Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Butler vs. Ball State
The Link to The Common Freshmen
Inventing arguments
FINALS
The Best Time of the Year
Who doesn’t love Christmas time?! The sprit of giving rather than receiving is one lesson that most of us learned while growing up. When I was younger I believed in Santa Clause with all my little heart….and still do. Santa and the Easter bunny will always be some of my childhood favorite characters. Of course growing up Christmas was the best time of the year only because of the presents and great food of course! But over the years I have learned that it is much more than that.
My family has always been small growing up. Since I am half Japanese most of my family still lives over seas and due to communication barriers we don’t really know each other. However the family that I do have is very small there are only about 9 of us now that gather for the holidays and that is okay with me, more presents for me! On a more serious note I have learned the hard way to never take anything or anyone for granted because you never know when they are going to be taken from you.
Over the past couple years it seems like someone in my family seems to make a trip to heaven a little earlier than expected. I have watched more than one go and as heartbreaking as it is I have learned to gain peace by it. It is how life works sometimes and although it may not make any sense right now, I believe that one day I will see them again.
This has made me realize to love the family and friends that I have now. Christmas is now the best time of the year because it is when we can all go home to love ones and spend valuable time with people that you may never get back. This is why Christmas is one of my most favorite holidays because of family and that is all that should matter.
Monday, December 12, 2011
If you don't care, why should I?
Have you ever sat around staring at your computer, praying that divine intervention will send you a research topic? That the topic will be so expertly chosen that it needs no tweaking? That the project would throw itself into your lap? Well, I can’t say that I can give you the secrets to unlocking that magic within the universe, but I can give you some helpful tips to get you to that comfortable place of knowing what you want to write about and a few useful methods that can lead to a truly expertly drafted paper.
According to Envision, the first step to choosing a constructive topic is simply by being curious, asking questions that lead to deeper research. In my opinion, this was something instilled in me by one of more influential teachers; you shouldn’t ever choose a topic you yourself aren’t interested in. We do need to be aware of our audience and readers, but not at the expense of our writing. Whether given a specific topic, an umbrella topic, or given no topic at all, you have to remember that it is important and possible to make the topic you choose all your own. Setting yourself, whether it be in business or in a class, apart from the rest can only help you on your way to success. Question things you hear in your everyday life that you feel passionately about and delve into them. Question the analogies and comparisons people make, those of different generations, even those with only a few years age gap reference different things.
After you have found something, broad or not, that interests you, begin to keep a log of your research and information gathered. Its not so important what format the log is kept in so much that the information is able to be gathered in one place and is kept. As you get more comfortable with the topic, continue asking questions until you find one that you are truly interested and invested in. Take the topic one step further and brainstorm with in that topic. This brainstorming may bring up facts you already know or questions you’d like to have answered. As the brainstorm becomes more spread out it becomes easier to pick a subsection of the topic to focus in on.
Once a topic has been clearly chosen, you can move onto the next step: planning through writing. One way of doing this, generally my most often used weapon in my arsenal of writing methods, is freewriting about the topic at hand. When accomplishing a freewrite it is advised that you divide it into three paragraphs, the first should introduce your topic and develop a thesis. The second should discuss the sources that you plan to use when developing your research paper. Finally, the third should identify problems that may arise as a result of writing your paper. Another way of planning a paper through writing is to draft a research hypothesis. This is similar to a freewrite, in that you aren’t actually researching yet. Instead, you are constructing a claim that you will try to prove. The key here though, is to remain objective, remembering that it is okay to revise and edit your hypothesis if the research proves the first to be false. The third way of planning your research, which is typically a more formal use of writing, is to create a research proposal. Research proposals are generally used when trying to acquire funds for a project or merely permission to delve deeper into the topic. When creating a proposal, there is information that is generally included. This information includes: your background with the topic-that is, what you already know, how you plan to research, what types of sources you plan to use, the overall hope in accomplishing this research and if appropriate a timeline so that work can be completed efficiently.
Now that I have laid out the most effective ways to approach a research project hopefully you will no longer have to Google or post Facebook statuses asking for help for topics that you aren’t concerned with.
A Trip to the Theatre
My friend, in a fabulous display of procrastination had to see a theater production before Saturday so she could write a paper about whatever production she saw. As it turned out there was only one show left. So Friday, she and I proceeded to Ball State University Theatre to watch Icons in Motion. We gave the girl at the door our tickets and found our seats and waited for the show to start, which took a surprisingly long time. The program showed that the show would be divided into seven separate dances, each with its own cast of dancers, choreographers and its own theme.
After browsing the program and talking with a few of the audience members my patience began to wear thin. Most of the audience members around me had started checking their phones and watches. The show started twenty minutes late due to “technical difficulties.” Twenty minutes past the start time, the curtain rose and the first dance began.
The first dance was to an Italian folksong. The dancers, in flowing dresses danced across the stage telling the story of the choreographer’s interpretation of the female identity. The second dance was the dancer’s interpretation of the complexities of thought within the human mind. A patron of the arts and of dance especially, that dance even for me, was a stretch. The dancer spent the majority of the dance gyrating and rolling on the stage like an insect. In the middle of the dance, she ran of the stage and the audience not sure whether to clap, looked at each other awkwardly. Then she ran back onstage and seemed to do the dance a second time before becoming still on the ground. After that I began to lose my focus. The next dance showed two couples dancing through the night. The couples danced around each other on the stage in a very fluid pattern, however one couple always went through the motions a little faster than the other, which was slightly distracting. The final dance before the intermission was a short story showing a segment of Billy Holiday’s life. One dancer read from Billy’s biography and played narrator. As he spoke, the dancers told the story he read through dance. This was the most interesting of the performances, but I couldn’t sit through the rest of the event. I was just so uninterested in the show, which to be fair, could have been due to lack of sleep. I left during intermission.
Foreign Art Forms
As an acting major, I obviously have a very strong appreciation for the performing arts. I find any type of art inspiring because it creates a common energy and a common bond between all people. Though there is one type of art that I admittedly don’t know enough about. The art of dance. I tried when I was little to get my mom to sign me up for ballet… I even promised her I would play baseball if she let me take classes! Well, I played baseball (ran to third base first most of the time) and she never got around to enrolling me in dance classes. Nonetheless, I have always wished I possessed the grace and poise that professional dancers hold. This past Friday evening, I attended Ball State’s semester dance show, Icons In Motion. The premise behind the show was to create pieces around famous icons from history. There was an entire piece dedicated to the Beatles and one inspired by a classical composer who’s complicated name I cannot remember at the moment. But the piece I found most intriguing was the one dedicated to Billie Holiday. Maybe if my mom had followed through with her promise of dance classes, I would be able to tell a little bit about exactly what kind of dancing they used to portray Billie, but I can at least say that all of the movements very clearly represented Billie’s spunk and class in the time period she comes from. It was more of a story than the rest of the pieces. It actually inspired me to research more about this icon when I left the show. Her story was one worth sharing. Now, don’t get me wrong, the rest of the pieces were absolutely wonderful. The show offered me a glimpse into the world of a dancer; a fellow performing artist. We tell our stories and spread our messages in different ways, but I could see in each dancer the same passion that I see radiating from my fellow classmates every single day. I gained an appreciation for this art that has always seemed foreign to me.
Persuasion
Chapter two of Envision is all about elements of persuasion. I decided to write about this chapter, because I’m on the debate team and use persuasion constantly and know enough about it to write a little bit down. The beginning of the chapter looks specifically at adds and media and the different ways that they can get a consumer to buy a product of their choosing. The book shows how every ad is an argument that is trying to persuade you into doing a certain action. This was a neat concept to read about, because it applies directly to what we see everyday which is ads, ads, and more ads. Not only do we see ads a lot we see all of the different types of persuasion through ad companies and their clever tricks to make us think we need something. The next part of the chapter is what I use and identify with more often which are ethos, pathos, and logos. In my speech and debate career I have explicitly used two of these concepts very often. In debate I will find myself using logos over and over to explain to a judge why my train of thought makes more sense than that of the other team. On the other hand in speech I will find myself using pathos most of the time to allude to the judges emotions and tug at their heartstrings for a vote. Overall it is very interesting to see how often I see and use persuasion in and out of school.