Blog Post #6

It was particularly interesting for me to analyze Peggy McIntosh's essay because I had already studied it in a Women's Studies class. It is always interesting to look at something from multiple perspectives,  and, in class, we looked at it very differently to how my Women's Studies class analyzed it. Regardless of the perspective, the essay affected me greatly both times; it was particularly striking when McIntosh compared male privilege to an invisible backpack of unearned assets because now I often envision myself wearing this backpack even though I have always been wearing it. Also, I am excited to write the fourth essay. I know that it is different in many ways, but the "personal narrative" almost reminds me of a CommonApp essay. This is an unpopular opinion, but I personally enjoyed every second of writing my CommonApp essays. In fact, by the end, I had become so attached to so many of my essays that I couldn't even choose one to submit. This essay is interesting, however, because it gives me a reason to sit down and be introspective and ask myself about the most important aspects of my life. Who am I as a person, and what has made me that way? I have enjoyed the other essays that we have written, but this one seems particularly valuable for my growth and development as a writer and a person in general because it gives me an opportunity to analyze myself, which is an opportunity that I probably wouldn't take otherwise.

Blog Post #6

It's really eye opening for me to notice where I have privilege and where I do not. In my high school in a Middle Eastern county, I was very similar to most of my friends and did not need to even think about privilege. In America though, where caucasians are the most predominant of races, my difference in privilege is more obvious. Being a person of color in America, it really fascinates me how color can affect so many aspects of a person's life, as listed by Mcintosh. Scalzi's essay is also very powerful, in the way that it simplifies the idea of privilege. When he mentions that there is no reward for playing a 'higher difficulty setting' in the game of life, it's kind of haunting. How many opportunities will people of lower privilege be declined of due to their race or sex? I am intrigued by the idea of privilege, and am thinking about it now more than I ever have.

McIntosh Reading

I found the Peggy McIntosh reading to be very enlightening and interesting. I have always tried to be aware of my social privilege as a middle-class white individual living in a first-world country, but after seeing all the ways my privilege is manifested written out in a long, itemized list really got me thinking. I guess that's the point: in day-to-day life, I don't have to think about being treated unfairly because of my race, or avoiding certain areas and events because I know I won't be welcome there. I definitely appreciated the detailed way in which McIntosh expressed her privilege because it made white privilege easier to identify in my own life, and easier to understand for people who have never had to think about it before. Overall, her approach to exploring social privilege was effective because she uses a tone in her writing that is not bitter and accusatory of white people, but at the same time does not try to skirt responsibility or blame her culture's faults on others. This is a piece of writing that can teach any reader something and made my privilege clearer and more explicit to me. During the writing process for my personal narrative, I would like to come up with a list similar to McIntosh's to further increase my awareness on this topic.

Blog Post #6

I was glad that this week we were finally able to read up on McIntosh's piece on white and male privilege.  However, what I enjoyed most was the fact that we got to read Scalzi's work on straight white male privilege.  While both pieces were informative in their own way, Scalzi's piece not only addressed other forms of privilege which aren't usually talked about like class, but Scalzi wrote this piece in a way that would be approachable to a wider audience versus McIntosh's piece which was directed more to people who are women's studies majors.  Scalzi's piece directs its message towards those who deny the existence of straight white male privilege and deem it as a myth created by feminists and "social justice warriors".  I think what also made his piece more widespread was the fact that Scalzi was a straight white male, which made him more approachable to certain audiences.  This proves that in many cases in order to bring up and solve issues of privilege, it may often need someone who is in a position of privilege.

McIntosh & Final Paper

I feel that McIntosh made some great points in her piece on white privilege. I especially liked how she brought attention to the fact that public education fails to directly teach students about white privilege. There are white, privileged kids out there who don't even know what they are. It's not until those kids grow older that they begin to understand how privileged they are, simply because of the color of their skin. But, as an essay overall, I found McIntosh's piece to be extensive and borderline boring. Although she provided many excellent examples that proved the existence of white privilege, I find it hard to believe that most readers would be convinced of her views after reading a paper that is presented so formally. I believe, in order to genuinely make someone see the effects of white privilege, one has to be put in the shoes of someone who does not have white privilege. In other words, a convincing essay, to me, would assign the reader the role of a non-privileged individual of another race to simply make them feel, as opposed to being overwhelmed with facts. That being said, I found the style of the "World of Warcraft" essay to be much more effective. Now, don't get me wrong. McIntosh wrote a very nice piece that truly does explain the effects of white privilege and I believe that anyone who is heavily interested in this topic would find this essay to be marvelously useful when arguing that advantages of the white man do exist.

I have been thinking quite a bit about my final essay. Although I am currently unaware of what life event I will choose to write about, I definitely want to choose something that I have not really thought about as life-changing (as the prompt suggests I should do). I have had many life-changing events take place in my eighteen years, but trying to choose an event that has changed me, that I have also not given much thought, will be fairly difficult. However, I am certain that I will recall something that has changed my identity significantly because I am definitely not the same person I was, even just a year ago. I am most definitely looking forward to this essay; I believe it will be my favorite of the semester.

Blog Post 6

My current plan for the last essay is to discuss a specific time when I was volunteering. I regularly attend a volunteering site called PBJ Outreach, where a group of people spend their Saturday mornings on an empty lot in Detroit distributing clothes and food to any and all who need it. Although it has become a monthly activity for me, PBJ Outreach continues to shape who I am as a person, and I love doing it to create relationships with the other people, volunteers or not, who regularly attend. The first time I volunteered with the outreach program, however, was definitely a major moment in my life when it came to my awareness of my privilege as a member of the middle class. One thing I specifically remember from my first time there (I was 10) was a man who rode his bike to the lot. He was homeless and needed a new pair of shoes because the only ones he had were too worn out to wear, and winter was quickly approaching. You should know that this volunteer program has been in place for many years and is very organized, down to the last peanut butter sandwich. In order to go through the clothes line and get shoes, for example, one would need to obtain a ticket from one volunteer, wait for their ticket number to be called, and then make their way through the fairly narrow pathway that contained all of the clothes they could choose from. This older gentleman with a bike had a ticket and his number was about to be called, so my dad asked him if he would like his bike to be watched and protected while he went to get the shoes he so desperately needed. I knew that every complaint I'd ever made was petty and trivial when the homeless man refused my dad's offer, returned his ticket, and rode away with his battered old shoes. That bike was his entire life and he couldn't risk anything happening to it, even if it meant having destroyed shoes for the winter.

PBJ Outreach doesn't define my social identity as a member of the middle class, but it has helped me to better understand how incredibly privileged I am to have socioeconomic stability. These people stand there on a street corner for hours in all kinds of weather to get a good spot in line to get food and clothes. Clothes that have been deemed too old or too ugly or too small to wear by more fortunate people. By being a member of the middle class, PBJ Outreach made me more aware of the suffering that the people there go through and the stupidly cushy life I have. Thus, my driving question would be in regards to how this experienced changed me- it didn't change my identity, but it changed how I thought about it.

Blog Post # 6

To be honest, I was really surprised by the content and tone of Peggy McIntosh's essay on white privilege. The first thing I liked about the essay was that Peggy was inspired to acknowledge her white privilege as a result of her frustration with men not being able to notice their male privilege. I especially liked her description of what the privilege meant to her, " as an invisible package of unearned assets that [she could] count on cashing in each day, but about which [she] was "meant" to remain oblivious." Further, she compares it to a "weightless knapsack of special provisions, assurances, tools... and blank checks." I think that this comparison is beautifully and humbly put, as one can notice that McIntosh is clearly aware of how the white privilege is an advantage in her life. I also appreciated how the author understands why women of color find white women oppressive, something that is not easy thing to intercept. I think that because of the details she includes in her essay, the piece becomes more credible and valid to the reader because each claim is supported by full, satisfactory detail, The list which McIntosh includes in the essay works very well because it is easy to read and clearly highlights the essay's thesis. Had the author decided to instead just write paragraphs on examples of white privilege, her tone would not have been this effective. Another interesting thing to note about the essay is the author's growth and development of ideas, many of which alter from the ones with which she began writing. Some examples of this are her initial and final takes on racism and the positive versus negative aspects of the term "privilege". 

 I even enjoyed reading John Scalzi's  "Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is" a lot since it successfully addressed a sensitive topic in a very humorous, novel fashion, which made it both delightful, but simultaneously effective. Its conversational tone and intelligent analogies worked well in my opinion, as I would prefer to read a lighter material on an issue, as opposed to a heavier reading, which does not arrest my attention and interest completely. 

Peggy McIntosh Paper

I thought that this week's reading by Peggy McIntosh was really fascinating. I don't think that I have read a paper before this that was about a white person talking about their whiteness. I think that this is a tricky subject but I think that she was able to write this in a way that was personal and intelligent. I think that as a women it is easier to talk about male privilege and all of the things that men are oblivious to. I think that when a woman talks about male privilege it is very easy to express the extreme frustration and anger that is felt, but I think that Peggy's tone throughout this paper is not angry, but is instead mature and levelheaded, which makes her argument more convincing. I also think that this paper is particularly powerful because she also talks about white privilege from her perspective as a white person in a way that shows that she is not oblivious and acknowledges her privilege. I think that the comparison of male privilege from a female perspective and white privilege from a white perspective is a really interesting dynamic. I also believe that having a lot of the paper be in the form of a list is clever because it demonstrates a tone of authority while also showing a glimpse into the author's personal experiences.

essay 3

Before writing Essay #3, I was extremely worried about the length of the paper. I had never written a paper that was more than six pages, so ten seemed like a nearly impossible task. But I soon realized that it isn't so bad. I think that this could be because I was fascinated by the subject of the paper. I chose to write about something that is relevant in my life. Writing about a topic that is personal to me made me more interested in the writing this paper compared to the other papers that we've written in this class. Doing research for this topic was also a fascinating process and really opened my eyes to the world of advertising and made me ask a lot of questions about the advertising process, the product being sold, and how all of this relates to me. It was difficult at first to interpret one of the advertisements and then conduct a thorough analysis. It was even more of a challenge to do this for all three of the advertisements and then relate them to each other. Although this task was difficult, I am proud of myself for being able to overcome my worries about this essay and learn a lot about the advertising world and myself in the process of writing it.

Election results

The results of this past election truly upset me. Immediately after, I had to take a minute to write down how I felt. My train of thought was as follows: I am so deeply upset that my body hurts. The results of this election are truly unbelievable. How could this have happened? This is truly a surreal experience. How will our lives be altered? Has everything changed? Will things be completely different? I realize that I have taken so much for granted in my life. I realize now that I have been living in my own liberal bubble. In high school I was surrounded by students and teachers that all shared the same political views as me and I thought that the majority of people in this country were also like-minded. I realize now that that is not the case. I know that I will have to learn now to defend my rights and to fight for the rights of others. I do not understand how people can be so blind and ignorant. I just want to run away from this country and deny that I was ever apart of it but I know that I can't. I must stay and fight. But the fact that I even have to fight for my rights and the rights of others that are could be taken away is insane. Our new president has been accused of sexual assault. He talks about "grabbing women by the pussy" and doesn't believe in science. How did this happen? It seemed to me as if we have come so far as a nation and yet here we are. I am terrified. I feel as if everything is going to change for the worse. I am angry. Trump was not allowed control over his twitter account during the campaign and now he is about to have access to our nation's nuclear codes. I am so confused and I am frustrated.

Looking at what I wrote immediately after the results, I still agree with most of it, but I feel more defeated than I do angry. But I now realize that we cannot accept defeat. We have to stand up for what we believe is right. We must channel our anger into positivity. We must come together and not sit back and observe. 

Election results

The results of this past election truly upset me. Immediately after, I had to take a minute to write down how I felt. My train of thought was as follows: I am so deeply upset that my body hurts. The results of this election are truly unbelievable. How could this have happened? This is truly a surreal experience. How will our lives be altered? Has everything changed? Will things be completely different? I realize that I have taken so much for granted in my life. I realize now that I have been living in my own liberal bubble. In high school I was surrounded by students and teachers that all shared the same political views as me and I thought that the majority of people in this country were also like-minded. I realize now that that is not the case. I know that I will have to learn now to defend my rights and to fight for the rights of others. I do not understand how people can be so blind and ignorant. I just want to run away from this country and deny that I was ever apart of it but I know that I can't. I must stay and fight. But the fact that I even have to fight for my rights and the rights of others that are could be taken away is insane. Our new president has been accused of sexual assault. He talks about "grabbing women by the pussy" and doesn't believe in science. How did this happen? It seemed to me as if we have come so far as a nation and yet here we are. I am terrified. I feel as if everything is going to change for the worse. I am angry. Trump was not allowed control over his twitter account during the campaign and now he is about to have access to our nation's nuclear codes. I am so confused and I am frustrated.

Looking at what I wrote immediately after the results, I still agree with most of it, but I feel more defeated than I do angry. But I now realize that we cannot accept defeat. We have to stand up for what we believe is right. We must channel our anger into positivity. We must come together and not sit back and observe. 

Blog Post #5

Looking back on the assignments for LHSP125 thus far, I would have to say that the hardest paper I’ve had to write for this course has been the one we are currently working on: Essay#3. While with each writing assignment I’ve gotten more accustom to writing and a certain style of writing that is more advanced than in high school, Essay#3 is challenging due to how it demands an in-depth analysis of not only one observational subject but of three, and then it asks to synthesize them in a way to connect to a thesis. I struggled the most with choosing the three examples of advertisements that I wanted to discuss; the original three I decided to write about were far too different to thoroughly analyze in the way this particular assignment requires. Therefore, I had to keep adapting my idea and in doing so ended up with three entirely different advertisements to write about for the final product. The writing process is not OVERLY complicated from what I have found, but synthesizing the three ads is a new and thus challenging task which makes this paper that much harder to write. However, something that I have been focusing on improving throughout my short writing career --- and now especially in this class — was creating and sticking to a solid thesis. My ideas tend to be all over the place, and thus it is reflected through the majority of the writing I produce. While my writing quality has consistently been improving, developing a piece of writing through a solidified thesis was something I never focused on improving in high school but is also something that this class demands of me. At first, I found this difficult, but finally, with Essay#3 I was able to achieve my goal of centering a lengthy, densely informative and analytical paper around a strong, clearly identifiable thesis. This is something this class has taught me and that I will carry on throughout the rest of my academic career.

I also wanted to use this blog post as an opportunity to briefly talk about what happened last week with the presidential election. I appreciate that we took time in class to maturely and respectfully discuss our reactions to the shocking election of Donald Trump late Tuesday night. I believe that the University should be a place where we go to learn and grow as people, not merely prepare us for a money-making career. However, I’ve gotten the sense that most people go to college today because it is “the norm” and do not take the time to truly value what we learn, but rather come to just get good grades, a degree, and a stable job. The discussion we had in class reassured me that I choose the right school, because we did not ignore what was happening in the world we live in to just talk about writing and stay in an isolated bubble. This is important part of the education I came to get at the University, and I enjoyed hearing and discussing the election results with my peers. I sincerely value classes like these — we all need them, too.

Blog Post 6

This weeks reading by Peggy McIntosh really moved me in two main ways. She explained how men may support women's rights, but as soon as they have to give up some of their power they no longer want to support the issues. For some reason my mind has never saw it as men giving up some of their power and giving it to women, but now that McIntosh shed light on the fact I can't believe I didn't realize this. Immediately after reading that paragraph I thought of a perfect example of this in my household. My mother normally makes dinner so when my brother and I got home from sports practice, and when my dad got home from work we could all eat together. Then after dinner we would all help clear the table but she would always be the one doing the dishes and whipping down the table, taking care of the rest of us. My dad would sometimes tell my brother and I to do the cleaning, which we would. But once after my dad told my brother and I to clean so mom wouldn't have to, my mom said to my dad, "Why don't you do the dishes." My dad giggled and laughed and said because I have to change my clothes and watch T.V. My father was all for taking my mom out of the stereotypical role of a traditional stay at home mom, but once he had to do the work he no longer cared. As I type this I realize it is making my dad seem like a horrible human, which he is not. He does the dishes all the time, not more than my mom, but he puts in his work around the house. But I just remembered this specific innocent because it matches what McIntosh is speaking to so perfectly. 
Lastly, the way McIntosh speaks so candidly and honestly makes me have a lot of respect for her. A white person talking about their whiteness is a hard thing to do with out sounding ignorant. But she does so in a way that does not make me question her opinions because she is speaking from her own truth. 

Blog Post #5

The last election was definitely an interesting one. It divided our country, ruffled many people's feathers, and forced individuals to come to term with their true values and beliefs. In fact, because of the results, the rage, fear, and concern that consumed many United States citizens created a sense of unity among like-minded individuals. Through dialogue, individuals began to be able to express what is and what has been cooped up inside of them and through that, individuals began to come to terms with their situation and figure out the best possible next steps. Individuals opened themselves up to other fellow Untied States citizens, and although our country became divided, it also became united in this other sense. In dance class, we formed a circle in the middle of the room, and individuals volunteered to express their own views, ideas, and thoughts regarding what had happened in the election. Listening to my peers definitely opened up my eyes not only to new beliefs but more importantly, to new ways of action. Many of my peers spoke about taking charge and taking initiative, as opposed to dwelling on the downside of the current situation. I began to realize that it is more important to focus on the future rather than the present. It is necessary to create a plan, to create motives, to create goals. It is beneficial to take something bad that has happened and turn it into good. One should strike for change. One should create change. One should become active. One should become a true United States citizen.

Most Challenging Essay

Let me begin by mentioning that this writing class was quite daunting to me initially. Having never written papers longer than three or four pages in high school, the thought of ten page papers was gut wrenching to me. I definitely struggled with my first paper, partly due to the nerves I had writing my first college essay. However,  I think I learnt a lot from that experience and my mistakes on the first paper, and worked harder than I ever had on a paper for my second essay. I chose a piece of graffiti that genuinely intrigued me, and although to interpret it was challenging, I relished the process more than I thought I would, and crafted an essay that I was proud of.

I imagined the third paper would be difficult to write due to its length and many components, but I felt I could manage it. I overestimated the simplicity of this paper, though. I found it quite challenging to be able to come up with detailed conclusions and interpretations over my ads, as at first I felt they were pretty straightforward. However, there is a lot more depth to them, and I hope the peer reviews help me to identify what I should elaborate more on for my final draft.

Difference Between Writings and the Most Challenging One

While I have taken a few college-level writing courses, most with a higher volume of papers than what is assigned in this class, LHSP 125.002: Writing and Seeing has presented me with some of the biggest writing challenges I have had to face in my education thus far. While not the most challenging, essay one was scary at first. As my first actual college essay, there were a lot of uncertainties as to how eloquent my language should be, how much I should focus on the formatting, and if I was actually correctly addressing the prompt. However, I found myself genuinely enjoying the writing and editing process, and although I fell short in a couple areas of my essay, I still consider it to be one of the best pieces of writing I have created.

Being a bit dissatisfied with the outcome of my first essay, I knew I needed to do better on paper two. The entire process of creating the second paper was fun and exciting, from learning about graffiti to actually seeing it in Detroit. I found that the more I wrote about and examined my piece, the more I had to say about it. I am very proud of my second essay and regard as my best work in this class and one of my greatest accomplishments this semester.

The tasks presented in this third essay are undoubtedly a bit daunting. While it was easy to find three advertisements I could connect and interpret, when it came down to actually writing the paper, I'm not sure I did my best. I feel I was too general, and not detailed enough in my descriptions. While this paper reminds me of the second one in some of its missions, I am still struggling to create strong and valid connections between the advertisements and social identity. Hopefully, this upcoming peer review will help to improve my writing.

I would definitely say that this essay is the most challenging; however, the topics we are covering in it are interesting and important, and I fully expect to come out of this experience with a more complete understanding of advertisements and their effect and commentary on social identity. This class has already developed my writing skills dramatically, and I am excited to see how much more I can improve this semester alone.

The most challenging essay

I can definitively say that essay #1 was the easiest essay for me so far, but it's harder for me to tell which of essays #2 and #3 have been harder for me to write. I think both of them posed the challenges of creating a strong analysis after writing about the description.Thinking back to the first essay, it was mostly description and less analysis, which was a lot easier for me, and I imagine for others too. I think the trouble I had with the graffiti essay was that for a long time I was at an impasse in coming up with any sort of analysis that wasn't surface level, and as a result soon tired of writing the essay, even after I did find some unexpected insight in the piece of art I was writing about. For essay #3 I think it would have been easier if I hadn't picked my three ads so quickly and frantically. When I wrote my proposal I still didn't really know what my thesis was going to be, and then, partly because of the election, I procrastinated on my first draft. I think that it wouldn't have seemed as hard had I spent more time on it. I hope that when I write my final draft I will not find it too particularly hard.

Election Results and Essay #3

I have read similar posts from my classmates, stating that Essay #3 was the hardest to write for its broad nature and its rather intimidating length of 9-10 pages, along with outside sources.  I'll admit, while I did have an easier time writing the essay towards the middle of it, this essay had to be the most intimidating.  I was not only intimidated by its length, but by how many comparisons we had to make between multiple advertisements and how we have to mold them together.  However, I feel that throughout the semester my writing skills have improved, and thus, had slightly more confidence in my writing abilities versus at the beginning of the semester.  I should likely be able to apply the skills learned while writing for this class in my other classes.

As the election passes, I have seen varying emotions felt from my classmates, friends, and loved ones.  For many, including myself, tears were hard to hold back as we found out that Donald Trump is our President-elect.  Mourning may be a better term to describe many people in the country, as they fear a multitude of things in the future; potential cutting of programs such as the Affordable Care Act which people need to afford healthcare, laws that limit legal protections for people who are LGBTQ, potential deportation for "looking" like a non-citizen, and potential hate crimes from supporters for their race, sexual orientation, gender identity, citizenship status, or religion.

At this point in time things look bleak for myself and for people I care about, and it's common to hear that we must learn to accept our "president" or respect and try to work with him, but I simply refuse.  Donald Trump does not represent or support me or anyone I care about.  What he has said, done, and condoned proves that he does not represent all of the citizens of the United States of America.  Despite what he plans to do, or not do, during his four years in office, it will be difficult, if at all possible, to refer to him as "my president".

Hardest Essay & Graffiti vs Ads

The hardest essay to write so far is definitely this third one. I really struggled at first to identify what I wanted to talk about and exactly how I wanted to talk about it. However, I tackled the paper, piece by piece. After selecting a main topic, I really narrowed in on subtopics in order to fill my body paragraphs with great information and create a solid conclusion. Organizing my paper in such a fashion helped me transition from advertisement to advertisement, and point to point, without getting far off track.

I definitely see an improvement in my writing in just a couple months. I do not want to call high school writing easy, but it was never that much of a struggle for me. Now, I was one of the better writers in my grade, however, that wasn't always a good thing. Whenever we would peer edit and revise papers in high school, my papers would basically be given a glance, followed by an "it's good." I rarely experienced peer revision with other students on my writing level, therefore I never got the feedback I needed to improve my writing even further. However, that changed in college. Between Scott and my fellow students, I have received excellent feedback on my papers. I have learned how to craft my writing in ways I have never thought of before. So, these college papers may be far more difficult to write than high school papers, but that is the best thing about them. I am finally learning how to improve as a writer. Again, it has only been two months, but I can recognize a difference already and I cannot wait to gain more experience.

As far as graffiti and advertisements, I believe they both hold similar intentions. Images of both graffiti and advertisements send messages. Even if they are not easy to identify, ads and murals send messages that automatically make you feel. Maybe you feel an emotional connection with a street piece, or perhaps you feel the need to purchase a product. Either way, graffiti art and advertisement prints are produced specifically to impact an audience, and analyzing them so far has been a great experience.

Blog Post 5

This post is a response to class on Wednesday and how my thoughts about the election have changed since then.
The time to mourn our country is over; I think we all have the wrong attitude. As much as I hated Trump and genuinely loved Hillary, it no longer matters. At this point, we must learn to work with what we have-- even if what we have is a misogynistic, racist, orange bigot. This election was maybe the single most divisive event through which I have lived; there are two clear groups in our country, and each claims to hate the other more. But no matter how difficult it will be, I still think that we must, at least try, to mend the rift that is splitting the country. Yes, many people on the other side of the abyss are racist homophobes, but we are Americans above all of our political affiliations. There must be some way for us to work together no matter how infinitely and strongly we disagree. I have finished wallowing in a national self-pity, for we must organize. The White House and Congress have been dyed a bright and alarming shade of red, the Judiciary branch soon to follow-- so we must orchestrate movements of progression because waiting for four years to end in silence is surely catastrophic. We must be proactive in standing up for what we believe in instead of letting a leader commandeer full control (which could never happen anyway). The progressive advances that we have made in the past are all but lost-- we must keep fighting as a country. I say this, but it still worries me deeply that a man won an election on the platform of racism and sexism-- what does that say about our country? Today, however, I looked at another projected electoral map for if only people ages 18-25 voted. Hillary had an overwhelming victory, winning by hundreds of votes. In the wake of something so seemingly disastrous, this gives me hope.

Blog Post #5: Hardest essay to write

 Surprisingly, the paper which I have found the hardest to write has been the second once, though I had expected it to be the third one, given its length. In fact, I would go as far as to say that the third essay has been the easiest to write, though we haven't even gotten down to our final drafts yet. I found the second paper to be tougher than the first one because while the first essay was a personal narrative, I wasn't bound by any thing during the analysis. However, to be honest, I was stumped at the beginning of my second essay. I didn't know where to start, and I was terribly unsure of the graffiti piece I had chosen. Once I had that figured out, I was pretty sure that my thesis didn't make sense. In fact, I wasn't able to recognize what my thesis was, as much as I attempted to figure it out- probably because I was so concerned with stating a new and compelling thesis that I lost track of what I wanted to say in the first place. I also found the process of linking the graffiti's analysis to a larger meaning to be very challenging. I was just very unsure of what I was writing the entire time. However, in retrospect, I find the second essay to be the most rewarding as well. Compared to the first essay, which I enjoyed writing immensely, but did not challenge myself too much, I found that I somehow managed to fulfill most of what we were required to do for the second essay. I also find the third essay to be straightforward and feel that the ads are easier to analyze due to the intense graffiti analysis which we did in the second essay. 

I am confident that my writing has improved in some ways since the class began. It is strange because I am unable to point out exactly what may have improved, but I know that I cannot imagine writing the way I used to before starting this class. i have become more aware of the content of my writing than fretting about smaller details and the vocabulary that I use. Now, i am looking forward to seeing how I feel about writing our fourth and final essay!

Post 5

It is probably common for students to consider the third essay to be the toughest since it is longest and it covers a generally foreign topic. However, the topic is similar to one I wrote about in my communications class. For that paper, I analyzed a single advertisement and the cultural message it was perpetuating. I wrote about an ad for a cold sore treatment cream with the slogan that read, "Goodbye cold sore. Hello, beautiful." I really liked analyzing the promotion and explaining that the advertisement rested on the idea that in order to be beautiful, you couldn't have blemishes like cold sores. It's interesting to consider that all advertisements are sending a cultural message and it is up to try to decipher it. I'm enjoying analyzing the three advertisements for this paper now because I have a little practice from communications. I can dive deeper, too, in this paper than I could in my previous one.

I think that the hardest paper for me to write in this class was the second one. Regardless, it was the most rewarding one for me to write, probably because it was hard to write. It was tough for me to write because I made it challenging for myself by arguing that graffiti didn't have one true purpose, but rather that it was more important to understand it on an individual emotional level than to analyze it intellectually. It was risky for me to argue this because it goes against the prompt that essentially asks why analysis is important. Still, it was rewarding to take this risk because I am passionate about my stance and I enjoyed finding evidence to fight for what I believe in.

Grafitti vs Advertisements: Blog post 5

The differences in these two papers is tremendous. Even though both are asking us to analyze a piece of art that is sending a message to their viewer, the process is very different. When analyzing graffiti I felt I was doing more introspective work than when analyzing an advertisement. I felt as if there was no right or wrong way to interpret graffiti as long as it made me feel some sort of way. On the contrary, I feel like advertisements are so calculated that the message they are sending is specific and underlying. In addition to all of this, we went on a field trip to see graffiti, but I had to go looking for advertisements myself. The internet is filled with millions and millions of different print ads so the possibilities for my paper were endless and were not just going to jump out at me. Graffiti, on the other hand, spoke to me. I was drawn in by a certain mural and from then on I knew this was my muse for my paper. For this current essay, not only did we have to go looking for the advertisement, but we had to have more than one piece to analyze. This challenged us to find three pieces that all had some relation to each other that we could call on to be the topic of our paper.

One the pieces were chosen and I knew what I was writing about the process for each paper was rather similar. I started by outlining my thoughts, then aggressively typing, which came out to sound more like word vomit than an actual paper, to fill in this outline. Then I started to organize and revise and add until my paper was complete. I think it is interesting how the end products and processes are rather similar but the initial way of finding a topic to write about are so different.

Blog post 4

There is not one advertisement that gets me upset but there is one ad campaign that has really stood out to me. It is called #likeagirl and they have videos of people acting out what it means to run like a girl, throw like a girl, and more. Then they have young girls run and throw and it is the exact opposite of what the previous actions were doing. They question the idea of how doing something like a girl became an insult to people. I really like the idea of the campaign because it suggests that younger generations are hopefully going to rid our society of these stereotypes. Like a girl is emphasizing how when girls go through puberty they feel pressure to change and no longer play sports but this campaign is encouraging them to keep playing. On a larger scale we are seeing women take more leadership position in the work force and especially in politics, as the next U.S. president has potential to be a female. If you would like to watch the video I am positing the link below my post. Hope you all enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjJQBjWYDTs

Blog post 4

There is not one advertisement that gets me upset but there is one ad campaign that has really stood out to me. It is called #likeagirl and they have videos of people acting out what it means to run like a girl, throw like a girl, and more. Then they have young girls run and throw and it is the exact opposite of what the previous actions were doing. They question the idea of how doing something like a girl became an insult to people. I really like the idea of the campaign because it suggests that younger generations are hopefully going to rid our society of these stereotypes. Like a girl is emphasizing how when girls go through puberty they feel pressure to change and no longer play sports but this campaign is encouraging them to keep playing. On a larger scale we are seeing women take more leadership position in the work force and especially in politics, as the next U.S. president has potential to be a female. If you would like to watch the video I am positing the link below my post. Hope you all enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjJQBjWYDTs