Well this is it I suppose- the end. I dont know where to begin as far as summarizing this class/ semester-- I can say with certainty that this has been one of the best english classes I've ever taken (which has been quite a few to date), and I say this because the assignments were intense as hell, but by the end of completion you are able to realize why you were given the assignment, they all make you search within yourself to determine (and write out) what it is you truly feel or believe in. That being said, I don't believe that the assignments themselves were too difficult-- but there were an insane amount of them!  One must really have an appetite for writing if one is to be successful in this class, and most importantly-- one must not do what I did-- which is fall off in the last 6 weeks. Yes there is a good reason for why I did, but regardless of what may have been the reason, the last 6 weeks are crucial point-wise; and I missed out on a lot! I dont know what I could've done differently in my circumstance, but for anyone else-- I would advise you to really keep track of your total points and determine which projects you need to complete in order to attain the optimum amount of points. I think that what I most enjoyed about this class were the blog assignments. Prior to taking this class I did'nt really have true blog experience, but the assignments that were given allowed me to open up and discuss topics that I usually would'nt discuss. In reading the blogs of others, I felt that I was really able to get to know a few of my classmates and their train of thought-- my favorite was from "Livin Life Cubano", this guy is a great writer and he's deep as hell, he conveyed his words extremely well-- and just overall made me see a few things from a different perspective. In regards to our instructor, she was a lot better than I originally thought she was going to be. When I was inquiring to other students about who I should take for 103, a lot of people told me : "Whatever you do- dont take Gross!", so me being the type of person I am-- opted for Jenn, and I dont regret it for a minute. I think those people told me not to take her because she is very intense, and she does expect a lot from you; but in the same token-- she is exteremely fair and available to address any of your concerns or issues-- if one is to fail the class, the blame rest' solely on your hands. Anyone who decides to take this class should definitely not have a lot of other things going on (whether it be academically or socially), this class does require that you work hard and often! So if it's at all possible, take this class on it's own, and I pray that none of you suffer the same as I in terms of distractions (other than social or academic types) becoming an issue and putting you in a tough place come finals week. Thank you to all of my classmates whom i've interacted with over the semester, and good luck to those who are about to take the class for the first time-- I wish you all success.- Michael Mcalister a.k.a. McBlogger

The Devil You Know...

Over the years of my existence I have noticed that the use of prejudicial language has evolved from being used casually in everyday conversation- to being regulated vigorously by lawmakers in a response to special interest groups who may be offended by the language itself. The issue as a whole has generated much controversy and debate about (and blurred the lines of) the idea of free speech in America, while some preach tolerance and sensitivity- others (like myself) take more of a stance of promoting reality and freedom. This of course is not a popular belief in our ever-changing society, but it does seem to be more on the practical side in my opinion. I like to think of the expression: “the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know”- this to me is not only a reasonable answer as to why George W. Bush was elected for the Presidency twice, but it is also a good representative term of why we should be able to express our true feelings without penalty. Presently, no one who is in the public’s spotlight has the right to practice free speech, penalties are swift and severe for those who make the attempt; it all goes back to my arguments on Political Correctness, how can we protect ourselves from the wolves, when the wolves are forced to wear sheep’s clothing? I think that we can all agree that we would rather know and be prepared ahead of time rather than face sudden realizations that catch us off guard. Most recently, Kobe Bryant of the world champion Los Angeles Lakers made an insensitive remark to a referee after getting charged with a technical foul, this remark sparked outrage in the gay and lesbian communities- and consequently Kobe was fined $100,000 by the NBA, even though the target of his insensitive statement was not gay. Kobe’s poor choice of words is nothing new, he wasn’t the first to say things like that and he won’t be the last; and this is due to the fact that we’re just not that far along in our national evolutionary process, there are still too many of us from the “old school” lingering around for the new system to be implemented as quickly as some would like. I don’t believe that the media is fully to blame for why we use racial, sexist, or insensitive statements- I believe that that blame is to be placed with one’s self and whom they’ve allowed to influence them. The media didn’t create this problem, but it also hasn’t helped either; prejudicial language is promoted in certain types of books, movies/ television and music, but it’s not like you turn on the news to see your favorite newscaster telling you what to believe or say, as I said before we are responsible for what we allow to influence us. I’m tired of people blaming media sources for our shortcomings, we need to not only take responsibility for our own actions, but we also need to allow others to express themselves freely. Sure prejudicial language can hurt, but that doesn’t mean that we as a people shouldn’t adapt to this by growing thick skin rather than forcing others to store their true feelings away.

Conflict of Interest

I can recall a time when I encountered a situation where my personal beliefs came into question and I was led into a debate about it. I will not specifically say what the topic was about due to the fact that it is a controversial one, and it is not my intention to express all of my political opinions in an academic forum.  Without saying too much, I was at a happy hour at an undisclosed location (a few years back) with a group of friends, and we were having a “political” discussion between the four of us, when all of a sudden someone overheard a specific line in the conversation spoken by me and decided to call me out on it. At first I was kind of taken by the fact that this person had the nerve to enter into a conversation that didn’t concern them, but I quickly got passed that feeling; as the person was making a few valid points that others within the conversation had not previously mentioned.  So I engaged in this debate publically, I do after all live and die by what I say, so I’m not one to back down from a conflict to say the least; this is also to say that I can be stubborn at times. So anyway, I listened to what the person had to say for a little bit before I interrupted and gave my point of view. To make a long story short, I kind of won the argument, I say kind of because I don’t feel as if I were truly victorious in conveying my opinion; but more in frustrating my opponent to the point of submission. If I were able to do it all over again, I would have probably paid more attention to what was being said and murdered the person with their own words (I was right after all), instead I didn’t teach my opponent anything new in the process. It can be a productive thing to engage in the exchange of ideas with others; this is shown in interactive sessions known as “Think Tanks”- which are groups of people giving different perspectives on how to come up with solutions to problems. Before one can even get involved in this kind of activity, you must first be able to listen to and evaluate ideas and opinions other than your own; a general respect for others intellect must first be established. I didn’t give that respect in my situation, I was on a destroy mission because I didn’t appreciate the person butting in my conversation, and although I did “win” the debate; I would use more finesse and tones of persuasion to get my point across.

P.C.

In recent times we as a people have transformed our way of communicating honestly and effectively due to the incorporation of Political Correctness. Before its implementation, we as a people use to say what was on our minds with honesty; we use to call a spade a spade. Now that the general population has started to become more sensitive about what we say to each other and how we say it, one can’t help but to notice that we have ultimately become a society where individual ego has taken over, and deception has become our primary weapon. This all came about because of issues like racism and discrimination; it became unacceptable for one to voice their philosophies or opinions for the fact that it may hurt someone’s feelings and repercussions are sure to follow. It’s not that I can’t understand the notion of trying to protect the institution of respect for your fellow man (or woman), but how can we respect each other when we don’t truly know where each other is coming from. It has become incredibly difficult to discern between who is “real” and whose “fake”, and it was that way before the politically correct movement. Now that we’ve been censored, we have ushered in a new era where we are forced to lie to each other and smile, when in fact, what we really want to do is release the burden of biting our tongues, and give one another a piece of our minds. The landscape of America has changed as a result of everyone suddenly becoming “political”, it has caused a chain reaction of events that carries irreversible effects. The main effect is human relations, we will never be able to trust one another as much as we once may have; this has led to us being a “shadier” species over time, and we are steadily on the decline. There are already too many people walking around with a “snake in the grass” complex, the idea of being politically correct has only fueled this behavior. It is impossible to determine where all of this may lead us in the (not too distant) future, but if we consider where we are now, it’s kind of difficult to imagine how things could get any better while all that we have witnessed is failure. We are forced to be nice to each other while using language, but that doesn’t actually make our intentions good, nor does it make us feel any differently about a particular subject. I wish we could revert back to a time when we actually had free speech, I like to know who and what I’m dealing with at all times, and P.C. has made that knowledge virtually impossible to attain. I have respect for those who show the same respect to me that I would show to them, and while I understand that not everyone shares that same philosophy; I think that it worked better in our system of democracy to let the people express their feelings and ideologies freely.

I'm no Chekov, but I can still make you think

When it comes to writing, I would like to think of myself as a lifetime student in the art form. Usually when I sit down to write something I first have to go through a series of rituals to get myself in the correct mind state for conveying my thoughts on paper. After I’ve completed those rituals, I generally (in the event of writing creatively) like to sit down and give deep thought to what underlying message I want to give while simultaneously attempting to captivate the audience with the story or scenario for which I am about to create. To put it plainly, I like writing and I take it seriously. This is true also when it comes to our class assignments, I don’t want to put out any kind of bad material and have it be associated with my name. Of course, being that this class requires that we write a lot; I sometimes have been guilty of delivering less than what I am capable of in terms of what I call quality work, so I guess this means that I’m human after all. In terms of my writing style, I’d like to think that my tone comes across as intelligent with a hint of sarcasm. When I write something outside of the academic world (whether it be a a blog about a particular political issue, or just a spiel about whatever happens to tickle my fancy at that given moment), I tend to focus my efforts on reaching an audience who caters to my style of delivery. It’s safe to say that I try to reach the same type of demographic that a Howard Stern or a radio sports talk host would appeal to; chauvinistic men and the women who love them. These are the people who are the crust of our society, the masses if you will; I feel that I can speak clearly to the heart of the issues that people like us face, and I attempt to do it in a style that speaks to them while also intelligently forcing our opposition to at least respect our opinion about a particular matter. I believe that my writings have the ability to evoke thought and persuade, but on the other hand; I also know that they have the ability to offend as well. I have not yet found the happy medium or formula to conveying my messages universally, and that’s only because I’m in my infant stage of being a good writer; but what I can say for my style- is that it does spark a reaction whether good or bad, and I’ll take that for now. I don’t consider myself to be a persuasive writer just yet, but for those who weren’t as fortunate as some others growing up; I think that my current style (tone and language) is a proper fit. My major influence in writing is Anton Chekov, in his time he wrote some of the most communally aware short stories; he was also considered to be a controversial writer because of the reality he used in his language; it was a style that hadn’t been seen in writing before. I aspire to be the same, and hopefully have students studying my work as a template for a new genre of writing, but I’m not ready for that kind of consideration by any means.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech was one of the most prolific persuasion/ inspirational writings constructed in history. The fact that the speech was written by a black man in 1960’s America signifies how much power the words had to possess in order to appeal to an opposing audience, furthermore the speech’s delivery from King himself was in direct accordance with what African-American people of the time were feeling; in summary, King felt and captured the pulse of the crowd. The spiritual song-like format in which the speech was written is one explanation as to why the speech inspired change. The southern African-American culture of that time was deeply rooted in the Baptist church, and a significant part of the church’s worship was the singing of songs (the genre’s definition being “negro spirituals”, songs originally sang by slaves while they were working in the fields). If you were to look for patterns within the speech’s lines, you would become aware of the repetitive words which always had a subliminal motive behind them, motives being to enlighten, empower, and encourage the people to take a stand for change, but the speech’s poetic flow was made to sound like that of a traditional song sang in church. For instance, in the second paragraph, King speaks of the “one hundred years” of oppression (after the Emancipation Proclamation) that the black man faced in American society.  The “one hundred years” is a motif within this portion of the speech, what it delivered to the speech was communal flow, meaning that King was speaking the right words, to the right people, at the right time, and in the right fashion. This style of writing and speaking captured the audience’ attention and ultimately was able to keep that attention and make the people relate to the speech. The location where the speech was delivered (the Lincoln Monument in Washington D.C.) was aesthetic to the message that Martin Luther King Jr. was conveying. In the very opening of the speech he said: “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation.”- He goes on to say that the message that Lincoln delivered that day served as a “Beacon light of Hope” to millions of slaves who had been unjustly persecuted in this country, and the rest of the speech was a reminder of what was promised on that day; the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness for all men. The visual effect of being at that location while hearing such powerful words being delivered in such an emotional fashion- obviously had a great impact on (not only those who were in attendance) but on our nation as a whole; that venue, in that time period was perfect for the message being conveyed. No other venue could have stirred up as much emotion for the cause of Civil Rights, it’s sort of like the Woodstock concerts; the original concert promoted free love and expression and ended up being one of the most memorable events for that generation, whereas the 1990’s version was an attempt to recapture the magic of the original, but ended up being a perversion of the original and is remembered as an event that went down in infamy. For the many African-Americans who listened to King speak, one may say that after the speech was done, there was a new feeling of hope in the air; a feeling that had long been suppressed by discrimination. They were inspired to “lift every voice and sing”, protest, and shed blood for the cause of freedom and equality. For those who were white (and likely on the opposing side of the political movement), the speech did provoke thought within them. Whether they liked it or not, they were at least forced to think about what King had said; after which they had a side to choose. Overall, civil rights for all men became a hot topic after the “I Have a Dream” speech, and it could no longer be ignored by anyone regardless of beliefs; it was a speech that changed our nation for the better.

The Power of Language

The power of language to me by definition is prevalent most in the written word; which is carefully constructed for a general cause. Inspirational and persuasive writings (such as poetry, essays, and speeches) are meant to effect change, an idea is first placed on paper and eventually reconstructed over time with the purpose of making others buy into whatever the author is proposing. Great writings like Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” had the power to reform laws in the United States and expand civil rights to all people, and the credit is directly related to the emotional impact that it had on a mass amount of people who were ready for the status quo (of that time) to evolve. It is much like the more recent events that took place in Egypt, the people came together for a cause and removed a top authority figure that some may classify as being a dictator; either way, I would be willing to bet something significant that at the very root of all of the organized protest in the streets of Cairo there was some manuscript written by someone who spawned it all. I discovered this power for the first time when I wrote a book report in the 5th grade. I opted to do my report on the book “Gifted Hands: the story of Dr. Ben Carson”, I guess you can say that it was the first time in my life that I had truly been inspired by words. At that particular time in my life I had been struggling in school, and I began to have moments where I questioned whether or not I could even learn what I was being taught. As I read the story of Ben Carson, I was able to relate to what he described as his academic short comings. He was in roughly the same grade as I and was experiencing the same problems, but it was his first moment of retaining information that caught my intrigue. He wrote that the obsidian rock was something that had caught his eye, and after learning about the shiny little black sphere shaped object, he figured that if he could be interested in something like a species of rock, than he could become interested in (and learn) anything. Soon after I read the book in its entirety I began to think about his academic philosophy and started to accept it as my own. After I finished writing the report, I proofed it over and it read like nothing I had ever written before. Of course, the final draft lacked form and had a multitude of punctuation and grammar errors (it was the 5^th grade after all), but it was still the best work I had constructed at the time. To make a long story short, I received an A+ for my efforts; but it was the earning of that particular grade that became a turning point for the rest of my academic career. It was the written language of a person who struggled the way that I did which made me believe that I as well could accomplish great things. I may not be a pediatric neuro-surgeon like Dr. Ben Carson, but I have achieved things academically that I never would have had I not read his book; and personally that is the definition of the power that the written word carries.