Presenting A Particular Occasion

                                                                                                                           09/28/2012

It was interesting how Dr. Brent Staples presented the first incidence. He describes the woman he encountered in that late evening as young, well dressed, and white. In this statement he is showing the difference between him and the young woman who probably had different experience/background. He then goes on to give vivid picture of the setting in which the occasion happened.  “…affluent in an otherwise mean, impoverished section of Chicago.” This statement also adds to the impression of how scary the environment could have been for the victim as he refers her. In his measurement I suppose there was enough distance between the two as he walked behind her, but not for her. She apparently saw grave danger in being close to this young black man in a military jacket with both his hands in his pockets. The description of his size, clothes and hair amplifies the common stereotypic picture of offenders. Staples presented this particular occasion so clearly that you can tell what his reflection essay would be about.

Reference:  http://sophresh11-sophresh11.blogspot.com/2011/10/black-men-and-public-space.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe-MIDDfckw

Staples, you poor guy, I just want to hug you! I'm sorry people kind of suck...

     
Lucky me, my two questions are related!

     In Staples' two versions of his essay "Black Men and Public Space" his description of "the language of fear" is altered considerably. When he first wrote it he made it apparent that people were afraid of him when he "could cross in front of a car stopped at a trafic light and elicit  the thunk, thunk, thunk of the driver... hammering down the door locks". It was clever, but average. He made it seem like it was juts a general inconvenience that everyone was scared of him because of something that he had no control over. However, in the revised version he begins the paragraph with "I became an expert in the language of fear". The revised essay was much more powerful and allowed the audience to picture couples desperately trying to hold on to each other in his wake. No longer was it a general inconvenience, we could tell that it genuinely upset him so much that he compared himself to a rabid dog.

Developing the Reflections

     Staples uses examples to "paint a picture" for his audience. He uses the "thunk, thunk, thunk of the driver hammering down the door lock" to show the driver's haste and scared-ness(what is word-recall?) to do whatever they can to prevent this scary black man(sarcasm) from entering their car. It is a great image because we can see how that would be relevant. In the case of his "precautions" he explains that he makes an effort to not be scary. He whistles popular classical tunes or takes extra time to walk past his destination to ensure the comfort of people he doesn't know.


He's not scary, he's like a teddy bear!

 http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/04/brent-staples.jpg

Hasty Generalization

Hasty generalization is a fallacy where one makes the mistake of generalizing on things without doing adequate research. Doing this causes a writing to be biased and misleading and in some instances inappropriate. Despite this fallacy being wrong it is not uncommon seeing people intentionally or unintentionally applying it. Examples include inconclusive stereotypes, statistically incomplete data and so. We have heard people say that women are bad drivers. This could be based on few incidents observation. But obviously this is not complete and it doesn't show the whole picture. Another example of hasty generalization Peter speaks spanish, Sarah also speaks spanish then the whole group speaks spanish as well. In order to avoid this incomplete conclusions writers need to make broad research and be truthfull or responsible to their topic, readers and themselves.

Review on Planning and Drafting Essay Writing

This reading outlines very solid guidelines on how to write a good meaningful essay. Beginning with the discussion about planning methods; purpose, audience, topic, tone, context and genre. Each is explained clearly in an easier way to understand. I found them helpful in planning and drafting my observational essay.

The purpose in my case is as the title implies portraying my observation. My audience is I suppose my classmates as well as our professor. I learnt that it takes having some information about your audience to understand the kind of language and topic they can relate to. It can only be effective if it is written specifically for certain audience. Finding a topic that fulfills set of requirements and interests me was a challenge. It needed to be something I observed where I can convey some message underlying the story. It also had to be an effective topic with respect to my audience. I thought of writing about my research program going on. But it doesn’t relate to everybody and it would be more technical and unattractive story. This reading however discusses some useful tools on generating topics and ideas relevant with the situation; free writing, brainstorming, clustering, discussion with friends and classmates etc.

Once I chose the topic and started writing it was a bit easier and flowed smoothly. The next key point was tone. I assumed tone constructs itself naturally if the writer is truthful. I think it would require some experience to build some fictional story where you have to invent characters and tone. Luckily though my essay was observational and I tried to put everything as I saw them, so it was not much difficult task to imply the tone in the writing.

I felt the same way about context and genre as I did about the tone. The context in which I wrote my observation is the exact setting in which it happened. I think it made it easier and offered me a chance to emphasize on organizing my ideas and drafting the essay. What made this writing more interesting to me were the writing examples given in various ways. It constantly explains the importance of crafting an effective thesis for different types of essays. One of the points I liked about the writer of this reading was that she recognizes students have social life too. Sometimes professors make it seem like students are just students and are only coming for that one course subject. I might have exaggerated but it happens. Anyway the author of our book considers other aspects of life and discusses ways of using time efficiently. To sum up I think I used several ideas I found in this reading to my writing, it was clear and detailed lesson on writing effective and appropriate essay writing.

Reference:

  http://josephomotayo.blogspot.com/2011/03/differences-between-creative-writer-and.html

Chapter 4: Planning an Essay

The thought of writing an essay for a class can be very nerve-racking. Many students in today’s modern world have dealt with this seemingly dreadful task. In this case, people get the negatives and anxieties of writing mixed up with its entertainment. One of the beauties of writing comes from its design. In the design, the author can overview the situation, create and organize ideas, and produce a draft.

 The first thing associated with designing an essay is the overview of the situation. This includes finding the purpose, audience, topic, context and genre. These can all combine to create the essay needed for the situation. For example for a Nascar race, you wouldn’t want to drive a ’98 Honda. Also, if you want cowboys at your concert, you would play country not rap. Once you go over the provided topics, then you can go onto creating your own ideas.

Creating ideas can be both easy and very difficult. Thinking of the first couple ideas is very easy almost instant. But most of the time figuring out that last idea is a pain. This is when techniques such as freewriting and brainstorming are useful. In freewriting you write down whatever is on your mind over a given amount of time. Brainstorming is just like freewriting except you write down everything you know about a given topic. Personally, I don’t find these techniques handy when I need an idea. I usually like to talk to other people or use other sources. This is the lazy way but two thoughtful minds are better than one. Once you wrote down all your ideas, you can then organize it in many different ways to prepare it for your rough draft.

So now you have your plans and ideas to create this monster. The first thing to do is create your thesis. This is a claim of fact or as my professor says your freaking point. After generating the thesis, your provide an outline: Intro, Body, and Conclusion. Stick your thesis into your intro and plot your main ideas into your body. Start writing away. Don’t worry about mistakes, this is a draft. In the end, write the same thing in the conclusion that you wrote in the intro. Just make sure the words are rearranged to provide a different sounding paragraph.

Constructing an essay is fun. It’s like being an architect where you think of what type of building you want for what purpose, and then draw it up, and start building. The pre-planning phase is the most important when it comes to writing. 

Picture Link

Pig Lips

              

                In his article I’m Not Leaving until I Eat This Thing, author John Edge describes his experience of eating pig lips in a small bar in Louisiana. In it, he includes a photo of the head of a pig, particularly the face and the snout. In analyzing the photo, I will discuss why he likely included this particular photo, as opposed any other, and the reason he included a photo in the first place.

                As for why Edge included the picture of a pig head rather than anything else, one must first consider the purpose of the article, the likely audience, and the background of the author. Though he goes into great detail about the supplier of the pig lips (Farm Fresh Food Supplier) and the bar where he ate them (Jesse’s Place), Edge is a food critic, and the purpose of the article is to describe his experience of eating pig lips for the first time. Because of this, and considering the source of the article (the Oxford American), it seems unlikely that his audience would be more interested in a rural bar or a farm supply company than the pig lips.  For that reason, it makes more sense to include an image relating to his experience than one related to the bar or company.

                 Another question is why Edge included the photo of a pig snout rather than an entire pig or a picture of the prepared pig lips. First off, it seems pointless to include a photo of an entire pig rather than just the head, if he is only talking about the lips of the pig.  Additionally, Edge states directly in the article that “[pig lips] look more like candy than like carrion”, so a photo of the lips cooked and prepared lips would likely have detracted from the visual he was trying to create of them as a bizarre, almost nauseating food.

                Finally, the issue arises of why he included a photo in the first place. Though most readers know what a pig looks like, it’s unlikely most people are familiar enough with pig anatomy to be able to clearly visualize pig lips in their minds. In this photo in particular, the contrast of the pig’s snout against the darker background highlights the lips as well, and draws the reader’s attention to that part of the image. Additionally, the tone of the article is very lighthearted and humorous, and the pig (which looks happy, almost as if it were smiling) adds to the lighthearted tone of the article.   

Soup Nazi Response

Yeganeh’s belief system seems a little too extreme. His philosophy “The customer is always wrong and I’m always right” goes against the biggest rule of customer service: The Customer comes first. Seemingly every great business treats the customer with respect and great service. On top of that, what restaurant has rules for waiting in line? I can’t imagine getting screamed at by a manager or owner for having fun while standing in line This is where his business is a little too extreme. Imagine how bigger his business would be if he just eliminated his “Philosophy” and his “Line Rules”.

            

In some cases, his belief systems seem beneficial. When I worked at Dairy Queen, my boss was very picky on how she wanted things. For instance, making sure there wasn’t one little spot on our shirts and that we used the correct hand to scoop out the candy. One co-worker, Luis, was fired because he had a little spot on his shirt. But I guarantee you at that Dairy Queen; we had the cleanest shirts, best looking ice cream and the cleanest store. In Yeganeh’s case, he tells his crew to “Clean the parsley 8 times, not 5 or 6.” He also fires someone for leaving a mushroom on the floor.  Even as crazy as it seems, I believe that Yeganeh’s pickiness is partially the reason for his business’ success. It makes the workers actually do things correctly.

Yeganeh admits to suffering from perfectionism. This probably creates his crazy ideas about how to run a business. The customer service ideas and the line rules need to be fixed. On the other hand, his needy ways have created a popular business in New York.

               

http://officeimg.vo.msecnd.net/en-us/images/MB900391436.jpg

Compare & Contrast

                                                                                                                                                           

  The two articles: the “Soup” and “I’m not leaving until I eat this thing” were so vastly different that their mere resemblance was that they both talk about food. First the author of the “Soup” was an observer who never mentioned himself not even when publishing it. In contrast John Edge the author of the second article puts himself at the center of the topic. Culturally the two environments were so different; the restaurant of Mr. Yeganeh seems fast growing business in a largely populated urban area. The juke of Louisiana on the other hand sounds more of small family business that hasn’t changed much in generations.

  We can see these differences as when Mr. Yeganeh made his customers to, have their money ready, waste no time in line and even kick them out if they behave in some way that he doesn’t approve. The Juke at Jesse’s place on the other hand serves kind of laid back customers from all kind of rural farms and related works who come to eat the unusual pickled lips and drink as it is a bar too. Moreover it looks like people at Jesse’s place know each other since they have closely related country neighborhood. When people got shocked by Mr. Yeganeh’s rudeness at the lines, it shows that they don’t know him well, but they came because they know that he makes best soup as one of the customers witnessed.

  Both the places serve fresh farm products but they have different processing and ingredients. Mr. Yeganeh’s restaurant is known for its tasty & ever changing soups that were prepared based on his experience, books he read and things that he thought were good for health. He doesn’t even have drinks; still people rush in to his restaurant. In the case of Jesse’s place it looks like every type of food has something to do with pigs. The author Edge tells his story that it was hard for him to eat the colorful  pickled pig lips, in fact the title implies that he betted himself that he won’t leave the place before eating the food.

  Mr. Yeganeh is kind of neat freak who refers himself as perfectionist. Making his employees wash the parsley eight times and firing a guy who left a mushroom on the floor just proves that. At Jesse’s place however, employees are family members, people come with dirt thick shoe soles from the farms and you can sense the hard working livelihood of the country. Overall both the articles read food places with different story telling, different environment, and culture and business ethics.

                                          

Reference:

http://www.dailymotion.com/PigLips

http://www.mysticsoupcompany.com/