reading response 5

My essay four is about the fake singing in the opening ceremony of the 29th Olympic Games in China. My argument is that although the motives to put on a fake singing in front of the world is reasonable, the fake singing itself is totally wrong . It is not necessary, damages the image of China, hurts these two girls, and misleads the younger generation.

I will make a powerpoint to turn my argument essay into a slide show of many pictures and a video clip as visual appeals. Pictures are easier to read than words. Video clip itself interprets the event. I will also include several different pieces of background music, which will serve as sound appeals to boost the emotions. My audience will be my classmates as well as people all over the world.

The  powerpoint will run in the same order as my essay do. I have already found plenty of pictures of the snowstorm, the Olympic torch relays in Paris and London, the Sichuan Earthquake I discussed in the first paragraphs of my essay. These pictures can help to demonstrate the suffers we Chinese encountered before the Olympic. Then I will exhibit around 20 pictures of the opening ceremony. Since most of my classmates missed that ceremony, these pictures will be powerful illustrations about this wonderful show. Then I will display a  part of a video clip of that song "Ode to the motherland," sang by Lin, when the national flag and kids in different ethnic costumes, representing 56 different ethnic groups in China, entering the Birds Nest Stadium. This clip will be less than two minutes. After this clip, I will reveal the singing is fake and will show pictures of the real singer. To make my point more clearly, I will put the close-up pictures of Lin and Yang together. I will emphasis that Lin epitomizes the Chinese ideal of feminine beauty, while Yang is not as beautiful. That is the reason  I can understand the organizers, who chose lip-syncing instead of letting Yang singing on stage. However, I will explain that the lip-syncing is totally wrong in this situation with pictures. I already find a couple of pictures about the fake items around in China and the computer made footprint-shaped fireworks. I need to look for more pictures to make my point. 

In the end, I will show some pictures of the beautiful natural sceneries and famous historical sites in China, such as the Great Wall. Most of my classmates haven't been to China, and there are many negative news about China around in the U.S. I want to use these pictures to establish a fresh and positive image of China. As a girl who spent the first twenty years of life in China, I always take pride in my motherland especially its long civilization and culture. China has been the center of the world for thousands of years. Many centuries ago, people from everywhere came to China to study the most advanced technology, such as Marco Polo. After the Opium War of 1840 China was reduced to the status of a semi-colonial, semi-feudal society, and the nation was known as "the sick man of East Asia" for many years. If China is still the best country in the world, I won't need to leave everything I love so much behind to come to the U.S. alone to study business. I wish I could do my part to make my country better. So I point this issue out, although some of my friends criticized me for pointing the finger at my own country. I, maybe love China too much, hope to make someone aware of that faking image won't help our country. To offer the better education to the children, the better social welfare to the poor, the cheaper medical care to all, and to improve the current government system should be the right way to develop our long-sleeping country. I do not want to wait too long a time to throw the label of China as a fake country to the dustbin of history.

reading response four

prompt: What are each of the central claims in Mangu-Ward, Joh, and Quarmby? Analyze the kinds of research (primary, secondary) and evidence (personal experience, facts) the authors use in support of their claims. How much are you influenced by the kinds of research and evidence provided? Why or why not? How do your prior values and beliefs affect how you read these essays?

In Is Privacy Overrated? The Merits, Drawbacks, and Inevitability of the Surveillance Nation, Katherine Mangu-Ward focuses on whether the surveillance cameras everywhere in the U.S. is worthwhile for the citizens or infringements to human rights. He based his claim on New York City and his clear claim is "proliferation of video surveillance public and private can protect citizens from police misbehavior or other miscarriages of justice"(P11). He first uses secondary resources from the report to show people are worried about the misuse of widespread video surveillance, and then gives primary examples of credit card, EZ Pass, and bank records as well as many evidences, such as the cameras in London subways led to the speedy capture of the four bombers, to convince the reader that the correct use of cameras deter illegal behaviors and benefit people. Elizabeth E Joh's excerpt Reclaiming '"Abandoned" DNA: The Fourth Amendment and Genetic Privacy is a very long argument essay intends to raise public awareness of abandoned DNA. He quotes the secondary materials from The Simpsons and Victor Weeden to inform us that we leave our genetic identity everyday, and the police may collect the DNA from us, ordinary people, for potential use. He then criticizes the Forth Amendment doesn't restrict police's collecting our DNA by offering lots of facts through the whole essay. However, his essay lacks his personal experience. Ben Quarmby's The Case for National DNA Identification Cards excerpt is a much shorter essay compared to Joh's. He describes the new scheme of the ID cards after the September 11, 2001, by incorporating evidences such as the Driver's License Modernization Act of 2002. He also carefully analyze the controversy of containing a fingerprint in the ID card by quoting Alan Dershowitz's opinions and incorporating the opposer of the card scheme's opinions.

Coming from China, I did not have too much concern about my privacy before. I never suffered the police misconduct or worried about leaving my DNA in public. There are so many Chinese and I'm only a small fish in a sea. I don't think the government has interest in my trivia such as where I withdraw my cash if I'm a law abiding citizen, who will spends lots of time and money to investigate my eating habits even if he or she may have records of me. But these three essays somewhat raise my concerns of my privacy, at least to make me think of privacy. Before reading Mangu-Ward's essay, I held the same opinion with Mangu-Ward that installing cameras in the public or private can protect us from the misconduct of others. However, I never think about cameras can make police-officers behave better. Ben's essay reads interesting to me since I had no knowledge about the U.S. ID card system before. Chinese ID cards don't contain biometric informations, There are only my picture, my ID card number, my permanent address, expiration date, and such basic information on my ID card. Even if the Chinese government enforce us to add fingerprints to the ID cards, people will do and there won't be too many different voices and rejections, who cares as long as it can help to find the law offenders and secure our society. Although dealing the same issue about DNA, Joh's essay is too academic for me to appreciate. It's too long and kind of boring, and he doesn't provide many evidence to prove the bad effects of abandoned DNA. I  agree with him that little attention has been paid to the abandoned DNA collection and police nowadays have methods to collect DNA with out violation of law. In this respect, the Fourth Amendment fails to protect citizens from having identities. However, what will be the bad results of that except that threaten our privacy rights? the author does not provide convincing evidence showing the downside of police use or abuse of our DNAs to change my mind since I do not care about leaving my fingerprint at all.  

reading response three

Prompt: How do Casassa and Dudley enact what you learned about ethnography in Chapter 10? What are some effective ways that they describe the culture they are studying? Cite examples. What evidence do the authors provide for their interpretations of the culture they are studying ? Give specifics. What kinds of specific research can you do to provide similar evidence for your own potential topic? Why?

As a student who works three years as an employee in a coffee shop named Hopkinton Gourmet, Andrea Casassa, writer of "The Coffee Shop," encounters and is motivated by the special culture of this coffee shop in this period of experience. Such coffee shop has its own culture because the coffee goers, perhaps they do not know each other, share the same interest in coffee and gathers at this small coffee shop. Although she is not a member of this coffee cultural, she has access to it since she serves these coffee goers. She gradually reveals this new and unfamiliar world –Hopkinton Gourmet–to me by using a very innovative essay structure; she breaks down her working hours in different times like 6:00 A.M., 7:00 A.M...in excerpt one, and at different times she has different customers. Her ethnography subject is this group of different customers such as Dennis, Paul, Martha, Jack, etc, who appears at this coffee shop "day after day, week after week," and "creates a sense of family"(P B35). In order to keep the way these people naturally do, she doesn't tell these coffee goers what she is thinking in her mind during her "research". Her way of research is watching these people and making contacts with them. She watches carefully and closely to her customer; such as Dennis, for example, she portrays Dennis' appearance as "About 5 foot 6, Dennis stands just a bit taller than me. Gray hair encircles his small ears, and his chin always tilts upward a little, making it seem that he is smelling the air around him"(P B33). She also makes contacts with customers when they order their food before the counter. When she see Martha in the crowd waiting for her order, she prepares the food for her in advance, and Martha approves of her by rising her "blond bushy eyebrows"(P B33). When she see little Jack, she takes special care of him by "cut[ting] up sesame seed bagles into bite–sized pieces"(P B34). In return for her thoughtfulness, Jack places a handful of quarters into her tip jar. In excerpt two: "REGULARS", she uses a different approach of research as she invites Dennis to join her at a table and interviews him, she asks questions such as "why he comes to the Gourmet"(P B35), "about the service at the shop," and "this atmosphere differs from a Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts and Dennis." and his answer to the last question, "'it's not the building, but the coffee and the people' that make him return everyday"(P B36), perfectly express this coffeehouse's distinct warm and friendly culture. Till then, I fully understand "Each community needs a coffee shop, not only for the obvious reasons like caffeine addiction but also for sanity"(P B31). 

Compare to the coffee shop culture in the first essay, the head shop culture is much further away form my life. But after reading Mathew Dudley's essay, I come to know a lot about this culture. The controlling idea of this essay is the sale of products related to marijuana such as three-inch pipe, hemp rolling papers, and hemp body care products in head shops. Head shop‘s diverse goers such as high–school or college–aged kids, people who have the desire to show political and economic support for both hemp products and for marijuana, and vegetarian naturalists form a special culture group. As a flaneur in his heart, he researches The Hempest, a typical hand shop on Newbury Street in Boston, Massachusetts. Different form Cassasa who only uses primary research method, Dedley combines primary research method with secondary research method. For example, he uses resources from "New York: Rolling Stone" and "New York: Viking"(P B40), to name a few, when he gives background knowledge on the history of the grow and spread of the head shop industry. When showing readers the appealing layout of the Hempest, layout represents partly of the culture of the head shop of course, he gives many specific describes, which are based on his careful observation, such as "The smells of sandalwood and lavender waft from the constantly smoldering incense stands, calming the nerves, pleasing the spirit and perhaps covering up any unpleasant smells," and "[t]he clerks are always very polite, and never force a purchase"(P B42), which makes me want to experience shopping in this store. 

Dudley's essay seems more like a research essay, while  Casassas is more personal. I will use interviews as primary resources, but I will also search the internet and databases for resources as I did for my second essay in this ethnography essay. 

Research Essay

I have reinstalled my computer system recently. And unfortunately I lost all my songs in the iTunes. Then I learnt that I could not download the music free from the internet here in U.S.; While I can download all the music free in China. I can not live without music, I used to do my homework while listening to the music. But I do not want to pay that money. So I'm curious about such questions like: how to download music here in U.S.? Is music free on the internet a good thing. why it charges to download music on the internet? Only to protect intellectual property rights? Are there any good opportunities for some on line business to offer free and legal music in order to attract more ads or to be more famous(since I'm a marketing major)? So I want to explore something like that.  

reading response two

The two essays of Garrett Brown and Jay Holmquist are discovery essays rather than traditional research papers. Brown's discovery essay "Why Do People Tan" started with such questions: is it stupid to be tan and why it's a fashion for white people to be tan. With these questions in her mind, rather than with the answers she already knew, she suspended the judgement and began the process of investigating the sunbathing and such resources. She described some of the current persuasive findings, such as the survey conducted by Seventeen magazine, when she wanted to analysis that people want to "feel active". She also encounter articles criticized people who spent time in the sun to get a tan would got saggy skin or even cancer. This essay ended with a tentative thesis-the sun is really our friend, rather than began with the thesis as research paper often did. In "An Experience in Acronyms", Holmquist began his essay with a scene in a rave rather than with a thesis statement. He then posed his inquiry that whether taking such party drugs were safe or not. He suspended his judgement and did the research. At last, he made his final thesis that drugs were dangerous by showing the scene-his friend's heart stopped 3 times due to drug use, which led him quit drugs and raves.

The overall controlling idea of "Why Do People Tan" is that whether get a tan is good or not for people. This is a very interesting topic and has always been discussed. She learnt from the survey conducted by Seventeen magazine and the fashion column that people feel and look better to be tan. She cited that "2/3 of the teens say they look better with a tan and feel healthier, more sophisticated and 50% say they look more athletic."(Page 460). She also read the articles "The Rural South These Days Has More Tanning Salons Than John Deeres" and "No Tan Is a Safe Tan", which were against spending time in the sun to get a tan. At last she stood in the middle ground but preferred that "sun is really our friend"(Page 460). She not only skillfully used the resources, but also included her own voice. She asked "Is the fashion industry that powerful?"(Page 460) when she tried to answer the question-what else make people want a tan. She also express her feeling very well by summarizing what she had read: It struck me as I read the last line of this sardonic critique of society that I don't necessarily wonder why people tan.

The overall controlling idea of "An Experience in Acronyms" is whether taking party drugs is dangerous or not. Drug use has been discussed many times and we all familiar with that. Holmquist first described separately how LSD, MDMA, and GHB work and their "benefits" by citing many scientific terminologies and findings such as "MDMA affects the serotonin and dopamine centers of the brain"(Page B26), and using his own experience like "I'm able to move objects around with the power with my mind; I once changed the rotation the earth"(Page B25). Then he proved the side effects of these three drugs with scientific studies such as the recent study by Dance Safe, and other people's examples such as that one of his friend Chris. In the end, he drew the conclusion that the party drugs are dangerous. He skillfully organized the resources as he combined them very well to serve what he wanted to say, such as in these sentences, he quoted that, "The sense of touch is heightened to such a degree that energy pulses through you if someone else just grazes you (McDowell,1999). Massages are a common sight at raves as others try to raise the level of the high. Rubbing the neck, ears, face, and hands are the most common, Hugging and cuddling are associated with the effects of the drug (Pederson, 1999)."(Page B26). There he also gave credit to the other writers' thinking by citing where were the materials from. 

When it comes to my own approach to the Essay 2, I think I may first pick a topic which has been commonly discussed but most importantly, I'm curious about, as Ballenger suggested in page 432. Then I will try to research the resources from memories or experience, observation, interviews, and reading. I will stand on the shoulders from others who have already said something about my topic by finding proofs of or oppositions to my original thinking and at last, stick to or change my original thought by exploring more. I will try to employ the skills of using and citing sources explained in Chapter 13. In a word, I'm quite excited about writing my first English Research Essay.  

reading response one

Hogg's "I'm a believer" and Black's "The Joy of Mud" are two typical and successful personal essays that share many same features of the form Ballenger talks about.

Both of the two essays are written in first person, it is easily to detect because they use "I": "I believe this was some kind of privileged access I had.", "I feel solid and more connected to the living," They are the actresses of their own story.

The subjects of the two essays are very commonplace. Hogg tells us a story about her obsession with Davy, a band's leading singer, for many years since her childhood. Black talks about her one day's experience of helping Hawaiian to harvest their food with her friend and some Hawaiian people in a very beautiful valley in Hawaii. I do have something in common with both writers. I had my favorite singer and liked him for many years since I was 11, I glorified and "created" him to be a hero for a long time and not until recently do I find out that despite that he is authentic and gracious on the stage or in his books. I still do not know who he really is. I also know something about harvest since there are nearly 1 billion peasants in China and I have helped to harvest in a remote country so I can relate myself to Hogg's experience about harvest. When talking about "rootless", I think I'm quite "rootless" now. Living in a new country I'm not belonged to which is faraway from my hometown. Sometimes I do separate myself with the other people because I feel insecure and lonely.

Both of them use narrative method to develop their essays. They also use very vivid sentences. Hogg states "Micky's hair would not behave," the contrast strongly convinced me that Davy is more handsome. Black draws a nice picture "The forest is a lush wall on all sides, and the mountains are crowned with clouds overhead" to show the beautiful scenery she explored.

I find out that the thesis of he two are implicit and emerge in the end. Hogg tells her story in a chronological order from her childhood to her 27 when she meets Davy, has picture taken with him, and realizes him. In the last few paragraphs, she expressees "I accept, finally, that this person I know so well I really don't know at all, and I, the daydream believer, am just a fan.", "Davy just played his role as a singer." such feelings leaves much to be thought about. In "The Joy of Mud", Black begins her story in one summer morning. And she mimics the dialectical process successfully. She always deviates form what happens now to her past and portraits herself used to be a "bicultural and bred on mobility" girl, who spends most of her adolescence in Hawaii but wait impatiently to escape. For instance, she buried herself in "novels set in faraway times and places" and studied French instead of Hawaii's pidgin English. She felt rootless all the time, and was pride of that. But in this morning, during which she pulls out the weeds in the lo'i with her feet in the Waiahole mud, and then rinses the corms and steams them for lunch, she finds out that she is increasingly absorbed in this wet world, "aches with a kind of goofy happiness", and feels blissful...she feels surprised that after 16 years of being in the place she never cared for, she suddenly explores her love with this place.  She shifts back and forth like this from the present to her memory many times and in the end she expresses her willingness to stay in Hawaii and accepts Hawaii as her home, "Maybe it's the one that will eventually lead me home."