Reaction to "Tradition and the Individual Talent"
In this essay, the author talked about an artist needing a sense of history of his/her art. Without the artists that came before, what is known today would not be known. It also gives a point of comparison. While interesting, and certainly well written, the essay managed to reassure me of one important fact - poetry still confuses me greatly. An example of poetry was given within the essay to help express a point. After reading the snippet of poetry and continuing on, I noticed that the observations made on the stanza were completely lost on me. I could still understand the concept being expressed, but perhaps not in its application.
Reaction to Shakespeare's Sister
Woolf creates an interesting scenario in Shakespeare's sister by creating an imaginary character and writing as though they existed in a particular time period, subject to all the rules of society. She asserts that the life of an artistic woman during this time period would be dismal at best. Such a woman would always be "at strife with herself", wanting to express her own unique talents but thwarted constantly by the fact that she was a woman. Reading something like this can make one appreciate how far the world, or the USA at least, has come regarding the status of women. Circumstances may not be ideal yet, but at least a woman nowadays can publish her genius, regardless of how it is received.
Tutoring Session 5
Once again, there was no student to tutor for this session. While I was waiting for my partner to show up, since I arrived a bit early, I noticed a paper on the wall concerning plagiarism. Due to the power of suggestion, I decided to read and write about it a little. Finding
Writing Online: A student's Guide to the Internet and World Wide Web and sat down to write this blog...
This book noted three major concerns when dealing with "Plagiarism, Copyright, and the Internet"(chapter 14) The first concern is the most obvious, that of honesty. There will always be students who are tempted to steal other people's work for the purpose of making things easier on themselves, regardless of the technology available to them. Honesty also enters the arena when a student is fighting to learn how to paraphrase. Plagiarism may occur in such a case, but likely it is due to the lack of knowing the proper way to cite or paraphrase in whatever given situation, rather than the explicit theft of another's work.
The second major concern was that of stability. Ever changing is the world wide web, and an essay that is published today, may not still be there ten years from now. Perhaps it has changed URLs or the web page could have simply been shut down or erased. The bottom line is, that the internet is not stable. Having a downloaded copy, where permitted, to include in an essay is not always a bad thing. It is suggested to students to look for brand names wherever possible. An example given is to research a topic using the New York Time's website. Because it is the website of a large corporation, it is more likely to closer to stability.
The third major concern was that of copyright. When placing any work online, great care should be taken to not violate copyright laws. Several guidelines are given to help avoid this. Excerpts of 300 words or 150 words from a book or magazine, respectively, can be quoted if the excerpt is not a complete larger work, it takes up less than 20 percent of your essay, the words do not stand by themselves but are incorporated into the essay, and full credit is given. When several smaller quotes are used, combined they should not total more than the above given values. Finally, to use e-mail messages or other such unpublished writings, permission should be sought out and obtained prior to their usage.
Reaction to "How Films Mean"
This was an interesting assignment. While reading, I was reminded of a previous blog that I had done. It was in my reaction to Gould's
Nonmoral Nature. In it, I suggested that humans provide their own meanings to things. In the reading, it said that movies by themselves carry no inherent meaning, but meaning is given to them by an understanding of the spectator. Because the spectator has experiences or knowledge of any particular subject, they can apply and infer meaning from a series of moving pictures and sound.
Reaction to the ending of
1984For this assignment, we were assigned to read the end of this chilling tale. As this was my second time reading it, things I hadn't noticed previously became more apparent. One was Orwell's reference to the "Last Man". While researching a little more of the thinking of the addled brain of Nietzsche for the revision of my paper, I came across the concept of the "Last Man". Nietzsche used the "Last Man" to compare to his ubermensch, or overman. Simply put, the "Last Man" is a man with a weak will who is tired of life. He takes no risks, and looks only for comfort and/or security. This perfectly describes Winston at the end of the book as well as the people with whom he works at his new job after being brainwashed.
Tutoring Session 5
Once again, our tutee did not show up for the scheduled appointment (insert dejected sigh here). So instead I read from David and Sarah E. Skwire's
Writing with a Thesis "A Rhetoric and Reader". Obviously, from its title, it discusses the thesis at length. I thought it was relevant because I had my own small tutoring session with my teacher before I was supposed to tutor and during that session, we discussed the introduction paragraph and thesis.
From the book, the thesis is "a deliberately bare-bones presentation of your idea". It says, however, that the thesis may never even appear in the paper itself. It could simply hint at the thesis. It also says that the thesis is
usually in the introduction of the paper, but that needn't always be the case. That is just what seems to work best for most people.
It also says that the thesis is what can determine whether something in the rest of the paper is relevant or not. I bring this point up because I feel the need to remind myself of this point before I begin the revision on my own paper. Upon re-examining my paper, there are things included that are relevant, but perhaps not needed to explore my thesis. There are also ideas that would support my thesis that I did not include, but now intend to.
Tutoring Session 4 - Monday 10/30 make-up
Today I was scheduled to tutor a philosophy student who was working on a paper for a level 3000 class. Normally, tutors from this class are only supposed to tutor students from introductory writing classes, so this was going to be an interesting challenge for me. However, the student didn't show up. So instead, I read an excerpt from
The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Peer Tutoring by Paula Gillespie and Neal Lerner. The section I read was titled "The Tutor Does Not - and Does - Have to be an Expert. I thought it was a rather fitting topic due to the circumstances. I was a little anxious about tutoring a student was taking an intermediate/advanced philosophy course when I myself am not a philosophy major. Reassuring me, the section stated that I needn't know anything about philosophy to be a good tutor for this student. Instead, I need to be receptive towards the student's goals, and have a good knowledge of the writing process. "If you know the subject well, that's wonderful, but if you don't, it's all right. You can usually still tell what kind of paper is appropriate, whether or not the arguments are well supported, if the organization is clear to you, and whether the audience is being addressed in an effective way".
Tutoring Session 3
I was by myself with the tutee for the most part during this tutoring session, because my partner and I were somehow assigned different tutee's on the same day. In a way, this was good for me, because having a partner gives you a crutch to lean on. Since I was by myself, I had to give it my all, and probably got a lot better at the whole process.
The student was working on a revision of a descriptive essay to hand in to her teacher. At first she told me that it was a basic review, so I began reading and helping her as we went along. After working out a few grammar issues that were prevalent in the introduction and elsewhere in the paper, the student mentioned another concern that her teacher had given her. Her instructor had wanted her to include in her introduction a dominant impression of where the paper was heading. In other words, her thesis needed some revision. After reading over more of the paper, it became apparent to me what the teacher was getting at in the paper. The student expressed a certain description of a place in the introduction, and then by the end of the paper the description of the area had changed because of events that took place in the body. However, no inclination of this was given. I tried my best to explain this concept to her, to which she seemed receptive. I also gave examples as to how she might change her work, but at the same time asserted that she herself was the one who had to change it. This actually seemed to work quite well. The examples that I gave to the student were obviously in my own written voice, which was completely different from her own. It was evident then, that these lines would be completely out of place if she didn't incorporate her own understanding of them and rewrite them in her own words.
We had a few minutes left after this, and I suggested we go over a few grammar issues that could be worked out quickly. One of the issues was about verb tense and its usage. The sentence that she used along with the word 'past' as opposed to 'passed' confused me as well. Since my partner's tutee hadn't shown up I asked her if she understood what was going on. She then went to do some research on it while we continued with the revision and came back a few minutes later with a better understanding to share with us. All in all, I felt that the session went well and was beneficial to the student. I hope she felt the same.
Reaction to "Letter from Birmingham Jail"
The first thing I noticed while I began reading this section, was that King was using a similar technique to the one that Stanton used. He was modeling his writing off of a significant work that influenced people in a previous time. The second thing I noticed was that how, even though these two pieces deal with political matters, there are deep religious and theological ties within them. Religion, morality, and the laws of nature seem to be a common theme among all the works included in the textbook. In essence, he was arguing the morality of the actions of citizens of the Untied States, specifically in the south, taken against African Americans at that time. He argued that morality was above the law, and that it is each person's responsibility to stand up for what he believed to be within his own moral code. "We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was "legal"... It was "illegal" to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler's Germany. Even so, I am sure that, had I lived in Germany at the time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers. " I believe that Nietzsche would say that King held several Ubermensch-like qualities, in that he said he would rebel against societal moral codes to uphold his own, regardless of the circumstances.
Reaction to "Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions"
It is obvious from reading this passage, that Elizabeth Stanton was quite a witty writer. I think her use of the Declaration of Independence as a model for her argument was quite effective. By doing this she not only called attention to her writing, but she implies that her argument should be a fundamental part of the government. Her use of a quote from an influential scholar of law to tie her ideas to a fundamental truth was also impressive.
