Writing as a Process (Ryan Bhagwandeen)

Introduction to Composing as a Process

Writing is a long and often strenuous process rather than a product. Good writing requires a set of different skills since it involves planning, drafting, and revising our work. Writing is a lot of work and needs to be practiced often as it not only helps us to express our ideas but also form new ones.

Freewriting

Freewriting is an exercise that places emphasis on simply getting words down on a paper. It is sometimes called “babbling” exercises since it is about just writing, completely ignoring coherence and any real sort of meaning. It’s meant to be just raw thought. Freewriting is supposed to be helpful since it encourages creativity and relieve writer’s block as words come to mind more easily.

Shitty First Drafts

A first draft isn’t meant to be good. It’s just an initial way of getting words and ideas onto paper. When writing the first draft of a paper, it doesn’t matter if it’s completely coherent, has errors, or doesn’t thoroughly convey what you’re trying to say since it’s meant to be revised and perfected until, eventually, it’s a good piece of writing.

Response

All these texts emphasize the creativity and concept of improvement involved in the writing process. I strongly agree with the text “Freewriting” when it mentioned that school often makes us too focused on mistakes and errors we make. There should be focus on the creativity need and how to actually get ideas on paper rather than making sure it’s correct, especially since errors can be fixed later on in the writing process.

Intersectional Readings (Ryan Bhagwandeen)

Dancing Around Objectification

“Dancing Around Objectification” by Victoria Merlino discusses the differences between seemingly similar characters in two different stories. Claude McKay’s The Harlem Dancer and Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man both feature female dancers. Although both face admiration and degradation, the trait that greatly separates them is their skin color, which determines how they are treated in their respective stories. The lady in The Harlem Dancer is black while the dancer in The Invisible Man is white. McKay’s dancer is gawked upon by everyone, her self-possession is taken away almost instantly. She swiftly becomes nothing but and idealized object to her audience. However, Ellison’s white dancer, performing in front of black teens, manages to take away the self-possession of her audience instead. She becomes something they can never have. They feel fear. Ellison’s white dancer comes with rules and restrictions while McKay’s dancer is available to anyone.

Intersectionality 101

This text is basically a summarization of what intersectionality is all about. It discusses how discrimination isn’t always split into separate categories but are usually linked together and can create different perceptions. Intersectionality explains how some groups of people have been viewed as “troublesome” since their experiences don’t always match with the generalized perceptions of other groups. The text also brings up the Standpoint Theory, which is the idea that a person’s perceptions are influenced by their own unique living experiences. An example is brought up about how two Hispanic women may have similar perspectives in regard to race and sex, but if one woman is in a higher economic status, their standpoints will not be completely identical.

The Urgency of Intersectionality

Kimberlé Crenshaw’s Ted Talk clearly displays the importance of understanding intersectionality. Crenshaw starts off by listing a few names of black police brutality victims to see how much of her audience knew about them. Most of the audience had heard the names before. She then lists a second group, and most of the audience has never heard of them. She points out the first group was all male, while the others were female. It indicates the fact that black female victims of police brutality receive far less attention than males. Crenshaw goes into further discussion of how black women face discrimination against both their skin color and their sex.

Bechdel Test

The Bechdel Test is a way for evaluating a work of fiction’s portrayal of women. It requires that a story contain at least two women who discuss anything other than men. The test is named after a cartoonist named after Alison Bechdel since it first appeared in one of her comic strips. The point of the test is to call attention to gender equality in fiction. Apparently, only half of all films pass the test.

Response

All these posts have really clarified the meaning of intersectionality for me. I never really thought about how a person’s identity is dependent on all their qualities and how they can all affect people. The TED Talk was especially interesting to me once it discussed how black women can face discrimination both for being black and being a woman. That connects back to how there are several lenses to use while evaluating anything. Intersectionality is an interesting and important concept, why isn’t more widespread?

Metaphors We Live By (Ryan Bhagwandeen)

Metaphors We Live By

Metaphors are phrases we use to compare things and express ideas. George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s “Metaphors We Live By” explain the importance and frequency of metaphors in our daily lives. We use metaphors all the time in everyday speech that a lot of us aren’t even aware of. A great example of a metaphor would be the phrase “Argument is War.” We know that a war is when people fight over something, using strategy to defeat others and win. We then take this idea of war and apply its principles to our definition of arguments. Another example would be the common phrase “time is money.” Everyone knows money has value, its a resource. This phrase tells us that time also holds a lot of value and is a useful resource. This proves why metaphors are so useful and common throughout everyday speech; they are great ways of quickly getting an idea across to others. The text then goes on to discuss what Michael Reddy calls the “conduit metaphor.” Reddy explains that linguistic expressions are the containers for ideas and “communication” is sending these containers to others. However, the conduit metaphor is not a perfect exlpanation as some metaphors do need prior context in order to make any sense or have actual meaning.

I never realized quite how common metaphors were in daily life. It would actually be difficult to go a day without using a metaphor. This reading also made me understand just how useful they are and how much they can affect us, especially when the phrase “argument is war” was brought up. If you know the aspects of one concept, a metaphor helps you bring those aspects over to another similar concept and create your own understanding of it. Metaphors can shape the way we think of things and provide the structure of our ideas and comprehension of something.

The Egg and the Sperm

“The Egg and the Sperm: How Science Has Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles” by Emily Martin discusses how stereotypical gender roles made their way into explanations of biology. There several times where the reproductive and biological processes of women are depicted as weaker or inferior to those of males. Certain word choices and phrasing put female reproductions in a more unfavorable portrayal and make male processes far more impressive. The first example would be the explanation of menstruation. The uterine lining is described as “debris”, dead tissue that needs to be expelled. It implies that the system has gone awry or expired. Menstruation is also explained to happen due to “failure” to get pregnant. The male reproductive system, however is described more to amaze and be viewed as something more impressive. Medical texts state that if seminiferous tubules were uncoiled, they would span one-third of a mile and also that males can produce millions of sperm everyday. Some texts also go on to describe some women’s organs as becoming “battered” and “worn” from ripening eggs every month. Later, Martin also brings up that female reproductive processes are also described as “wasteful” since women are born with millions of egg cells but only a few hundred ever end up being released. However, male processes are never expressed the same way, even though male processes are actually much more wasteful. Men are able to produce millions of sperm everyday, while only a few are ever used to impregnate throughout a lifetime. Sperm is also depicted in a masculine manner, described as “strong” and “efficiently powered” to find an egg and penetrate it, while the egg is described very passively, being “swept along” or “drifting” to the uterus.

I found this reading interesting because it pointed out things I wouldn’t normally notice. It is pretty odd that female reproductive processes is described to be so much more passive and overall negative than male processes. Stereotypes can appear and be reinforced in places you wouldn’t expect, and you also wouldn’t even notice. It was surprising to read as one would expect medical texts to be a lot more objective about this and not so strangely sexist when describing biological differences between men and women. The texts, however, do showcase the importance of metaphor and how they affects us. Martin’s text connects with Lakoff and Johnson’s this way. With simple word choices and phrasing, female reproduction is depicted in a far more negative light than male reproduction and has a subtle affect on the way we think of them.

Advertisements (Ryan Bhagwandeen)

This is an ad for Seamless. I see ads for them pretty frequently while on the train. I remember seeing this specific ad while on the A train. It tries to catch people’s eyes by using really strong, vibrant colors. It also strongly aims to relate to city life as many New Yorkers would rather have food delivered right to their door rather than cook in their apartments.

Tools for Analyzing Texts (Ryan Bhagwandeen)

The reading, “Tools for Analyzing Texts” starts off by describing how bombarded we are with advertisements and why it’s important that we be able to analyze them. It mentions that being able to analyze will help us to see the real significance behind a text by thinking in a more “meta” sense and also give us the ability to understand how it works and give us new insight. The reading then goes on to discuss lenses for analysis, which are basically different ways of looking at and analyzing a text. Different lenses allow readers to develop different theories on how a text works and manages to evoke a certain thought or emotion in us. When analyzing a text, there are many factors that need to be considered, like its intended audience, purpose, time period it was written in, genre, and what medium it was produced in to give us a thorough and accurate analysis. Some theoretical lenses that should also be considered for texts of any kind are the roles of ethnicity, sexual orientation, ableism/disability, and the cultural and social markers that indicate an entire identity.

It’s really interesting how there are endless ways for a single text to be interpreted with the abundant amount of tools there are to analyze with. So many factors contribute to a text’s analysis like the time period it was written in and its intended audience that it can leave a totally different interpretation among readers. It’s fascinating how using various lenses can drastically change the perceived meaning of a text.

Can a person’s analysis of something be wrong? Is there such thing as a “correct” analysis?

What is Rhetoric? (Ryan Bhagwandeen)

One of Baruch’s resources that I’ve learned about is its writing center. It seems like a very helpful resource available to students. I found it very interesting that you can use it to write up rough drafts and receive one-on-one feedback on your work. I think it’s a great idea as it allows for more personal attention for the student’s writing and can lead to more in-depth constructive criticism and learning. Its workshops for learning professional writing skills also seem extremely useful, especially for Baruch students who are usually pursuing professional business careers.

Rhetoric is the use of specific language to describe a certain idea. Rhetoric is frequently linked with persuasion or even deception. While rhetoric can be used to persuade readers, it’s not its only use. It is simply a way of appealing to readers so they can fully absorb the main point that the reader is trying to get across to them with the use of logic, emotion and ethical beliefs. Learning how to recognize and use rhetoric can not only help us with our own writing but also help to perceive a writer’s main argument. These are skills necessary to be both a good writer and thinker.

About Me (Ryan Bhagwandeen)

I would describe myself as quiet, kind, and creative. I am a pretty introverted person, I only have a few close friends but I enjoy meeting new people. I’ve always been a quiet person but I try to be friendly to whoever I meet. From a young age I have always had an active imagination and liked to think more than speak. I enjoy movies, TV, occasionally playing video games and have a hobby of drawing/sketching. I’m not quite sure what career I want to have yet, I’m not even sure about keeping my major, but I believe I will find what I want to do during my time at Baruch.

As a writer I would say I’m thorough. I’ve thought of myself as a decent writer for a while. I always try to explain everything I can think of when writing. I’ve always enjoyed writing because it’s a way to explain and expand upon ideas you may have, although it can prove to be very challenging to find the right words that express what you think. Especially on more complex topics, putting coherent thoughts and ideas can be difficult. Properly expressing ideas with words and formatting it in a proper structure is the hardest part of writing for me, but overall I think I’m pretty good at it.