Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Blog #9 - Cassie Wolff

My topic for our exploratory essay is the death penalty. Is the death penalty constitutional? Or if it is just and applied fairly? Or if it is even effective?

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

"First Writing Since" - Cassie Wolff

                I thought Suheir Hammad’s speech was beautiful. I got the chills just watching and listening to what she had to say. While listening to her poem I analyzed it using Aristotle’s rhetorical appeals pathos, logos and ethos. Suheir does a great job getting her audience of many races to feel the pathos side of her poem. She used the most vivid descriptions from September 11, 2001. Hammad mentions, “My hand went to my head and head to the dead Iraqi children the dead in Nicaragua and Rwanda” (Hammad 1:21). Ethos and logos are also utilized in her poem, “One more person ask me if I know the hijackers... assume they know me or that I represent a people” (Hammad 2:09). The point she gets across with this statement is that she gets looked down upon just because of her ethnicity that maybe she knew personally who did this to the United States, twin towers, families and loved ones. The main points in her poem come across with pathos, it is what goes to heart to all of her audience and what gets the main message noticed.
 To me, she does make a huge argument with her poem; the whole poem expresses what feelings, thinking and reasoning she believes in. When she is speaking you feel as if you relate, even if you don’t, by the way she is passionate about what she is expressing to her audience. To me her argument is that Bin Laden does not represent her terrorists do not represent her; the people that wanted to kill thousands do not represent her. He is one person who represents himself and himself only. I find her argument to be beyond persuasive she makes many good points and uses many emotions to make her point.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Pearson's Text - Cassie Wolff

There are quite a few important elements to an exploratory essay. The first one that I read was, “The essential move for exploratory thinking and writing is to keep a problem alive through consideration of multiple solutions or points of view” (Rammage, Bean, and Johnson 155). This is like the “believing and doubting” game as we discussed earlier. You need to identify all sorts of viewpoints so you can come to conclusions and solutions to every question possible. This broadens the type of readers that will want to explore what you have to say.
                The second important element I found about writing an exploratory essay was about formulating from a starting point. You need to start with a really “grabber”. “The goal of your introduction is to hook your reader’s interest in your chosen problem” (Rammage, Bean, and Johnson 158). This is very important I believe because the hook is what riels people in for the long hall. When a reader begins to read an essay the hook decides whether or not they will keep reading out of interest or set it down right away. An introduction needs to be something that you yourself is interested in and that others will be interested as well or even question what you have to say to give an argument.
                 The third element that stuck out to me about an exploratory essay would be about the “Double-Entry”. This tool seems to be very helpful for such essays, “… ‘double-entry’ notes in which you use one column for taking notes on a source and another column for recording your own thinking about the source” (Rammage, Bean and Johnson 159). Using this kid of research notes could help you construct a better research essay such as one like this. It will get you thinking on all the information you formulate from your research studies into what you really think it means or what its importance is.  

Thursday, September 22, 2011

"Bros before Hos" Cassie Wolff

By reading chapter 3 of Guyland by Michael Kimmel I took a greater understanding of the pressures boys encounter while growing up to become men.  Kimmel expresses and gives examples of the different kinds of pressure males go under, such as the right way to walk, talk, think and feel. An example that stuck out to me was a story about what happened at a barber shop. The father of a three and a half boy came home to tell his wife, “... from that moment on the boy would not be spending as much time with her, but instead he would do more sports and other activities with him, ‘to make sure he doesn’t become a sissy’” (Kimmel 52). This stuck with me as I read this story because of the ridiculousness of the father being upset that a barber was making fun of his three and a half year old son. I don’t think it’s right what so ever.
Another line that stuck out to me while reading this chapter was, “No wonder boys are more prone to depression, suicidal behavior, and various other forms of out-of-control or out-of-touch behaviors than girls are” (Kimmel 54). I agree with this statement it appears to me that males do have a lot of pressure to conform into the perfect male. By making sure they act the right way, or walk the right way, or dress the right way or even hide their feelings about some things so they don’t get viewed as a homosexual walking down the street. I think our society has labeled the male and female ways of life way too much… what ever happened to the freedom? Being the way you want to be and it being okay.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Blog #5 Cassie Wolff

While watching the video “Doofy Husbands: Target Women”, I believed it was very critical of men and their roles. Such as making viewers believe when a male is single he is very attractive, outgoing, always going out, having fun and just being a flirty guy. This in most cases is somewhat the truth, because males like to be adventurous. Another thing is it shows married males to be lazy, not helping with children or household duties. This I disagree with completely because my dad does a lot of house work to help my mom and cooks most of the nights in my home.

The other video clip was “Tropes vs. Women” I found to be an insult. The whole video was about a “manic pixie dream girl”, who is that? Hollywood wants ever girl to be carved and shaped in a certain way… but not all males want that. Most males love a person for who they are not what they look like or act like to be the perfect “manic pixie dream girl”. I don’t like how she compared the character roles of males and females to movies, not all relationship beginnings or friendships always have the girl being the one to help the male out.    

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Tannen & August readings - Cassie Wolff

When I read the essay by Eugene R. August I saw how it was anti-male biased. One line that stuck out to me was “... who insist that rape is a crime committed only by males in which only females are victims” (August 131). Not my own personal experiences can relate with this but one example I do know is that, we do only hear about men raping women in this society today… such as the crime alert we all got just a few days. So in these cases it does make it seem that way to everyone in the world. But a way to contradict this is “Being all boy carries penalties, however: for one thing, it means being less lovable” (August 133). I disagree with this statement because men were made to be all boy but that doesn’t make them any less loveable. My brother is a straight up all boy but he still loves more than any other person I know. My brother would do anything for anyone. In August’s reading I believe and agree with some of the issues, but with others I have a difficult time understanding why.

When I read the essay by Deborah Tannen I understood why there is no unmarked woman. The one line that really went to a personal level was “Instead of concentrating on the discussion I found myself looking at the three other women at the table, thinking how each had a different style and how each style was coherent” (Tannen 140). I relate to this probably the most because I am guilty of this. It happens even if I am walking down the street, when you pass other women or see other women you look them up and down, scanning their outfit, shoes, hair and makeup. I have not met one woman who has not done that, it is just a reflex, something all women do. An example where this contradicts my personal experiences is when Tannen explains “If a women’s clothing is tight or revealing (in other words, sexy), it sends a message…” (Tannen 143). I disagree with this at certain times. My reasoning for disagreeing is that just because I wear a tight shirt or a tight pant (like leggings) doesn’t mean I am sending a message. If I were to be wearing leggings or yoga pants, it would be because I want to be comfortable. Yes, leggings and/or yoga pants are form fitting but that doesn’t give men the right to think it “sends a message”. I enjoyed reading and understanding Tannen’s writing a bit more than August’s only because it related to me more on a personal experience level and showed a great deal of rightness.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Amy Tan "Mother Tongue" Cassie Wolff

Amy Tan has one major focus occurring in her writing of Mother Tongue. The first thing I thought about was if this literacy was an open or a closed prose. I came to the conclusion that to me it sticks out more as an open prose. An open prose is normally based around a question rather than the dreadful thesis statement we’ve all learned to know. The author states, “And I use them all-all the Englishes I grew up with” (Tan 113). By this statement we see that she uses the “I” therefore showing us, the readers, this is her story of her life and what she is about to share with us.

The audience I believe Tan is trying to hook would be young adult readers, such as college students. In my opinion she reaches out to this particular audience because she is expressing that every part of English she learned or had an encounter with help her in one way or another. By sharing this, I believe she is telling us, readers we can use what we have learned up until now with what we learn in the future for the greater good.  Such as, “When I was fifteen, she used to have me call people on the phone to pretend I was she” (Tan 114). Tan could help her mother when others did not understand her ““broken” or “fractured” English” (Tan 114).

I do not believe that this essay conforms to the genre conventions of an essay. The writing Amy Tan expresses does not have the strict structure of a closed prose essay where mostly genre conventions are found. This essay has one purpose and one purpose only I believe, she is here to explain and share her life growing up knowing “broken” language and knowing proper language. This makes the essay a narrative, an example of an open prose.    

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Blog #2

While reading in Everything’s a Text about personal literacies, I came across a quote from the Bishop that caught my attention. He stated, “...we do not experience life as a single, unified consciousness. Instead, we are constructed through our family, various communities’ we are part of, cultural affiliations, and our racial and ethnic backgrounds” (Bishop 67). To me this quotation means a lot of things, such as when writing your own type of literacy you are not just writing about your personal experiences you are tying ends with others as well. No matter what is happening to you personally, you always need to know that someone out there is going through a similar if not exact experience. Personal experiences appear everywhere in the world, “automatically linked to a larger social and cultural reality” (Melzer 67). Nothing has so true as this quotation has for me.

Another point I came across in the third chapter of Everything’s a Text, has a lot to do with myself as a writer, that some others might agree about themselves as well. The passage, “By writing about your own lives and literacies, you should both build confidence as a writer and be more willing to explore what you think and feel about yourself and the world around you” (Melzer 69). When I look at myself as a writer I do not see great confidence or skill, which is something I need to work on. I need to become more flexible and encourage myself that writing is all about my feelings and how I see the world and things around me. I am hoping that this passage will stick with me as I go through life reminding me I can do exceptional work if I put my mind to it.  I want to someday be like Amy Tan and have literacy make a large impact on my life.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Homework #2


The passage where former President Bill Clinton sent a letter of apology to Japanese Americans caught my attention and was very interesting. This letter was written in detail to compose a purpose for its audience. “Today, on behalf of your fellow Americans, I offer a sincere apology to you for the actions that unfairly denied Japanese Americans and their families fundamental liberties during World War II” (Clinton 8). This shows President Clinton’s first order of business very well by having it in the first paragraph to reveal its importance to the audience, Japanese Americans. Also, in paragraph two Clinton mentions, “Together, we can guarantee a future with liberty and justice for all” (Clinton 8). This in another way supports the purpose meant for literacy. It meant a great deal that after 50 years the United States admitted to their wrong doing.



Another passage from Everything’s a Text, that grabs my attention would be the advertisements from Coca-Cola. “Every factor of a literacy situation that we’ve been discussing- purpose, audience, persona, medium, genre- is influenced by social contexts” (Melzer 22). Each one of the Coca-Cola ads have different gender roles and target audiences. The first ad shown is displaying a “rich” woman dressed in fancy evening wear, posed, with a gentleman by her side. Women’s strict gender roles (Melzer 23) are revealed by another advertisement. This ad explains the 1950’s where women’s important role was to be a stay at home wife serving their working husbands after a long day of hard work. The advertisements in this chapter caught my eye because of how history and the present are completely different in women’s gender roles. It also made me realize how many social contexts are parts of all literacy.