ENG 1101: Original Traces

Write one paragraph in which you:
– provide a one-sentence summary description of the controversy you are writing about
– describe some of the competing perspectives and positions that people have taken on that controversy (be specific)
– write a one-sentence thesis statement that summarizes the argument of your paper — “In this paper, I will argue that . . .”

2 pieces of paper:

Paper 1: What is the biggest problem you’re having right now with your research paper? [FOLD AND WRITE "PROBLEM" ON THE OUTSIDE]

Paper 2: What is one thing thing you’ve done that has helped you write your research paper? [FOLD AND WRITE "HELPFUL" ON THE OUTSIDE]

Problem: finding books
solution: keywords – think more broadly about your topic. brainstorm ideas. related ideas. spin out keywords

Small groups discussion: final paper topics
Questions to ask:
1. Is the topic an architectural controversy?
2. How is the topic local to you?
3. Is the topic overly broad/general? How can it be made more specific.
4. How is the topic related to the themes of our class?
5. What are some of the major positions that people have taken on the controversy?
6. What kinds of primary and secondary sources might be found?

Titles:
– Use creative, original titles
– double meanings with some ambiguity provoke the interest of readers
– good titles play with double meanings
– Strong metaphor
– should encapsulate a central issue or tension in the article

Writing a Blog Post:
Images
– use an image — provokes interest, illustrates
– provide citation for image

Audience
– on our blogs, immediate audience = classmates. secondary audience = wider public

– personal feelings/opinions
– difference between blog and personal journals:
— blog – can use multiple types of media – images, video

– public: censor yourself? Can’t say as much as you want to say because you don’t want to offend your audience. ex. can’t write, “these mofos said x.” — have to be respectful
– use proper grammar spelling
– have to get your point across without coming off threatening or like you’re forcing your views upon them. Show problem through your eyes and your solution. You CAN express yourself, but you need to do so appeals to readersr
– reference things – cite sources.

Grammar resources: http://teachingresources.mkgold.net/teaching-resources/grammar-resources/

Paper-writing resources: http://teachingresources.mkgold.net/teaching-resources/paper-writing-resources/

Independent and Dependent Clauses
Independent clause: I went to the movie theater. [a complete sentence]
Dependent clause: When I went to the movie theater [not a complete sentence]

When I went to the movie theater, I ate popcorn.
DC, IC
I ate popcorn when I went to the movie theater.
IC DC

I went to the movie theater, and I went to the pool to go swimming.
IC , and IC
Jack likes movies; Jill likes books.
IC;IC
ERROR:
Jack likes movies, Jill likes books.
COMMA SPLICE – using a comma to separate two independent clauses.

Frag. – sentence fragment
Comma Splice – comma splice
Keep verb tenses consistent
rep. – repetition
,
V = insert a comma
colloq. = colloquial, informal writing that should be made more formal
ex. I went like six miles on to find that person

Transition needed

Paragraph 1: The shoddy materials used to construct my grandmother’s house in Panama
Paragraph 2: The harvesting of wood from Russian forests as described in “The Stolen Forests”

The first sentence of paragraph 2 HAS to transition the reader from the topic of paragraph 1 into the topic of paragraph 2
Perhaps it should not be surprising that the materials used to construct my grandmother’s house were so poor; as Raffi Katchidourian shows in “The Stolen Forests,” the wood used in many types of construction is often harvested in problematic ways that compromise its quality.

I wanted to let you know that I’ve made a few extra themes available to you; you can install them on your blog by going to the Dashboard, scrolling down to “Appearance,” and clicking on Themes.  That will allow you to preview one of the new themes and to activate it if you choose.

A note on images:  images, like text, is intellectual property.  If you include an image in your blog post, you should cite it. Here is a guide to finding and citing images in posts.  Please follow it.  We’ll discuss this more on Thursday.

Just a note:  you don’t need to create an entirely new *blog* for each assignment.  Instead, create only one blog for your work in the entire course, but create *a new post* on that blog for each assignment.

If you have questions, please let me know.

For Thursday, write a blog post in which you analyze an advertisement.  Your blog post should contain the image you are writing about (or, at least, a link to it).

Some questions to consider:

• What product is being advertised?  In what way does the product appear in the ad?
• What is the overall message of the advertisement? What ideas does it seem to convey?
• How does the image construct the gaze of the viewer?
• In what ways are the people in the advertisement posted?  Do they project strength? Vulnerability?  Power?
• What, if anything, does the ad seem to suggest about gender roles?
• What details in the image support your analysis of it?

If you have any questions, please ask them in the comments to this post.

American Apparel article

exploring a tension

The gaze – http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/gaze/gaze.html

CONSTRUCTED

attitudes about gender roles

how is the advertisement asking me, as the viewer, to look at it?  How is it constructing my role as the viewer

Slavoj Zizek
RSA Animate – First as Tragedy, Then as Farce

(continued)

– Real aim is to reconstruct society — and the altruistic virtues have prevented the carrying out of this aim

“Charity degrades and demoralizes”
“It is immoral to use private property in order to alleviate the horrible evils that result from the institution of private”

“There is a certain type of misanthropy which is much better as a social attitude than this cheap, charitable optimism.”

“I’m not against charity. In an abstract sense, of course, it’s better than nothing. let’s just be aware that there is an element of hypocrisy there”

Critique v. Solutions

Does everyone start off with the same opportunities?

Last year’s financial crisis

Swift

– writing in and about Ireland
– Colonizer
– problem is poverty, overpopulation, crime
– way we treat cows/animals –> humans
– persuasive tone — sensory details
– “Hannibal Lecter meets Thomas Jefferson”
– structured, reasonable explanation
– reasoned argument

Zizek
– “In the consumerist act, you don’t just buy a cup of coffee; you buy your redemption from being ONLY a consumerist.”

– one act of consumerism, but in the act of doing it you are redeemed from doing it.

– short circuit where the act of egotist consumption already includes the price for its opposite

– Wilde: “it is much easier to have sympathy with suffering than it is to have sympathy with thought.”

– we see suffering, poverty — we think, “I must do something” — give bread — but the solutions do not cure the disease — they merely prolong the suffering

– “the remedies are part of the disease”

- Real aim: “try to reconstruct society on such a basis that poverty is impossible”
- “but altruistic virtues have prevented the carrying out of this aim”