Alex Heimann
WRA135:5-F05
Last Updated:11/30/05
EARLY ESSAYS:
An Introduction to Me
Nacirema Essay
The Nacerima people have a multitude of strange rituals. Alexandr Heimann, famous amateur Anthropologist has researched the Body ritual of LMCR and the following is a short description of his work
First Draft
Second Draft
Library Tour
As a group, we completed the Michigan State University's Libraries Self Guided Tour. This was a great opportunity to explore the library as we can use it as a valuable resource for further assignments. As we completed the quiz, we came up with a similar quiz for educational purposes.
Sentence Combining Excersise
The purpose of this excersise is to help us as students recognize the importance of using concise sentences.
Rubric Strengths and Weaknesses
In this section of the class we are asked to analyze our strengths and weaknesses (as far as we are concerned) about our Rubric. The purpose of this is to get students to realize how we could potentially improve as writers, and this assignment helps us to do just that.
Pop quiz
EXAM MATERIALS AND ESSAYS:
Midterm #1:
The first exam had two parts, the 20 question objective portion and the "essay" portion. The objective questions were based on assigned readings as well matters discussed in class. Our "essay" portion required us to make sure our WRA135 webfolios and our SLWP webfolios were perfected, having no dead links and making sure everything was written in our own words.
Midterm #2:
This second midterm was also broken into two parts, the first of which was a question segment administered in class, which held alot of pertinent information learned throughout this course. The second part is a comprehensive look at one of the five movies listed by professor Dowell and an analysis essay of how any one of these films fits into the notion of "Classic", American hero.
Final Exam:
ABSTRACTS:
An abstract is a short summary (roughly 50-150 words), which more or less clearly defines and explains the theme of a given essay for this course.
Horace Miner's, "Body Rituals of the Nacerima":
During the 1950's very few people were writing ethnographies in the United States. The people that were, wrote in a rather ethnocentric manner. Horhce Miner wrote an parody essay (Body rituals of the Nacerima) of American culture, in an attempt to make social scientists recognize their ethnocentric academics.
During the 70's the United States entered a state of recession. President Jimmy Carter made a speech to the country that made people anxious. The "Crisis of Confidence" speech that he made illustrated that the United States needs to change the way we use and produce energy in this country in order to survive. Carter believed that some of America's biggest flaws lied in our Gluttony and dependence on foreign energy resources.
Katherine Newman's "American Nightmares":
Newman's essay entitled "American Nightmares" is a depiction of a fictional character, who loses a pretty stable job and spirals down the economic and social ladder. Coupled by feelings of hopelessness and self loathing, pay cuts and joblessness in the upper middle class rarely gets more than a footnote in press and academic writing. Realistically one in five Americans will find themselves in this rather frightening position. Therefore, the phrase "American Nightmares" becomes a metaphor for one of the worst things that can happen that is within the upper middle class's imagination.
P.J. Orourke's "Slamming and Jamming":
O'Rourke, wrote "Slamming and Jamming", to depict the accounts of him following around the Hells Angels through various cities in the US. The Hells Angels are a band of renegade do-gooders, who administer their own type of street justice. The Angels focus (or at least in this essay) on drug dealers and users and the term "Slamming and Jamming", is actually a phrase the angles use to describe there enforcement method.
Robert Reiche's "An American Morality Tale":
Reiches piece that we studied in this class entitled "American Morality Tale", is an essay that more or less epitomizes virtually every thesis, for every paper that we have read in this course. The main story that Reich offers is about a guy named George who works hard and does the right thing no matter what the coincequences. But the essay isn't really about George at all, it's about how the American perception of a "Hero", has influenced the way that Americans think and behave in our societyJohn Grisham's "Somewhere for Everyone."
Jo
Goodwin Parker's "What is Poverty?"
Studs
Terkle's interview, "Mike LeFevre: Who Built the Pyramids?"
In Terkle's essay the
main character Mike LeFevre, speaks out about what he thinks the real
meaning of being working class in the united states is about.
LeFevre makes many very accurate and I think fair assessments about
what
it is to be working class. He believes that the people who build
the cities with there hands sweat and blood should be given credit for
there accomplishments not the Pharaohs or politicians who allotted
money
for the project. So te the question "Who Built the
Pyramids" is not answered by simply saying the pharaoh who lives
in the tomb underneath, but rather all of the slaves to society gave
portions of their lives to see them erected.
Peter
Marin's "Helping and Hating the Homeless."
Jonathan Alter's "Bridging the Digital Divide."
In Alter's piece, "Bridging the Digital Divide," the digital divide is a metaphor for the the communication technologies social barrier that it is currently creating. It is quite simply that the people who cannot afford communication technology and cannot gain access to it cannot perform allot of the tasks that society is beginning to expect from everyone.
Paul Recer's "Use of Guns Likened to Disease"
In Recer's essay, "Use of Guns Likened to Disease," he mentions that the gun usage in this country is becoming somewhat of a cool thing. We have been experiencing more gun related violence and Recers explores the notion that perception of the firearm may be driving societies' youth to reach for the glock. He muses that the violent gun rate as a weapon of choice has not been prevalent throughout our society and blames the higher instance on loose gun laws and various other social factors.
Jay Shaft's "US Homelessness and Poverty Rates Skyrocket"
In Shaft's essay, outlines statistics about how the United States' poverty compares to the GDP. The results are astonishing, we are a very wealthy country and yet we have an inexcusably high poverty rate to show for it. Shaft notes how much money the United States spends on foreign countries and foreign aid and suggests that we still have allot of work to do here at home. Shaft however does not seem to go into depth about how the social strata and capitalism systems work and I think detrimental roles in the instance of high poverty rates in the US.
Kate Santich's "Life's a bummer, but whatever"
In Kate Santich' essay, "Life's a bummer, but whatever." she explore the notion of not caring about politics. Santich assumes the United States public is completely helpless to control the lying and covering of the nations politicians. Not because politicians have infinite power over Americans, but rather, the politicians have been getting away with lies and scandal for so long that Americans expect nothing else from them, and so they no longer care.
Anna Quindlen "Life of the Closed Mind"
In Anna Quindlen's, "Life of the Closed Mind." Anna explores how the United States has reacted to the tragedy of September 11th 2001. She suggests that Americans are becoming as polarized as terrorists and comparing them to each other. The outcome is that the United States is really in a social recession, a rut if you will and needs to be ripped from it and minds forced open.
PRESENTATION OF MATERIALS COVERED IN OUR TEXTBOOK ENTITLED: "CIVIL LIBERTIES: OPPOSING VIEWPOINTS"
Presentation of Chapter # 2:
Our group has named ourselves SACS (an acynym which stands for Church and state Separators), we will be presenting materials covered in the "Civil Liberties", textbook that deal with the separation of church and state, moreover chapter #2. I am working on this project with our group leader Jessica Fuller-Murphy, Nate Browning, Albert Hur, and Chris Kellog Our instructor requires us to create: a 30-40 minute presentation with a question and answer segment, a handout outlining the materials that we are covering, a pop-quiz to be administered in the begging of class, a group paper, an individual paper, and a coda for after our presentation is competed.
WRITING RHETORIC AND AMERICAN CULTURE SERVICE-LEARNING WEBFOLIO