Theuth and Thamus

Socrates uses a story about an Egyptian god called Theuth and an Egyptian king named Thamus. Theuth comes to Thamus bringing gifts and a gift he brought was letters. Now all the other gifts he had brought, Thamus had said what was right and wrong with each. When Theuth presented the letters, he said that they would make Egyptians “wiser and would improve their memory.” Thamus stated that Theuth was wrong and the letters would actually produce forgetfulness rather than memory. He said that Egyptians would write down things rather than simply remembering them and would refer back to their writing to remind themselves what they are forgetting. He uses this story to say that oral communication takes practice and wisdom where as written communication is just a reminder and is useful to the less wise person.

Chariot Metaphor

In Phaedrus, Socrates uses a metaphor about a chariot. This metaphor included a charioteer and two horses. The charioteer symbolized us while the two horses symbolized different ways to handle situations. The white horse was clean and beautiful, basically the good horse; it symbolized doing the right thing and it explicitly followed the charioteer’s commands. The black horse was crooked and ugly and didn’t follow the charioteer’s lead; it put up a struggle and would try to push forward when the charioteer didn’t want them to. In the book, the metaphor was talking about love and temptation; the white horse tried to hold back from temptation while the dark horse pushed towards temptations and would make the charioteer fall into his desires. On a deeper level, it was talking about how one who is speaking can both rise up and help his audience understand his level of thinking (white horse), or it can go down the audience’s level and not aid them to understand.

Customer Reviews

Of the customer reviews for Zeitoun that I read, the readers seemed to be in awe of Egger’s work. They continually praised his views on the issue and how he conveyed the information. They didn’t seem to have many negative things to say about the book; in their opinion, everyone should read it and hear Zeitoun’s story. Their opinions seemed to be one sided and didn’t talk about any negative aspects of the book. The professional book reviewers tried to keep objectivity through their reviews, where as the customers just continued to say how good Egger’s was. Their reviews seemed more passionate but, in turn, were less trustworthy and more biased than the professional reviews.

Zeitoun Reviews

In the reviews of Zeitoun, I thought that Timothy Egan got a message out of the book that Eggers wanted. He mentioned how Eggers showed the damage Katrina and the government had rather than telling it which made the book more powerful. He seemed to think that the calm voice Eggers used throughout the book made it more impactful on the reader, which is correct. Valerie Martin had an opinionated view on the book and viewed the first half of it as “not beautifully written” and went on to say how overly sweet it was. I didn’t really agree with that and I think that her review was a poor review on the book as a whole.  The other review gave a lot of incite to the different sides of the book and all the issues dealing with the time period. It also helped that he knew Eggers and knew where he was coming from.

Corrections

When I read the comments on my first paper, I realized that the way I worded sentences could be ambiguous at times and also awkward. I used this information to reread my second paper and tried to make it more clear and understandable. Also, I didn’t realize how much I repeated phrases in close proximity; I definitely used this to help me revise my research paper. Another thing the corrections showed me was that I didn’t use nearly enough commas in my original paper. When I was editing the one due tomorrow, I tried to pay special attention to places where I should have put commas.

Zeitoun

Not only did I first read, but I first heard about Zeitoun this summer when I found out that I was supposed to read that for school. My brother-in-law had said he wanted to read before I knew that was what I had to read but I didn’t pay much attention to him. Whenever I received the book from Mars Hill, I took it with me on a trip to Florida and read the whole thing on my vacation. It turns out that the book actually held my interest which I thought it would be so boring. I basically read the entire book in about a week which is decent for me since I didn’t want to read it to begin with.

Research Paper and It's Many Problems.

In my paper, my weak parts might be me repeating myself a lot; a peer reviewer would help with that because they can tell me when I’m being too wordy or when I’ve stated something too often. Another problem I might face is not getting my point across as much as I need to; a peer reviewer would help because then they could tell me if they could understand my topic and see what I was trying to say. Another problem might be that it’s monotonous and boring; I’d like to have someone to tell me if it is boring so I can try to fix that.

Research tools

When it comes to researching for a paper or project, I am, by far, the most comfortable with electronic sources. The first tool I use is the internet and Google. Being in college, I’ve learned how to use the library sources and am becoming more and more familiar with these resources rather than just googling. I don’t usually use tangible sources such as a book unless it deals with exactly what I am researching because it can take so long to look through and find what I need for my research. I would like to broaden my horizons and not be so dependent on the electronic sources.

The Library

Since coming to Mars Hill, I have been in the library a few times. Two of my classes have visited the library and had a librarian talk to us about all the tools that it had to offer. I also had to do the scavenger hunt to become more acquainted with the library. I’ve used the library when I wanted to do homework and didn’t really have enough time to walk back to my room in between classes; if I needed to work with a group of people on a common goal, then we meet in the library in order to have quietness and less distraction than if we were in a dorm.

Nightmares of MLA

Any time I had to write a research paper, we always were told to use MLA citation for it. For some reason, citing my sources and in-text citation is a concept that is extremely hard for me to grasp. The only way I can possibly cite my sources is if I have a guide right in front of me telling me step by step the process I have to take. It’s not that I haven’t had experiences with citing my sources but I never remember how to properly do cite them and how to do the in-text citation. It’s pretty ridiculous how much trouble I have with it since I have been using MLA for every research paper I’ve ever done and have been instructed on how to do it multiple times. There was only one time I used APA and that was this year in my Fashion class.

ohhh research

When it comes to research projects, I don’t have all that much experience with them. I know I’ve done lots of small research projects but there are only a few that I stick out in my head that were major papers. One was on the history of chocolate, I know it is random, and I did it in eighth grade. That paper was interesting because I learned a lot of strange facts dealing with the sweet treat that most people had no clue about. The most memorable thing about that research paper was that chocolate was originally a bitter beverage invented by an ancient South American tribe, possibly the Aztecs or Mayans. There have been other research projects here and there since then but that one is the most prominent in my memory.

GM and Bt

I think the most interesting claim that Brody had in his report would be the part on the Bacillus thuringiensis bacterium. I think that it is interesting how this certain bacterium can be infused with crop and then that little bacterium can have such monumental affects on productivity and can diminish the use of chemicals on the crops. It’s hard for me to believe that this could be true and I wonder how they could have possibly figured that out. If something this small can have such an impact on farming, then what more could they do with genetically modified food and how could truly impact the world?

Peer Criticism

When I ask others for assistance with my writing, I want them to be brutally honest. There are a few errors that usually come up in my writing; for instance, I will sometimes get the advice that some statements I made in my writing weren’t clear and could be confusing. I can sometimes have a problem with wording things in a funny manner that make since to me but not my audience. Also, when I’m trying to meet a word requirement on a paper, I tend to repeat myself; this can create monotony for the reader and those are the criticisms that I can think of that I usually get in my writing.

strengths and weaknesses

The strengths of my paper would probably be that I hit all the points that I wanted to address in my outline and found some other points that I hadn’t originally thought about and got to put them in my paper. The weaknesses are that I seemed to ramble a lot. I also repeated myself so much and it sounds a little monotonous. I’m hoping that when I revise it, I’ll be able to cut out the unnecessary things and will be left with a decent paper. When I first started my paper, I thought that it would be extremely hard writing 1,500 words; at first it was, but then I started coming up with other ideas and it started to flow more easily. It was still fairly hard to write though.

Middle Style Writing

I would definitely say that my most comfortable style of writing would be the middle style. I enjoy this style of writing because it is more elevated and has more depth than the lower style but not as professional and hard to follow as high style. I feel like the middle section is easier to connect with and I like how it is formal, yet casual at the same time. This style is most appropriate during personal or argumentative writing. It can also be used in some academic settings. It can be used with a general audience, which is part of the reason why I like it so much; one doesn’t have to be an expert on the subject discussed to be able to follow what the person is talking about when they write in the middle style.

Rubrics

A rubric is a template that is used to evaluate and grade papers or projects. There are sections that a person is graded on and a person is awarded points based on their quality of work; the higher the quality of work, the higher the points and, therefore, the higher the grade on the paper. There are divisions in rubrics such as organization, creativity, staying on topic, and clarity. When I was in my Advanced Placement Literature class, my teacher used rubrics for projects and for our major research paper. For little papers, we didn’t have rubrics. I experienced rubrics in my Art classes, surprisingly enough.

My Challenge as a Writer

I believe a challenge I have as a writer would be developing a stable thesis statement and knowing where to put it. When I write, my goal is to have an intriguing introduction that captures the attention of the reader and makes them want to read more, as should be every writer’s objective. I am so bad at knowing when I should include my thesis statement and I never usually want to include it in that opening paragraph. I need to learn how to judge where to place a thesis statement so that it will be the most effective and impactful rather than always avoiding putting it in the introduction.

Prewriting Strategies

The first thing I do whenever I’m writing a paper is just sit there and ponder about the subject I’m supposed to write about. I make sure I understand the prompt thoroughly and consider all the ways I could possibly write on the subject. If there is a question that I am supposed to answer in a paper, I decide what my answer is to the question and then I write that down on a piece of paper. After that, I list examples or points that I plan to put in my paper that support my answer or my argument. A lot of times, I’ll write down any information I can think of on the subject so that I will have ideas of what to put in my paper. Some of the information won’t make it into the final draft of my paper, but it helps me figure out what is important for me to say and what needs to be mentioned to get my point across. I always try to make my first paragraph as interesting as possible to draw in my audience. Unfortunately, finding the perfect beginning is the hardest part, but once I have the introduction, the rest of the paper usually flows effortlessly.

Haiku

Lived a tortured life,

Escaped the house ‘til midnight,

Found love while dancing.
-Shelby

Ruszkiewicz's "common errors"

When it comes to Ruszkiewicz’s “common errors”, there were a few that I had trouble with. I’m always confused about when to use “who” or “whom” in a sentence. I have never been able to tell the difference and still have a hard time deciphering which to use. Sometimes I struggle with knowing where to put apostrophes and when to use them. I feel like it can be difficult to know what pronouns to use with the correct antecedent. I don’t seem to struggle with comma splices, run-ons, or fragments when writing. Also, I don’t find subject/verb agreements to be too complicated. Those were the common errors I don’t have problems with.
-Shelby