Week 3 Response 2

How does Lamott's writing style help her make her point?

In "Shitty First Drafts" the writing style helps to make a point by wandering a bit, but then focusing in tightly on the idea that it is trying to convey. It feels as if this piece was written in just the form that she writes about throughout. Terrible first draft with all the trappings of a lost mind and then a slew of revisions to clean and clear things up, leaving out the terrible parts and working with the shining stars that show up here and there. In the end, the style of this piece reads very well and has a human feel to it that makes its almost feel like someone is telling you a story rather than writing about writing.

Do you agree or disagree with the suggestions she gives?

The suggestions that Anne Lamott gives in her short piece "Shitty First Drafts" are not only sound advice, but they are also great encouragement for a writer like me. It is clear that she has refined this process of writing down everything that she is thinking and then refining it a day later to find all the good and bad that she came up with the day prior. This seems to be a great method for producing good work that I not only agree with but will be using.

Essay #1 Rough Draft

Essay #1 Rough Draft


Although farm animals raised commercially for meat have added generously to our options for quality foods, wild game is a superior choice because of its quality, its value, and its overall health benefits.
Modern agriculture, in its efforts to become more efficient and streamlined has generally turned to a monoculture style of raising meat producing animals. Huge feedlots with thousands of cows, gigantic warehouses filled with chickens in tight cages and barns filled with pigs that are so sensitive to airborne parasites that they have to be kept in purified air behind a sterile barrier from the outside world. Instead of a working relationship with farm animals, we have turned to this approach more and more as demand for cheap meat has gone up. Many animals have been bred to produce more and more meat while retaining less and less of their genetic components that allow them to survive on their own. While this has allowed modern people to keep up with supplies of food for the masses, the toll of such actions can be seen in the simple use of steroids and antibiotics that keep these animals alive and producing.

Wild game is free of any unnatural hormones, steroids or anything that nature doesn't intend. There are no confinement issues with wild game, a free life of roaming and foraging makes for a good relationship between animal and nature. There is a sense of responsibility and accomplishment that come with hunting for and providing your own food that can not be said for the common trip to the grocery store. There is a good amount of hardwork that goes into any hunt, but that work is paid for with meat, a direct relationship with nature and a strong pride in your food.

Reading Response, Chapter 4, Week 2

Question 2 on Gender Policing.

The gender policing that takes place in the Miller Commercial mentioned in Williams Sea's article "Advertising Sets Double Standard for the Male Gender" is a common occurrence in popular culture today. The concept is that there is a right and a wrong way to be a man or woman and that anything outside of that "right and wrong" is taboo.
This gender policing perpetrates stereotypes in many different ways. Mainly these stereotypes are perpetuated because of an initial fear of backlash or embarrassment . When we see an ad on television like the Miller ad mentioned in Sea's article, it gets a message into our subconscious that there is a right and a wrong way to be a man. The right way involves beer, or can be arranged with beer and the wrong way involves effeminate behaviour, health conscious eating choices or baby talking to a pet. These ads only promote gender policing even more because they solidify peoples ideas of what is so. Advertising has a way of doing that to people, even when they are unaware of it.
Policing is one element of any sort of organized group too, and not always bad. Many times when politicians are in the public spotlight, they are policed from inside their own parties to only say specific things or release specific information. This sort of policing takes a strict toll on politicians in particular as they are quickly seen as puppets or molded clay. Other groups heavily police themselves from the inside out too, many religious organizations have strict rules and doctrines that are set forth by leaders or members as a consensus. These rules can be designed for a greater good or to direct people to what is regarded by them as a better life, but can at times be obtrusive and overbearing. An example of this sort of religious rule would be a decision by Southern Baptist theologians that homosexuality is a sin and is marked as such in the bible. This has led to policing within Southern Baptist churches that would not allow any homosexuals to be members of or be active in those churches. This is a far reaching general statement that surely isn't true in every case, but generally holds water.
Disadvantages to this sort of policing are many, mainly there is a lack of freethinking that comes from it. When a rule made up and people accept is as a standard without any thought, an intolerance arises with a foundation that was created by someone else. If that intolerance is policed, it can become fact to some and with the blink of an eye it becomes truth.

Writing Assignment #1 : A good life

Writing a bit about myself has never seemed quite so hard as it is right now. I have had such a large span of time since my last English class that I am finding myself researching how to make and introduction and conclusion before I even begin writing. I don't remember it being like this back in high school. This stuff just seemed to come to me back then, never any real attention paid to the details, I seemed to even have a knack for it. The writing would just flow out of me, something I didn't really have to think about or work hard at. Things seem to be a bit different now. There is more going on in my life now than there ever was back in high school though, maybe that has something to do with it. Maybe its because I just haven't been using that part of my brain where the writing seeps from in such a long time that its gotten all old and rusty. While I am not entirely sure what it is, I do know that I still enjoy getting my thoughts out on paper, whether they flow out or I have to work to put them down.
My job keeps me up on many other people's writing on a daily basis. Since I am the last check for errors before a job goes to press, I am usually reading something or other and checking it out for mistakes. Sometimes this can get a little dry and tiresome, but it does keep things interesting. I have been looking forward to this class so that I can not only reevaluate my own style and quality of writing, but hone in on a refined and stronger style. I think that this will bring some personal satisfaction to me, mainly because the stronger and clearer my writing is the better I can convey a message to a reader.

My Introduction

My first post on my new English 111 Blog

Hi, my name is Justin and I am new to the blackboard class idea.
I live in Fairbanks, and have been here for one year this August. I am origionally from Louisville, Kentucky and while I love it down that way, I call Fairbanks home.
I have quite a bit of anxiety about taking an online course, but my brother who is well versed in such things assures me that it is a great way to take classes, mainly I have to set deadlines for myself and stick to them. I have been out of school for a long time and am just getting back into it, that is cause for some anxiety too.
I don't have much of a history of writing anything formally. I do alot of proofreading for other people because I work in the prepress department of a printing business though. While it doesn't keep me writing much, it does make me aware of some of the common mistakes that slip past people.
I keep another blog that I write on occasionally for friends and family too.
My hobbies and interests are far reaching. I love to read, mostly non-fiction and how-to books. I love learning more about printing, mostly the older methods like letterpress and lithography. I enjoy hunting and fishing and just generally being outdoors in Alaska.
So, in a nutshell, there I am. I am looking forward to working my way through this class and getting back into school.