Month: September 2018

I feel like I can relate to the essay. When I am writing a paper I kinda just start writing/typing and putting words on paper and trying to get my points across. I also never think my first draft is good enough, I also feel like I can do more to improve it. I use google docs to write and when I write a paper I also make comments to myself in the margins about how I could do something better in my paper. I am kinda of hard on myself at times, sometimes I write, “is this even English” for some comments when I think something is worded weird or if I think I can write a sentence or paragraph better. I was surprised on how much I related to the essay. I found a lot of what the essay said true and helpful. First drafts shouldn’t be perfect.  I didn’t really find anything offense in the essay, I mainly found it funny and true.  When I wrote this specific paper for this class, I didn’t know where I wanted to start at first so I just sat at my computer and started typing. As I read over I did a lot of revisions before I felt it was finished and good enough to be a free draft to show to peers.  In this class, I feel like I’m learning new ways to approach writing then I did in college, so I’m using new skills and I found it helpful and eventually I felt happy with my work and paper.  Overall, I enjoyed reading the short essay.

For my revision plan

1. my goal is to expand on my analysis and add more of my experiences and opinions into it.
2. I plan to do this be going through my paper and really edit my analysis to add more.
3. the biggest challenge I see is putting my own experiences into it more.
4. if challenges come up I will use my peers, professor, and the tutoring center for help.

Many people ask the question “what is art”? Art is defined as the expression of human creativity and imagination which is typically shown through an image that is beautiful and emotional. Rhys Southan’s “Is Art a Waste of Time” explains his values on what art is and how the Effective Altruism see art. The Effective Altruism see art as something unnecessary and that takes time away from a good deed that could be done. Meanwhile on the other side, Titus Kaphar’s Ted Talk on “How Can We Address Centuries of Racism In Art?”, looks at art as something powerful and informational. Kaphar believes that we can look at historical artwork and amend them to create a positive future. Art is an indulgence that allows a person to personally connect with history or a current event to find meaning. Art is not just “a waste of time”, it is powerful.

Brainstorming and outlining for an essay is always the first thing I do when I get a writing assignment, it helps me think and collect my thoughts. I never write down everything I intend to put in an essay I just use it as a starting point.  In my essay I have decided to argue that art is not a waste of time but that it is a powerful tool. I have marked some quotes I want to use in my paper to support my claim and I began constructing my thesis statement. I have decided to break my essay up into four paragraphs. I am going to break it up into an intro paragraph, two body paragraphs, and then a conclusion. my first body paragraph will focus on my thoughts and argument on Southan’s article and my second body paragraph will focus on my Ted Talk I choose. I have started looking at how I will compare and showcase both the article and Ted Talk so I make my essay well rounded and not biased. I do see a connection between the article and my Ted Talk. My Ted Talk focuses on the history of art and the knowledge we gain from art while the article focuses on the EAs perspective on art and how it can be useful media wise but not entirely. I tend to use these two points as a main focal point in my essay.

Essay 1 outline

The Ted Talk I watched was Titus Kaphar. During his talk he asks and poses answers to the question “how can we address centuries of racism in art”. I really liked the point and the conversation he insighted by asking the question. He told a story of how his nine year old son asked why the Native American and African American had to walk while the white man could ride the horse. He noticed this while looking at a sculpture. That piece of art says a lot about American History and can start conversations and questions. Children even form questions and opinions by looking at artwork. During the Ted Talk arts limitations were spoken about by looking at a painting. While looking at the painting Titus Kaphar took apart the painting and explained how we could learn things from it. For example, he talked about how our eyes are trained to look at the white male first and see the women and her clothing to judge the status of the family. But our eyes ignore the African American child who is placed further back in the painting, hidden like a shadow. We can learn what we want about the white people in the painting but unfortunately the painting tells us nothing about the boy and his life.  Art limitations in this Ted Talk revolve around ignoring and not explaining history clearly. But the power of art is also told in this Ted Talk. Kaphar talks about how painting is a  language and that in paintings are coded and meaningful messages. Titus Kaphar talks about how historical art pieces can be amended to show the struggles of the past and the advancements of the present and the future. This shows arts power and how it can can explain events of the past. Titus Kaphar uses a metaphor of a camera focusing on different places and people and how we can use our eyes to be like a camera and focus on different parts of the image. tearing apart an image can allow the viewer to gain insight and learn from it which gives art power. He wants people to see the impact of a painting or sculpture and answer the question “why do some walk”? Looking at art in a specific way gives the piece power over the viewer. Overall, I enjoyed the Ted Talk I picked and I think that I can use the points I found to make comparisons and an argument in my paper.

Annotating a text is something I am very familiar with and comfortable doing. In high school we used to have to read and annotate passages for homework assignments. I never went back to re-read or re-annotate a passage before. I found it helpful to do so. After our class discussion and looking at my own annotations again I was able to pull more insight from the text I didn’t have before. I gained further understanding of Southan’s agrument, my first time reading I found his argument confusing but the second time I was able to follow it and see his view points. Some claim Southan made confused me at first glance but when I looked at them again, I was able to see the underlying message he was laying about the EAs. During my second read I looked more carefully and found that decoding and taking the essay apart did really help my understanding. I know understand replaceability more, I thought I got the message during my first read but the second reading allowed me to find the meaning more clearly. during my first read I did not find it necessary to look up utilitarianism because I studied it in high school and believed I knew enough to follow Southan’s point. But during my second read I looked it up to be sure I knew exactly what was being referred too. turns out looking it up clarified a few things for me and helped me understand that paragraph better. Overall,  I found reading and annotating a second time beneficial.

I didn’t know what to think about eportfolio and the class blog. Sharing my work and having multiple people viewing my thoughts and ideas is something I didn’t really consider. Public speaking and sharing my thoughts out aloud to a class is something I struggled with throughout high school. Knowing that my peers can see and read the thoughts and opinions I have in some ways excites me and in others makes me nervous. I like the idea that the class is discussing things in a classroom setting and doing online work. Technology is becoming a very prevalent tool in society and exploring technology in this way in an English class is an interesting approach to learning. I like the idea of being able to personalize your blog and truly express and show what you are learning. When reviewing my peers blogs, I saw that everyone has a unique artistic eye and interesting pictures. One blog I particularly liked was Olivia’s blog. I liked her pictures of the flowers and the quote she added in her tag line. I also enjoyed how Emily added a bright colored font to her blog. Overall, I feel like over the semester I will enjoy using the ePortfolio and viewing my peers blogs. The link to my blog is: https://vkehoe.uneportfolio.org/