Assignment 6: Choices

      Orlean used many effective choices in her article. She chose to talk about the background of taxidermy, inserting quotes of the taxidermists, and in general talk about the competition and artwork of taxidermy. As a reader, Orlean’s choices were useful because she supported her topic and purpose well. 

     When someone provides the history of a topic that no one really knows about its valuable because as a reader, I know that my author is knowledgeable about their topic. She provided the history of when taxidermy began, and what made it the way that it is now. Orlean also included how taxidermy may be like in the future, and how it is now for these taxidermists.

     Since Orlean experienced a competition of taxidermy, I think the use of dialogues were to make the readers feel as if they were there to hear the taxidermists talk.  These specific quotes that Orleans caught overhearing made me understand that these taxidermists are serious about sharing their artwork with the world. They know that it may be disturbing to some people, but it is something unique they share and do.

     The choice to talk about the competition of taxidermy is something that I think Orlean used, so she has a topic to talk about.  She tells how taxidermists would do at competitions, and what a taxidermists should posses to become a good one. Her purpose was to inform her audience that taxidermy is a form of artwork people do. Taxidermists makes dead animal to life again, by designing a replica of a specific animal.

Assignment 6

      Susan Orlean is an American journalist and she composed an article call "Lifelike" in an unbiased perspective of her own experience. The competition of taxidermy is the topic of the article through the purpose of informing that taxidermy is an artwork people do.  Orlean wants to provide a matter that people may think it is disturbing, but how it may be useful for the world in certain ways.

      Orlean’s tone is neutral most of the time, but there’s also a serious and shocking tone to the article. She is serious when she wrote, “To be good at taxidermy, you have to be good at sewing, sculpting, painting, and hairdressing, and mostly you have to be a little bit of a zoology nerd." She wants her audience to know that as a taxidermists you need to have some experience.

      In the article, Orlean provided many examples of what a taxidermist does. She seemed to be surprised by one thing that she saw, " One day, I saw him holding a piece of clay while waiting for a seminar to begin, and within thirty seconds or so, without actually paying much attention to it, he had molded the clay into a little mink0like creature." Before this, she stated that people were wondering how this man created a panda when you couldn't kill it. Through this she is connecting with me that she is learning just like everyone else.

      I think Orlean composed this topic as an article because she can expose this topic to the world faster. This may help her achieve her purpose of informing that taxidermy is a work of art and people do it to make people see something that they have not seen before. 

Assignment 5

     The purpose of the article "Lifelike" by Susan Orlean could be about letting people know that taxidermy is a job of art.  People make dead animals back to life again. Her topic is different from her purpose by telling us about taxidermy and focusing on how taxidermy is a job that people do. I think Orlean wanted her audience to appreciate this kind of art that people do. It's not something ordinary that people would think about, but some do have interests to show their artwork to the world.
   
     When I was reading this article I was confuse to what I was going to read about. When I continued reading, it was interesting how this is a job for people.  I mean other than competing, people would do this for a living? Unless I am getting the wrong idea. I still am not clear to what the purpose is about, but I do understand that Orlean is telling us that people enjoy doing this kind of stuff to animals.

Questions:
1) What were your reactions/thoughts about this article?
2) Did you know about taxidermy before when reading this article? Or did you have to look it up?

Standing By CP

     The controlling purpose of this article is to let the readers know that we live in a society that  judge everyone, and complain for any reasons. 

Reflecting on Revision

When I read the first student's essay, it caught my attention right away because it was something that I did not notice.  She said, "people experience those Light Bulb moments" and connected to Sedaris' statement " If my own little mind is nailed shut, why wouldn't theirs be?" (277).  When she compared these in her introduction I thought how that's something that he relate to us readers, and it's okay to be confuse and lost while reading this text.  In her essay I liked how she would talk about specific examples from Sedaris' article, and then talked about her own thoughts.  Here, she makes me as reader connect with her and think about Sedaris' writing choices.  She has good examples to support her controlling purpose, "I was debating on what I thought his purpose was, but then I kind of found it a mixer of both a serious problem and a persuading kind of article," later on she included what made her believe this was the controlling purpose.

After reading this student's essay, I came back to mine making sure that I did explain why I chose the quotes I chose and if my the quotes supported my controlling purpose. I mean I did have examples, but it seems to me that I cannot transition onto my own thoughts.  I feel that if I do, I am not talking about Sedaris' purpose anymore.  I know that I should include my thought of it , but how do I do it.  Hopefully at conference I can get a better understanding of how to write my interpret essay correctly.

My Weekend

Assignment 4: Choices

Since the year of the setting in the article is 2009, the year after we had a president that was a different race.   People were upset, happy or just talked about anything along the topic.  Sedaris probably made the choice to choose a year that was after the election of President Barack Obama because of how it was something that many of us voted for.  This relates to the situation in Sedaris’ article.  It was something that everyone goes through, like how in the airport the delay of flights affected everyone.  Therefore, the choice of the year relates together how it was a time that people were going crazy and complaining about their thoughts.   The question Sedaris asks towards the end of the article is, “But what if this is who we truly are, and the airport’s just a forum that allows us to be our real selves, not just hateful but gloriously so?” (277) this was choice that he made.  He probably chose this question because it makes the audience question themselves.   He makes us think to ourselves about his question.  Overall Sedaris’ choices further his purpose because he makes us readers connect to what’s happening around us that we would do and say such things.

 

 Works Cited

Sedaris, David. "Standing By" First Year Composition Reader. Boston: Pearson, 2011. 275-277.Print

Assignment 4

The year of the setting in "Standing By" is 2009, which was the year after the election of President Barack Obama.  During this time, many people complained and talked about their views.   I think Sedaris’ purpose of this text is to have us readers reflect on what and how we should behave.  Sometimes we all do and say something we didn’t actually meant to say, but said it.  We live in a society that judge and talk about other people at an instant.  Everything affects everyone in one way, but it doesn’t mean we blame another for what happens.  This is one of the reasons that I think motivates him to write this article. 

Daily, everyone judge everyone; walking to class, sitting in a bus, or standing in a line.  We judge and possibly even blame one another for any particular reason that we come up with.  Sedaris probably wants his audience to realize that things happen for a reason, it doesn’t mean that it was the person’s fault next to you or in front of you.  When something happens like what happened in the article, we all do go crazy and complain all we want for whatever reasons.  Time doesn’t stop, it keeps going, but it doesn’t mean we rush.  We should take time to think how we should handle daily situations. 

Sedaris did provide examples in the article how we would get involved in something that we weren’t even supposed to take a part of.  We probably do love being crazy like what Sedaris said and asked, “We’re forever blaming the airline industry for turning us into monsters…But what if this is who we truly are” (277).  We don’t ever say that it’s my fault that I was running late, it was the traffic fault.  I mean sometimes it might be, but if it happen majority of the time then take responsibility.  From this article, I think he wants us readers to know how to handle a situation and think before doing or saying anything.  The form is an article probably to make it short enough to be place somewhere when people are waiting or doing something that would keep them interest.  

 Works Cited

Sedaris, David. "Standing By" First Year Composition Reader. Boston: Pearson, 2011. 275-277.Print

Assignment 3

Sedaris' purpose of composing the story "Standing By" could be that he wants to give the idea of what and how as a society we can be like at any moment.  When one thing has affected society as a whole, everyone will talk about their opinions, or just random things.  Sedaris insert a poem and one part said, "All it takes is one dumb fuck, trigger-happy, with a six-pack and bad aim, to generate the spark that turns the world to flames" (276).  In this part of the poem it is probably referring as I was saying earlier; with just one person's doing it can do a lot to each individual even it’s a good or bad thing.  This could happen anywhere, but in this story it is at an airport.  I think Sedaris chose an airport so he could relate to everyone, just not to a particular ethnicity or age group.

In the story, he raises one good question at the end.  Sedaris asks, “But what if this is who we truly are, and the airport’s just a forum that allows us to be our real selves, not just hateful but gloriously so?” (277)  to me this question gives the idea that we should know we do live in a world that we try to fit in.  It’s the environment and people we are surrounded with that makes who we are as individuals.  We become our real selves when something happens to us that makes us realize we do want to say and do something about what is being said or done.  He gives an example of when something like this happens, “Somethings’s said by a stranger I’ve been randomly thrown into contact with, and I want to say” (276).  From here, I see that this does happen.  For example, something like this can happen in an elevator.  Everyone would be quiet, but sometimes there is just one person or something that makes everyone in the elevator talks.

Sedaris raise ideas that we can relate to when we read from his texts.  “…When the voice over the P.A. system asked Adolf Hitler to pick up a white courtesy phone. Did I hear that correctly? I remember thinking. IT’s hard to imagine anyone calling their son Adolf Hitler” (277) the moment someone hears Adolf Hitler, horrible things come to mind.  He raises the idea that there are certain things when we hear or see we react differently. Depending what it is, the atmosphere can instantly feel the negativity or the positive.  Sedaris raises another idea of what we do, we judge.  “The little girl’s skirt was a red-and-white check, and the matched ribbon that banded her straw hat. Her brother was wearing a shirt and tie. It was a clip-on, but, still, it made him and his sister the best-dressed people in line” (276).  We judge at what people wear, look like and probably even how they act.  This idea is to show us that we do it, so we shouldn’t be denying it. 

When I was reading this text, I think Sedaris wants us readers to feel that he is talking about society.  We become someone or say something that we don’t even think about.  Sedaris mentions, “We’re forever blaming the airline industry for turning us into monsters: it’s the fault of the ticket agents, the baggage handlers, the slowpokes at the newsstands and the fast-food restaurants” (277).  From this statement, I think Sedaris’s purpose is how majority do not understand that with the negative or the positive things that happen.  We are always blaming someone, and not thinking about how we should really react to a situation.  

Works Cited 

Sedaris, David. "Standing By" First Year Composition Reader. Boston: Pearson, 2011. 275-277. Print.

1) Is this a story or article?

2) What would a reader take out of this text?