Month: April 2018

My first favorite revision strategy would have to be glossing over the text. Before writing an essay over an article, I always reread the article a couple times and make notes in order to fully understand it. By understanding the article completely, it makes your written argument stronger. I also like annotating the work that I am reading because it allows me to get my ideas out while reading it so that later on I can look back to it, remember what I was thinking while reading it, and then write about it in my essay. Once I use these methods I find it useful to make a short outline with the main points from the reading and how I want to argue it in my essay. Putting ideas out in a fixed order on paper before writing the entire essay makes it easier to focus on the argument. Writing an essay without an outline sometimes leads to an argument that is not organized and this can make it confusing. I have found that these techniques are useful not only in english but in other subjects such as biology where you need to read scientific journals and then write a lab report. I often times find scientific journals a lot more difficult to read so glossing over the text, annotating and making an outline before I write my lab report is a lot more useful.

My goal for this essay is to focus on the thesis of my argument and to relate everything back to it. I want it to be more narrow so that I am not rambling about too many points. Right now my essay is getting too long and consists of many points. The steps that I need to take in order for this to happen is by condensing my introduction and the points that are in there. My body paragraphs go off of the points in my introduction so if I reduce my introduction than I will have less body paragraphs. My biggest challenge would be trying not to get off the course of my argument into too many directions because although I am passionate about the topic, this can cause confusion in the essay. If this is too hard I will begin a new word document and copy the paragraphs I want to keep while clearing the rest, this way it would make the process less overwhelming and confusing. I could also ask my peers and teacher on how to make my thesis more specific. I could look in the little seagull book to see if there are any tips on how to fix this problem.

Part 1: My essay will contain linguistics, visual, auditory, and spatial. These forms will work to maintain and express my main argument by relating in some way. These forms will be expressed through pictures, videos, songs, different font types and sizes, and the paragraphs will be altered from their normal form. I will use sources such as the articles we read in class, youtube for videos on art and song lyrics, and possibly wired magazine, the book of life, and/or Aatish Bhatia’s Blog. I will correctly cite these by using The Little Seagull handbook.

Pard 2 Outline: 

Intro. An individual, such as myself, may appreciate the beauty in art because it relates to their life in some form. Through this sense of beauty are two forces working together: the sense and form drive as explained by Schiller.

Paragraph 1: We find beauty in art as it represents something familiar in our lives that we find comfort in but may be lacking.

Ex: Devon’s country song and how it reminds him of his life and hometown. Also a picture of his hometown further visualized the message.

Ex: My presentation about tattoos and how they can be in memory of a loved one or an inspirational reminder for the hope and confidence we lack.

Ex: School of Life’s prescription for the purposes of art: “Perhaps it’s full of serenity we admire but don’t have enough of, or perhaps it’s got the tenderness we long for but that our jobs and relationships are currently lacking” 

Paragraph 2: Beauty of art helps rebalance our lives by showing us what we are lacking or even what we currently have and need to realize. In order for us to be at balance with who we are and strive to be, the sense and form drive need to be balanced.

Ex: School of Life’s prescription for the purposes of art:”All of us are a little unbalanced in some way. We’re too intellectual, too emotional, too masculine or too feminine, or too calm, or too excitable.”

“It’s in the power of art to help us be more rounded, more balanced, and more sane.”

Ex: Schiller claims, “Rather, the two sides are in need of each other. If the sense drive dominates, we become brutish and superficial. If the form drive is too dominant, we become dry and callous. We need the  two to interact harmoniously in order to see the role that beauty can play in our lives.”

Paragraph 3:  As humans we are placed in this world to support not only ourselves but others, especially in such a chaotic world. Art allows us to understand what is really important to us.

Ex:School of Life’s prescription for the purposes of art:”It might be propaganda about the simple life or about the need to broaden one’s horizons or about a more playful, tender approach to life. It’s a force that stands up for the best sides of human nature and gives them a platform and an authority in a noisy, distracted world”

Ex: Nikki and Carla’s presentation on the piano and how they played at the old folk’s home. Not only do they enjoy playing but they brought joy to others.

Armstrong’s comment “To regard beauty as a luxury adornment or a social signifier was to miss the true potential of the experience” means that a person is ignoring the true beauty of something and how it makes them feel but rather is focusing on the social aspect of the thing. I view beauty as something that grabs my attention and brings out a strong emotion in me. This happens often when I listen to music that pleases my ears and allows me to relate to the music so that I can connect with it. Society on the other hand has come to classify beauty based what the majority of the population finds attractive or pleasing when it reality beauty varies person to person. Not everyone gets the same emotions or awe from something such as a sunset as others may. This thought is also expressed in Armstrong’s essay when he states, “People are delighted by wildly variant things and that’s how it should be, the thinking goes-so don’t get worked up trying to figure out which things are beautiful” (Lines 3-4). Everyone thinks differently and is pleased by a variety of things so there is no true way to classify beauty, it all depends on what you classify as beautiful. In other words, “beauty lies in the eye of the beholder.”

Although every presentation was unique in their own way, I truly appreciated Alexis’ presentation because I could relate the most to it. I enjoyed how she took a personal experience and explained how one song could hold so much meaning. She was able to connect a song that may be taken in different ways to different people and explained how it meant to her. Her point inspired me to be able to view all the aspects of art and how others may relate to them, not just myself. She also gave the insight that music can be a way of relieving emotions and communicating through the lyrics which is very inspiring. Her primary mode of communication was powerful because she choice the essay to express her thoughts but also included pictures and played the song for the class. Rather than just mentioning the name of the song and a line from it, she also played it. The class was able to connect and be intrigued in more than one way. This made her thoughts and feelings very effective and relatable. I thought she was very brave and clear when speaking about a topic that is close to her heart and contains many emotional feelings.

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