Monday, April 22, 2013

Assignment #11

Pages 108-109 DK Handbook

What does the composer assume the audience knows or believes?
She assumes that we know of the 1984 Macintosh her article is surrounding. Also that we have read or are knowledgeable of George Orwells 1984 book. Also many allusions are made to the Wizard of Oz so it would be beneficial in understand those if you have seen that. 

How does the composition end? How will the end affect how the audience looks back on the rest of the composition?
Stein raps up her article with her own views and opinions on technology. This is important because it allows us to look at back at the article applying her views and seeing this through her eyes and with her own opinions.  

What events at the time of the text's production are likely to shape an audience's expectations about the topic?
This article was published around 2002. We had a lot going on in our country society during this time. Also Apple was climbing its way to the top of the technology world. They made a good name for themselves thus far, but with a steady climb it was crucial that people saw them for their success. They are instrumental to our technological world, always introducing new ideas and products. So even if we are readers nearly 30 years after the ad came out can't relate to the ad we can appreciate it's greatness as one of the most remembered super bowl commercials of all time, but also because of apples introduction of new products and how they help keep them on top.


Assignment #4 -- Choices

Any good author writes because they want their ideas or purposed to be known to others. Their works get published, and other read them. They hope that it holds a lasting impression or makes their readers think. No one wants their work to be read and pushed aside with a, "on to the next one" attitude.

Sedaris made his purpose clear, and stable throughout. But he chose to express his purpose in a unique way. By giving us examples, or scenarios in every day life and situations. Judgement is strong in life, but Sedaris also shows us that judgement is a vicious cycle. We are judging other because of their judgement towards someone else.. Judgement is an impulse action, we do it quickly and most times without regret.

Sedaris adds little bits of what is going on in the world to help make it more relatable to us as readers. I think this is beneficial and makes more people continue to read on, because they understand.

Assignment #4

I think Sedaris wanted to target all of us as readers. Although our initial thoughts may think the audience is those who have been in an airport, but hiss message on judgement carries out much further than the walls of the air port. I do believe he came to this writing idea from an air port experience, but wanted his purpose to apply to all life situations.

This story was published not long ago so much of what is socially going on the world now is similar. We have an African American President. We have the war in Iraq, and much more.

His message about how we all judge others is a serious one, but he lightens the criticism and pinger pointing by that of the use of humor.  I do think his purpose is a successful one. It made us all sit back and take a second look at our life both in and outside of the air port and how we do judge others without knowing them.

Monday, April 1, 2013

Group Work Reflection [Due: Tuesday April 2nd]

Ryan and I worked well with each other. We had a lot of the same views, and also ended with the same summary together. 

Positives(+)--> Group work has a lot of positives. It allows us to work together and get our ideas out of our head. Sometimes saying things out loud really changes our views some times. It also let's us get opinions from our peers and also it lets us hear advice from others. We also get to hear their ideas and see if they change ours. We can help our group members as well. Sometimes working through other people's views helps with our own. 

Negatives(-)--> But like any positive, it also comes with negatives. Group work makes some people hold back out of fear of embarrassment or even just merely being to shy. We may be too focussed on our group product instead of our individual thoughts and then we lose our own opinions. 

INTRO- The intro is important to the story and I like that they made their one pager interesting. They added a lot of color. Apple really did break the conformity and crossed a technology barrier which is an important part of the introduction but also the article as a whole which was a good call on their part for adding it to their one pager. 

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK- New technology keeps consumer interest. They brought up that people believe that whatever the advertisement is that it is good for them. They asked the question- "Does Stein portray the ad as a movement towards a revolution or does it go back to the idea of consumers being subject to brainwashing?"I really don't know how to answer that question because I'm still too up in the air about this article. I don't understand it. 


Assignment 10 [Due: March 28]

Questions:
1. Stein's emotions- What are they? How does she feel?
2. Genre: Academic Article--> Was she made to do it in this way? or did she chose it because she thought that it would be most effective?
3. What 'age level' or Audience is it intended for? and Why is it so difficult to work with and interpret?

Steins article begins as an in depth summary of the 1984 Macintosh Ad. She covers the article in extensive detail to give the readers background on the ad. After covering the ad as a whole she breaks it up and covers it in sections. She talks about which parts she thinks mean what. Stein choses to incorporate certain things that draw in readers or make it more personal to them such as using the Wizard of Oz idea, and bringing up Steve Jobs.

I don't really understand why Stein would have wanted to do an article on this ad. I feel as though it was an assignment because I don't see as how it would be interesting or be a choice article. I think instead of just explaining the article she choses to also give her interpretations on the ad. In doing so I think she wants us to form our own interpretations and by her givings us hers it makes us a little less scared to type ours out or same them out loud. We all have our own opinions but sometimes we chose to keep them in our head out of fear of embarrassment or what people may think.



Assignment 9 [Due: March 12th]

I want to work with adding emotion to my writing. English 101 has showed me that good quality writing that keeps the readers attention as well as completes the course goals and outcomes is much more important than a writing with a bunch of big words that no one ever uses. I want my writing to sound educated but not that I went through and right clicked a thesaurus option.

I want my readers to feel as if they can relate to me and know that I care about what I am writing about. In my efforts to do so I plan to add feeling and more "I's" to my writing to make it seem like it means more. Comparing Sedaris's Standing By to Orlean's Lifelike I think that was a big tell tale difference between the two. Most people liked Lifelike more and I believe it's because of the powerfulness of Orlean's closeness to it. The only thing people seemed to like about Standing By was the incorporation of humor. You can tell this because that's the only thing people could seem to write their interpretive essays about. I'm targeting my peers as well as my professors, and I plan to write at a level appropriate for that group.

Assignment 8 [Due: Thursday March 7]

In Amy Roddick's assignment seven I really liked that she brings up that Orlean chose to write her article in first person. No other class members chose to incorporate that or deemed it relevant or worth writing about, but it really is. Although it was general knowledge to us as readers- it is an important writerly choice on Orlean's part. It makes the piece more powerful. Choosing to write in first person really emphases on how personal it really is. Using submersion journalism causes writers to become attached to their work- which makes sense to why Orlean chose to write her story in first person.

I also chose Ryan Chandler's blog. I really didn't think much about the history aspect of taxidermy till reading Ryan's assignment seven. He touches on the evolving of taxidermy and how it started as a small business and became this amazingly profitable trade. I also agree that when taxidermy first surfaced in makes sense that people were stand offish about the idea because the fact of a dead animal being preserved but still holding so much life is just a bit grotesque- but you would think the fact that we have people dedicated to preserving those animals and the technology to do so that people would be amazed by it. Yet still, after hundreds of years people still don't understand it or see it in a positive way. They chose to focus on the grossness of it- not the art of it.

In re reading my blog posts, I really enjoyed seeing how my perspectives on taxidermy grew. All the work we did in class and re reading the story really was an eye opener and made me see things differently- which are noticeable through my blog posts.

I want to incorporate passion into my writing. Orlean loves to write. It is not only her job- but her hobby. It isn't difficult to read what she writes because she makes it interesting- and that is what I want to do. I want my readers to feel eager to finish my work, not just set it down and move on. Compared to Standing By I think it will be much easier to evolve into a better writer because Lifelike is an article that just brings up so much emotion and views which once we all put it into our own words we have potential to have great work. My tone is both positive and negative. Different theories on her quote usage cause different tones or moods for me and hopefully for my readers. I want people's thoughts to be racing and brains to be full force because that's what reading should do. We should all have our own interpretations to what we read. Although some views may be the same we all have our differences that will make it personable to us- and that's what I want to happen after people read my essay.