5/4/2019 3 Comments Final ReflectionMy author identity has definitely changed throughout this course. I started out thinking I couldn’t become a better writer or even if I was one at all. I didn’t think highly of my work and everything inside of me told me my work wasn’t good enough to present. I went from not having any confidence in my writing to now having confidence. My mid-term reflection was poor I was lacking a lot of the material needed for my website, and could’ve easily given up after not hearing the feedback that I wanted and needed to hear. That was my wake up call to prove myself to my professor and push pass my doubts of myself and express it through my writing. That’s when my author identity changed, and the moment I felt like I could do this. It was my moment of clarity, before I would’ve never cared. That’s when I realized my author identity changed…my purpose/ mindset changed.
This course has changed my theory of writing in so many ways. The concepts Professor Mangini introduced to us that suck with me throughout this course is being a part of a discourse community. I never heard of the term until this course and like how he used it in a way to make it easy for us to be able to open up to each other and communicate with one another. I truly appreciate this effort because it was one of the things that helped me open up a bit during this course. I felt like I stepped out of my comfort zone. I use to view writing as just throwing some things together for a grade. Now I view writing in a different light and kind of enjoy it. I’ve watched the growth in my own work and notice that I’m more descriptive, focused, and passionate about the topics I’m writing about. My past writing experiences are really different then my present. Mainly because I’m a completely different being, I am not the same person I was ten-twelve years ago. I evolved from a young girl into a woman, so my outlook and mindset has changed tremendously. Before I didn’t really care to learn, I had a lot of self-doubt and I didn’t work hard, high school in all honesty was a joke. I now have a goal that I’m trying to obtain, and a clear direction of what I want to do in life. I have supportive people around me, driving me to learn and put my best foot forward. The only thing that’s the same from now and then is self-doubt I still have that from time to time, it’s definitely a work in process. I take it one day at a time as my confidence continues to build the doubt with fade away. This class over all was overwhelming at times because it seemed like a lot of was being asked of me at once. But I can honestly say I learned a lot, gained so much confidence in myself, and pushed past some fears. I plan to speak up in class more and not have a fixed mindset. I will always remember that whatever environment I’m in as long as we are all there sharing the same common goal we are a discourse community. I will always remember the term making meaning I plan to carry this term in every aspect of life.
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5/4/2019 0 Comments Research Paper: The FinaleFinally I’m coming up on the final lap. This Research paper has honestly wore me out. I started off my paper so strong and knew in my head the direction I want to go toward. I really just had a hard time executing my message. I’m so passionate about my topic because I was once a young girl looking to the media for trends and guidance. I use to want the perfect body because that’s what I saw advertised. Women are more than just sexual objects. It was very important for me to show a different side of women and make that the main topic. Many women in the world have tremendous accomplishments but fade to the sidelines because they either take the backseat to a man or are body shamed because they don’t look the part.
This research paper was difficult to write I won’t lie, but the purpose behind the message made me want to put pass all the feelings of defeat. During the process of this research paper I used quotes from the documentary Miss Representation,to help support my thoughts in research paper. Throughout all the different stages of this paper I struggled. There were a lot of helpful tips learned in this course, creditable sources, and quote from the documentary to help form my views on how sexism, gender discrimination, gender power and how they affect the vast majority of women in the world leaving them feeling empowered. This is the half way mark of the research paper I should be either finished the paper or at least half way through. I’m neither, I am still at the beginning stages of my paper. I’m having major writers block and feel discouraged as I feel like I won’t meet my deadline in time. These past couple of weeks we were introduced to some concepts that might help us along the way in our process in writing our research paper. We talked about creditable sources, and In-text Citations. Using In-text Citation we need to focus on the summary, paraphrasing the text and using direct quotes to help support my ideas to help produce a better final project. We discussed arguments/ counter arguments. We also talk logical fallacies, and different acronyms that were used throughout this course such as DAT, TPS, PIE, etc. These are all things that we can use to help us with the writing process with the research paper. We also had write an empathy letter to help build our memoir, write a Sympathy letter to help structure/build our research paper, and Write a counter facial to show different ways of writing to integrate into our paper to help strengthen our final project.
Empathy Letter… Dear Dad, It’s me Dom, It’s something I’ve been meaning to get off my chest all these years. First off I want to say I forgive you. I also want to tell you I’m sorry. I came into your life unexpectedly and abrupt changing your life forever. I robbed you and mom of your childhood making you instantly become adults. For mom it was easier for her to adapt I grew inside her and lived with her so our bond was better she instantly loved me and you grew to love me. Mom always said you were wild growing up you started drinking and partying at a young age, your household wasn’t the most structured so you became a product of your environment. You dropped out of school in the eighth grade really having no direction in which way to go in life. You found a passion for cooking and are actually really awesome at it, It’s one of the things I admire most about to you. I just want you to know I don’t hate and I forgive you because as I struggled to find myself and know my worth all these years, I realize you never knew yours. Sympathy Letter… Dear Girls, I just want you to know I love each and every one of you. If you haven’t heard these things lately regardless of age, race, and gender identity. I want you to know you are smart and beautiful in your own way. Be happy with yourself love who you are and embrace being you. Live out every dream imagined and know your worth as long as you know that you will always be on top. Counter facial What if when I ...Looked up at my dad an saw him staggering up the stairs I would’ve just grabbed by little brother Chris quickly before he made it to the steps and began singing the theme song to curious George to him that’s his favorite movie… I would smile at Chris make us a snack grab his rabbit and a cup of tea and prepare to watch his favorite movie. My mom could’ve just went upstairs because she noticed my father was drunk and help him lay down and get conformable to sleep it off and prepare for the next day. Me and my father would have never fought, I would have never been arrested and the whole story would’ve changed just like that. The last time I wrote a research paper was over ten years ago. I have the same exact feelings as I did those ten years ago. Writing this paper has brought on a lot of anxiety, I think honestly because I lack confidence in my work. I feel like it’s not good enough to present the finished product; I have a clear message of what I want to argue and inform the readers on but I don’t quite understand how to execute my thoughts.
My research paper will focus on empowering women and helping young girls and women understand the power behind our voices. I would like to share a brief introduction to my paper to help give you a better understanding of the direction I’m aiming towards for my paper. I’m trying to send a message that we want to shift/ change the negative standards of society to positive ones and promote positive images of women. We want to show women who are smart, women who are physically strong, women who are strong mentally and women who show they are in control of their own destiny. The women that we usually see in the media are women that are over sexualized for the personal gain of selling a product. We need to figure out how we can transition into the mask we want to become and stop living up to social media standards? The empowerment of women has been on the rise, however it still affects our being, knowing and doing. Facing obstacles like sexism, gender discrimination, and gender power are things that would normally deter you from your dreams/goals but we have to shift our mindset and believe that we can rise to the occasion because we are females and we are fearless. The whole message of paper is to show young girls and women that we can be anything they want. Push pass the media’s images of who they think women should be, we can be the next Michele Obama, Layla Ali, Mona Davis, Serena Williams, and Hillary Clinton if we want too. We are so much more than a physical object, we are “beauty and brains” and beauty comes from within. I believe we have much more to offer the world, and that’s what I plan to argue in this research paper. In this blog, I will share my views on the documentary The Mask You Live In. What is masculinity? People usually associate it with toughness, " manliness", strength, etc. This documentary show how men and young boy are view around the world, trying to fit in while they struggle to live up to the standards of masculinity.
How does the argument in the film make you feel (impact on your being)? This documentary makes me feel annoyed honestly and it makes me angry I don't understand why boy are though to be this way. I have a teenage brother and I watch the way the males in the family talk him it truly saddens me. How does the argument in the film make you think (impact on your knowing)? The documentary The Mask You Live In impacts me in a way thats emotional. After watching I just wanted to call my brother and tell him how proud I am of him and how much I love him. I felt the need to express this more after watching this because I feel like it's what a lot of males lacked in the documentary. There were many things like empathy, compassion, and unconditional love, I just don't get that people expect humans to just act one way according to gender. How does the argument in the film make you want to make change (impact on your doing)? I change my interaction with my brother I'm more affectionate. I also listen and pay attention to his behaviors. Watching this documentary made me more aware of the pressures males go through on a daily bases. In this blog, I will discuss my views on the documentary Miss Representation and how it affects my being, knowing and doing. Miss Representation is a documentary about how women are misrepresented in the media and culture. It also shows how women in power and that have influence are viewed in the eyes of men around the world.
How does the argument in the film make you feel (impact on your being)? Watching the documentary Miss Representation makes me feel sad. I'm sad because of the world we live in, why do we as women have to be misrepresented in such a negative way. The documentary was based off women in the media over decades of time. It makes me feel sad because I feel over these decades we've made very little strides in the way we are viewed today. I feel like I need to try to help make a difference in some way shape or form. No matter how small or big. How does the argument in the film make you think (impact on your knowing)? After watching the documentary Miss Representation, I definitely can see how it affects my knowing. Everything is revolved around social media and shaping the culture. With social networks shaping our minds 24/7 it’s not hard to see how we rely on it so much for confirmation. Movies, social networks, News, and reality T.V provides entertainment. It also provides images of women that we want strive to be like as women. How does the argument in the film make you want to make change (impact on your doing)? Watching this video definitely makes me want to do more for my community, be that voice of reason for young girls. I would like to flip the views of social media in the way that instead of focusing on the negative views of women we can start focusing on the positive. Instead of looking at “Nikki Minaj” as body goals we can look at “Massy Arias” as body goals because not only is she a professional body builder with a beautiful face. She is a person that wants women all around the world to feel confident in the skin their in. She promotes beauty on the inside and outside. We need to change our mindset and focus on the doing and make strides to better help us grow mentally and physically. It’s Saturday and most importantly my weekend off from work lol. It’s a beautiful day outside I’m thinking to myself I think ill run some errands, oh yeah and buy that new book that just came out called “On the Come up” by Angie Thomas. That’s the author of “The Hate U Give”. It’s now 1pm when I arrive at the bookstore, I run into Tia one of my goods friends.
“Hey Dom” Tia said “ Hey Tia it sure is a lot of people out today” I said “Oh you didn’t hear there will be speakers here today for a conference” Tia said “Really... I wonder who” I said “ The famous poet Pablo Neruda will be reciting and signing some of his work” Tia said “No way… I have been dying to meet him,” I said “ It doesn’t stop there his guest speaker is James Paul Gee and he will be doing a Q&A on literacy and how we interpret it”. Tia said “ Oh this is going to be amazing”. I said I hurry and grab a coffee before the reading begins. Approaching the stage Pablo Neruda! Everyone stands and claps as he recites his poem my favorite part is… “ But when I call upon my Dashing being, Out comes the same old lazy self, And so I never know who I am, Nor how many I am, nor who we will be being, I would like to be able to touch a bell, And call up my real self, the truly me, Because if I really need my proper self, I must not allow myself to disappear.” This poem is very deep. It challenges you to look within yourself. When I heard him recite that part of the poem I felt like he was talking about me. Everyday I get up and want to be better than I was the day before, and crush everyday. But I allow myself to disappear behind excuses of work and sleep deprivation. I need to wake and be the real me. “Now that’s deep ”Tia said “What was your favorite part?” I said “ The very beginning he came out so strong saying… “Of the many men whom I am, we are I cannot settle on a single one They are lost to me under the cover of clothing They have departed for another city.” Tia states Neruda makes his work relatable because he really is someone who was seeking to discover his true identity. “Of the many men who I am, who we are I can't find a single one” meaning there is a multitude of selves who live inside him. His sense of being completely lost within his own changeable, self (“they disappear among my clothes / they've left for another city”). The next speaker James Paul Gee is ready for his Q&A… Guys think of the term discourse. By Discourse I mean “a socially accepted association among ways of using language, of thinking, and of acting that can be used to identify oneself as a member of a socially meaningful group “ Social network”. “ So like a group of people that share the same interest?” Tia said “Yes” Gee said You have to being to start thinking of a discourse like an “identity kit” which comes up with appropriate costume and instructions on how to act and talk so as to take on another role that others will recognize. “ So basically a identity kit is everything you need to know and do to become a part of a specific Discourse”. I said “Yes” Gee said He steps off stage and begins to shake everyone hand as he say goodbye. I shook his hand and said Thank you for all this informative information on literacy and discourse community. I now understand the concept of being, knowing, doing. The article by James Paul Gee speaks to the identity of our discourse community because it lets you know discourse shapes your life and give you beliefs and values to follow throughout your life. I agree with this because I believe I’m apart of a discourse community where I work we all understand the medical terms, we all where the same uniform etc. so there is a understanding and for the eight or twelve hours we work we are a community. Pablo Neruda’s poem is relatable to our discourse community because everyone can choose a part of the poem and identify with it in some way shape or form. We all struggle with who we are at times and where we are going. We all feel like cowards sometimes, not smart enough at times etc. We have to push pass the barriers. Home Page Well-Being Assessment: Flourishing
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Dominique Alexander Archives
May 2019
CategoriesAll Identity Narrative Reflection Research Project Writing Process |