Strategies for Analyzing

1. Make Your Sources Speak

When I have a topic that I have to write about, I usually forget about and/or lose my own thoughts and ideas after reading someone else's opinion. I then start to agree or disagree with him or her and that's how I end up forming my papers. I am going to try to work on this issue and only use other people's opinions to build on my own ideas.

2. Use Your Sources To Ask Questions, Not Just To Provide Answers

This goes back to what I was saying about the first strategy. I usually just agree/disagree. I don't usually form quesions which is something that I may need to work on.

3. Put Your Sources Into Conversation With One Another

I need to stop limiting my self to agreeing or disagreeing with your sources. I need to work on aiming for conversation with and among my sources.

4. Find Your Own Role In The Conversation

There have been times where I have uses my own personal experiences in my paper to better state my point.

5. Supply Ongoing Analysis of Souces

I think this will definitely help me control my writing better. InsItead of just using my sources, I will need this to help me use my sources and my own ideas and make them work together collectively.

6. Attend Carefully To The Language of Your Sources By Quoting or Paraphrasing Them

I think I usually do a good job at quoting exact language that the sorce uses. The problem I think I face with this is that sometimes I quote one behind the other which makes me lose control of my writing.

White Privilege

In the article White Privilege and Male Privilege, Peggy McIntosh is touching on a subject that certain groups of people don't like to think about. Peggy McIntosh is a white female who knows that racism still exist but wants to figure out what form of racism is there in todays society and what can be done about it. Being that she is seen as the dominant in this case, it's a little hard for her to really put her finger to where racism is a problem. Being that she is a female, which is seen as inferior to males, she uses this inequality to compare it to inequality of blacks and whites. This helped her in her search of racial problems today.
McIntosh, due to her reasearch, found that whites don't really concentrate on racial issues because they feel like they are the superior ones and that they don't have anything to worry about. They see where everything is falling perfectly into their hands and they don't see where racial problems are not only affecting the blacks but is also affecting them, only in a different way though. This is also true about male dominance too.
Just as woman, blacks are being very much mistreated. They don't have half as many opportunities as whites do. In a perspective of a white though, they feel like blacks are being offered just as much opportunities but blacks just aren't striving as hard as whites to take advantage of these opportunities. McIntosh, due to her observations, now see that this is false and that blacks really don't have the same opportunities and whites.
Because of how whites think, racism is not something that is affecting them, racism will always be an issue. Surprisingly to say though, racism is affecting whites also. It is affecting their behaviors, their way of thinking and it is affecting the world. The world is suppose the be equal and everyone is supposed to be free and it is not. Racism is alienating one group while falsely misleading others.

Put on Happy Face

In the article "Put on Happy Face" by Benjamin DeMott, his whole argument was about how a handful of whites would argue that racism doesn't exist anymore. They tend to have this belief that all the racism issues have been resolved and that people are now living in this somewhatof a perfect world. According to Benjamin DeMott, this is untrue. You see a handful of pictures, such as in magazines and on movies, where blacks and whites are depicted to be the bestest friends. Where one goes, the other goes, what one does, the other does and if one is rejected or put down then the other is there to pick him or her back up and stick right by his or her no matter what. This is fake. The world is no where as close as to where these pictures and films make it seem like. Just as DeMott stated, this is a way of trying to hide the idea that racism is still a major problem today.
Because of what blacks had to go through and because of how harsh they were treated, racism will always be a major factor. Blacks were even treated as if they were human. They were almost treated as if they were the pets and the whites were the brutal owners. Blacks were known to be inferior and basically had no right to be treated as human. Might as well say that all blacks have been scoulded by hot water because of what they had to go through, and the later generations to come having to hear about how their ancesters were treated, this is an everlasting hurt for blacks. It will never disappear from this earth, the facts and the wounds will forever remain.

Exercise 2.4 pg. 58

In the female brain, there are more connections between the right hemisphere and the left hemisphere. In the male brain, these two hemispheres remain more separate.

This tells me that this is the reason as to why women who are having emotional problems, whether good or bad, are more likely to be able to talk about them. Men are more likely to keep them balled up inside. This can be a bad thing because this may be why it has been proven that males are more likely to commit suicide. They don't talk about their problems so that they can seek help with them.

Shopping malls and grocery stores rarely have clocks.

This tells me that shopping malls and grocery stores are not made for people who are in a hurry. To be able to completely enjoy these types of stores, you need to be able to take your time and not be in a rush. Take the time to look, to think and compare prices, and the time to weigh your choices. Also, maybe it has been proven that the longer one stays in a store, the more the person buys and the more the person spends. This will help store sales and therefore they don't put clocks up so that maybe people will lose track of time and stay in there longer than they are realizing.

What You Eat

One thing that stuck with me was how it's not normal for one to eat every little thing they kill, even an ant. Another thing that was a little weird to me was that song that his father always song. To me, I think that was a hidden meaning or maybe a forshadowing to death. Also, the whole way through the story, I was wondering how come the boy never learned his lesson. He just kept killing, knowing that the consequences would be awful and that he wasn't going to want to face them. And when the boy ran over the dog, I was hoping that the father would have mercy but as you see, he didn't.

I think that Ben Ehrenreich is trying to tell his readers that sometimes we, as humans, enforce overly strict rules or principles. He is saying that sometimes is ok to let things go or to let things slide, depending on the situation such as an accident for example. Sticking strictly to a rule, with no exceptions can really drive a person insane which is not a good thing. This is what happened to the little boy in "What You Eat." His father was so devoted to enforcing his rule that it drove the boy crazy and he actually wanted his father to kill he just to see if his father would still stick to his rule and use it against himself.

Queena Stovall

In the paintings, I saw alot of repetition. I noticed alot of chickens in alot of the paintings and i guess it was a chicken coop that i noticed in a lot of paintings also. The paintings also looked like it was during slavery days because of the depiction of blacks verses whites. In the painting Lawdy, Lawdy, What'll I do, I noticed a family standing outside crying as their house was on fire. It was as if someone had set it on fire on purpose because alot of their personal items were thrown outside on the ground. I also noticed a tree that looked as if it was willowing or something, which may have symbolized something.
In Uncle Nathan and the Little Black Mare, I noticed how there were three white men standing behind a fence as a black man was being chased by black mare. It was as if they were getting joy out of watching this man run for his life. I also noticed a cat laying down on top of the barn watching as the black man was getting chased.
In Making Apple Cidar, there was three black men smiling as they were working. One was squatted in front of a barrel full of water with two buckets of apples beside it. There was also apples in the water. This brings the conclusion that he were washing. The other two men were at this big churning machine. Cidar poured out into a big bucket and a white woman was bent over in front of the bucket. She had a scoop and a funnel and jugs all around her. There was also a white man who seemed to be walking towards the house/barn carrying two jugs which i suppose full of cidar.

GWB's first address to nation

words that repeat: our x 16, citizen x 2, life x 3, freedom x 3, attack x 5, terrorist/terror/ terrorism x 5, airplanes x 2, evil x 4, acts x 4, nation x 3, America/Americans x 5,
Strands: fellow citizens, Americans, nation, country
terrible sadness, unyielding anger, terror, disbelief, frighten, chaos, retreat,
threatened, shattered
friends, allies, neighbors, moms and dads,
stand together, unite, we, our
evil, despicable, terrorist, enemies
Binary oppositions: evil/good
friends/enemies
terror/security
shattered/together
fail/win
Two most important repetitions: our
attack
Two most important strands: stand together, unite, we, our
evil, despicable, terrorist, enemies
Two most important binaries: evil/good
friends/enemies
This is an address to that nation from President George W. Bush about how important it is that this nation stay together and stay strong. Amercians were attacked by some terrorists/enemies. It was a tragic attack that had an effect on many lives. People were in the face of terror and things became very chaotic. People didn't know what to do or where to turn to. However, because of the togetherness, because this nation knows how to come together and help one another in times of need, this country was able to survive. Being able to work together as a nation is what determines is your nation will be successful and strong. The people build the strenght of a nation. Evil, sad to say, exist but the good will outweigh the bad.