energy and place
Project Reflection
For this project, students studied the sense of energy and place and how the two are interconnected. We also studied the many different environmental ethics affiliated with sense of energy and place, allowing us to develop our own perspective and environmental ethic. We learned about the different energy production and consumption in our society today. The overall purpose of this project was to open our minds to the wild world and how our industrial society is impacting it and also to develop our own environmental ethic which we expressed in a personal 'Sense of Place' essay. For the sense of place essay, students were asked to write about a place that they had a special connection with. It had to be somewhere that spoke to us in a manner that no other place could. We had to incorporate elements of nature writings which we had learned about as a class through authors such as Edward Abbey. Edward Abbey uses descriptive language and a sense of passive aggressiveness to open the reader's mind to the world of simplicity and sense of mind and place.
My writing has grown immensely over the past project. This was such an unique project because it helped to grow my communication skills in my writing through elements of nature writing, descriptive writing, creative writing, and personal writing. Before I struggled getting my environmental ethic across clearly to my audience through writing. Now, I feel confident that I can clearly express my opinion to my audience. I also saw my voice evolve as well. Before, I was drawn back, I hid in the shadows, I expressed my opinions in a different manner. I saw this come out in my personal essay - this was the first essay that I used a curse word in, which for me is not common. I think that goes to show that my confidence in my voice has increased, that I have withdrawn from my shell and am slowly emerging to have no filter in my writing. While still being conscious, I can express myself without feeling judged and that is a huge breakthrough for me. A big part of this project was learning how to use descriptive language and incorporating that into our sense of place essay. I love descriptive writing, it is my favorite writing style and I am so happy that we got to implement it into our final project for the year. I feel like even though I felt confident in writing descriptively before, I still feel as though it improved through showing vs. telling and also a 'movie behind the eyelids'.
I had a pretty strong sense of what my environmental ethic was at the beginning of the project. I was and still am in favor of preservation and conservation, but I feel like I have a better understanding of what those entail now. I previously had thought conservation and preservation were interconnected and practically the same thing until we went into depth. Preservation is the act of preserving a place of its natural beauty whereas conservation is more about the conservation of resources for future generations. After I learned this, I saw that my environmental ethic shifted. I want to preserve this natural environment for everyone to see, I want them to have the same experience that I did in Saba. I want those coral reefs to still be there, their vibrant colors bouncing off the ripples in the cool ocean water. I was able to express this in my writing because I had a better sense of who I was as a person. I realized my empathy and passion extended from the Earth itself and I want to devote my life to protecting and saving this beautiful place we call home.
For this project, students studied the sense of energy and place and how the two are interconnected. We also studied the many different environmental ethics affiliated with sense of energy and place, allowing us to develop our own perspective and environmental ethic. We learned about the different energy production and consumption in our society today. The overall purpose of this project was to open our minds to the wild world and how our industrial society is impacting it and also to develop our own environmental ethic which we expressed in a personal 'Sense of Place' essay. For the sense of place essay, students were asked to write about a place that they had a special connection with. It had to be somewhere that spoke to us in a manner that no other place could. We had to incorporate elements of nature writings which we had learned about as a class through authors such as Edward Abbey. Edward Abbey uses descriptive language and a sense of passive aggressiveness to open the reader's mind to the world of simplicity and sense of mind and place.
My writing has grown immensely over the past project. This was such an unique project because it helped to grow my communication skills in my writing through elements of nature writing, descriptive writing, creative writing, and personal writing. Before I struggled getting my environmental ethic across clearly to my audience through writing. Now, I feel confident that I can clearly express my opinion to my audience. I also saw my voice evolve as well. Before, I was drawn back, I hid in the shadows, I expressed my opinions in a different manner. I saw this come out in my personal essay - this was the first essay that I used a curse word in, which for me is not common. I think that goes to show that my confidence in my voice has increased, that I have withdrawn from my shell and am slowly emerging to have no filter in my writing. While still being conscious, I can express myself without feeling judged and that is a huge breakthrough for me. A big part of this project was learning how to use descriptive language and incorporating that into our sense of place essay. I love descriptive writing, it is my favorite writing style and I am so happy that we got to implement it into our final project for the year. I feel like even though I felt confident in writing descriptively before, I still feel as though it improved through showing vs. telling and also a 'movie behind the eyelids'.
I had a pretty strong sense of what my environmental ethic was at the beginning of the project. I was and still am in favor of preservation and conservation, but I feel like I have a better understanding of what those entail now. I previously had thought conservation and preservation were interconnected and practically the same thing until we went into depth. Preservation is the act of preserving a place of its natural beauty whereas conservation is more about the conservation of resources for future generations. After I learned this, I saw that my environmental ethic shifted. I want to preserve this natural environment for everyone to see, I want them to have the same experience that I did in Saba. I want those coral reefs to still be there, their vibrant colors bouncing off the ripples in the cool ocean water. I was able to express this in my writing because I had a better sense of who I was as a person. I realized my empathy and passion extended from the Earth itself and I want to devote my life to protecting and saving this beautiful place we call home.
Final Sense of Place Essay
Below you can see the peer critiques I received from my fellow peers!
happiness and meaning project
Essential Questions
- What is the purpose of your existence?
- What is happiness and what makes you happy?
- What does it mean to live a meaningful life?
- To what extent can literature shape your personal philosophy on happiness and meaning?
|
Project
For my project, I decided to create a video compiling clips I took while on my internship in Costa Rica and here in Durango. I decided to focus on gratitude for my project because one thing I learned on my internship was that it is very important to express gratitude constantly in order to live a meaningful and fulfilling life. |
Project Reflection
This project provided a lot of new insight that I will apply into my later life. I am really glad that this project extended through my LINK Internship because I was able to actively use what we learned in class in my real life. I went into the project thinking that I would do something with how following your passion brings you happiness and meaning, but I came out wanting to express the true importance of having gratitude and thankfulness in your life. Marta was an amazing mentor and taught me so much about true happiness and how it is different from false happiness. I learned, by integrating my class knowledge into the knowledge I was picking up on my internship, that true happiness extends from within, that expressing gratitude gives you a chance to extend this happiness to others and to yourself. gratitude is the seed that turns into a tree. This was my favorite insight that I developed and it does make me so much happier when I look around and realize everything that I have to be grateful for and I want to share that happiness, that same feeling of meaning with everyone around me.
- Do I want to pursue economic success and happiness or do I want to pursue the true, rich happiness that only comes from stepping out of your comfort zone?
- In what other ways can I express gratitude in my daily life?
- Does pursuing your passion really make you happy, or is experiencing new perspectives and taking advantage of new opportunities more exciting?
- In my life, have I already experienced an existential crisis? If I have, how would I have reacted differently back then than how I would react now?
This project provided a lot of new insight that I will apply into my later life. I am really glad that this project extended through my LINK Internship because I was able to actively use what we learned in class in my real life. I went into the project thinking that I would do something with how following your passion brings you happiness and meaning, but I came out wanting to express the true importance of having gratitude and thankfulness in your life. Marta was an amazing mentor and taught me so much about true happiness and how it is different from false happiness. I learned, by integrating my class knowledge into the knowledge I was picking up on my internship, that true happiness extends from within, that expressing gratitude gives you a chance to extend this happiness to others and to yourself. gratitude is the seed that turns into a tree. This was my favorite insight that I developed and it does make me so much happier when I look around and realize everything that I have to be grateful for and I want to share that happiness, that same feeling of meaning with everyone around me.
- Do I want to pursue economic success and happiness or do I want to pursue the true, rich happiness that only comes from stepping out of your comfort zone?
- In what other ways can I express gratitude in my daily life?
- Does pursuing your passion really make you happy, or is experiencing new perspectives and taking advantage of new opportunities more exciting?
- In my life, have I already experienced an existential crisis? If I have, how would I have reacted differently back then than how I would react now?
The Morality and Politics of Justice
"The GOP’s objection to legal abortion - a small fraction of the services provided by Planned Parenthood and not federally funded - is not a sufficient reason to sacrifice quality women’s healthcare, cancer prevention and treatment, and preventative education programs."
Project Reflection
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
For this project, students were tasked to look at multiple moral philosophies and moral philosophers and grow their own moral standards from what they learned. We also studied morality in justice and how they correlate in our modern day politics. Students conducted extensive research about a current political issue that they were passionate about. Using the information that we pulled from our studies of moral ideologies and philosophies along with justice, we had to formulate a solution or a form of justice to the political issue. This perspective was then clearly articulated in a 750-1000 word op-ed. For my political issue I chose the defunding of Planned Parenthood. For my op-ed, I focused on what would happen if Planned Parenthood was defunded. Through my research and my integration of the moral philosophies that I learned, I decided that it was not morally justifiable for the government to defund Planned Parenthood because by denying the funding, they would be denying millions of women affordable, quality, health care. After voicing my opinion in my op-ed, it was time to come up with a visual representation of my political issue and my justified course of action to solve it. For my art piece, I wanted it to be subtle yet impressionable. The idea of my art piece was developed from this idea that it would draw people to my project during the exhibition. I needed to create something that would stand out among the crowd. That's why I decided to make the woman the subject. She is encompassed in a ribbon that represents Planned Parenthood. I wanted to show that Planned Parenthood provides a protection from the detrimental society. The overall message I wanted to provide was that there is a purpose for Planned Parenthood, it has meaning in people's lives, and the government does not have the right to take that away.
WRITING GROWTH
a) After going through my op-ed and critically analyzing it, I was able to pick out specific techniques that I could improve upon in the future. One of my challenges was organization. I realized early on that the organization of my paragraphs and sentences caused my writing to become disorienting and hard to follow. An example of my lack of organization in my first draft is: "One thing that isn’t necessarily considered through this process of attempting to defund Planned Parenthood is the women involved with this organization". Here is how I would rephrase this sentence to be more clear and concise: "While abortion is the focus of opponents, defunding Planned Parenthood would jeopardize women, and by extension, their children’s and families’ lives as well". This sentence was transformed into a completely different, more clear and concise, sentence and message. Before, I wasn't necessarily specific about the women and how, by extension, they are involved with the organization. It is a hard sentence to understand and pull a meaning from or pull what I am trying to transition into. My revised sentence focuses on how defunding Planned Parenthood would affect these women and by extension, their children and families. I made it more specific, therefore more organized.
b) Another thing that I was able to see while analyzing was that I didn't incorporate as much moral and political philosophy as I would've liked to see in my op-ed. I agree with Ashley when she says that this is an area where I could've grown. An example of where I could've incorporated moral or political philosophy in my first draft is: "The utilitarian view, that Planned Parenthood should not be defunded due to the massive amounts of services that benefits the majority of women who cannot afford quality welfare". Here is how I would rephrase this sentence to appeal more to the moral and political philosophies: "The utilitarian view argues that Planned Parenthood should not be defunded due to the essential services that benefit women who would not otherwise have access to, or be able to afford quality health care". Here, I incorporated more of an understandable statement, although it still does not incorporate the amount of moral and political philosophy that I would like. I do think, however, that it provides a better explanation of what utilitarianism is and how it relates to this issue, specifically that utilitarianism should be used in this situation to benefit the greater good.
c) Another thing that I needed to work on was focusing and staying on the topic of my issue. The purpose of the op-ed had to be prevalent in order for me to get my opinion across to the audience. An example of where I grew throughout this project was the Roe vs. Wade case. In my first draft, I included a paragraph explaining the Roe vs Wade case and how it pertained to Planned Parenthood. However, I then realized that the main topic of my op-ed was relating to what would happen if Planned Parenthood was defunded, it wasn't necessarily on the topic of abortion. In the end, to add more clarity to the message and purpose of my op-ed, I decided to cut that paragraph out in order to gain more space to talk more about the true effects of defunding Planned Parenthood.
PROJECT PIECE ARTIST STATEMENT
For my art piece, I decided to do a political campaign poster. I chose to do this because I thought it would be the visual piece that would provide the most effective form of communication. I decided to create a painting of a woman, covering herself, feeling perpetrated by society. She is surrounded by darkness, her body is illuminated by an invisible light. However, she is surrounded by a ribbon of pink, representing Planned Parenthood. The darkness surrounding her represents the threats of society, including health threats such as cancer, STD's, endometriosis, UTI's, Infertility, and many others. I wanted it to be prevalent that Planned Parenthood is offering protection from the terrors of these health threats. On the sides, there are words representing these health threats and what Planned Parenthood can help to prevent. The woman is cowering, in a state of despair and sadness, scared of the outside world. She is worrying about her protection being taken away by the darkness, the threats of society. I tried to use pathos to evoke an emotional response because, in my experience, emotional reactions tend to make the most difference in peoples' decisions.
I used pathos in the woman. She has a stance, a presence that evokes sadness. Cowering in a state of darkness, of despair - a provoking image to provoke a response. I also incorporated Logos by writing, on the sides, the things that Planned Parenthood offers services for: cancer, STDs, programs for affordable health care. This added a component of logic: why would you sacrifice all of these services for the benefit of removing a service that you are morally against - that is also only 3% of the organization and is not federally funded?
The tone of my painting is dark. I wanted my opinion to be prevalent, that denying Planned Parenthood funding, would put women in a situation of despair, where they would always have to worry about their health. The colors are dull, except for the bright pink ribbon that encompasses the woman and the sides of the canvas. The tone is also shown through the symbolism, as I mentioned above. The message is strong and powerful, yet it is melancholy, a message that should provoke sadness and emotion and I wanted a tone that would do the same.
I decided to emphasize the woman because I wanted her to be the focal point of the painting. She was the message, she was representing the millions of women in the US that depend upon Planned Parenthood for their health, for their lives. I also decided to wrap her in a ribbon of Planned Parenthood's colors because, not only did I think that it would be artistic, I thought that it would help to create a more deviant effect when it comes to what people see when they look at the painting. It would also do more to get the message across. There is a clear difference between the woman, who is encompassed in a ribbon of pink, and the darkness that surrounds her. I also decided to add words around the edges in order to add logos to the painting, not only deciding to evoke an emotional reaction, but a factual one as well.
I am very proud with how my poster came out (final product). I feel that, with the amount of time that I had available, I was able to create a beautiful product that effectively communicated my opinion on the subject matter at hand, i.e. Planned Parenthood. During the time that I was given, I worked studiously to put together a product that not only I would be proud of, but that would capture the audience's attention, to stand out. I used my knowledge of the moral philosophies and ethos, logos, and pathos to incorporate elements from logos and pathos into my art piece. Overall, I believe that my painting captured the tone of sadness and despair that I relate to the issue of Planned Parenthood, as I have explained extensively above. In the slideshow above, you can see the process of my painting and what I did to increase refinement and overall professionalism of my piece. I did want to add more refinement in the sense of clarity and overall meaning, however, I feel that I was able to create a meaningful piece of work that correlated with my thesis.
PERSONAL GROWTH AND PERSPECTIVE
Throughout this project, I have had the pleasure of learning how to formulate an opinion or perspective on a moral/political dilemma. Through researching and understanding multiple moral philosophies and philosophers, I was able to develop my own moral standards, greatly helping me in the formation of my perspective on the Planned Parenthood issue. I have learned that you have to formulate your ideas while considering the opposite side and their moral beliefs, you don't want to deliberately attack one side, but rather, work with them and then kindly show how your views differ. You want to make sure that you have sufficient amounts of evidence to back up your claim and voice your perspective with confidence.
I think learning about the art of rhetoric greatly influenced both how I expressed my beliefs and how I consumed others. I think that in a way, rhetoric made me more open to other beliefs. I found that I could understand where they were coming from, why they were acting in the way that they were. I made me realize that everyone, because of their beliefs, are fighting for what they think is morally right. It also made me realize, that in order to create a persuasive piece of writing, I have to appeal to both audiences and not just focus on one argument, but as the writer, understand the opposing side, and then try to get them to understand my perspective, not through force, but rather through appreciation.
The content that most shaped me, I believe, was the moral philosophers. Seeing their work, and where their moral standards came from inspired me to do the same. Pick a topic where I see moral injustice being done and voice my claim against it. I believe the moral philosophers, specifically Martin Luther King Jr. especially influenced my openness to other beliefs. Martin Luther King worked in ways that were peaceful, along with Ghandi. They both respected other beliefs, but still worked to fix unmoral practices.
I have learned to respect their beliefs and listen to them. I find that this tactic works best because if I listen to them, they are more likely to listen to me when I express what I believe. This also allows me to be aware of their beliefs and gives me a chance to share less offending information before partaking in complete conversations with them. It is important to grab their attention, don't offend, but create a mutual understanding where there isn't so much arguing, but rather an environment where each person can respect the others beliefs. I find that when trying to get someone to understand your perspective and why you hold that perspective, that it is best if you back your claim with sufficient evidence and you don't directly or indirectly insult them or their beliefs. Even though some of the beliefs expressed on exhibition night were the complete opposite of what I believe, I was able to, remembering what I had learned throughout this semester, retain that debater side of me, and understand where they were coming from and then retaliate with my argument.
I think that the most challenging part of this project is that I am a very opinionated person. I know what I believe and I don't like others forcing their beliefs upon me or others. I find it sometimes aggravating when suddenly I'm in a position where I am being berated for what I believe in, even though I work hard to respect other beliefs. However, this project helped me to open up. A mandatory requirement for this project was that we had to interview someone, either who had the same beliefs or the complete opposite. I decided to step outside of my comfort zone and interview Tory Aggeler, a local conservative. When I took the political identity test, I tested 'solid liberal'. See where this was headed? However, during the interview I worked on my communication skills. I did become somewhat discomforted by what he was saying, however, instead of retaliating with my own beliefs, I asked him questions that would provoke critical thinking and analysis of his own views. Going back to being an opinionated person, I found that when I conducted this interview, I became more open to other opinions. I was able to connect and understand where Tory was coming from. Even though I did not completely agree with his stance on Planned Parenthood, I was able to connect with him on a personal level. We were both arguing for what we thought was morally right. I found that I could be open to hearing other opinions and relating with them, I found that my opinions could change and I could develop my perspective by pulling ideas or disagreements from other opinions.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
For this project, students were tasked to look at multiple moral philosophies and moral philosophers and grow their own moral standards from what they learned. We also studied morality in justice and how they correlate in our modern day politics. Students conducted extensive research about a current political issue that they were passionate about. Using the information that we pulled from our studies of moral ideologies and philosophies along with justice, we had to formulate a solution or a form of justice to the political issue. This perspective was then clearly articulated in a 750-1000 word op-ed. For my political issue I chose the defunding of Planned Parenthood. For my op-ed, I focused on what would happen if Planned Parenthood was defunded. Through my research and my integration of the moral philosophies that I learned, I decided that it was not morally justifiable for the government to defund Planned Parenthood because by denying the funding, they would be denying millions of women affordable, quality, health care. After voicing my opinion in my op-ed, it was time to come up with a visual representation of my political issue and my justified course of action to solve it. For my art piece, I wanted it to be subtle yet impressionable. The idea of my art piece was developed from this idea that it would draw people to my project during the exhibition. I needed to create something that would stand out among the crowd. That's why I decided to make the woman the subject. She is encompassed in a ribbon that represents Planned Parenthood. I wanted to show that Planned Parenthood provides a protection from the detrimental society. The overall message I wanted to provide was that there is a purpose for Planned Parenthood, it has meaning in people's lives, and the government does not have the right to take that away.
WRITING GROWTH
a) After going through my op-ed and critically analyzing it, I was able to pick out specific techniques that I could improve upon in the future. One of my challenges was organization. I realized early on that the organization of my paragraphs and sentences caused my writing to become disorienting and hard to follow. An example of my lack of organization in my first draft is: "One thing that isn’t necessarily considered through this process of attempting to defund Planned Parenthood is the women involved with this organization". Here is how I would rephrase this sentence to be more clear and concise: "While abortion is the focus of opponents, defunding Planned Parenthood would jeopardize women, and by extension, their children’s and families’ lives as well". This sentence was transformed into a completely different, more clear and concise, sentence and message. Before, I wasn't necessarily specific about the women and how, by extension, they are involved with the organization. It is a hard sentence to understand and pull a meaning from or pull what I am trying to transition into. My revised sentence focuses on how defunding Planned Parenthood would affect these women and by extension, their children and families. I made it more specific, therefore more organized.
b) Another thing that I was able to see while analyzing was that I didn't incorporate as much moral and political philosophy as I would've liked to see in my op-ed. I agree with Ashley when she says that this is an area where I could've grown. An example of where I could've incorporated moral or political philosophy in my first draft is: "The utilitarian view, that Planned Parenthood should not be defunded due to the massive amounts of services that benefits the majority of women who cannot afford quality welfare". Here is how I would rephrase this sentence to appeal more to the moral and political philosophies: "The utilitarian view argues that Planned Parenthood should not be defunded due to the essential services that benefit women who would not otherwise have access to, or be able to afford quality health care". Here, I incorporated more of an understandable statement, although it still does not incorporate the amount of moral and political philosophy that I would like. I do think, however, that it provides a better explanation of what utilitarianism is and how it relates to this issue, specifically that utilitarianism should be used in this situation to benefit the greater good.
c) Another thing that I needed to work on was focusing and staying on the topic of my issue. The purpose of the op-ed had to be prevalent in order for me to get my opinion across to the audience. An example of where I grew throughout this project was the Roe vs. Wade case. In my first draft, I included a paragraph explaining the Roe vs Wade case and how it pertained to Planned Parenthood. However, I then realized that the main topic of my op-ed was relating to what would happen if Planned Parenthood was defunded, it wasn't necessarily on the topic of abortion. In the end, to add more clarity to the message and purpose of my op-ed, I decided to cut that paragraph out in order to gain more space to talk more about the true effects of defunding Planned Parenthood.
PROJECT PIECE ARTIST STATEMENT
For my art piece, I decided to do a political campaign poster. I chose to do this because I thought it would be the visual piece that would provide the most effective form of communication. I decided to create a painting of a woman, covering herself, feeling perpetrated by society. She is surrounded by darkness, her body is illuminated by an invisible light. However, she is surrounded by a ribbon of pink, representing Planned Parenthood. The darkness surrounding her represents the threats of society, including health threats such as cancer, STD's, endometriosis, UTI's, Infertility, and many others. I wanted it to be prevalent that Planned Parenthood is offering protection from the terrors of these health threats. On the sides, there are words representing these health threats and what Planned Parenthood can help to prevent. The woman is cowering, in a state of despair and sadness, scared of the outside world. She is worrying about her protection being taken away by the darkness, the threats of society. I tried to use pathos to evoke an emotional response because, in my experience, emotional reactions tend to make the most difference in peoples' decisions.
I used pathos in the woman. She has a stance, a presence that evokes sadness. Cowering in a state of darkness, of despair - a provoking image to provoke a response. I also incorporated Logos by writing, on the sides, the things that Planned Parenthood offers services for: cancer, STDs, programs for affordable health care. This added a component of logic: why would you sacrifice all of these services for the benefit of removing a service that you are morally against - that is also only 3% of the organization and is not federally funded?
The tone of my painting is dark. I wanted my opinion to be prevalent, that denying Planned Parenthood funding, would put women in a situation of despair, where they would always have to worry about their health. The colors are dull, except for the bright pink ribbon that encompasses the woman and the sides of the canvas. The tone is also shown through the symbolism, as I mentioned above. The message is strong and powerful, yet it is melancholy, a message that should provoke sadness and emotion and I wanted a tone that would do the same.
I decided to emphasize the woman because I wanted her to be the focal point of the painting. She was the message, she was representing the millions of women in the US that depend upon Planned Parenthood for their health, for their lives. I also decided to wrap her in a ribbon of Planned Parenthood's colors because, not only did I think that it would be artistic, I thought that it would help to create a more deviant effect when it comes to what people see when they look at the painting. It would also do more to get the message across. There is a clear difference between the woman, who is encompassed in a ribbon of pink, and the darkness that surrounds her. I also decided to add words around the edges in order to add logos to the painting, not only deciding to evoke an emotional reaction, but a factual one as well.
I am very proud with how my poster came out (final product). I feel that, with the amount of time that I had available, I was able to create a beautiful product that effectively communicated my opinion on the subject matter at hand, i.e. Planned Parenthood. During the time that I was given, I worked studiously to put together a product that not only I would be proud of, but that would capture the audience's attention, to stand out. I used my knowledge of the moral philosophies and ethos, logos, and pathos to incorporate elements from logos and pathos into my art piece. Overall, I believe that my painting captured the tone of sadness and despair that I relate to the issue of Planned Parenthood, as I have explained extensively above. In the slideshow above, you can see the process of my painting and what I did to increase refinement and overall professionalism of my piece. I did want to add more refinement in the sense of clarity and overall meaning, however, I feel that I was able to create a meaningful piece of work that correlated with my thesis.
PERSONAL GROWTH AND PERSPECTIVE
Throughout this project, I have had the pleasure of learning how to formulate an opinion or perspective on a moral/political dilemma. Through researching and understanding multiple moral philosophies and philosophers, I was able to develop my own moral standards, greatly helping me in the formation of my perspective on the Planned Parenthood issue. I have learned that you have to formulate your ideas while considering the opposite side and their moral beliefs, you don't want to deliberately attack one side, but rather, work with them and then kindly show how your views differ. You want to make sure that you have sufficient amounts of evidence to back up your claim and voice your perspective with confidence.
I think learning about the art of rhetoric greatly influenced both how I expressed my beliefs and how I consumed others. I think that in a way, rhetoric made me more open to other beliefs. I found that I could understand where they were coming from, why they were acting in the way that they were. I made me realize that everyone, because of their beliefs, are fighting for what they think is morally right. It also made me realize, that in order to create a persuasive piece of writing, I have to appeal to both audiences and not just focus on one argument, but as the writer, understand the opposing side, and then try to get them to understand my perspective, not through force, but rather through appreciation.
The content that most shaped me, I believe, was the moral philosophers. Seeing their work, and where their moral standards came from inspired me to do the same. Pick a topic where I see moral injustice being done and voice my claim against it. I believe the moral philosophers, specifically Martin Luther King Jr. especially influenced my openness to other beliefs. Martin Luther King worked in ways that were peaceful, along with Ghandi. They both respected other beliefs, but still worked to fix unmoral practices.
I have learned to respect their beliefs and listen to them. I find that this tactic works best because if I listen to them, they are more likely to listen to me when I express what I believe. This also allows me to be aware of their beliefs and gives me a chance to share less offending information before partaking in complete conversations with them. It is important to grab their attention, don't offend, but create a mutual understanding where there isn't so much arguing, but rather an environment where each person can respect the others beliefs. I find that when trying to get someone to understand your perspective and why you hold that perspective, that it is best if you back your claim with sufficient evidence and you don't directly or indirectly insult them or their beliefs. Even though some of the beliefs expressed on exhibition night were the complete opposite of what I believe, I was able to, remembering what I had learned throughout this semester, retain that debater side of me, and understand where they were coming from and then retaliate with my argument.
I think that the most challenging part of this project is that I am a very opinionated person. I know what I believe and I don't like others forcing their beliefs upon me or others. I find it sometimes aggravating when suddenly I'm in a position where I am being berated for what I believe in, even though I work hard to respect other beliefs. However, this project helped me to open up. A mandatory requirement for this project was that we had to interview someone, either who had the same beliefs or the complete opposite. I decided to step outside of my comfort zone and interview Tory Aggeler, a local conservative. When I took the political identity test, I tested 'solid liberal'. See where this was headed? However, during the interview I worked on my communication skills. I did become somewhat discomforted by what he was saying, however, instead of retaliating with my own beliefs, I asked him questions that would provoke critical thinking and analysis of his own views. Going back to being an opinionated person, I found that when I conducted this interview, I became more open to other opinions. I was able to connect and understand where Tory was coming from. Even though I did not completely agree with his stance on Planned Parenthood, I was able to connect with him on a personal level. We were both arguing for what we thought was morally right. I found that I could be open to hearing other opinions and relating with them, I found that my opinions could change and I could develop my perspective by pulling ideas or disagreements from other opinions.
Draft - Ashley's Critiques
Final Draft
Writing growth
a) After going through my essay with Ashley, we were able to distinctly pick out challenges that I could work to improve. One of these challenges was being too wordy. Throughout my essay, there were numerous run on sentences. An example of my wordiness in my essay is : "Through Thoreau’s actions and moral development as a character, Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee are able to generate a persuasive piece of writing that displays clever techniques used to revolt against morally unjustifiable actions, further teaching future generations Thoreau’s methodology and approach towards individual righteousness". Here is how I would rephrase this sentence to be more clear and concise: "Thoreau's actions taught many valuable lessons including his views on individuality, self-reliance, education purposes, and being versus living in order to reach a higher standard of individual righteousness".
b) I also have to make sure that my thesis is clear and concise and pertains to my three paragraphs. In my first draft, my thesis was too wordy and hard to follow. Also, it didn't complete the task of outlining my essay as you can see through my writing, "Through Thoreau’s actions and moral development as a character, Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee are able to generate a persuasive piece of writing that displays clever techniques used to revolt against morally unjustifiable actions, further teaching future generations Thoreau’s methodology and approach towards individual righteousness". To make the thesis sound more professional and well-developed, I need to specify my main topics, and clearly state my key ideas, for example, separate from the one above: "Thoreau expressed his opinions in the play 'The Night Thoreau Spent In Jail' through his arguments for individuality, self-reliance, education purposes, and being versus living to ultimately reach a higher standard of individual righteousness". My first body paragraph will talk about individuality and self reliance. My second body paragraph will talk about the education system and Thoreau's perspective on it, and finally, my third body paragraph will talk about Thoreau's ideologies on the subject of being vs. living.
c) Another thing that I have to work on in order to grow in my writing skills is concluding my essay. I tend to go off topic in the final paragraph and don't end the essay to the best of my ability. As you can see through my writing, "Don’t let yourself cease to exist, be different, embrace the qualities that make you an individual. Thoreau continues, today even, to inspire generations to revolt against morally unjust situations and to build upon their individualistic beliefs to become the better individual". I do not summarize my thoughts here, I go off on a philosophical rant and try to target the reader as an individual. Even though I still want to do that, I have to make sure that all my points are included in my conclusion,"Thoreau's ideologies have inspired many generations to embrace the qualities that make you an individual, the curiosity of education, and finally, that nothing is to be prized more highly than the value of each day". Through this process, I was able to condense my ideas into a sophisticated and clear summarizing statement.
Below is my original draft of my essay:
Voices from the animas
For this project I interviewed biologist and previous fisheries technician, Jacqueline Boudreau. She is currently residing in Maine, but she participated in work with the Animas River in the past. I was interested to see what her environmentalist perspective on this issue was. I know she is very passionate about the environment and the river in our community and it was definitely interesting to hear her analysis of this incident. I published my interview on Story Corps, which is a collection of stories about everyday life and the issues present in the world. To hear my interview with Jackie, please click here.
Seminar Pre-Write
'Voices from the Animas' Project Reflection