Sunday, December 07, 2003
So This is the End. . .
This semester we focused primarily on technology and its effects on communication and society. At the beginning of the year we focused on readings in Good Reasons. We learned how to write essays and how to argue using ethos, pathos, and logos. We also began our journey into the world of blogging. Each student in the class created his or her own blog and started posting in it. We began by exploring other blogs, such as Rachel Lucas’, Joanne Jacobs’, and Tom Daschle’s, and getting a feel for the different styles of blogging. The style of each of these writers greatly influenced many students in the class. From our readings in Good Reasons and our exploration of the world of blogging we were able to write our first essay; a rhetorical analysis of a blog entry. For my essay I chose Andrew Sullivan’s article “Can Dean Win? The Pros and Cons of an Insurgent” as my blog post to analyze. My essay discussed the audience that Sullivan was targeting, the purpose of his argument, and what his argument actually was. The strongest part of the paper was my discussion of his audience. I was able to easily identify his target audience and discuss how he appeals to this audience. I struggled with the conclusion, however, as I always do. Conclusions and transitions have always been my struggling points in all papers. The conclusion for this paper was rather weak; more of a summary of my topic sentences and thesis than an actual wrap-up of the paper. As a whole, though, I believe the paper was a solid one, maybe not my best work, but an effective analysis of an online journalist.
Later on we shifted our focus away from Good Reasons and began delving more into the world of blogging and articles on technology and society. Our first assignment taken from the online reserves was an essay by Walter Benjamin titled “The Storyteller”. Our assignment was to write a blog discussing Benjamin’s essay. My blog entry argued that although Benjamin made a valid point when he stated that the art of storytelling was in decline, he was unable to see the aspects of literature that were not in decline. He was unable to see how in many ways literature is improving in our world and “As storytelling declines, new forms of literature and communication rise”. As evidence I mentioned the radio, television and internet as new forms of communication. This was one of my longer blog posts, and also one of my strongest ones. I quoted several times from Benjamin’s essay and thoroughly discussed what I agreed and disagreed upon.
One of the final topics we covered in Good Reasons was causal arguments. We were each given the assignment of finding a causal argument online and discussing how the author makes his or her argument. At first I struggled in finding a causal argument. After searching for a while I landed on an article in the editorials section of the AJC. The article was written by Gaston Caperton and was titled “High Turnout Makes SAT Data Deceptive”. The article made a causal argument against an earlier article written by an AJC writer. The previous writer had discussed Georgia’s poor academic standards and had cited the fact that our state has the lowest average SAT score in the country. Caperton argued against this by pointing out the fact that Georgia has one of the highest percentages of high school students actually taking the SAT. In my blog post I identified his type of argument as being the single difference method. I showed how Caperton found the single difference between Georgia’s SAT scores and those of states with higher scores. This was an effective blog post because I clearly stated Caperton’s causal argument and cited several quotes to back up my statement.
The second essay topic of the year was an argumentative essay giving an evaluative argument of a visual text. For my visual text I chose the music video for Pearl Jam’s song “Do the Evolution”. I made the argument that the video was an effective satire against humankind’s belief in its own superiority. Of the two essays I wrote this year, this one was the stronger one. I analyzed the video in great depth. I watched it on my computer dozens of times; slowing down the speed of the video to catch the details that I missed at normal speed. Looking back on the paper I could’ve analyzed it even further, going into even more detail about some of the more confusing aspects of the video. But as a whole I believe my analysis worked well, and I also had the chance to discuss other aspects of the video besides the imagery. I also focused on emotions and themes. The video used emotions very effectively. I discussed how it portrayed and evoked emotions such as sadness, anger and sarcasm. The themes present in the video helped “tie the video together” and gave it a sense of storyline. In my essay I listed and analyzed the themes present in this video. If I were to do another draft of this essay I would include a more in-depth analysis of individual scenes along with a more organized structure to the essay as a whole.
One of the assignments that I struggled with this year was the blog post I wrote about Miles Hochstein’s Documented Life website. Our assignment for that blog post was to write about the relationship between photography and memory. Many have argued that photography does not preserve real memories, and is merely a way of covering up the true memories. I struggled with this blog post partially because of my lack of interest in photography. It helps to write an argument about photography if you have experience with it. I have never owned a camera, and even when my parents buy me disposable cameras I do not take that many pictures. I also struggled with this assignment because it was hard to write about his website. The writing in it was sparse. He had maybe a few sentences per year, and the photographs were far more numerous. But it is hard to find a topic from photographs. I was able to get the assignment done, but I wasn’t very pleased with it. I believe I could improve on similar assignments in the future.
This course has helped me become a better writer and a stronger arguer. I have experienced new and different writing styles and have learned various forms of arguments. Styles and argument types are important to writing effective essays and proving a point. From this course I have also been exposed to the world of blogging. I knew nothing of this online craze before this semester and now I feel like I am deeply immersed in it. I now visit other blogs regularly, even without assignments. Our focus on other digital technologies has also helped my writing ability. Analyzing a visual text helped me develop new and important skills in the art of visual interpretation. The skills I have learned this semester are vital to my future. Strong writing skills and knowledge of modern digital technologies are essential to a successful future in our society.
Later on we shifted our focus away from Good Reasons and began delving more into the world of blogging and articles on technology and society. Our first assignment taken from the online reserves was an essay by Walter Benjamin titled “The Storyteller”. Our assignment was to write a blog discussing Benjamin’s essay. My blog entry argued that although Benjamin made a valid point when he stated that the art of storytelling was in decline, he was unable to see the aspects of literature that were not in decline. He was unable to see how in many ways literature is improving in our world and “As storytelling declines, new forms of literature and communication rise”. As evidence I mentioned the radio, television and internet as new forms of communication. This was one of my longer blog posts, and also one of my strongest ones. I quoted several times from Benjamin’s essay and thoroughly discussed what I agreed and disagreed upon.
One of the final topics we covered in Good Reasons was causal arguments. We were each given the assignment of finding a causal argument online and discussing how the author makes his or her argument. At first I struggled in finding a causal argument. After searching for a while I landed on an article in the editorials section of the AJC. The article was written by Gaston Caperton and was titled “High Turnout Makes SAT Data Deceptive”. The article made a causal argument against an earlier article written by an AJC writer. The previous writer had discussed Georgia’s poor academic standards and had cited the fact that our state has the lowest average SAT score in the country. Caperton argued against this by pointing out the fact that Georgia has one of the highest percentages of high school students actually taking the SAT. In my blog post I identified his type of argument as being the single difference method. I showed how Caperton found the single difference between Georgia’s SAT scores and those of states with higher scores. This was an effective blog post because I clearly stated Caperton’s causal argument and cited several quotes to back up my statement.
The second essay topic of the year was an argumentative essay giving an evaluative argument of a visual text. For my visual text I chose the music video for Pearl Jam’s song “Do the Evolution”. I made the argument that the video was an effective satire against humankind’s belief in its own superiority. Of the two essays I wrote this year, this one was the stronger one. I analyzed the video in great depth. I watched it on my computer dozens of times; slowing down the speed of the video to catch the details that I missed at normal speed. Looking back on the paper I could’ve analyzed it even further, going into even more detail about some of the more confusing aspects of the video. But as a whole I believe my analysis worked well, and I also had the chance to discuss other aspects of the video besides the imagery. I also focused on emotions and themes. The video used emotions very effectively. I discussed how it portrayed and evoked emotions such as sadness, anger and sarcasm. The themes present in the video helped “tie the video together” and gave it a sense of storyline. In my essay I listed and analyzed the themes present in this video. If I were to do another draft of this essay I would include a more in-depth analysis of individual scenes along with a more organized structure to the essay as a whole.
One of the assignments that I struggled with this year was the blog post I wrote about Miles Hochstein’s Documented Life website. Our assignment for that blog post was to write about the relationship between photography and memory. Many have argued that photography does not preserve real memories, and is merely a way of covering up the true memories. I struggled with this blog post partially because of my lack of interest in photography. It helps to write an argument about photography if you have experience with it. I have never owned a camera, and even when my parents buy me disposable cameras I do not take that many pictures. I also struggled with this assignment because it was hard to write about his website. The writing in it was sparse. He had maybe a few sentences per year, and the photographs were far more numerous. But it is hard to find a topic from photographs. I was able to get the assignment done, but I wasn’t very pleased with it. I believe I could improve on similar assignments in the future.
This course has helped me become a better writer and a stronger arguer. I have experienced new and different writing styles and have learned various forms of arguments. Styles and argument types are important to writing effective essays and proving a point. From this course I have also been exposed to the world of blogging. I knew nothing of this online craze before this semester and now I feel like I am deeply immersed in it. I now visit other blogs regularly, even without assignments. Our focus on other digital technologies has also helped my writing ability. Analyzing a visual text helped me develop new and important skills in the art of visual interpretation. The skills I have learned this semester are vital to my future. Strong writing skills and knowledge of modern digital technologies are essential to a successful future in our society.
