Lesson #11

1) On your blog, write about your experience summarizing the reading (500 words)



And what an experience it has been! Finding electronic articles for my research paper was a no-brainer, it was very easy. However, since I do not have access to a significant library, finding a non-electronic source proved to be a little more difficult. I browsed through my mother's stash of magazines and none of them related to my research topic (which, by the way, has to do with the effect of the media on its female viewers). I then went "house-hopping" and asked for up-to-date magazines related to my research topic. I finally came across a magazine that had a relevant article. The article did not necessarily agree with my thesis, however, inadvertently, it did support it. I’ve learned that when I’m looking for a particular article to support my thesis, I don’t need to find an article that agrees with me. Opposing views can prove my point just as well. All one needs is an open mind and perseverance. I suppose as these research papers continue, I'll keep running into road blocks and hang ups, but I'll learn how to trouble-shoot that way.
Next year I will not be living in a bush village, I’ll be living in a city where there are several public libraries (and a few private ones). I’m looking forward to all of the tangible research I’ll be able to do there. I’ve only been inside a real library once, and it was a very small one, but it was still a very nice one. Some day I would love to walk inside of a HUGE library and spend an entire day under a pile of books.
So many times I’ve been hung up on writers-block with my head in my hands. My high school teacher tells me just to keep writing. He says as long as I’m writing something I’m not wasting time, so I’ve learned to write whatever pops into my head and it’s really helping me to overcome the helpless feeling of writers-block. It feels awful to be sitting and staring at a blank screen when the deadline clock is ticking away. But I guess that’s part of the adrenalin of writing, isn’t it? Most of us seem to perform better under pressure.
I can definitely say that I’m better at summarizing and annotating articles than I was at the beginning of this course. I’ve learned different ways to approach writing-pieces, such as reading as a believer and a doubter. And I never thought it possible to read and reread the same articles over and over again as much as I have been, but it really does help and it improves my writing. I’m still learning the fine art of it, but it I keep at it than one day I’ll be good at it.

One thing that is confusing me a bit about this particular assignment is my instructor is asking for summaries with a works cited page and copies of the annotated articles. Are summaries and annotations the same thing? If anyone could help me I would greatly appreciate it.

Lesson #10

You have plenty to write about at this point. The subject of the jounal entry on your blog for this lesson is one of your choosing. The entry should be at least 250 words.


Wow, I've learned quite a bit from F111X, and I'm sure the toughest lessons are yet to come. Since I come from an area of limited research sources, I'm having some difficulty finding non electronic, up-to-date sources that back up my claim. I'm going to ask around for some magazines that depict the latest fashion, maybe I'll find some support from those, but it seems like a fashion magazine would oppose my thesis. Which, by the way, my thesis is that the media is having a negative impact on the body image of its viewers.
Most females that the media uses are either very in shape, toned, and sculpted, or they are ridiculously thin. And what I mean by ridiculously thin is that they're so skinny they're unhealthy. All we have to do is mingle with the general population to see that the media isn't promoting the average joe. Somewhere I read that only eight out of a hundred girls have a chance at becoming a model, and only one in a hundred has are capable of being a super-model. Pretty skewed huh?
Models used to be larger than the average person because in the early 1900's only the wealthy could afford to be overweight. More money=more food=more fat. People who were thinner obviously had to work hard to feed themselves and in the process burned off a lot of what they ate. Now the figures have completely switched (no pun intended). Models are incredibly thin and 65% of the population is overweight.
I don't think that these issues are anything that the government should regulate, I like the way The Tale of Despareaux puts it, "You might as well make flies illegal, or sweat, or Monday morning..." I think that these issues are ones that need to be dealt with individually, the people need to step up to the plate (or maybe some need to step away from it)and focus on a healthy way of living, rather than trying to be thin or splurging on food.