Author: Henry David Thoreau
Anqi Wang
Section FK
Summary
Thoreau thinks that walking is a kind of art. To preserve his health and spirits, he would rather spending couple of hours in
walking through forests. However, the walking of which he speaks has a different meaning with taking exercise. In his opinion, walking is the adventure of day. During walking, we can search of “the springs of life”. Therefor, Thoreau encourages that think while walking. In the essay he thinks that compared with nature, politics occupies a little space in the landscape.  Thoreau feels that walking eastward is a way to realize history and literature. On the contrary, walking westward is approaching to a spirit of enterprise and adventure. As for Thoreau, he believes that climate reacts on man. From nature, we could find something which will inspire our spirits. That is why the world will go on. Everything is the world tends to search the wildness. Wildness is
the preservation of the world. In summary, he states that life consists with wildness, and all good things are wild and free. Then he takes the domestic animals as an example. What’s more, Thoreau would not have every man cultivated. Sometimes a man’s ignorance is useful and beautiful rather than useless or ugly. After visiting many remarkable landscapes, Thoreau thinks that we need to be a part of nature. To achieve that, sometimes we need give up some of the civilization.  He encouraged people to find an equilibrium point to balance wildness and civilization.

Reflection
I think “From Walking” is really abstract. It is hard for me to catch the main point from this essay. As far as I’m concerned, wildness is an original of human being. And all species in the world have native rights to keep their wild habits and vigor. Human civilization is just a part of nature.  We cannot reject civilization completely or fully believe in wildness. What the best is that we can find a way to combine nature and civilization together.


 
 
Anqi Wang
02/08/2012
English 250, Spring 2012 
Section FK

From Chapter 6- Ah Wilderness, I chose “The Artifice of the Natural”, which was written by Charles Siebert, to write my rhetorical analysis.  
 
During drafting my analysis, the biggest problem was how to let my audiences know what I was talking about. By this I mean that sometimes when I described something, my audiences might misunderstand my idea. It was really hard to explain my idea in a clear and logical way. When I tried to analyze the strategies Siebert used, I always used several sentences to clarify what I want to say. Thus, I think I still need to improve my writing skills. To make sure my audience understands my points, I found two people read my essay and asked them whether they could understand or not. I think it was a good way; because I could get the reflection from people directly. Besides the expression problem, the second problem was how to summarize such a long reading into a short paragraph. “The Artifice of the Natural” is a 6-page long essay. Siebert concluded several ideas into his essay. That was a big task for me to find the main point. Also, just like Thoreau’s essay “From Walking”, this essay was a little abstract. I did not know why the author talked about his log cabin when he described the nature show. I could not tell which part was his real experience and which was his imagine. To understand this essay, I read the preface again and again. It was a good way to know the background of one essay. Once you got the background, you were approaching to the author’s main idea. What’s more, the vocabulary in Siebert’s essay was uncommon. After looking up in dictionary, I knew he was talking about different kinds of insects.

I think the strength of this essay is that I find some details to support my points. For example, when I talked about Siebert’s writing style- cynical style, I tried to find several sentences from his essay and explained why they were good.

From this assignment, I think I know how to analyze an essay in different ways, such as context, organization, language
style and so on. Also, writing a textual rhetorical analysis can make me full of logic. I have to organize my analysis in a logical way; thus my audience can
know what I’m saying. Those are what I learn from textual rhetorical
analysis.

 
The author, Michael Kimmel, is a professor of the State University of New York.  He has written or edited many books on men and masculinity. In this piece called“Bros Before Hos: The Guy Code”, he talks about what guy code is. Guy code means masculinity. Michael Kimmel discusses the ways that today’s society expects guys (males between the ages of 16 and 26) to behave, for instance, not being a sissy, not being perceived as weak. Also he lists four basic rules of masculinity which are summarized by psychologist-Robert Brannon. The first rule is “No Sissy Stuff,” which means that guys shouldn’t show their weakness. The second is “Be a Big Wheel,” by this he means masculinity is measured by wealth and power. The third rule, “Be a Sturdy Oak,”says that guys should be reliable in a crisis. And the last one, “Give ‘em Hell,” implies that man should take risks and show his aggression. Then, Kimmel states that young men get these ideas from their male relatives or teachers. Besides, Kimmel talks about gender police. He says that our peers are a kind of gender police, who are ready to catch every movement containing a coded gender language. But sometimes, the so called guy code will lead to homophobia. At last, Kimmel states that boys are more prone to depression, suicidal behavior, than girls.



I believe with the ideas that Kimmel talks about. We always expect a man can get strong, rich and be aggressive. It is like a social expectation or a common sense.Although Guy Code may have been a guideline to make men stronger, it really can turn out to be a harmful idea in the end.  For example, boys may not be confident about whether they wear right or wrong. They may have homophobia. At last boys are more prone to depression and more fragile than girls. Thus, I think we should not over-judge a man by using so called guy code.

 
Anqi Wang
Section FK

From the three assigned reading, I chose “Learning to Read”, which was written by Malcolm X, to write a
summary.  

As for me, the biggest problem was how to summarize such a long reading into 300 words.  “Leaning to Read” was like 9 pages long on the book. After reading this essay, I didn’t know what I should write in my summary, what I should ignore. I used to think, to write a summary, I need to cover everything including many details. But this opinion seemed not work for a long essay.  It was impossible to mention so many details in a summary. To solve this problem, I read the essay again and again. And then I figured out a flow chart, which could show me the cause and effect of the author’s story. To understand each paragraph, I read the main sentence of each one. I thought that was a good way to understand the main ideas. And when I wrote my summary, I skipped some details and rewrote them in one sentence. Actually, I faced more than one problem.
Occasionally, I added my own opinion, which was similar with author’s main point. However, a
good summary could not be added your own idea. To avoid this situation, I had to reread my summary after writing and deleted the unsuitable sentence. 

As I mentioned above, I didn’t add my own opinion in my summary, which I thought I did well. As an old saying, practice makes perfect. To write a good summary, I still need to read a lot and keep on writing. As reading a lot, I could learn many new vocabulary and useful grammar, which can be used in my own essay in my future.  
 
Anqi Wang
2012/3/7
Engl 250
Ms. McCourt
Reflection on Visual Rhetorical Analysis

The fourth assignment was visual rhetorical analysis. This assignment required us to analyze an ad from the internet or magazines. Besides an essay, a short presentation was also required. Among thousands of advertisements, I chose an ad of Nissan LEAF as The object of attention for an analysis. 
 
I found my ad on a printed magazine named Popular Science. To recommend the newly designed car called the LEAF and sell the energy-saving concept, Nissan Motors uses color choice, relative pictures and text on the ad. The target audience should be car and science enthusiasts and environment conservation advocates. As far as I’m concerned, the purpose of any ad is to sell more products, whatever is a car or a pair of shoes. However, the ad may not have only one purpose. For instance, when I saw the ad of Nissan LEAF, I realized a text on the ad, “Innovation for the planet and innovation for all.” I thought besides introducing their new product, Nissan Motors also wanted to sell a concept of energy-saving.  In other words, the second purpose of the ad was encouraging environment conservation. It was a little difficult tounderstand the whole purpose of an ad. To analyze an ad, I can approach from colors, emotions, texts analysis. I tried to find some details like why the creators used a sunflower. After analyzing most of the details, I recalled the purposes of the ad. Then I found the thesis and I could use details to support it. Overall, I think I have a good organization and good details to support my thesis. The first paragraph is an introduction and followed by a brief description of the ad. Then I analyzed the ad from choice of colors, choice of pictures and texts to approach the thesis. At last I got a conclusion. When I wrote my essay, sometimes, I might lose my logic. After analyzing a detail, I felt that what I said in my essay could not support my thesis. It was a useless analysis. Also, I didn’t know if I should put a sentence in paragraph one or two. To solve those problems, I think review the essay is the only way to solve
them. I found my classmates and instructor to help me and gave me a lot of effective suggestions. 

I think peer review is really helpful. Since I am an international student, most of time,  I cannot use a word very accurate. For
example, in my essay, I wrote “by using contrasting colors, people will be attracted by the ad subconsciously.” Actually my partner changed the word”subconsciously” from “unconsciously”. He described the difference between these two words and he thought “subconsciously” was more accurate. 
 
I think the hardest part of assignment 4 is the presentation. When I stand in the front of the classroom, I felt nervous and could not remember what I should say. There’s no doubt I think I should practice more. The more presentations I take, the more confidence I will have. After viewing all of the classmates’ feedback, I think I need have more body language and eye contact with my audience during my presentation. Also try to avoid being nervous. Hope I can improve myself for the next presentation. 


 
Anqi Wang
2012/4/12
Engl 250
Ms. McCourt

Assignment 5 Reflection

The fifth assignment was mediation. This assignment required us to research one of a controversy and find mediation. Besides a research paper, a 10-minute presentation was also required. I am not familiar with American society. So my controversy was chosen from Chinese society.

Since the 20th century, China stepped to the industrial age. Using too many engines led to China suffering environmental problems due to pollution of the air and water. It is well known that the environmental quality in China is lower than the average of the world. We recognize the progress China, especially in industry, but China is still facing very serious environmental problems, it is an indisputable fact. When facing such big environmental problems, the government and non-government association will do everything to protect our environment. Some of the environmental conservation actions or techniques that are widely used in China may cause secondary damage by polluting the environment again. How to use those techniques became to a question.

The biggest problem I met was that my controversy and mediation were not clearly enough, which caused the structure of confusion. To solve this problem, I read my sources again and tried to find out the similarities. Besides, peer response helped me a lot. My partner gave me a lot of advice about how to restructure my paper. At last I decided to separate my sources into 3 groups. The first one was the controversial techniques we used. The second was the controversial policy from government. The last one was an action from non-government association. The second problem I met was that I could not connect my source with my mediation very well. By this I mean, I need more transitions to connect my source with my mediation.

I think peer review is really helpful. My partner pointed that I had better to restructure the first two paragraphs to make the background more clear. He also showed me how to combine 2 sentences into a big advanced one. By doing this, my essay seemed more professional and more convincing.

The presentation part was harder than last time. When I stand in the front of the classroom, I still felt nervous but felt much better than last time. There’s no doubt I think I should practice more. The more presentations I take, the more confidence I will have. I think I still need to practice more before real presentation. Try to memorize some details rather than just reading from the PowerPoint. Also I think I still need more eye contact with my audience.

 
Name: Artificial Rain Dangerous
By Judica Tarimo

The chemicals used in the production of artificial rain could affect climatic patterns, ecosystem, water sources and the soil, said Dr. Victoria Ngomuo, Community Water and Demographer at the Water Resources Institute (WRI) in Dar es Salaam. Dr. Ngomuo said the chemicals are catalysts which, when in microscopic particles, attract water vapor that condense to form droplets of water known as artificial rain. Excessive use of the chemicals, Dr. Ngomuo warned, would affect biodiversity and make the soil unproductive, besides being a water pollutant. ’The chemicals are most likely to affect the natural hydrological circle in the atmosphere,’ noted the expert. Experts’ comments come after the government made public its intention to import artificial rain technology from Thailand to boost power generation in the country’s depleted hydropower dams. Persistent drought in the past three years, helped on by poor water resource management, has adversely affected power production, resulting in the current power shortages and high electricity tariffs. The water expert said artificial rain would have serious negative effects on the country and would have far-reaching environmental impact, leave alone the high cost. She said artificial rain would most certainly affect agricultural production and domestic water consumption in Morogoro, a major producer of staple food – rice, potatoes and maize. She said experience in countries where the technology is in use, shows that the outcome has been disastrous. She said that China, which invested massively in the technology, was recently a victim of bird flu that killed both human beings and birds.

REF:  http://rathwjj.gfxtm.com/artificial-rain-dangerous/

This source helps me a lot.  Artificial rain is considered as an advanced technique and it is widely used in China. It is a good way to stop climate drought. However, it is also important to know its potential hazards. Over using will lead to many other issues such as soil contamination.
 
Author Michael Kimmel

The author, Michael Kimmel, is a professor of the State University of New York.  He has written or edited many books on men and masculinity. In this piece called “Bros Before Hos: The Guy Code”, he talks about what guy code is. Guy code means masculinity. Michael Kimmel discusses the ways that today’s society expects guys (males between the ages of 16 and 26) to behave, for instance, not being a sissy, not being perceived as weak. Also he lists four basic rules of masculinity that are summarized by psychologist- Robert Brannon. The first rule is “No Sissy Stuff,” which means that guys shouldn’t show their weakness. The second is “Be a Big Wheel,” by this he means masculinity is measured by wealth and power. The third rule, “Be a Sturdy Oak,” says that guys should be reliable in a crisis. And the last one, “Give ‘em Hell,” implies that man should take risks and show his aggression. Then, Kimmel states that young men get these ideas from their male relatives or teachers. Besides, Kimmel talks about gender police. He says that our peers are a kind of gender police, who are ready to catch every movement containing a coded gender language. But sometimes, the so-called guy code will lead to homophobia. At last, Kimmel states that boys are more prone to depression, suicidal behavior, than girls.

I believe with the ideas that Kimmel talks about. We always expect a man can get strong, rich and be aggressive. It is like a social expectation or a common sense. Although Guy Code may have been a guideline to make men stronger, it really can turn out to be a harmful idea in the end.  For example, boys may not be confident about whether they wear right or wrong. They may have homophobia. At last, just like Kimmel says, boys are more prone to depression and more fragile than girls. Thus, I think we should not over-judge a man using so-called guy code.

 
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