Assessment Criteria for the Persuasively Informative Essay

In a good essay, an author should:

• Write about a relevant topic
• Keep the reader's attention
  
• State facts and citations to support his ideas/argument
• Express trustworthiness, sincerity, and reliability to the reader
  
• Write an essay that possesses clarity in persuasiveness and informativeness
  
• Write a story that the audience would be able to relate to
  
• Include his readers on his process of discovery that led him to write on the topic
• Always be thorough
• Initiate action and be a catalyst for change in the lives of his readers
• Efficiently do something with the text

Properties of The Essay

What makes an essay an essay? What separates it from poetry, articles, and short stories? What qualities stand up from the page on which they were sitting and inform us that we are, indeed, reading an essay?
It seems that essays are whatever all other structured types of writing aren't. It is writing without regulation. Essays are whatever the writer decides they are. There is no power dictating standards and stipulations. Anarchy on paper..?
I've never viewed essays in this light. I very much related to the author who referenced essays as something adults dread, remembering them as the endless writing and reading assignments we were given when we were younger. We were instructed to write on specific topics within certain guidelines and deadlines...but essays should be much more natural than what they were to us then.
I think, most of all, the essay needs to be heartfelt, genuine, and relaxed like a casual coffee conversation. Essays should flow out of our mouths and into our ears with ease. I need to be sure to pay attention to this foundation of the essay. Sometimes I can be too forceful in my writing; I tell myself that if I exert enough effort, I can force something into being a good essay. The evolution of essays takes grace, patience, and time. I don't want to hurriedly express myself, I want to leisurely savor every sentence as I direct my reader's attention to where my pen is about to press. I aim to capture my reader's attention, I want to present them with something that they can relate to and understand better due to my input and perspective.
Furthermore, my audience should sense that I care about my topic and that parts of who I am have been intertwined into the heart of that matter. I want my passion to be contagious so that I might possibly inspire someone to tilt their heads and think about what I mean.
I'm not sure what role imagination has with the type of essay I am working on, but I will wait and see how the incorporation of a little creativity evolves... this part of my essay goals may likely be abandoned.
Another part of my essay that I need to improve on is exploring opposing viewpoints so that my writing can be well-rounded. Maybe this calls for a few last-minute interviews of random people on my hall? We'll see.

There is much work to be done!

"Start By Getting Something--Anything"

"Shitty First Drafts" ....such a helpful essay! I feel really comforted by the fact that I am not the only one to endlessly stare at an empty, white page on my computer screen with twitching fingers and furrowed brow, and, hours later, still have no idea of where to begin becoming an author. Someone else, a professional writer no less, understands the feelings of frustration that writing can induce. Creating a piece of writing from nothing into something that inspires, instructs, declares, defines, describes, summarizes, equips, analyzes, compares, contrasts, narrates, or criticizes does not spontaneously happen for me. I thought that experts, who are much better at writing than myself, were capable of neatly writing out everything, revising a little, and then having a perfectly complete essay. But no, Anne Lamott reminded me that is not at all true. :)
I have never been one to write official drafts...my writing tends to just evolve from a rough sketch of my ideas to a (hopefully) complete work, typically all in one sitting. I have not never thought about writing out everything that I can think of, everything that I can turn from thoughts into text, and cut and paste that into an acknowledged "shitty first draft." If I did things that way, I could allow myself a transition from nothing to anything, and then from anything to something, and then from something to meaning. Accepting imperfection in my writing is a novel idea to me, and I think that is going to allow me to be much more at ease and flexible as I sit down to write my first "shitty first draft" for tomorrow's homework. I think my writing will improve by employing this transitional approach, and I think I will use this technique for future writing projects.

Purpose and Audience

The purpose of my essay will be to persuade my readers of the relevance and importance of becoming more familiar with the Islamic community. The tone of my essay will not be very entertaining, as we talked about in class, but most certainly informative. I consider this subject more serious than lighthearted, so I don't think my audience would appreciate a humorous satire about Islam. My audience most likely already knows how they feel about Muslims, so my goal is to change how many of them view this faith group. I intend to incorporate logos as well as pathos in my writing to help convince my audience of my perspective.
I'm honestly still mulling over my intended audience. Originally, my audience was 1. people who have never heard of or have little knowledge about the topic, and 2. people who know inaccurate facts about the topic. That's all well and good, but that is a really broad audience. Though that list still applies, I want to narrow it down. I talked to Professor Grete about it today in class and, as always, she was really helpful and gave me some great things to think about. I have a better idea of how I want to structure my essay now since I'm changing the way I'm viewing my possible readers. I think that as I contemplate my "Shitty First Draft" over the weekend my plans about what readers I am gearing my essay toward will continue to evolve, and I will have a good plan of action by the time I write my first draft.

Have a great weekend! I'm off to North Carolina for the next two days!

A Shout Out to Kayvan:

Kayvan tells the truth! I agree with him in that the library is a super valuable resource...
I had to watch a VHS for extra credit in one of my classes the other day, and I was bummed because I thought I wouldn't be able to watch it. Really, who has a VHS player these days, let alone in college? I asked around if anyone had any ideas, but I had no success. No VHS player, no extra credit. So what does my RA say? They have VHS players at the library. They have this convenient little VHS/DVD/TV setup right there on the second floor near the reception desk -where a lot of us took our Library Tour quiz. I don't know about anyone else, but I had no idea they offered that, and I was stoked. Yes VHS player, yes extra credit! After I watched the video (which was boring as all get out, by the way), I walked around the library and found a good nook for attacking my many reading assignments. No one bothered me. Amazing.
Stupid story, but the moral is: Kayvan is quite right by saying that the library's research databases are amazingly "Godlike", and I must add that this statement is true of pretty much the entire library!

Make-A-Wish Foundation

Who is it that is doing their research project on the Make-A-Wish foundation..? There is a group on Facebook advertising that Make-A-Wish is having a meeting for prospective volunteers who want to help out with MAW's many fund-raising activities on the Virginia Tech campus... Firstly, it's a good thing for all of us to know about, so I decided to post this for everyone to see. Secondly, I thought this might be a good experience for my fellow classmate to have as they do their research.
Here's the info and the link:
November 5, 2008
Squires Brush Mt B room
@ 8:30 pm
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=29068734773

Today's Class

I won't lie, I was really bummed to see on our course outline that our essays would be reviewed by the entire class today. Why? Because I knew that mine sucked! I spent most of our allotted time pursuing my topic from an angle that was uncharacteristic of my writing.... with no time to spare, I hesitated and started over! Bad move. So I rapidly wrote a really bad essay. I'm just glad that we won't have to do that for our upcoming graded essay; timed writing is not my cup of tea. But I guess it's good that I'm doing it, so that I can practice and get better!

After reviewing everyone's essays, our class discussed what constitutes a good essay. Here's the things we thought were important:

• Introduction
  
  • The introduction defines the reason the author is writing about the topic, the reason why the reader should continue to read, and it transitions the audience into hearing the meat of the topic.
• Captivating/Interesting
  
  • The reader is often impatient to understand what the writer is communicating, so the author of the essay must be efficient in capturing his audience's attention before they move on to something else.
• Good Structure
  
  • An essay needs understandable, logical organization and transition of ideas.
    
• Main Point
  
  • An essay should not be comprised of only facts and figures; it should have a purposeful main point for the ideas being passed on, along with some character mixed in.
• Informative
  
  • The author should give his readers good, factual information so that the audience can effectively learn from the essay.
• Conclusion
  
  • The conclusion summarizes the main idea, possibly expounds on what the author wants you to do with their argument/ideas/etc., and reiterates what the writer wants the reader to take away from their perspective.
• Legible
  
  • If handwritten, an essay is kinda sorta worthless if it is written in the foreign language of Chicken Scratch.

That's what we think is important!

Seriously...I love my English professor!

I knew that my research proposal would come back with a lot of critiques, but I had no idea of how much input Professor Grete would give me! I've never had a teacher put as much effort into helping me improve my work as Professor Grete has. Her feedback was really constructive, and I now have a much better idea of how I should make my proposal better. I understand the purpose of my proposal better, and I feel more capable of providing more clarity in it. I have a lot of work to do, but I'm actually looking forward to revising it!

Reviewing "The Stunt Pilot" and "Ali in Havana"

The Stunt Pilot
"Idly, paying scant attention, I saw a medium-sized, rugged man dressed in brown leather, all begoggled, climb in a black biplane's open cockpit. The plane was a Bucker Jungman, built in the thirties. I saw a tall, dark-haired woman seize a propeller tip at the plane's nose and yank it down till the engine caught..." I really enjoyed the way Annie Dillard expressed herself in this essay. This paragraph stood out to me as a good example of why I appreciated her style. "Idly, paying scant attention..." At first, I thought that these phrases were awfully similar and possibly on the repetitive side, but after I thought about it, they were coupled together in a way that gave a great look into what was going on in the scene the author so effortlessly described. I can just picture the narrator bouncing on her toes, arms crossed, relaxingly looking on as they air show began. The author overall does a great job of painting pictures with words without hefting around gaudy sentences with too many commas. (Have you noticed how that tends to happen? I overuse commas like it's my job!) I can learn a lot from the way this author describes things. The other thing that I like about Annie is that she uses really great action verbs, for example, "seize." Perfect, brief imagery.
I think one of the bigger lessons that I learned from Annie Dillard's writing was that she told the reader what to think without doing so obviously, it was subtle. At the very beginning, she inspired my imagination by seamlessly showing me the setting's surroundings, the situation's background, the weather, my attitude, even the texture of the ground I'm standing on as I'm leaning my neck back to watch the white streaks of an airplane cross the sky. Streaks which I've now been convinced are as artistic and unique as Picasso....and I definitely wouldn't have thought that before. As the essay continues, the author details her plane ride with Dave Rahm, detailing even the look of the snow she glimpsed at upside-down, mid-flight. Her description convincingly gives clarity and reality to her story.

Ali in Havana
The second essay that I read, "Ali in Havana," was interesting. It was humorous as well as strange, in a peculiar sort of way. I personally didn't like it as much as "The Stunt Pilot," but it was just a different type of essay, and a solid one, to be sure. I loved how the author, Gay Talese, described each character and setting in such a manner that the audience felt physically connected to what was happening on each page. The author allowed the readers to feel as though they had personally known each individual in the essay and he gave them the ability to see, feel, and even smell the environment of each scene. Talese described the bus ride by pointing out exactly where everyone sat, noting that the air in the bus was (fortunately for some, unfortunately for others) filled with "a costly cloud of fragrance" from the smoke of an expensive Cuban cigar, and also gave glimpses into some peoples' attitudes during the trip. I also liked that the author so uniquely compared the life of Muhammad Ali and Fidel Castro, something that is not at all readily apparent. He informs the reader and broadens their perspective.

I think what makes these writings "essays" is that they captivate, they inform, they entertain, they invoke curiosity and then satisfy that curiosity.... They tell a story with a purpose.

Help?

I am doing my assignment for Monday, and I can't seem to find "Silent Dancing." I searched for the book on Google Books, and I found it, but the book is not all inclusive. The book preview stops at page 67. Am I looking in the wrong place? ....and am I the only one having this problem?

:-/

Woo!

I'm sending off the draft of my research proposal right now!
...I hope it's okay!

Rewriting

What's your project?
My project is to investigate the rift between Islam and the secular world and research how that gap is being intentionally bridged. I am also seeking to build knowledge of Islam in those that do not understand it.

What works?
I think I have a passionate goal, and I have a lot of information to build on....almost too much information, to be honest.

What else might be said?/How might you acknowledge other views and possibilities?
One could say that I should leave well enough alone. They might believe that Islam is something that does not affect the "Average Joe," and that a lot of people have no desire to learn more about this community. Thus, I would be wasting my time by trying to raise awareness of this faith group.

What's next?
The implications of my perspective state that people need to be more tolerant of neighboring religious groups, i.e. Islam, and they must be more proactive in understanding the world around them.

Literature Review - Muslim Communities

How do Muslims adapt to a culture outside of their own community?

There is a population of about 6 million Muslims residing in America. France has a population of roughly 3.7 million Muslims within her borders. The United Kingdom counts nearly 1.6 million. These Muslims are respectively "American", "French", and "British"; but do they embrace this title? Do they cling to their heritage as Muslims and reject the West's often drastically different culture? Some Muslims feel very threatened in the irreligious society, whereas others feel perfectly comfortable in it. They have some different customs, but, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, about 63% of Muslim Americans feel that they can synthesize their thoroughly Muslim life with the more secular customs of the US. Some Islamic individuals, however, feel as if they will never truly fit into a foreign culture, whether that is self-induced, or imposed by peers.

Muslims of the West and those of more traditionally Muslim areas tend to show great variance in their daily lives. Conventional, religious lines of black and white shift to gray as the years and miles increase away from traditional Islam. Living in such a different world, many Muslims have adapted their faith to fit the respective culture of the West. They have melded into being flexible in their standards and obligations in order to coalesce more naturally into a different lifestyle. Still others, adhering tightly to custom, reject any close connection to the life and community of outside nations and have no intention of becoming a part of others' society. They are content to remain on the outskirts of outsiders' perspectives and communities, remembering that their authentic home is in the heart and with the people of the Holy Land.

Just as in any other religion that one might encounter, questions regarding certain specifics of Islamic doctrine depend on who you ask. Some more orthodox Muslims might tell you that the hijab, for example, is an absolutely mandatory expression of the Muslim identity. A woman rejecting this exterior sign of dedication to her faith commits sin, and in some places her decision could be viewed as rebellion and might affect her well-being. The inverse of that, though, is a woman who feels it is her deserved right to decide whether she will accept the traditional use of the hijab. Another scenario is that a woman may feel threatened when wearing the veil in public, and thus, she separates from it. Many imams and other leaders of the Islamic faith have no argument against this, but again, others do not accept it.
Living in the secular culture has brought unique challenges to Muslims. Situations that Islam has never dealt with often occur in the different environments that Muslims are continuing to find themselves in. Nieman Reports expresses this situation occurring in America:

"In Muslim countries, imams lead the five daily prayers and deliver the Friday sermon. When they are recruited to American mosques--for their Islamic expertise--they end up filling many unfamiliar roles. They become marriage counselors, Islamic judges, matchmakers and Qur'an school principals. They broker business disputes, grant divorces, and often deal with the FBI. For none of this are they prepared. And as they take on these new roles, they often find themselves rethinking Islamic law in the context of American needs."

Tradition is fusing with culture worldwide to create a different kind of Islamic community for Muslims.


Bibliography:

• Forecasting the future of islam; Visiting expert sees renaissance of islamic culture. (2008, April 19). The Ottawa Citizen, p. A10.
• Muslims in america: in this together. (2007, May 28). Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p. B5.
• Elliott, A (2007, Jue 22). Muslims in america: creating a new beat. Nieman Reports, 61, 2, 55.
• Between faith and country: Muslims in america (2006, September 11) NPR:Morning Edition
• (2008). Islam in france. Retrieved September 28, 2008, from Wikipedia Web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_France#References
• (2008). Demography of the united kingdom. Retrieved September 28, 2008, from Wikipedia Web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_Kingdom#Religion

About the empty seat...

I missed class on Friday. I wish that our bodies were invincible... Had mine been, I would have been in class, as always. Since I am not superwoman, I unfortunately missed out. I have a few people filling me in on what we did, but if you'd like to pass on anything additionally helpful, that would be very much appreciated! :)

My New Favorite Thing

Pandora Radio!!

http://www.pandora.com/

This is the Coolest Thing Ever!

Like many other people living under an eroding ozone layer, I am distressed by the amount of styrofoam (among many other non-degradable products) that is carelessly put into our environment on a daily basis. Granted, often times our waste production is not careless, but more like choice-less. I know I feel so guilty when I have no option but to dispose of things improperly. For example, here at Virginia Tech, there is no specified container for styrofoam waste. That's not just here, though, recycling centers are inaccessible all over the place.
Approximate number of recycling centers in the USA, per state.

So, I am always interested in learning of new ways we humans are learning to clean up after ourselves... Check this website out!
"Using Oranges for Styrofoam Recycling"
This site tells of a scientific breakthrough that the Sony Research Center has discovered.

Another super cool, environment-friendly idea...



That's all for now. Happy weekend!

Interviews and Site Visits

Our assignment is to research communities of our choice...and so far we've implemented that with site visits and interviews.

A week or two ago, I contacted the Virginia Tech's Muslim Student Association and discussed my research project with their Community Liaison. I explained the Honors English class that I am taking, and why I am interested in researching the Islamic community. He was extremely welcoming and was very eager to allow me to observe and interact with their group.

Ramadan is taking place this month, so the timing of that event and my project have been very convenient. Mr. Amine, the Community Liaison, invited me to join the MSA as they broke their fast in one of their daily Iftars. I gratefully accepted his offer, and went to an Iftar last Thursday. I think it was a valuable experience to be able to take part in the Iftar; I would have had many
more questions about it had I not gone and gotten a taste of it myself.

At the Iftar, I sat with my notebook and inconspicuously observed the actions of my new Muslim acquaintances. After filling his own plate, the gentleman that I had previsouly spoken to by email
came and sat down with me, so did the President of the MSA. We chatted for a few minutes talking about all sorts of things, spanning from the topics of education to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. I learned new things about the significance of Ramadan, and I also attained a view of his personal perspective of the religious festival.

The second part of our assignment was interviewing people related to our community. I have had great luck with interviews! So far, I have about two hours worth of audio from interviewing Muslims that I met through the MSA. Both on Tuesday and today, I interviewed a man and a woman together. I have spoken with four individuals so far, and there is a possibility for a fifth. I have had great success with these discussions, which have all given me valuable information and points of view that I will be mulling over for some time. I know I learned a lot about Islam, and I think that the people I interviewed learned some things about me and my faith as well. I believe that each party felt it was a good experience overall, and I am satisfied with my results!

(Hopefully the links in this post were helpful, and not annoying.)

Course Goals

What are some things that I, personally, wish to accomplish through this course?

1. I want to learn how to better use English in a concise manner, so that a lot of information is given in as few words as possible. I tend to be very repetitive in my writing. Mainly, I reiterate my words because I try to give as much clarity as possible...but saying things twenty different ways is probably more unhelpful than had I said it one way the first time. I also like to describe things...there are so many different ways to state something, and sometimes I just don't know what is the best way to communicate a certain idea.
   
   
2. I want to discover how creative I can be while maintaining the attention and comprehension of my audience. Now, I do not claim to be creative...that's part of what I mean. I want to learn, or just continue to acquire the knack for how to throw in unique, witty things at the appropriate time and in the right situation.
   
   
3. Introducing and summarizing paragraphs is not a strength of mine. Another weakness is titling papers. This somewhat ties into what I was saying about creativity. I don't want my writing to be bland and predictable; I want to add some character as I open and close a topic, but I want to be confident in knowing that I haven't gone over the top.

Interview Questions

For our project on communities, I will be interviewing a Muslim (or two) from the Muslim Student Association here on the Virginia Tech campus...

Possible Interview Questions:

• Are your parents Muslim?
• Is a person who is born into a Muslim family and raised by Muslim parents considered a Muslim?
• Can anyone convert to Islam?
  
  • Can they do that at any time?
    
• How long have you been a Muslim?
• If you can remember when you converted to Islam, or have done so recently, could you describe how that came about?
  
  • Who or what was the primary influence of your decision?
• Are there things about Islam that you still don't understand?
• How might you describe the Five Pillars of Islam to someone who had never heard of them before?
  
  • What might you tell that same person about Mecca?
  • How would you explain Ramadan to them?
    
  • What about the differences between Sunnis and Shi'ites?
    
    • Why do you think differences like this happen, and what do you think causes them?
      
• What are some words (e.g., adjectives) that you would use to describe Muhammed?
  
  • How might you describe Alláh?
• Is there anything you would like the world to know about Islam?
• What do you like best about your religion, if anything?
  
  • What do you like least, if anything?
• Do you ever feel uncomfortable when discussing your religion, or any religion at all?
• Have you ever encountered a situation in which you met conflict because of your religion?
  
  • If so, what was that situation like?
• Have you noticed a difference in the way that people treat you since your conversion to Islam, or because you are a Muslim?
• Have you noticed a difference in yourself since your conversion to Islam? (What affect has your faith had on your life?)
• How different would your life be without your faith?
  
• How might you describe Islam to a curious Atheist? Agnostic? Christian? Jew?
• What do you think of people in other religions?
• What do you think is the most common misconception about your faith?
• Do you feel your belief system is misrepresented by media, groups, etc.?
• What do you feel your role is, as a Muslim?

....."What in the world is going on here??" ;)


(Please feel free to mention anything that you personally would like to know about Islam, etc., and I can add that to my list!)

Speaking of quotes...

"Lives are not transcriptions of events. They are artful and enduring symbolic constitutions which demand our engagement and identification. They are to be perceived and understood as wholes." -Elliott Oring

This quote from our bi-daily reading assignment struck me. It so elegantly summarizes our purpose in our coming research assignment...and really, what a fantastic synopsis of how we should treat each other in our daily lives. We are all worth each others' attention. We all deserve to be acknowledged and understood by those around us. A life is not something that should be haphazardly represented on paper as just another faceless point of view to give evidence for our one-way perspectives. We are dealing with people, just as we are; people who have experienced things that we might never imagine, things that shaped and molded their character, beliefs, biases, and worldview. We each have something to learn from these lives, it would be impossible for us not to. Later, we will have that same something to pass on to another who is willing to perceive and understand those around them in totality.


See you in class tomorrow. :)

This is bothering me!

...Does anyone know how to indent paragraphs on here?