What’s the significance of Shirley Temple? What meaning does she hold for Lovey?
In the beginning, Lovey and he best friend, Jerry are watching the Shirley Temple movie before they go to church. They never get to see the end because they have to leave so they end up making the ending themselves in the middle of the pastors sermon.
I think growing up, we all search for meaning and purpose; who we are as individuals and I think that Shirley Temple was like a hero type in a way to Lovey in this story. She was like the girl that Lovey always wanted to be and she found such happiness and joy in the things that Shirley did throughout her life. I think she was really important to her and who she was and who she becoming, the things she was finding out about herself through Shirley growing up.
I also think that she maybe wanted a different life. She was always humiliated at school and didn't like the stuck up girls that would have the nice long hair and the nice purses and things like that and I feel like she envied Shirley in a way that she wanted to speak english, and she wanted to be more 'white' as well and from watching her movie she sees such a great and inspiring little girl growing up that she had such significance to her as a child. It's kind of sad in a way if you think about it but at the same time we all have that hero or one person maybe we wish we could be a little more like.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Chapter 48
Always evaluate arguments for logic and fairness in reading and in your own writing. Distinguish between reasonable and fallacious arguments. Many unreasonable tactics are known as logical fallacies. Most fallacies are misguided or dishonest of argumentative strategies. When we draw a conclusion from a list of facts we are using inductive reasoning, which deals with probability other than certainty. A conclusion must be supported by evidence that is sufficient. A conclusion that is not probable is known as hasty generalization. An example of one would be a stereotype. Many hasty generalizations will include words like all, ever, always and never. An analogy points out two things that are alike but otherwise different. Analogies are good for arguing points. A false analogy is assuming that because two things are alike on one way, they must be alike in others. Quoting opposing views is always a good idea because it shows fairness and accuracy.
The information in this chapter was helpful in a way of just bringing back old material. These are things I've learned and already known but took it to a deeper level which was also better for me to understand. I've been familiar with the subjects but not exactly how to use them in the correct ways. So I will apply from this chapter if its needed, in more of my writings. The information seems it would be most effective in an argumentative type of writing.
The information in this chapter was helpful in a way of just bringing back old material. These are things I've learned and already known but took it to a deeper level which was also better for me to understand. I've been familiar with the subjects but not exactly how to use them in the correct ways. So I will apply from this chapter if its needed, in more of my writings. The information seems it would be most effective in an argumentative type of writing.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Chapter 47
When writing an argumentative viewpoint, you want to construct a reasonable argument. You don't necessarily want to battle against your viewpoint and have the last words about it, instead, you want to explain your understanding of the truth about a subject or to propose the best solution. Make other readers question your viewpoint and allow others to offer their viewpoints as well. Don't always assume that your audience already agrees with you. Make sure you have examples of all sides of the argument but in a way that states your main argument on the subject. Always state your side in the introduction. Before writing your thesis, let the readers know that you are open-minded to both sides.Always make sure to back up your thesis with persuasive lines of argument, and support your claims with specific evidence and examples from a text. Also, in your essay you should always have at least one paragraph of the opposing view and attempt to counter them. Create common values with the opposing sides, so they have more to agree with and think about.
I plan on using all of this information in my essay comparing two of the stories we read in class. Even though its not necessarily an argumentative essay type of paper, some of these examples could defiantly still be used. I will also use this information in future papers that I have to write an argument about. I knew some of the stuff but then some I didn't until I read this. I think it gave good examples on how to create your thesis and how to put the open-minded sentences before hand letting the reader know you care for both sides but think one is better then the other and why.
I plan on using all of this information in my essay comparing two of the stories we read in class. Even though its not necessarily an argumentative essay type of paper, some of these examples could defiantly still be used. I will also use this information in future papers that I have to write an argument about. I knew some of the stuff but then some I didn't until I read this. I think it gave good examples on how to create your thesis and how to put the open-minded sentences before hand letting the reader know you care for both sides but think one is better then the other and why.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Essay Workshop #2
What theme in common have you observed in "Coming Home Again," and "Shooting Dad"? What is the significance of the theme?
“Shooting Dad” and “Coming Home Again” are both their very own individual stories. However reading them and analyzing them, I was able to find a bit more in common between the two. They both have a similar theme and significance to each of them. Though they are completely different, they share similarities in the significance of their stories.
“Coming Home Again” is about a family, more so a mother and her son and their journey together as the mom fights cancer. Lee’s mother is an excellent cook, loves to cook and enjoys all around cooking, being in the kitchen and eating good meals. The ironic thing about her illness is that her cancer was in her stomach and has to use a pump that feeds her liquids and medications, lowering her appetite and desire for food. The symbol in this story is how the incredible love for a good meal comes between a mother and her son. In the mothers love for cooking, the careful steps taken to prepare each meal and Lee’s desire to learn the recipes for cooking and to be able to cook like his mother bring them closer than they ever were as a family. The love and relationship between the two, I believe that the authors purpose in writing this story, was to discuss his life growing up with his homely and caring mother and what happens, even though is very devastating, also turns out to be such a positive experience in the end. The title, “Coming Home Again”, explains the returning home to his usual life from boarding school, where his mother regrets sending him because of lost time. Lee is an all around loving and caring son and has always enjoyed his mothers means and took after her in learning how to make and create new ones as well. His desire to cook brought him and his mother closer than ever, even while she was battling cancer.
The story “Shooting Dad” is more of a conflict between a daughter and her father who are completely different in everything they do, yet come to the realization that they are so much alike in the fact that just because their interests are in different things they still have a passion for art and creativity. They couldn’t even hold a conversation without arguing. But amongst all this conflict Sarah found that they had more in common with each other than either of them realized. What they shared was a common passion, a certain dedication to their respective arts.
People who can relate to each other do so because they share some of the same interests, hobbies, outlooks, ideals, or personality traits. They share a mutual respect and understanding enabling them to exist together without major conflict. In other words they are compatible. Throughout her younger years, Sarah was her father’s ideal antagonist. They shared none of the same interests or hobbies. She was a democrat who loved art and painting and drawing and things like that, while her father, a gunsmith, was a republican and had an incredible amount of love for guns.
Sarah failed to see the artist appeal of her father’s trait. A gun was in no way fulfilling to her and never has been growing up. Beyond being an instrument of destruction, firearms had no place in her world. Although she recognized her dad as driven and talented, she failed to appreciate the appeal that firearms process. Music, on the other hand, inspired her much more. Sarah saw a gun as nothing but a tool used to kill and intimidate. To her, there was nothing constructive about a firearm. As they soon began to realize the similarities they shared, still Sarah never grew a passion for guns like her father but after he died, she did recognize them as more of a significance to her life and found herself slightly okay with the art of her father, shooting him out of the cannon, which were the title comes from “Shooting Dad.”
Sarah failed to see the artist appeal of her father’s trait. A gun was in no way fulfilling to her and never has been growing up. Beyond being an instrument of destruction, firearms had no place in her world. Although she recognized her dad as driven and talented, she failed to appreciate the appeal that firearms process. Music, on the other hand, inspired her much more. Sarah saw a gun as nothing but a tool used to kill and intimidate. To her, there was nothing constructive about a firearm. As they soon began to realize the similarities they shared, still Sarah never grew a passion for guns like her father but after he died, she did recognize them as more of a significance to her life and found herself slightly okay with the art of her father, shooting him out of the cannon, which were the title comes from “Shooting Dad.”
As you can see, these two stories were completely different in their own ways yet still shared similarities of a theme in a sense that each family was brought closer together by the interests each of them shared and experienced as individuals. Because of the mother’s interest and experience in her cooking, Lee became greatly interested in cooking and as a result came to be very close with his mother. And as Sarah and her father shared different arts, realized they had more in common they had originally thought, bringing them closer together.
The significance in both of these stories was the fact that even though you may think you and another person have absolutely nothing in common. Analyze each other more carefully and know that just because you share different interests, and because so, never seem to get along, you may have more in common then you think. Today we as individual don’t always take the time to hear each other out and really see what can become of a friendship or relationship. For example, you could love someone so much, but constantly argue or never seem to get along because of one or many things you believe you just don’t have in common. I’ve been through an experience like this in the past and it ended up falling apart because we were both stubborn people and were never able to see eye to eye and just settled at that. From both of these stories, you can see how giving some things a try that you may of never thought of doing in your entire life may just make or break you or a relationship. It also ties together with the sense of selfishness and stubbornness like I mentioned. For some people, it can be very hard to try something new for someone else, even thought you don’t want to do it, but sometimes when you love someone that much, you should be willing to give up a lot for that person. Even taking the time to find out what you have in common in your differences.
Extra Credit: Literature
Literature terms in an essay, article, or any piece of writing, lets you know how an author expresses his or her ideas. There are many terms you can find in reading such as characterization, conflict, dialogue, imagry, point of view, symbol, and tone. Each of these has its own set of standards. Characterization is used through the characters in a story, actions, reactions, dialogue and thoughts of a character. Conflict is the struggle in the story, usually the whole main point and without conflict in some cases, there is no story behind it. Dialogue is talking or vocal exchange between two characters. Imagry is used to show attitude, tension, mood, setting and things like that within a story or the image itself can tell the story. Point of view is like the authors thought then eventually leads to the reality or definition of what the author is talking about. Symbol is realated to imagry in a sense, a writing can seem like something ordinary but have a real meaning behind it which would be symbolic to the author or reader. And tone is an attitude towards the subject communicated by words.
Writing poetry is like making an arguement. To be able to write a poem you should look at the genre and theme of what you're going to be writing about. Also a huge factor to writing poetry is the versification. How the words rhyme and fit together, theres many ways you can rhyme or poetry doesn't even have to rhyme. Be able to recognize your figures of speech such as metephors, similies, metonymy, synechdoche, personification, litotes and irony. Telling a story is the most importatnt part of poetry. Starting with a beginning of a story and making sure you finish with a good closure. All of these are huge factors into writing decent and excellent poetry.
I will use the literature terms more often. I usually don't think about using these kind of terms when writing for some reason but maybe thats because I don't usually write stories which these are more often found in. But I will remember the different kinds of tones that I'm able to use in stories to make them more efficient. I write poetry a lot or I used to when I had a lot of time on my hands and I would always do everything this artice said without knowing it, I was never "taught" how to write poetry I would just write it and versification was always my favorite part. The stories were hard to come up with when I wasn't going through anything but since I was for the most part gonig through different things in my life I always had a good story to make a poem out of. This information was all very useful and I plan on using it in the future.
Writing poetry is like making an arguement. To be able to write a poem you should look at the genre and theme of what you're going to be writing about. Also a huge factor to writing poetry is the versification. How the words rhyme and fit together, theres many ways you can rhyme or poetry doesn't even have to rhyme. Be able to recognize your figures of speech such as metephors, similies, metonymy, synechdoche, personification, litotes and irony. Telling a story is the most importatnt part of poetry. Starting with a beginning of a story and making sure you finish with a good closure. All of these are huge factors into writing decent and excellent poetry.
I will use the literature terms more often. I usually don't think about using these kind of terms when writing for some reason but maybe thats because I don't usually write stories which these are more often found in. But I will remember the different kinds of tones that I'm able to use in stories to make them more efficient. I write poetry a lot or I used to when I had a lot of time on my hands and I would always do everything this artice said without knowing it, I was never "taught" how to write poetry I would just write it and versification was always my favorite part. The stories were hard to come up with when I wasn't going through anything but since I was for the most part gonig through different things in my life I always had a good story to make a poem out of. This information was all very useful and I plan on using it in the future.
The Insufficiency of Honesty
"When I refer to integrity, I have something very specific in mind. Integrity, as I will use the term, requires three steps: discerning what is right and what is wrong; acting on what you have discerned, even at personal cost; and saying openly that you are acting on your understanding of right and wrong."
While this may not of been her exact definition in the story she worte, because she talked a lot about what integrity was, but this is the example of the word that stood out to me the most. The reason it stood out to me more so then any of the other definitions or examples is because when she said "acting on what you have discerned, even at your own personal cost." When I read that I feel like I'm not the only person that feels this way so in a way I relate to it. I strongly believe in the responsibility for ones actioins. Like the example she stated about the couple having sex and him saying if you get pregnant its not my problem. So then don't do it, or make sure your responsible enough and ready to take care of a child if your going to be fooling around setting yourself up for something you might not want or even be able to handle. I hope that makes what I'm trying to say sort of clear.
I think the way she describes integrity is awesome. I completely agree with it throught out the entire essay. Lying and integrtiy sort of go hand in hand. When I think of integrity, or the way I thought about it before ever reading this article, when someone would say the word integrity, I would automatically think honesty. That's what most people think I believe, growing up that's what I was tought in school is that having integrity was being honest. And I like how the author states all of the things because I agree with her. Integrity is honesty, doing the right thing when no one is watching. Not just being honest to others but honest to yourself. Like W. Clement Stone said "Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing simply because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity"
While this may not of been her exact definition in the story she worte, because she talked a lot about what integrity was, but this is the example of the word that stood out to me the most. The reason it stood out to me more so then any of the other definitions or examples is because when she said "acting on what you have discerned, even at your own personal cost." When I read that I feel like I'm not the only person that feels this way so in a way I relate to it. I strongly believe in the responsibility for ones actioins. Like the example she stated about the couple having sex and him saying if you get pregnant its not my problem. So then don't do it, or make sure your responsible enough and ready to take care of a child if your going to be fooling around setting yourself up for something you might not want or even be able to handle. I hope that makes what I'm trying to say sort of clear.
I think the way she describes integrity is awesome. I completely agree with it throught out the entire essay. Lying and integrtiy sort of go hand in hand. When I think of integrity, or the way I thought about it before ever reading this article, when someone would say the word integrity, I would automatically think honesty. That's what most people think I believe, growing up that's what I was tought in school is that having integrity was being honest. And I like how the author states all of the things because I agree with her. Integrity is honesty, doing the right thing when no one is watching. Not just being honest to others but honest to yourself. Like W. Clement Stone said "Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing simply because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity"
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Chapter 4
Chapter focuses on paragraphs. The main point, stating the main point in your topic sentence, sticking to that topic, making sure not to go too much of point, developing the main point and using a pattern of organization, for ex. you could use cause and effect, compare and contrast, illustrations, and description. When writing, your paragraphs should flow smoothly into the next. A paragraph can consist of a direct and indirect supports towards the main idea or point of your piece of writing. Parallel structures are like a bunch of ideas or sentences that come together but make one main point. And as you continue writing you should always maintain consistency, which occurs mostly when you go back and forth from one point to another. Keeping new information about a same topic will bring more interest to the reader and make your paper better overall. Usually to begin a new paragraph, its to start off a new idea or indicate an importatn shift in time or place. It can be a highlight of contrast or to emphasize a point or the main idea your getting at.
I plan to use these techniques in the future. I tend to get off topic easily when I'm writing especially if I can relate to what I'm reading and then I have to write about it. I also have trouble sometimes stating my main specific point and even if, keeping my information on that point. Backing it up with claims, with direct and indirect support. Supporting evidence or a claim is easy when you have the information to support it, but this taught me how to keep my essays or paragraphs more organized and smooth flowing so I'm not all over the place with my thinking and information. Reading this chapter and learning these new things will hopefully make me a better writer in the future. With simple techniques, I've noticed you can see changes in your work from the smallest of new material.
I plan to use these techniques in the future. I tend to get off topic easily when I'm writing especially if I can relate to what I'm reading and then I have to write about it. I also have trouble sometimes stating my main specific point and even if, keeping my information on that point. Backing it up with claims, with direct and indirect support. Supporting evidence or a claim is easy when you have the information to support it, but this taught me how to keep my essays or paragraphs more organized and smooth flowing so I'm not all over the place with my thinking and information. Reading this chapter and learning these new things will hopefully make me a better writer in the future. With simple techniques, I've noticed you can see changes in your work from the smallest of new material.
"Shooting Dad"
"Shooting Dad" is an interesting title. When you first look at it most people would assume literally and think someone shot their bad, but as you go in to read this short little story, you realize more about what the title really means. Personally, I think the title is a referenece to the dad's love of guns and the relationship between the daugher and her father. One was democrat, the other was republican. It seemed as if the dad was only ever interested in guns and she was interested in art. They were very different and because of their differences, they could rarely hold a converation without it ending as an arguement.
I think that the the title itself is significant because once you read the whole story without just looking at the title, you realize "shooting" maybe meant fighting or argueing or it could of meant "shooting dad" just in the same sence but the other way around and his attitude towards his daughter. It seems as if they were always nagging at each other for certian things. So thats why I think the title holds a reasonanable amount of significance to this story. I really enjoyed this story, how as she began to mature, she realized they had more in common then she or they both thought. Just that him and his guns was another form of art because art can be so many different things in this case art was also what brought the two closer together.
I think that the the title itself is significant because once you read the whole story without just looking at the title, you realize "shooting" maybe meant fighting or argueing or it could of meant "shooting dad" just in the same sence but the other way around and his attitude towards his daughter. It seems as if they were always nagging at each other for certian things. So thats why I think the title holds a reasonanable amount of significance to this story. I really enjoyed this story, how as she began to mature, she realized they had more in common then she or they both thought. Just that him and his guns was another form of art because art can be so many different things in this case art was also what brought the two closer together.
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