Finding Evidence
This text is all about finding good, relevant evidence for a paper you may write. The authors first mention relevancy by giving an example regarding government. Arguing government officials should use the same policies for economic troubles that officials used fifty years ago is not convincing since it was a different time period. What worked then does not mean it will work now. The authors then list different types of data and evidence that can be gathered. They go in depth about college libraries and the resources they offer students to conduct research. Besides library and internet searches, you can also gather evidence by conducting interviews, experiments, surveys, and even just putting in a personal anecdote, which may also help to draw the reader in.This was a very informative piece. I didn’t know libraries can offer much more than just books on the shelves. Apparently, they have a lot of other resources, an entire private database, for students to research and gather evidence for whatever project they may be working on. I could possibly see this being useful to me.
Under My Thumb
In her essay Under My Thumb, Chelsea Booth talks about how unfairly women are treated in the music scene. She recalls a time in eighth grade where a boy was asking her about her favorite song by the Rolling Stones. She lied and named a song that wasn’t too “obvious” to be her favorite. She didn’t do this because she wanted the boy to like her, but just so she would be viewed as having an “equal” opinion on music. She then mentions how throughout her music classes, male musicians are the overwhelming majority of what they study. There is barely any mention of female musicians. Even when there are, they are frequently described in relation to their male counterparts, and are also just supplementary material. Booth then tells readers a story of when she was sexually assaulted by a stranger at a concerted. She also gives us some research that shows us how surprisingly common sexual harassment is at music events. In a survey of 54 women, every single one of them experienced harassment. The woman conducting the survey was harassed 22 time herself in just ten hours. She has an optimistic view of women in the music scene and says it’s just a matter of time before they are fully welcomed.I found this piece to be very surprising. I was shocked not only at Booth’s assault story but also how frequently sexual harassment occurs. I also strongly agreed with her points on female representation in her classes. I don’t remember discussing any female artists in my music classes in high school. It’s unfair how the contributions of women are often glanced over and not given the true recognition they deserve.