Saturday, February 28, 2009

Essay Final Draft


"Super Obama"


It’s a bird. It’s a plane. No, its president Barrack Obama here to save the world from devastation and destroy all evil! Photographer Stefan Falke took a picture in early November of a poster on a brick wall in Brooklyn, New York. The poster portrays Barrack Obama dressed as superman standing in front of an American flag striking a classic superman pose. This poster portrays how many Obama supporters feel about their nominee. He is hope. He is change (for the better). He is a role model for the rest of us to look up to. The citizens of the United States currently face some rough times. The economy is in a major slump, jobs are getting harder and harder to come by, the country is in a war that a majority of the people do not want to be in and are completely sick of, and almost everyone is in a state of discontent or disgust in regards to the current president (speaking of President Bush). And like humans do in times of darkness, the people look for a source of light. Obama came in during the American peoples’ time of need, presenting himself as a source of hope and an icon for change. Stefan Falke has captured the people's desire to believe in someone who is capable of saving them

Is Barrack Obama really comparable to Superman? Is he really a man of steel with super powers that can save the world from any and all evil? The obvious answer is no, but people know that. What people really want is something to believe in. With George W Bush managing to to gain titles along the lines of 'incompetent', the people of the US became desperate to choose a new icon; a new hero to believe in who can save them from devastation. Barrack Obama running for presidency in a time where the approval rate for the current president was so low, combined with his great skills in oration resulted in the creation of an image for him as a hero to the people. He became an icon for change, shining a ray of hope in the minds of United States citizens when they needed it most; a people's hero. This is what the picture I have chosen symbolizes.

I think in all reality, many people do not even know what exactly it is they want. They don't know how to fix the economy, or how to create more jobs for themselves, or how to end the war, etc. This is why they are so desperate to appoint someone to be their 'hero'. They need someone who understands all these problems in our country and is capable and willing to fix them. Above understanding them, the person needs to be in a position to be able to do something to solve these problems. So of course the charismatic man speaking powerfully of great changes for the better and hope for an improved future for our country is going to quickly become popular with the people. They want to put this man in a position of power where he can the impliment all the changes he so speaks of. Obama is a hero to people in more ways than his promises of improvement, however.

Looking at this photo from another point of view, I see how else Obama is a hero to a particular group of people in a specific way. This group is the minorities of the United States, particularly African Americans. By winning the presidential election, Barrack Obama has done what no other non-white person has ever acomplished before. Up until recent years, the mere thought of a minority becoming president of the United States would be considered preposterous. Even today most Americans, if asked what race they thought the next president would be; I bet nine of ten would guess white. This, however, did not slow down Obama. Obama put race aside and instead related with the people. He expressed his thoughts and ideals for what they were without making the color of his skin a factor. In doing so I believe he gained the respect of millioins of Americans of all decent, resulting in his charismatic reputation that so many recognize him by. The same charismatic reputation is shared by superman, which I would agree is one characteristic that Barrack Obama and superman do share in common. His appeal to people and his skin color set Obama apart as a hero to the minorities. As heros are, he is someone to take pride in. He did not let stereotypes or racism deter him from achieving the presidency, and in doing so he has set himself up to be a hero to American people.

Despite all the hype many Obama's supporters express for him, I believe it is too early to call him a hero. The presidential campaign and winning the election was just the very beginning of the road for him. Having been in office for such little time, Obama has not done anything great enough to mark him as a 'hero'. What pictures such as the one portraying Obama as superman really depict if you ask me is the people's desire for help. They want someone like superman to hope and believe in. Someone who will save them from their struggles, or at least lighten the load. That is where the comparison comes from. And whether he really is a hero or not, Barrack Obama is at least that person. He is an icon that millions of people look up to. He brought improvment and change to the table, which is exactly what the people want, and that is why you can find images of president Obama marked with superman's signature "S" on his chest, posing valiantly like he is here to save the day.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Essay 3 Rough Draft (not completed)

It’s a bird. It’s a plane. No, its president Barrack Obama here to save the world from devastation and destroy all evil! Photographer Stefan Falke took a picture in early November of a poster on a brick wall in Brooklyn, New York. The poster portrays Barrack Obama dressed as superman standing in front of an American flag striking a classic superman pose. This poster portrays how many Obama supporters feel about their nominee. He is hope. He is change (for the better). He is a role model for the rest of us to look up to. The citizens of the United States currently face some rough times. The economy is in a major slump, jobs are getting harder and harder to come by, the country is in a war that a majority of the people does not want to be in and are completely sick of, and almost everyone is in a state of discontent or disgust in regards to the current president (speaking of President Bush). And like humans do in times of darkness, the people look for a source of light. Obama came in during the American peoples’ time of need, presenting himself as a source of hope and an icon for change. Stefan Falke has captured the people's desire to believe in someone who is capable of saving them

Is Barrack Obama really comparable to Superman? Is he really a man of steel with super powers that can save the world from any and all evil? The obvious answer is no, but people know that. What people really want is something to believe in. With George W Bush managing to to gain titles along the lines of 'incompetent', the people of the US became desperate to choose a new icon; a new hero to believe in who can save them from devastation. Barrack Obama running for presidency in a time where the approval rate for the current president was so low, combined with his great skills in oration resulted in the creation of an image for him as a hero to the people. He became an icon for change, shining a ray of hope in the minds of United States citizens when they needed it most; a people's hero. This is what the picture I have chosen symbolizes.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

essay 3 beginning of rough draft

It’s a bird. It’s a plane. No, its president Barrack Obama here to save the world from devastation and destroy all evil! Photographer Stefan Falke took a picture in early November of a poster on a brick wall in Brooklyn, New York. The poster portrays Barrack Obama dressed as superman standing in front of an American flag striking a classic superman pose. This poster portrays how many Obama supporters feel about their nominee. He is hope. He is change (for the better). He is a role model for the rest of us to look up to. The citizens of the United States currently face some rough times. The economy is in a major slump, jobs are getting harder and harder to come by, the country is in a war that a majority of the people does not want to be in and are completely sick of, and almost everyone is in a state of discontent or disgust in regards to the current president (speaking of President Bush). And like humans do in times of darkness, the people look for a source of light. Obama came in during the American peoples’ time of need, presenting himself as a source of hope and an icon for change.

essay 3 prewrite


I find this image interesting because it portrays obama as being in league with someone as powerful and superhuman as superman. Obama is just a man and is limited in power and ability to save the world, but this picture would beg to differ.







Sunday, February 8, 2009

My participation grade

I think for the category of attendance/ participation this quarter I have earned 60-65 points. I leave a margin because I know I have missed a few days of class, and I do not know how many points are taken for missing a class day. On the other days however, I feel I have earned a good number of points. I always get to class at least on time, and often times I am there five minutes early. Once class has begun, you will never find me talking with peers while Craig is lecturing or being a disruption in any way. Also when it comes to participating in class discussions, I feel I have pulled my own weight. Although I may not talk as much as a select few of my peers, I interject my thoughts more often than many of my peers. So overall, I feel I have earned 6-65 attendance/participation points based on my timeliness to class and on how I answer questions and/or throw out my opinion fairly often in classroom discussions. This number of points would give me a high C to a B in attendance and participation, and so far that is what I feel I have earned in those categories.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

"They Say I Say" Chapter Summaries

Ch. 4 - Chapter four pretty much tells the reader that there are three ways to respond in a paper: Agree, disagree, or some form of both. It goes on to explain that when you agree or disagree, you should ont just blatently and blandly do either. Offer some explanation for your choice. The last way, and often most common way to both agree and disagree is a good method to use if you are writing about something you dont have really strong views on.

Ch. 5 - Chapter five explains how to distinguish in your paper someting you are saying from someone elses views/words. "voice markers" can be used to help distinguish between perspectives and to tell whos opinioin is being expressed.

Ch. 6 - Chapter six talks about recognizing and acknowledging possible objections to the idea you are writing about in your paper. If you anticipate these possible objections, you can then address them and perhaps refute or at least just mention them in the paper, disarming critics of the element of surprise. By acknowledging these counter-arguments you come across as open minded as opposed to arrogant and stubborn. the chapter also tells the reader to be fair in your representation of objections. Dont just give them a short, shoddy, 1 sentence explanation in the paper. Also, answer the objection by supporting your side of the argument and by explaining more in depth than just saying that the other side is just straight up wrong.

Ch. 7 - Chapter seven talks about answering the questions "So what?" and "who cares?" in your paper. Just clearly stating your thesis and proposition is not enough. You must also incorporate a phrase or comment that indicates who should care about what you are writing about. You must always put in your paper why the topic you are arguing matters. The "so what?" The book suggests that often times the best way to do this is to appeal to something that your audience can be assumed to care about. It finishes the chapter by telling the reader that it is important to answer these questions in every paper you write, even if the so what and who cares seems really obvious.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Mid-Term Reflection Questions

1) I liked my first paragraph. I thought I did a good job going through what Tobias said and what he meant by his words.

2) If i had more time, I definately would have liked to come up with more thoughts and dieas to write about to make at least a good 5 paragraph essay.

3) One important thing I learned from this midterm was that I need to be prepared to get organized qyuickly and think quickly on these timed writes. Speed is everything when your expected to pop out a good quality paper in an hour. I also in a way learned what ive learned this year in writing. Meaning that what Tobias wrote about the writing process is more or less what ive come to realize is true about writing and reading his peice talking about it helped me to realize all i had learned

Essay 2 Reflection Questions

1) One thing I liked in my essay was the first few sentences of the whole paper. I felt they served as a fairly effective hook to make readers interested.

2) If i had another day, I would focus on changing the length of some of my sentences. There aer a few run ons i have noticed and i would have liked to change those into a couple shorter sentences instead.

3) One important thing I learned from this essay was to write a good hook. I hadnt realized the importance of grabbing the reader's attention early with an extraordinary or interesting statement at the begininning of the paper. Another important thing I learned from this assignment was how to make good descriptions; applying to the senses and staying on topic etc.

Monday, February 2, 2009

MID-TERM

MIDTERM
Tobias Wolff’s description of the writing process accurately portrays how one should attempt to go about writing. He stresses the importance of letting yourself just write the paper. He advises to just “get it out” in a way that is satisfactory to the writer and that in doing so, the story/ paper will in a sense seem to write itself. By writing confidently and fluently, the paper will end up having the writer’s own unique voice behind it as opposed to if one were to write by constantly switching words and editing sentences to try to ‘perfect’ things as they go which would result in an end product that might sound too loquacious and lack the writer’s own unique voice. He also mentions that writing a paper/story fluently will make the whole process more enjoyable for instead of battling your way through each word, sentence, and paragraph you get a chance to just write it all out, telling a story from beginning to end with no speed bumps in between. And after all the fun of writing is over, Wolff says then the writer must change gears, rereading and editing the essay with a keen eye, editing the paper as if it were someone else’s.

Through my writing experiences thus far, I have come to realize that I fully agree with Wolff’s view on writing. I used to try to write basically in the way he warns not to; I tried to write a story or essay word by word, sentence by sentence, attempting to perfect the paper as I wrote it. Doing this, I always found the final product to be too wordy and awkward. It always lacked flow and didn’t sound the way I had imagined it would as I was writing. In Wolff’s words, I was a “constipated” writer. Only recently have I tried to, as he would say, “get it out” when I write. Instead of piecing together my paper I just write it all out in my own words. Doing this helps me to not overcomplicate my sentences with big words I wouldn’t normally use and helps the overall flow. For example, on our most recent essay I started out writing like a ‘constipated’ writer. I was trudging along through the paper and after a couple paragraphs I read over it, and the product sounded nothing like I had intended. It sounded very verbose and lacked a nice flow. This made me feel somewhat stuck and turned me off of writing the paper, so I set it all aside for a couple days. When I eventually came back to the paper, I said to hell with the old draft and started to rewrite it from scratch, this time writing it all out and putting it down how it sounded in my head. Although the finished product was not perfect, the paper was overall much better and sounded more like me. Though I did not yet read his description or even know who Tobias Wolff was, I had applied his ideas on the writing process and had success doing so.

I even find myself agreeing with Wolff on the fact that writing this way actually does bring a little bit of pleasure into the whole writing process. Personally I am not the biggest fan of writing and have never thoroughly enjoyed it. However, when I find myself telling a story or writing about something that interests me in a paper, through applying Wolff’s suggestion of writing it all out and letting the story unfold in my own words, I find I actually enjoy myself a little bit. By writing out the story on paper the way I hear it in my mind, the way I would tell it to my neighbor, it is a much more pleasant process than the boring and meticulous way of trying to perfect everything as you write. I find the last part of Wolff’s description of the writing process to be obviously applicable to every writer. No one writes a perfect essay on the first draft. Carefully reading over and editing one’s essay is a crucial part of the writing process. I must admit that often times find myself guilty of slacking in this area. I would not go as far as to say that this point from Wolff does not match my experience in writing, but I will admit that I could definitely benefit from a more keen and strict editing job on my own papers.