Suheir Hammad Poetry Blog (Tyler Fred)

Suheir Hammad uses poetry and beautiful words to make her argument real and descriptive. She very strongly used pathos, playing on people’s emotions to make a very clear distinction that the stereotype of being a terrorist shown towards any and all Arab people is not only unfair, but also very infuriating for these people. “One more person ask me if I knew the hijackers. One more mother fucker ask me what navy my brother is in. one more person assume no Muslims or Arabs were killed” is one quote she has showing her own distain for these racist stereotypes. By showing her own anger about this issue, Suheir gives personality to her argument. She also tries to make these Arab and Palestinian people look like the everyday people they are by describing her brothers. “Their faces are of the Arab man. All eyelashes and nose and beautiful color and stubborn hair”.

 To show how unfair these stereotypes are, she shared some other terrorist acts such as The Oklahoma City Bomber. “We did not vilify white people when they bombed Oklahoma”, referring to  when caucasian Timothy McVeigh killed 168 people with a car bomb. Also, she makes reference to white supremacist saying “When we talk about holy books, hooded men, and death, why never mention the KKK”. Ms. Hammad very clearly points out that there are many terrorist acts that have taken place in America that were committed by people with no affiliation to an Arab nation. 

Exploratory Essays Blog

Not “asserting a thesis too soon” was the first important element of an exploratory essay that I found from our reading (Ramage 105). The book claims that this will help keep the writers mind open to the idea that their first hypothesis on their topic may be incorrect and allows them to change their opinion as the paper builds with the discovery of new information and I would completely agree. In high school the first thing my teachers wanted was a nice, good, strong thesis statement, but I can’t even count how many times I would be actually doing some real research and would stumble across sources contradicting my thesis, which of course, I would exclude entirely form my paper. I definitely like the idea of a delayed thesis.

The second element of an exploratory essay that I found was in the third chapter on page 48. We already discussed it a little in class but recognizing who your audience is and adjusting the angle of vision to paint a specific picture for whoever you’re trying to reach. The Pearson English Reader used the example of describing a party to your parents and then to your best friend (Ramage 48). Most people would definitely have different key events and stories to share with the respective audience.

Taking “Double-Entry” research notes was another important tool I found. This is basically where somebody makes two columns and in the first they write the raw information they found form their source in the second they write their opinion on the information and how it’s changed their original thoughts and predictions. I feel like doing this would also help someone retain the info they find and understand it better by thinking and recording how it effects their original hypothesis.

Guyland Blog

After reading Guyland , the first thing that really resonated with me was on page 47 when Kimmel states “Guys hear the voices of the men in their lives- fathers, coaches, brothers, grandfathers, uncles, priests- to inform their ideas of masculinity” (Kimmel 47). I remember back when I was younger, we would always go to my step-grandparents’ house on Sundays. Every time we went over their Earl, my step-grandfather, would ask me “So how many girly friends do you have? Come on now be a man you need at least 3”. My mom would get really mad at him. So that’s one time where my grandpa shaped my views on masculinity. My dad also found an empty bottle of liquor in my room once, it was coconut rum, and all he had to say was “If you’re going to be stupid and drink, at least drink a man’s drink. This is for girls”.

                Another hotspot I found in this excerpt was on page 57 where Kimmel talks about the alarming rate of rape cases occurring on college campuses. I think this one stood out to me mainly because I am a college student and because of the rape that occurred last week. It isn’t just some random fact in the book that I read, this actually happens. It also made me think of my friend from back home who got raped by her boyfriend. He wanted to have sex and she said no so he forced himself on her and got what he wanted. I think this plays right into the whole “Being a Real Man” character because he wasn’t going to let a girl tell him what he can and cannot do. Even though it was his girlfriend, he was still going to show his dominance over her.  

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After first watching “Doofy Husbands: Target Women” I found it kind of funny and a little bit stupid. One of the reasons I thought it was stupid was when the hostess, Sarah Haskins, showed the commercial of the man spraying weeds and he kills the grass. She stopped at the end and said “He sprayed the ground eight times! Eight!” like it was real life and not a commercial and the guy actually sprayed the grass eight times. I also thought it was strange how Sarah used strictly fictional television commercials to try and prove that husbands are useless and “doofy”. When I watched is for a second time her first quote really stuck out to me. It said, “Being a woman isn’t easy. We work, we take care of the house, we raise children, and we do it all without a shred of help form those lumbering man beasts known as husbands”. I got really offended and was pretty shocked that she makes the statement that men don’t contribute at all to the well-being of the family.

                I liked “Tropes vs. Women: #1 The Manic Pixie Dream Girl” much better than the first video. The first hotspot I found was in the beginning when the lady said how tropes can be over used and turn into clichés and “tropes often perpetuate offensive stereotypes”. I feel like the main purpose of this statement and the video is to show how the way women are portrayed in Hollywood films makes a negative stereotype towards women in the real world. I also liked at the end when the speaker said that “women are not here for men’s inspiration or celebration”, but that they are also here to make a difference and change the world.

Mothers Tongue Blog

When reading “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan I found several instances that showed an open prose. First of all, she was writing in the first person. The first person makes this piece more of a narrative which is an open prose form. She also seems to be free writing by just thinking about her past stories and writing them down as they come to mind. This lack of a significant structure is also another aspect of an open prose.

                I feel as though Amy Tan is trying to speak to people who had the same struggle where English was not their first language yet are also trying to be well spoken in America and become scholarly. She may also be talking to those are embarrassed of their background or upbringing.

                Seeing as this essay is more loose and unstructured I do not believe that it conforms to the genre type of an essay. I am used to the typical 5 Paragraph essay that includes in introduction, a thesis statement, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion paragraph. This essay seems to be more loose and free and does not conform to the typical essay.

Tyler Fred blog 2

                After reading pages 64 through 69 in Everything’s A Text, I found a couple specific areas that caught my attention. The first is found in an excerpt from one of Amy Hamilton’s students named Linda. Linda said her first memory about language was “being tortured by cursive writing exercises” (Melzer, Teague 64). Now this is not necessarily relevant to the message of the reading, I just happened to have a personal connection with this because I hated learning cursive. I was forced to learn it in second grade and had to use it every year until middle school and then I have never used it ever again in my life. Not even once. Now the second hotspot I found was in “The Public Side of Personal Literacies” section. Sometimes I make fun of people with accents that are different from mine and have never thought anything of it until today when I read Gloria Anzaldua’s quote saying “So, if you want to really hurt me, talk badly about my language. Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity. I am my language” (Melzer, Teague 67). I never gave any thought to the idea that when I make fun of someone’s accent I’m not just making fun of that person, but I am also making fun of where they’re from and all the people who talk just like them. It was a sad realization for me but at least I’ll know to be more accepting next time I hear or see somebody who is different than me. 

Tyler Fred's Homework 2

In Everything’s A Text by Dan Melzer and Deborah Coxwell-Teague I found one hotspot that really grabbed my attention. It is from “Excerpt from a Malcolm X speech to the Nation of Islam” (Dan Mezler 12). In this speech Malcolm X is speaking to his Islamic brothers about the injustices of “White America” and how it must “pay for her sins against twenty-two million negroes” (Mezler, Teague 12). Now what stood out to me was how Malcolm X was repetitively referring to America in a feminine sense. This only stands out because he is speaking with a group of Islams and in the Islamic culture women are viewed as inferior. They have few rights and are expected to follow their husband’s demands. Malcolm X is using his audiences view towards women to gain support for the idea that an inferior entity, White America is oppressing the African-American community and needs to be punished for “her hypocrisy and her deceit” (Mezler, Teague 12). Another hotspot I found was the Coca-Cola advertisement from the 1980’s. African-Americans gained numerous civil rights and finally had some equality by the 1980’s and I just thought it was interesting that Coca-Cola used this equality in an ad showing both a black and a white man enjoying a refreshing Coke together.

One hotspot I found in chapter one of the Pearson Custom Library English Mercury Reader is where they describe the difference between a thesis statement and a thesis question. All through high school it was drilled into me that a good paper needed a good thesis but after reading this it seems that a good paper may instead need to address the thought provoking question that spawned the thesis statement. If this thesis question “propelled the writers thinking”, then it’s very possible that it may propel the readers thinking as well. Even if the question leads the reader to a different conclusion than the writer, it still engaged them into the paper and made them part of the solution to the question. 

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