When we were picking which book clubs we wanted to be assigned in, I knew immediately that I wanted to read Self Made Man. Not to be one of those students that are always trying to make people believe that they love everything to stay on a teacher's good side, but the nature of men has always intrigued me, not just because I am attracted to them, but because they have a mind set-up completely different than the mind of a woman.
During the first four chapters, the author covers basically how the overall experience treated her and then went into detail about the more significant parts, friends, sex, and dating. My favorite chapter had to be the chapter where the author focuses solely on dating and how other women reacted to her in a man's body. It was fascinating to me how idiotic some of the women Ned dated seemed, like they had almost no respect for him or their date. What blew my mind even more about this chapter was how women, even after they found out the truth about Ned, still pursued sexual ventures with Norah even though they claimed negative stances on lesbianism. In fact, even the men on the bowling league accepted Ned as woman exceptionally better than I would've ever expected.
In the chapter where Ned made trips to nearby strip clubs, I was confused as to why if he hated it so much why he kept returning. For an activity that seemed so repulsive to Ned, he was sure willing to spend endless amounts of money to tip the strippers on a weekly basis. So far this book has kept my interested and I am curious to see how the rest of Norah's journey as Ned will unfold.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
RR #3
Chapters four and five of the Wadsworth reading covered the bases of researching. It covered the differences between primary and secondary research and ways to keep your research organized. A very important aspect of chapter four was going to the right place to get the good, valid, reliable research. Most students will admit that when they are assigned a research assignment, the Google tab will butt its ugly head at some point during the project. I feel that this is the most important part of any research project, knowing where to go. Although Google or Yahoo! will always produce hundreds, even thousands of results, it's nearly impossible to sift through the worthless information with the truly good research. Throughout the chapter, many alternative researching techniques and places to turn to find truly legit research to prove or disprove your research topic.
Throughout the reading, it was somewhat easy to answer the questions posed by the author when thinking into the future about my writing project. Doing part of the immersive learning project will allow me to gather research from a primary source, myself. Not only that, but for the writing part of my paper, it would be possible to add in other forms of research like surveys and interviews about students and how often they rely on technology in their daily lives.
Throughout the reading, it was somewhat easy to answer the questions posed by the author when thinking into the future about my writing project. Doing part of the immersive learning project will allow me to gather research from a primary source, myself. Not only that, but for the writing part of my paper, it would be possible to add in other forms of research like surveys and interviews about students and how often they rely on technology in their daily lives.
Monday, January 17, 2011
RR #2
As anyone can imagine, reading a book about writing sounds like a boring task. Most books say the same old thing about the proper way to write and how one must follow a sequence of steps in order to have good writing. However, the authors of this textbook toss the cookie cutter standards to the side and emphasize how writing is basically open to the interpretation of the writer. The Wadsworth really pushed the idea that steps to the writing process can virtually happen in any order, can happen more than once, or even simultaneously. Furthermore, it emphasized that not all steps are equally important, a feature of this book I particularly enjoyed.
Another part of the Wadsworth reading attempted to explain the way to pick a topic for a research paper. This chapter I enjoyed less than the first because when I compared their thoughts to mine, I found we different very much. Not that I am a writing expert, but I feel like topics come best when they spontaneously pop into your head like your little lightbulb that turns on as if you've thought of something brilliant. Wadsworth suggests that you should thoroughly research your topic to make sure it's a good one.
As for me as a writer, I have never really sat down and formalized my process. Truthfully, I have never even considered myself a decent writer. I've always been the kind of writer that would get an idea, sit down, and write the entire paper in one sitting and usually ended up with few revisions. After reading, I hope that my writing for this semester and further into the future can be more carefully perfected and revised by others, but mostly by myself. I always end up with careless mistakes like having written chose instead of choose.
Another part of the Wadsworth reading attempted to explain the way to pick a topic for a research paper. This chapter I enjoyed less than the first because when I compared their thoughts to mine, I found we different very much. Not that I am a writing expert, but I feel like topics come best when they spontaneously pop into your head like your little lightbulb that turns on as if you've thought of something brilliant. Wadsworth suggests that you should thoroughly research your topic to make sure it's a good one.
As for me as a writer, I have never really sat down and formalized my process. Truthfully, I have never even considered myself a decent writer. I've always been the kind of writer that would get an idea, sit down, and write the entire paper in one sitting and usually ended up with few revisions. After reading, I hope that my writing for this semester and further into the future can be more carefully perfected and revised by others, but mostly by myself. I always end up with careless mistakes like having written chose instead of choose.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
1/11/2011 Research Post
Last year in high school, I was in a discussion and debate class and we were required to do some outside research on every discussion/debate topic our teacher had chosen. One particular topic had me so entranced by the research that I read far more about it than necessary. That topic was cults.
We looked at famous cults, more locally based cults, where they originated, and much more information about this topic I formerly knew little about. First we talked about Jim Jones and the Guyana tragedy and I was blown away by the ability for a once good man and pastor, Jim Jones, to turn hundreds of people into obedient blind followers. We followed our discussion with Charlie Manson and other well known families and cults.
After the actual class discussion, a friend of mine and I went home and casually searched Google for cults and browsed some of the thousands of results. The one most disturbing and fascinating to me was a cult based on cannibalism. The "sermons" the leader gave were disgusting on many levels, describing how to properly cook baby flesh and when a child turned too old for desirable consumption. This same cult was obsessed with terrorism and pornography and its promotional video was too graphic and disgusting for any sane human being to watch.
Looking back on it now, I realize that the research I did back then was not enough to subdue my fascination with cults. In fact, obedience and conformity of people has always and probably will always strike my interest.
We looked at famous cults, more locally based cults, where they originated, and much more information about this topic I formerly knew little about. First we talked about Jim Jones and the Guyana tragedy and I was blown away by the ability for a once good man and pastor, Jim Jones, to turn hundreds of people into obedient blind followers. We followed our discussion with Charlie Manson and other well known families and cults.
After the actual class discussion, a friend of mine and I went home and casually searched Google for cults and browsed some of the thousands of results. The one most disturbing and fascinating to me was a cult based on cannibalism. The "sermons" the leader gave were disgusting on many levels, describing how to properly cook baby flesh and when a child turned too old for desirable consumption. This same cult was obsessed with terrorism and pornography and its promotional video was too graphic and disgusting for any sane human being to watch.
Looking back on it now, I realize that the research I did back then was not enough to subdue my fascination with cults. In fact, obedience and conformity of people has always and probably will always strike my interest.
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