Currently in Staten Island there have been protests taking place concerning the somewhat recent Eric Garner case.  After seeing the video that was taken on the street next to Garner, I was amazed.  It is a mystery as to why the cop decided to use a choke hold on a man, especially since it has been banned from ever being used.  After hearing the cries of Eric Garner saying that he could not breathe, one would think that the cop would let go.  That’s what really got to me is that as Garner screamed, the cop still would not let go.

For this next essay I am planning on addressing the issue of how the media affects the way in which women are perceived in society.  Throughout history, women have always been seen as being the weaker and more dependent sex.  This image of women has been made even stronger by the influences of media.  Some instances occur in which notable people take a stand against this negative outlook on women.  I will be highlighting these instances in my paper along with the instances where women are depicted in a negative light.  This topic interests me because the issue of gender inequality has always been a major issue in our society.  Although the issue has become significantly better, it still exists.  In this paper I will be asking why does gender inequality still exist and does the media play a major role in keeping gender inequality alive.  My audience for this paper would be people who are also interested in the issues of gender inequality and anything that has to do with a difference between men and women in any aspect of society.  To show that I have researched both sides, I will talk about two instances, when women are shown in a negative light in the media, and when the role of women is being defended by various people.  Sources that would work relatively well for this topic would be pieces in magazines or news articles that speak about women in society.

Currently for this upcoming paper, I am researching the concept of gender inequality in our society and how the media affects the way in which women are perceived.  I will also focus on how some popular figures in the media speak out against the derogatory beliefs associated with women.  This has proven to be a very controversial issue among both academic scholars and websites.  I am still working on narrowing down my topic.

In this blog post by Barbara Lee, the issue of the gender wage gap is spoken about.  Lee being a major supporter of women’s rights movements, definitely has areas of bias in her writing.  For example, when Lee speaks about the trends released about women’s earnings, she uses the words spoiler alert in parentheses and tells the reader that women still earn less than men, which exhibits the bias in Lee’s writing.  By writing this blog post, Lee is bringing attention to the issue of the gender wage gap, and although it has decreased significantly over the year, it still exists today.  Lee tries to support pay equity by bringing up the point that “when we hear pay equity framed as a women’s issue, let’s remember that women’s issues are family issues.” (1)

MLA citation:    Lee, Barbara. “Three Things to Think About Following Equal Pay Day”. Huffington Post. Web.

The purpose of completing these assignments is to allow us to practice how to reference articles in our writing.

Introduction

In the introduction to “They Say/ I Say”: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing, Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein provide templates which are aimed to provide a way for writers to introduce the argument or issue they are addressing in their essay.  The authors describe this type of essay a “They Say/I Say” approach.  Many people have expressed a concern that this book will not allow writers to formulate their own ideas when they have templates already given to them.  However, the authors insist that these templates will not limit a writer’s creativity in their writing process being that people can add or take away anything they want from these templates.  I would argue that this book does in fact give a writer the tools they need to write a comprehensive “They Say/I Say” essay.

Chapter 1

The main point of this first chapter is to show writers that it is crucial to introduce the view they are either agreeing with or opposing in their essay.  Without this key piece of their essay, their audience will be confused as to why the author chose to write about that specific subject.

” This little story illustrates an important lesson: that to give writing the most important thing of all-namely, a point- a writer needs to indicate clearly not only his or her thesis but also what larger conversation that thesis is responding to.” (pg. 18)

“This story also illustrates an important lesson about the order in which things are said: to keep an audience engaged, a writer needs to explain what he or she is responding to- either before offering that response or, at least, very early in the discussion.” (pg. 18)

“By reminding reader of the ideas you’re responding to , return sentences ensure that your text maintains a sense of mission and urgency from start to finish.” (pg. 26)

One question I would have after reading this section is how can a writer be sure they place the issue they are responding in their essay in the proper place?

When I think about revising my writing, I generally think about re-reading my first draft and changing the structure of some of the sentences but leaving the main purpose of my paper intact.  When revising my first English paper in high school, I did not have to change much about the paper.  I made revisions to the way some sentences were worded in order to make the paper sound better.  From this process, I learned how to improve my writing skills.  Revising is generally considered to be a process of re-considering your entire paper.  In this process, writers will often add, delete, or substitute words or sentences into their works.  Editing is the process of making sure one’s paper has consistency throughout.  Finally, proofreading is a process in which writers take a close look at the spelling in their paper and make sure there are no mistakes.  I think Brock Dethier’s piece on revision was very well written.  I thought it was interesting to see how he brought in more modern concepts like music to relate to his readers.  This comparison made thinking of revision much easier for me as a writer.  One point in the resistance to revision section that I would have agreed with would have been that revision is unnecessary.  Like Dethier says, if one can get a good grade on a paper they wrote the night before their paper is due, then why should they take the time to revise a paper they have already written.  The process of revising, however, has allowed me to see the benefit of revising and I am surprisingly not as opposed to revising as I once was.

Currently I am in the process of writing my first draft for my rhetorical analysis paper.  In order to get to this point I have conducted extensive research on the topic I am interested in.  I have viewed many articles to narrow down my search to two articles that are most relevant to my topic.  I have also written a zero draft which helped me take a closer look at the language used in both articles.  This zero draft has a lot of notes that will help me shape my first draft.  All of this research I have done has taken a few hours in total to complete.  The purpose of this assignment is to draw our attention to current news and to help us further read into articles and understand their true purpose.  One question I have is about how I should structure this paper in order to have the most effective paper possible.

Sample Annotated Bibliography

Sydney Buono

6 October 2014

Domestic Violence

Annotated Bibliography
Sydney Buono
2 October 2014
Domestic Violence
Citation information for source #1

“Violence Against Women Needs Action.”ESPN.30 November 2011. Web. 2 October 2014. <http://espn.go.com/espn/commentary/story/_/page/lapchick-111130/the-public-underwhelming-reaction-athletes-assault-women>

Reflections/Questions

I would use this source in my paper to further support the idea of domestic violence becoming contemporary because of its relation to sports figures. This piece could really help me in my paper to support the relativity of domestic violence due to its relation with sports figures.
Notes/Summary

The author of this source makes a point in saying that the attention of the public has more recently been drawn to this issue of domestic violence because is now concerns notable sports figures. The main purpose of this article is to bring attention to domestic violence and how many sports figures are involved with it. Paragraph three gives specific data about how many women suffer from domestic violence. Many women who are affected by domestic violence never receive or seek help. However, because these women are affiliated with noteworthy men, people quickly responded to the situation.

For my rhetorical analysis paper I am planning on writing about domestic violence issues.  I specifically want to focus on why domestic violence has become so important in the news lately and why this problem only just really starting to concern people.  Domestic violence is an issue that has exited for many years and only recently has the news been drawing attention to this issue.  What got me interested in this topic was the recent occurrences concerning football players Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson.  Both of these men have been iconic football players and their sudden expulsion from the NFL was very surprising to everybody who regularly watches football.  I myself am a very big football fan and I was interested in learning more about why these players were punished.  This topic also concerns me because domestic violence is a major issue that many people are affected by, however, not enough attention is brought to this issue.  I personally have not had any experience with this issue nor do I actually know anybody affected by it.  It is a topic that I feel strongly about which motivates me to conduct more research on the topic.  The resources I will be using for this topic are news articles about various occurrences of domestic violence.  However, my concern is whether I should solely focus on domestic violence among notable sports figures, or if I should compare the news articles concerning sports figures today with earlier articles on domestic violence that may not have received as much attention at the time.  Also, I am aware that we are not able to bring our own opinions into this essay, but I am unsure of how to write this paper without using my opinion.