Jounral Entry 19

I know I misspelled the title.

Dear Future Elizabeth,

What the actual heck are you doing? Finish the millennial paper. Do it. Have someone read over it before you finally turn it in. I know you hate other people reading your stuff, but you need to do so, so that it isn't just total ramblings before it becomes a grade. Elizabeth, I know you are perfect, and perfection comes from friendship. Get friendship to look over your final draft, then make it a final draft. Does that make sense? Yes.

Begin reading that article due at 10. Make a journal entry for it as well as finishing up the journal entry that was due Monday and all the other ones due last month. You're doing great, kiddo!


Lots of love and hugs and kisses,
Yours Truly,
Past Elizabeth A. McKnight

Journal Entry 18 (Attendance Project)

1. Re-writing and revising, to me, simply means adding on to what I was posing as my first draft of a paper. I fill in cracks to get closer to word count and make the paper more coherent in whatever atrocity I had typed previously. 

2. My current re-writing process is to fix my "rough" draft. My rough drafts are typically outlines heavily filled in.

3. My ideal re-writing process would be having just to fill in some gaps and make the paper more coherent to the average reader, not just me.

4. I don't like re-writing, for all it really does is remind me of my present academic failures. Currently, as in the last two years of my educational career, I find that pulling all the documents I need up onto my desktop with some video playing in the background. I find that I need as many senses occupied at once to concentrate, and seeing all the documents in front of me is rather crucial. Having all of one thing right in front of my face when I need to concentrate is good.

5. I don't like having other people edit my papers, but I need them to in order to fix my grammar mistakes. It's important. I like looking for grammar mistakes and sentence structure in the papers of others.

6. As stated above, I don't like peer editing, but I will acknowledge it's assistance in my success. 

Millenial Ideas (Journal Entry 17)

Being a millennial means listening to older generations gripe about millennials.
A good song to describe it would be "Baepsae" by BTS, just saying.
Arguments about this is either the best or worst time to be alive in history.
Millennials typically have it easy as they are the tech generation.
I guess another example would be that Vince Vaughn movie about Google interns and how they are really old but still et to work at Google. 
Being a millennial is about making the next new thing.




What people think about being a millennial:
Lazy
Always on thier phone
"Hook-up culture"
Dress inapproprietly
Protest too much, don't understand "history"
"Inventing" useless things
No motivation
Never finish school, drop out of high school, don't even apply to college
Group all "millennials" together



I do not think of myself as a millennial. I mean, I assume I am at the core; I'm always on my phone, I'm lazy and fit into the obiesity epidemic of America. I follow the herd and protest stuff that older generations don't care about and get upset over when we bring it up. But also, I'm a lady? I wear white gloves and eat finger sandwiches at tea time. I read Emily Post and watch Clark Gable movies, I like to think I'm the "old soul". But also, wouldn't that just make me even more of a millennial? Thinking I'm above myself? Or is that just narcissim?

Response to "Not Every Kid Bond Matures" (Journal Entry 16)

I will once again be responding as I read the article:

First paragraph in and this guy already sounds pretentious.

What does the author mean when he says, "politics did did not line up with the generations"? I know he goes on to explain himself, but I just do not see his reasoning behind using that phrase. I don't get it.

He lists famous marches and protests and uprisings, saying they are/did take place because of "the young". I mean... yeah. But also each generation has different feelings on etiquette and protesting. Of course "the young" are the ones going out and protesting! The older generation of... well, each generation is majorally against what is being protested against. That's kind of the point of protesting. Older people are in charge, and the young want to change it in order for thier future to be how they want. And so on and so on.

Who is this guy to say "the destruction of childhood"? Uhm? He can back up? Does he not think that once girls were widely accepted into learning institutions, thier elders got upset because they would forget how to milk the grass and mow the cows? Never mind.

I'm glad he describes the photo taken in Charlottesville. I always love hearing the stories behind the photos taken at protests. Like the one from Ferguson of the man who picked up a firing can of tear gas to throw it back? I never knew what the photo was until someone informed me. I'd like to see the photo mentioned in this article.
Here is the one I am referencing:

Topics/Questions for New Essay (Exploratory) (Journal Entry 14)

3 things that are cool:

• Musicals? Yeah. 
• Babies

3 things I dislike:

• White boy fashion
• Weed
• Shaving my legs

3 things I don't understand:

• My love for Ronald Reagan
• White boy fashion
• My youngest yet older brother (Preston)

Commitment Ceremony (Journal Entry 15)

Topic: Teacher Pay

Central Question: Why does no one ever rally for teacher pay like they do with other jobs?

Mini Questions:

1. Why are teachers paid so little in our state?
2. Is it important to pay someone based on work ethic/outcome of the occupation?
3. How come teachers are not allowed to protest in the state of North Carolina

Examples:

Only protest I've ever seen is wearing red on Wednesdays

Still below poverty line even when dad had a job

Everyone always tells me to change my major or that I have so much to look forward to if I wasn't a teacher. 

In pop-culture such as coming of age movies and shows or Young-Adult novels recently published, there has been a recurring joke since nearly anyone of any decade can laugh at. The joke brings up that awkward feeling a person gets when seeing their teacher outside of school. Running into your math professor at the grocery store, or seeing your old PE teacher at an unlikely concert. We have just become accustomed to seeing a certain person in a certain place, and it can be a little unsettling to change up that scenery. I remember my 8^th grade math teacher standing in front of the class, joking that teachers were robots that lived at school; and once all the students left, the instructors would climb into their respective cabinets and “power down”. I remember all the kids laughing at the way our teacher pretended to mechanically move and lose his robotic battery percentage. The joke is funny because we can all agree: teachers aren’t actually people. Are they? I mean, when you think about it, it can be hard to define that question; for normal people are paid for the jobs they do in accordance to how their occupation affects the nation. Teachers aren’t normal, not like other professionals. Teachers are held at a higher standard, having to still be under occupational scrutiny even when clocking out, so to speak. They are constantly under magnifying glasses, pushing their limits as well as the envelope- the one that holds their paycheck, that is.  

Yes, Hello, I wrote an essay in an hour (no proof read)

An exploratory paper is a structure of paper designed to ask a question or series of questions for the reader to think about and mull over the possible answers. An exploratory paper is in contrast to that of the expository style of writing, in which the author has a central idea and is attempting to make the reader understand and follow. The two writing styles are similar in the way that in the end, the reader comes away with an answer as well as a question that didn’t know they were asking.

David Foster Wallace’s “Consider the Lobster” article is an example of the exploratory paper in that it asks one, if not multiple, central question. His central question is that whether or not it is humane to catch, boil, and eat a live and sentient being. His article is extensive, chronicling not just a famous lobster-themed festival, but his whole experience. His writing style is unique in itself, switching from first person to second, as well as telling of his experience through the perspective of a lobster and how they think about their rise in popularity through the ages. I, for one, enjoy how he detailed every aspect of the festival experience and atmosphere to add to the importance of what it truly means to be a lobster.

Alice Walker’s article on Southern black women at the turn of the 20^th century has not one central question posed like Wallace’s exploratory exposé, but a handful of them. She poses the question of who were the women, the Saints, of the South? Not just matriarchs of present day families, but how did they get to where they were, and why. Beginning her exploratory article from the perspective of an outsider simply walking around, casting glances at the subject of her writing, is an intriguing style choice, in my opinion. I enjoy how she does not concentrate on just a few aspects of black women in southern 20^th century America. She speaks on the history of black women writing and making art in not just America but in different countries and cultures, posing more central questions along the lines of: why are black women deprived of the arts they wish to pursue? Must they settle for such insipid lives when they were destined for much more?

Both Walker and Wallace write in the aforementioned exploratory writing style, though they express it differently. The two authors both ask not one, but multiple principal questions about their respective subjects. While similar in writing format, the two tackle the exploratory style very differently. They both write from multiple perspectives, but the way in which they do so sets them apart greatly. Wallace speaks on his personal experience at a festival, bringing in details of the history of the festival, the main concentrate of it (lobster), and even of how new and old patrons feel about the festival. Walker speaks on new patrons of southern black women from a personal and present perspective, but more commonly uses the context from historical black figures to get her point across. She focuses on the “what-if” quality of her topic and how history shaped a people and their artistic repression, while Wallace focuses more on the central subject at hand, which is undeniably lobster.

While the two journalists are equally alike and different, I am just small and sleepy. When typically writing for myself, I must confess I stick to a somewhat likened style of how Walker composes, but will definitely follow Wallace’s footsteps to make word count. Because that seems to be exactly what he is doing. The writing process is always challenging to me, and I imagine that the most difficult prospects of writing an exploratory paper will be making sure I fit all the criteria and do not slip into an expository format as well as making sure I do not just ramble about my topic, never making a truly coherent sentence. I am hoping that in the end, I will have a large vocabulary, as well as a better eye for picking out the difference in writing styles and formats.

Alice Walker Precis & Reverse Outline (Journal Entry... I dunno, 13?)

Alice Walker speaks on how the South sees the everyday black woman. She uses allusions and writes from the perspective of others in her article "In Search of Our Mother's Gardens: The Creativity of Black Women in the South".

1st paragraph: Touches the subject of Jean Toomer. Begins discussing the spirituality and objectiveness of southern black women in the early 1900's.
2nd/3rd "paragraphs": describes women as saints, introduces (grand)mother concept
4th paragraph: Black women were looked at, not interacted with, what they leisurely did
5th paragraph: spiritual description of the women?
6th "paragraph": Women ahead of thier time
7th paragraph: Describing through Toomer's perspective of how the women were going "nowhere"
8th paragraph: Toomer perspective, the women lead sad lives

Time for a change of pace

9th-11th paragraphs: Mothers/grandmothers were artists depraved of thier craft due to social and class structure
12th-14th paragraphs: Where would we be if we didn't have black female artists? Poem by Okot p'Biek. Response to poem about how who and what exactly black women are.
15th-17th paragraphs: Introduce Virginia Woolf and Phillis Wheatly
18th-21st paragraphs: Description of what Virginia wrote and how it applies to slave Phillis taken away from African home. Little bit about how Phillis lived and died
22nd-25th paragraphs: more about Phillis, her poem. Meaning behind the poem and why Phillis chose to write it
26th-28th paragraphs: What women are called and how they are seen in society as "castraters" and the like. How previous black writers helped her to write this article as well as push her career along
29th-32nd paragraphs: About her own mother's life and marriage and daily life in the early to mid 1900's and how it affected her and her children.
33rd-35th paragraphs: about quilt in Smithsonian made by anonymous Alabama woman
36th-41st paragraphs: Literary allusions by Virginia Woolf and The Third Life of George Copeland, and how it ties into Walker's mother's life.
42nd-45th paragraphs: memories of her mother's garden and people and how it was her art
46th-end: poem, meaning of poem, and how hopefully long ago in Africa, women could be the artists they wanted to be

Alice Walker (Journal Entry 12)

My mind is a little out of it as I read this, so I may need to re-read over it after the first two attempts.

I believe I will respond to this article much like I previously did for another blog entry, a sort of stream of conciousness writing style as I read the article.

Why does she put "mule of the world" into quotations when talking about black women in the South? Did the poet, Jean, liken them as such? Was it just maybe a common phrase in the 1920's to refer to women, especially black women, as mules? Asses? Rude?

People set candy on fire? What? *Elizabeth, please re-read this section.

The way of Walker's writing is terrific, but I do wish my head could think like hers. The manner of how she is describing "mothers and grandmothers" reminds me slightly of the scenarios in "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neal Hurston.

Since when is spirituality the basis of art? As she continues to use the term "spirituality" in this article, I feel as though she is talking more about faith in religion. What other kind of spirituality is there, if not believing in a higher power or other forces at work around our natural world?

The poem that Walker "paraphrases" has a word that I cannot seem to find a definition for. "Lacari" I attempted to find a definition for this, but the closest thing I could find was that it is a name. Yet when spelled as "lachari", it is translated as a Hindi word meaning "helplessness". So the line in the poem would read "Close the gates/with helpless thorns". Hmmmmm.......

"...'savagery' of the Africa they 'rescued' her from..." lmao, sounds like it could be right out of "The White Man's Burden" written lovingly by Rudyard Kipling. What a guy.

Sapphire's Mama: Definition of a "Sapphire" is the trope of an overbearing and sassy black woman who has her man "whipped".

Graham Precis (Journal Entry 11)

Graham speaks on the traditional way high school students write essays, how the format came to pass, and what he wishes he could change about it.

The Age of (Answering) the Essay (Journal Entry 10)

I believe that I will write this blog entry along the way as I read the article.

First off, I am very fond of the statement made saying that an expert on literature doesn't need to be an expert at writing. Because same.

I understand his disinterest in why we have high school English classes and how we write papers, simply copying old white men who have been dead for centuries. But also, the way he explains it doesn't make it seem like a good argument to me. Is it because I dig history and find that trying to walk in footsteps that themselves were copying the classics is kinda dope? Probably.

The way Graham writes makes me think one of us is using commas the wrong way. either he doesn't use them as much as he should, or I'm tossing them out like bombs in a Blitzkrieg.

This b has typos in his own dadgum article. Maybe that's why he wrote it in the first place? Just another aspect of high school papers he didn't like was editing.

"Questions aren't enough. An essay has to come up with answers." Bitch, where? The way this phrase was worded, it makes me feel as though the essay itself creates multiple answers along it's course. For what I can remember, all the essays I've written had a single answer and were drawn out to answer one question. Gosh, I hope I am reading this man wrong, because he seems very wishy-washy.

Mister Graham. How do rivers "backtrack"? Pretty sure if they run into a wall, they overflow and spread out. Either do your research or get a thesaurus.

I do not like this man or his attempts at explaining what the various types of "essays" are.

My Main(e) Man is a Lobster (Journal Entry 9)

Where to start with this article. Maybe my reason for disliking it is because it is indeed exploratory and I cannot recall ever reading another exploratory piece of literature? Who knows. All I know is that reading that article was like re-reading a paper I bullshitted my way through to meet the word count. He goes into the greatest amount of detail possible for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

He has almost three full paragraphs on the science of a lobster, the genus of it, where they're from, where they go. He talks about how lobsters feel about being put into the pot, alive, breathing. How would he know what the lobster is feeling? IS HE A LOBSTER?!

That's it. That's why he wrote this article, the only possible reason to go into this much detail is because he wants to become a lobster, he wants to rule them and put a stop to thier unnecessary annual slaughter by the glutonous American deities. Like. Wallace, babe. Please calm down.

He has a whole paragraph on his cab driver! Please, Wallace. Slow your roll.

Just because I've never eaten a lobster doesn't mean I don't know how they work. I imagine a lobster festival is the same as any themed carnival- a central idea with booths and tables and a big ol' picnic surrounding that main idea. Ive never touched a lobster, but I've been crabbing. Crabs and lobsters are basically the same thing.

Probably the only thing I liked in this article: When he goes into the detail of why/how a lobster's shell color changes when it is killed. For some horrible reason, my favourite thing about emptying crab pots and preparing them, was indeed killing them. I don't even like crab meat! But shaking the crab pot into the big wash bin, watching the crabs crawl on each other, confused, and then heating up the kettle and pouring the water on them. The brown and blue shells would turn bright red and hey'd scrabble about and I know I'm probably a serial killer for thinking so, but that's my fav part. I love to cook, and maybe it's a primal thing? Killing your food? I don't know. Shut up, Wallace.

Pre-lobster (Journal Entry 8)

Wallace writes his article on the many different emotions it takes to be a lobster and to eat a lobster. He goes into great detail of what a lobster is, and why there are annual harvests of thier flesh.

What To Fix (Journal Entry 7)

Okay, yes hello. I overslept. Uhm, places in my rough draft I noticed were a little too rough...

Is it possible to just say "everything after the intro"? Because I feel as though that everything afer hte intro in my rough draft is too rough. That because I concentrated so greatly on the additions, that my words do not flow as freely as in the intro.

Things from the rubric I'm probaby missing:

• I really need to differentiate between sections of how the book can effect large crowds vs a certain type of person
• To expand on how the "text" affects the reader, maybe throw in a few quotes or reviews about the book
• Literally why does the book matter? Look up to see if there is research on kids having fictional figures to identify with?
• Start building a bibliography, dumdum

Things to consider cutting:

• Find a new way to say "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" or "this series"
• All the times I talk about kids relating to the text? Like, who else does?

Re-wording the paper:

• Consider switching the place of the 2nd section paragraph

First Essay (Journal Entry 6)

Dear Future Elizabeth,

UHM YES HELLO. THE TIME HAS COME TO WRITE AN ACTUAL ESSAY ON THE PERCY JACKSON SERIES. I REPEAT. THE TIME HAS COME TO WRITE AN ACTUAL ESSAY ON THE PERCY JACKSON SERIES. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. 

Okay, lets see how I wanna do this.

Outline, gotta outline the paper, but not in the traditional "five paragraph format". Got it. No intro, no conclusion; but I lowkey might do that because this essay is gonna be persuasive as HECK. The intro should definitely be one of those "now imagine this..." and I say "you're a chubby little white girl in elementary school. No friends, you read by yourself at lunch, and are bullied terribly." And then I go into the actual gory details of the bullying Alicia did, right? Like the panic attacks and the therapy and all the sad stuff. And then! Bam, Percy Jackson came into my life and now I have a tattoo. Wow this makes a whole lot f sense right now to me. This should totally be my outline. Yes. Okay, got it.

Uhm.
Intro does not need a thesis statement.
Body paragraphs can def be drivel, but have PERSUASIVE reasoning behind it, not just a lot of crying.
Elizabeth. This is involves possibly marking/sticky-noting sacred text, okay? You can get through this. Just color code those sticky notes and try no to have the pages fall out of the spine like the cover did. (Also consider getting a new copy of the book. You've had this one for about 10 years, babe.)
Start breathing, you forgot how to breathe, you're too excited. Okay. Yes. Good. We've gotta get an A++ on this.

You're gonna do great!

Love,
Past Elizabeth