurp, meth, and finally heroin. And although our friendship was not as strong as it had been the four years prior, I can say that until the morning Dylan was found lying dead on his bedroom floor, myself as well as the rest of my friends knew about everything that he was doing. This is the story of our silence and inaction.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
audience description
Audience Description
My target audience is adolescents or young adults who have friends/loved ones who are addicted to drugs or alcohol. My audience is not limited to race, gender, or socioeconomic class, because I believe drug use and addiction is not determinative by these factors. In other words, I am targeting any young adult or adolescent, from any race/ ethnic background, boy or girl, rich or poor. The educational background of my audience is a current student, who is in high school, college, or even recently graduated young adults. I am assuming my audience is literate and retains a basic level of education. Since drug use has become embedded in contemporary American culture, and in some cases, is commonplace within high schools and colleges, much of my audience is desensitized to drug use and addiction. This desensitization, in effect, not only has caused my audience to develop a lack of concern towards chronic drug use, but has also caused my audience overall to become more indifferent.
Our culture, which highly values social identity and social belonging, has instilled in my audience a strong sense to retain the social identity and ties they have established. In order to do this, my audience often conforms to American social interactional values which include informality, respect, and building solidarity. Here, in order to build solidarity or maintain solidarity amongst friends or a certain group, teenagers and young adults will tend to cater to the groups expectations and values. In many cases, direct intervention or confrontation conflict these expectations or values, so teenagers and young adults often become timid. Considering this, I will promote anonymous intervention, which I believe would be more appealing to my audience in that they can maintain the social ties and solidarity they have established amongst their friends or social group
My target audience is adolescents or young adults who have friends/loved ones who are addicted to drugs or alcohol. My audience is not limited to race, gender, or socioeconomic class, because I believe drug use and addiction is not determinative by these factors. In other words, I am targeting any young adult or adolescent, from any race/ ethnic background, boy or girl, rich or poor. The educational background of my audience is a current student, who is in high school, college, or even recently graduated young adults. I am assuming my audience is literate and retains a basic level of education. Since drug use has become embedded in contemporary American culture, and in some cases, is commonplace within high schools and colleges, much of my audience is desensitized to drug use and addiction. This desensitization, in effect, not only has caused my audience to develop a lack of concern towards chronic drug use, but has also caused my audience overall to become more indifferent.
Our culture, which highly values social identity and social belonging, has instilled in my audience a strong sense to retain the social identity and ties they have established. In order to do this, my audience often conforms to American social interactional values which include informality, respect, and building solidarity. Here, in order to build solidarity or maintain solidarity amongst friends or a certain group, teenagers and young adults will tend to cater to the groups expectations and values. In many cases, direct intervention or confrontation conflict these expectations or values, so teenagers and young adults often become timid. Considering this, I will promote anonymous intervention, which I believe would be more appealing to my audience in that they can maintain the social ties and solidarity they have established amongst their friends or social group
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Research proposal. I thought i posted this thursday, guess not
Purpose:
The purpose of my rhetorical project is to motivate and encourage people to come forward if their friends or someone close to them is engaging in a self-destructive act or habit such as drug use. With my project I intend that my audience voice their concern somehow, whether it be directly to their friend/close one, anonymously to that persons parent/guardian, or anonymously to that person. An anonymous confrontation or recommendation for help can be done by means of a letter, email, or through someone else.
Audience:
My primary audience is adolescents or young adults who have friends/close ones that are engaging in self-destructive acts. Although there are middle-aged people who are associated with drug addicts, typically, it is younger people who are naïve to the substantive consequences of drug-use and thus remain silent and inactive when a friend/close one is engaged in addiction. Because of this naïveté and denial of consequences, I feel that adolescents and young adults need to be exposed to the actual effects of drug use and encouraged to come forward against it.
Context:
Typically, adults, school administrators, or teachers have initiated arguments directed towards adolescents and young adults against drug use. Students usually do not identify with these people so their arguments are often unheeded or regarded as lame or stupid, and vise versa; since these educators do not identify with students, their arguments do tend to be ineffective. Being a young adult I can identify with this crowd more effectively than educators have in the past.
Considering the lethal consequences and long-term effects of drug use, the urgency to motivate kids/young adults to help their friends get off drugs is extremely important. In my rhetorical project I can further stress the relevance of this argument by putting into perspective the long-term consequences of drug use, and by providing real-world stories of kids who have died as a result of it. This in effect will (hopefully) instill a sense of urgency and relevancy in my audience and motivate them to take action.
Rhetorical Strategies:
As I mentioned above, I am going to provide real-world stories about kids who have died not only as a result of drug-use, but also as a result of having friends who were silent about their addiction and self-destruction. These stories, being real, will contribute to the pathos of my argument and will instill a realization in the audience that they are not invincible, and that there are real-world consequences to drug-use. Hopefully this would confirm or draw out any concerns that they have for their friend’s/close one’s addiction and cause them to start thinking about how they should come forward about it.
I will also provide empirical data about long-term and short-term effects of drug use. However, this portion is not going to be over-powering in my project, because I believe that most people are aware of the dangers of drug-use. I also anticipate the audience will get the impression that I am just trying to preach information that is mundane and commonplace, and will reject the argument overall for doing so.
Furthermore since I am trying to persuade people to come forward about their friends/close ones drug addiction, I am going to suggest how they should approach confrontation or recommendation for help. Since most people value privacy and anonymity, and probably would prefer confronting their friends indirectly to avoid fights, drama, or being ostracized, I am going to sympathize with that approach and really elaborate on methods of indirect confrontation. This, I feel, would be a very effective method to motivate coming forward in that I am identifying with the audiences values, and presenting actual, feasible strategies that would allow for anonymity and would also help out their friends/close ones.
Sources:
http://www.focusas.com/
http://www.usnodrugs.com/
http://www.nida.nih.gov/
http://teens.drugabuse.gov/
Medium:
I believe a website is the best medium for my argument. My audience, for the most part, is very technologically orientated and spend a lot of their time on the computer and browsing the Internet, so, I believe a website would be of easy-access to my audience. Another reason a website would be effective is that I can add visually attractive graphics and format it in such a way that would prevent my site from looking bland, and thus indulge the audience to explore the site more and hopefully cause them to absorb some of the information. A website wold also be beneficial to my argument in that it will allow me to include a bulk of information and graphics that I otherwise would be lacking or unable to present in another medium.
Arrangement:
I am going to format the website and present the information in such a way that won’t seem daunting to the audience, in other words, I am going to keep it brief and avoid large bulks of writing. I will include pictures, possibly shocking or graphic ones, which will capture the audience’s attention. I will also avoid using bland fonts or even cheesy fonts to prevent my website from being just that, bland or cheesy.
I can also include links to other sites and resources that would not only legitimatize my cause, but would also start leading them in the right direction to get help for their friends/close ones.
The purpose of my rhetorical project is to motivate and encourage people to come forward if their friends or someone close to them is engaging in a self-destructive act or habit such as drug use. With my project I intend that my audience voice their concern somehow, whether it be directly to their friend/close one, anonymously to that persons parent/guardian, or anonymously to that person. An anonymous confrontation or recommendation for help can be done by means of a letter, email, or through someone else.
Audience:
My primary audience is adolescents or young adults who have friends/close ones that are engaging in self-destructive acts. Although there are middle-aged people who are associated with drug addicts, typically, it is younger people who are naïve to the substantive consequences of drug-use and thus remain silent and inactive when a friend/close one is engaged in addiction. Because of this naïveté and denial of consequences, I feel that adolescents and young adults need to be exposed to the actual effects of drug use and encouraged to come forward against it.
Context:
Typically, adults, school administrators, or teachers have initiated arguments directed towards adolescents and young adults against drug use. Students usually do not identify with these people so their arguments are often unheeded or regarded as lame or stupid, and vise versa; since these educators do not identify with students, their arguments do tend to be ineffective. Being a young adult I can identify with this crowd more effectively than educators have in the past.
Considering the lethal consequences and long-term effects of drug use, the urgency to motivate kids/young adults to help their friends get off drugs is extremely important. In my rhetorical project I can further stress the relevance of this argument by putting into perspective the long-term consequences of drug use, and by providing real-world stories of kids who have died as a result of it. This in effect will (hopefully) instill a sense of urgency and relevancy in my audience and motivate them to take action.
Rhetorical Strategies:
As I mentioned above, I am going to provide real-world stories about kids who have died not only as a result of drug-use, but also as a result of having friends who were silent about their addiction and self-destruction. These stories, being real, will contribute to the pathos of my argument and will instill a realization in the audience that they are not invincible, and that there are real-world consequences to drug-use. Hopefully this would confirm or draw out any concerns that they have for their friend’s/close one’s addiction and cause them to start thinking about how they should come forward about it.
I will also provide empirical data about long-term and short-term effects of drug use. However, this portion is not going to be over-powering in my project, because I believe that most people are aware of the dangers of drug-use. I also anticipate the audience will get the impression that I am just trying to preach information that is mundane and commonplace, and will reject the argument overall for doing so.
Furthermore since I am trying to persuade people to come forward about their friends/close ones drug addiction, I am going to suggest how they should approach confrontation or recommendation for help. Since most people value privacy and anonymity, and probably would prefer confronting their friends indirectly to avoid fights, drama, or being ostracized, I am going to sympathize with that approach and really elaborate on methods of indirect confrontation. This, I feel, would be a very effective method to motivate coming forward in that I am identifying with the audiences values, and presenting actual, feasible strategies that would allow for anonymity and would also help out their friends/close ones.
Sources:
http://www.focusas.com/
http://www.usnodrugs.com/
http://www.nida.nih.gov/
http://teens.drugabuse.gov/
Medium:
I believe a website is the best medium for my argument. My audience, for the most part, is very technologically orientated and spend a lot of their time on the computer and browsing the Internet, so, I believe a website would be of easy-access to my audience. Another reason a website would be effective is that I can add visually attractive graphics and format it in such a way that would prevent my site from looking bland, and thus indulge the audience to explore the site more and hopefully cause them to absorb some of the information. A website wold also be beneficial to my argument in that it will allow me to include a bulk of information and graphics that I otherwise would be lacking or unable to present in another medium.
Arrangement:
I am going to format the website and present the information in such a way that won’t seem daunting to the audience, in other words, I am going to keep it brief and avoid large bulks of writing. I will include pictures, possibly shocking or graphic ones, which will capture the audience’s attention. I will also avoid using bland fonts or even cheesy fonts to prevent my website from being just that, bland or cheesy.
I can also include links to other sites and resources that would not only legitimatize my cause, but would also start leading them in the right direction to get help for their friends/close ones.
stagnant
Every once and a while my boss asks me to come in at five in the morning for what ever reason. Tomorrow is one of those days, and I must say I am not looking forward to it. The twenty seven hours I've already put in this weekend has left me burnt out and exhausted and waking up at 4:30 in the morning to perform the same repetitive, and laborious tasks is not how I want to start off my week. But I got to do it.
I’m a produce clerk at a grocery store. Overall I enjoy my job, I like the guys I work with, the managers tend to leave us alone, and customers rarely bother me. However, the job itself can at times be hard work. The tasks include downstacking pallets, organizing the freezer, lifting up to eighty-pound crates/sacks, placing food on the floor, pricing, cleaning and a myriad of other miscellaneous responsibilities. From reading that your probably thinking “what’s the big deal” or “that sounds pretty easy” and you’re right it is simple. But after a year and a half of an unchangeable routine, my job has gotten to be excruciatingly repetitive and boring to the point where my motivation and effort have become stagnant. So that’s where I am right now; dreading to go to a job where forcing myself into a half-conscious auto pilot like state is the only option I have to prevent myself from snapping and doing something irrational. Coping through means of a self-induced dumbing. Its mind numbing.
But enough rants. “At least I have a job”. At least I can drag myself into bed every night knowing that I earned that $8.25 and hour. “But I’m just glad I have something. $800 bucks a month is better than nothing”, says them. The gullible co-workers I work with (not the produce guys, they all have other jobs or are going to school.) The hourly workers who will work harder and faster just because their manager told them they could go home an hour early when they finish. The same guys who slug across the parking lot to their bond-o Buick or sun-faded green Pontiacs to putt home and turn on the TV. But at least they have a job. At least they have a ticker that’s still ticking and lungs that can still bellow sighs. And like me, they have accepted stagnancy and have accepted to desperately count down from thirteen to that golden Thursday that happens twice a month.
Tomorrow I will go into work at five in the morning to make produce look “flawless.” “We need it looking awesome for Antwone. He’s coming in tomorrow.” So I will work harder to impress some fat guy who doesn’t care to learn my name or shake my hand and look me in the eyes and say “good job”. He will just walk by, piously, and being trailed by a flock of sycophant managers, anxiously scribbling on their clipboards what he says sucks.
I’m a produce clerk at a grocery store. Overall I enjoy my job, I like the guys I work with, the managers tend to leave us alone, and customers rarely bother me. However, the job itself can at times be hard work. The tasks include downstacking pallets, organizing the freezer, lifting up to eighty-pound crates/sacks, placing food on the floor, pricing, cleaning and a myriad of other miscellaneous responsibilities. From reading that your probably thinking “what’s the big deal” or “that sounds pretty easy” and you’re right it is simple. But after a year and a half of an unchangeable routine, my job has gotten to be excruciatingly repetitive and boring to the point where my motivation and effort have become stagnant. So that’s where I am right now; dreading to go to a job where forcing myself into a half-conscious auto pilot like state is the only option I have to prevent myself from snapping and doing something irrational. Coping through means of a self-induced dumbing. Its mind numbing.
But enough rants. “At least I have a job”. At least I can drag myself into bed every night knowing that I earned that $8.25 and hour. “But I’m just glad I have something. $800 bucks a month is better than nothing”, says them. The gullible co-workers I work with (not the produce guys, they all have other jobs or are going to school.) The hourly workers who will work harder and faster just because their manager told them they could go home an hour early when they finish. The same guys who slug across the parking lot to their bond-o Buick or sun-faded green Pontiacs to putt home and turn on the TV. But at least they have a job. At least they have a ticker that’s still ticking and lungs that can still bellow sighs. And like me, they have accepted stagnancy and have accepted to desperately count down from thirteen to that golden Thursday that happens twice a month.
Tomorrow I will go into work at five in the morning to make produce look “flawless.” “We need it looking awesome for Antwone. He’s coming in tomorrow.” So I will work harder to impress some fat guy who doesn’t care to learn my name or shake my hand and look me in the eyes and say “good job”. He will just walk by, piously, and being trailed by a flock of sycophant managers, anxiously scribbling on their clipboards what he says sucks.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Final Draft Regional Variation
Multidialectualism: Regional Variances
The question we posted deals with how regional dialect determines friendship or informal communication and then examines how that communication changes when we shift to conversing with other groups such as employers, and professors. Typically, the latter form of communication closely resembles Standard American English, or the dialect of English typically used in broadcasting or in an academic environment (Edwards 369). This shift from friendship communication to Standard American English indicates the presence of multidialectualism, which is common amongst most languages of the world. Throughout this paper I will discuss multidialectualism, and how regional location helps determine both informal communication (friendship communication) and formal communication (Standard American English).
Throughout the discussion it was often noted that friendship, or informal communication was “the most effortless and comfortable dialect to use.” These dextral and familiar qualities are indicative that informal communication is the style of speech we grow most accustomed to using while we were growing up and acquiring our social interaction skills. Considering the natural means and early period of acquisition, it can then be deduced that the dialect used in friendship or informal communication is most people’s native, or “first language.”
Usually when we communicate with our friends, as was mentioned in the discussion, our style of speech is colloquial and incorporates more slang terminology when compared to the Standardized American form of English. Also, when speaking informally, some people tend to alter words phonetically by omitting certain phonemes off words such as, /g/ in many present participle verbs. Another linguistic feature characteristic to informal communication is the addition of certain words or phrases such as many cuss words, and the phrases “you know”, “I don’t know”, and “like”. These are traits are general and seem to be part of a ubiquitous dialect in use amongst the younger generations of American English. However, there are traits that are more distinguishing between the different regional dialects and accents, such as phonetic pronunciation and word preference.
The major regional speech varieties are typically categorized into geographic setting, certain ethnic concentrations, social class, age, length of residency, and education (Johnstone 221). Many of the most distinct accents and dialects in English exist in cities/regions that are older, and have a high concentration of a certain ethnic groups such as German, Scandinavian, Dutch, Irish, English, etc. For all speakers of English, or any language for that matter, these aspects help influence the way in which our dialects and accents are developed. However, some current research on regional dialectology suggests that there are additional, more influential reasons for variation (Johnstone 222). These reasons include, strength of a person’s social ties in a community, the value a person holds for their community audience, and also the value that person holds for the community itself (Johnstone 222). Here, this demonstrates the strength of community influence, rather than just an absolute regional influence on dialectology. Since different communities can exist within a region, this explains the phenomena of multidialectualbility that many speakers possess.
As many people noted in the discussion, most speakers of a language are mutually intelligible with some of the other dialects of that language and do shift their speech styles when they are interacting with speakers of a different community, or group. . Typically, people alternate between various dialects by means of formal and informal communication, usually using the standardized version of a language for formal communication, and their “first language” for informal communication. The reason for the utilization of the Standard version of a language when communicating with a professional community can be explained by the power and dominance that certain dialect holds in a society (Edwards 369). When a certain region or community contains the most people of power, that region’s dialect becomes the standardized version of that language. Since education is highly valued within our society, the people who are educated, professors, and employers are typically the people in power. This dominance in turn usually causes people to abandon their regional or generational dialect and conform to the formal or standard dialect when they are communicating with professors or employers, as a sign of respect, or to receive proper acknowledgement.
In conclusion, regional location and the various communities within a society are highly influential in the development of a person’s speech style and accent. The interaction with these various communities in turn prompts multidialectualism and incites a person to utilize various dialects in different situations of communication. In the Western Region of the United States, speakers are often faced with two main situations of communication: friendship or peer communication and formal communication where a close version of Standard American English is spoken. Since we live in a Western society that highly values education and enables it to be a determinant of dominance and power, it would be interesting to see what the standard dialect would be in a society whose power determinant is religion, or physical strength. What other types of dialect would there be? What would be some situations where multidialectualism is necessary and to what extent would it be necessary?
The question we posted deals with how regional dialect determines friendship or informal communication and then examines how that communication changes when we shift to conversing with other groups such as employers, and professors. Typically, the latter form of communication closely resembles Standard American English, or the dialect of English typically used in broadcasting or in an academic environment (Edwards 369). This shift from friendship communication to Standard American English indicates the presence of multidialectualism, which is common amongst most languages of the world. Throughout this paper I will discuss multidialectualism, and how regional location helps determine both informal communication (friendship communication) and formal communication (Standard American English).
Throughout the discussion it was often noted that friendship, or informal communication was “the most effortless and comfortable dialect to use.” These dextral and familiar qualities are indicative that informal communication is the style of speech we grow most accustomed to using while we were growing up and acquiring our social interaction skills. Considering the natural means and early period of acquisition, it can then be deduced that the dialect used in friendship or informal communication is most people’s native, or “first language.”
Usually when we communicate with our friends, as was mentioned in the discussion, our style of speech is colloquial and incorporates more slang terminology when compared to the Standardized American form of English. Also, when speaking informally, some people tend to alter words phonetically by omitting certain phonemes off words such as, /g/ in many present participle verbs. Another linguistic feature characteristic to informal communication is the addition of certain words or phrases such as many cuss words, and the phrases “you know”, “I don’t know”, and “like”. These are traits are general and seem to be part of a ubiquitous dialect in use amongst the younger generations of American English. However, there are traits that are more distinguishing between the different regional dialects and accents, such as phonetic pronunciation and word preference.
The major regional speech varieties are typically categorized into geographic setting, certain ethnic concentrations, social class, age, length of residency, and education (Johnstone 221). Many of the most distinct accents and dialects in English exist in cities/regions that are older, and have a high concentration of a certain ethnic groups such as German, Scandinavian, Dutch, Irish, English, etc. For all speakers of English, or any language for that matter, these aspects help influence the way in which our dialects and accents are developed. However, some current research on regional dialectology suggests that there are additional, more influential reasons for variation (Johnstone 222). These reasons include, strength of a person’s social ties in a community, the value a person holds for their community audience, and also the value that person holds for the community itself (Johnstone 222). Here, this demonstrates the strength of community influence, rather than just an absolute regional influence on dialectology. Since different communities can exist within a region, this explains the phenomena of multidialectualbility that many speakers possess.
As many people noted in the discussion, most speakers of a language are mutually intelligible with some of the other dialects of that language and do shift their speech styles when they are interacting with speakers of a different community, or group. . Typically, people alternate between various dialects by means of formal and informal communication, usually using the standardized version of a language for formal communication, and their “first language” for informal communication. The reason for the utilization of the Standard version of a language when communicating with a professional community can be explained by the power and dominance that certain dialect holds in a society (Edwards 369). When a certain region or community contains the most people of power, that region’s dialect becomes the standardized version of that language. Since education is highly valued within our society, the people who are educated, professors, and employers are typically the people in power. This dominance in turn usually causes people to abandon their regional or generational dialect and conform to the formal or standard dialect when they are communicating with professors or employers, as a sign of respect, or to receive proper acknowledgement.
In conclusion, regional location and the various communities within a society are highly influential in the development of a person’s speech style and accent. The interaction with these various communities in turn prompts multidialectualism and incites a person to utilize various dialects in different situations of communication. In the Western Region of the United States, speakers are often faced with two main situations of communication: friendship or peer communication and formal communication where a close version of Standard American English is spoken. Since we live in a Western society that highly values education and enables it to be a determinant of dominance and power, it would be interesting to see what the standard dialect would be in a society whose power determinant is religion, or physical strength. What other types of dialect would there be? What would be some situations where multidialectualism is necessary and to what extent would it be necessary?
Monday, November 9, 2009
rough draft regional variances
Multidialectualism: Regional Variances
The question we posted deals with how regional dialect determines friendship or informal communication and then examines how that communication changes when we shift to conversing with other groups such as parents, employers, and professors. Typically, the latter form of communication closely resembles Standard American English, or the dialect of English commonly used in broadcasting or in an academic environment. This shift from friendship communication to Standard American English indicates the presence of multidialectualism, which is common amongst most languages of the world. Throughout this paper I will discuss multidialectualism, and how regional location helps determine both informal communication (friendship communication) and formal communication (Standard American English).
Throughout the discussion it was often noted that friendship, or informal communication was “the most effortless and comfortable dialect to use.” These dextral and familiar qualities are indicative that informal communication is the style of speech we grow most accustomed to using while we were growing up and acquiring our social interaction skills. Considering the natural means and early period of acquisition, it can then be deduced that friendship or informal communication is most people’s “first language.”
Usually when we communicate with our friends, our style of speech is colloquial and incorporates more slang terminology when compared to the Standardized American form of English. Also, when speaking informally, some people tend to alter words phonetically by omitting certain phonemes off words such as,/g/ in many present participle verbs. Another linguistic feature characteristic to informal communication is the addition of certain words or phrases such as many cuss words, and the phrases “you know”, “I don’t know”, and “like”. These are traits are general and seem to be part of a ubiquitous dialect in use amongst most speakers of American English. However, there are traits that are more distinguishing between the different regional dialects and accents such as phonetic pronunciation and word preference.
The major regional speech varieties are typically categorized into the geographic setting, certain ethnic concentrations, and the history of the city/ region. Many of the most distinct accents and dialects in English exist in cities/regions that are older, and have a high concentration of a certain ethnic group such as German, Scandinavian, Dutch, Irish, English, etc. For all speakers of English, or any language for that matter, these aspects determine the way in which our dialects and accents are established.
However, as many people noted in the discussion, most speakers of a language are mutually intelligible with some of the other dialects of a language and as well as with its standardized version. Typically people utilize their multidialectualbility by means of formal and informal communication, using the standardized version of a language for formal communication.
The question we posted deals with how regional dialect determines friendship or informal communication and then examines how that communication changes when we shift to conversing with other groups such as parents, employers, and professors. Typically, the latter form of communication closely resembles Standard American English, or the dialect of English commonly used in broadcasting or in an academic environment. This shift from friendship communication to Standard American English indicates the presence of multidialectualism, which is common amongst most languages of the world. Throughout this paper I will discuss multidialectualism, and how regional location helps determine both informal communication (friendship communication) and formal communication (Standard American English).
Throughout the discussion it was often noted that friendship, or informal communication was “the most effortless and comfortable dialect to use.” These dextral and familiar qualities are indicative that informal communication is the style of speech we grow most accustomed to using while we were growing up and acquiring our social interaction skills. Considering the natural means and early period of acquisition, it can then be deduced that friendship or informal communication is most people’s “first language.”
Usually when we communicate with our friends, our style of speech is colloquial and incorporates more slang terminology when compared to the Standardized American form of English. Also, when speaking informally, some people tend to alter words phonetically by omitting certain phonemes off words such as,/g/ in many present participle verbs. Another linguistic feature characteristic to informal communication is the addition of certain words or phrases such as many cuss words, and the phrases “you know”, “I don’t know”, and “like”. These are traits are general and seem to be part of a ubiquitous dialect in use amongst most speakers of American English. However, there are traits that are more distinguishing between the different regional dialects and accents such as phonetic pronunciation and word preference.
The major regional speech varieties are typically categorized into the geographic setting, certain ethnic concentrations, and the history of the city/ region. Many of the most distinct accents and dialects in English exist in cities/regions that are older, and have a high concentration of a certain ethnic group such as German, Scandinavian, Dutch, Irish, English, etc. For all speakers of English, or any language for that matter, these aspects determine the way in which our dialects and accents are established.
However, as many people noted in the discussion, most speakers of a language are mutually intelligible with some of the other dialects of a language and as well as with its standardized version. Typically people utilize their multidialectualbility by means of formal and informal communication, using the standardized version of a language for formal communication.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
decisions ( for yesterday)
Being nineteen, I am at a pivotal time in my life. It is an ephermal period where I must keep my options open and be careful not to limit myself from anything that I may even remotely aspire to try. There are many things that I have lately been interested in, such as joining the National Guard and my career once I graduate from college. However, of the two (the two main ones) The Guard I feel is the interest that has the most urgency to it.
Since I was a kid, I have always respected men/women in the military, and have regarded it as one of the most noble, courageous things a person can do with their life. Since that time, I have also had an urge to be apart of that nobility and valor. However, in high school I began questioning my patriotism, which in effect lowered, or destroyed any interest I had of joining a branch of the military for a career. But it wasn’t until recently, when certain events caused my patriotism to come back, and I began to regret not choosing to enter a field of the military after highschool. Considering that I am still young enough to join, I feel right now is the time, or perfect kairos (to relate to ancient rhetoric ) to make that decision. However, there are a few things that I need weigh in making it.
Con number one: obviously the threat of being shipped over seas. I’m not sure if I would enjoy being away from home for a year. It would mean sacrificing a year of school, spending time with my family, friends, girlfriends, and music.
Pro number one: it would round me out as a man. The guard would teach me invaluable life lessons about responsibility, discipline, and respect, that right now I feel I am falling short in.
Con number two: lack of flexibility. I’m not sure how flexible the guard is with school, and other family matters, and if something came up, I do not want to have to experience a lot of grief to coordinate things in my favor.
Pro number two: the benefits of being in the military. I would receive payment for my schooling, and would receive other types of benefits too. The military could also be a nice way to get my retirement started
Con number three: I would have to commit a minimum of eight years of my life the military. If I do not life the military, or if a major war breaks out, there is a good possibility that I could be working at a miserable, dangerous career.
There is obviously a lot to take into account when making this decision, and lately I have been thinking about it almost every day. Let’s just hope I make the right one!
Since I was a kid, I have always respected men/women in the military, and have regarded it as one of the most noble, courageous things a person can do with their life. Since that time, I have also had an urge to be apart of that nobility and valor. However, in high school I began questioning my patriotism, which in effect lowered, or destroyed any interest I had of joining a branch of the military for a career. But it wasn’t until recently, when certain events caused my patriotism to come back, and I began to regret not choosing to enter a field of the military after highschool. Considering that I am still young enough to join, I feel right now is the time, or perfect kairos (to relate to ancient rhetoric ) to make that decision. However, there are a few things that I need weigh in making it.
Con number one: obviously the threat of being shipped over seas. I’m not sure if I would enjoy being away from home for a year. It would mean sacrificing a year of school, spending time with my family, friends, girlfriends, and music.
Pro number one: it would round me out as a man. The guard would teach me invaluable life lessons about responsibility, discipline, and respect, that right now I feel I am falling short in.
Con number two: lack of flexibility. I’m not sure how flexible the guard is with school, and other family matters, and if something came up, I do not want to have to experience a lot of grief to coordinate things in my favor.
Pro number two: the benefits of being in the military. I would receive payment for my schooling, and would receive other types of benefits too. The military could also be a nice way to get my retirement started
Con number three: I would have to commit a minimum of eight years of my life the military. If I do not life the military, or if a major war breaks out, there is a good possibility that I could be working at a miserable, dangerous career.
There is obviously a lot to take into account when making this decision, and lately I have been thinking about it almost every day. Let’s just hope I make the right one!
staying focused, positive attitude
The last month of a semester is always the most difficult. It is the time of the most concentrated amount of work, where you apply all the skills you have been learning into a few, large assignments. We are now approaching that last month time period that is “crunch time”, and I am starting to feel the “crunch”. In order to get past this stressful period, I need to stay on top of everything. No procrastination, no excuses, no distractions. I just need to bear down and get the work done.
Probably the biggest obstacle in my way, or that could contribute to slipping grades would be the distractions that I have at my house. When I am sitting down and trying to finish, or get started on an assignment, I find myself putting it off by turning on the TV, or going into my room and listening to records, or playing my bass, or going to hang out with my friends. If I want to succeed this semester, I have to overcome this lack of focus, and I need to start ASAP.
Another thing that I can do to prevent my grades from slipping during this last month of school is to avoid procrastinating. At times, especially when I need to start a boring or diffiuclt assignment, I find myself putting it off “until tomorrow” or “in a couple of hours”. This constant moving of the deadline could possibly be detrimental to my grades, and could add stress onto an already stressful time of semester.
The last thing I can do to prevent from bad grades is to stop giving myself excuses. Sometimes when an assignment is more difficult, or requires more effort than usual, sometimes I tend to get a bad attitude and tell myself that the assignment is “stupid” and that it “doesn’t matter”. This type of attitude is very damaging not only to my grades, but also to my attitude of other assignments and school in general. In order to prevent from obtaining a stagnant, negative attitude, I just need to stay positive whenever possible and maintain a strong, positive outlook on school and life in general.
If I can do these three main things, I feel like I can have another successful semester. I just need to stay focused and have a positive outlook on life in general.
Probably the biggest obstacle in my way, or that could contribute to slipping grades would be the distractions that I have at my house. When I am sitting down and trying to finish, or get started on an assignment, I find myself putting it off by turning on the TV, or going into my room and listening to records, or playing my bass, or going to hang out with my friends. If I want to succeed this semester, I have to overcome this lack of focus, and I need to start ASAP.
Another thing that I can do to prevent my grades from slipping during this last month of school is to avoid procrastinating. At times, especially when I need to start a boring or diffiuclt assignment, I find myself putting it off “until tomorrow” or “in a couple of hours”. This constant moving of the deadline could possibly be detrimental to my grades, and could add stress onto an already stressful time of semester.
The last thing I can do to prevent from bad grades is to stop giving myself excuses. Sometimes when an assignment is more difficult, or requires more effort than usual, sometimes I tend to get a bad attitude and tell myself that the assignment is “stupid” and that it “doesn’t matter”. This type of attitude is very damaging not only to my grades, but also to my attitude of other assignments and school in general. In order to prevent from obtaining a stagnant, negative attitude, I just need to stay positive whenever possible and maintain a strong, positive outlook on school and life in general.
If I can do these three main things, I feel like I can have another successful semester. I just need to stay focused and have a positive outlook on life in general.
Friday, November 6, 2009
kairos questions
Kairos Issue: Group Silence
1. I think I will need to something to show my issues urgency and somehow make it relevant. I believe I can do thing by providing statistics about the rising use of heroin amongst high schoolers, or anyone for that matter. Furthermore I can add to its urgency by giving facts about the high risk of using heroin. This is will (hopefully) instill in the audience the extreme health risks involved with heroin and will motivate them to act.
2. This issue seems to be divided by age. Adults such as parents, teachers, coaches tend to favor speaking up about drug use. While the younger generation isn’t necessarily against speaking up, but is indifferent about it. Since the kids, who are the target audience tend to be in different, the adults efforts to get them to speak up often go unheard or unheeded,
3. I don’t believe that power is really concentrated with this issue. Although adults put the most effort into getting their arguments heard, indifference often prevents them from being taken seriously. So in a sense, the power lies within the audience with whether they want to hear the arguments or not.
4. Since kids nowadays are very technologically orientated I think a good venue would be a website or a blog. This would give the audience easy access, and could include videos and interactional activities. Also websites tend to be less formal, and thus less boring.
5. Right now there are a lot of anti-drug commercials and commercials aimed towards at parents encouraging them to talk to their kids about drugs. This type of media I believe is an appropriate approach at persuasion for the younger generation, however these commercials are often made fun of by many people. T avoid this type of criticism with my own media, I will try not to make my argument come off so strong, and try to put the kids in a position of power. Also I feel that anti-drug commercials can be condescending and even subtly make fun of drug-users. In my rhetorical piece, I will stray away from being condescending and will be as down to earth as possible.
1. I think I will need to something to show my issues urgency and somehow make it relevant. I believe I can do thing by providing statistics about the rising use of heroin amongst high schoolers, or anyone for that matter. Furthermore I can add to its urgency by giving facts about the high risk of using heroin. This is will (hopefully) instill in the audience the extreme health risks involved with heroin and will motivate them to act.
2. This issue seems to be divided by age. Adults such as parents, teachers, coaches tend to favor speaking up about drug use. While the younger generation isn’t necessarily against speaking up, but is indifferent about it. Since the kids, who are the target audience tend to be in different, the adults efforts to get them to speak up often go unheard or unheeded,
3. I don’t believe that power is really concentrated with this issue. Although adults put the most effort into getting their arguments heard, indifference often prevents them from being taken seriously. So in a sense, the power lies within the audience with whether they want to hear the arguments or not.
4. Since kids nowadays are very technologically orientated I think a good venue would be a website or a blog. This would give the audience easy access, and could include videos and interactional activities. Also websites tend to be less formal, and thus less boring.
5. Right now there are a lot of anti-drug commercials and commercials aimed towards at parents encouraging them to talk to their kids about drugs. This type of media I believe is an appropriate approach at persuasion for the younger generation, however these commercials are often made fun of by many people. T avoid this type of criticism with my own media, I will try not to make my argument come off so strong, and try to put the kids in a position of power. Also I feel that anti-drug commercials can be condescending and even subtly make fun of drug-users. In my rhetorical piece, I will stray away from being condescending and will be as down to earth as possible.
reflection (this is for yesterday I couldn't get to it yesterday)
Reflection on my essay 2
I doubt this paper is any good at all because of its lack of focus. In the essay, I tried to capture the issue: “The lethality of group silence” by describing the funeral of a friend who died of heroin. And during that funeral, I recollected on an event that happened prior to it where a kid got jumped in the middele of school, and no one did anything to help him. Although I feel these are two good events to write about, including both of them into one paper probably distracted my paper’s clarity and possibly could have confused the reader as to what the purpose of the essay is. Another thing wrong with my paper is how I chose to introduce my friends addiction so late in the paper (thrid page). It should have been the very first thing I introduced because since it came in so late, it could give the reader the impression that its not that important of an issue, or topic. Also I may have had some long, awkward sentences that I could have fixed.
I bleive this is the best paper I’ve ever written because of how I heavily employed the aspect of “show versus tell” throughout the paper. I did a great job at recreating key scenes with sensory details and dialouge, and feel it gave my paper a good vibe. Another thing I like is my use of metaphors, such as the thunder, and even how I used the fight as a metaphor too. I also think my voice is very strong with how I used repetion, started off sentences with conjunctions, and internal dialouge.
I think Jenna will appriciate how I tried to use “show versus tell” a lot throughout my paper, but think she believes I could have done it better in some spots. I also think I could have better connected the crowd during the fight and the crowd at the funeral home better to show their similiarites (beucae they were essentailly the same crowd) I also think Jenna will think some of my sentences tend to run on, and are sometimes awkward. However, I think she will appriciate my attempt at establishing a new or stronger voice, with how I used repetiion for cadence, started sentences of with conjunctions for a sense of urgency, and used internal dialouge to lower distance between me and my audience.
I agree with Jenna’s take on my paper
Throughout my essay I tried to stay away from unnessecary verbose words that can be jarring and out of place at times. I feel in my last essay I had too many of them, and they did nothing but disrupt my voice and the flow of my paper. I also tried to improve my voice as I above mentioned.
I doubt this paper is any good at all because of its lack of focus. In the essay, I tried to capture the issue: “The lethality of group silence” by describing the funeral of a friend who died of heroin. And during that funeral, I recollected on an event that happened prior to it where a kid got jumped in the middele of school, and no one did anything to help him. Although I feel these are two good events to write about, including both of them into one paper probably distracted my paper’s clarity and possibly could have confused the reader as to what the purpose of the essay is. Another thing wrong with my paper is how I chose to introduce my friends addiction so late in the paper (thrid page). It should have been the very first thing I introduced because since it came in so late, it could give the reader the impression that its not that important of an issue, or topic. Also I may have had some long, awkward sentences that I could have fixed.
I bleive this is the best paper I’ve ever written because of how I heavily employed the aspect of “show versus tell” throughout the paper. I did a great job at recreating key scenes with sensory details and dialouge, and feel it gave my paper a good vibe. Another thing I like is my use of metaphors, such as the thunder, and even how I used the fight as a metaphor too. I also think my voice is very strong with how I used repetion, started off sentences with conjunctions, and internal dialouge.
I think Jenna will appriciate how I tried to use “show versus tell” a lot throughout my paper, but think she believes I could have done it better in some spots. I also think I could have better connected the crowd during the fight and the crowd at the funeral home better to show their similiarites (beucae they were essentailly the same crowd) I also think Jenna will think some of my sentences tend to run on, and are sometimes awkward. However, I think she will appriciate my attempt at establishing a new or stronger voice, with how I used repetiion for cadence, started sentences of with conjunctions for a sense of urgency, and used internal dialouge to lower distance between me and my audience.
I agree with Jenna’s take on my paper
Throughout my essay I tried to stay away from unnessecary verbose words that can be jarring and out of place at times. I feel in my last essay I had too many of them, and they did nothing but disrupt my voice and the flow of my paper. I also tried to improve my voice as I above mentioned.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
rough story
I want to write a story where context dictates rather than verbose words. This is about a woman whose struggling with divorce and being a single parent of a difficult child.
Shandra’s hair used to be beautiful before she put those dyes into it. It used to be black with cute little curls that would bounce up and down when she ran. But she straightens it now and she just dyed it blue but that could change tomorrow for all I know. We’re eating dinner, just the two of us. Its been like that for about five years now, ever since her dad up and left us for that slut Cheryl. I knew something was up between those two, years ago. He was always evasive about her whenever I used to bring her up. She was the receptionist at his firm. I heard from different gals at his office that those two were always going to lunch together, that they got pretty close over the years. That tight-assed bimbo gets me steamin’ every time I think about her. Well see who hot she still is in the next couple years. But He sends money every month, so I can’t complain.
Its quiet at the table. I’m chewing with my mouth closed, trying to be a good example for Shandra, but shes looking down, avoiding eyecontact eith me, presumably trying to make the diner as painless for herself as she can. But tonight she’s not right, there’s this uneasiness to her, she’s edgy.
“What’s wrong honey?” she looks up from her plate and scowls at me.
“Nothing.” She says then goes back to eating.
“There’s nothing you want to tell me?”
“What? No….”
“Its just that you seem on edge tonight.” I say.
“Look mom, the only reason I’m eating with you is because you asked me too so you wouldn’t be lonely at the dinner table. If you keep pestering me with mindless interrogations I’m gunna stop.”
I stop chewing and look down. I try to hold back the tears, but can feel the lump in my throat rising, and I know the tears are inevitable.
“Oh God Damnit mom.”
“You’re excused Shandra. I don’t want you to eat with me if you don’t want to.”
Then she scoots her chair away from the table abruptly and throws her napkin on the table.
“Thank God.” She says and then she storms off to her room and I hear the door slam.
Then I let it out. I can help it. I don’t care if that bitch hears me. After I finsih I look at the picture that I kepp on the hearth above the fireplace. Its of all of us before Jerrry left and when Shandra still had her hair. Were all on our old boat in roosevelt lake………………
Shandra’s hair used to be beautiful before she put those dyes into it. It used to be black with cute little curls that would bounce up and down when she ran. But she straightens it now and she just dyed it blue but that could change tomorrow for all I know. We’re eating dinner, just the two of us. Its been like that for about five years now, ever since her dad up and left us for that slut Cheryl. I knew something was up between those two, years ago. He was always evasive about her whenever I used to bring her up. She was the receptionist at his firm. I heard from different gals at his office that those two were always going to lunch together, that they got pretty close over the years. That tight-assed bimbo gets me steamin’ every time I think about her. Well see who hot she still is in the next couple years. But He sends money every month, so I can’t complain.
Its quiet at the table. I’m chewing with my mouth closed, trying to be a good example for Shandra, but shes looking down, avoiding eyecontact eith me, presumably trying to make the diner as painless for herself as she can. But tonight she’s not right, there’s this uneasiness to her, she’s edgy.
“What’s wrong honey?” she looks up from her plate and scowls at me.
“Nothing.” She says then goes back to eating.
“There’s nothing you want to tell me?”
“What? No….”
“Its just that you seem on edge tonight.” I say.
“Look mom, the only reason I’m eating with you is because you asked me too so you wouldn’t be lonely at the dinner table. If you keep pestering me with mindless interrogations I’m gunna stop.”
I stop chewing and look down. I try to hold back the tears, but can feel the lump in my throat rising, and I know the tears are inevitable.
“Oh God Damnit mom.”
“You’re excused Shandra. I don’t want you to eat with me if you don’t want to.”
Then she scoots her chair away from the table abruptly and throws her napkin on the table.
“Thank God.” She says and then she storms off to her room and I hear the door slam.
Then I let it out. I can help it. I don’t care if that bitch hears me. After I finsih I look at the picture that I kepp on the hearth above the fireplace. Its of all of us before Jerrry left and when Shandra still had her hair. Were all on our old boat in roosevelt lake………………
Sunday, November 1, 2009
possesive personalities
too sick to sleep, so i wrote this. its is about a ghost who becomes obsessed with a girl who’s living in his old room.
I keep myself hidden, tucked away in a black box. The first night she slept in that room, she became mine. I watch her from the closet, or through the window, or three inches away from her face. I’ll belch cold drafts on her face so she’ll wake up in the middle of the night shivering, and she’ll find that the covers that were once keeping her warm are now hanging up in the closet, where I am, so she’ll have to come closer to me. Maybe when she gets the blankets I’ll grab her. Just keep her up against the closet wall so I can touch her and look at her whenever I want. The room is mine. She became mine. She can leave the room though. I see her do it everyday and wait in front of the door until she comes back at night. I don’t know if she can leave the closet. I’m going to try it tonight. I can’t wait though. Watching her sleep does something to me; it makes me hate her for leaving every morning. I never used to be hateful before this. Before Tom held my head under water until I stopped fighting. He had to though, because my wife Darlene slept in his bed. And the first night she slept in his bed, she became his, and no man can share a woman with another man. So he killed me to get Darlene and the insurance I bought for myself. God that girl looks like Darlene. I can see her form the closet. But my hate is draining me. I need to go back to the black box across the street that’s attached to a powerline so I can charge up. Ill get her later tonight.
I keep myself hidden, tucked away in a black box. The first night she slept in that room, she became mine. I watch her from the closet, or through the window, or three inches away from her face. I’ll belch cold drafts on her face so she’ll wake up in the middle of the night shivering, and she’ll find that the covers that were once keeping her warm are now hanging up in the closet, where I am, so she’ll have to come closer to me. Maybe when she gets the blankets I’ll grab her. Just keep her up against the closet wall so I can touch her and look at her whenever I want. The room is mine. She became mine. She can leave the room though. I see her do it everyday and wait in front of the door until she comes back at night. I don’t know if she can leave the closet. I’m going to try it tonight. I can’t wait though. Watching her sleep does something to me; it makes me hate her for leaving every morning. I never used to be hateful before this. Before Tom held my head under water until I stopped fighting. He had to though, because my wife Darlene slept in his bed. And the first night she slept in his bed, she became his, and no man can share a woman with another man. So he killed me to get Darlene and the insurance I bought for myself. God that girl looks like Darlene. I can see her form the closet. But my hate is draining me. I need to go back to the black box across the street that’s attached to a powerline so I can charge up. Ill get her later tonight.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
various things
Claiming the most speakers of any Native American language north of the U.S.-Mexican border, Navajo is a significant, but often overlooked part of American culture. However, despite boasting a large number of speakers, Navajos fluent population amongst younger generations is in decline. With this in mind, the need to preserve this language and culture is urgent and needs to be recognized in order to help curtail this diminution. One way to help with this preservation would be to examine some of its unique linguistic aspects such as fourth-person point of view, or also known as polite speech. Moreover, the examination of polite speech will also evince some cultural aspects of Navajo, that are absent in the English-speaking culture. Here, by looking at Navajo in both linguistic and cultural contexts, we will demonstrate the uniqueness and significance of Navajo in American culture.
Once we were fully in, I was instantly overcome with the mustiness that the funeral home was saturated with, which upon first breath gave me a headache. Dylan’s parents were still talking to some people, so we stood back in the lobby to wait for them to finsih. About fifteen feet away from us was Dylan’s grandparents and aunt and uncle standing together. They were talking quietly and had the same despairing look on their face as Dylan’s mom did. The uncle, who was a husky man with a crew cut—reminiscent of a man in the military—, was the only one crying out of all four of them. He was pinching his tear ducts towards his nose with his thumb and index finger as though putting pressure on them would prevent the tears from coming out. “I should have spent more time with him”. He said, looking down, and sucking in short bursts of air through his nose so no snot would drip out. “I should have warned him about drugs and that you don’t mess around with them.” Then his wife started to rub him tenderly on the back “It’s ok honey, you didn’t know. There’s nothing you can do about it.”
Once we were fully in, I was instantly overcome with the mustiness that the funeral home was saturated with, which upon first breath gave me a headache. Dylan’s parents were still talking to some people, so we stood back in the lobby to wait for them to finsih. About fifteen feet away from us was Dylan’s grandparents and aunt and uncle standing together. They were talking quietly and had the same despairing look on their face as Dylan’s mom did. The uncle, who was a husky man with a crew cut—reminiscent of a man in the military—, was the only one crying out of all four of them. He was pinching his tear ducts towards his nose with his thumb and index finger as though putting pressure on them would prevent the tears from coming out. “I should have spent more time with him”. He said, looking down, and sucking in short bursts of air through his nose so no snot would drip out. “I should have warned him about drugs and that you don’t mess around with them.” Then his wife started to rub him tenderly on the back “It’s ok honey, you didn’t know. There’s nothing you can do about it.”
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
letters
You have demonstrated that you have done your research with this assignment. The empirical proofs that you have collected so far are most likely sufficient enough to satisfy the required amount. I like your first three paragraphs in that they provide quotes and descriptions, which helps me visualize the particular scene you are trying to describe.
I would suggest continuing this style of writing throughout the rest of your paper. Although you do need to include empirical evidence in this essay, I believe Jenna does not want it to be overpowering. You should somehow incorporate this evidence and statistics into creative scenes where you provide sensory descriptions and dialogue.
I know that you are probably journalism major and have gotten into the habit of writing one or two sentence paragraphs, but I think Jenna wants us to practice writing in normal essay paragraphs which are three to five sentences. If you do this, your essay will not be as choppy and will produce a smoother, more pleasant read for your audience. Another thing that might cost you points is citations. Jenna has mentioned before that she is a stickler about MLA format, and if you do not closely follow it the highest grade you will receive is a ‘C’. So, just for the sake of not automatically reducing your grade, I would suggest including MLA citations.
Good luck with the rest of your essay, I’m sure it will turn out fine!
So far I really like your essay. Your voice is well-developed, and your cadence
(I know your big on cadence) carries the essay smoothly and rhythmically. Your
sensory descriptions are nicely crafted and reveal your experience and style as
a writer. What you have written so far is a great foundation for developing and
finishing this essay and I think you?re off to a great start.
There were a couple minor things I noticed that I would suggest improving upon
however. Sometimes you have a tendency to use a certain word, multiple times
within close proximity of each other. An example would be ?manifest?.
Although this isn?t too big of a problem and you probably did it
subconsciously while you were in a rhythm, but it gives an impression to the
reader that this ?not-all-too-common? word is being overused. This in turn
could give mixed signals to your readers, possibly that you?re pretentious
(which you?re not) or that you?re just trying to sound smart in order to
impress them (which you?re not). Since these are not your intentions I would
suggest reconsidering a different word to put in one of its places to avoid
wrong implications.
Another thing I noticed occurred at the end of your first paragraph where you
stated ?When you think of libraries, that's what you imagine.? This phrase
sounds too forceful, and implies that every single one of your readers holds
the same opinion, or perspective (the one that you described prior to this
sentence) about libraries, when it is probably not the case. However, even if
it was so, this phrase still gives the impression to readers that you are
telling them what think, which in effect could cause them to get defensive and
disengage themselves from your story. I would suggest rewording this phrase
somehow, possibly not using the second person, or using it subtlety.
Overall, your story was great. Like a I mentioned before, I was really impressed
with your sensory descriptions and think you have a canny, natural ability as a
writer. Keep up the good work. Good Luck!
I would suggest continuing this style of writing throughout the rest of your paper. Although you do need to include empirical evidence in this essay, I believe Jenna does not want it to be overpowering. You should somehow incorporate this evidence and statistics into creative scenes where you provide sensory descriptions and dialogue.
I know that you are probably journalism major and have gotten into the habit of writing one or two sentence paragraphs, but I think Jenna wants us to practice writing in normal essay paragraphs which are three to five sentences. If you do this, your essay will not be as choppy and will produce a smoother, more pleasant read for your audience. Another thing that might cost you points is citations. Jenna has mentioned before that she is a stickler about MLA format, and if you do not closely follow it the highest grade you will receive is a ‘C’. So, just for the sake of not automatically reducing your grade, I would suggest including MLA citations.
Good luck with the rest of your essay, I’m sure it will turn out fine!
So far I really like your essay. Your voice is well-developed, and your cadence
(I know your big on cadence) carries the essay smoothly and rhythmically. Your
sensory descriptions are nicely crafted and reveal your experience and style as
a writer. What you have written so far is a great foundation for developing and
finishing this essay and I think you?re off to a great start.
There were a couple minor things I noticed that I would suggest improving upon
however. Sometimes you have a tendency to use a certain word, multiple times
within close proximity of each other. An example would be ?manifest?.
Although this isn?t too big of a problem and you probably did it
subconsciously while you were in a rhythm, but it gives an impression to the
reader that this ?not-all-too-common? word is being overused. This in turn
could give mixed signals to your readers, possibly that you?re pretentious
(which you?re not) or that you?re just trying to sound smart in order to
impress them (which you?re not). Since these are not your intentions I would
suggest reconsidering a different word to put in one of its places to avoid
wrong implications.
Another thing I noticed occurred at the end of your first paragraph where you
stated ?When you think of libraries, that's what you imagine.? This phrase
sounds too forceful, and implies that every single one of your readers holds
the same opinion, or perspective (the one that you described prior to this
sentence) about libraries, when it is probably not the case. However, even if
it was so, this phrase still gives the impression to readers that you are
telling them what think, which in effect could cause them to get defensive and
disengage themselves from your story. I would suggest rewording this phrase
somehow, possibly not using the second person, or using it subtlety.
Overall, your story was great. Like a I mentioned before, I was really impressed
with your sensory descriptions and think you have a canny, natural ability as a
writer. Keep up the good work. Good Luck!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
blog post one letter, imnprovement of essay
This essay is a great improvement from your past essay! You have done a good job using your sensory details and have demonstrated a better understanding for Jenna’s “show versus tell” practice of writing. Your use of dialogue is also very strong in your essay, and serves as a nice foundation for the scenes you are trying to describe. Keep up the good work!
However, there are a few minor things that I found in the essay that I feel you can improve upon. A couple of times I noticed that when you were describing something you sometimes used words like “pretty” or “very”. Although these words aren’t bad, they just seem inconsistent with the rest of your writing, especially with some of your better descriptions. I would suggest focusing on these “weak” words, if you will, in order to strengthen these descriptions, and to ultimately strengthen your voice,
Also another thing would be to include research. I know you story isn’t yet fully developed, (as mine is too), but its something we have to figure out how to cleverly include. But your social issue, poverty I assume, wouldn’t be all that difficult to find sources for, so you don’t have to worry about it too much. Just something to bear in mind
Good luck with the rest of your writing, and I look forward to reading the rest of your paper!
“In the end, we will not remember the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends”
“Why didn’t anybody tell us?” Lujan’s mom asked from the podium on the stage of the funeral home, her voice barely discernable and unstable from the trembles of anguish and devastation. She stood there glaring at the crowd—as a judge looks down from the bench at a convicted killer—listening to the somber murmur of sniffles and gentle weeping that hovered like a dense fog, above the hanging heads of people who couldn’t bear to look her in the face. “This didn’t have to happen” she continued pointing to the casket, her red eyes still fixated spitefully at them. “This didn’t have to hap--.” She repeated, this time rushing of the stage, unable to finish, and unable to confront the silent, weeping crowd. The people who were watching her, watched her walking hurriedly across the first row of chairs, striding faster and faster until reaching her seat, where she collapsed into herself, and exalted an abrupt wail that decrescendoed into a wheezing sob. And aside from these weeps, the room fell silent again in anticipation for the next person to trudge up to the podium and grieve to the crowd. But no one else went up, and anticipation grew into awkwardness. And the funeral director looked at the crowd intently and anxiously until finally deciding to take the stage for prayer. Then in a soothing, deep voice, he began; “Dear Lord in Heaven, Let us bow heads together in grievance of the death of Dylan Lujan…”
After the service, everyone stood outside in front of the funeral home, and formed into about ten circles of about ten people each. Outside, the overcast sky retained the same gloom that the sniffling murmurs held inside the funeral home and some people joked that “God was weeping too”. I didn’t laugh, because I knew it was monsoon season, and storms had been occurring all that week. And after about ten minutes of forced conversation, the sky exploded abruptly—warning everything on Earth about the oncoming storm—with the type of thunder that seems to resonate with a low rumble long after the initial strike. And at the resounding growl, everyone looked at the sky, taking heed of the warning and smelling in the redolent of creosote, then huddled together underneath the cramped shelter of the funeral’s home front patio. Then silence ensued and the people watched blankly as the rain fell from a timid trickle, to an opague color of violent downpour.
I was looking at everyone else that was gathered under the overhang, anticipating at least a gentle murmur of conversation; but it was mute, deafening and tense, as though the muteness was a tangible substance that was causing my nervous twitches to start up. Then as my focus was making its way to the back of the crowd, I looked through the window of the funeral home and saw Lujan’s mom inside with her husband, talking with an elderly couple. Her hair was pulled back into a tight, conservative bun, and she was wearing a well ironed solid black dress, which accentuated the sad despondence amongst her soft facial features. And as I watched this lady, I was overcome with guilt. “Why didn’t we tell her?” I thought, “We all should have,” If she would have known, maybe her son wouldn’t have died writhing on his bedroom floor with his eyes rolled back into his head, panicking, half-consciously, desperately. And maybe if we had told her, she wouldn’t have walked into his room in the morning—checking on him because he never got up to get breakfast, and finding his body, lifeless and forlorn, curled up painfully on his stained gray carpet. “But She should have known. How could she not have?” I thought. The burn marks on his hands, his constant running nose, his constant droned expression, and dropping out of school (ehow): it seems so obvious what he was doing.
“Kyle, remember that fight a couple months ago where that kid got jumped?” my friend Andrew asked quietly, and interrupting my focus on Lujan’s mom.
“Huh? Oh, yeah.” I responded, startled, then taking the deep breath that people take when transitioning from profound personal thought to social interaction. “Why?”
“That’s him, isn’t it?”
I squinted my eyes to where he was pointing and saw a kid with a neck brace on. “I’m not sure” I answer, trying bring myself back to that day, trying to remember if I saw that kid’s face. But I never did. I was standing across campus when I saw everyone in the court yard coalesce in a fury around a violent commotion. I remember standing back on my tip-toes trying to see over the crowds’ heads, but they wouldn’t move. They wouldn’t do anything—like a herd of moose watches their brother get mutilated by wolves as he thrashes and writhes his body in a last effort to survive—idle, indifferent, and unable to recognize the lethality of their silence and inaction. But I never saw his face, and after the paramedics came and lifted the kid onto a gurny, I was in class, straining to catch a snippet of hushed conversation of what had happened. (not done yet)
However, there are a few minor things that I found in the essay that I feel you can improve upon. A couple of times I noticed that when you were describing something you sometimes used words like “pretty” or “very”. Although these words aren’t bad, they just seem inconsistent with the rest of your writing, especially with some of your better descriptions. I would suggest focusing on these “weak” words, if you will, in order to strengthen these descriptions, and to ultimately strengthen your voice,
Also another thing would be to include research. I know you story isn’t yet fully developed, (as mine is too), but its something we have to figure out how to cleverly include. But your social issue, poverty I assume, wouldn’t be all that difficult to find sources for, so you don’t have to worry about it too much. Just something to bear in mind
Good luck with the rest of your writing, and I look forward to reading the rest of your paper!
“In the end, we will not remember the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends”
“Why didn’t anybody tell us?” Lujan’s mom asked from the podium on the stage of the funeral home, her voice barely discernable and unstable from the trembles of anguish and devastation. She stood there glaring at the crowd—as a judge looks down from the bench at a convicted killer—listening to the somber murmur of sniffles and gentle weeping that hovered like a dense fog, above the hanging heads of people who couldn’t bear to look her in the face. “This didn’t have to happen” she continued pointing to the casket, her red eyes still fixated spitefully at them. “This didn’t have to hap--.” She repeated, this time rushing of the stage, unable to finish, and unable to confront the silent, weeping crowd. The people who were watching her, watched her walking hurriedly across the first row of chairs, striding faster and faster until reaching her seat, where she collapsed into herself, and exalted an abrupt wail that decrescendoed into a wheezing sob. And aside from these weeps, the room fell silent again in anticipation for the next person to trudge up to the podium and grieve to the crowd. But no one else went up, and anticipation grew into awkwardness. And the funeral director looked at the crowd intently and anxiously until finally deciding to take the stage for prayer. Then in a soothing, deep voice, he began; “Dear Lord in Heaven, Let us bow heads together in grievance of the death of Dylan Lujan…”
After the service, everyone stood outside in front of the funeral home, and formed into about ten circles of about ten people each. Outside, the overcast sky retained the same gloom that the sniffling murmurs held inside the funeral home and some people joked that “God was weeping too”. I didn’t laugh, because I knew it was monsoon season, and storms had been occurring all that week. And after about ten minutes of forced conversation, the sky exploded abruptly—warning everything on Earth about the oncoming storm—with the type of thunder that seems to resonate with a low rumble long after the initial strike. And at the resounding growl, everyone looked at the sky, taking heed of the warning and smelling in the redolent of creosote, then huddled together underneath the cramped shelter of the funeral’s home front patio. Then silence ensued and the people watched blankly as the rain fell from a timid trickle, to an opague color of violent downpour.
I was looking at everyone else that was gathered under the overhang, anticipating at least a gentle murmur of conversation; but it was mute, deafening and tense, as though the muteness was a tangible substance that was causing my nervous twitches to start up. Then as my focus was making its way to the back of the crowd, I looked through the window of the funeral home and saw Lujan’s mom inside with her husband, talking with an elderly couple. Her hair was pulled back into a tight, conservative bun, and she was wearing a well ironed solid black dress, which accentuated the sad despondence amongst her soft facial features. And as I watched this lady, I was overcome with guilt. “Why didn’t we tell her?” I thought, “We all should have,” If she would have known, maybe her son wouldn’t have died writhing on his bedroom floor with his eyes rolled back into his head, panicking, half-consciously, desperately. And maybe if we had told her, she wouldn’t have walked into his room in the morning—checking on him because he never got up to get breakfast, and finding his body, lifeless and forlorn, curled up painfully on his stained gray carpet. “But She should have known. How could she not have?” I thought. The burn marks on his hands, his constant running nose, his constant droned expression, and dropping out of school (ehow): it seems so obvious what he was doing.
“Kyle, remember that fight a couple months ago where that kid got jumped?” my friend Andrew asked quietly, and interrupting my focus on Lujan’s mom.
“Huh? Oh, yeah.” I responded, startled, then taking the deep breath that people take when transitioning from profound personal thought to social interaction. “Why?”
“That’s him, isn’t it?”
I squinted my eyes to where he was pointing and saw a kid with a neck brace on. “I’m not sure” I answer, trying bring myself back to that day, trying to remember if I saw that kid’s face. But I never did. I was standing across campus when I saw everyone in the court yard coalesce in a fury around a violent commotion. I remember standing back on my tip-toes trying to see over the crowds’ heads, but they wouldn’t move. They wouldn’t do anything—like a herd of moose watches their brother get mutilated by wolves as he thrashes and writhes his body in a last effort to survive—idle, indifferent, and unable to recognize the lethality of their silence and inaction. But I never saw his face, and after the paramedics came and lifted the kid onto a gurny, I was in class, straining to catch a snippet of hushed conversation of what had happened. (not done yet)
Saturday, October 24, 2009
a little better :)
“In the end, we will not remember the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends”
“Why didn’t anybody tell us?” Lujan’s mom asked from the podium on the stage of the funeral home, her voice barely discernable and unstable from the trembles of anguish and devastation. She stood there glaring at the crowd—like a judge looks down from the bench at a convicted killer—listening to the somber murmur of sniffles and gentle weeping that hovered like a dense fog, above the hanging heads of people who couldn’t bear to look her in the face. “This didn’t have to happen” she continued pointing to the casket, her red eyes still fixated spitefully at them. “This didn’t have to hap--.” She repeated, this time rushing of the stage, unable to finish, and unable to confront the silent, weeping crowd. The people who were watching her, observed her walking hurriedly down the steps of the stage, striding faster and faster until reaching her seat, where she collapsed into herself, and exalted an abrupt wail that decrescendoed into a wheezing sob. And aside from these weeps, the room fell silent again in anticipation for the next person to trudge up to the podium and grieve to the crowd. But no one else went up, and anticipation grew into awkwardness. And the funeral director looked at the crowd intently and anxiously until deciding to take the stage for prayer. “Dear Lord in Heaven, Let us bow heads together in grievance of the death of Dylan Lujan…”
After the service, everyone stood outside in front of the funeral home, and formed into about ten circles of about ten people each. Outside, the overcast sky retained the same gloom that the sniffling murmurs held inside the funeral home and some people joked that “God was weeping too”. I didn’t laugh, because I knew it was monsoon season, and storms had been occuring all that week. And after about ten minutes of forced conversation, the sky exploded abruptly—warning everything on Earth about the oncoming storm—with the type of thunder that seems to resonate with a low rumble long after the initial strike. From the circle I was standing in, no one was talking, so I was looking at everyone else that was gathered outside, and saw Lujan’s mom. Her question was ringing loud in my ear, but she should have known. How could she not have? His burn marks on his hands, his constant running nose, his constant droned expression, dropping out of school (ehow): it seems to obvious what he was doing.
“Kyle remember that fight a couple months ago where that kid got jumped?” my friend Andrew asked, interupting my focus on Lujan’s mom’s ignorance.
“Yeah” I responded, taking the deep breath that people take when transitioning from profound personal thought to social interaction. “Why?” this time sounding interested, and noticing the encroaching smell of rain and
“That’s him, isn’t it?”
“I’m not sure” I answer, trying bring myself back to that day, trying to picture that kids face. But I couldn’t. I was standing across campus when I saw everyone in the court yard coalesce in a fury around a violent commation. I remember standing back on my tip-toes, trying to see over the silent crowds heads……
“Why didn’t anybody tell us?” Lujan’s mom asked from the podium on the stage of the funeral home, her voice barely discernable and unstable from the trembles of anguish and devastation. She stood there glaring at the crowd—like a judge looks down from the bench at a convicted killer—listening to the somber murmur of sniffles and gentle weeping that hovered like a dense fog, above the hanging heads of people who couldn’t bear to look her in the face. “This didn’t have to happen” she continued pointing to the casket, her red eyes still fixated spitefully at them. “This didn’t have to hap--.” She repeated, this time rushing of the stage, unable to finish, and unable to confront the silent, weeping crowd. The people who were watching her, observed her walking hurriedly down the steps of the stage, striding faster and faster until reaching her seat, where she collapsed into herself, and exalted an abrupt wail that decrescendoed into a wheezing sob. And aside from these weeps, the room fell silent again in anticipation for the next person to trudge up to the podium and grieve to the crowd. But no one else went up, and anticipation grew into awkwardness. And the funeral director looked at the crowd intently and anxiously until deciding to take the stage for prayer. “Dear Lord in Heaven, Let us bow heads together in grievance of the death of Dylan Lujan…”
After the service, everyone stood outside in front of the funeral home, and formed into about ten circles of about ten people each. Outside, the overcast sky retained the same gloom that the sniffling murmurs held inside the funeral home and some people joked that “God was weeping too”. I didn’t laugh, because I knew it was monsoon season, and storms had been occuring all that week. And after about ten minutes of forced conversation, the sky exploded abruptly—warning everything on Earth about the oncoming storm—with the type of thunder that seems to resonate with a low rumble long after the initial strike. From the circle I was standing in, no one was talking, so I was looking at everyone else that was gathered outside, and saw Lujan’s mom. Her question was ringing loud in my ear, but she should have known. How could she not have? His burn marks on his hands, his constant running nose, his constant droned expression, dropping out of school (ehow): it seems to obvious what he was doing.
“Kyle remember that fight a couple months ago where that kid got jumped?” my friend Andrew asked, interupting my focus on Lujan’s mom’s ignorance.
“Yeah” I responded, taking the deep breath that people take when transitioning from profound personal thought to social interaction. “Why?” this time sounding interested, and noticing the encroaching smell of rain and
“That’s him, isn’t it?”
“I’m not sure” I answer, trying bring myself back to that day, trying to picture that kids face. But I couldn’t. I was standing across campus when I saw everyone in the court yard coalesce in a fury around a violent commation. I remember standing back on my tip-toes, trying to see over the silent crowds heads……
Friday, October 23, 2009
goddammit writers block
Social Issue: The choice of Silence in order to avoid ridicule
My friend died a couple of years ago. He died writhing on his bedroom floor with his eyes rolled back into his head, panicking, half-consciously—like an animal trying to reject ingested rat poison, or like an epileptic helplessly trying to overcome his convulsing debilitation. And once it was over, once his body laid lifeless and forlorn, failed from its last desperate attempt to flush out a surge of heroin, our attempts to forget his story, and bury it amongst the slew of hard memories began.
“Why didn’t anybody tell us?” his mom asks from the podium on the stage of the funeral home, her voice barely discernable from a mixture of anguish and devastation. A crowd of about two hundred people sitting before her, sounds of sniffles and gentle weeping arise from the hanging heads of people who can’t bear to look her in the face. “This didn’t have to happen” she continues pointing to the casket. “This didn’t have to hap--.” She says again, breaking into tears, rushing off stage and collapsing into her chair. And aside from the gentle whimper, the room falls silent again until
“His dad should just kick his ass” I would suggest to my friends as we stood by the tree we hung out at in CDO’s courtyard, talking just loud enough to make myself audible against the vibrant hum of the courtyard.
“Even then dude, Lujan wouldn’t quit, That shit is his life” Nick would always reply, dismissing my suggestion, and ultimately dismissing salvation for Lujan. Lujan’s mindless, droopy expression lost in a void, carelessly wandering and despondent.
“Are you high dude?” I ask in a numb disbelief
“Yeah” he giggles, bearing a foolish grin that reveals nearly all of his teeth. I shake my head, turning away and return back to the other conversations.
“Dylan’s fucking crazy guys” I say, to the new guys.
“Dude I heard he did meth yesterday” one kid
“What the fuck” I exclaim, blurted out in the form of passive rage, and in shock, I look over at the rest of our friends and see Dylan alone, strung out in a dense trance, showing interest in nothing.
My friend died a couple of years ago. He died writhing on his bedroom floor with his eyes rolled back into his head, panicking, half-consciously—like an animal trying to reject ingested rat poison, or like an epileptic helplessly trying to overcome his convulsing debilitation. And once it was over, once his body laid lifeless and forlorn, failed from its last desperate attempt to flush out a surge of heroin, our attempts to forget his story, and bury it amongst the slew of hard memories began.
“Why didn’t anybody tell us?” his mom asks from the podium on the stage of the funeral home, her voice barely discernable from a mixture of anguish and devastation. A crowd of about two hundred people sitting before her, sounds of sniffles and gentle weeping arise from the hanging heads of people who can’t bear to look her in the face. “This didn’t have to happen” she continues pointing to the casket. “This didn’t have to hap--.” She says again, breaking into tears, rushing off stage and collapsing into her chair. And aside from the gentle whimper, the room falls silent again until
“His dad should just kick his ass” I would suggest to my friends as we stood by the tree we hung out at in CDO’s courtyard, talking just loud enough to make myself audible against the vibrant hum of the courtyard.
“Even then dude, Lujan wouldn’t quit, That shit is his life” Nick would always reply, dismissing my suggestion, and ultimately dismissing salvation for Lujan. Lujan’s mindless, droopy expression lost in a void, carelessly wandering and despondent.
“Are you high dude?” I ask in a numb disbelief
“Yeah” he giggles, bearing a foolish grin that reveals nearly all of his teeth. I shake my head, turning away and return back to the other conversations.
“Dylan’s fucking crazy guys” I say, to the new guys.
“Dude I heard he did meth yesterday” one kid
“What the fuck” I exclaim, blurted out in the form of passive rage, and in shock, I look over at the rest of our friends and see Dylan alone, strung out in a dense trance, showing interest in nothing.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
start of social witness
Since the assignment sheet was given out a couple of weeks ago, I have periodically been thinking about what I was going to write about in my Social Witness essay. And throughout most of that time, up until yesterday, I had no idea what that was going to be. Then yesterday, Jenna mentioned to write about something that you had experienced within your community. So I started thinking about my community, and my age group, and I thought about what defined me, or made me feel ashamed, proud, angry, helpless, or sad. But I couldn’t think of anything. Up until yesterday when I was with one of my friends at a subway, and we saw a kid that we recognized, who bore resemblance to a face we had tried to forget about. I looked over to that get, and motioned with my head, “that kid looks like dylan”. When I said that, my friend beamed at me for a split second, and responded with a one-word utterance of “yeah” for the mere purpose of acknowledging that he had heard me. I could tell it was still a tender subject for a lot of my friends, even after almost two years.
Then I hit me. I could talk about dylan. I could talk about what had happened to him and what our response to him was, and not just us. But everyone who knew about him and his problems. I could talk about how desensitization caused a kid his life. How we literally watched a kid self-destruct without saying anything at all.
I had a friend who died a couple of years ago. He died convulsing on his bedroom floor with his eyes rolled back into his head—like a despondent dog about to get uthanized—only conscious enough to realize that time was slowing along with his failing heart as it desperately tried to flush out a its last surge of heroin. I wasn’t there the day he died—I hadn’t been for about a year—for I had made a decision, along with most of my friends, to distance myself from him, to turn a blind eye, and to accept the fact that my admonishments were useless. Unfortunately, that misconception cost a young man his life.
Then I hit me. I could talk about dylan. I could talk about what had happened to him and what our response to him was, and not just us. But everyone who knew about him and his problems. I could talk about how desensitization caused a kid his life. How we literally watched a kid self-destruct without saying anything at all.
I had a friend who died a couple of years ago. He died convulsing on his bedroom floor with his eyes rolled back into his head—like a despondent dog about to get uthanized—only conscious enough to realize that time was slowing along with his failing heart as it desperately tried to flush out a its last surge of heroin. I wasn’t there the day he died—I hadn’t been for about a year—for I had made a decision, along with most of my friends, to distance myself from him, to turn a blind eye, and to accept the fact that my admonishments were useless. Unfortunately, that misconception cost a young man his life.
Monday, October 19, 2009
essay
Considered to be a major American short story writer of the 20th century, Raymond Carver’s stories often depict struggles of blue-collar America and have been acclaimed for their clear, hard language and accurate representation of human behavior during a point of nadir or recovery. Carver’s voice and accurate depictions can be accredited to his own life experiences as a working class male, which he often employs into his characters, such as in the narrator in “Where I’m Calling From.” Here, Carver writes in first person, through the point of view of a man recovering from alcoholism at a “drying-out facility”. Along with his life experiences, Carver also utilizes various literary approaches such as, vernacular, grammatical person, and verb tense, in order to further authenticate and legitimatize his story. Through the use of these devices and his personal experiences in “Where I’m Calling From”, Carver demonstrates strong invented ethos as a writer, which thus produces an accurate and authentic testimony of alcoholism recovery among working class Americans.
Probably the most captivating aspect of “Where I’m Calling From” is the amount of personal experience Carver draws from in order to construct his characters and their behaviors. As a working class father who struggled with alcoholism throughout most of his adult life, Carver is able to include minor details about alcohol recovery such as paranoia and short attention span into the story. While conversing with another recovering man, the narrator interrupts the conversation with his inner thoughts about how he’s worried about a twitch in his shoulder and how he “knows something’s about to happen and (I) want to head it off” (Carver 278). Although this is just a minor detail in the story, it demonstrates an aspect about alcohol recovery that may be alien to people who had not experienced alcohol recovery. Therefore, the inclusion of these details not only provides a more accurate character portrayal, but also indicates that Carver may have experienced these symptoms himself. Here, Carver’s personal experiences help strengthen his invented ethos by suggesting to readers that the symptoms, or on a larger scale, character behaviors, are not fictional, but actual substantive aspects of alcohol recovery, allowing them to trust Carver as an author.
Carver further demonstrates his intelligence on the attitudes and psychology of working-class males recovering from alcoholism through his consistent use of their vernacular. Had for instance Carver used a more scientific, or a more sophisticated tone, his audience would have rejected him as a voice for working-class males and alcohol recovery, however, Carver’s cultured, gruff language, indicates that he may be an insider to this particular culture or lifestyle. Not only does this style of voice demonstrate Carver’s intelligence on this subject, but it also establishes his goodwill as an author. Here instead a using a sophisticated, extravagant voice, which could be misleading or seem equivocating to people who are unaware of this subject, Carver’s use of the vernacular attempts to portray the attitudes of those who are recovering from alcoholism as accurately and honestly as possible. This attempt at honesty and authenticity, in effect gives the audience the impression that the character portrayals and issues in the story are most likely authentic and honest, establishing Carver’s goodwill as an honest writer to his readers.
Another prominent literary feature of “Where I’m Calling From” is Carver’s choice of grammatical person and verb tense. Throughout the story Carver writes in first person through the point of view of the narrator, who often oscillates between his present stay at the “drying-out facility” and telling past stories about himself as well as other men’s stories (third person) as he’s heard them. With his choice of grammatical person and verb tense coupled with his use of informal vernacular, Carver’s voice in “Where I’m Calling From” has a substantial presence to it, as if he’s in the room casually reciting his story. This voice, in effect lessens the distance between Carver and his readers, allowing them to be more engaged in his story and to hold more sympathy for his characters. Moreover, Carver’s strong presence in his stories also enables him to establish good character by portraying himself as a raconteur. This raconteuristic status then allows Carver to build up reverence as a storyteller from his audience, causing the audience to hold his stories at a higher regard than if he had used third person and past tense—or a less formal tone throughout. In other words, Carver was able to establish good character by approaching the story as if he is telling it one on one in order to gain respect as a writer from his audience.
In conclusion, although Carver intended to focus on the characters in “Where I’m Calling From” in order to examine human behavior at the point of nadir or recovery, his ethos still come out through his story. His indications at personal experience and use various literary devices such as cultural vernacular, multiple grammatical persons, and verb tenses all help demonstrate his intelligence, establish goodwill, and set up good character as a storyteller. With these aspects of ethos secure, Carver successfully appeals to his audience as an insightful, adept author. However, although these aspects work to Carver’s advantage in his literary genre dirty realism, it would be interesting to see how a writer like Carver constructs ethos in a genre such as science fiction, where personal experiences and vernacular are not so prominent. This thought can then be applied to a broader scale: rhetors and authors need to understand what rhetorical approaches are appropriate and successful for different rhetorical situations.
Probably the most captivating aspect of “Where I’m Calling From” is the amount of personal experience Carver draws from in order to construct his characters and their behaviors. As a working class father who struggled with alcoholism throughout most of his adult life, Carver is able to include minor details about alcohol recovery such as paranoia and short attention span into the story. While conversing with another recovering man, the narrator interrupts the conversation with his inner thoughts about how he’s worried about a twitch in his shoulder and how he “knows something’s about to happen and (I) want to head it off” (Carver 278). Although this is just a minor detail in the story, it demonstrates an aspect about alcohol recovery that may be alien to people who had not experienced alcohol recovery. Therefore, the inclusion of these details not only provides a more accurate character portrayal, but also indicates that Carver may have experienced these symptoms himself. Here, Carver’s personal experiences help strengthen his invented ethos by suggesting to readers that the symptoms, or on a larger scale, character behaviors, are not fictional, but actual substantive aspects of alcohol recovery, allowing them to trust Carver as an author.
Carver further demonstrates his intelligence on the attitudes and psychology of working-class males recovering from alcoholism through his consistent use of their vernacular. Had for instance Carver used a more scientific, or a more sophisticated tone, his audience would have rejected him as a voice for working-class males and alcohol recovery, however, Carver’s cultured, gruff language, indicates that he may be an insider to this particular culture or lifestyle. Not only does this style of voice demonstrate Carver’s intelligence on this subject, but it also establishes his goodwill as an author. Here instead a using a sophisticated, extravagant voice, which could be misleading or seem equivocating to people who are unaware of this subject, Carver’s use of the vernacular attempts to portray the attitudes of those who are recovering from alcoholism as accurately and honestly as possible. This attempt at honesty and authenticity, in effect gives the audience the impression that the character portrayals and issues in the story are most likely authentic and honest, establishing Carver’s goodwill as an honest writer to his readers.
Another prominent literary feature of “Where I’m Calling From” is Carver’s choice of grammatical person and verb tense. Throughout the story Carver writes in first person through the point of view of the narrator, who often oscillates between his present stay at the “drying-out facility” and telling past stories about himself as well as other men’s stories (third person) as he’s heard them. With his choice of grammatical person and verb tense coupled with his use of informal vernacular, Carver’s voice in “Where I’m Calling From” has a substantial presence to it, as if he’s in the room casually reciting his story. This voice, in effect lessens the distance between Carver and his readers, allowing them to be more engaged in his story and to hold more sympathy for his characters. Moreover, Carver’s strong presence in his stories also enables him to establish good character by portraying himself as a raconteur. This raconteuristic status then allows Carver to build up reverence as a storyteller from his audience, causing the audience to hold his stories at a higher regard than if he had used third person and past tense—or a less formal tone throughout. In other words, Carver was able to establish good character by approaching the story as if he is telling it one on one in order to gain respect as a writer from his audience.
In conclusion, although Carver intended to focus on the characters in “Where I’m Calling From” in order to examine human behavior at the point of nadir or recovery, his ethos still come out through his story. His indications at personal experience and use various literary devices such as cultural vernacular, multiple grammatical persons, and verb tenses all help demonstrate his intelligence, establish goodwill, and set up good character as a storyteller. With these aspects of ethos secure, Carver successfully appeals to his audience as an insightful, adept author. However, although these aspects work to Carver’s advantage in his literary genre dirty realism, it would be interesting to see how a writer like Carver constructs ethos in a genre such as science fiction, where personal experiences and vernacular are not so prominent. This thought can then be applied to a broader scale: rhetors and authors need to understand what rhetorical approaches are appropriate and successful for different rhetorical situations.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
abstract, precis on clovis technologies
Abstract
The article, “Redefining the Age of Clovis: Implications for the peopling of Americas” attempts to identify a specific time range for the Clovis technology utilization of the Americas. The article provides a myriad of carbon dating data collected from Clovis artifacts in order to support their theory of approximate utilization period. Although an approximate timeline is agreed upon by researches of this field, the article introduces various theories as to why Clovis technologies appeared “synchronously across the United States” those being: Clovis was the first technology of the Americas, or it was developed in situ with pre-existing technologies (Stafford. Waters 1124).
Precis
Throughout the article, ample carbon dating data, extracted from unique Clovis technologies such as, bone and ivory tools, is given in order to provide a strong foundation of scientific evidence which indicates that the rapid growth of peoples’ utilization of Clovis technologies, began approximately 13,125 to 12, 925 years ago. The article then acknowledges scientific exceptions, such as artifacts found in the Sheaman, Wyoming site, that would refute their theory of approximate utilization. The article then goes on to dismiss these exceptions as intangible evidence by suggesting that they were probably contaminated and mixed with younger cultural materials. However, the article does acknowledge that peoples, who utilized Clovis technologies, had predecessors, which used more primitive style of tools, and provides evidence in support of this notion. The article then uses these people to explain their theory of rapid Clovis utilization by suggesting that Clovis technologies “developed in situ” from the primitive style of tools, and that the Clovis technologies were so pragmatic and effective that it rapidly spread by means social interaction and trade. The spontaneous and omnipresent growth is significant because it indicates cultural unification among prehistoric Indians, and suggests the presence of a trade system within the pre-Columbian Americas.
The article, “Redefining the Age of Clovis: Implications for the peopling of Americas” attempts to identify a specific time range for the Clovis technology utilization of the Americas. The article provides a myriad of carbon dating data collected from Clovis artifacts in order to support their theory of approximate utilization period. Although an approximate timeline is agreed upon by researches of this field, the article introduces various theories as to why Clovis technologies appeared “synchronously across the United States” those being: Clovis was the first technology of the Americas, or it was developed in situ with pre-existing technologies (Stafford. Waters 1124).
Precis
Throughout the article, ample carbon dating data, extracted from unique Clovis technologies such as, bone and ivory tools, is given in order to provide a strong foundation of scientific evidence which indicates that the rapid growth of peoples’ utilization of Clovis technologies, began approximately 13,125 to 12, 925 years ago. The article then acknowledges scientific exceptions, such as artifacts found in the Sheaman, Wyoming site, that would refute their theory of approximate utilization. The article then goes on to dismiss these exceptions as intangible evidence by suggesting that they were probably contaminated and mixed with younger cultural materials. However, the article does acknowledge that peoples, who utilized Clovis technologies, had predecessors, which used more primitive style of tools, and provides evidence in support of this notion. The article then uses these people to explain their theory of rapid Clovis utilization by suggesting that Clovis technologies “developed in situ” from the primitive style of tools, and that the Clovis technologies were so pragmatic and effective that it rapidly spread by means social interaction and trade. The spontaneous and omnipresent growth is significant because it indicates cultural unification among prehistoric Indians, and suggests the presence of a trade system within the pre-Columbian Americas.
Friday, October 16, 2009
raw emotions on a raw deal
Today I had to swallow down a raw deal; no gagging it up, no jamming a finger down my throat, just clinching my eyes and waiting for the lump to drop into my stomach. And when it hit my stomach it was heavy and it was the kind of heavy that keeps on falling and is so vast that it obliterates everything into vacancy, ultimately leaving me unable to register any emotional reaction from it. This was shock, and I was phlegmatic when I was supposed to be punching walls and inventing new swear words in a primordial rage.
And it was this shock, this vacancy, which has now been partially filled with pride that helped me to overcome my explosive rage. However, the pride is only a partial feeling. The other portion of vacancy has been filled with disclosure invoking a retrospect that I should have released a rage.
And now I find myself asking is this a sign of myself maturing? Or is it a sign that I am becoming more passive aggressive, where I am repressing my emotions until one day I explode into an even more volatile rage? I would like to think its maturity. But the disclosure is indicative of the passive aggressiveness. If it were maturity, true maturity, there would be no feeling of unresolved emotions, because true maturity would have already resolved the emotions. So the shock must have only equivocated the emotions.
Now that I think more about the raw deal, the more my testosterone starts to bubble. Now that I think about how I may fail a test --that I know I would have gotten an ‘A’ on--because I didn’t turn in the blank question sheet. Now that I just wrote that I want to slam the screen part of my lab top against the side of the table and yell “fuck” as loud and as long as I can until my vocal chords start to throb in pain. But I know that would be silly, so I am going to handle the matter like I should: talk with the teacher, admit my mistake, but ask her a second chance; implore redemption. However, if redemption fails, my true test of character will be how I react or cope in the absence of redemption.
And it was this shock, this vacancy, which has now been partially filled with pride that helped me to overcome my explosive rage. However, the pride is only a partial feeling. The other portion of vacancy has been filled with disclosure invoking a retrospect that I should have released a rage.
And now I find myself asking is this a sign of myself maturing? Or is it a sign that I am becoming more passive aggressive, where I am repressing my emotions until one day I explode into an even more volatile rage? I would like to think its maturity. But the disclosure is indicative of the passive aggressiveness. If it were maturity, true maturity, there would be no feeling of unresolved emotions, because true maturity would have already resolved the emotions. So the shock must have only equivocated the emotions.
Now that I think more about the raw deal, the more my testosterone starts to bubble. Now that I think about how I may fail a test --that I know I would have gotten an ‘A’ on--because I didn’t turn in the blank question sheet. Now that I just wrote that I want to slam the screen part of my lab top against the side of the table and yell “fuck” as loud and as long as I can until my vocal chords start to throb in pain. But I know that would be silly, so I am going to handle the matter like I should: talk with the teacher, admit my mistake, but ask her a second chance; implore redemption. However, if redemption fails, my true test of character will be how I react or cope in the absence of redemption.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
beginings of ethos analysis
Considered to be a major American short story writer of the 20th century, Raymond Carver’s stories often depict struggles of blue-collar America and have been acclaimed for their clear, hard language and accurate representation of human behavior during a point of nadir or recovery. Carver’s voice and accurate depictions can be accredited to his own life experiences as a working class male, which he often employs into his characters, such as the narrator in “Where I’m Calling From.” Here, Carver writes in first person, through the point of view of a man recovering from alcoholism at a “drying-out facility”. Along with his life experiences, Carver also utilizes various literary approaches such as contextual meaning, vernacular, metaphor, and allusions, in order to further authenticate and legitimatize his story. Through the use of these devices and his personal experiences in “Where I’m Calling From”, Carver demonstrates strong ethos as a writer, which thus produces an accurate and authentic testimony of alcoholism recovery among working class Americans.
Probably the most captivating aspect of “Where I’m Calling From” is the amount of personal experience Carver draws from in order to construct his characters and their behaviors. As a working class father who struggled with alcoholism throughout his adult life, Carver is able to include minor details about alcohol recovery such as paranoia and short attention span into the story. While conversing with another recovering man, the narrator interrupts the conversation with his inner thoughts about how he’s worried about a twitch in his shoulder and how he “knows something’s about to happen and (I) want to head it off” (Carver 278). Although this is just a minor detail in the story, it demonstrates an aspect about alcohol recovery that may be alien to people who had not experienced alcohol recovery. Therefore, the inclusion of these details not only provides a more accurate character portrayal, but also indicates that Carver may have experienced these symptoms himself. Here, Carver’s personal experiences help strengthen his ethos by suggesting to readers that the symptoms, or on a larger scale, character behaviors, are not invented, but actual substantive aspects of alcohol recovery, allowing them to trust Carver as an author.
Probably the most captivating aspect of “Where I’m Calling From” is the amount of personal experience Carver draws from in order to construct his characters and their behaviors. As a working class father who struggled with alcoholism throughout his adult life, Carver is able to include minor details about alcohol recovery such as paranoia and short attention span into the story. While conversing with another recovering man, the narrator interrupts the conversation with his inner thoughts about how he’s worried about a twitch in his shoulder and how he “knows something’s about to happen and (I) want to head it off” (Carver 278). Although this is just a minor detail in the story, it demonstrates an aspect about alcohol recovery that may be alien to people who had not experienced alcohol recovery. Therefore, the inclusion of these details not only provides a more accurate character portrayal, but also indicates that Carver may have experienced these symptoms himself. Here, Carver’s personal experiences help strengthen his ethos by suggesting to readers that the symptoms, or on a larger scale, character behaviors, are not invented, but actual substantive aspects of alcohol recovery, allowing them to trust Carver as an author.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
rough creative story
Bill and I are sitting across from each other holding our hands up to the fire. We’re sitting on a couple rocks, staring, and listening to the cracks of the wood.
“What you suppose we should do about ‘em?” I ask him. He doesn’t look up. I can tell his nerves are starting to get to him. Usually he’s a talker, but tonight he I know he’s scared, edgy. He’s still staring at the fire. I look back down and put my hands deep in my pockets and shudder. Goddamn fire isn’t hot enough yet. I knew we should have gotten more wood, but I’m know sure as hell Bill isn’t going out there again, and I’m not going out there alone, not after seeing that. I turn my head toward the black woods where we found him laying, but its too heavy, so I turn my head back to Bill. He’s still staring at the fire “Fuck man. How you think he died?”
“Don’t know.” I answered, rubbing my hands together to get warm.
“He was just a kid wasn’t he. Couldn’t have been more than sixteen.”
“Yup” I say and look down at my phone; still no bars. I knew it was a lost cause, but I had to check anyway. “Well we can’t call it in.”
“Fuck man. You think we should check if he has a wallet or something? Just to see who he is.” Bill asks. I can hear his voice start to tremble. He’s not hiding it anymore. I shake my head, but I don’t know if he sees me or not.
“Well, in any case we need some wood. Lets just got out that way” he motions his head opposite of where we found the kid laying. I give him a look of agreement, and I know he can see me this time because we both get up at the same time.
When we found him, it was just before sunset. We had set up camp late and were scrambling to find some wood before it got dark. Right away I could smell it. I yelled over to Bill and asked if he smelled it too and said “a little bit”. At first I didn’t think much of it, but as I walked further from camp, the smell got stronger.
“You don’t think there will be any bears around to do you?” I said. Then just as I fiinshed asking, I saw Bill flinch and then hover over something.
“Holy fuck man. Dude it’s a body. He’s dead. Holy Fuck.” He said, panicking, stepping back from the body, but positioning his head so not to loose site of it.
I ran up to him stopping just short of where he was and craned my neck to look at it. About ten feet from me was this kid. He had a bad head wound and was already decomposed pretty bad. I started gagging, and threw up a little bit then turned back to camp. When I left, Bill was still staring at the kid, and when he came back I already had the fire started.
“What you suppose we should do about ‘em?” I ask him. He doesn’t look up. I can tell his nerves are starting to get to him. Usually he’s a talker, but tonight he I know he’s scared, edgy. He’s still staring at the fire. I look back down and put my hands deep in my pockets and shudder. Goddamn fire isn’t hot enough yet. I knew we should have gotten more wood, but I’m know sure as hell Bill isn’t going out there again, and I’m not going out there alone, not after seeing that. I turn my head toward the black woods where we found him laying, but its too heavy, so I turn my head back to Bill. He’s still staring at the fire “Fuck man. How you think he died?”
“Don’t know.” I answered, rubbing my hands together to get warm.
“He was just a kid wasn’t he. Couldn’t have been more than sixteen.”
“Yup” I say and look down at my phone; still no bars. I knew it was a lost cause, but I had to check anyway. “Well we can’t call it in.”
“Fuck man. You think we should check if he has a wallet or something? Just to see who he is.” Bill asks. I can hear his voice start to tremble. He’s not hiding it anymore. I shake my head, but I don’t know if he sees me or not.
“Well, in any case we need some wood. Lets just got out that way” he motions his head opposite of where we found the kid laying. I give him a look of agreement, and I know he can see me this time because we both get up at the same time.
When we found him, it was just before sunset. We had set up camp late and were scrambling to find some wood before it got dark. Right away I could smell it. I yelled over to Bill and asked if he smelled it too and said “a little bit”. At first I didn’t think much of it, but as I walked further from camp, the smell got stronger.
“You don’t think there will be any bears around to do you?” I said. Then just as I fiinshed asking, I saw Bill flinch and then hover over something.
“Holy fuck man. Dude it’s a body. He’s dead. Holy Fuck.” He said, panicking, stepping back from the body, but positioning his head so not to loose site of it.
I ran up to him stopping just short of where he was and craned my neck to look at it. About ten feet from me was this kid. He had a bad head wound and was already decomposed pretty bad. I started gagging, and threw up a little bit then turned back to camp. When I left, Bill was still staring at the kid, and when he came back I already had the fire started.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
odysseus essay
Translating into ‘one who causes and/or receives grief’, the meaning of Odysseus’s name functions as an integral role for a major theme in Homer’s The Odyssey. The relationship between Odysseus’s name and Odysseus’s character traits, are in a sense, ironic, in that Odysseus’s courage and guile are at times overshadowed by the grief he induces upon himself and also the people/beings he encounters. Here, nearly all of this grief can be traced back to Odysseus’s desire for glory. Through the use of Odysseus’s name and character traits, Homer demonstrates how grief is consequential of glory seeking.
Odysseus lives up to his name by causing grief to himself and to his men when he chooses to remain in Polyphemus’s lair. Overriding his men’s plan to quickly raid the beast’s cave and then “put out to sea at once”, Odysseus resists, and requests that they wait until the beast comes back. (Homer 307). Instead of choosing the most pragmatic and innocuous path, Odysseus daringly yearns to meet the infamous Cyclops in order to test how much the “ruthless brute” would afford over to him (Homer 308). In other words, Odysseus’s reasoning (or lack of reasoning) is driven by the glory to announce how he had bartered with an uncivilized beast. However, Odysseus’s plan backfired. Polyphemus rejected Odysseus’s plea for hospitality, and as a result, not only were he and his men trapped in the cave, but also, a number of men died. By seeking glory over safety, Odysseus caused much grief to himself, and to the men in his party.
Odysseus’s desire for glory further endangers himself and his men when they have finally set sail after escaping from the Cyclops. Upon using his adored cunning to defeat a beast with strength comparable to the Gods, Odysseus and his men nearly escape home unscathed. However, when he and his men are on the ship sailing away, Odysseus decides to taunt the beast proclaiming,
“Cyclops—if any man on the face of the earth should ask you who blinded you, shamed you so—say Odysseus” (Homer 313).
Here, Odysseus reveals himself to Polyphemus in order to brag about who had truly blinded and outwitted him. This is ultimately an attempt by Odysseus to glorify his name and to establish himself as a dominant persona throughout the Homeric world. This glorification however, works against Odysseus in that Poseidon (Polyphemus’s father) now knows that Odysseus was the blinder of his son and wages his wrath in return, which will be suffered by the Acheans. Again, it is through Odysseus’s desire for glory that causes grief and suffering among others.
In conclusion, Homer portrays glory-seeking as a character flaw in which grief and suffering is it consequence. Homer cleverly depicts this theme by awarding this flaw to a hero whose name translates to ‘one who causes grief’. It can be then drawn that grief is characteristic of glory in the Odyssey. Whenever glory was sought after by Odysseus, grief never failed to follow. In other words, Odysseus established himself as ‘a man of constant sorrow.’
Odysseus lives up to his name by causing grief to himself and to his men when he chooses to remain in Polyphemus’s lair. Overriding his men’s plan to quickly raid the beast’s cave and then “put out to sea at once”, Odysseus resists, and requests that they wait until the beast comes back. (Homer 307). Instead of choosing the most pragmatic and innocuous path, Odysseus daringly yearns to meet the infamous Cyclops in order to test how much the “ruthless brute” would afford over to him (Homer 308). In other words, Odysseus’s reasoning (or lack of reasoning) is driven by the glory to announce how he had bartered with an uncivilized beast. However, Odysseus’s plan backfired. Polyphemus rejected Odysseus’s plea for hospitality, and as a result, not only were he and his men trapped in the cave, but also, a number of men died. By seeking glory over safety, Odysseus caused much grief to himself, and to the men in his party.
Odysseus’s desire for glory further endangers himself and his men when they have finally set sail after escaping from the Cyclops. Upon using his adored cunning to defeat a beast with strength comparable to the Gods, Odysseus and his men nearly escape home unscathed. However, when he and his men are on the ship sailing away, Odysseus decides to taunt the beast proclaiming,
“Cyclops—if any man on the face of the earth should ask you who blinded you, shamed you so—say Odysseus” (Homer 313).
Here, Odysseus reveals himself to Polyphemus in order to brag about who had truly blinded and outwitted him. This is ultimately an attempt by Odysseus to glorify his name and to establish himself as a dominant persona throughout the Homeric world. This glorification however, works against Odysseus in that Poseidon (Polyphemus’s father) now knows that Odysseus was the blinder of his son and wages his wrath in return, which will be suffered by the Acheans. Again, it is through Odysseus’s desire for glory that causes grief and suffering among others.
In conclusion, Homer portrays glory-seeking as a character flaw in which grief and suffering is it consequence. Homer cleverly depicts this theme by awarding this flaw to a hero whose name translates to ‘one who causes grief’. It can be then drawn that grief is characteristic of glory in the Odyssey. Whenever glory was sought after by Odysseus, grief never failed to follow. In other words, Odysseus established himself as ‘a man of constant sorrow.’
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Confronting My Manager
I have been working in produce now for about 15 months, and for the most part enhoy my job. I get along with all of the other produce employees and have become friends with most of them. Most of the guys I work with are parttimers, who either have another carreer, own their own bussiness, or are students, like me who because of hard economic times were forced to take up another job. So being that we all are preoccupied oustide of our parttime side job, we all have something in common and can relate to each others situation.
But there’s one person I have a problem with. I don’t like my new manager. She transferred over to produce manager about a month ago from being the cashier manager because of the slight pay increase. So naturally having no previous background working with produce, she is completely clueless. Normally I would have no objection taking the time to help familiarize her with the department and make her transition less difficult, but her attitude is abrasive.
This morning my manager came into work hungover. She did nothing but gripe all morning and didn’t bother to help us fill the holes or unload the load. She was angry that she had to work a Saturday morning and swore that this one would be the last time. Throughout the morning as I would scurry back and forth between the backroom and the sales floor I would catch snickets of emotional phone conversations she was having with her husband or be confided with complaints about how sick she was feeling. After about five hours of her not doing one thing, I got fed up.
“You shouldn’t get drunk the night before you have to go into work early” I said, confronting after an hour long debate with myself.
“Excuse me?”
“All you’ve done all morning is sit back here and talk about how sick you are. If you’re not feeling well, just go home.”
She then retreated into herself, the way a person does when they lose all form of justification for a disgraceful behavior, and sulks idly until they find something to retaliate with. And inside herself, after a seemingly interminable ten seconds, she was able to recover a counter that cowards often abuse; power. Instead of accepting that she was wrong, she retaliated against me by attacking my disrespect for authority.
“You don’t talk to a manager like that. I’m going to talk to Jeff about this.”
“Good. I’ll walk there with you.” I said forcing my stare upon her timid, yet authoritative eyes, until she broke the tension-bound stare. Her eyes were blinking at intervals and had raised her eyebrows so that her forehead was furrowed with six or seven jagged lines.
“Look I just want some respect from you guys.”
“How have we disrespected you? You are the one who came in hungover and hasn’t worked at all this morning. What the fuck is that. Just because you’re a manager doesn’t—“
“Look, I have a lot of shit going on in my life right now dude. I don’t need shit from my employees to complicate it.” She said interrupting me.
“If you can’t separate your personal life with your job, then your unfit for being a manager. Go home take care of your shit.”
“This is so fucked up.” She said briskly walking past me.
I waited until Jeff asked me into his office and told him departmental concerns, and admitted my in-house attempts to resolve an issue was somewhat unorthodox.
“Transfer her back. She has no business leading anybody.”
But there’s one person I have a problem with. I don’t like my new manager. She transferred over to produce manager about a month ago from being the cashier manager because of the slight pay increase. So naturally having no previous background working with produce, she is completely clueless. Normally I would have no objection taking the time to help familiarize her with the department and make her transition less difficult, but her attitude is abrasive.
This morning my manager came into work hungover. She did nothing but gripe all morning and didn’t bother to help us fill the holes or unload the load. She was angry that she had to work a Saturday morning and swore that this one would be the last time. Throughout the morning as I would scurry back and forth between the backroom and the sales floor I would catch snickets of emotional phone conversations she was having with her husband or be confided with complaints about how sick she was feeling. After about five hours of her not doing one thing, I got fed up.
“You shouldn’t get drunk the night before you have to go into work early” I said, confronting after an hour long debate with myself.
“Excuse me?”
“All you’ve done all morning is sit back here and talk about how sick you are. If you’re not feeling well, just go home.”
She then retreated into herself, the way a person does when they lose all form of justification for a disgraceful behavior, and sulks idly until they find something to retaliate with. And inside herself, after a seemingly interminable ten seconds, she was able to recover a counter that cowards often abuse; power. Instead of accepting that she was wrong, she retaliated against me by attacking my disrespect for authority.
“You don’t talk to a manager like that. I’m going to talk to Jeff about this.”
“Good. I’ll walk there with you.” I said forcing my stare upon her timid, yet authoritative eyes, until she broke the tension-bound stare. Her eyes were blinking at intervals and had raised her eyebrows so that her forehead was furrowed with six or seven jagged lines.
“Look I just want some respect from you guys.”
“How have we disrespected you? You are the one who came in hungover and hasn’t worked at all this morning. What the fuck is that. Just because you’re a manager doesn’t—“
“Look, I have a lot of shit going on in my life right now dude. I don’t need shit from my employees to complicate it.” She said interrupting me.
“If you can’t separate your personal life with your job, then your unfit for being a manager. Go home take care of your shit.”
“This is so fucked up.” She said briskly walking past me.
I waited until Jeff asked me into his office and told him departmental concerns, and admitted my in-house attempts to resolve an issue was somewhat unorthodox.
“Transfer her back. She has no business leading anybody.”
Friday, October 9, 2009
Documentary
It was interesting how the narrator, being both an eastern Kentucky resident and a film journalist stayed somewhat standoffish throughout the documentary. She did this, I think because she understood both of the cultures and wanted to portray their point of view equally and fairly. Probably the most shocking aspect of the documentary, to me was the sentencing of Hobart. Although I myself would be outraged if someone from a different culture came to my community to film a documentary on how horribly I lived, and intended on showing it to people only of their culture, I don’t think I would be angry enough to shoot him. I think Hobart probably should have received a harsher sentence, or at least should have served his full ten years.
To me, the epicenter of the culture clash, was how the filmmakers blamed the degree of poverty in Eastern Kentucky on the flaws of the American Dream. Then to counter this mindset the narrator juxtaposed it with a poor coal miner stating that he had lived the American Dream and was happy with his life. This is interesting, and somewhat ironic because it shows that those who are disavowing the American Dream were those who were secure in it (to their standards). The filmmakers had standardized to what constituted the American Dream to their lifestyle, and when they saw a community living outside those boundaries, they decried that lifestyle that the people were content with. However, in a way, the filmmakers were using the poor coal miners, just as corporations had, in order to capitalize on a product, which in their case was a documentary about poverty. But I don’t think the filmmakers had any band intentions with making their film. However, I do think they were arrogant and ignorant to other lifestyles. Although obviously the filmmakers were aware of other lifestyles and cultures, they were ignorant to the peoples’ attitudes towards them. And this ignorance, I believe is what started the culture clash.
To answer question number three, members of a community should tell the community story, or at least approve of some one else to do it. I think the narrator recognized her community’s obligation to document their way of life and social problems and felt it was necessary to document it being both a resident and a journalist. I believe she did this to protect her communities reputation, so they would be portrayed as a bunch of savage hill-billies and also to expose the dangers of ignorance, which was present on both the filmmakers side as well the Kentucians side.
To me, the epicenter of the culture clash, was how the filmmakers blamed the degree of poverty in Eastern Kentucky on the flaws of the American Dream. Then to counter this mindset the narrator juxtaposed it with a poor coal miner stating that he had lived the American Dream and was happy with his life. This is interesting, and somewhat ironic because it shows that those who are disavowing the American Dream were those who were secure in it (to their standards). The filmmakers had standardized to what constituted the American Dream to their lifestyle, and when they saw a community living outside those boundaries, they decried that lifestyle that the people were content with. However, in a way, the filmmakers were using the poor coal miners, just as corporations had, in order to capitalize on a product, which in their case was a documentary about poverty. But I don’t think the filmmakers had any band intentions with making their film. However, I do think they were arrogant and ignorant to other lifestyles. Although obviously the filmmakers were aware of other lifestyles and cultures, they were ignorant to the peoples’ attitudes towards them. And this ignorance, I believe is what started the culture clash.
To answer question number three, members of a community should tell the community story, or at least approve of some one else to do it. I think the narrator recognized her community’s obligation to document their way of life and social problems and felt it was necessary to document it being both a resident and a journalist. I believe she did this to protect her communities reputation, so they would be portrayed as a bunch of savage hill-billies and also to expose the dangers of ignorance, which was present on both the filmmakers side as well the Kentucians side.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
brain storming about ethical analysis paper
For the ethical analysis paper, I am thinking about analyzing the narration of a short story. Since I am English major, I think short stories qualify for my “field of work”. However, for a back up paper to analyze, I will probably choose to analyze the narration of a literary analysis paper. But as of right now, I have chosen to analyze the narration of Raymond Carver’s “where I'm calling from”. I am choosing to analyze the narration of this piece for a variety of reasons. The first is that I really enjoy reading his stories. I find it very impressive and fascinating with how he is able to convey deep messages through a very minimalistic voice. The second reason I am choosing to analyze the narration of a Raymond Carver story is because I want to start writing short stories. By writing an ethical analysis essay on one, I will be able to better understand what writing mechanisms go into establishing good ethos in a short story. The third, and final reason I want to analyze a Raymond carver narration/voice is because I think it would be more interesting and engaging to analyze a composition I like rather than to analyze a composition that is dry or doesn’t hold my interest as much. These aspects will reflect in the voice of my essay. In other words, if I am writing about a piece I don’t like so much my voice will sound dull and to some extent mundane and vice versa.
What to look for when analyzing the narration of a short story: first I should probably distinguish the story’s theme. With this established I can start analyzing the writing mechanisms the author used to arrive at this them, and reflect these mechanisms were successful or not. I can examine word choice, dialogue, descriptions, character portrayals, setting, metaphors, allusions, and voice. Another aspect I can look at is the brevity of the story and analyze how/what the author utilized or did to convey a message in such a compact manner. I can analyze the story’s brevity as part of the ethos and discuss whether this aspect of the story was successful for how the piece was conceived by readers. I also feel the intended audience is crucial in analyzing the ethos in that understanding the audience’s background or expectations of the story will allow me to look at how the author (Carver) composed his writing with this audience in mind.
What to look for when analyzing the narration of a short story: first I should probably distinguish the story’s theme. With this established I can start analyzing the writing mechanisms the author used to arrive at this them, and reflect these mechanisms were successful or not. I can examine word choice, dialogue, descriptions, character portrayals, setting, metaphors, allusions, and voice. Another aspect I can look at is the brevity of the story and analyze how/what the author utilized or did to convey a message in such a compact manner. I can analyze the story’s brevity as part of the ethos and discuss whether this aspect of the story was successful for how the piece was conceived by readers. I also feel the intended audience is crucial in analyzing the ethos in that understanding the audience’s background or expectations of the story will allow me to look at how the author (Carver) composed his writing with this audience in mind.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
in class writing 10/06
I would like to talk about political issues that I feel very strongly about like gu control and limited government. I want to talk about these issues because I am very interested in them and feel that this interest will reflect positively in my writing as opposed to if I was writing about an issue I was interesting in.
An Issue I feel I need to talk about is the American Dream and to advocate how working hard and being shrewd and savvy allows people to transpose classes. Many times people who oppose capitalism or the American way of life often incite a false portrayal or it, establishing it to be a plutocracy, where people are more or less cemented in their socio-economic status. I would like to disrupt this false portrayal.
I think I should talk about the American dream to refute a common trend amongst many people in the Academic community, who tend to demonize it and portray it as seriously flawed. I feel it is much easier to disavow a lifestyle or economic structure when people are secure in it.
I can address these issues (the American dream) by telling the story of my family and how they were able to rise up from poverty through the means of hard work and determination, ultimately establishing a comfortable life for themselves and their family. I could also use my life how I am working full time and going to school full time to help set up a more financially comfortable future. I look up to my dad’s quote “Those who take the easy route first always end up leaving the hard way”
Lack of power
Explain how technology has somewhat rendered society powerless. Talk about how the all Seeing Eye so to speak, and how all of its good intentions has led to some inconvenient consequences. I can talk about how I have gotten in trouble with the police before and my experiences with them. I can explore my latest run in with the law and how the police used technology to their advantage in order to track me down. Also I can refute the intrusion of speed cameras and red light cameras on public roadways, and how even though they are on publicly funded infrastructures, their presence was never legally voted in. I’m not sure how I can tie this in with being technology rendering society powerless, other than talk about the ticket I got from the cameras last year
Cinematic scene
I need to talk about the night this summer when I was lighting off fireworks with my friends, and ran away from the cops (3 miles) and finally got home, only to find the cops arrive at my house 30 minutes later. I need to talk about how the police were able to use technology to track me down, exposing me, and my feelings towards it.
An Issue I feel I need to talk about is the American Dream and to advocate how working hard and being shrewd and savvy allows people to transpose classes. Many times people who oppose capitalism or the American way of life often incite a false portrayal or it, establishing it to be a plutocracy, where people are more or less cemented in their socio-economic status. I would like to disrupt this false portrayal.
I think I should talk about the American dream to refute a common trend amongst many people in the Academic community, who tend to demonize it and portray it as seriously flawed. I feel it is much easier to disavow a lifestyle or economic structure when people are secure in it.
I can address these issues (the American dream) by telling the story of my family and how they were able to rise up from poverty through the means of hard work and determination, ultimately establishing a comfortable life for themselves and their family. I could also use my life how I am working full time and going to school full time to help set up a more financially comfortable future. I look up to my dad’s quote “Those who take the easy route first always end up leaving the hard way”
Lack of power
Explain how technology has somewhat rendered society powerless. Talk about how the all Seeing Eye so to speak, and how all of its good intentions has led to some inconvenient consequences. I can talk about how I have gotten in trouble with the police before and my experiences with them. I can explore my latest run in with the law and how the police used technology to their advantage in order to track me down. Also I can refute the intrusion of speed cameras and red light cameras on public roadways, and how even though they are on publicly funded infrastructures, their presence was never legally voted in. I’m not sure how I can tie this in with being technology rendering society powerless, other than talk about the ticket I got from the cameras last year
Cinematic scene
I need to talk about the night this summer when I was lighting off fireworks with my friends, and ran away from the cops (3 miles) and finally got home, only to find the cops arrive at my house 30 minutes later. I need to talk about how the police were able to use technology to track me down, exposing me, and my feelings towards it.
Monday, October 5, 2009
minutemen
Are they enforcers of death that practice racist hatred? Or are they a vigilante group that is comprised of citizens concerned about homeland security? Since the recent hike in security along the Mexican-American border, there has been a polarization among U.S. citizens regarding the correct way to handle border issues. Those who are against the heightened security and enforcement groups such as the Minutemen contend that their tactics are “inhumane” and their efforts reflect actions of a “fascist nativist movement” (Zamora). However, those who agree with the heightened border security and have taken the initiative to join groups such as the Minutemen argue that they are patriots who seek “proactive enforcement of national security protections and the immigration legal code” (minutementproject.com). The Minutemen also contend that they welcome people of all ethnicity and take influence from iconic figures such as Ceaser Chavez.
Considering the strong presence of U.S. border patrol along the Mexican-American border, some people argue that the Minutemens’ efforts are unnecessary and may have even created unforeseen consequences along the border such as increased migrant deaths. Although there has been an increase in deaths along the border (4000 total since 1994), it is hard to pinpoint the direct cause (Zamora). Many people agree however, that it is a combination of the increased number of illegal immigrants and the presence of the border wall in remote parts of the desert that is the leading cause in the increased death count.
In my opinion, taking into consideration that the membership of the Minutemen group throughout the country is below 1000, their efforts are relatively insignificant compared to the dominating presence and militarization of the border patrol. Rather, the Minutemen act as a symbol of America’s First Amendment; that being that Americans can take the initiative, unite and take a stand for what they believe in.
Considering the strong presence of U.S. border patrol along the Mexican-American border, some people argue that the Minutemens’ efforts are unnecessary and may have even created unforeseen consequences along the border such as increased migrant deaths. Although there has been an increase in deaths along the border (4000 total since 1994), it is hard to pinpoint the direct cause (Zamora). Many people agree however, that it is a combination of the increased number of illegal immigrants and the presence of the border wall in remote parts of the desert that is the leading cause in the increased death count.
In my opinion, taking into consideration that the membership of the Minutemen group throughout the country is below 1000, their efforts are relatively insignificant compared to the dominating presence and militarization of the border patrol. Rather, the Minutemen act as a symbol of America’s First Amendment; that being that Americans can take the initiative, unite and take a stand for what they believe in.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Considered to be one of the most controversial Amendments of the Bill of Rights, the arguments on how to regulate and approach the second amendment have proved to be acutely polarized, yielding viewpoints that span from the minimization of gun regulation to absolute gun prohibition. Those who support gun prohibition or strict gun regulations, often emphasize the danger of firearms in society, which is derived from the commonplace, “availability to firearms increases crime rate.” Depending on the ideological perception, this commonplace functions in multiple ways. Those who oppose this commonplace, primarily gun advocates, many conservatives, and libertarians, view it as a way to simplify complicated social issues like crime, by reducing it to a gun-based phenomenon. While those who retain this commonplace, typically democrats and moderate conservatives, use it to standardize (what they perceive as) agents of crime in order to establish a focal point when administering laws aimed at reducing crime and increasing public safety. The origins of this commonplace typically stem from highly concentrated urban areas, whose politicians tend to favor social welfare and safety over individual freedoms. My experiences as a gun owner, as well as crime rate statistics complicate this commonplace by showing that availability to firearms has little effect on crime rate.
Crime (I will define it as murder, robbery, assault, and rape) is a chronic social issue, and has existed since the beginnings of civilization. Since that time, governments have employed various mechanisms such as speech limitation, and weapon bans, which aimed to curtail crime. However, considering firearms are a relatively recent technology, the controversy on how to regulate them is also of recent emergence, especially in the United States. Nevertheless, the principles, or commonplaces utilized to uphold past civilizations’ efforts to curtail crime, correlate to the principles or commonplaces used to support American efforts to curtail crime through gun bans.
The first significant form of firearm prohibition was the NFA (National Firearms Act), which was enacted during the great depression, and was designed to curtail the purchases and abuse of “gangster weapons”, which included, machine guns, and short barreled rifles. Initially the act intended to criminalize these firearms, but Attorney General Homer Cummings deemed it unconstitutional to completely ban firearms, so instead, exorbitant taxes were imposed on these targeted weapons, and the means of legal obtainment became strenuous.
Although the NFA was successful in only partially banning these firearms (later in 1986 these weapons were criminalized), it did succeed in establishing a viewpoint, typically among people who retain leftist ideals, that certain weapons are responsible for crime. The connotation here was that, machine guns and rifles with sawed off barrels were responsible for “gangster” type crimes (murder and trafficking). This viewpoint was later advanced upon by other gun bans, such as the Assault Weapons Ban (AWB), which held that a certain class of semi-automatic rifles, deemed “assault weapons”, were responsible for heinous “battlefield” style murders. Furthermore, the legislators and those who supported this ban anticipated that the banishment of “assault weapons” would reduce the national murder rates. Here, this anticipation demonstrates a popular mindset that “availability to firearms increases crime rate” and if availability is restricted, crime rates will decrease.
However, this was not the case. Although almost no person can deny the lethality of firearms, many people, including gun advocates, many conservatives, and libertarians do refute the AWB and similar government gun bans’ commonplace that “availability to firearms increases crime rate.” The basis of this refutation is often derived from statistics produced by the gun bans themselves. They site that before the AWB was initiated in 1994, “assualt weapons” “represented 3.57 percent of all crime guns recovered from crimes” (Feinstien). And since the AWB was lifted in 2004, allowing five years for “assualt weapons” to circulate amongst the people, “the nation’s murder rate is at a 43-year low” (NRA). Despite these weapons’ availability prior to and subsequent to the Assault Weapons Ban, their effect on crime and murder in the U.S., can be considered negligible.
An explanation for why the AWB was so widely accepted, could be indicated by
Crime (I will define it as murder, robbery, assault, and rape) is a chronic social issue, and has existed since the beginnings of civilization. Since that time, governments have employed various mechanisms such as speech limitation, and weapon bans, which aimed to curtail crime. However, considering firearms are a relatively recent technology, the controversy on how to regulate them is also of recent emergence, especially in the United States. Nevertheless, the principles, or commonplaces utilized to uphold past civilizations’ efforts to curtail crime, correlate to the principles or commonplaces used to support American efforts to curtail crime through gun bans.
The first significant form of firearm prohibition was the NFA (National Firearms Act), which was enacted during the great depression, and was designed to curtail the purchases and abuse of “gangster weapons”, which included, machine guns, and short barreled rifles. Initially the act intended to criminalize these firearms, but Attorney General Homer Cummings deemed it unconstitutional to completely ban firearms, so instead, exorbitant taxes were imposed on these targeted weapons, and the means of legal obtainment became strenuous.
Although the NFA was successful in only partially banning these firearms (later in 1986 these weapons were criminalized), it did succeed in establishing a viewpoint, typically among people who retain leftist ideals, that certain weapons are responsible for crime. The connotation here was that, machine guns and rifles with sawed off barrels were responsible for “gangster” type crimes (murder and trafficking). This viewpoint was later advanced upon by other gun bans, such as the Assault Weapons Ban (AWB), which held that a certain class of semi-automatic rifles, deemed “assault weapons”, were responsible for heinous “battlefield” style murders. Furthermore, the legislators and those who supported this ban anticipated that the banishment of “assault weapons” would reduce the national murder rates. Here, this anticipation demonstrates a popular mindset that “availability to firearms increases crime rate” and if availability is restricted, crime rates will decrease.
However, this was not the case. Although almost no person can deny the lethality of firearms, many people, including gun advocates, many conservatives, and libertarians do refute the AWB and similar government gun bans’ commonplace that “availability to firearms increases crime rate.” The basis of this refutation is often derived from statistics produced by the gun bans themselves. They site that before the AWB was initiated in 1994, “assualt weapons” “represented 3.57 percent of all crime guns recovered from crimes” (Feinstien). And since the AWB was lifted in 2004, allowing five years for “assualt weapons” to circulate amongst the people, “the nation’s murder rate is at a 43-year low” (NRA). Despite these weapons’ availability prior to and subsequent to the Assault Weapons Ban, their effect on crime and murder in the U.S., can be considered negligible.
An explanation for why the AWB was so widely accepted, could be indicated by
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