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Thursday, March 10, 2011
Table Of Contents
Revision Piece / Food of My Life Blog
Growing up my family was always made happy by our stomachs! With certain family holidays or habitual events the first thing that comes to mind is the food that will be there. The only real event or weekly occurence my family had with food was always breakfast on Sunday. Not so much now that my sister and I are young adults, but growing up it was a small tradition for my family to make breakfast on Sunday morning. Not cereal or yogurt like every other busy day during the week but it was the day for us to relax as a family and look forward to doing together within all the chaos of the rest of the week. The first holiday I can think of with a food tradition is Easter. Every year my mom's mom makes a pastry called Banbury Tarts. To be completely honest I have no idea everything in them but they have almost a pie crust outside with sugar coating and stuffed with a warm raisin, dates and nuts filling. Its strange how a food item can only be limited to eating one day out of an entire calendar year but that tart is only made for Easter dessert like clock work! Another food tradition my family has, like many others I'm assuming, is corned beef and cabbage on St.Patricks Day. Granted my family does not have a bit of Irish in us my mother likes to experiment with a different recipe on how to make it every year. Each year better than the last... or maybe just because I remember it the most vividly. It shows how food in a way is a tradition because it brings people together. It creates a common place (dining table) and joy we can all share together and look forward to taking part in that day of the year. Even with the foods I'm not a fan of that are made every year (Minced Meat Pie at Thanksgiving... nothing beats Pumpkin :) ) I still expect it to be on the table waiting for me to avoid. Eaten or not it wouldn't be the same without those wonderfully avoidable traditions my family has and shares together every year.
When I sit here and think about a tradition that every single person enjoys, the first thing that comes to my mind is the food. I think that is why food is one of the principal traditions for holidays. For every holiday with my family I can think of a specific food that will always be made for each occasion. My first example, since St. Patrick’s Day is coming up right around the corner, is corned beef and cabbage. Even thought there isn’t one bit of Irish in my family, every year my mom attempts a new way to make it, but only that one day a year. To be completely honestly I don’t think anyone in my family is even really a fan of the dish but it’s a tradition that we still get excited to try every year… maybe in hopes she’ll make a recipe we’ll really like! Another holiday that sticks out to me is Easter. Besides still feeling like a little kid again when we dye eggs the other Easter tradition I always look forward to is Banbury Tarts. Every year my grandma makes Banbury Tarts like her mother did while she was a little girl. Banbury Tarts have almost a pie crust outside with sugar coating and are filled with a combination of warm nuts, raisins and dates, but they wouldn’t be complete without a scoop of vanilla ice cream instantly melting to the perfect dipping sauce for every delicious bite. I’m getting hungry just thinking about them! Then like many families there is of course the turkey, mashed potatoes, and pie (of course Pumpkin would be there! Yum!) for Thanksgiving. Even the smaller occasions like birthdays have their traditions. No matter whose birthday or what year it is, it’s a necessity to have cake close at hand. What makes them so memorable is because for some reason no matter how much we enjoy eating these foods, we limit them to that one given day in a year. Even though when I think about it, it doesn’t make very much sense if you really enjoy eating something. But I think that is what makes you appreciate it 10 times more. Come to think about it it’s almost like holidays were created for an excuse to appreciate a specific type of food on that given day! When it comes to traditions the most memorable and the most fulfilling (literallyJ) are the foods.
Not all traditions have to be on a special occasion or holiday though. For as long as I can remember my family has always been busy. From school, work, to after school activities, we were always on the go. Being on the go means one thing for breakfast, quick and easy. From what I’ve learned, quick and easy isn’t the best traits for quality food. After having not so good breakfasts all week long, my family made a tradition of making breakfast and eating together every Sunday morning. It wasn’t even because of the food, it was a way for us to unwind from the week and relax, and bond as a family. Food isn’t so much about the taste at all. Food is about the time and thought put into it. Food makes such a great tradition because it brings people together. Food is like the sun, everything is pulled towards it and we can’t survive without it!
Revision Piece Introduction
For my revision piece I chose the blog we did about food traditions. I chose this piece because I feel I did not do the best I could. I feel I strive in writing pieces where I can express my voice and I don't feel I did here. To be completely honest I just don't think I put anytime into the original piece and just whipped it out in a few minutes. For example I wrote this "Eaten or not it wouldn't be the same without those wonderfully avoidable traditions my family has and shares together every year." I'm not even sure what I meant by this so I'm not sure how I expected anyone else to know. It's also lacking a lot of voice and humor which I usually like to include to make people smile and stay intrigued... especially with my blogs since I can really utilize my strengths. Although I did get a good grade on this, when I re-read it I was not impressed with how I did. Don't people always say you are your biggest critic? So if you aren't even impressed why should you expect other people to be. I wanted to show that I've learn to express my voice exceptionally more from when I wrote the original piece so I hope you enjoy the re-write!
Writer's Choice Piece/ Traditions Paper
Heather H. Kuhnhenn
Professors Smith and Wells-Edwards
English 101 OL
Extinction of Wholesome Communication
The current generation uses email, texting and the social media (i.e. Facebook) for an easy and convenient way to keep in contact with people, or “friends.” This has become quite different than the traditional way of communicating we have grown up with. A simple phone call, lunch date or letter, to catch up with friends and family to see what new events are happening in their lives has become a thing of the past. Wholesome communication, being hand written letters, face to face contact and phone calls, are becoming a rarity. With every advancement in communication technology, our tradition of wholesome conversation is slowly deteriorating.
Emailing, an easily accessible commodity is slowly destroying hand written conversation. In “This is How We Live” by Ellen DeGeneres she states “Everyone likes to talk about how advancements in technology will change the way we live forever. Frankly, I think modern technology is hurting us.” (638) Now the thought of having to write a letter is exhausting compared to typing out a quick email. The idea of finding a pen and paper and thinking of what to write without the backspace or spell check button right within a finger’s reach is a deal breaker for most. Not to mention having to hunt down a stamp and envelope and having to make an extra stop at the mailbox. All these overwhelming steps we use to do daily, have become unthinkable next to emailing. But what email doesn’t have is thought and excitement that is entailed in writing or receiving a hand written letter. The anticipation when a letter is delivered, opening the envelope and reading over the pristine penmanship, or not so pristine, shows that someone cares enough to take the time out of their day to indulge in honest, hand written conversation. Emailing takes away this excitement to even participate in a hand written conversation. When the words “You’ve Got Mail” play, it’s no longer a sound of personal thrill. Once all the spam is sorted and bill reminders and a single personal email is remaining the enthusiasm is gone, making that black and white screen cold and uninviting. In so doing, making writing back in an email less likely, so this cuts the conversation shorter if not all together. Email is unfortunately slowly eliminating being able to converse with someone through the hand written word.
Text messaging has limited verbal conversation and interaction with people physically around. Texting has become such an issue that it has become difficult for people to make phone calls. The idea of verbally speaking with someone can be stressful and when the call goes to voicemail relief washes over. Texting has limited our verbal communication so much that it even affects the people physically around, due to the distraction of an electronic conversation taking place. Something so simple like talking with someone shouldn’t be touched when it comes to advancements. Like Henry Petroski says in “The Toothpick”, “It (a toothpick) consists of a single part, made of a single material, intended for a single purpose – from which it gets its simple name.” (677) Talking with someone has now become too complicated where we find the need to find new ways to do it. Something so basic and necessary shouldn’t be messed with, just like a toothpick is perfect the way it is. Texting also creates very emotionless, cut and dry conversations that can be easily misinterpreted. Maybe a sentence response or less, it also has even simplified the English language. Now not only can we not take the time to speak with someone on our cell phones but we cannot even take the time to write out words. Now “Oh my gosh” is “OMG”, or “just kidding” is “JK”. Text messaging is too impersonal to be considered a primary source of conversation but in the last year alone it has jumped from 65% to 72% of all cell phone owners who text message. Soon the tradition of verbal conversation on a cell phone will be extinct with texting spreading.
Facebook creates the most limitation to the tradition of wholesome communication. Facebook makes it so that no personal contact is ever needed with your “friends”. It is no longer necessary to call a friend or meet up with them to learn what is going on in their lives. It is the most impersonal means of communication out there, based mostly on social status where the number of friends is more important than the quality of the relationships. In this case no communication would be better. It’s almost that in itself, “no communication”. Facebook has made writing an electronic sentence to someone a stand alone qualification of being someone’s friend. It has even taken the excitement out of telling family and “friends” great news, the only excitement received in response is an exclamation point at the end of their response. This has discouraged wholesome communication with friends and family, with social status and convenience.
Although advances in technology have strongly diminished our tradition of real conversation, there are advantages. The different types of technology all help fit communication into our busy schedules. Email is quick and convenient. If there isn’t enough time to sit down and write out a letter to someone or stop at a post office, an email can be sent in minutes. Text messaging limits in depth conversations but is great for needing a quick answer or multi-tasking since it doesn’t require being on the phone for a period of time talking to someone constantly. Facebook is great for keeping in contact with friends or family who live far away and creates a consistent way to communicate. With Facebook capabilities it’s easy to see “friends’” updates and are able to keep up with them, even with a busy schedule that doesn’t always make it easy to get together. Also if there are geographical issues, and distance and expensive long distance phone calls make it economically not an option. Unfortunately the pros of the technology advances are no where near the cons, and wholesome conversation, whether on the phone, in person, or in a hand written letter should not be replaced by anything.
As we continue to make advances in technology the tradition of personal conversation between one person to another is changing quickly. First with email in the 70s, then text messaging in 1992, and Facebook in 2004, technology is slowly advancing but causing wholesome communication to diminish along the way. The tradition of wholesome communication should not be something replaced with convenience, as our relationships are too substantial in our lives to sacrifice. This new tradition in our generation of advancements in technology and the social media is slowly destroying any wholesome relationships we have.
Work Cited
Walt Howe. A Brief History of the Internet. 24 March 2010
Web. 27 Feb 2011
“Text Messaging Statistics.” QWASI, Inc., N.p. 2 July 2010
Web. 27 Feb 2011
“What year did Facebook launch it’s site?” ChaCha Search, Inc., N.p. 5 Feb 2011
Web. 27 Feb 2011-02-28
Petroski, Henry. “The Toothpick.” Remix
Latterell, Catherine G. Bedford: St. Martin ’s, 2010. 677-685. Print.
DeGeneres, Ellen. “This Is How We Live.” Remix
Latterell, Catherine G. Bedford: St. Martin ’s, 2010. 638-642. Print.
Writer's Choice Introduction
For my writers choice piece I chose the Tradition Paper. This paper means the most to me. I’m a pretty tough person but I will be completely honest and say this class has been tough for me. I have struggled with the first two papers and I did not want to chance letting myself down again with my last chance to prove I can improve. I made an appointment with Lolly and it made me wish I had weeks before. After expressing my frustration and getting her insight on my troublesome areas in my writing I took what I learned and wrote what I feel is a great paper. I had a clear idea of what I needed to aim for and stay away from. I believe I put as much effort into this paper as the other two combined and one I would be proud to showcase it for people to read. One of my biggest troublesome areas I have with formal essays is staying to a very structured format and keeping it on track. With this paper every single sentence has a purpose and supports my thesis. There are no off topic comments or filler sentences, that aren’t necessary to my points but I feel I also found a way to incorporate my voice to support my points. For example when I wrote “Now the thought of having to write a letter is exhausting compared to typing out a quick email.” I feel shows my voice but is a clear example of the tradition of wholesome communication disappearing due to technology. Reading this paper makes me smile because of the effort I put into it alone and I came out with a very well written piece of work I’m proud of.
Critical Thinking Piece/ Timed Write of AmericanEast
In AmericanEast the definition of an outsider in America
After the attack, American's became afraid of this minority of people living in the United States
Although it is very obvious in this film that Muslims were seen as outsiders. Also confirmed by Murad's vocal opinion of American's look on them in every scene he appeared in. I also think that Muslims found comfort in being outsiders. They had the tendency to gravitate to the Habibi's Cafe. Not only the friends of Mustafa, but also people needing prayer, and Muslim customers. They found comfort in each other and support being surrounded by people with shared beliefs could bring them. This also helped them not conform to the American way by being around it 100% of the time. Though it was proven difficult at times. So even though being an outsider is an awkward uncomfortable place to be, the unity it brought them as American outsiders brought them closer together.
In many ways this film supported how with each characters life how they were excluded in their own way. Leila did not want to marry her cousin. She did not love him and was attracted to a white man but she could not bring herself to go against her religion, in so doing she excluded herself from the average person's enjoyment of finding love. Omar was excluded from all the film roles he wanted. He was only offered parts that a Muslim would play well, and at that time Muslims were seen as terrorists in the American eye, so that is what he was offered. After enduring a lot of self hate Omar even lost his rights. While he was no threat at the time of his murder he was killed because he was automatically seen as a strong threat because he was Muslim, compared to a white male in the same situation. Mustafa was almost denied the business deal he deserved due to his possibility of bad business because of what the government was wrongly subjecting him to after a false accusal. Even Murad excluded himself from everything else because he felt so strongly like the Muslim people were being attacked, he made himself as an outsider in America by rebellion.
The movie AmericanEast showed it wasn't a specific career, appearance or action that made an outsider. Every Muslim was an outsider in America
Voice Piece Introduction
My favorite of all the assignments we had was by far the name discussion board piece. I went into this piece having no idea what I could write about when it came to my name. But then when I sat down and started thinking about it my mind when every direction and it came easy! I thought about who would be reading it and being a discussion board posting I knew my audience was my class, so people who had no idea who I am but are likely to be around my age. Since it was aimed for the same age group I thought mentioning how my name is used as a beer would not only be funny (with the story behind it) and also catch the audience’s attention. I used my enthusiasm and personality to liven it up and I feel you can really hear me almost telling you like it is coming straight from the horses mouth, and because of that I’m very proud of this post. I also feel the simplicity of what I wrote but including the great voice made it easy for people to stay intrigued, not get bored and want to know more. Knowing that I think it was easy for people to continue conversation based on what I wrote, by asking me questions or elaborating on what I said and relating it to their own story of their names. As a whole this writing environment challenged my way of writing. It was difficult at first trying to find a way to write to intrigue conversation between classmates and visa versa trying to continue conversation based on others writings. I feel it was easier trying to pretend you were listening to someone talking and responding with what you’re really thinking after you read their posts. With time it got easier and easier and I think it has helped a lot with my voice. I do really feel this style of writing communication (discussion boards) has been very helpful and in all of my progress I feel this posting best shows my success in using voice.
Critical Thinking Piece Introduction
To best show my critical thinking and analysis skills I chose my timed write based on the movie AmericanEast. This paper asked us to use the movie to show what it is meant to be an outsider. I had to look at this movie in many ways in order to really analyze what the movie was saying. From the actions and the reactions of each character and the Muslim community as a whole, each area had to be explored. At one point in my paper I wrote “Being an outsider by definition means “someone who is excluded from or is not a member of a group.”. Muslims were picked out of a crowd just by their appearance. When Mustafa was at the airport and lost sight of his son he began to panic like any parent would, but because of his culture and son’s name (Mohammed) he was automatically seen as a threat.” I feel I did well not describing the paper but using the paper to support the purpose of the paper. I improved immensely on doing this from the start of the class. I use to often write about what happened in the movie, and then try to explain it and/or touch it to the topic of the paper. I now see that, that is not truly analytical writing. But that you have to do the opposite, and look deeper into what is happening in the movie and see how it supports the intentions of your paper. This paper best showed my ability to analyze the film AmericanEast and use what I learned to support the purpose of my paper.
My Reflection Letter
Dear Audience.
My name is Heather Kuhnhenn, English Composition 101 has been an emotional rollercoaster for me. Even with all of the challenges it has been a great experience and has helped me figure out my strengths and weaknesses in writing. By no comparison it has taught me that I thrive when I can express my voice in whatever I may be writing. When it comes to writing I have great difficulty trying to show my voice without saying “I”. Apparently I really want the audience to know I’m talking about my opinion but I’ve learned it’s unneeded and doesn’t make for a good thesis driven paper. At the end of this class though I have found out that it isn’t needed. I can now say that I’ve successfully written a thesis driven paper without the use of “I”. To be perfectly honest thought, I think my struggles, taking the bad grades hard emotionally and getting frustrated with myself, are what helped me improve. After not improving on the second paper like I thought I would, I made myself go the last mile I could to try to succeed and made an appointment to meet with one of my professors. I felt instant gratification. I took what I learned and ended up rewriting my entire Traditions Paper. Whether or not the paper could still benefit from more improvement, comparing it to the other papers I did, you would be astounded with my progress. Finally being truly proud of a paper I did in this class has been worth all the struggles. Not only do I feel my writing skills have improved but the pathway we took to get here has been an amazing learning experience as well.
Aside from the increasing my writing skills, this class has opened my mind to let me see diversity. Participating in discussion boards made me see how someone else can view the same topic completely differently. Diversity is just that, the difference between one thing to another. We looked at diversity through identity, community, and tradition, seeing how each small or large part of someone is diverse. We started out establishing how each person has diversity in just what they feel identifies them. How even a little thing like a purse or wallet can be used to identify a person and what is important to them. (That was probably one of my favorite assignments in this class, since I had never examined what each thing showed about me.) Then we merged into looking at our communities. Each individual has a community they fit into. Since someone can be part of a number of communities it was difficult for me to pick just one community that would represent me in class. For me it was horse riding, for others it was church or music.
Diversity can expand into different areas in our lives and is different for each person. Out of a selection of movies I chose to watch American East for this class. This movie showed how an event that affected everyone can result in many different outcomes for different communities. It made me see how when looking at something I was only looking at it one way. After learning how to distinguish the diversity amongst communities we then focused on their traditions. For example the religious community still has certain traditions that others don’t see fit for this day and age, such as how arranged marriages in some religions are still normal.
I enjoyed how this class made me look deeper into myself and think about what identifies me, but then also really opened my eyes to see the diversity that surrounds me. I had never looked so deeply into topics to try to see all the angles. From really thinking about what my name means, where I belong and why (my horse community), or how September 11th effected the Muslim people. I feel acknowledging the different identities, communities and traditions people have help us understand more of who they are and what is important to them, and in that become more accepting of their differences. Even just learning about my classmates really made me aware of how diverse we are.
To show my progress and what I have learned from English Composition 101D I’ve selected 4 pieces of my work to showcase. I’ve chosen my timed write based on the movie American East to show my critical thinking. I truly had to look into every character and action in this movie, to see all it is trying to teach the viewing audience. Not only did I have to analyze the movie, but I felt I got a lot of understanding of what the Muslim community went through after September 11th, that to be completely honest had never crossed my mind. To show a piece that I need to work on, I chose the blog on food traditions. I chose this because I feel my strength is showing my voice to the audience, but when I read this blog I know I didn’t do it to the best of my ability. When I re-read it I thought of many ways I could make it better and I’d like to show that my skills are better than what I originally showed in this piece. For the piece I feel best showed my voice I chose the Discussion Board posting I wrote about my name. This best showed my voice because while I was writing it I was excited about the topic and when I re-read my posting I could hear my enthusiasm in what I wrote. For my overall choice of all the items I did in this class I chose the last paper, the Tradition Paper. This paper was a leap in the right direction for me. I learned the most and am the most proud of the outcome. I started out with a below mediocre paper but not want to end the quarter on mediocre so I searched out help from the professionals (our professors). I took what I learned in that 20 minutes and rewrote what I feel is a great paper. This has been a very rewarding class. Honestly probably the toughest I’ve taken yet but if it hadn’t been I don’t think I would have learned nearly as much as I did.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
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