Project Pitch (Jackie Li)

Idea 1: “Super Smash Bros” (Video Game Series)

Currently it is a very popular topic, since there is a new game for this series that is going to come out this December. The pros of this choice its that I feel that there would be a lot to write about, as it is a long running series and a very popular one as well. There are many ways to interpret on, such as why people might have interest in it and why is it doing well as a series. The con is that, it might not be easy to write about because it doesn’t really have much of a story within the game, and there isn’t a particular character that can be focused upon writing the essay.

Idea 2: “Never Turn Back” Crush 40 (Song Lyrics)

This is a song that has a lot of meaning, both based on the video game that this song is from, as well as relating to many aspects in life. The lyrics shows the struggles that people have when trying to move forward and don’t try to look back into their pasts. The pros is that it would be easier to analyze lyrics and interpret the meaning behind it, however i’m not sure if its a good song to do a long analysis on it.

Idea 3: “God is a Woman” Arianna Grande (Music Video)

I feel that this would be a good song to analyze because of the somewhat strange music video for this song, and it would be interesting to interpret each of the different scenes of the song. The cons is that maybe there isn’t anything to interpret, and the scenes and outfits in the video were meant as a stylistic choice and might not hold meaning to it.

Writing As a Process (Jackie Li)

Introduction to Composing as a Process

The introduction to this chapter starts off with what writing really is. The idea is that the point of writing isn’t about the final product, rather it is about the process and journey that a writer takes in creating the piece. The process of writing is much more important, as it helps the writer develop their writing skills and thoughts when trying to make something out of the process. The whole purpose of writing is to improve upon what one has previously written by incorporating the new ideas that one might have when writing the piece and incorporate those ideas into their writing.

Freewriting

The idea presented in this passage is that writing what is on your mind has its positives and negatives when developing one’s writing skills as a whole. The issue that is presented is that people often look back on their works and takes their time editing what is already written instead of implementing new ideas. The purpose of the exercise that is shown in the article is to help one edit their work the same time that they are writing it. It allows your idea to be expressed more clearly as if you were to edit an older idea, it might eventually lose its original meaning because the writer decided to change it after.

Shitty First Drafts

This passage presents the idea that it is okay for someone’s first draft to be horribly written, as it is only the first one and it’s main purpose is for the writer to jot down all of their ideas together. The fist draft is intended to be the start of the writing where the ideas are presented, although it may be ineffective, it allows the writer to get the idea of where to start when writing an essay. The passage also tells the reader to not stress out about how horrible the first draft is going to be, and encourages them to just start writing their ideas down. Through this process, the writer is able to develop their essay by using the various ideas that are introduced in the first draft, and soon it can be developed into a more coherent essay.

Summary

The ideas presented through the three passages shows tips on how writing a piece starts, and how the main point of writing is to improve what you have previously written. The beginning of writing an essay is to write down what ideas come to the writers mind, and they shouldn’t worry about if it’s good or not since it’s only the first stage of the piece. The whole point of writing is the process of developing the piece after writing down the ideas presented in the first draft.

Intersectional Readings (Jackie Li)

Dancing Around Objectification

This article shows the types of reactions that people have in society, by comparing two different types of dancers and how people view them differently. The texts compare the views of both a white and black dancer, and it is quite obvious that people have different opinions about them. The white dancer woman is described in a negative light, as it seems that they are the ones being objectified by men. The white woman is a symbol for the opportunities that men can have in the United States, with the white woman being the center point of the desires of both white and black men. On the other hand, the Harlem dancer is praised as being a person of reform and is appealing to the audience. However, the dancer must also play the role of maintaining such interest in her audience. Despite how different it may seem, both types of woman have roles to play in terms of how the audience would view them. However race plays a major factor, and it shows that there is still racial inequality based on how the people viewed the dancers of different ethnicities.

Intersectionality 101

The post describes how one’s identity plays a role in how people view others, based on one’s social or cultural backgrounds. The idea is that different types of identities are linked together, which is the cause for inequality and leads to the oppression of certain groups. Certain categories of people are often viewed by a negative light, but there are examples in which one can be discriminated for multiple reasons. Like the example of black women, where they are criticized based on both their race and their gender. Often, the minority groups are the ones who get discriminated against as people see them as troublesome. Another point provided is the idea of the “standpoint theory”, which meant that an individual’s perspective of certain social groups is mostly based on past experiences. The events that occur in their life has major influences on the lenses that people use, which may or may not lead to hate towards certain groups.

The Urgency of Intersectionality

The idea of this presentation, focuses on the overlap between different forms of discrimination are often not recognized and adressed towards the public. The main topic, was on the challenges that black women face when it comes to adressing discrim ination. It is seen, that it is mostly unfair for these women as they are put into two different categories, and they get treated worst because of it. people don’t sympathize with them when they try to declare that there was some form of discrimination, as they saw it as unfair that these women can play both the race and gender card. People are also not more aware towards these issues, for example in the case of police violence gianst African Americans, the men are more recognizable than women. Intersectionality, the crossing between two forms of discrimination, is a cause for people not being able to see the issues that are caused by this unification.

Bechdel Test

The purpose of this test is to determine the amount of woman representation that is shown in a form of media. It shows the correlation between the number of men and woman are being shown and ensures that the work has the requirement of portraying a woman. However, a woman is still being portrayed in a negative manner such as being a villain or in a way that is sexual. The premise of the test is so that the features of women are highlighted, such as their relationships and types of conversations with another woman, all without the influence of men. The test makes sure that woman features are shown without men, in order to somewhat show aspects of women that shows signs of nondiscrimination. The purpose of this test is to make viewers be more aware of the sexual inequality in works of fiction, so that future works can focus on getting rid of this form of discrimination.

Response

All of these articles discussed how one’s lense can be affected by intersectionality, and in this case mostly about women. It is interesting to me how people show little to no sympathy to those who happen to be part of two different social groups, and yet get punished for it just because they are part of both. Discrimination also seems to be more prominent in women as well, and to make matters worse the women who are also part other groups get treated even worse.

Metaphors We Live By (Jackie Li)

Despite what people may think, metaphors play major roles in the communications of ideas throughout everyday life. It plays a role in language and how ideas are conveyed to others using certain types of phrases and words. Metaphors are not just words that are used to compare things, rather it is used to convey the writer’s ideas by allowing readers to interpret and analyze the metaphor to convey the most meaning out of it. In writing, an author’s ideas are put into the metaphor so that the readers would get the same messages that the author was intending to express. Metaphors are concepts, which can be further explained in order to convey a certain idea. It can be found everywhere in life, as concepts are a common idea in almost every aspect of life. In “Arguments of War”, the concept can be interpreted in many ways depending on the context in which this text is analysed as. One interpretation could be about the wins and loses of arguments. On the other hand, it might not even be seen as an act of war, despite it having the word “war” in its name. The words “argument” and “war”, might convey a general idea to viewers, however, it can also be interpreted in many different ways while still having that general idea in those various interpretations. Another text is “Time is Money”, which can also be interpreted in many ways as well, with the main concept of the relation between time and money. People can interpret it as wasting time is wasting money, or in an example of wages that the more time you work the more money you would receive. This can be seen in everyday lives as the economy plays a role in lives every day, as money is a commodity for people. Metaphors play a big role in the interpretation of concepts that occur in everyday lives and are able to be interpreted in many different ways while still retaining a common concept.

In “The Egg and the Sperm”, the idea of feminism comes to mind when the article addresses the relationship of both the egg and sperm sex cells during the process of fertilization. There are many ideas that are presented throughout the study of sexual reproduction, that can reflect on the relations between women and men in real life. In the article, a concept that stood out to me was the idea of who was the aggressor in terms of the fertilization of sex cells. Initially, sperm seems to be the candidate as it is the one that travels throughout the woman reproductive system in order to find contact with an egg. The article uses terms that might suggest this such as when describing how during ejaculation, sperm is propelled into the vagina, with great velocity, and as the sperm finds the egg it uses its energy to penetrate it. These terms might suggest that sperm has a lot of power and force when it comes to this relationship, however, the same could be the same as the egg. In a different model, the egg would choose its ideal sperm, by capturing the sperm with its tethers by stopping the sperms speed and guides it towards the egg’s nucleus. In this case, it would seem as the egg has the most control, and shows that they are the aggressive ones in this relationship. This can be connected to the ideas presented in”Metaphors We Live By”, with the acts committed between the egg and sperm as a metaphor of how feminists act towards men, as feminists are often portrayed as aggressive towards men. The article also uses the phrase “woman as a dangerous and aggressive threat”, which shows the concept of feminism is a threat towards men. It is an example of a metaphor that can be interpreted as an act of feminism, by showing that similar agression towards men, or in this case the egg being agressive towards the sperm.

AD (Jackie Li)

Related image

This was an advertisement that I have seen on multiple occasions on the subway when traveling between school and home. It is an ad for people under the age of 18, who can receive free lunches throughout the summer in participating public locations. The message is presented in a childish way, with the depiction of cartoon foods, which shows that it is targeting towards a younger audience.

Tools for Analyzing Texts (Jackie Li)

Summary

There are many ways that a viewer can think and see when looking at certain types of texts, and the way that people view certain texts varies from person to person. There are many ways for one to interpret a text, due to the different views and opinions that people have that are unique to others. Based on how much one knows about a text, can have an impact on the types of lenses they would use in order to further analyze the text. In most ways, it is rhetoric as the viewer may have various different interpretations on the piece than others. There are many factors that one must consider when analyzing texts, such as the backstory or even just how the media is presented physically. Someone can take a look at many factors in regards to the text, which in term gives the viewer a meaningful idea when analyzing the piece. The various tools allow for the observer to get a better understanding of what the text is and what it could be interpreted as.

Response

The tools presented in the article are great ways to help people in analyzing pieces of work. It allows for people to interpret the text in their own way, and develop their own views and feelings towards the form of media. This format allows for people to interpret these texts faster and easier, allowing there to be various viewpoints in regards to the text. People would become better at critical thinking, which in term helps them in the long run since it is about helping someone understand certain ideas better in their own ways.

Question

Would it be better to start analyzing the more specific areas of a text or starting with the basics? Is getting the wider picture first a better way to analyze texts and then work down to the specifics, or is the reverse just are reliable as well?

What is Rhetoric? (Jackie Li)

What’s one new thing you’ve learned about this course or resources at Baruch for writers that you found interesting?

An aspect that brought to my interest is the various publications that the schools provide for student writers. These publications allow students at Baruch to express their creativity as they write various forms of writing ranging from more news based pieces, to creative writing. These programs encourages students to write and show their creativity, as their works get to become published. Others would be able to see the minds and ideas of the student writers, which can have impact on their readers. The writing center also helps student writers, as it allows them to improve and their writing and encourages more students to write more. With the range of writing aid that Baruch provides, it allows for more students to express their views on certain topics or issues. The many resources provided at Baruch shows that there is the great opportunity for students to become better writers as well as being more creative. Baruch provides such a lot of resources for writers, which has a positive impact on the school and their students.

Briefly (in a few sentences) summarize the reading from “What is Rhetoric?” (summary)

Rhetoric is in short, the analysis of an idea which is persuade in a way that others can understand this idea in your view. It is a common thing in the world, as it is used to have an effect on their audiences by persuading them to feel or think a certain way. They are used in various forms of media and persuades people to view and idea from a certain perspective. Rhetoric can vary based on the type of media that it is presented in as each type is based on how the type of media presents their ideas.

About Me (Jackie Li)

Describe Yourself

I am typically a quite and reserved person. I usually don’t talk a lot and on occasion goes out with people. I am one of those people who would rather choose staying home instead of hanging out with friends. I often spend my time watching videos and sometimes even play video games. I even draw on occasions, producing art digitally using my phone as I create some mediocre drawings. For me drawing is a hobby, and although I may like it, I don’t see myself doing it full time in the future. Currently in Baruch I plan on majoring in accounting, however I am quite skeptical about it. I hope that through my studies at Baruch, I can find a major that I would be happy in studying.

Describe Yourself As A Writer

In terms of my writing skills, I can say that it is somewhat mediocre. I was never quite confident in my writing skills and often doubt if what I write is good enough. Writing has never been my forte, though some parts of writing I find much more easier than others. I wasn’t always a fan of writing personal narratives, as I always have trouble decide what I should write about or how to execute it well. The most trouble that I have often is deciding what and how to write my essays well. That’s why I often preferred writing more analytical essays, as I would have the information and topics laid out for me and I would have less to decide about. Writing has not always been my favorite thing to do, however sometimes I can be good at it as well.