Melting Pot Blog

America has always been a melting pot from the start of its existence because of the different ethnic groups that moved here for various reasons. Now it has become even more of the melting pot with the larger influx of immigration. There are people from literally all over the world living in America. All of these different ethnic groups have different cultures that they bring along with them. These cultures are then mixed together and often times become shared by everyone, which is why America is the melting pot of melting pots. One tradition brought here by one group of people that has spread across all cultures is the example of the Christmas tree. Originally the Germans were the only people that took part in decorating trees for Christmas. As it turns out, this custom has now become a national phenomenon that almost all Americans take part in.

            Racism and cultural barriers are of course still a large problem in our country. There are still many instances of how our country has failed to integrate and mix between cultures. Many cultural groups often still live in the same general vicinity and spend most of their time together, failing to integrate with the rest of society. This can be seen in many places such as parts of Los Angeles where mostly Hispanics stay together, parts of New York or Atlanta where mostly African Americans stay together, or even parts of the United States where rich white folks stay in groups inside of their gated communities. These social groups often times do not spend very much time with other social groups and thus keep the entire country from forming completely into the “melting pot” or salad spinner.

Chapter 14 Blog

            The background that people have been raised in is very important as to determining the way that they see the world, cultures, and society. Each background that someone is born into alters the way that they view societal norms and things accepted by cultures. For example, I was born in an American consumer-based society so I don’t think that it is anything out of the ordinary to have more than one television inside of my house. I find it odd if somebody else doesn’t have any televisions inside of their house, or even a cell phone or computer. However, if I were to travel to a poorer nation, the people there who have been raised in a society that cannot afford extra amenities such as televisions or computers they would be shocked that I was able to have those things.

            The same concept can be applied to cultural norms within societies. As a middle class American, I have been exposed to advertisements that use a great deal of sex appeal in women to attempt to sell a product. So many Americans have been exposed to this kind of advertising that it is no longer a big deal at all. However, the cultures of countries such as those in the Middle East are much more strict in this aspect in that women cannot expose themselves or even show much more than their own faces. The general thought process of what is accepted and not accepted is totally different in the two different countries because the culture is completely different.

            This can even happen in different parts of our own country. Places like California and New York have always been typically liberal for a long time, whereas places such as Texas have always been particularly conservative. This can definitely be connected to the difference in society and culture where more people believe in the “bible belt” of the south in Texas and believe in freedom of expression and such in California. These cultural differences also help to create an identity for each place. This identity could definitely be considered a generalization or even a stereotype that every person from that area thinks and acts the same way. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, people definitely base their thoughts and generalizations on the culture that they themselves have been raised in.

Chapter 6 Synthesis

I think that the subheads discussed in chapter 6 were a very good point. I actually used them a little bit in my outline to separate my writing into different sections. This will be very helpful to writing this paper because it will allow me to visualize what parts of my paper will go where and how much I either have to add or subtract to my paper. The argumentative subheads that were discussed in the chapter are also extremely helpful in the creating an outline because it allows the argument to be organized to know exactly what points will be put into which parts of the paper. I think that this is real point of writing an outline. Otherwise it would be more of an abstract than anything else. Doing subheads and argumentative subheads will make the actual paper much easier to write as well as much less time consuming because they are essentially the blueprints of the paper that just need to be expound upon and connected together to form a flowing group of paragraphs.

The part about integrating sources in the paper was also very helpful in my opinion. I think that this is a very important part of the chapter because having a balance between summarizing, paraphrasing, and directly quoting sources is extremely important to make a paper flow properly. I think that direct quotations often sound the most credible when done properly, but when done too often they can sound overwhelming. This is where summarizing and paraphrasing become important to the paper. I think it is very helpful how the chapter shows how to “Integrate, not Insert” quotations. This is very important to a paper because direct quotes can often times seem very awkward and out of place if they are not entered in the paper properly. The chapter does a good job showing how quotes can be entered into a paper to make it flow the best way possible.

One part of the chapter that I have mixed feelings about is the part about peer reviewing. I think that peer reviewing can sometimes be helpful and sometimes be a large waste of time. If the peers actually dedicate themselves to reading the papers and doing the best job editing that they can, then I think it can be a useful tool to get another perspective on your paper. However, often times people don’t feel like reading each other’s papers and it becomes a waste of time. Another scenario is that people read it and say it was great when they missed out on a lot of important details. However, if it is done correctly then I think peer editing can be very useful.

Poster Analysis

This comparison between ads for the same cartoon is interesting. In the first advertisement, the identities of the superstars accused of using steroids are masked only by a yellow label with the title of the movie. The background is very plain and bland and shows nothing about the movie. This background is much different than the poster on the right. This background depicts a much more epic scene with lightning bolts and dark clouds in the background with the superstars standing in heroic poses with their faces only shielded by shadows. The background on the right also shows the people standing on a pile of pills and syringes. Both advertisements depict the same movie, but they seem to be showing different views on steroids. The title “bigger, stronger, faster” is somewhat ambiguous in that it could be taken literally or as sarcasm. The poster on the left depicts it as sarcasm by shielding the identities of the characters and also posing a rhetorical question of whether or not steroids are still cheating if everyone does it. The poster on the right seems to be glorifying them in some way but at the same time making fun of them by using the same quotation from the first poster.

Note Taking Methods

A note taking strategy offered in the book is to write down particularly memorable quotes. I think this is a good strategy because it helps to summarize the passage or piece of information by using actual extracts from the piece. This is useful for making a paper sound more credible because it makes reference to the actual paper instead of being a simple summary of the text. I was always taught that quotes are better than summarizations in school. When I am taking notes in school I often times do not write down quotes; however, if I am writing a paper and using parenthetical citations, I will often times extract useful quotes from documents to use them in my paragraphs.

            Another note taking strategy is to find background information about a certain topic to learn more about it. This would definitely be useful because it gives more information about what the paper is about and how it relates to other things instead of just the narrow view of what the paper is about. I think this can help a lot in writing a paper because it helps you see the point of the paper instead of just writing simply to write. Knowing the background of the topic can help plan out a paper and come up with a structure instead of just doing a free form write just to fill the designated word count.

            Another note strategy in the book is to write a passage that gives the context about the argument. This could be helpful to learning more about the background but I don’t really see much of a point for writing an extra paragraph for a paper. I think that the above two strategies would be more helpful than writing an extra paragraph or two about the background information.

Chapter 7 Blog

To take notes of sources, especially if I am going to use them in my paper, I usually read through the sources and write down or highlight small parts of the passages that I plan to use within my paper. After I do this from all of my sources I can take all of the notes that I have written down and come up with a sort of blueprint as to how I am going to put my paper together and what order all of the paragraphs are going to be in. It makes it somewhat easier to do this when the information I want to use in the paper is already written down in one place so I don’t have to continue to go back and forth to different sources to refer to the notes that I have made.

            To avoid plagiarism, I always make sure that my works cited page is in order. Most of the papers that I had to write in high school required MLA format as well as using in-text citations as discussed in the book. These are very helpful, in my opinion, to avoid plagiarism because it allows you to put quotes in your paper and give credit directly after the quote to the person that said it or the document that it came from. Works cited pages are crucial for avoiding plagiarism; however, I have never done a works consulted page before. I could see of this would be helpful in avoiding plagiarism because there would be no way that any sources would be left out of your paper since every site visited or examined has to be included into a works consulted page.

            Some people enjoying writing their first drafts of papers by hand but I personally like typing it with all of my sources pulled up on the computer so I can easily move back and forth between my paper and the cited sources so I can add in facts or comments without losing my train of thought. This is one helpful way that I complete my papers and also a way that I take notes when planning out my papers that has worked well for me in the past.