Sample Proposal and Response

Here is what the proposal for the sample essay given in the prompt might look like:

I plan on revising my essay four, which analyzed gender roles in That '70s Show. I selected this essay for expansion because I feel like I only scratched the surface in my analysis; I only address four of the series' many characters and I didn't place the conversation into a larger context. To expand, I will compare this series with one from the 1970s, One Day at a Time. I think it will be interesting to see if the depiction of gender roles in That '70s Show will match those depicted in a series from that time period. I do think that I will find that they both subvert traditional gender roles. Donna and Eric do, as I argued in my paper, by often switching roles; Donna is usually depicted as much more physically and emotionally strong than Eric. The mom in One Day at a Time also challenges gender roles because, as a single mom, she has to fulfill both roles that are typically filled by a mother and a father. As the sole breadwinner and parent, she both adheres to and challenges a traditional view of gender.

Key Terms:
• gender roles in the 1970s
• gender roles at the turn of the millennium
• influence of the economy/ divorce on gender roles
• second wave feminism
• third wave feminism
• gender in sitcoms
• That '70s Show and One Day at a Time


Here is what a response to this proposal might look like:
I have never seen One Day at a Time, but I have watched a lot of That '70s Show on Nick at Night. You might want to use the episode where Donna beats Eric in a basketball game in your analysis. Although she challenges what femininity is supposed to look like, it causes a problem in their relationship (at least until the end of the episode). For my essay four, I read "The Gender Blur" in Signs of Life in the U.S.A. It argues that gender is both learned and biological. I think it might be useful to you. I like this idea. I am sure you'll figure this out by the time you write your rough draft, but right now your last two sentences contradict each other a bit.

"The Things They Carried" is the first chapter of Tim O'Brien's collection The Things They Carried. In it, O'Brien tells two stories: the death of Ted Lavender and the love story of Jimmy Cross and Martha. Of course, these two stories are related, for it is because Jimmy Cross is daydreaming about Martha at the moment that Ted Lavender is shot that he feels so responsible for his death. However, the story is largely comprised of neither of these stories, but of a lengthy list of the items the soldiers carried while in Vietnam. Some of the items are practical: ammunition, special shoes, first aid supplies, etc. Other items are sentimental connections to home: letters from girlfriends, pictures, Bibles, pantyhose, etc. These items vary greatly and often reveal much about their carrier. For example, the readers learn early that Lavender always carried tranquilizers, revealing that he needed drugs in order to even function in this environment. Yet, the most important type of item carried isn't tangible; these items range from guilt to embarrassment, from fear to an odd type of bravery. These items weighed the most.

As someone who has not served in the military--nor do I have close friends or relatives who have--it is difficult to place myself in the situations described by O'Brien. I do, however, wonder what I would carry, a question that I imagine O'Brien wants his readers to consider. The practical items go without saying, although, of course, they need to be said because the sheer weight of those items is unfathomable to someone who hasn't served. But what item would I bring to cope? "Cope" is the word here for that is what all of the items--practical, sentimental, intangible--all help the soldier to do. They are all coping mechanisms, not necessarily able to protect the soldier (for nothing protects the many soldiers that die in this collection) but able to set his mind at ease for a few moments--to escape the never-ending fear. I know many would say that they would bring their phones, for even though there wouldn't be any cell service, the photos, songs, etc. stored on it would instantly link back to home. However, I think this choice of item would be kind of cheating since it didn't exist at the time and impractical since there aren't a lot of chargers just hanging around the Vietnam jungle. What would allow me to cope? To feel comforted by having a connection to home? I think I would carry my grandmother's wedding ring, an unadorned claddagh ring. A claddagh is an Irish ring that features to hands holding a heart and both of my grandparents wore one as their wedding ring. When my grandmother passed, I received hers and I wear it often. Having it with me in a strange and dangerous place would make me feel as though not only my grandmother were with me but my entire family as well.

I usually post along with the class, but I missed the last due date. However, I've been thinking about the readings in my classes: The Things They Carried in 1A, The Secret History in 1B, and Stephen King's "Why We Love Horror Movies" in 79. I have read all of these texts numerous times and I am wondering what it is about them that still holds my interest. Take King's essay as an example. In this piece, he writes on a topic in which I have very little interest: horror movies. I don't watch them or like them. I do enjoy thrillers and true crime, but I find horror movies often to be just gore. Although this is gross and sometimes shocking, it isn't scary to me. Yet, I love King's essay. Why? One is how he sprinkles in "Kingisms" throughout--the worms waiting for us in the ground being just one example. But, I really love how he breaks the rules of writing. King has a 6 word paragraph! Not six sentences, but six words. I know most of my students would be scared to write such a paragraph. However, it is one of the most effective paragraphs in the entire piece.
This breaking of the rules is seen in the other two readings as well. The Secret History is a "mystery" book, but it tells you who is murdered and who the murderers are on the first page. That move clearly breaks the rules of mysteries. As the author says, the book is not a "whodunnit" but a "whydunnit." Her narrator also lies to the other characters, and probably to the readers as well, throughout the story. It is difficult to trust anything he says. Strangely, it is because the author has broken the rules that the text most intrigues me. And, of course, O'Brien plays with the rules in The Things They Carried as well. The title page tells us that the works is one of fiction and yet he dedicates the text to the characters he has created. The reader is continuously stuck in a loop of believing the text to be memoir to fully realizing it is fiction. As readers, we should be mad at him--he seems to be toying with us. And, yet, I can't help but admire his courage to break these rules.

The Past Is Our Present

Today, as you know, I attended California Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera's poetry reading in Atherton. I wish more of you had been able to attend. He embraced multiculturalism, bilingualism, and gender equality through his poetry and his stories. He was a delight. He said two things that really struck me: 1. The past is our present and 2. Stories are important. What does it mean to say that our past is our present? For Herrera, it means that we (as individuals, a community, a culture, a world) are the product of those who have come before us and all that we have experienced. On the one hand that seems obvious. I am who I am now because of the culmination of my life experiences, many of which were influenced or informed by my immediate family and ancestors. But, to be honest, I am not usually cognizant of this fact. Why does Herrera insist that stories are important? He gave the example of his interviews with the first Chicana poets in modern New Mexico; these interviews allowed him to see these women as totalities, not just "the cute little old lady" we often see in pictures. Their stories are who they are.

So, these two things stuck with me on my drive home today. Angelou's text is perhaps the perfect embodiment of these ideas. I selected her memoir because it is one that not only helps us connect to another time (place and culture as well), but to ourselves. Your responses to her writing earlier this week solidified this idea for me. We tend to see ourselves in her work, even if our experiences have been very different. We identify with her loss of voice, her loss of agency, her family dysfunctions, the racism/ sexism she has encountered, etc, and if not, we still respond to her work because it feels true and authentic. Does her work educate us about her life and the south in the mid 20th century? Sure, but that only matters if we find ourselves there as well. Her experience is part of our collective past and her story is what illuminates aspects of our present. I think you'll see that Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried will serve a similar purpose, albeit in a very different time and place.

Lastly, on my way home, I thought of my great-grandmother. She lived to be in her late 90s and I had her for almost forty years. Even with all that time, I still did not ask her to tell her story nearly often enough. There is so much I do not know and now never will.

Cats Rule the Internet

So, what did I encounter in my Facebook feed today? The perfect confluence of the four articles we discussed this week: http://beckittns.tumblr.com/
It is a tumblr devoted to cats captioned by quotes from Irish author Samuel Beckett. For example, the one from 9/11/14 is a picture of a cat hanging from the blinds, completely limp after having given up on trying to escape. The caption: Nothing to be done. Another features the following dialogue: "It hurts?" "Hurts! He wants to know if it hurts!" The accompanying picture shows a cat standing on the victorian collar of a large dog, smooshing the collar into the dog's face It's funny, thoughtful, and distracting all at the same time.
Is Daly right in saying that my time spent on this tumblr feed is a colossal waste of time? Probably. Is it pathetic that the person (and tumblr) who made this feed wants popularity so much that a pop up reminding me to follow appears every minute or so? Perhaps. Is Williams right that focusing my energies on this feed is distracting me from the real news of the day? Most certainly. But the internet (and social media specifically) are not only tools of democracy and communication; they are also here to entertain.
And, well, cats.

Having Trouble Viewing Someone Else's Blog?

Some of you may encounter this problem: You select a peer's blog from the right column of my blog, but when the page loads, it is an incorrect feed. This means you don't actually see the blog page, but instead that you see code. To fix this, delete the part of the url (at the top of the page) that is after .com.

For example, if you select Dakota May's Eng 1A Blog, it might go to page: dmaydelta.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
To see his actual blog, delete the last part of the url so that it only reads as dmaydelta.blogspot.com
Now you will see his real blog, instead of code.

Sample Reading Response (TSIS Ch 3)

Summary:
In Chapter Three of Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein's They Say I Say, the idea of the quotation sandwich is introduced. Graff and Birkenstein devote this chapter to offer writers numerous moves that can be employed in quoting another author. The most important thing to do, they argue, is to engage the quote using the "quotation sandwich." All quotes have to be framed with an introduction and explanation; otherwise they are what they call "hit and run" quotes or "orphan" quotes. The introduction to the quote should include who is speaking and the context of the quote. The explanation or follow-up statement should explain what the quote means and how it relates to the larger claim being made in the paper. Graff and Birkenstein offer numerous templates to make this move easier.

Response:
While reading this chapter the first time, I worried that the idea of the quotation sandwich may be too simplistic or repetitive. Sometimes it is nice to imbed a quote seamlessly without having to use three steps or sentences to do so. For example, I could write something like, "One of the main ideas from Shakspeare's As You Like It is that 'all the world's a stage.'" The problem with this line is that it doesn't indicate who said this line and in what context. It also assumes that all readers read the line "all the world's a stage" in the same way. In other words, it makes the line speak for itself, which can often lead to misinterpretation of an author's point. I now ensure that I have used this move in all of my writing, every time I quote. While I may not always use three sentences or use the templates provided, I always do the move and fully engage a quote when using it in my essays.