What are the differences between exploratory writing and exploratory thinking? Perhaps you think about things in this way without using writing as a tool through which to process your ideas. How does exploratory writing change this process?
Exploratory writing is something that you can see and that you can share with other people whereas exploratory thinking is something that only you know. When you think, you're not sharing it with the world and you're not trying to let everyone else know what is going on your head. When it comes to exploratory writing, it helps with your writing because you know what point you're trying to make when you begin writing and it helps you organize your thoughts because you know what you want to say before hand.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Thursday, July 31, 2008
August 1, 2008
"How Do You Grade a Conversation"
In this article, Trent Batson talks about grading a written conversation. Batson talks about "academic conversations" and how a professor he talked to graded his students on how well their conversations on-line went. If they got off topic while on the chat, the conversation was no longer academic and became a social chit-chat. He also talks about criterion for grading conversations. The first criterion is creating coherence. This is creating a coherent conversation, a conversation that is understandable. The second criterion is awareness of audience. If you're talking to someone, but you're directing the conversation to someone else, you're not showing awareness of your audience. He also talks about how "conversation" has evolved over time. We now have conversations over the internet using blogs, chats, and e-mails.
I think he is right about how conversations have evolved over time. When conversation began, it was always face-to-face or through letters. Then it evolved to phone conversations and then finally to conversations over the internet; chat, e-mail, blogs, and personal IM's. I like the way the professor did his graded his work and how he had his students have academic conversations on-line with each other.
In this article, Trent Batson talks about grading a written conversation. Batson talks about "academic conversations" and how a professor he talked to graded his students on how well their conversations on-line went. If they got off topic while on the chat, the conversation was no longer academic and became a social chit-chat. He also talks about criterion for grading conversations. The first criterion is creating coherence. This is creating a coherent conversation, a conversation that is understandable. The second criterion is awareness of audience. If you're talking to someone, but you're directing the conversation to someone else, you're not showing awareness of your audience. He also talks about how "conversation" has evolved over time. We now have conversations over the internet using blogs, chats, and e-mails.
I think he is right about how conversations have evolved over time. When conversation began, it was always face-to-face or through letters. Then it evolved to phone conversations and then finally to conversations over the internet; chat, e-mail, blogs, and personal IM's. I like the way the professor did his graded his work and how he had his students have academic conversations on-line with each other.
July 30 Reaction
What is happening in New Orleans now? Have conditions improved for the city? What has changed since When the Levees Broke was filmed? (Cite any sources you find)
Right now, New Orleans is still being cleaned. Some places are cleaned and fixed up, with people living there and taking care of their house. But what about their neighborhood? After talking to the youth group at my church that just went to New Orleans, people are neglecting lots next to them and even public parks that are dangerous for them. They told me that they cleaned up a park on the corner of a street and while they were doing it, more than one person came out and told them that they were so thankful for them cleaning it up because everytime they came to the corner it was on, they got nervous because they couldn't see around it. Nice of the residents to thank the kids, right? My question is, why couldn't the people who live there help and do it themselves? According to the kids, these people were young, healthy and very capable of doing it themselves. Conditions have improved definitely but in some areas it is still really bad. Since When the Levees Broke was filmed, things have changed in some areas, but in others, nothing has changed. "In the Lower Ninth Ward, the worst-hit area of New Orleans in the August 2005 hurricane, just 1 in 10 original residents is living there today. Everywhere you look, there are abandoned and condemned buildings. Much more evident are the countless empty lots where the flood simply wiped the houses there off the face of the Earth, leaving behind in the interim little more than weeds taller than people."
Cite
Daniel Terdiman
"Post-Katrina New Orleans Aches For Recovery"
http://news.cnet.com/
http://news.cnet.com/2300-13576_3-6242942-18.html?tag=ne.gall.pg
July 2, 2008
Right now, New Orleans is still being cleaned. Some places are cleaned and fixed up, with people living there and taking care of their house. But what about their neighborhood? After talking to the youth group at my church that just went to New Orleans, people are neglecting lots next to them and even public parks that are dangerous for them. They told me that they cleaned up a park on the corner of a street and while they were doing it, more than one person came out and told them that they were so thankful for them cleaning it up because everytime they came to the corner it was on, they got nervous because they couldn't see around it. Nice of the residents to thank the kids, right? My question is, why couldn't the people who live there help and do it themselves? According to the kids, these people were young, healthy and very capable of doing it themselves. Conditions have improved definitely but in some areas it is still really bad. Since When the Levees Broke was filmed, things have changed in some areas, but in others, nothing has changed. "In the Lower Ninth Ward, the worst-hit area of New Orleans in the August 2005 hurricane, just 1 in 10 original residents is living there today. Everywhere you look, there are abandoned and condemned buildings. Much more evident are the countless empty lots where the flood simply wiped the houses there off the face of the Earth, leaving behind in the interim little more than weeds taller than people."
Cite
Daniel Terdiman
"Post-Katrina New Orleans Aches For Recovery"
http://news.cnet.com/
http://news.cnet.com/2300-13576_3-6242942-18.html?tag=ne.gall.pg
July 2, 2008
Monday, July 28, 2008
When The Levees Broke- Reaction Blog
When The Levees Broke is a documentary about Hurricane Katrina. While watching this, it has definitely given me more knowledge on the subject than I have ever had. At points, it really angers me to see how long it actually took to even start to help victims. What the hell was the government doing? At the same time, why did these people stay? I understand why some people did; they had to. When you're poor and homeless, chances are, you don't have a car or transportation to evacuate in case of an emergency. But what about the people who did have transportation; why didn't they leave? It doesn't make sense to me but then again, you never really know what you're going to do until you get put into that situation.
Hearing some of the victims talk about this tragedy really makes me emotional. I can really see and feel these victims emotions. When they cry, when the yell, when the cuss, when they just sit there in silence, you can feel the emotions they are experiencing. It just makes me wonder why is it taking so long to help these people out. People are still without homes, electricity, good food and water. Why is that happening 3 years later?
And the information that I do know that isn't from this documentary really makes me angry as well. Seeing the houses in the video with more than one X on them really angers me. That means that those houses had to be checked more than once because the first, second, and even third time it was done, it wasn't done right. People were still coming home and finding dead bodies in their houses! If you're checking a damaged home for dead bodies, how the hell do just knock on the door and if no one answers, put a big zero, meaning no casualties? Do you really think a dead person is about to get up and answer the door? What were the people checking the houses thinking?!
This is one of the biggest natural disasters America has ever seen and look how we're reacting to it. Three years later and New Orleans still looks like it got yesterday. I just don't believe it..
Hearing some of the victims talk about this tragedy really makes me emotional. I can really see and feel these victims emotions. When they cry, when the yell, when the cuss, when they just sit there in silence, you can feel the emotions they are experiencing. It just makes me wonder why is it taking so long to help these people out. People are still without homes, electricity, good food and water. Why is that happening 3 years later?
And the information that I do know that isn't from this documentary really makes me angry as well. Seeing the houses in the video with more than one X on them really angers me. That means that those houses had to be checked more than once because the first, second, and even third time it was done, it wasn't done right. People were still coming home and finding dead bodies in their houses! If you're checking a damaged home for dead bodies, how the hell do just knock on the door and if no one answers, put a big zero, meaning no casualties? Do you really think a dead person is about to get up and answer the door? What were the people checking the houses thinking?!
This is one of the biggest natural disasters America has ever seen and look how we're reacting to it. Three years later and New Orleans still looks like it got yesterday. I just don't believe it..
July 25 Reaction
What does it mean to be a refugee? Why was this such a problematic term?
Dictionary.com defines refugee as this:
a person who flees for refuge or safety, esp. to a foreign country, as in time of political upheaval, war, etc.
In my own words, a refugee is someone in our country running from their own country that is having something bad going on in it. When the victims of Hurricane Katrina started to be called refugees, I understand why they were so infuriated. Those people are United States citizens; yeah, something bad happened where they live, but they weren't running from another country, they were "running" from their city. There is no reason for news reporters to be calling them refugees just because they don't have a place to live at the moment. How can you be a refugee in you own country? It doesn't make any sense to me, so for the victims to be pissed, I think it's okay.
Dictionary.com defines refugee as this:
a person who flees for refuge or safety, esp. to a foreign country, as in time of political upheaval, war, etc.
In my own words, a refugee is someone in our country running from their own country that is having something bad going on in it. When the victims of Hurricane Katrina started to be called refugees, I understand why they were so infuriated. Those people are United States citizens; yeah, something bad happened where they live, but they weren't running from another country, they were "running" from their city. There is no reason for news reporters to be calling them refugees just because they don't have a place to live at the moment. How can you be a refugee in you own country? It doesn't make any sense to me, so for the victims to be pissed, I think it's okay.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
7/18 Readings
Questions
This week's readings were A.D and an interview with Marjane Satrapi. A.D. is a graphic novel about Hurricane Katrina and its effects before, during and after it hit. The writer uses many different characters throughout this piece of writing. Some of the characters chose to leave for when the hurricane hit, some chose to stay and some felt as if they didn't have a choice. The prologue has two parts. Part one shows only pictures of everything leading up to the hurricane; what the city looked like, what the hurricane looked like as a it was building up to it's massive size. Part two of the prologue is only pictures (just like the first part) except the pictures show the effects during the hurricane and the final panel shows the city after the hurricane. Chapters one through twelve are about people preparing to leave or preparing to stay through the hurricane at the home or wherever they can get to. These people all get to listen to the radio for updates and the ones who left are completely shocked but the ones who stayed are mad because no one is trying to help them. In the end, the people who left know that they won’t be able to make it home for months and the people who did stay and are still alive believe that they are trying to be killed by the government.
In the interview with Marjane Satrapi, she talks about how when she wrote Persepolis it was autobiographical. But even though it’s true to her life, she changed some things. If something bad happened to someone she wasn’t going to put their name in there and draw them exactly as she remembered them. She also talked about how when she started writing it, she didn’t really know what a comic was. Other people who wrote graphic comics as she did grew up reading comics so they already knew what they were doing; she didn’t. She also says how she wants people to be able to read it and see that it's true. She doesn’t want anyone to doubt her writing.
Reaction
After reading A.D, I got a new sense of how the people who went through Hurrican Katrina really felt about it. I now see why some people thought the government was out to kill them. And I see why people stayed there and didn't leave. Most people thought it would just be like the last big hurricane they had. They thought it was just go turn east. No one was expecting what happened next. Reading this showed me that no matter what someone tells you, if you're a stubborn person, you're not going to do what they say. And by that, I mean that Ray Nagin told them to leave New Orleans and some people still didn't leave, even after he called an emergency evactuation.
After reading the interview with Marjane Satrapi, I got a new sense of how she thought. After watching Persepolis and now reading this interview, I understand why she put some of things in the movie that she did. You can tell she's just a regular person who went through something that not a lot of people ever have. I like the fact that in the interview she says that her ex-husband is a nasty person but if you were to ask him, he'd say she was the nasty one. She knows that everyone has their own point of view and even though you think you're right, to someone else, you might not be.
Questions
1. What made the writer of A.D. want to write it?
2. Did he make up most of the things in A.D. or are these victim's actual stories?
3. Does Marjane Satrapi feel any connection to the victims of Hurricane Katrina because of what she went through as a child?
This week's readings were A.D and an interview with Marjane Satrapi. A.D. is a graphic novel about Hurricane Katrina and its effects before, during and after it hit. The writer uses many different characters throughout this piece of writing. Some of the characters chose to leave for when the hurricane hit, some chose to stay and some felt as if they didn't have a choice. The prologue has two parts. Part one shows only pictures of everything leading up to the hurricane; what the city looked like, what the hurricane looked like as a it was building up to it's massive size. Part two of the prologue is only pictures (just like the first part) except the pictures show the effects during the hurricane and the final panel shows the city after the hurricane. Chapters one through twelve are about people preparing to leave or preparing to stay through the hurricane at the home or wherever they can get to. These people all get to listen to the radio for updates and the ones who left are completely shocked but the ones who stayed are mad because no one is trying to help them. In the end, the people who left know that they won’t be able to make it home for months and the people who did stay and are still alive believe that they are trying to be killed by the government.
In the interview with Marjane Satrapi, she talks about how when she wrote Persepolis it was autobiographical. But even though it’s true to her life, she changed some things. If something bad happened to someone she wasn’t going to put their name in there and draw them exactly as she remembered them. She also talked about how when she started writing it, she didn’t really know what a comic was. Other people who wrote graphic comics as she did grew up reading comics so they already knew what they were doing; she didn’t. She also says how she wants people to be able to read it and see that it's true. She doesn’t want anyone to doubt her writing.
Reaction
After reading A.D, I got a new sense of how the people who went through Hurrican Katrina really felt about it. I now see why some people thought the government was out to kill them. And I see why people stayed there and didn't leave. Most people thought it would just be like the last big hurricane they had. They thought it was just go turn east. No one was expecting what happened next. Reading this showed me that no matter what someone tells you, if you're a stubborn person, you're not going to do what they say. And by that, I mean that Ray Nagin told them to leave New Orleans and some people still didn't leave, even after he called an emergency evactuation.
After reading the interview with Marjane Satrapi, I got a new sense of how she thought. After watching Persepolis and now reading this interview, I understand why she put some of things in the movie that she did. You can tell she's just a regular person who went through something that not a lot of people ever have. I like the fact that in the interview she says that her ex-husband is a nasty person but if you were to ask him, he'd say she was the nasty one. She knows that everyone has their own point of view and even though you think you're right, to someone else, you might not be.
Questions
1. What made the writer of A.D. want to write it?
2. Did he make up most of the things in A.D. or are these victim's actual stories?
3. Does Marjane Satrapi feel any connection to the victims of Hurricane Katrina because of what she went through as a child?
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Hillary Chute's article about Persepolis (my worst summary ever lol)
Summary
Persepolis is a comic by Marjane Satrapi. She tells a story of her childhood and how living in Iran affected her life. Hillary Chute analyzes the story Marji tells through he pictures and writing. Chute tries to clarify anything in Marji's story in her own words. Chute didn’t just analyze Marji’s writing but she also talked about how graphic narratives (she doesn’t use the word graphic novels) are focused on by the media but it’s always graphic narratives by men. She says that is not true. “Some of today’s most riveting feminist cultural production is in the form of accessible yet edgy graphic narratives.”
Reaction
I really didn’t understand what Hillary Chute was talking about before she started her analyzation of Marjane Satrapi’s comic. Marji’s comic was very good. The pictures with the words helped to portray what she saw and thought as a child. You could tell how affected she was with having to wear the veil and how much she wanted to be involved with her community. I mean, she thought she was going to be the last prophet.
Questions
1. What happened to Marji's "rule" book?
2. What she scared for her parents, especially for her mom, when they would protest?
3. Why did Hillary Chute pick this comic to write about?
Persepolis is a comic by Marjane Satrapi. She tells a story of her childhood and how living in Iran affected her life. Hillary Chute analyzes the story Marji tells through he pictures and writing. Chute tries to clarify anything in Marji's story in her own words. Chute didn’t just analyze Marji’s writing but she also talked about how graphic narratives (she doesn’t use the word graphic novels) are focused on by the media but it’s always graphic narratives by men. She says that is not true. “Some of today’s most riveting feminist cultural production is in the form of accessible yet edgy graphic narratives.”
Reaction
I really didn’t understand what Hillary Chute was talking about before she started her analyzation of Marjane Satrapi’s comic. Marji’s comic was very good. The pictures with the words helped to portray what she saw and thought as a child. You could tell how affected she was with having to wear the veil and how much she wanted to be involved with her community. I mean, she thought she was going to be the last prophet.
Questions
1. What happened to Marji's "rule" book?
2. What she scared for her parents, especially for her mom, when they would protest?
3. Why did Hillary Chute pick this comic to write about?
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