kevinsabo:

Through reading my script, i learned that infamous didn’t exactly mean what i thought it meant. however, professor martin and i figured out a way to keep the whole theme of being infamous, but simply putting the “in” in parantheses…”(in)famous.” this saved my whole script, and i’m glad i got to hear the feedback. i had a lot of fun doing the video project.

in·fa·mous/ˈinfəməs/

 

there ya go, bud! glad you had fun <3

(via kevinsabo-deactivated20120514)

The peer conference yesterday went well. My peers and Professor Martin liked my paper, but they suggested some structural changes, such as organizing it into themes of John Lennon’s life instead of chronologically. I was a little confused at first but I’m going to try it out and go to Professor Martin’s office hours friday to see if I’m on the right track. I’m looking forward to doing the actual movie part of it. I have a few ideas and I’m trying to be as open minded and creative as possible. I hope we get to see each others’ projects because I’m really curious to see how my classmates’ movies are going to turn out!

This conference was just as successful as the first one. I love being able to read other peoples’ papers and comment on them because it helps me look at the assignment with a different perspective and it provides them with feedback. I like both the positive and negative feedback i received. I always have a better grasp on the assignment and which direction I want my paper to go in after these conferences. I’m glad i was able to go to Professor Martin’s office hours this morning because she helped me out a lot on the organization of my paper and gave me suggestions on what to improve on. I hope all this work pays off with an A :)

It is sad to think that the dimensions of American society are money, space, and power. I do agree, though. These three things are what the majority of Americans value the most, whether they admit it or not.

The picture of Ludacris shows how addicted we are to money and all the nice things money can buy. The second picture shows how us that “fat Americans” love things in excess. The third picture shows how we perceive big things as more powerful. All of these things are less important to most other cultures but for some reason Americans are so fascinated with them. Part of the reason why we are so interested in such material things is because the media plants it in our minds. Our culture is all about the individual and our own success, while Eastern cultures tend to focus more on the group as a whole. We were raised in a culture where the media and our peers have taught us to think about #1. These pictures and videos that we see everyday impact us more than we know. It is our job to have our own morals and beliefs and filter out what the media tries to put in our heads.

Berger is to images as Kellner is to history.

Both of these scholars want you to understand bias and the differences in perspectives. Berger claims that we see things as a result of what we know and what we believe. How we perceive the world around us is a direct result of our past experiences. It is human nature to relate everything we see to our life and our experiences. Therefore, all visual texts have multiple meanings as a result of the different perspectives of different individuals. Every person perceives history differently and everyone perceives visual texts differently, as well.

This peer conference saved my grade. I most likely would have failed if we didn’t have these because apparently I didn’t grasp the concept of writing rhetorically. I’ve never had to write a paper like this before so I’m glad we got a chance to talk to our peers and professor about what we are doing right and what we need to fix. These peer conferences are a grade saver. I wish we could have one more with professor Martin before the final draft is due though.

A response to Edward Said’s piece, States.

This excert gave some insight to the misunderstood Palestinian people. Western media does portray them to be “the bad guys” and the Israeli people to be “the victims.” I used to believe this until my muslim friend informed me that not all Israeli people are innocent and not all Palestinians are bad.

It is sad to think that just because someone is from the middle east they are prone to terrorism. Said stated, “I heard it said in Lebanon that Palestinian children in particular should be killed because each of them is a potential terrorist. Kill them before they kill you.” Yes, let’s kill all these innocent children because they could potentially be a terrorist when they grow up. Ignorance such as this is what causes hatred and chaos in this world.

It is sad that the Palestinian people were forced out of their homes just as the Israeli people were many years earlier. So who has the right to the land now? The Palestinians who were forced to leave were not the same ones who kicked the Israeli people out. Is it fair that they must also be kicked out of their homes? In a perfect world they would be able to live together in peace but this world we live in is far from perfect. I don’t see an end to this conflict anywhere in the near future.

The Palestinian people are often looked over because the media does not tend to show their accomplishments. “We have no known Einsteins, no Chagall, no Freud or Rubenstein to protect us with a legacy of glorious achievements. We have had no Holocaust to protect us with the world’s compassion. We are ‘other,’ and opposite, a flaw in the geometry of resettlement and exodus. Silence and discretion veil the hurt, slow the body searches, soothe the sting of loss,” (Said). Not many people around the world are exposed to literature such as this. Literature that shows the other side of the argument. We all assume that the Palestinians are inhumane because we hear of all the awful things they have done, but rarely hear the story from their point of view.

I believe that there are good and bad people in the world, and their skin color or religion is not the deciding factor.

This article made me question every source i have ever read. It makes sense that there are different sides to every story and you can’t really know the truth unless you were there. I’m sure most historians don’t try to mislead us or give false information. I think they just write their perception on the topic. We pretty much have to read with the acknowledgement that all of history is observed and written through a cultural or interpretive lens. I think the best way to write history is to present different sides to the story. That way the readers are given all the neccesary information and can interpret it in their own way. This seems like the least bias method. I feel for all the historians out there. Must be a tough job.

A response to Margaret Kantz’s “Helping Students Use Textual Sources Persuasively.”

I’d have to agree with everyone that this article was much better than the one on “Rhetorical Situations.” Kantz wrote simply and got her point across with minimal baggage.

I felt naive when Kantz stated “Students expect factual texts to tell them ‘the truth’ because they have learned to see texts statically as descriptions of truths, instead of as arguments.” I have never actually thought to think of a textbook as bias. Now that I am enlightened it makes a lot of sense. Everyone is bias. Why would textbook writers be any different?

I don’t usually try to create an original argument in my papers unless the teacher specifies to do so. It seems like a hard task at college level. Kantz says ”It is easier to use whatever one likes, or everything one finds, than to formally select, evaluate, and interpret material. It is easier to use the structure and purpose of a source as the basis for one’s paper than it is to create a structure or an original purpose.” This process seems quite long and difficult.

There is also the problem of writing for the professor. Each professor has their own criteria for grading papers and it is difficult to try to write your own creative work when you have to worry about what the person grading your paper is looking for.

I am one of those students who writes a rough draft and can’t find much to improve on. It is hard for me to build on my drafts, which seems like a necessary task for college level writing.

It was nice to read an article by a professor for professors. It gave me a different point of view on what professors expect in the papers they grade.