Journal #1
If I could bring David Foster Wallace to class to have a discussion with him and ask him questions, the first question I would ask him would be “what made you think of cooking lobsters in this depth?” Personally, I had never thought about if lobsters felt pain when you boil them to eat them. I do not eat lobster, so I guess that may partially explain why I have never thought about it in that way. After reading this article, it made me think about other foods that I do eat, such as beef and chicken.
When it comes to written discussion, it is hard for the writer to get their point across to all audiences. A writer does not know how an audience may interpret his/her point of view of a debate. Coming from the reader’s perspective, it’s hard to ask questions as someone reads through an essay. Some topics may be hard for someone to understand when there isn’t a discussion face to face. When writing, I will use similar strategies to the ones that Wallace did when trying to figure my audience out. I will first start off by explaining background just like Wallace did. This will get the reader interested in the debate so they can start to formulate their own opinion. I will explain the pros and cons so that the reader can see both sides. Lastly, I will ask questions in the essay so the reader can ponder on this too.
Journal #2
In high school, I procrastinated a lot when it came to writing essays. If there was a due date that was a week or two out, I would think to myself, “okay, I have plenty of time to do this.” Then, I would keep pushing off the essay until it was crunch time. A lot of the time, this would result in silly mistakes in my writing, which included sentence structure mistakes, grammar mistakes, and errors with the flow of my paper. As far as editing, I do not really edit too thoroughly unless someone peer edits my paper. I really like peer editing because I enjoy getting feedback from others. Getting feedback from other people really helps me revise my paper and make it better. All throughout high school, I used peer editing for many papers and thesis papers that I had to write. Even having a family member read through my essays or a friend read through my essays really has helped me re-work what I have already written and make improvements. As far as my personal strategies and methods go, I like to work backwards sometimes. Sometimes I will be given a prompt or subject to write about, and then I will immediately start just writing whatever comes to my mind in paragraph form. Then, after I have written all that I can I will then start to go back through what I have written and start to go off of those ideas. This results in some sort of outline, and then from there I will start adding my new thoughts in and editing. Additionally, I will sometimes start with brainstorming and then writing my paper. It depends on the subject matter of the essay. These methods work really well for me, and I believe the only thing I need to work on is time management skills and efficiently working on my drafts to get them done on time and be able to produce a reputable paper.
Journal #3
Thinking back, I could not tell you a time during my high school career where my teachers went into depth to help my understanding on using quotations in my writing. I never really knew how to do a good job of introducing a quotation in my writing, or how to do a good job explaining the quotation. After reading ‘As He Himself Puts It’ in They Say I Say by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein, I believe I have a firm understanding on how to select a quote, how to introduce a quote, and how to explain a quote, and be able to do it well. I was really surprised at how helpful all the tips were, and how in depth this excerpt went in terms of using and integrating quotes and ideas together. When I first started reading, it talked about under quoting and over quoting, and how many people tend to under quote because of the process it take to search for a quote in literature and properly integrate it into text. I can strongly agree with this statement, because when I was in high school I really disliked using quotes. I think part of the reason I really disliked using quotes is because I did not know how to properly do it. However, after reading They Say I Say, I feel much more confident with my ability to properly integrate a quote into my writing. The other thing that this section mentioned was how some people over quote. My first initial thought was how can you over quote? I though using quotes was a good thing? But after reading more, it made me aware of how it might come off to a reader. If someone over quotes, it doesn’t do them any good, really. It shows that the writer might not have that much knowledge on the subject, and so the essay would be lacking the input of the writer them self. I think the usage of quotes and also the usage of your own thought and opinions go hand in hand, because both re extremely crucial to a good paper. In addition, I never really knew how important the usage of quotes were until I read this section. Quotes can be used to enhance really any piece of literature. Quotes can help support an argument that a writer is trying to make and help persuade a reader to believe a certain thing to be true or untrue. The power of a quote was really underestimated by me at first, but after reading this piece I believe that quotes make a piece of writing that much more authentic.
Journal #4
- Page 1, paragraph 2
I thought this paragraph summed up the life of a college student very well in terms of squeezing meals in and budgeting. As a college student myself, I thought this was very relatable. Even though the idea of solely relying on Soylent does not appeal to me particularly, I do believe that it could be really efficient for someone who does not have a lot of down time in their day. Maybe you have to run to class back to back, or you have meetings for your job all day and cant find the time to sit down for lunch. This Soylent seems like a great alternative for that. Although Rhinehart describes eating as “a hassle” and that “food was a large burden”, I can understand why he says this point. I know I have been in situations where my schedule really does not permit me to have time to go to the dining hall to go eat.
- Page 3, Paragraph 2
In this paragraph, Rhinehart talks about his views on the purposes of certain meals. He explains that there are meals that are for utility and function, and meals for experience and socialization. I can completely agree with this statement, as all meals do not have a meaningful purpose. The last sentence of this paragraph really grabbed my attention, where Rhinehart says, “Soylent isn’t coming for our Sunday potlucks. Its coming for our frozen quesadillas.” I think Soylent could potentially be a great substitute for a meaningless meal, such as a Kraft mac and cheese cup you would make ten minutes before class and scarf down in two minutes. The reason for doing this is so you can get something in you so you aren’t starving, but why not just replace it with this Soylent. I think this is something you can easily throw in a blender bottle and bring it with you to wherever your going, and also a much healthier option compared to microwavable and frozen meals.
- Page 5, Paragraph 4
In this paragraph, Widdecombe talks about how agriculture is taking a turn for the worst. Stating that, “livestock cause almost fifteen percent of all greenhouse gas emissions.” She also states that, “In California, which is suffering from the worst drought in a generation, about eighty percent of all water goes towards agriculture.” After reading this, I was sort of blown away. The idea of growing foods fresh and bringing that directly to the dinner table has been so desirable among many people, myself included. Its like eating the best that you can, and eating so fresh. Rhinehart, in the next paragraph, also talks about how he believes that agriculture should be “automated”. After reading about the harsh and negative effect of agriculture on our planet, I think that Rhinehart might be onto something. Soylent seems like it could be a great way to help reduce the carbon footprint we are leaving on earth.
Journal #5
In this section, I thought the use of templates was extremely helpful. Personally, some parts of this introduction I found to be a little confusing, but the templates really helped illustrate and lay out exactly what the author was stating. One thing I never thought about when writing was the ‘they say, I say’ concept. After reading this introduction, I really understood why the author really encourages readers to use this mechanism. For example, the ‘they say, I say’ set up can help fill in the blanks of why what your stating or arguing matters. It is not only important to share your ideas, but also sharing your ideas in response to something that someone has said. Another thing that I thought was useful was the section titled ‘Why are you telling me this?’. The author stated that the best way to incorporate what ‘they say’ is by summarizing what others say and then using that summary to introduce what ‘I say’. Throughout the whole introduction, I really liked all the examples and tips they gave to a fellow writer. I do not usually use the ‘They say, I say’ method, so I thought that this was an interesting way to set up your writing and organize your thoughts in a way that makes sense.
Journal #6
Journal #7
After completing the peer review for Project 1, I think it helped me a lot more than I thought it would. I think the best piece of global advice I received, and also gave to my peers, was the idea of pulling direct quotes from both Widdecombe’s piece and their Favorite Meal essay. In addition, adding more explanation to my own thoughts was another thing that came up. One comment that came up regarding this advice within our peer review group was the idea of discrediting our work. For example, my peers would write a sentence like, “My favorite meal provides many memories, and I think Soylent could never have the same effect than my favorite meal.” It would be much better if you actually referenced your favorite meal essay instead of being vague. Actually saying what the meal is will add clarity to the paper, as well as listing the explicit memories the meal actually brought to you. Another comment I received was that I needed to be more consistent in my argument throughout the paper. Even though my argument was neither in favor or against Soylent, there were times in my paper when it sounded like I was anti-soylent. I think this is a matter of better explanation and reworking my ideas to help support my argument. During our peer review, I don’t think there were many comments that came up that were not on the paper already. However, my group and I went deeper in conversation regarding the comments we left on each others papers. For example, Hayley commented on my paper to add specific quotes regarding the topics about being in college. Then, Steven added that being as explicit as possible will help our papers tremendously. I think everything that needed to be said was talked about during our peer review, and I thought that the peer review was so much ore helpful than the ones I have done previously. In high school, peer review was basically just exchanging drafts with one or two other people, and just writing whatever we wanted on the papers. Then we would just give them back to each other without having a conversation about the comments or the papers themselves. I think actually talking about the comments we’ve made and pointing things out in each others papers is very helpful compared to the style of peer review I have done in high school.
Journal #8
In this chapter of They Say I Say, I think many great points were brought up. The author brought up the idea of credibility, and the act of relating your thesis to other peoples thoughts. I think it is really important to do this, because it gives your audience the aspects of why the topic you are talking about is relevant. Another thing that i thought was good to bring up was the importance of order in an essay. The flow of paragraphs is so important in an essay, and if the paper does not have a good flow to it then the reader or audience will not be engaged in what you are talking about. It is important to introduce an idea, give evidence of why it matters and supports your thesis, and then wrap up the idea and transition into a new idea. Lastly, I thought it was also important to bring up the topic of summarization and paraphrasing what ‘they say’. Your essay should include your own ideas, however, it is equally as important include the thoughts and insights of another person. Summarizing articles or the words of someone else can be really beneficial to a reader, because it will the give that reader clarification and insight to the rest of your essay. Additionally, I thought the usage of the various templates were great in terms of someone get this technique mastered, because this aspect of writing is very important.
Journal #9
Overall, I think the things I spent the most time revising was the usage of quotation, and how i introduced and explained each quote. Even though I still need some work in improving in this area, I think I already have improved. Another Thing I spent a lot of time on is actually brainstorming, formulating my ideas, and then going back and revising and editing my own thought to really tie into what I was talking about in my essay. I know this sounds silly, because brainstorming seems like a no brainer when it comes to writing. However, throughout my high school career, I was never really taught a writing process. I was taught how to write the standard five paragraph essay, and then given the topic to write about and left to my own device. After starting this class, I am realizing how important and crucial it is to write an essay in parts, and continually revise and edit. I always wrote out an essay in its entirety, and often did a poor job really editing my past essays because I was never really taught what to actually edit other than sentence level things. I think my overall approach to this project was open minded, because this was all a new experience to me. Coming into this class, I knew my old ways of writing were not going to cut it. After writing and revising Project 1, I now see that there is so much more to the process of writing a good essay. Reading out of LS and TSIS really helped me see the power of using quotations and other peoples thoughts, as well as my own thought in my writing. I think that moving forward I have a much better understanding of what it takes to write a well thought out paper, and also a better idea of the various components that make up a great paper.
Journal #10
Page 7, paragraph 1 – Agree
Over the course of the years, cooking has become an activity that many people over look. This could be for many reasons that include time and the ability to actually cook. in this paragraph, Pollen brings up the point of processed foods taking over the cooking experience. Less raw ingredients are being used to cook with, and instead they are being substituted for things are canned, jarred, frozen, and concentrated. Another thing that was brought up in this paragraph is the idea of cooking has completely shifted in our generation. People buy frozen dinners and things that you microwave, and still consider that cooking. However, even though I am a big offender of these practices, I believe that cooking is something you do when you take raw ingredients, and make something. For example, taking various ingredients such as cheese, milk, or cream and making your own cheese sauce for pasta instead of buying Velveeta cheese and just melting it own and adding it in. I think people have a mixed idea of what cooking actually is, and I think that it is because of all the processed foods that have been introduced to us.
Page 9, paragraph 3 – Agree
I am a huge fan of The Food Network, with Chopped, Iron Chef, and The Next Food Network Star being shows that I watch. I love watching these shows because it is appealing to the eye to watch. It is action packed and interesting to see what these people come up with when random ingredients are thrown at them, and what they create in such a short amount of time. However, in this paragraph Pollen mentions the sue for the skills displayed on these shows, and that is nowhere else but on these types of shows. When is anyone ever going to have 5 random ingredients thrown at them in their kitchens and given twenty minutes to whip up a meal? The answer is no where. I agree with Pollens statement in this paragraph that the Food Network is straying away from real time cooking shows that actually teach you how to cook. There are way more shows on the Food Network that are competition based, and I think this is also why many people today do not cook at home. Many people do not actually know how to, and they enjoy watching other people cook more than actually doing it themselves.
Page 19, paragraph 3 – Agree
I think this is such an important thing to bring up. People go out to eat so much because they do not want to do it themselves. Pollen brings up in this paragraph that when people leave it up to big corporations to cook for us, and they mostly rely on fats, sugars, and salt. These are all things that will mask the tastes of the processed foods we all eat on a daily basis. Another thing that was brought up in this paragraph was the value of a “special occasion” meal. These corporations make it so cheap to get these foods, so people eat them all the time. This makes the value of eating and the value of gathering less special, in my opinion. The reason why people look forward to Thanksgiving dinner is because we do not eat it often. People would not look forward to it if we ate turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce regularly. It would be just like eating a regular meal.
Journal #11
In chapter fourteen of They Say I Say, the authors talk about conversation within a piece of writing, and what motivates the writer to actually be writing about a certain topic. The biggest overall theme in this chapter is the act of figuring out what “they say”, and also figuring out exactly what the authors thesis for the piece of writing is. One thing I found that was interesting in this chapter was that the authors mention that the writers thesis or argument may not jump out at you. This is contradictory to what I have been taught to do in my writing. I have always been taught to explicitly lay down my thesis so readers can easily identify the argument of the paper. After mentioning this, the authors then go on to say that readers must be active and critical readers while reading another writers work. I think this could be easier for some, and harder for other, me being included. The authors also bring up the idea of translating more difficult passes to better your understanding on the piece. According to the authors, a major challenge is translating a writers words, but actually sticking to what the author is actually saying. I think this could be hard to do, depending on the words used in the passage and the amount of background knowledge a person has on the subject. Another detail I noticed is that another challenge in reading could be that the writer has brought up something that “nobody has talked about”. This is also a point of view I have never thought about, and I think it could also be really beneficial in adding to a previous idea or conversation as well as provoking a new conversation or controversy.
Journal #12a
In my peer review so far, I think that the comments I have made are a little bit different in paper one than in paper two. In paper one, I had mostly global comments than local ones. In terms of coding, there were a lot of ideas and evidence comments in the first paper I edited, and more organizational comments in the second paper. For project two, I feel like I had more local comments than I had for project one papers, and less global comments. I think this may have had to do with the fact that I edited project one after it was written fully, and project two was not done when I edited it. I also had some comments that I thought couldn’t really fit one code. For paper three, I really hope that my peers evoke me to think more about what I am writing about and help me form new ideas in addition to the ones I have already. After I completed project one, I feel like I had so many more thoughts that I wish I got down in my essay. My goal is to try to refrain from doing more local comments, even though I tend to just write them down because I notice them. I feel that everyone can find the local revisions on their own and that I also need to focus on trying to get my peers to think more outside the box with their ideas as well.
Journal #12b
Listening to this podcast really opened up my eyes about death as a whole. Caitlyn Doughty is a mortician, and from what I got from this podcast, she believes that people should not be afraid to interact with and embrace the body of the dead. Doughty talks about death in a very upbeat sort of way, which is something I found really interesting. I believe people tend to shy away from death as a whole and dismiss is completely. I think this podcast offers a lot of insight on different ideas that involve interacting with bodies of dead people and offering more optimistic ways of thinking about death. Doughty talks about how she feels we have been “hidden” from death, and I can honestly agree with this statement. She talks about cremation as a whole, which is a subject I do not know much about. She also mentions a term called ‘witness cremation’, which means the family of the dead person sits in on the cremation process and spends the last moments with the body. Another thing she brought up that I found interesting was the fact that people actually choose to have a persons dead body in their home for four days or sometimes longer in their houses to interact with the dead bodies. I feel that this is an extremely odd ritual, and I do not think this would ever be anything that I would consider doing. Lastly, Doughty talked about how she feels that the burial process should be more natural. Even though she went to school to learn about embalming, she believes that the body should not be embalmed unless it is absolutely necessary. Then, she said she thinks the body should be put in the ground and buried without a casket, and then the body would be able to then decompose naturally. Overall I thought this podcast was very interesting, however I do not think I would do any of the things she talks about myself.
Journal #13
I think did okay following the process over the span of project two. I think I could have maybe done a better job of explaining my quotes better. I think the first part of this process, which was peer editing the first 750 words of our papers, was a little challenging for me. I typically do not like to do peer edits unless my entire essay is done. In this case, I only had my introduction and two body paragraphs done. This made it harder for me to form my ideas, since I was breaking up my thinking into separate sessions of working, and also made it hard for me to give m peers feedback as well. I used two quotes from Pollans essay, and then one quote from each of my peers essay which makes five quotes total. I think if used any more quotes than I did it would have been too many pieces from other peoples work and not enough of my own thoughts. As far as the timeline of the project, I think I did a pretty good job of sticking to the process and getting my work in on time. I think I possibly could have put in a little more effort when it came to really getting into all my sources, so that I could have maybe wrote better explanations for my quotations. I think I could have put a little more time into formulating my ideas better. Overall, I think I did a pretty good job completing this essay and sticking to the process.
Journal #14
After reading this article, I have thought about animals in a new light. I am realizing that most animals are much like humans, and by this I mean that they are capable of feeling pain, emotions, and feelings. I thought about this article connecting to David Foster Wallace’s article, Consider the Lobster. It has a lot of parallel views in it when it comes to animals feeling pain and emotions. The main thing that this article has left me to ponder is the thought about all the pollution we leave behind on this Earth. In Jainism, which is an ancient religion who forbids violence against humans, as well as animals. I have never heard of this religion before, so it was interesting for me to learn about their thoughts about the world and the many organisms in it. One line kind of struck me as I read. It said, “I saw Jain monks walking barefoot in the cool morning hours to avoid car travel, an activity they regard as irredeemably violent, given the damage it inflicts on living organisms, from insects to larger animals.” I immediately started to think about the huge carbon footprint we leave behind every day. People use cars daily, we use airplanes and jets daily, and the pollution produced by humans is gross. I now understand why people are vegetarian and vegan, because animals feelings and thoughts are taken advantage of every day by us. It is important to understand the impact that humans have the world, and I think we have a huge negative impact on the things around us sometimes. We constantly put animals and other species at risk by the daily, and ‘normal’ activities we do.
Journal #15
Page 4, paragraph 2: I think this paragraph brings up a lot of tensions regarding animals as pets. In this paragraph, Herzog talks about the tensions of bringing animals into our lives as pets. Herzog has a pet snake, and this raises some questions about whether or not this is acceptable or not. He mentions that someone spread a rumor about him, and how he feeds kittens to his pet snake. He said this was not true, but this accusation lead him to think about the morals of bringing animals into our lives. People have many animals as pets; dogs, cats, fish, snakes, birds, lizards, etc. Some of these pets are considered to be predators, which is where things get a little tricky. This paragraph raises questions about what is ‘morally preferable’ to have as a pet. I believe it is all about what a person thinks is morally acceptable or not, and it is up to them to decide if it is acceptable or not. I think a big thing in todays world is that people over look animals rights as these things have become “the norm” in our lives, such as having a pet.
Page 5, paragraph 3, 4, and 5: These paragraphs talks about how one of Herzog’s friends, Ron Neibor, studied brain activity after an injury. He brings up that a cats brain was the best model to test this type of activity, and that part of the testing required surgically destroying parts of each cats brain and observed how each ability recovered over the course of weeks or months. The catch to this whole thing was that Neibor was a cat-lover. He went to the lab on weekends and played with the cats, and really created a bond with these animals. This can be a big issue, because Neibor was able to form relationships with all these animals and became emotionally attached. At the end of the experiment, he had to perfuse the cats, and Neibor had a hard time doing this because he loved the cats. In general, people get so attached to their pets, whether it is a dog, or a cat, or really any pet people have. We spend so much time with these animals and they become a huge part of peoples lives. My family has 2 dogs in our house, and we have all become so attached to them, and we treat them like real parts of our families. It can be really hard to say goodbye to our pets if you have to put them down, similar to what Neibor was feeling. Animals are very powerful, and can really have a strong influence on people when it comes to shaping who they are and their personalities.
Page 2, paragraph 3: This paragraph talks about a man named Jim Thompson, who worked for a poultry research lab. He was in charge of releasing baby chicks at the end of each experiment. He then became aware of animal rights, which I believe is something completely misunderstood and overlooked by many people. He stopped wearing leather, and went vegan. He also had a pet bird, and he actually let it go into the wild because he thought it was wrong to have a bird in a cage as a pet in his home. This could raise some tension, because some people believe that animals should not be eaten and used for clothing and accessories. Some people do not eat animals, and some people do. There was a quote in this paragraph that really struck me, and it said, “I knew she wouldn’t survive, that she [the bird] probably starved. I guess I was doing it more for myself than for her” (Herzog 2). This quote really reveals the passion that some people have for the rights of animals. I honestly believe that more people need to go more in this direction, because we do things everyday that jeopardize the animals around us.
Journal #16
If I could bring David Foster Wallace to class to have a discussion with him and ask him questions, the first question I would ask him would be “what made you think of cooking lobsters in this depth?” Personally, I had never thought about if lobsters felt pain when you boil them to eat them. I do not eat lobster, so I guess that may partially explain why I have never thought about it in that way. After reading this article, it made me think about other foods that I do eat, such as beef and chicken.
When it comes to written discussion, it is hard for the writer to get their point across to all audiences. A writer does not know how an audience may interpret his/her point of view of a debate. Coming from the reader’s perspective, it’s hard to ask questions as someone reads through an essay. Some topics may be hard for someone to understand when there isn’t a discussion face to face. When writing, I will use similar strategies to the ones that Wallace did when trying to figure my audience out. I will first start off by explaining background just like Wallace did. This will get the reader interested in the debate so they can start to formulate their own opinion. I will explain the pros and cons so that the reader can see both sides. Lastly, I will ask questions in the essay so the reader can ponder on this too.
Above is my previous journal regarding David Foster Wallace’s essay, Consider the Lobster. At the start of this class, I think I had a very surface level understanding of what food really was. When I first read this essay, I figured that the practice of eating lobsters, especially in the state of Maine, is normal. People had to stop making it a bigger deal than it needed to be by freaking out over a lobster festival. I think that a big reason for my thoughts here are because I really have no attachment to lobster, and I really never thought about boiling a lobster alive to cook it as being a bad or inhumane thing, because it was all I really knew. Now, after going through this course and reading other articles regarding food and animal rights, I had a different reaction going back to DFW essay. Now, there is something kind of unsettling to me about boiling a lobster alive to cook it. Yes, it is still a normal thing to do in our culture, but is it the right thing to do? I am not a vegetarian, and I do not think I could ever be a vegetarian, but i feel like I am now in this grey area of kind of supporting both sides. I am a meat lover, and I love eating steak tips that are grilled in the summer or a good hamburger. However, I now understand the tensions that involve actually killing the animals and eating them. This idea goes not only for the lobster mentioned in DFW piece, but also any animal, really. I think people really take animal rights for granted, and people do not consider animals like us because they are animals. However, they are living organisms on tis earth just like we are, and they should be treated with respect because they are actually a lot like we are.
Journal #17
After reading this chapter of TSIS, I was surprised to see that the author actually advised writers to include opposing opinions in writing. This actually make a lot of sense to me, because after a while we run out of things to say from our own thoughts. However, all we have known is to incorporate quotes from others writing that supports our views. This chapter contradicts that, and instead tell us to use opposing views. By doing this, it allows for a more controversial conversation to be opened up. While you do this, the authors also mention that you must introduce the opposing views in a fair way. This makes sense, because obviously you may support something that does not support the argument you’re bringing, therefore your opinions may be bias and you may skip over the opposing view. When you do this, it makes it harder to create a broader conversation. A suggestion that I found helpful when introducing an opposing argument fairly was to stick with this view for a few sentences or even a whole paragraph, and also try to imagine yourself in the shoes of a reader who opposes your opinion. This way, you’re not skipping over a counter argument, you’re considering all angles of an argument, and you’re strengthening your paper as a whole. Another thing I found very helpful when including a naysayers opinions and views into your essay was the templates they included in this chapter. It can be really challenging to think about things from another point of view that is not your own, but I felt that these templates created a basic way of organizing these potential thoughts.
Journal #18
On page 3, Jonathan Foer talks about how his greatest memories from his childhood are brought to him by eating sushi with his mom, and eating turkey burgers with his dad. Foer previously talks about how he goes in and out of vegetarianism throughout his life, and I think this is a big reason why. I think that eating the foods he ate when he was a child, in this case meat, brings back happy memories that the Foer enjoys. By giving up meat, Foer would lose a sense of these memories. He also mentions something about cultural loss. By cutting meat out of his life, he would be losing a part of himself, and something that he has known forever. Lastly, He mentions that by losing these tastes, that he is reminded of his values. Foer needs to forget these tases in order to find new tastes to help carry the good memories.
On page 5, Foer presents a question that really threw me for a loop. As Foer said, “Why doesn’t a horny person have as strong a claim to raping an animal as a hungry one does to confining, killing, and eating it?” I think a major reason why people do not see an issue with confining, killing, and eating an animal is because it is all we know. However, in most cases a person rarely does that with their own dinner. This presents a little bit of grey area, because of course a person would never rape an animal because that is so morally wrong. However, I think if a person were to actually be harming the animal themselves to kill it and eat it, it would be a different story. People do not really know what goes into killing an animal, or even death as a whole, which is why I believe people tend to avoid this kind of question that Foer proposes.
Journal #19
Part 1: Overall, I would say that project three is going okay so far. I have found that this project is hard for me to formulate my ideas and get them onto paper thoroughly, because there is so much that I want to say. It is hard for me to cut my resources down to only two, other than the David Foster Wallace piece. To help me think clearly and thoughtfully, I have been sitting down in quiet areas to write and brainstorm. I tend to think better and focus better when I am alone and in complete quiet. This includes my room when I am alone, in the common room of my dorm, or in a study room at the commons. I have found that writing down bullets and then elaborating on them. I think I have spent a good amount of time outside of class, and i plan on spending a lot more time on this paper in order to make it concrete.
Part 2: In paper one and in paper two, I worked in basically the same places as I am now with the exception of the study rooms. I worked in the commons on the first floor, which is something that I believe affected my focus. The other pieces were also easier for me to brainstorm and write because the pieces were all basically about the same subject. With project three, we are incorporating pieces about various different topics, so it is really hard to narrow the sources to just two sources. I feel like so far I have spent more time brainstorming for project three than in project one or two. Additionally, I also feel like I am going to spend more time on this project than the other two because it has required more thought and analysis of the sources to make good connections. A change that has helped me with paper three is moving to quiet locations to work.
Journal #20
Journal #21
Since the workshop during Fridays class, I have made more local revisions as well as global revisions. My peers made some suggestion to me that I felt would benefit my paper a lot, and are as follows; One revision I made was to explain the first quote I used from David Foster Wallace piece. The reason I did this is because I felt that this quote needed more synthesis. Since this quote is a long quote, as are all the quotes I used, I felt that I really needed to hone in on what I was using directly from the block quote, and also make the point I am trying to make clear. Another revision I made was in my intro paragraph. I added in the bit of information regarding the lack of the pre frontal cortex from David Foster Wallace piece. I thought that adding this would set up a different point of view for my paper, and maybe even a counter argument further into the paper. I felt it was necessary to include this because this was a major controversy brought up in the DFW piece. Also, counter arguments add a different dynamic to ones paper. As for local revision, I proofread my essay and corrected things like spelling, grammar, and sentence structure. Additionally, I know what else I need to do in terms of global revision to get my paper to the finish line.
