I believe that my view of myself as a writer has changed during this course. I’ve always viewed myself as writing to write, and writing for me– and if someone else read it then it is a mirror of me for them to see– and simply something that I just enjoyed to do. I wrote for classes but didn’t put much thought into the rhetorical devices and style that I was using. I relied heavily on the research I had done or the facts I was giving, instead of using the tools at my disposal to make my point that much more powerful or evocative. I usually write something everyday, but it’s the “spilled ink” kind of writing that is cathartic and spontaneous. By keeping up with maintaining my assignments on this blog, I was forced into a kind of new habit, in which I learned to practice writing in different ways than the open prose that I scribble each night. Instead, my pieces of writing each had their individual goals and purposes, and in order to achieve those goals set before me, I had to employ what I had learned. The commonplace blogs were like the practices of each week, and the assignments were like the game, in which I had to perform what I had been studying and practicing, and in which I had to take what I had learned and use it in my own way. Thus I learned that instead of the daily writing I do for myself, I can use it as a tool to speak louder than my own physical voice, and in nearly any situation, can use the concepts I have learned in order to persuade and argue. I can use these strategies to create a relationship with my reader who by understanding who I am and what I’ve come from, can understand the point I am trying to make even better.
In the reading and deconstructing of the writing of authors and musicians, I have learned the ways that they use style, rhetoric, and voice in order to make their story or their point so much more compelling and unique. It has added more facets of writing for me, more potential for change and variety and improvement. And in reading the blogs of classmates, I can see how each has taken the concepts taught in this course and slowly used them more and more in their writing, and I can see the difference it makes in their posts.
I find the blog aspect of the course to be very beneficial. Not only is it environmentally friendly (and much less of a hassle than printing out and turning in papers for each and every assignment), it inspired habit. The blog kept me vigilant over my assignments. It became a habit of mine to check my blog and the assignment blog at least every other night, and the weekly assignments also helped create this habit. This practice is helpful for a student like myself, who as an English major is constantly on the computer, and as a disorganized student, kept all my work, research, and assignments all in the same place. I found the texts in the course helpful for the learning and honing of my skills.
As a writer, I think it’s important to remember how flexible and versatile writing is. It is a beacon, a sword, a wand, a touchstone, and a fountain of inspiration. It a way to reach people and inform, to entertain and to persuade. When I wrote about myself as a writer at the beginning of this course, I was weak in the view of myself as I so often only write for myself. However, in the journey of this course, I have come to realize that while that is a fine end, I was focusing only on one facet of writing, and hardly employing the many and varied “tools of the trade” that were at my disposal had I looked just a bit harder. Now I can use the strategies and concepts I have learned in order to expand my writing and in order to use writing in so many more ways than I had used before.
“Time brought resignation, and a melancholy sweeter than common joy.”
In this excerpt from Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, this description of Heathcliff’s emotional state delves deeper into the adage, “Time heals all wounds.” For after his beloved’s death, the passing of time softens the blow and brings with it the acceptance of their passing. And while it does not take away the loss that has occurred, time in Heathcliff’s case has transformed the anguish into a “melancholy sweeter than common joy”. Here also expanded is the proverbial “better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all”. For Heathcliff has loved and lost, and though the pain is not unavoidable, the knowledge and the memory of his love, Catherine, has lent itself to a sad but beautiful and bittersweet memory.
I find FactCheck.org appears to be a reliable website. It makes sense of all the conflicting and contrasting points and claims made and given to the public by politicians and interest groups, cutting through the fog and presenting the facts behind what they’re saying. It reviews the factual accuracy of statements made, and then presents the actual facts to what has been said. The site doesn’t take sides, but merely digs for the truth, unearths it, and presents its harvest to the people, no matter if it damns one group or the other or both. So long as the facts are found and given to the public through this site. The articles are well written and easy for even the relatively political illiterate to understand, and if needed, political jargon and concepts are explained in order for the reader to fully understand the facts and the gravity of what is being discussed. There is also humor weaved in and out of the pieces. This not only makes what is usually a tedious topic, politics, more bearable, but also reflects the sometimes ridiculous, outlandish, and completely unfounded claims and statements that are made in the heat of the campaign trail.
The issue I’ve been following concerns the most ridiculous, funny, and controversial of the campaign ads that we as a public were battered with during campaign season. As someone who enjoys humor, I enjoyed this piece because it took the ads I was bewildered or even shocked by in the campaign and echoed my thoughts of confusion: “What the hell was that?!” And then, they set the record straight on how factual accurate the ads were, contrasting the truth to what the ads claimed in their sixty seconds of glory. I learned that even the smaller offices being ran for, such as representatives for states, used the shock and awe effect in their campaign video strategy. I learned what the ads I was unfamiliar with had claimed, and I learned what the actual facts were concerning the issues, legislation or candidates they were representing or bashing.
I feel that fact checkers are, most of all, making people more aware of the prevalence of factual inaccuracy in political campaigns. I think these resources are also making us more aware of our reliance on media for information, and how readily so many people trust what they see on TV or the internet or hear on the radio to be fact. It’s making us more aware of our need to discover the truth in order to make truly informed decisions. While the writing is refreshing, and it appears that the site is nonpartisan, I feel it is also important for those who use this and any other website to be aware, and if necessary, fact check the fact checkers. It’s important to keep in mind that the articles are written by humans and the site is edited and run by humans. Humans are far from infallible, and while some writers may do their best to keep personal biases or affiliations separate from their writing and their search for the facts, it may not always be possible to draw such a distinct line. So while to me, who is relatively well read in political news, the website seems fairly solid, someone with a greater knowledge of this science and scene may be able to see what I cannot; perhaps there are indeed hidden biases and a bit of fabrication that the website does themselves. I believe the idea of fact checkers is a grand and noble notion, but as I said, who checks the fact checkers? Without doing research on our own, we have to trust that the resources we turn to, like FactCheck.org, are staying in line with the principle they claim to hold high: the facts.
“I mistrust all frank and simple people, especially when their stories hold together”
I love this line from Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, because it is a feeling I found found to be true to many people. Honesty and frankness has faded away, so that when one like Jake is met with a person of such temperament, they are immediately distrusted. For who, in being honest, is really honest? A lot of times, when someone is so forthcoming and truthful, it seems they are fabricating what they say, or that they have something to hide. And when the stories they tell and assertions they make end up being truth, it is almost unsettling. Often times, they’re simply doing what they’re doing. Being honest. It’s a strange but almost universally felt phenomena, this outlook towards such openness But in a society where most people are guarded and hide things from one another, suspecting such quickly given honesty is easy and common. This line is well-suited study and summary of the general human perspective, at least for Americans.
The fact checking website I’ve been looking at, FactCheck.org, seems to cover many political topics. In the articles I’ve read, they all seemed to be written from an unbiased standpoint. They check facts concerning both political parties, even if the facts show false information was given by Democrats in one circumstance and Republicans in another. The articles written are made to inform readers of the truth in a sea of confusion and misinformation surrounding politics that most people don’t have the time nor the right knowledge to fully explore in the search for true facts. I believe that in the publishing of facts, the unearthing of truth that is done, that the very existence of these articles holds those who fabricate facts responsible up to a certain point. However, at this point, I’m not certain if it has a more resonant effect yet. Many people rely on media and media alone for their information, neglecting such fact checking resources to find the truth in what they are presented with daily.
One of the recent articles published on the website explores campaign ads, giving them different “awards”. While it is overtly humorous, this piece, it also explores how some of the most interesting and even bizarre ads of this recent campaign used such strange antics in order to cover up or take the focus away from the facts. Media, namely commercials in this case, is one of the easiest ways to reach out to and effect voters. And a lot of people, as discussed, don’t look for the facts from what they’re presented by a strange or brazen ad that’s flashed at them during the commercial break of their favorite television show. Not only does this article look at the bizarre lengths certain politicians or groups are willing to go to in order to make an impression, but also how such fireworks can often times leave us with false information or with no idea as to what was going on and what the ad was trying to convey. That is why the research of such ads is important. We all see them, all react to them, and few people look into how truthful that sixty seconds of airtime was.
“What does a scanner see? he asked himself. I mean, really see? Into the head? Down into the heart? Does a passive infrared scanner like they used to use or a cube-type holo-scanner like they use these days, the latest thing, see into me – into us – clearly or darkly? I hope it does, he thought, see clearly, because I can’t any longer these days see into myself. I see only murk. Murk outside; murk inside. I hope, for everyone’s sake, the scanners do better. Because, he thought, if the scanner sees only darkly, the way I myself do, then we are cursed, cursed again and like we have been continually, and we’ll wind up dead this way, knowing very little and getting that little fragment wrong too.”
This excerpt from Philip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly alludes to a verse in Corinthians (chapter 13 verse 12 to be exact) which reads “for now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known”. The book is specifically about an undercover police officer from Orange County, California who, while undercover, becomes addicted to a harrowing and highly addictive drug called Substance D. The books follows Bob Arctor’s slipping hold on reality, and what happens when the line between reality and illusion is blurred. This quote reflects not only Arctor’s slender grasp on what’s real, but also his coherence that he has begun to slip. For he cannot see other people, objects, even himself, with the clarity of sanity. He prays that a scanner, a object or entity without bias, can see the way he no longer can: clearly. For if it cannot see him and everything else for what it truly is, then everyone is “cursed, cursed again” because then all that can ever be seen is a sliver of what truly exists, and that tiny amount would be misunderstood in his current disillusionment.
Crawl into my skin, I’ll crawl into yours
Teach each other what our bodies are for
Learn how to sink and you learn how to swim
Learn how to lose and you learn how to win
So buy me a drink, and I’ll buy you a drink
You don’t seem to care what your boyfriend would think
With the prophet Isaiah on the crook of your arm
Saying, “I will protect you from all earthly harm
Fear thou not, fear thou not
My right hand will hold you, fear thou not”
I call you trouble, you call me friend
And I had no intention of losing again
I’m the reason you’re guilty, I’m the other man’s arms
Honey, what am I doing, how did I get this far
“Fear thou not, fear thou not
My right hand will hold you, fear thou not
Fear thou not, fear thou not
My right hand will hold you, fear thou not, fear thou not”
These are the lyrics to a song called Isaiah by Noah Gundersen. He’s a beautiful lyricist and an even better musician and singer. In this song, he tells his own story, about a girl he met and was with and loved, who was already spoken for by another. He know’s she’s “trouble” but he can’t seem to stop himself, even wondering how he suddenly got “this far” in the situation. He also contrasts the girl’s actions with the verse Isaiah 41:10 which is tattooed onto her arm. Not just in her actions and her disregard for the morality of what she does to both men in her circumstance, but Gundersen also focuses in on the words “I will protect you from all worldly harm, fear thou not”, repeating them over and over like an incantation. In his fixation with this, he reflects that this ink is like her talisman. She is protected from “all earthly harm”, the havoc and pain that her actions and choices make, while Gundersen and the unnamed original lover are the ones who are burned.
People in the public eye make a lot of claims and assumptions, especially politicians. Many of these assertions put out into the airwaves are just that. Assertions. They are statements given without reference or background in the moment. And oftentimes, comments politicians make completely differ from what their opponents say. These figures we are supposed to trust seem to be making contradictory statements about themselves, each other, and their beliefs. This is where fact checkers sprung from. Fact checkers and fact checking websites determine the truth and validity to statements such politicians and other figures make. Did this politician really cut the deficit in his state? Is this other politician right when he says his opponent supports a controversial issue? This is what fact checkers unearth and present to the public.
One such website is factcheck.org. I chose this site to look into because it is the one I’ve known about the longest, and is said to be non-partisan and nonprofit– meaning it should ultimately have no affiliations or biases that would hinder it finding out and presenting the real truths. One of the most interesting articles they had done was a piece done on the biggest falsehoods given and heard in this recent presidential campaign. It was fascinating that many of the biggest claims thrown out by both Obama and Romney were unfounded, and it seems that “one whopper begets another” as Lori Robertson, the author of the post, put it. So these statements, which may have help whip either side into a frenzy against another, are seemingly put forward just to do that. Make the other side look worse. I found the article to be critical of both sides, and covered many topics, including healthcare, debt, unemployment and job creation, and war. Often, quotes are taken out of context and even pieces of a quotes are pieced together to create something either side you use in their conquest of ousting their opponent. The length of the article as well was impressive, as the researchers obviously did their work in finding falsehoods and bringing the truth to light, which should be of importance to all voters.
They took to riding by night, silent jornadas save for the trundling of the wagons and the wheeze of the animals. Under the moonlight a strange party of elders with the white dust thick on their moustaches and their eyebrows. They moved on and the stars jostled and arced across the firmament and died beyond the inkblack mountains. They came to know the nightskies well. Western eyes that read more geometric constructions than those names given by the ancients. Tethered to the polestar they rode the Dipper round while Orion rose in the southwest like a great electric kite. The sand lay blue in the moonlight and the iron tires of the wagons rolled among the shapes of the riders in gleaming hoops that veered and wheeled woundedly and vaguely navigational like slender astrolabes and the polished shoes of the horses kept hasping up like a myriad of eyes winking across the desert floor. They watched storms out there so distant they could not be heard, the silent lightning flaring sheetwise and the thin black spine of the mountain chain fluttering and sucked away again in the dark. They saw wild horses racing on the plain, pounding their shadows down the night and leaving in the moonlight a vaporous dust like the palest stain of their passing.
This is a passage from Cormac McCarthy’s fifth book Blood Meridian. His style here, and throughout the book, reads so dense and full of detail it leaves the reader breathless. In this specific example, McCarthy describes the sights the Kid would have seen as he rode in the night, surrounded by the open skies and stretching, forlorn loneliness of open ranges. His diction, rich and vivid, paints a startling and gorgeous portrait of a troupe of horseman traversing the unknown, dwarfed by the majesty of “inkblack” mountain ranges, blanketed by a dome of constellations, and surrounded by a wild painted blue in the night. The acutely specific but equally impressive image of the reflection of moonlight off of the horses’ shoes “hasping up” like “eyes winking” helps to bring the scene even more to life. His fragments and run-ons, ultimately his unorthodox style, simply adds to the cinematic quality of the text.
For my revision of this third assignment, I just fixed some grammatical errors. I also rearranged sentences that I found could be reworded in order to sound more fluid. But ultimately that’s all that I really did in my revisions.
christina marie 