Writing as a Process (Lucia Ku)

Composing as a Process

The act of writing is not just an ending result or a final product, it is a long process of exploring, planning, drafting, and revising. It is done in numerous ways and in various different points in our life. By continuously practicing the art of writing, we also end up developing our skills of communicating information, articulating feelings, and sorting out our thoughts about the events that happen within our lives in general.

Shitty First Drafts

The main point of this reading was to talk about the writing process. A typical writing process consists of multiple drafts before finally publishing a final piece. According to Anne Lamott, first drafts are meant to be shitty. It’s the draft where you are supposed to get all your feelings down onto the paper first before worrying about what to revise or rewrite. Once all your ideas are written down in front of you, then it would be easier to start organizing everything and putting everything into coherent sentences that flow together.

Freewriting

Freewriting is the process of writing whatever that is on your mind at the moment, no matter how random it may seem, for an ongoing period of time. By doing this, we take away the process of editing what we write or thinking about what to write about next. This simple activity helps us form ideas and puts all of our thoughts down onto the paper without worrying about how it will end up sounding like. Similar to speaking, it might not begin nicely, but it will soon pick up a sort of connectedness and force that will eventually start to make some sense.

Response

The first draft of a paper is just as important as any other part of the writing process, in the way that it helps you get all your ideas down onto the paper first. Similar to what Anne Lamott speaks about in “Shitty First Drafts” and what Peter Elbow speaks about in “Freewriting”, the first draft is meant for you to write down whatever that occurs to your mind first without worrying about how your paper will end up sounding like. Editing and correcting any mistakes can always come later.

Project Pitches (Lucia Ku)

My first project pitch choice is the music video “God Is A Woman” by Ariana Grande. The main reason or pro of why I chose to analyze this music video is because there are so many symbolic images included within this music video that I think would be really interesting to closely inspect and break down. I’m planning on using the lenses of gender and religion to interpret the music video since I think this song is mainly focused on those two areas. However, the con of this topic is that it’s kind of controversial and people might disagree with my interpretations. Also, since everything seems to have a symbolic meaning attached to it, I would have to do a lot of research and narrow down my options to only focus on a few of the main points of the video.

My second project pitch choice is the music video “1-800-273-8255” by Logic ft. Alessia Cara and Khalid. The pro of choosing to analyze this music video is that there are a lot of lenses of which I can choose to focus on. One of those would be the sexuality/LGBTQ+ area, which is what the music video chooses to mainly focus on. Another would be the mental health/depression/suicidal area due to certain scenes within the music video and the song’s title, which is the number for the suicide hotline. The con for choosing this is that the music video is shown like a movie and that it would be hard to closely focus on certain scenes without having to reference some scenes before it as background knowledge.

My third project pitch choice is the music video “The Village” by Wrabel. The pro of choosing to analyze this music video is that there is a lot of symbolism in the form of both images and quotes that I can focus on and interpret. I can also interpret this through the gender/transgender lenses through the eyes of young people because that’s the main area that this music video is trying to bring awareness to. The con of choosing this topic is that this music video is also shown like a movie and it would be hard to focus and narrow down on a certain scene without having to reference certain scenes before it.

Intersectional Readings (Lucia Ku)

Dancing Around Objectification by Victoria Merlino

In this article, Merlino highlights the different experiences of both black and white women. Although both experience objectification as women, their different ethnicities play an important role in the stark difference of treatment that both of these women receive. In Claude McKay’s The Harlem Dancer, the black woman is seen more as an idealized object rather than as a performer. Since she experiences both the issues of racism and sexism, she doesn’t really have a say in what the audience perceives her as. All are welcome to lust after her. However, in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, the main character’s social status as a white woman helps place her in a different position “above” the black men and “below” the white men. While white men may comfortably gaze upon her, black men feel an irrational wave of “guilt and fear”. As a privileged white woman, she has the power to deny those “below” her social status and sometimes those “above” her as well. Both characters in both stories represent the objectification of women. However, these experiences starkly contrast with each other due to the additional issue of racial inequality.

Intersectionality 101

Intersectionality is the interconnected social categories of race, gender, sexuality, disability, social class, religion, etc. These different categories help create different lenses that people can look through and perceive the world around them. No person can be defined by one category only. Everyone fits into multiple different categories which add to the complexity and diversity that one can interpret a certain topic, idea, or experience. For example, as a straight Asian American woman of the middle class, I can perceive certain topics uniquely as someone who fits into these specific categories. However, someone who fits into completely different categories may have a completely different interpretation for the same topic.

The Urgency of Intersectionality

In Kimberle Crenshaw’s TED talk, she addresses the intersectionality of African American women that affect how the community responds to certain issues regarding them. On the topic of police brutality, the intersectionality of being both African American and a woman allows them to experience injustices from both spheres of identity. According to Crenshaw, the stories of police brutality that garner the most outcry from social media and from their community come from black men. More often than not, the voices of black women are silenced when it comes to this issue. This overwhelming underrepresentation is due to the fact that black women are oppressed in terms of both race and gender. In order to rectify this issue, Crenshaw has created a #SayHerName movement in an attempt to hopefully shed more light on stories of black women in regards to police brutality.

Bechdel Test

The Bechdel test is a test made to measure gender equality within the film industry. Basically, there are three requirements that the film has to meet in order to pass this test. The first requirement is that there has to be at least two female characters in the film with names. The second requirement is that these two female characters have to have at least one conversation with each other. The third requirement is that this conversation can be about anything as long as it is not related to men. Although this test seems to be quite simple, many of our current highest grossing films surprisingly fail this test. I think this test is an interesting way of bringing awareness to the varying different levels of gender representation within the film industry.

Response

All four of these articles aim to address different aspects of gender inequality. What I noticed from reading all of these is that the category of gender is not an isolated category. It can be mixed in with other categories, such as race or sexuality, in order to create new lenses that further represent the people who fit into several different categories. Intersectionality is extremely complex and takes multiple different categories into account in order to create new diverse lenses that present various new perspectives that all vary from one another.

Metaphors We Live By (Lucia Ku)

Metaphors We Live By

“The Metaphors We Live By” by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson highlight the fact that metaphors are used in our everyday lives more often than we think. There are already thousands of metaphors integrated within our everyday speech that we might not have even realized. Metaphors are figures of speech or phrases used to allude to some other idea or action as a comparison. For example, the phrase “time is money” is used as a comparison to make the correlation that time is a valuable resource. One can make the connection that wasting time is essentially the same as wasting money. In our capitalistic society, there is a lot of importance placed on the value of money so making the connection between time and money can serve to be helpful in understanding the importance of time as well. Another example is the metaphor that “argument is war”. When one thinks of war, the image of soldiers, death, and fighting usually comes to mind. However, an argument is not a literal war. Instead, it is a representation of one in the verbal sense. Comparing an argument to war in a metaphor will serve to give the same sense of meaning. Although there is no physical battle, there are still attacks, defenses, and counterattacks.

The Egg and The Sperm

“The Egg and The Sperm” by Emily Martin sheds light on gender stereotypes hidden within certain vocabulary used when discussing the sexual reproduction system. When discussing the sperm, stronger words are used to showcase the sperm as the superior reproductive organ. However, when discussing the egg, softer language is used to portray it as the inferior reproductive organ. This use of language indirectly serves to support the gender stereotype that men are naturally superior to women. Especially since these terms are used to describe a natural part of our anatomy. One would think that the simple act of the sperm meeting the egg was a neutral interaction, devoid of any masculine or feminine action. But phrases such as the sperm “rescuing” the egg seem to suggest otherwise. These subtle descriptions pointed out by Emily Martin were eye openers for me because one would expect the scientific community to remain professional but instead, they indirectly uplifted gender stereotypes within their writings.

Connections

One connection between “The Metaphors We Live By” by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson and “The Egg and The Sperm” by Emily Martin is their use of metaphors within their writing. In “The Metaphors We Live By”, metaphors were analyzed and used as examples to explain to the audience the importance of metaphors within our speech and how often we use them without realizing it. In “The Egg and The Sperm”, metaphors were analyzed in explaining to the audience the gender stereotyping that occurs when using certain metaphors to describe certain procedures within the sexual reproductive system.

Tools for Analyzing Texts (Lucia Ku)

Summary:

Everyone constantly analyzes texts throughout their daily lives. Whether it’s by reading an advertisement, an email, or a newspaper, messages from all sorts of platforms surround us and inevitably demand our attention. There are actually a wide variety of ways in which one can analyze a certain text through different lenses. These can differ depending on the audience, purpose, genre, or media the text was specifically addressing. It is also important to consider design and stylistic elements that can present an image or video in many different ways. Other lenses such as ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, and social class can affect the way we interpret certain messages as well.

Response:

I think it’s interesting that one text can be analyzed in multiple different angles depending on the lenses we choose to view them through. Someone who chooses to view one topic from one perspective might have a completely different opinion from someone who chooses to view it from a completely different perspective.

Question:

If there are so many different ways to analyze a certain text, then is it safe to assume that there is no “correct” interpretation for anything?

Harlem Serenade (Lucia Ku)

I found this advertisement posted on the walls of Elmhurst Avenue as I exited the subway. It immediately caught my attention with its colorful and eye-catching drawings. My initial reaction to this was that it seemed like a fun and vibrant poster. Upon closer inspection, I realized that the poster depicted various musical instruments, landmarks, subway scenery, and people within it. I assume that this poster was drawn to celebrate the stimulating lives that the people within Harlem lead. From this poster alone, one can draw the conclusion that Harlem was probably an exciting place to be.

What Is Rhetoric? (Lucia Ku)

One new thing I learned about this course was that there are five fundamental learning goals that I should be able to meet by the end of the semester. These goals should be able to improve my critical reading and writing skills in order to better prepare me for my future career.

Rhetoric is the study of effective writing and speaking. It is also a form of persuasive language that people use to effectively communicate their thoughts to others. It is a certain way a group of people express themselves to get their message across clearly. People use rhetoric in their everyday language to communicate different conversations in certain ways. This is possible through the use of the three “topoi”: logos, pathos, and ethos. Logos is the use of logic and reason to appeal to an audience, pathos is the use of emotion to appeal to an audience, and ethos is the use of beliefs/customs/ethics to appeal to an audience. While using these three topoi, people are able to effectively connect with certain audiences on a certain level while speaking out about different views or beliefs.

Lucia Ku

About Me

My name is Lucia Ku. I am currently 17 years old and have lived in NYC my whole life. Growing up, I have always kept to myself and maintained a quiet demeanor. As a result, I had a lot of trouble talking to new people and socializing in public situations. However, as I grow older, I plan to change that and learn how to communicate better with others. In my free time, I love listening to music, trying new foods, and traveling the globe. My major is currently undecided but I will probably pick something within the business field.

About My Writing

As a writer, I would describe myself as someone who likes to present the facts and evidence of a topic first. I like to focus on the bigger picture of a topic instead of concentrating on the details. I tend to have some trouble with putting emotions or feelings into my writing so I hope to improve that with this class. But overall, I would like to think that I’m a decent writer.