Writing 10

I had another really productive session yesterday at the writing center. Our tutee wanted some advice on starting off and then structuring her essay on 'maternal identity' based on two books she read in her class. Assignment was an open topic where students were required to select a theme and then form an argumentative thesis. She did have a thesis to start with but she didn't know where to take it from after that. We helped her brainstorm a lot of ideas and she started pulling quotes out of the book that she had read. She also worked her way to connect the ideas we gave her that supported the topic. By the end of it, we had a five paragraph body topics ready. We gave her a few tips on how she could go in a lot of details since the cap on the limit is 10 pages. She scheduled another appointment sometime later this week for proofreading on her way out.

Presentations

The movie we, as a group, are doing for our visual project is Aladdin. I am going to analyze the Marxist perspective and present that in class hopefully on Tuesday. This project really gave me an opportunity to view Aladdin from multiple perspectives. I had never looked into its depth and now it makes me realize that there is a lot more that goes into a movie than what it shows. Also, there is always this notion that critics might be over-analyzing and it seems like this is the case also with some of the controversies of Aladdin. On the other hand, Disney has a habit of mixing inside jokes with hidden symbolic meanings in their movies.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving break is over and as I mentioned a couple weeks earlier, we enter our last stretch before finals now. For some of us, there might be quite a lot of exams/tests/assignments due but the best way to prepare for them is to get a head start from right now. There is still some real time to bump your grades in most of the classes and it should be utilized. If we have a lot of papers, we can definitely start knocking them down one by one. Or, start on them so you're at least thinking about them. There is certainly not much lost in terms of grade in most of our classes and we should really use this time to work on that.

Writing 9

It was a little tough writing session yesterday. Tough in a sense that our tutee had a 15 page paper due that she had only 3 completed. It wasn't due until another two weeks so we weren't at least pressed for time but she was stuck at what more can she talk about. We told her how she has the freedom to go into details and she should really structure her paper by breaking it down into various sub-topics. She did come up with a lot of her ideas about how much more can she talk about that she would usually omit due to lengthiness. She seemed quite satisfied after jotting down the notes for the paper.

Last stretch

After we all come back from Thanksgiving break, it is going to be the last stretch in the academic fall semester of the school year. Last papers, last tests, last quizzes, last assignments before the finals will be due very soon. In our ENG3010 also, we will be working on our last major paper that allows us to select a perspective and analyze a piece of media production. Personally, I know that I would wanna get most of this project done within next two weeks because I don't wanna hold it till the end. This might need some strict organization and a little bit of proof reading, so I wanna allow myself some time to do so. Just like every final exam, this paper is gonna be very critical in determining my grade for this class. Let's see how it goes.

President's Holiday Lighting Celebration

It is going to be President Reid's last Holiday Lighting Celebration on December 5 at 5pm. Large crowd is expected to make it an enjoyable one. Dean of students office also announced that first 150 students will receive a voucher for a Free WSU Knit Cap. WSU students can also enter a free raffle to win an iPod (must be present to win). All attendees are encourage to donate items such as toiletries, canned goods, nonperishables, children's clothing all ages, baby food and items, diapers, adult clothing, shoes and boots. Of course weather permitting, it is going to be an enjoyable evening out. If you can carve time out in your schedule for President Reid's last holiday lighting celebration, please do so!

Media Project

Our upcoming media project due at the end of this month asks us to analyze a news report from multiple perspectives in order to find bias from the media towards the issue. I think it's really something worth looking into because in this day and age of information, quick skimmers of news articles can really get sucked into by reading a quick synopsis of the issue from trusted sources and form an opinion accordingly. Once they recognize what sources to really look for the opinions and what exactly gives them a wider perspective of what to really believe and what to inquire more about. This project will be a good realization of that also.

Writing 7

It was a non-session yesterday at the writing center. I was a little late and by the time I got there, my co-tutor was already coming out. Reason being that he had been sitting idle for some time and no tutee had showed up as per the appointment. Staff at the writing center was gonna shut down and so they asked the tutors to go if we wanted to. Even if the tutee showed up, s/he would be late anyway. So nothing major happened. Personally, I was really enjoying the tutoring sessions and it seems like when it should get extremely busy, that's exactly when we're getting breaks in my sessions at least. Let's hope it will be a good one next week:)

Catch a tiger by the toe

This book provides a very detailed and context-specific account on current affairs of 1950s affecting daily lives, especially if they were politically biased towards a non-governmental ideology, the Communist ideology. In the first 100 pages, we see that Jamie learns a lot of hidden facts about her family and keeps them a secret from her friends to fit into them without any contradictions. It seems like she is confused, in the beginning half of the book, as to what should be her approach in dealing with the society as so many people she knows have been convicted for carrying Communist beliefs. As we continue, we're likely to see Jamie's perspective on dealing with this society and how should she behave with her friends and all.

Writing 6

Yesterday, it was a quick session for us. We had one tutee coming in for slightly over 10 minutes to quickly glance over her paper for grammatical errors. She did have a few questions about the relevance of her paper per the assignment question. She seemed quite satisfied after we skimmed her paper for a few errors. Other than that, since we work the last shift on Monday, the Writing Center closed 15 minutes earlier due to maintenance. All in all, even though if it wasn't a lengthy session with a tutee, it still wasn't bad overall. I think it's just that we've had two really good sessions over the past couple weeks that this one seemed a little irregular.

Hum dekhein ge

In this sad state of affairs and complete chaos within just one person, the whole nation stands at such crossroads that the future seems uncertain infinitely. I don't really have a lot of words but I can say that I would love to have this power and I would hate to abuse it, especially like the way it is being abused now.

All I have to say is perhaps read Faiz's poem once again when it still stands so true to this day that every single line seems falling on one as it has already happened not too long ago.

Hum Dekhain Gay
We shall see
Lazim Hai ke hum Bhi Dekhain Gay
It is necessary that we shall also see
Woh Din ke Jis ka Wadah Hai
That day which has been promised
Jo Loh-e-Azl pe Likha hai
Which is written with God's ink
Hum Dekhain Gay
We shall see

Jab Zulm-o-Sitam ke Koh-e-garaan
When the mountains of cruelty and torture
Ruii ki Tarah Urd Jain Gay
Will fly like pieces of cotton
Hum Mehkumoon ke Paun Talay
Under the feet of the governed
Yeh Dharti Dhard Dhard Dhardkay gi
This earth will quake
Aur Ehl-e-Hukum ke Sar Uper
And over the head of the ruler
Jab Bijli kard Kard Kardke gi
When lightening will thunder
Hum Dekhain Gay
We shall see

Jab Arz-e-Khuda ke kabay se
When from God's Mecca
Sab but Uthwaaiy Jain gay
All the idols will be shattered
Hum Ehl-e-Safa Mardood-e-Haram
Us people standing in the mosque
Masnad pe Bithaaiy jain gay
Will be elevated to a higher platform
Sab Taaj Uchalay jain gay
All the crowns will be tossed
Sab Takht Giraaiy Jain gay
All the thrones will be toppled

Bas Naam rahay Ga Allah ka
Then only God's name will remain
Jo Ghayab Bhi hai Hazir Bhi
Who is both absent and present
Jo nazir bhi hai manzar bhi
Who is both the observer and the view itself
Uthay ga Analhaq ka Naara
When the anthem of truth will be raised
Jo Main bhi Hun aur Tumbhi ho
Who I am and you are as well
Aur Raaj karay gi khalq-e-Khuda
And the people of God will reign
Jo main bhi hun aur tum bhi ho
Who I am and you are as well

Hum Dekhain Gay
We shall see
Lazim Hai ke hum Bhi Dekhain Gay
It is necessary that we shall also see
Hum Dekhain Gay
We shall see

Post-Modernism

In our recent reading of post-modern culture, the point that it brings up is how the popular culture has taken over the classic works of art and literature. It's not like that the classic books and authors lost their value but in the post-modern world, the topic that were explored really did come as a shock to its readers and gained attraction. It broke the cultural barriers somewhat and people started talking about cultural taboos in the open. More discussion lead to further research and more media attention subsequently. As the issues were explored, it gave a green signal to other taboos as well over time. Post-modernism is a theory that has traveled with time to expand and open more possibilities of research topic in arts and literature.

Writing 5

It just keeps getting better and better. We had a very well prepared tutee today who had all her paper constructed very well and required some fine tuning. We worked on better organization, better flow and some grammatical errors. She understood the assignment well it seemed. It was certainly my most enjoying tutoring session. We had only half an hour to go through it but we did skim all of it once at least. We gave her some synonym choices also and pointed out how some of her sentences could be better constructed. She was very responsive to all the comments and had a very positive attitude which made the experience even better. With that said, I really look forward to the next tutoring session.