Category: Blog English 110

I chose to read chapter 9 Academic Writing Doesn’t Mean Setting Aside Your Own Voice

This section is about writing in your own voice. It helps students transition from factual quotes to explaining the meaning in your own words. This chapter brings up the way people speak whether it is in a professional setting or a casual one. It helps show the reader the different ways we speak and how that can be used in your writing.  This chapter wants the reader to feel comfortable in the way they write and to use their own words when writing. This could be a revision strategy where you sit back and think whether what you are writing is something that actual people would say or something that a factual book would say. I chose this section because I feel that I tend to write proper and intellectual but this way could actual hurt me by not writing in a way that the audience can understand. I need to understand where my reader is coming from so that I can write to relate to them. When doing revisions for my essay, I will look to see how I write and see if I use my own voice. I want to have the reader understand what I am saying so that the message can be delivered. I learned how to transition from quotes to my own words as well. In doing so, this will provide a smoother transition within my paper. When doing other papers, I will look to use my own voice. I will present proper language to accustom my my readers.

A major goal for my revision is to beef up my analysis while keeping my word count low.  I need to ultimately be efficient with my word choice while connecting and describing my ideas well. Another goal is to add more to my conclusion. I seemed to fizzle out when writing and slacked on the conclusion. Adding more to wrap up the overall paper will help strengthen it. First I will reread my paper. I will cut out any unnecessary words or sentences that are duplicate. I will combine sentences to make them stronger and have a bigger meaning. Next, I will review what I want to say and articulate a powerful analysis of my quotes. With my conclusion, I plan to write three separate conclusions and combine them into a solid one.  This will allow for all my ideas to be wrapped up in a non repetitive way. The biggest challenge that I see is the conclusion. This will take time and effort to construct. I will need to specifically pin point what I want to say and say it.  I will need to connect each idea and say why it is important. If a challenge arises that is to difficult, I will look to my peers. I plan to reach out and discuss what I have so far and how I can make it better. I feel like having a different point of view on my paper will help me a lot.

Multimodal Statement draft

Three important modes I plan to incorporate into my essay are visual, spatial, and audio. Visual will require me to use pictures and other visual aspects to connect my essay together. I plan to focus on life pictures that have special meaning. This will allow the reader to read my life story and the importance of it and connect it with visual representations. I want to evoke the feelings of the reader so that my essay has more meaning to them.  This will allow for a stronger message to be translated. I want my reader to feel as if they are in my life. This can be done through proper images that give perspective. Spatial mode is a very important part of this essay. The way words, sentences, and pictures are arranged within the paper can drive home the meaning of my essay. Having text wrapped around a picture or organizing my paragraphs in a certain way will add meaning. The layout and position of phrases and specific words can show the reader that this part is important and should not be glanced over. Audio mode is going to be a more difficult mode to translate in my paper. This could involve providing hyperlinks, such as the narrative podcast, so that the reader can follow important parts within the essay. I want this mode to provide emphasis on certain words or phrases so that the reader stays interested yet informed.

After reading Galen Strawson article, “I am not a Story”, I reflected on my own life. I feel that my life fits very well in a generic narrative mode.  When expressing myself to others, the easiest way is to tell a story. People can relate and understand better to stories. This is because it is a universal way of communication. Telling these stories could include key parts that help the listener to understand me. I found it very interesting when Strawson said, “there is, furthermore, a vast difference between people who regularly and actively remember their past, and people who almost never do.” This makes me think that is you are constantly remembering your past in detail, then the reality of your past will be more accurate. Not remembering your past could lead to inaccurate or surreal details being presented when you narrate your past. Another point of the article is when Strawson presents the idea that you can perceive yourself as multiple people. I can relate to this as different personalities can seem like different people. In society, you have to be presentable and informative. This may not be your natural self, rather a self made up to please society. Then you can have your natural self where you are a free spirit, willing to do anything you want. This is the case for me where I feel like I can have many selves. I have different selves when in public, in class, around friends, and when participating in sports. This could be due to the norms that have been created that teach you how to act at different places. I can seem vastly different from place to place but still remain the same person.  The best thing to do in life is to just act as yourself. This will lead to a happier life where you feel free to express and act the way necessary. Having constraints can cause you to lash out at bad times or feel the burden of keeping it bottled up inside.

 

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After reading Julie Beck’s “Life’s Stories”, I noticed places that caught my attention. First, the opening paragraph was very eye catching. She stated, “It’s just not how I expected my life would be.” When reading this, it opened my eyes to my own life. It made me think, am I living my best life?, am I trying my hardest?, is this what I am supposed to be doing? These questions can only be answered by me. Life is a journey where you live and learn. Another moment in this article that stood out to me was when she labeled adolescents as “actors” and elders as “agents.” I have never thought of this correlation before. It really made me think about how they connect. Adolescents are open to learning about cartoons and fictional stories while elders are interested in the news and informational pieces. Kids are actors because they are still learning who they are and what role they play in society. Elders are agents because they are more experienced and watch over the actors to show them guidance. Lastly, when Beck talked about the cognitive tools developed during early stages of life that help with their own narrative. Causal coherence and thematic coherence connect as being the building blocks to a narrative story. As kids age and become older, the stronger these tools get. These points peaked my curiosity and forced me to think harder and longer about the overall topic.

After thoroughly reading my essay over and over again, I got a strong idea as to what words I rely on heavily.  My transition for paragraph to paragraph are really weak. I leave it very vague which makes it hard to follow. Adding words like “in addition”, “for instance”, or “in other words” would help make my paper easier for someone to read. It will add clarity and ultimately strengthen my paper.  I tend to start my sentences off with “the.” This is not only boring and uninteresting, but it leads to poorly written essay that will not open the readers eyes and cause them to think about what they just read. The repetition of this word does not benefit me as it has no special meaning within the essay. The words “art” is repeated sporadically throughout the essay to force the reader to pick up on t. In doing so, the reader will symbolically attach to the word throughout the essay. It will open new ways of thinking and allow the reader to connect and ideas presented. I feel throughout my essay I provide many pointer words that can direct my reader in the direction I want them to. having these words within an essay establishes a comforting flow that can give the reader a good groove when reading.

Brainstorming

How art and science work together within the medical field:

-Science contributes to new research about disease

-Science involves treating a patient

– Science within medication

-Art can help patients with care

-Art can develop diagrams and structures to teach and learn from

-Art invokes creative thing to help problem solving

-Painting and having a strong hand to do strokes connects with preforming surgery and being precise

-Art can help mental health

 

 

Pinker & Yo-Yo Ma

The ideas between Pinker and Yo-Yo Ma are vastly similar in connection with the idea that art can derive new ways of thinking about science.  They both indulge into the idea that science is not all black and white. Steven Pinker is a psychologist and linguist who graduated from the University of Harvard. In his essay, “Science is Not Your Enemy”, he discusses the importance of creative thinking that contradicts the norms of science and arts. Pinker goes on to state, “To understand the world, we must cultivate work-around for our cognitive limitations, including skepticism, open debate, formal precision, and empirical tests, often requiring feats of ingenuity.” He refers to uncommon ways of thinking as an answer to solving strategic issues. This creative thinking relates to Yo-Yo Ma’s ideas behind art and science strengthening our knowledge. Yo-Yo Ma claims, “only then can we regain our spiritual balance and find meaning in more than trying to technically manage every aspect of our being from womb to tomb.” The two quotes introduce a new way of thinking via arts or skepticism to figure out the world around us. The world is not fully clear to us yet. It takes religion, art, and opinions to construct the unimaginable. This way of thinking can open doors as to how things work by connecting reality to fantasy. Both authors depict the truth behind  discovering new ideas and concepts. These ideas and concepts explain the world we live in today.

Pinker & World

Not only does he connect to Yo-Yo Ma’s ideas, but he connects to the laws of the world about the way people think and how things got the way they are.  Pinker looks at how science has created everything from the knowledge of stars, the galaxy, time, matter, and nature. The use of science has been very beneficial to the understanding of the world. It has open doors to why we work. It allows us to make a living, love our family, and exist on this planet. Pinker explains,” the worldview that guides the moral and spiritual values of an educated person today is the worldview given to us by science.” Without science, we would not be able to communicate with language, establish government, or explore ourselves.  Pinker explains the good within science and all that it has brought us. Science affects how we think by providing data, examples, and evidence to support any given claim. It created religion and morals through a lack of those key factors. Religion and science work with each other to bring new ideas and ways of thinking to explain complicated topics, such as life.  The way people think is connected to the most updated science that has been communicated to the public.  This leads the way and changes any daily routine that contradicts with it. Whether it is your car, how you make breakfast, or how you send emails,  science determines the most effective way and forces changes to work with your lifestyle to make it better.

 

My initial thoughts on “The Future of Science… Is Art?” by Jonah LehrerIs that this article is very powerful. He dives into a very scientific background and distributes information in a way that is very understanding. Lehrerls talked about the importance of art being incorporated into the sciences. Art is a gateway that allows creativity within science. Science backs up the art with logical thinking and exploring. Each topic belongs with each other as they strengthen what the other lacks. Lehrerls includes science based information about neuroscience and physicals to explain his reasoning. Using art can connect any miscues that are involved with scientific experimentation. Thinking outside of the box will encourage better scientific thinking and understanding.  Reading this article opened my eyes as to why arts need to be studied along side with science.

Reductionism: The describing of a phenomenon through the use of phenomena that is simpler in terms of context and information.

Epiphenomenon: An effect that arises but does not directly affect a person in any sort of way.

Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle: Mathematic principles involving inequalities and limits where the exact position and moment is particle is at.

 

I feel good about my annotations on this article. I tried to focus on the deeper meaning by asking more questions. I took a closer look at context clues and put together good comments.

This essay composed by Yo-Yo Ma was constructed in a modern era. The essay was originally put up on the website World Post, which supports blogs and pieces of literature. The site officially launched in 2014 in Switzerland. In Ma’s bio I found out that he was an artists at a young age. He is a multi Grammy winner along with many of high accolades. Ma is a college graduate from the University of Harvard. All points lead to him being an influential person who understands many concepts of art.

The essay is composed about how the arts can be translated in culture. I liked how he connected science with it. This idea was very important to me because art can be seen in so many different forms. The audience if for people who believe the education system needs repair. Also, for people to learn more about how art can work with science and math to achieve great knowledge.

Adding art as a requirement will not just enhance students thinking, but improve cognitive ability. Ma intending to translate the message of spreading the importance of art to people. Kids need to feel free and allow their imagination to go anywhere. Changing STEM to STEAM will open the door for people to want to go to school and enhance the creativity of the mind.

 

Courtly: Polite; elegant

Cellist: Person who plays the cello

Lewd: Offensive; Crude