Category: Journals

Respond to TS/IS Pg. 78-91 – “Playing the Naysayer in Your Text”

 

• By imagining what others might say against your general argument, you are able to strengthen your claim and persuade your audience even more. Birkenstein and Graff recollect, “Paradoxically, the more you give voice to your critics’ objections, the more you tend to disarm those critics, especially if you go on to answer their objections in convincing ways” (Birkenstein and Graff 79) If you are able to disprove or make a mockery of arguments that go against your own, you essentially are able to strengthen your argument as a whole.
• You always need a reason to counter an opposition or it can weaken or completely disarm your general argument. Birkenstein and Graff state, “One surefire way to fail to overcome an objection is to dismiss it out of hand – saying, for example, ‘That’s just wrong.’” (Birkenstein and Graff 88) By saying something inherently wrong about an opposition, but providing no solid back up to support your claim, it can disarm your own general argument and also make you look like a moron in the process.
• Writing isn’t about proving something right, it’s about stretching your beliefs and thinking critically about the world around you. Placing a naysayer in your writing forces you as a writer to shape your opinions and take fresh perspectives on pressing topics. Birkenstein and Graff write, “After all, the goal of writing is not to keep providing that whatever you initially said is right, but to stretch the limits of your thinking.” (Birkenstein and Graff 90) To strengthen your writing, you have to anticipate what will oppose it, and ultimately that improves your writing over time.

Reconsider the Lobster

 

After reevaluating my opinion the David Foster Wallace’s, “Consider the Lobster,” I have realized many things. Firstly, it’s important to reread opinionated pieces of writing, because the things that pop out at you are absolutely astounding. After reading, I realized that I don’t really care about what happens to a lobster. Which is different than how I felt earlier this semester, but it’s easy to explain. Focusing on the topic such as togetherness, and loss, and preparation for death made me realize that boiling a lobster is no more important than ordering a poorly and maybe dangerously made hamburger a McDonald’s. There are pressing issues involving the well being of the people around us and without solid scientific evidence to prove or disprove that lobsters feel pain, I have collectively chosen not to care about them for the time being. The capitalistic approach to the Maine Lobster Festival still baffles me and the reasoning behind why people still go if they’re so displeased is astounding, but that’s something I’m positive I’ll never truly understand. It’s obvious now that like any PETA protester magnetizing festival, some things need more information before someone can begin to care. Contradicting scientific evidence doesn’t really do that for me.

Dealing With The Dead

Dealing with the dead is a simple way of putting it, but coming to terms with how our loved ones are prepared and buried is something that no one wants to think about. Although I’d like to be involved in the process of preparing my loved ones for burial, I think it’s a moral dilemma on whether or not I’d be able to push a button and cremate my loved ones. I suppose after learning more about the embalming process it can certainly seem like the better of the two, but it makes me really uncomfortable to even think about putting my loved one in the ground, let alone sending them into a fiery pit of darkness for the rest of eternity.

 

Caitlin Doughty touches upon working in a crematorium and the emotional baggage that comes with that. She explained, “it becomes just a reality of your workplace because if you really took it in, in the sense of thinking, ah this is the dust of a man who is no longer here, we are all mortal.” Doughty believes that humanizing the crematorium industry is important because it’s just as sacred as anything else involving a dead loved one. While she’s working and she finds ashes on her body she recognizes that she has the ashes of someone who was just alive and someone who probably had a purpose-filled life. It’s difficult to handle that emotionally but it’s important to recognize that as human beings, appreciating the cremation of a body is really important. Doughty does this process alone. She sends strange, decomposing bodies through the cremation process alone. That is something that needs to change. Just as if we were following the process of preparing a body for burial and viewing, we should be more involved in the cremation and burial of bodies as well.

 

After exploring the three pieces involving embalming, cremation, and fast food production it has truly changed my perspective on the world around me. Although in a few months when I have moved this out of my point of view and don’t remember, I feel as though these things stick with me and will stick with me for the rest of my life. Regarding embalming, Mitford spoke a lot about hidden funeral costs, unnecessary procedures, and ultimately the sketchy added labor hours of the mortician. One thing that didn’t surprise me was that these costs would be there. Mitford explains,” This is coupled with an additional forty hours of service required by members of other local allied professions, including the work of the cemeteries, newspapers, and of course, the most important of all, the service of your clergyman. The 120 hours of labor are the basic value on which the cost of funerals rests.” (Mitford 42) Although some costs are placed there to hike up the bill, the cost of a funeral is exactly what I’d expect from Mitford’s description. A overall pricy and long process. Similarly, Michael Pollan when speaking about the preparation of fast food throughout the country. I already knew that McDonald’s wasn’t the healthiest or generally safest food to consume because of additives, poor preparation, and overall nutritional facts, but what surprised me was that fact that chemicals that could potentially kill if take in high quantities are involved in the preparation of McDonald’s food. Pollan writes, “ TBHQ is a form of butane (i.e, lighter fluid) the FDA allows processors to use sparingly in our food: It can comprise no more than 0.02 percent of the oil in a nugget. Which is probably just as well, considering that ingesting a single gram of TBHQ can cause ‘ nausea vomiting, ringing of the ears, delirium, a sense of suffocation and collapse.” (Pollan 114)

 

(Note: An hour was spent on this)

Jessica Mitford “The Story of Service”

Death is something that’s difficult to think about, but it is something that is consistently in the back of everyone’s mind. We try not to think of the process that goes into funeral planning, preparation of the body, and the process of mourning, but they are all important aspects that should be considered before someone close passes away. Throughout Jessica Mitford’s book, The American Way of Death Revisited, she expressly outlines every aspect of death and the pricy costs that are attached. Mitford elegantly displays a singular message to the reader, there are hidden costs in our deaths that are not only unnecessary, but disturbing. There isn’t a ton of information out there that truly explains the process of embalming, the prices of caskets, and the overall theme of a every day funeral. Mitford states, “Yet no law requires embalming, no religious doctrine commends it, nor is it dictated by considerations of health, sanitation, or even of personal daintiness” (Mitford 43) What is significant about this is that, embalming is unnecessary yet it’s still hidden in the bill following the funereal. Much like embalming, hidden costs are common in every funeral. Newspapers, cemetery workers, clergymen, the overall 120 some odd hours of hard labor that is put into every funeral. Although Mitford makes sure to question those 120 hours, the ridiculousness of all the unneeded services showing up on the bill has brought light to my eyes. The funeral industry is exactly what is sounds like. An monopolized industry. Mitford also writes, The very term “embalming” is so seldom used that the mortician must rely upon custom in the matter…unless the family specifies otherwise, the act of entrusting the body to the care of a funeral establishment carries with it an implied permission to go ahead and embalm.” (Mitford 44) It’s sickening to think that embalming is something that is not only not well known among things that happen during a funeral, but it’s also something that is essentially hidden from grieving family members. You look at a corpse in the casket, but you don’t know that so many horrific things have happened behind closed doors to get it there. What’s also significant to point out is that the embalmer might be just as uneducated as a high school teenager. Mitford explains, “imitative surgeons, as is his technique, acquired in nine or twelve months post-high school course at an embalming school” (Mitford 45). It’s so surprising that only a short course following high school graduation could lead someone to cutting someone open and handling the preparation of a corpse.

Respond to, TS/IS “The Art of Summarizing” pp. 30-41

Summarizing is one of the most difficult things to do. It’s like highlighting needed information in a textbook. You don’t want to highlight the whole page, but you also don’t want to highlight one or two words. Finding a happy medium in the type of content and amount of content you use when summarizing is really difficult to find and is something that I often times struggle with. In this section of They Say, I Say, there are many points that Birkenstein and Graff provide. They write, “Generally speaking, a summary must at once be true to what the original author says while also emphasizing those aspects of what the author says that interest you.” (Birkenstein and Graff 31) While summarizing it’s important to provide the author’s beliefs, it’s also vital to include what aspects of that summary pertain to your beliefs and overarching point. They make a point to help the reader understand that summary is a great way to follow your own agenda. Birkenstein and Graff do point out that it’s also important to stay away from certain vocabulary to keep writing lively and interesting while still getting the general point across. With this, it’s also essential to keep the audience or reader engaged by making the summary relevant to the point because a purposeless summary can weaken an overall argument.

What values does Carver bring forward in this story through experiences with food? Be detailed and specific with your response and use the text for support

 

Throughout Carver’s story, “A Small Good Thing,” it is prominent that he brings forth many pertaining values that are associated with food. He speaks a lot about how sharing a meal with someone can not only teach you a lot about someone but also open your eyes up to perspective. Being able to recognize everyone’s background can change the way you act. It’s surprising to think that a lonely baker and a mourning couple can find solace in one another over something as simple as hot rolls and yet Carver shows that it’s incredibly important to find these moments throughout life. Carver writes, “‘…I am just a baker. I don’t claim to be anything else, maybe once, maybe years ago, I was a different kind of human being. I’ve forgotten, I don’t know for sure. But I’m not any longer, if I ever was. Now I’m just a baker. That don’t excuse my doing what I did, I know. But I’m deeply sorry. I’m sorry for your son and sorry for my part in this,’ the baker said.” (217) The baker, despite not really having done anything wrong other than asking for payment for a cake that was never picked up, still apologizes and recognizes these feelings of regret for people he doesn’t even know. Carver also goes on to write, “‘You probably need to eat something’ the baked said. ‘I hope you’ll eat some of my hot rolls. You have to eat and keep going. Eating is a small, good thing at a time like this,’ he said.” (217) This advice is really what ties the rest of the story together. While the Weiss family waits for their son to wake up they neglect their need to eat and take care of themselves. They are so roped into what could happen with their son they forget that taking care of themselves is also an important factor. The baker despite being forcefully yelled at by a grieving mother still finds the kindness or share warm rolls with the couple and push them to keep moving forward.

Throughout this long and painful process, I made many realizations about my revising skills. I found that in past experiences, it was primarily focused on grammar, sentence structure, and credibility. I feel like we were given the grade we were given solely based on those criteria. What I have now discovered is that revision is very much content based as much as it is grammar based. I found myself constructing and molding these vivid scenes throughout my paper and then consistently moving them around to form a cohesive idea that supported my overall thesis. I found that I paid more attention to phrasing and being clear through my writing then I did on spelling. That being said, I did also focus a lot on the grammar aspects of things with many proofreads near the end of this process. If I were to change anything, I’d likely try to encompass my thesis more throughout my many body paragraphs. Although I feel like I was able to communicate my emotions effectively in the essay, I feel like a weak point would be my thesis. I’d also love to go back and take more time to look at transitions between paragraphs. This narrative is very much telling a story and I’m not sure if my story was smooth enough as it traveled from paragraph to paragraph. I approached this essay tentatively. I was very much afraid of what college-level English was going to bring to the table. I feel as if I’ve been pulled many different directions when it comes to telling me how to write. I worried that college English was going to add to the list of contradicting opinions on the best way to write academically. Although that is very much what happened, I find myself becoming more and more comfortable with writing and feel myself moving in my own personal writing style. This essay was challenging and something that was not expected, but I am very proud of myself for tackling this process with open arms.  There were very few times throughout my writing career where I enjoyed writing an academic essay and rather was proud of writing an academic essay, but all in all this essay was not only enjoyable for me, but it was something I can be proud of no matter what grade I receive.

Respond to “Starting With What Others Say” from They Say/I Say

Finding an author’s perspective can be difficult. It essential that authors get across their point and maybe even why they hold that opinion. This isn’t true in all writing of course because sometimes there is no point to be disputed, but nevertheless, the main idea of an author’s work should be clear to the reader. This also is important from a writer’s perspective. They way we portray ourselves is solely out of how well we come across as a writer. Specifically, when we reference one another that’s when it’s important to step back and recognize what they say before what I say. Authors Cathy Birkenstein and Gerald Graff speak briefly about what it is to reference they before referencing your own opinion, “remember that you are entering a conversation and therefore need to start with ‘what others are saying’ as the title of this chapter recommends, and then introduce your own ideas as a response. Specifically, we suggest that you summarize what ‘they say’ as soon as you can in your text,” (Birkenstein and Graff 21) It seems so simple, yet it can be very complicated to thoroughly understand how to introduce them before you introduce your own solid opinion. Birkenstein and Graff go on to say, “After summarizing the ideas you are responding to at the outset, it’s very important to continue to keep those ideas in view.” (Birkenstein and Graff 27) Through argumentative or informative essays it’s essential to keep in mind what the author you’re referencing has as an overall opinion and how that is going to credit your own. All in all, Birkenstein and Graff provide many options on how to introduce the they in your essays on a situational basis. I personally have never really struggled with speaking about what they say, but I also haven’t had the most of the experience with writing academically in that context. These examples give me a solid view of what to expect when writing in many different outlets.

What global comments/suggestions did you find the best from your peers?

Where were the best global comments/suggestions you offered your peers?

What important feedback/discussion point weren’t captured on the page that came up during your discussion? Be specific and reference your peers and their papers. You may benefit from looking back over the essays you peer reviewed.

What did you wish had come up looking back over your peer review comments

The global comments and suggestions that helped me the most were surrounding the process of connecting my father’s memories and experience within his own family to my own experience as an only child. The members in my group noticed that it was a very abrupt change moving from my father’s experience growing up on my own and I’m lacking the contrast of the two that still connects to my overall thesis.

I believe that the best comments I offered my peers were involving their these. I noticed that there was so much meaning and significance relating to one dish throughout the paper that wasn’t being displayed in the intro paragraph of their essays. I think that going back into their essays and pulling out those juicy emotional ties to the dish and trying to mold that into a thesis is an important aspect of what this paper entails.

 

I think a few important things came up during group discussion than they did on paper. Specifically, on Kyle Getty’s paper, I recognized that he had included a lot of humor from his grandmother which resonated well with me as the reader and I suggested that going back through his essay and including that emotion more would strengthen his paper and the emotional ties with the reader. We also talked a lot about voice. Between Madelyn Hayes, Breana Hogan and Kyle Getty, I noticed that there sometimes lacked a voice that takes an essay from informational to heartwarming. I feel like the common agreement between all of us is that we could easily go back into our papers and read them to ourselves and recognize where we need more voice.

 

Although I feel as if I did a good job at being thorough throughout my peer edits, if I were to go back I’d include more annotations regarding phrasing and grammar because as much as content is important, so are the structural aspects of the essay. If I had left more comments regarding structure it might have been easier to apply to strengthened the overall essay.

Save and post all of your peer reviews for paper 1