Grammar Post!

My grammar post for this week has to do with the style of research paper that I am going to use for our final paper! On Tuesday in class, Chelsi showed us several different styles of writing that we are able to use in our paper. I'm still trying to figure out which would be more effective in writing about the HCG diet! For help on this tricky subject, I went to Chelsi's gmail account and downloaded her slide show on modes you can find it at csutton.dsc@gmail.com her password is hamburger. Good luck to me!

America the Beautiful

Dinesh D'Souza's America the Beautiful: What We're Fighting For is a detailed look into why the fundamentalist Islamic culture despises the American dream so much. I enjoyed reading this article although I had some varying opinions from the author's because I learned more about the Islamic culture. I think it is widely unknown as to why groups under the Islamic culture dislike the American lifestyle so badly. I thought it was very open minded of D'Souza to go into great detail as to why even though D'Souza has great pride in the United States way of life. What I thought was interesting is that D'Souza points out that the Islamic world has not had a great revolution like America has, and we're relatively shorter living than the Islamic culture. America has experienced the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment, and the Scientific Revolution in just over two hundred short years. Interestingly enough, at one time the Islamic world was thought to have been powerful enough to take over the entire world, which also explains theire resentment towards America and our "lower" standards according to them. It was very open minded for D'Souza to note that the Islamic culture is in a sense the complete opposite to ours where they believe in no liberty to the people, and we believe in liberty to all people. In America we give every citizen-man, child, woman the right to choose their own path in life, where in a traditional Islamic culture the man is the ruler of the household and government. It is easier to see why Islamic cultures believe that the liberty we allow our citizens in America contributes to the demise of the rest of the world. Why I believe terrorist groups such as Al Queda have been created is to take down cultures and figures such as in America because they realize the impact or universalism we have on other foreign countries. It's difficult for me to be one sided on this issue, because there is a lot about the American culture that I would like to see change-for instance, the over consumerism of food and resources, the outrageous salary and celebrity we give to athletes and movie stars, and the lack of education in public and college school systems, and the overabundance of credit have all contributed to the downfall of our country currently. These are all factors that I believe are contributing to our downfall, and are viewed as disgusting by the rest of the world. As D'Souza points out towards the end of the piece, I would rather live in a country that promotes the liberty of every citizen, rather than live in a country that uses terror and death to control it's people.

I'm Black, You're White, Who's Innocent Blog

Shelby Steele's "I'm Black, You're White, Who's Innocent piece of writing is the first persuasive piece of literature I've ever read that is daring enough to include the reasoning behind racism in both black and white culture. I really liked Steele's analysis of both culture's because I believe there is always two sides to a story, in this case, racism. No matter what part of the world, country, or city you're from we have all experienced racism in some form. For those of you who think Steele's writing is ignorant, maybe you should check yourself for that exact claim. Steele is bold enough to make claims that white people have used our "innocence" as a form of power over mixed races, and wether we admit it or not we have over history, to me it's a form of passive aggressiveness. On the opposite, I have first hand experienced what it's like for a person from another race to use the racial card against me for no apparent reason, and that in itself is ignorant. So the issue does not come down to which culture is more racist, it's the individuals within races that tend to be. We should judge each other by our character not our color. There were some comments made in class, close to Ronald Reagan's quote in the article, that we as humans do not see the color of skin when we interact with one another, but the truth is we do, we wouldn't have the issue of racism or become defensive when it's brought up if we didn't people. Comparing the diffference of the color of our skin is an inevitable reaction, we just need to get past the preconceived notions that we have been surrounded with our entire lives. Another aspect that I enjoyed about Shelby Steele's piece is his use of the "I" voice. I know Chelsi doesn't prefer it, but it gave his writing a much more personal tone and it felt as though Steele owned his claims which I admire.

Grammar Post

This weeks grammar post for me is on grammar economy!It's a subject we covered in class last week, and it's something that has never really been brought to my attention as a writer! Chelsi's advice on word economy has helped me to be more concise and forward with my writing, making it more convincing to the reader. This website helped me to understand word economy further.
http://academic.reed.edu/writing/grammar_review/word_economy.html