Category: Blog-ENG110

They Say I Say Chapter 14:

In chapter 14 the author introduces a thesis finding activity, after the students find what the author means it is now their turn to say what they want to. At first the discussion was drawn out and felt forced.  To combat this they gave students different questions like “whats the authors point of view” or “do you agree with what the author is saying etc. When they used these more specific questions the discussions flourished.  I read this chapter because I felt as though some of my quote analysis was weak and it needed strengthening.

I applied this to my revision process by going back to the quotes I used in my paper and re-analyzed them, asking more specific questions. By doing this I can understand the point the quote is trying to get across and learn information about the author that will be useful in my analysis.

My goal for the revision of this paper will be to create a flowing piece of text that is easy to understand and relays the points that I am trying to make clearly. At the moment the rough draft is a little mixed up and needs more focus to become a better piece of writing. The biggest step in my revision process will be global edits and reshaping some of my ideas to make them more clear to the reader. Global edits will allow me to see the overall shape of the essay and help me reconfigure the piece to how I want it. Local edits will be done after and carry less weight. I will wait until all my ideas are in place before fixing sentence structure. The biggest challenge I run into during revision is looking to see if my writing makes since chronologically. Sometimes when writing you can slip up and put an important idea out of place, the hard part is finding out where it should really go. If I find a challenge that is too hard for me to figure out on my own I will rely on my resources like the Little Seagull or use the internet to help guide me. Overall the revision process is the most important process to make your paper into a great one.

After reading Galen Strawsons “I am not a story” it made me ponder on how narrative affects our society. Like Strawson explained in America we have a “universal narrative” that everyone should follow. Go to school get a successful job and work until you can retire. For a long time our society was locked into this “universal narrative” and it started to change just recently that the narrative has become more open and broad. It is now becoming the norm to do whatever makes you happy in your life.

Telling your personal narrative is an important experience that all should take part in. It relieves stress and creates stronger connections between you and your audience.  I disagree with Strawson viewpoint on self narration. He believe that not all self narration is good for you, and how there is a split between the narrative and the non. It is interesting to think that some people don’t want to share their story or stories in general. I think that our language would be a little dry if stories weren’t told.

Art and science are both essential skill sets that humans need when problem solving. Both subjects have their own pieces of knowledge that you can learn from and use in the future. In Pinker’s essay relating to the importance of science he says “this humanism, which is inextricable from a scientific understanding of the world, is becoming the defacto morality of modern democracies, international organization, and liberalizing religions, and its unfulfilled promises define the moral imperatives we face today” (Pinker). Pinker uses this quote to end his article. Its a good conclusion statement that wraps the ideas of his paper into one sentence. Pinker believes that humanism or caring about the outcome of the human species requires both scientific reasoning and creative thinking to be fully understood. This idea of science is required for humanism is also translated in Yo Yo Mas essay about the sciences and art, he says “the humanities must sincerely engage with the sciences” (Ma). This idea shows the importance of science to all things related to humans, even the creative side. Science and art work together to form so many social constructs that humans use today still. Creative and critical thinking should be learned from the arts and sciences giving humans the needs to fight for their survival and live a successful life.

How does science and art affect problem solving in humans. Important questions to ponder are the ones not solved yet. There seems to be an unlimited amount of information ready to be digested in this world and many problems to still solve. When solving an unknown you cannot use regular learning strategies understand it fully. When Pinker is referring to questions not answered he says “In which ways does , then, does science illuminate human affairs? Let me start with the most ambitious: the deepest questions about who we are,  where we came from, and how we define the meaning and purpose of our lives”. (Pinker) These ideas relate more to creative thinking and need out of the box thinking methods to understand let alone answer. But to be a great thinker the common questions that everyone asks must be pondered by yourself.  Leonardo da Vinci was a great thinker who used his creative thinking from his painting, and critical thinking skill from inventing. This created a strong problem solving brain that could ponder an unknown and make the unknown known. Da Vinci used his science knowledge to be years ahead of other inventors in his time period. Da Vinci will forever be revered as a great thinker because of how powerful his ability to was.

Intro 1

Think about the last time you have used a metaphor. It is actually quite surprising how much a person uses metaphor in their daily life, and they don’t even notice. If you kept track of how many you used in a day it would be a larger number than you would expect. Metaphors are used to explain a plethora of information without boring the reader. One of the biggest strengths of metaphor is that you could explain something that your audience has no clue about in an effective matter, you can use metaphor to explain virtually anything. They help us connect to the reader on a deeper level and allow stronger connections to form. The English language would be a drag without them. The question being asked is how do metaphors affect your mental and physical wellness. Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words can hurt you, heal you, and change your perspective on things you may once have had a different opinion on.

Intro 2

Imagine communication in a world without metaphor. It would be a dry bitter place with a lack of information. It would require great detail to convey new information. Now think how important metaphor is when related to the medical world. How important is it for medical professionals to utilize metaphor with patients? Metaphor is essential because of the describing power that they carry. If a patient has no idea what is going on with them the perfect explanation would be a metaphor. They can connect the information the patient already has with new information so that it is easily extracted. This is directed towards both medical professionals, patients and authors alike. To understand the power of metaphor and what these phrases can do is essential for these individuals.

After rereading and annotating Erard’s essay a second time it did in fact shed some light upon the piece.  Erard is good at his job and keeps me interested the second time through. Even when expecting to be bored he grabs my attention. The metaphors that Erard uses in this piece are sneaky and I did not notice all of them before on the first read. I noticed that Erard has a skill to put the reader where he wants them to be. He is very good at using imagery to his advantage and keeping the reader interested in doing so. Reannotating in color made me retain key information that I would have forgot if I hadn’t. I used https://www.dictionary.com/ as my tool for glossing the text. Glossing the text did actually pull some paragraphs together shedding light onto their actual meaning. One example was finding the meaning of the word semantic, which was in the middle of the sentence, and I had no idea what it meant. Now after glossing I know that semantic means something relating to another. These strategies for reading are very helpful and honestly make you think and process at a much higher level. I would recommend using these strategies and will use them myself in the future.

See Through Words: Michael Erard

In this article Erard beautifully explains the process behind building and developing metaphors. Erard does not believe that all metaphors are made up randomally, he believes that most metaphors are used based on a different number of variables. Metaphors can be successful in many different ways and convey a lot of information without a plethora of text. Erard wrote powerfully and made me stop and think multiple times which can really keep a reader engaged and want to keep reading.

Erard’s background with metaphors really stands out with his writing and uses metaphors to give a lot of information. He uses metaphor as a visualization piece so that the reader can more easily connect with the piece. Erard explains what a metaphor is using metaphors. I thought that, it was a intuitive way to explain the word.  My favorite paragraph in this article is when Erard explains how a metaphor can be affected by culture and it will change the readers point of view in doing so.

After reading this piece I feel as though a have a better understanding of what goes behind a metaphor and what can make it successful. Erard does a good job in keeping the imagery interesting and grasping the readers attention.  Originally I thought that this piece of writing was going to be boring and hard to get through. I was surprised on how it caught my attention so easily. Just as a surprising metaphor is a good one it works the same for articles.

When I was first introduced to the idea of the Eportfolio I was a little put back. I though the idea of this was complex and was afraid to manage my work all on the computer.  I have trust in how the process will work and have began to accept the idea. The Eportfolio is a much more visual pleasing rendition of organization and you have the opportunities to show off the work you’ve done.  With more fidgeting and exploring my website will blossom and become much better.  This simpler website build experience could help me in the future.