Courtney Adams Exploratory Essay

my essay question will be:
Is being a vegetarian more beneficial or detrimental to the human body?

Courtney Adams Blog #8

I get goose bumps as Hammad reads her poem.  I felt that Hammad’s poem was very insightful and touching for different reasons. As her poem begin she reads, “Please God let it be a mistake, the pilots heart, the planes engine” (Hammad 0:33).  For every person who lived in the United States on September 11^th 2001, this pulls a heartstring.  By using such vivid pathos from that day, Hammad appeals to the audience of the entire US nation. As her poem progresses and she explains her story of being a Muslim of this time period she motivates people of color.  After the tragedy she explains, “One more person asked me if I know the highjackers … Assume they know me, or that I represent a people” (Hammad 2:09-2:22).  Her choice of words uses both ethos and pathos to describe her oppressed viewpoint.  She explains how often people of a specific race are looked upon as all the same.  There are not many facts or logos she can use to describe her poem.  What she is speaking about is an emotional journey without any data or numbers, so the omission of logos is acceptable.

I definitely believe that Hammad turns her poetry into her side of an argument surrounding the war.  Although she does not show the other side of the argument, her descriptions of the other acts of violence in the US and how she disagrees with them, introduces an argument.  She brings up the argument, “And when we talk about holy books, hooded men and death why never mention the KKK” (Hammad 2:56).  This resonates specifically in people of color but also calls out whites for their flaws.  Its as if she is arguing against the entire Caucasian community.  Not only has she felt personally persecuted to make her argue but she realizes how bias many people are for assuming all Muslims are terrorists.  She is fighting for her rights as an American citizen and to be treated no differently than any other white citizen.

Courtney Adams Blog #7

One important element of an exploratory essay is to maintain the attention of your audience.  To do this, we must not settle for our original thesis rather, “Keep a problem alive through consideration of multiple solutions or points of view” (Reader 107).  As the paper progresses, different perspectives on the subject should be described. In doing this, you will prove yourself to be more broad-minded.  It will give your subject depth and clarity as it becomes interesting to different audiences.

While viewing your subject with different lenses, “The key to effective exploratory writing is to create a tension between alternative views” (Reader 108).  You must let the research you have done guide your viewpoint.  It’s somewhat like playing the believing and doubting game.  You should let the different points of view fight over your opinion as you critique and compliment each one.  You start off with one opinion then a piece of research persuades you and you’re on that side and it becomes an argument.  You must fill your paper with tension between the different viewpoints.

Instead of doing your research then beginning to write, “Your exploratory essay records the history of your researching and thinking process” (Reader 113). Another important element of an exploratory essay is to describe your research in a chronological order.  So maybe at first you had a very shallow opinion on the subject, this will be documented at the beginning of your essay.  As you become more educated you then explain how your view has been changed.  It is important to make the contrast between exploratory essays and say, a five-paragraph essay because within exploratory essays it is not only okay but also mandatory that your viewpoint changes as the paper progresses.

Courtney Adams Blog #6

After learning more about the stereotype guys feel they must live up to, within the first couple pages I thought the whole situations was being blown out of proportion, until I read the quote, “In this bestseller, boys were encouraged to fight once a day, except during the first week at a new school, when it was presumed they would fight more often” (Kimmel 57).  I understand that not all guys abide by this rule or even know it exists but the fact that this was ever written is insane to me.  This really hit home because I fear and hate fighting so much that for someone to fight every single day really breaks my heart.  Now that I have read this portion of the chapter I feel I have realized how extreme the pressure guys have on them to be “manly” is.  I’m so happy I’m a girl.

As explained in the reading, there are three Cultures of Guyland, all of which stood out to me.  Through complete silence, the culture of protection worked where everyone turned a blind eye to and ignored the horrible things that were happening.  I had never though of violence this way but now I can see how, “Parents, teachers, girlfriends, school administrators, and city officials make the decision to look the other way, to dismiss these acts of violence as poor judgment or things getting a little out of hand” (Kimmel 63).  I personally have never been in a situation of violence and cannot relate completely because I am a girl.  Looking at the situation, “The culture of silence is the culture of complicity” (Kimmel 67).  This hidden boy code is complex and hard for me to understand.  I find it interesting not only to learn more about Guyland in general but especially these three cultures.

Courtney Adams Blog #5

As I was watching Doofy Husbands: Target Women I realized they were showing how the media portrays males in different settings. After showing a series of clips where husbands appear stupid and unhelpful, I was not expecting to see the contrast to a single man.  One way the video portrays a man is as, “A fun single dude driving his awesome car” (Haskin 0:47).  This is visually shown using commercials of attractive men driving nice cars.  This stood out to me because I realized that how something is displayed makes the audience see a subject in a certain way.

After complaining about husbands and how they are no use to women, Sarak Haskin mentions, “You need them around to do three things, barbeque, breed children and take care of the lawn”(Haskins 1:47).  To me this was a hot spot because it is so stereo-typically.  Most husbands are responsible for the lawn and grilling as it is publically viewed that they belong doing these things.  Also, Haskin does give men credit that without them, woman wouldn’t be able to have children, which I found was comical.

In the YouTube video Tropes vs. Women: #1 The Manic Pixie Dream Girl one hot spot I found was mentioned close to the end of the video.  First of all, I had never heard of the term Manic Pixie Dream Girl, who is a girl who plays in movies as someone who has no personality or purpose of her own.  My hotspot was when the narrator sarcastically says that these dream girls must, “Fix these lonely, sad men so that they can go fix the world” (Tropes 4:24).  This truthful description of these female characters degrades the worthy meaning of women not only in a story line but also in society.

Also, the very first movie example of Elizabethtown sticks out to me.  The clip of Kirsten Dunst following Orlando Bloom shows how desperate she is to tend to Orlando (Tropes 1:20).  Kirsten’s sole purpose in the movie is to tend to Orlando’s needs and show the struggle Orlando is going through without showing her as an individual character with her own personal struggles.

Courtney Adams Blog #4

I strongly agree with Deborah Tannen’s observations and opinions in her essay There is No Unmarked Woman.  While getting ready in the morning women are overwhelmed with options.  There is no unmarked or so to speak “normal” way for a girl to dress, wear her make-up or style her hair like guys have.  This idea holds true even with small decisions on a form, ““Mr.” carries no meaning other than that the respondent is male.  But a woman who checks “Mrs.” or “Miss.” communicates not only whether she has been married but also whether she has conservative tastes in forms of address” (Tannen 4).  Girls must make all of the correct decisions to represent themselves properly because there is no default setting for us. Form my experience being a girl seems much harder and more complicated than it would be to be a boy.  Physically, socially and emotionally girls are more complex and marked.

Contrasting that idea, the side that I personally do not agree with, to doubt Deborah Tannen’s essay.  The playing field between girls and boys are even.  Going through the day, boys have the same amount of decisions and responsibilities as men.  As Tannen states, “Girls are born with fully female bodies, while boys are born with modified female bodies” (Tannen 5).  This puts men and women on the same level, both genetically and socially.

Within the essay Real Men Don’t: Anit-Male Bias in English by Eugene R. August the situations and descriptions perfectly describe what is happening between genders in the U.S.  The idea that men cannot be victims is explained, “The term rape is a favorite with misandrists, who insist that rape is a crime committed only by males in which only females are victims” (August 4).  I agree that men do not get the attention they deserve when it comes to being victims.

August is untrue when he says that men are not seen as victims.  The U.S. tried very hard and succeeds at creating equality for everyone, male and female.  Even stated in the essay that there have already been court cases where men have been ruled over women in cases where men have been abused.  Maybe the genders are not completely equal but the court system and government do their best to accurately find who is the real victim.

Courtney Adams Blog #3

To begin with, the essay, Mother Tongue, is written somewhat as a narrative.  I think this because Amy Tan uses the word I as she depicts her relationship with her different Englishes.  The simple fact that she uses the word you and I gives me the idea that the essay is open form because within formal essays those words are not allowed.  The last sentence of her first paragraph reads, “I cannot give you much more than personal opinions on the English language and its variations in this country or others” (Tan 113).  This is clearly not a thesis to all of the information she is precluding to so for that very reason, this essay must be open form.  Opposing that view, the essay is broken down into many different paragraphs all grouping different ideas or examples together, which is a sign of closed form.  Between the two sides of open and closed form I believe Amy Tan’s essay Mother Tongue falls somewhere in the middle of the two.  Tan not only structured her essay in a manner that is easy to follow but she also uses her unique style and personality to explain herself.

While reading the essay I felt that the audience was directed to all developing writers, especially Asian American ones.  Tan relates herself to her audience as she describes, “And perhaps they also have teachers who are steering them away from writing and into math and science, which is what happened to me” (116).  If an Asian American reads this, I think they will feel highly motivated.  Maybe they could relate to some of the examples and finally acknowledge that they can break the cycle of speaking “broken” English and develop their skills just as Amy did.  For all other writers, I’m sure this essay kept their attention and gave them an insight to something they maybe have never thought about before.

Of a typical 5-paragraph essay that I am used to, no this essay does not conform.  This essay is more of a story line beginning with an introduction to the writer and closing with a happy ending.  Personally, I like the way this essay was constructed, as more of an open prose piece, but I would not consider this under the conventions of an essay.

Courtney Adams Blog #2

Until recently, the term being literate to me has meant being able to read and write, now that I am associating the idea of being literate with technology, speech and text, I come across the term personal literacy.  I thought literacy was something taught in a textbook that will be inserted into all people if they want to be literate no matter what their personal background is. 

In the text I find, “To become personally literate, you must consider your attitude toward language and how it has been affected” (Melzer, Coxwell-Teague 64).  This stood out to me and made me realize that everyone is literate in his or her own personal ways.  People around the world speak different languages, just because they don’t speak my language doesn’t mean they aren’t literate, they are literate just in different ways.  Also, with the English language, people’s experiences such as where they were brought up or what school they attended all effect their personal literacies.  I am surprised that your attitude toward language and your background with writing plays a role in being literate.

Through this section of text I have learned that in school, students do not need to learn everything from their teachers, individual student experiences can be a lesson within themselves.  “Exploring you personal literacy histories can help you challenge your education, your beliefs, your communities, and your experiences with cultural and racial diversity” (65). Your experience being literate can be studied and analyzed to help better understand why your personal literacy is different than the person next to you.  A lesson that will never be found in a textbook is a person’s experience and how it has affected their literacy, but to acknowledge these experiences is important in developing educationally.  Maybe you realize in the past you have succeeded in reading but have struggled with writing.  By recognizing that, you can break down the problem to challenge you education.  

Courtney Adams Homework #2

The definition of the word literate is described in the first chapter of Everything’s a Text by Dan Melzer and Deborah Coxwell-Teague.  The thought that being literate means more than just being able to read and write is unheard of for me. 

I found definitions of literate that I had never thought of before.  Also, I realized that the definition of being literate is always changing.  “The ability to combine genres to create hybrid forms is a valuable skill for twenty-first-century literacy” (Melzer, Coxwell-Teague 5). I have always viewed literacy as something that stays the same while the world changes around it so this information was particularly shocking to me.

            For me, English has always been something just taught in school, purpose and audience were just some things you took tests.  It dawned on me that for future jobs I will have to use the English skills I am learning to be successful.  “The composers’ message failed to be persuasive because the composers were insensitive to cultural and social contexts” (Melzer, Coxwell-Teague 22).  Even if we aren’t English majors everyone needs to be up to date on their English skills to be successful.

            Mercury Reader describes the topic of “Good Writing” in the initial section of English.  The text explains that there are open forms and closed forms in writing.  “The problem is that different kinds of writing have different criteria for effectiveness” (Reader 2).  Going into college, most students, like myself, have been fed the 5-paragraph essay format for the past 4 years.  To know that there are other essay formats and ones that are more effective for some topics is not only monumental but great news.

            In the 5-paragraph essay format, all material stems from a thesis statement, without any broader thought. The idea of a, “Thesis question, which is the problem or issue to which the thesis responds” was only skimmed in high school (Reader 7).  To have a question as a topic instead of a statement will help me to broaden my thoughts and realize there are multiple answers from different perspectives on any topic.