tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83794465196631427232024-03-08T07:38:17.695-08:00TD English 102Tyler Diedrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11837418477412187089noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8379446519663142723.post-52528461129938298402011-11-29T00:50:00.000-08:002011-11-29T00:50:16.129-08:00Reflective Essay<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/> <w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/> <w:OverrideTableStyleHps/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Reflective Essay</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The main purpose of writing a research paper, even if it’s not done in an obvious way is to use a central idea to hopefully support a thesis statement about a certain topic. In my case, when writing my first draft, the use of a rather general research question without an opinion or viewpoint toward my topic turned out to be a setback. My original research question was “How is rap music portrayed in America?” My thinking when choosing a neutral question as so was that my paper then wouldn’t become too opinionated and I wouldn’t start assuming things (forcing me to cite statements). This did turn out to be true, because in my first draft I was able to incorporate articles with different perspectives of rap music into my paper. Also, I wouldn’t be as likely to write a persuasive essay, instead of a research essay. However, after my first draft was done, I realized that I needed to connect the different parts of my paper together so that it all flowed well. The easiest way to do this seemed to be by incorporating a little more personal emotion into the essay, which goes back to the main research question that provides the theme of the whole paper.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The biggest problems with using such a general question was that I felt my feelings toward the topic weren’t being expressed enough in the paper and it was too hard to focus on just a few aspects of the topic, instead of many. I ended up changing my research question to “Why is rap music generally portrayed as negative in America, especially in the older generation of today?” With a more opinionated question, I found it much easier to focus on the central idea that I wanted to get across in my essay. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">As an avid rap music listener myself, I feel there is a problem with the way rap music is viewed in America, especially among adults, which is the main reason I chose to write about this topic. I wanted to expose both the good and bad aspects of rap music, but at the same time convince that there is more “good” in rap without straight-up saying that was what I was doing. Using rap music in comparison to other genres, and showing the similarities between them, is very effective in showing it shouldn’t be seen as so “bad.” I think the main problem with people’s negative views of rap is they usually have very little knowledge of the genre. Like anything else, it’s pretty easy to form negative opinions about something when you know little about the topic. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A majority of today’s adult population didn’t grow up listening to rap music which could be the main reason as to why many are quick to make decisions about rap, without knowing much about it. By providing information that supports rap music and gives reasoning for its content in my essay I hope to influence perception some adult’s perceptions, at least a little. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The hardest part of researching for me was narrowing down my searching and the topics in my paper to just a few, instead of many. Being so interested in rap really made it hard for me to stay on track and stick to my research question/ central idea. I always found myself researching things about rap that didn’t actually relate to my question. This resulted in a paper that had good ideas without significance, or at least proven significance. However, after changing up my research question, I found it much easier to research only things that could help answer my question, instead of random information about rap music that had no significance to my paper and overall idea. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">A majority of the sources I ended up using were scholarly sources, which I think is very important for a topic like this, because trustworthy data is needed to show that rap is in fact portrayed negatively. If I couldn’t prove this, there would be no way to use my research question, considering it’s just an assumption otherwise. One of the most important sources for my paper was "Rap Music and Its Violent Progeny: America's Culture of Violence in Context," by Jeanita Richardson and Kim Scott. The article's intention was to take a different look at rap music/industry from a positive outlook. Its main purpose- to show why rap music shouldn't be seen as just deviant behavior put into words. The belief being that making a negative impression about rap, without understanding its meaning and how it came about is unfair. Richardson and Scott seemed to believe that too many negative attitudes nationwide are directed at rap music, when many other forms of music and media could also be seen as having negative messages. They feel that if put into a rap artist's shoes, many people would better understand the intended theme of the songs. This source was very useful, because its theme was very similar to what I intended my paper’s theme to be.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Another source that was rather useful in my essay was "The Words Have Changed but the Ideology Remains the Same: Misogynistic Lyrics in Rap Music," by Terri Adams and Douglas Fuller. The goal of their article was to show the relationship between misogynistic views in rap music and the overall view of African American women throughout history. They claim that since misogyny emerged in rap music during the 1980s, it has remained a large component of rap in many different ways. Even songs with a title that doesn't relate to women at all sometimes fit misogynistic comments in their songs somewhere. Adams and Fuller claimed that the use of misogyny in rap is what causes 1, many people to have a negative view of rap music, and 2, those who like rap to develop racist or sexist views. This article was very important when writing my own essay, because it provided an opposite viewpoint to balance out my opinion and articles that backed it up. Also, by having a lot of content about misogyny in rap, the article was helpful, because the misogyny topic was very important throughout my essay as well.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">A third significant source for my essay was </span>“<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Controversial Rap Themes, Gender Portrayals and Skin Tone Distortion: A Content Analysis of Rap Music Videos," by Kate Conrad, Travis Dixon, and Yuanyuan Zhang. Its main purpose was to analyze rap music videos and show how they affect people's overall portrayal of rap music. They provided both negative and positive themes found within rap music and use them to figure out the relation of music video content to listener's perception. By using rap music videos to analyze the portrayal of rap, this article provided me with a whole new topic I probably wouldn’t have otherwise considered. I think it added a lot to my paper, by looking at songs from a perspective besides the lyrics. You know what they say, “a picture is worth a thousand words.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The sources I chose to use and the feedback I received through the drafting process were really what ended up shaping my paper. Without sources to back up my research question, there isn’t really anyway to write about the question. Luckily, it wasn’t too difficult to find sources that related to my question. By using my peer’s feedback, I was able to determine what it was that most readers wanted to hear when reading a paper with my topic. Knowing what a reader wants to read about when writing a paper makes it much easier to decide what and what not to write.</span></div>Tyler Diedrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11837418477412187089noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8379446519663142723.post-42199290803619616152011-11-07T21:36:00.000-08:002011-11-07T21:36:49.733-08:00Working with First Draft<b><u>Part 1:</u></b><br />
In my first draft, I had three problems citation wise:<br />
<br />
<ol><li>To cite sources with 2 or more authors in my paper, I can just write the first author's last name and then "et al," instead of all the names. For example, instead of (Adams, Fuller 939), I'd write (Adams et al, 939).</li>
<li>In areas I used blocked quotes, I need to write what source and/or who wrote it before the quote. </li>
<li>On the works cited page, I need to italicize the journals or other larger texts that my articles came from.</li>
</ol><div><b><u>Part 2:</u></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">Adams, Terri, and Douglas Fuller. "The Words Have Changed but the Ideology Remains the </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">Same: Misogynistic Lyrics in Rap Music."</span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">Journal of Black Studies</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">, 36.6 (2006): 938-</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">957.</span></div><div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">1.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Perspective: Music as Misogynistic</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Their quotes in my paper exploit the various ways misogyny is used in not only rap music, but many genres. It provides data that shows why some people view rap negatively and proves rap isn't the only genre with misogyny.</span></li>
</ul></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">Conrad, Kate, Travis Dixon, and Yuanyuan Zhang. "Controversial Rap Themes, Gender </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">Portrayals and Skin Tone Distortion: A Content Analysis of Rap Music Videos." </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">, 53.1 (2009): 134-156.</span></div><div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">2.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Perspective: Rap music videos</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Analyzes rap music in relation to their music videos, showing the connection between sound and image. This shows how people's portrayal of rap is affected by music videos. </span></li>
</ul></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">Fried, Carrie. "Who's Afraid of Rap: Differential Reactions to Music Lyrics." </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">Journal of Applied Social Psychology</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">, 29.4 (1999): 705-721.</span></div><div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">3.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Perspective: women/ rap in relation to other genres</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">The article provided a lot of comparison between rap and other music genres, allowing me to prove that rap isn't the only genre with negative themes and content. </span></li>
</ul></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">Herd, Denise. "Changing Images of Violence in Rap Music Lyrics: 1979-1997." </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">Journal of Public Health Policy</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">, 30.4 (2009): 395-406.</span></div><div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">4.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Perspective: women/ changing image of rap over time</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Using this source, I could to break rap into decades (up through the 90s at least), then allowing me to show the change that occurred in its portrayal.</span></li>
</ul></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">Richardson, Jeanita, and Kim Scott. "Rap Music and Its Violent Progeny: America's Culture of </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">Violence in Context." </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">The Journal of Negro Education</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">, 71.3 (2002): 175-192.</span></div><div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">5.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Perspective: violence</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">By raising the issues that America itself promotes a culture of violence and violence in media can effect youth's actions, I was able to make conclusions about music and media as a whole in relation to public violence.</span></li>
</ul></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">Sullivan, Rachel. "Rap and Race: It's Got a Nice Beat, but What About the Message?." </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">Journal of Black Studies</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">, 33.5 (2003): 605-622.</span></div><div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">6.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Perspective: rap as negative</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Showed the reasoning as to why some people view rap negatively, mostly using lyrical content.</span></li>
</ul></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">Trapp, Erin. "The Push and Pull of Hip-Hop: A Social Movement Analysis." </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">American Behavioral Scientist</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">, 48.11 (2005): 1482-1495.</span></div><div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">7.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Perspective: specific/ theoretical </span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">I mostly used this source compare Tupac and Queen Latifah, and show how two similar artists with similar messages were portrayed differently.</span></li>
</ul></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">Tyson, Edgar. "Rap-music Attitude and Perception Scale: A Validation Study." </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">Research on Social Work Practice</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">, 16.2 (2006): 211-223.</span></div><div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">8.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Perspective: theoretical </span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Used in relation to rap being produced for entertainment and a source of money. </span></li>
</ul><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> Sources 1,3, and 5/ 2,8 seemed to support each other. Source 6 contradicted 1 and 3. 4 seemed to fill in gaps with 2. I can use these relationships to provide balanced, but factual information about the same topics within my paper.</o:p></span></div></div>Tyler Diedrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11837418477412187089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8379446519663142723.post-3786224967060586082011-11-02T22:36:00.000-07:002011-11-02T22:36:15.459-07:00Analyzing Feedback and Revision PlanA majority of the recommended revisions for my paper had to deal with expanding more on some ideas and quotes within paragraphs, in order to relate them back to my research question. The readers were sometimes left with questions after reading certain sections of my paper, so I think it is important for me to provide a little more analysis in those areas. For example, some excerpts from the revisions included: "make the connection now," "expand more on this paragraph," and "give an example." At the points these comments were made, it seems that I only scratched the surface when analyzing the topics, while the reader felt I could go further. <br />
My use of sources and quotes to provide topics for analysis was probably my strong point, it was just a matter of going more in-depth when analyzing them. Considering these points, my main goal when revising my first draft becomes using more analysis in certain areas to lead to more inquiry throughout the paper. This will lead to more suggested answers to my research question, that is ultimately backed up by facts to prove them correct or false.<br />
<br />
<br />
<ul><li>The main idea of my paper is essentially to analyze the portrayal of rap music in the U.S., hence the research question: "How is rap music portrayed in America?" My main claim, basically being that rap music is many times judged too quickly by many people, and that there is a lot of "good" in rap music. To do so, it is essential to provide examples of how rap is "good" and compare its content to other musical genres and forms of media. It is important to provide specific examples, in that it then backs up claims made by me or other sources. Making a strong claim in a paper really adds purpose to writing the paper.</li>
<li>All of the sources I used were scholarly articles or excerpts from a book. It was important to use scholarly sources, so that I could be confident the information I was putting into my paper was actually true. Popular sources really cannot be used for much more than opinion, hence the fact that factual information is essential in backing-up strong claims in a research paper.</li>
<li>I intend to use other sources such as personal bios of rap artists and lyrics of certain songs in my next draft. Personal bios of rap artists will provide information about them growing up and the environments they grew up in. I think this information will be very useful in showing the effect a rap artist's childhood can have on the lyrics of their songs when they grow up. This will provide me with more information about the truth being portrayed in rap music. Actual lyrics of songs will allow me to back-up claims I make about violence and misogyny in rap. After reading suggested revisions, I realized it is essential for me to provide plenty of specific examples. What could be better than lyrics?</li>
<li>I haven't necessarily arranged my sources in anyway in the paper. Instead, I arranged the topics of my paper in sequential order, relating each to the next, then using the sources with content relating to respective topics, in order to offer perspectives about them. In other words, I first arranged topics and then dispersed the quotes from sources throughout. To better address the perspectives of sources, I plan to elaborate more on their claims, with my own opinions, as I stated in the first paragraph.</li>
</ul>Tyler Diedrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11837418477412187089noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8379446519663142723.post-40233205583336934992011-10-20T09:43:00.001-07:002011-10-20T09:43:24.486-07:00Assignment 10, Part 1<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;">Tyler Diedrick<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;">English 102<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;">10-20-2011<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;">Assignment 10 Part 1 <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 39.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;"><span>·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;">…rap music shouldn't be seen as just deviant behavior put into words.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 75.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;"><span>o<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;">This passage is how I personally feel about the overall portrayal of rap music and is a good shortened version of why I chose this topic. Working off this statement without incorporating too much bias will be helpful in creating the overall structure of the paper.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 39.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;"><span>·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;">"It has been argued that rap serves as a voice of protest for those left out of the “American dream”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 75.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;"><span>o<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;">A possible origin of rap music; though many of today’s rap songs are based solely on having a good time and straight-up rhythmic balance, some artists still use an old-school style as described in this quote. I think this quote creates a good argument as to the general theme(s) within rap music as a whole. Backing this quote up with balanced evidence trying to prove rap is either “garbage,” or a talented expression of thoughts will create a good argument in my own paper.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 39.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;"><span>·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;"> </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;">"...exposure to violent rap videos leads to a greater acceptance of violence and lowered academic aspirations among young African Americans”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 75.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;"><span>o<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;">What about the effect of rap on academic aspirations of young whites and other races? Can I find information to back this quote up, or even info that disproves it? This quote contrasts well with the previous one, contrasting quotes like this backed up with specific details are good content for a research paper. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 39.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;"><span>·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #f2f2f2; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;">-Materialism: Expression of one's wealth<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 39.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;">-Misogyny: portrayal of men's dominance over women (in rap music videos)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 39.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;">-Colorism: prejudice based on skin tone/color<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 75.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;"><span>o<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #f2f2f2; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;">These three key terms are very important in both understanding the basis and content of rap, along with different viewpoints towards rap. Materialism and misogyny both are terms expressed avidly in many rap songs, whether good or bad. Colorism is referring to part of the population that forms negative opinions of rap music based on the artists’ skin color. The three of these terms could each create a section heading within my paper to separately focus on different ideas?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 39.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;"><span>·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;">…</span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;">thematic content, Afrocentric features, and gender differences.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 75.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;"><span>o<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;">How does each of these affect portrayal of rap music? Express this in my paper!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 39.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;"><span>·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;">…misogyny emerged in rap music during the 1980s; it has remained a large component of rap in many different ways. Even songs with a title that doesn't relate to women at all sometimes fit misogynistic comments in their songs somewhere<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 39.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;"><span>·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;">negative view of rap/ positive outlook on rap music/ neutral standpoint<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 75.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;"><span>o<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;">I was able to find various articles that had different perspectives of rap, this is important in order for me not to write a biased paper. Factual information was very prevalent and important in each, which is something to think about when writing my paper. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 39.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;"><span>·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;">-new social movement theory<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 39.0pt; mso-add-space: auto;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;">-political opportunity theory<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 39.0pt; mso-add-space: auto;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;">-Rap-music Attitude and Perception Scale (RAP)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 75.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;"><span>o<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;">The two theories or the “push” and “pull” effects are attempts to determine the goals of rap artists when writing songs. If there are deeper lyrical meanings than what are initially seen, what are they? I’ll provide examples in my paper. I am still not sure how much I will use the RAP scale for information.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 39.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;"><span>·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;">…</span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;">rap music has changed tremendously in many ways since its beginning in the 1970s.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 75.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;"><span>o<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;">Obviously the content within rap has changed drastically since its origin in the ‘70s and has become much more explicit. How has this affected peoples’ portrayal of rap? Has it changed much, or stayed similar to what it was?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 39.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;"><span>·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;">Violence has gradually become associated with power, wealth, glamour, etc., which has also increased acceptance of rap. Changing social conditions and increased teenage violent behavior is seen as a cause of such a change.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 75.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;"><span>o<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;">This is a very negative way in which wealth and glamour is to be achieved and is a huge cause of negative portrayals of rap. However, is this statement true? If so, should it be considered ok for artists to produce songs with content similar to this?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 39.0pt; mso-add-space: auto;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;">Grouping similar subject matter together and ordering them in a logical sense to achieve an overall goal (in my case answering the research question) is the best way to go about writing an initial draft. For example, with the content above, theoretical information will be separate from opinionated comments, etc. As the drafting and revising process continues, I’ll make the information flow better and better to make a final copy. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #f2f2f2; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #F2F2F2; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=95000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 242;">The focus of my paper is obviously the research question, but beyond that it seems best to focus on race, gender, age, and lyrical content and how they relate to rap music portrayal. I was able to find plenty of articles and information about each of those four things and I think they will each help answer my research question well and lead to good inquiry.<o:p></o:p></span></div>Tyler Diedrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11837418477412187089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8379446519663142723.post-71714184119228987682011-10-12T20:55:00.000-07:002011-10-12T20:55:18.866-07:00Assignment 8, Part 2<b><u>Passage:</u> </b><br />
"However, just as other music forms are not homogeneous , neither is rap music. It is far too simplistic to portray rap artists as perpetrators of behavior deemed socially deviant without placing the artists and their life experiences in context" (176).<br />
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</span><br />
Richardson, Jeanita, and Kim Scott. "Rap Music and Its Violent Progeny: America's Culture of Violence in Context." The Journal of Negro Education, 71.3 (2002): 175-192.<br />
<br />
<u><b>Summarize:</b></u><br />
There are many other forms of music besides rap that have examples of violence, sexual content, and other socially "unacceptable phrases". People who dislike rap music and rap artists should learn more about the artist's lifestyle and the meaning behind lyrics before being quick to make conclusions.<br />
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<b><u>Interpreting:</u></b><br />
Richardson and Scott have a very legitimate point in this passage. After reading it, I immediately started forming my own opinion of rap being portrayed unfairly in the overall population. Country, rock, and other genres all contain explicit material, however, rap takes the majority of the negative stereotypical opinions, for whatever reason(s). People don't need to necessarily like rap music, but it shouldn't be criticized just based on lyrical content. Lyrics, especially in rap, many times have metaphorical and other meaningful phrases that won't be understood by the average person, unless the song is broken down and diagnosed deeper.<br />
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<b><u>Analyze/ Critique:</u></b><br />
I think this passage is the main point of the article and is backed up well throughout the article. Putting it toward the beginning was a good choice, in that it provided an overview of what is to come. It is easy to tell from the two sentences that the authors have a problem with the way that rap music is viewed in the general population. Numerous times I myself have heard people criticize rap, and usually their only reason is that it's lyrically bad or inappropriate. Ironically, those people have little understanding of rap and live in a completely different environment than many rap artists. I also wonder why many adults will instantly turn off a rap song when they hear one explicit comment or word, however if basically the same comment is said in say a country song it's all good. It seems as though many people categorize rap music into one large group and cannot appreciate the musical talent that goes into songs' lyrical composition.Tyler Diedrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11837418477412187089noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8379446519663142723.post-60351695741817572012011-10-10T22:03:00.000-07:002011-10-10T22:03:54.842-07:00Annotated Bibliography Assignment (all ten sources)<b>Research Question: What is America's general portrayal of rap music and is it fair?</b><br />
<div><br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div>Richardson, Jeanita, and Kim Scott. "Rap Music and Its Violent Progeny: America's Culture of Violence in Context." The Journal of Negro Education, 71.3 (2002): 175-192.<br />
<div><br />
</div><div>This article's intention is to take a different look at rap music/industry from a positive outlook. Its main purpose is to show why rap music shouldn't be seen as just deviant behavior put into words. The belief being that making a negative impression about rap, without understanding its meaning and how it came about is unfair. The statement "Rap music, is rooted in the African tradition of speaking rhythmically to a beat generally supplied by background music" (Richardson 176) really sets the stage for the rest of the article, as a beginning to show the truth behind rap music.<br />
<br />
Richardson and Scott truly seem to believe that too many negative attitudes nationwide are directed at rap music, when many other forms of music and media could also be seen as having negative messages. They realize that rap does give off negative messages about drugs, alcohol, prostitution, etc, however they think that if put into a rap artist's shoes, many people would better understand the intended theme of the songs.</div><div><br />
This article seems to be perfect to provide information to write my paper. It not only gives the an opinion on America's portrayal, but also a personal opinion about rap music. The use of both personal opinion and outside sources/facts really increases the functionality of the article. What seems logical is to use this source as information for one point of view on the topic and find another article with a mostly negative outlook on rap.</div><div><br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div>Fried, Carrie. "Who's Afraid of Rap: Differential Reactions to Music Lyrics." Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 29.4 (1999): 705-721.</div><div><br />
The use of experiments and polls is very prevalent in Fried's "Who's Afraid of Rap: Differential Reactions to Music Lyrics." The idea of the article is not necessarily to persuade or convince, but to let the reader form their own opinion based on informational studies and statistics. By stating both positive and negative results of rap music, the article becomes a very balanced, straight-forward article. The two following quotes provide this balanced reporting: "It has been argued that rap serves as a voice of protest for those left out of the “American dream” (Fried 706)," and "...exposure to violent rap videos leads to a greater acceptance of violence and lowered academic aspirations among young African Americans (Fried 706)." The article also makes many comparisons between rap and other genres of music, especially country and heavy metal in order to show the difference in perceptions of similar quotes in music.<br />
<br />
Fried purposely takes no apparent opinion on the topic in the article. She solely is providing information for the reader to form their own perspective about rap music. This is good for my paper, in that a neutral viewpoint gives non-biased, factual information about rap and its effects on Americans. The various graphs and charts will provide me with proven numbers to work with, if needed, to persuade the reader in my own paper.</div><div><br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div>Iwamoto, Derek. "Tupac Shakur: Understanding the Identity Formation of Hyper-Masculinity of a Popular Hip-Hop Artist." Black Scholar, 33.2 (2003): 44-49.<br />
<br />
This Tupac Shakur article is the first one i read that focused on a specific rapper, compared to the rap industry as a whole. It basically differentiated Shakur's "masks" in the wide variety of songs he produced and showed how they influenced the media and public perception of not only him, but rap music as a whole. For example, many of his songs did reference violence, so Iwamoto showed the difference in the effect this had on followers of rap and non-followers. Now, because he was a major artist within the rap scene, many people associated the rest of rap with him as well. The article did provide two sides of information throughout.<br />
<br />
Though the author's perspective wasn't shown too much in the article, his perspective seems to be critical of the public's general negative quick interpretation of rap, especially those with little knowledge of it. He seems to think that rap has both positive and negative effects, but also appreciates the creativity that goes into creating rap songs. Overall, I'd classify his position as neutral or slightly a positive outlook on rap.<br />
<br />
A micro-research paper like this provides specific examples of the ideas that other articles just touch on. It will be good to incorporate both general and specific material into my paper to create a balance of information. I can use the information in this article to explain the broad topics within my paper.</div><div><br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div>Conrad, Kate, Travis Dixon, and Yuanyuan Zhang. "Controversial Rap Themes, Gender Portrayals and Skin Tone Distortion: A Content Analysis of Rap Music Videos." Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 53.1 (2009): 134-156.<br />
<br />
Key terms:<br />
Materialism: Expression of one's wealth<br />
Misogyny: portrayal of men's dominance over women (in rap music videos)<br />
Colorism: prejudice based on skin tone/color<br />
<br />
The content of this article is laid out almost perfectly in the title of the article. Its main purpose is to analyze rap music videos and show how they affect people's overall portrayal of rap music. The authors use various research and experiments to analyze three main issues with rap music: thematic content, Afrocentric features, and gender differences. They provide both negative and positive themes found within rap music and use them to figure out the relation of music video content to listener's perception. Also, the article not only focused on skin color, it got specific enough to examine skin tone of blacks and how darkness effects perception.<br />
<br />
Since there are three different authors for this article, it is hard to tell what perspectives they each have. However, it seems as though they are trying to write a neutral article that focuses on research to provide answers to their questions. They use very little personal bias and focus mostly on facts found in experiments of rap music videos.<br />
<br />
I like that this article showed the relation of the actual rap songs and the videos that go with them. It provides me with information from a whole new viewpoint that I previously wasn't planning on going into.<br />
<br />
<br />
</div><div>Adams, Terri, and Douglas Fuller. "The Words Have Changed but the Ideology Remains the Same: Misogynistic Lyrics in Rap Music."Journal of Black Studies, 36.6 (2006): 938-957.<br />
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Keyword: Misogyny- hatred or disdain toward women (939)<br />
<br />
Adams and Fullers' article has one large goal in mind: to show the relationship between misogynistic views in rap music and the overall view of African American women throughout history. They claim that since misogyny emerged in rap music during the 1980s, it has remained a large component of rap in many different ways. Even songs with a title that doesn't relate to women at all sometimes fit misogynistic comments in their songs somewhere. Adams and Fuller claim that the use of misogyny in rap is what causes 1, many people to have a negative view of rap music, and 2, those who like rap to develop racist or sexist views.<br />
<br />
The authors definitely have a negative view of rap and do not agree with the representation of women in rap music. They only provide one perspective, making this a rather biased article. Facts and cited information is used to promote their viewpoint, but again that is the only one discussed throughout. The positive themes within rap are never examined.<br />
<br />
This article will work well to conflict previous articles I found like "Rap Music and Its Violent Progeny: America's Culture of Violence in Context," which has a more positive outlook on rap music. When used to argue against each other, I think they will provide an interesting argument in my own paper. I personally do not agree with this article, but it's good to use "balanced coverage" when writing my own paper, even if I disagree with something.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Trapp, Erin. "The Push and Pull of Hip-Hop: A Social Movement Analysis." American Behavioral Scientist, 48.11 (2005): 1482-1495.<br />
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The article examines how hip-hop and rap have affected social movements, using two different theories. The new social movement theory states "...music asserts the shifting identities of (largely) African American youth into the larger culture that could not previously accommodate the ideas and practices expressed in these identities" (1483). This is considered to be the "push" effect. The new social movement theory can be compared to the political opportunity theory which says hip-hop/ rap artists are social movement leaders themselves. This theory is called the "pull" effect. Trapp uses the work of rap and hip-hop icons Queen Latifah and Tupac Shakur (who grew with similar lifestyles), to show the difference in portrayal of women in their songs.<br />
<br />
Trapp has a very neutral standpoint in her article, she solely wanted to explore the difference between an artist who creates a new social movement and one who simply promotes an existing one. However, by the end of the article, she comes to a conclusion based on her research, without ever taking a side in the article.<br />
<br />
This article was useful for more than just information. Trapp's ability to make a conclusion about her topic without using bias, as I explained in the previous paragraph, will help me write my own paper. From an information standpoint, the use of the two contrasting theories is different from any other article I've read so far. Two contrasting ideas like this is always useful, because I'll be able to put both in my paper and allow the reader to make their own decision on which they feel is more correct.<br />
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<br />
<br />
Sullivan, Rachel. "Rap and Race: It's Got a Nice Beat, but What About the Message?." Journal of Black Studies, 33.5 (2003): 605-622.<br />
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This article provides a first-hand look at how rap has affected rap music fans. It is different from many other articles that examine rap portrayal, in that, most focus on studies and writer's viewpoints, instead of the opinions of individual rap music listeners. Teenagers are the focus of the article, because they make up the majority of rap music listeners. Interviews are used to determine the difference of perception of rap based on race. It was found that rap music is liked by a wide variety of races, but was easier to actual relate to for a African American kids. The history and origin of rap provided in the beginning of the article shows why rap is characterized like is today.<br />
<br />
The author Rachel E. Sullivan, writes from a purely research-based standpoint. Once again, personal opinion is absent in this paper. As shown under the title, she is writing in affiliation with the University of Connecticut. The title- "Rap and Race: It's Got a Nice Beat, but What About the Message?" seems to show she wrote in a very similar manner as I will be. A question in the title like so, leads to inquiry, as I will also be doing.<br />
<br />
The interviews of teenage kids will be very useful to me when writing my own paper. I can relate well to other teenager's opinions of rap, because I am a teen that listens to rap as well. Also, because this paper is written in a similar way that I plan to write mine, it will be a nice guide for me to look at.</div><div><br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div>Tyson, Edgar. "Rap-music Attitude and Perception Scale: A Validation Study." Research on Social Work Practice, 16.2 (2006): 211-223.<br />
<br />
Tyson's article is actually a study that tests the Rap-music Attitude and Perception Scale (RAP), which apparently is supposed to measure a person's feelings towards rap based on the content of rap music. Using various theories, studies and procedures this study confirmed that the RAP was a good measure of people's feelings towards rap music.<br />
<br />
The author of this article wrote from a skeptical perspective. He probably felt that there was no way a sheet of paper like the RAP could prove a person's perception of rap music. He used experiments he conducted to prove himself wrong, and then put the results of his study into a paper.<br />
<br />
I don't really think this article is going to be very useful for answering my own research question, it contains a lot of information I really don't think will be useful to me. However, I feel the actual RAP Scale and its measures of people's perceptions may possibly be useful. I may try to find a copy of it and use it to support claims in my paper.</div><div><br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div>Herd, Denise. "Changing Images of Violence in Rap Music Lyrics: 1979-1997." Journal of Public Health Policy, 30.4 (2009): 395-406.<br />
<br />
The idea of this article is to explain the changes within rap music, especially lyrically from the 1970s to the 1990s. Obviously, rap music has changed tremendously in many ways since its beginning in the 1970s. This specific article focuses mostly on the appearance of violent references within rap songs. It finds that violent phrases have more than doubled in rap music as a whole in the 20-year span. Violence has gradually become associated with power, wealth, glamour, etc., which has also increased acceptance of rap. Changing social conditions and increased teenage violent behavior is seen as a cause of such a change.</div><div>It seems as though the writer is concerned with the content in rap music, especially violent references, which would be why she chose to write about such a topic. It seemed that by the end of the article she became more understanding of rap, based off of the information she gathered about changing social conditions which explained why rap has changed.<br />
<br />
The examining of actual content of rap music in this article will be very helpful in providing information to back-up a conclusion I'll eventually make about my own research question.</div><div><br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div><b>1 from Original Research Question:</b></div><div><b><br />
Research Question: "How has the portrayal of the father figure in television sitcoms changed throughout the life of sitcoms?"</b><br />
<br />
Scharrer, Erica. "From Wise to Foolish: The Portrayal of the Sitcom Father, 1950s-1990s." Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 45.1 (2001): 23-40.<br />
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Summary: Over the years, the representation of fathers in television sitcoms has changed gradually but drastically. For example, jokes directed toward the man of the family used to be non-existent, where as today it is very common. The fact that sitcoms tend to follow the current economic and social states of a country, explain why this is true. Historically, when men were the main breadwinners for the family and women were stay-at-home moms, men were respected more than women. This idea of men being more important than women basically prohibited jokes being made against men in sitcoms. Today, women are much more present in the workforce and are viewed as equal to men, making jokes against men more appropriate.<br />
<br />
An aspect that changes more randomly is when relating a man's portrayal in sitcoms to their economic class on the show. For the most part, more shows with a middle-class father will make fun of the character when compared to a show with an upper-class father. The idea being a middle-class father has less "power" than an upper-class one. Overall, sitcoms represent real-life society and allow a "weak" father character to be the basis of a joke, whereas a "strong" is the opposite. For example, in real-life tall men are usually seen as powerful and short men viewed as weak.</div><div>Author's Perspective: While reading the article, I got a feel of a feminist perspective without even realizing that a woman wrote it until after i read it. A majority of the article is not only about how a father's portrayal has changed, but a wife's as well. I feel as though Scharrer likes the idea that today's portrayal is not as unfair; that is something she points out numerous times. She definitely feels that the portrayal of fathers in sitcoms has changed quite a bit, and rightfully so. Her research led right to that conclusion.<br />
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How it helps me: This article provides a lot of information as to why the portrayal of fathers has changed and lays out how it occurred over time. I feel it will be useful for me when writing my own paper, especially from the "shift in power aspect."</div></div>Tyler Diedrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11837418477412187089noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8379446519663142723.post-91910575723909845982011-10-05T22:21:00.000-07:002011-10-05T22:21:04.319-07:00Starbucks Article Response<b>Overall Claim:</b> "The language of Starbucks aims to seduce us with comfort, romance us with relationships, and assure us that we are all working together for the good of the underprivileged" (Ruzich 440). This comment in the last paragraph of the article sums up the whole paper and states exactly what the point of the paper was, making it my choice as the overall claim. Her point was that Starbuck's use of language and sense of romance/ comfort is what put them ahead of many other similar coffee companies.<br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b>Sources: </b>Ruzich did a great job incorporating a variety of sources into her article. A majority of her sources were scholarly articles, which proves the information she used was legitimate. Examples of scholarly articles were, "Hot Starbucks to Go" and "Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World." Both of these were used numerous times throughout the article, which reassures they were good sources. Along with scholarly articles, she also used a variety of direct reference material from the Starbucks Corporation. The article was filled with quotes pulled from Starbucks brochures to promotional signs. Her use of these sources provided proof that Starbucks image was meant to be very comforting and relaxing.<br />
<br />
<b>Reasoning for Sources: </b>To start out the article, Ruzich used a variety of what seemed to be scholarly, historical (especially Pendergast) sources about the history of coffee and how it became what is it today. This provided readers with insight, before reading the main material. The rest of the article focuses on her main claim of Starbucks being a company focused on promoting more than just coffee. Her use of the sources (Pendergast) and (Koehn) extend her main claim by giving examples of competing companies' advertisements and contrasting them to Starbucks. Then, a combination of scholarly articles and Starbuck's brochures/ signs provide quotes showing Starbuck's intended image to the public. For example the quote "We trust you, help us choose" (Ruzich 435), was explaining how Starbucks allowed customers to provide requests for in-store music.<br />
<br />
<b>Thoughts: </b>I felt Ruzich did a great job on the article. It was quite amazing the she used 29 sources in a 12-page paper. Her use of so much scholarly information proved her main claim and she wrote it well. I understood her opinion about Starbucks and their image.Tyler Diedrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11837418477412187089noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8379446519663142723.post-28018704887954321992011-10-03T22:45:00.000-07:002011-10-03T22:45:37.104-07:0060 Minutes EpisodeThe 60 minutes episode was very similar to other rape stories I have seen on T.V. It was very one-sided, and mostly told from only Beckett Brennan's perspective. Whether this was on purpose or because the three men's basketball players declined responses, it creates a tough situation for a reader to make conclusions about the story. Personally, I really need to hear both sides of a story before I can decide how I feel about it. By no means am I saying Brennan didn't get raped, or did for that matter, I'm just saying without balanced coverage I'm careful when making a decision about how I feel.<br />
<br />
By watching this episode, I realized why it's important to provide more than one perspective on a topic when doing research. Also, I learned that providing too much personal opinion, especially early in a paper can be very destructive towards the quality of the paper, because it will end up being very biased. Instead of automatically assuming something is true about a topic, approach it from a more neutral standpoint.<br />
<br />
Out of the three articles I've read so far relating to rap music and its portrayal, there has been information that looked at rap from a positive, negative, and neutral standpoint. This is perfect for writing my research paper, because as I explained above a variety of perspectives is needed to write a good research paper. I am surprised to have as much positive information as I do, considering I expected most scholarly articles to be neutral or negative.<br />
<br />
My first article, " Rap Music and Its Violent Progeny: America's Culture of Violence in Context" had a very positive outlook of rap music. It took the perspective of relating to the true meaning within rap songs and understanding what the artist's lives are like, before making conclusions about rap. A source like this has both positive and negative effects on a paper. Being a very persuasive article, it presents a lot of bias toward the topic, so the reader only learns about that side, however this can be made up for by reading opposite-viewed articles to contradict. An article like this provides a break a personal standpoint, which can be very effective when used in sequence with facts.<br />
<br />
The second and third articles, "Who's Afraid of Rap: Differential Reactions to Music Lyrics" and "Tupac Shakur: Understanding the Identity Formation of Hyper-Masculinity of a Popular Hip-Hop Artist," both had negative and positive viewpoints within, but also incorporated a lot of facts and used mostly a neutral standpoint. Facts are always needed in a research paper, otherwise it wouldn't be a research paper, so obviously these articles are very important and should probably be the most numerously used type of articles. Examples of factual information that was used is informational studies, surveys, and an in-depth analysis of Tupac and his music in the third article. <br />
<br />
As I explained in the past three paragraphs, many perspectives and disciplines should be used when writing a research paper. The ones I hope to incorporate are:<br />
<br />
<ul><li>Positive outlook on rap</li>
<li>Negative outlook </li>
<li>Neutral standpoint</li>
<ul><li>Facts</li>
</ul><li>Personal opinion</li>
<li>Specific biographies</li>
</ul><div>My work and research so far has went well. I am very interested in the rap portrayal topic and hopefully it will be easy for me to write about. Originally, I was worried about the quality of information I could find, however I no longer think that will be a problem after finding good articles rather quickly.</div>Tyler Diedrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11837418477412187089noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8379446519663142723.post-59766079638143396942011-09-29T00:06:00.000-07:002011-10-10T21:54:59.518-07:00Research Paper Sources (all 10)<b>Research Question: What is America's general portrayal of rap music and is it fair?</b><br />
<div><br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div>Richardson, Jeanita, and Kim Scott. "Rap Music and Its Violent Progeny: America's Culture of Violence in Context." The Journal of Negro Education, 71.3 (2002): 175-192.<br />
<div><br />
</div><div>This article's intention is to take a different look at rap music/industry from a positive outlook. Its main purpose is to show why rap music shouldn't be seen as just deviant behavior put into words. The belief being that making a negative impression about rap, without understanding its meaning and how it came about is unfair. The statement "Rap music, is rooted in the African tradition of speaking rhythmically to a beat generally supplied by background music" (Richardson 176) really sets the stage for the rest of the article, as a beginning to show the truth behind rap music. <br />
<br />
Richardson and Scott truly seem to believe that too many negative attitudes nationwide are directed at rap music, when many other forms of music and media could also be seen as having negative messages. They realize that rap does give off negative messages about drugs, alcohol, prostitution, etc, however they think that if put into a rap artist's shoes, many people would better understand the intended theme of the songs.</div><div><br />
This article seems to be perfect to provide information to write my paper. It not only gives the an opinion on America's portrayal, but also a personal opinion about rap music. The use of both personal opinion and outside sources/facts really increases the functionality of the article. What seems logical is to use this source as information for one point of view on the topic and find another article with a mostly negative outlook on rap.<br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div>Fried, Carrie. "Who's Afraid of Rap: Differential Reactions to Music Lyrics." Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 29.4 (1999): 705-721.</div><div><br />
The use of experiments and polls is very prevalent in Fried's "Who's Afraid of Rap: Differential Reactions to Music Lyrics." The idea of the article is not necessarily to persuade or convince, but to let the reader form their own opinion based on informational studies and statistics. By stating both positive and negative results of rap music, the article becomes a very balanced, straight-forward article. The two following quotes provide this balanced reporting: "It has been argued that rap serves as a voice of protest for those left out of the “American dream” (Fried 706)," and "...exposure to violent rap videos leads to a greater acceptance of violence and lowered academic aspirations among young African Americans (Fried 706)." The article also makes many comparisons between rap and other genres of music, especially country and heavy metal in order to show the difference in perceptions of similar quotes in music.<br />
<br />
Fried purposely takes no apparent opinion on the topic in the article. She solely is providing information for the reader to form their own perspective about rap music. This is good for my paper, in that a neutral viewpoint gives non-biased, factual information about rap and its effects on Americans. The various graphs and charts will provide me with proven numbers to work with, if needed, to persuade the reader in my own paper.<br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div>Iwamoto, Derek. "Tupac Shakur: Understanding the Identity Formation of Hyper-Masculinity of a Popular Hip-Hop Artist." Black Scholar, 33.2 (2003): 44-49.<br />
<br />
This Tupac Shakur article is the first one i read that focused on a specific rapper, compared to the rap industry as a whole. It basically differentiated Shakur's "masks" in the wide variety of songs he produced and showed how they influenced the media and public perception of not only him, but rap music as a whole. For example, many of his songs did reference violence, so Iwamoto showed the difference in the effect this had on followers of rap and non-followers. Now, because he was a major artist within the rap scene, many people associated the rest of rap with him as well. The article did provide two sides of information throughout.<br />
<br />
Though the author's perspective wasn't shown too much in the article, his perspective seems to be critical of the public's general negative quick interpretation of rap, especially those with little knowledge of it. He seems to think that rap has both positive and negative effects, but also appreciates the creativity that goes into creating rap songs. Overall, I'd classify his position as neutral or slightly a positive outlook on rap.<br />
<br />
A micro-research paper like this provides specific examples of the ideas that other articles just touch on. It will be good to incorporate both general and specific material into my paper to create a balance of information. I can use the information in this article to explain the broad topics within my paper.<br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div>Conrad, Kate, Travis Dixon, and Yuanyuan Zhang. "Controversial Rap Themes, Gender Portrayals and Skin Tone Distortion: A Content Analysis of Rap Music Videos." Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 53.1 (2009): 134-156.<br />
<br />
Key terms: <br />
Materialism: Expression of one's wealth<br />
Misogyny: portrayal of men's dominance over women (in rap music videos)<br />
Colorism: prejudice based on skin tone/color<br />
<br />
The content of this article is laid out almost perfectly in the title of the article. Its main purpose is to analyze rap music videos and show how they affect people's overall portrayal of rap music. The authors use various research and experiments to analyze three main issues with rap music: thematic content, Afrocentric features, and gender differences. They provide both negative and positive themes found within rap music and use them to figure out the relation of music video content to listener's perception. Also, the article not only focused on skin color, it got specific enough to examine skin tone of blacks and how darkness effects perception.<br />
<br />
Since there are three different authors for this article, it is hard to tell what perspectives they each have. However, it seems as though they are trying to write a neutral article that focuses on research to provide answers to their questions. They use very little personal bias and focus mostly on facts found in experiments of rap music videos.<br />
<br />
I like that this article showed the relation of the actual rap songs and the videos that go with them. It provides me with information from a whole new viewpoint that I previously wasn't planning on going into. <br />
<br />
<br />
</div><div>Adams, Terri, and Douglas Fuller. "The Words Have Changed but the Ideology Remains the Same: Misogynistic Lyrics in Rap Music."Journal of Black Studies, 36.6 (2006): 938-957.<br />
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Keyword: Misogyny- hatred or disdain toward women (939)<br />
<br />
Adams and Fullers' article has one large goal in mind: to show the relationship between misogynistic views in rap music and the overall view of African American women throughout history. They claim that since misogyny emerged in rap music during the 1980s, it has remained a large component of rap in many different ways. Even songs with a title that doesn't relate to women at all sometimes fit misogynistic comments in their songs somewhere. Adams and Fuller claim that the use of misogyny in rap is what causes 1, many people to have a negative view of rap music, and 2, those who like rap to develop racist or sexist views.<br />
<br />
The authors definitely have a negative view of rap and do not agree with the representation of women in rap music. They only provide one perspective, making this a rather biased article. Facts and cited information is used to promote their viewpoint, but again that is the only one discussed throughout. The positive themes within rap are never examined.<br />
<br />
This article will work well to conflict previous articles I found like "Rap Music and Its Violent Progeny: America's Culture of Violence in Context," which has a more positive outlook on rap music. When used to argue against each other, I think they will provide an interesting argument in my own paper. I personally do not agree with this article, but it's good to use "balanced coverage" when writing my own paper, even if I disagree with something.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Trapp, Erin. "The Push and Pull of Hip-Hop: A Social Movement Analysis." American Behavioral Scientist, 48.11 (2005): 1482-1495.<br />
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The article examines how hip-hop and rap have affected social movements, using two different theories. The new social movement theory states "...music asserts the shifting identities of (largely) African American youth into the larger culture that could not previously accommodate the ideas and practices expressed in these identities" (1483). This is considered to be the "push" effect. The new social movement theory can be compared to the political opportunity theory which says hip-hop/ rap artists are social movement leaders themselves. This theory is called the "pull" effect. Trapp uses the work of rap and hip-hop icons Queen Latifah and Tupac Shakur (who grew with similar lifestyles), to show the difference in portrayal of women in their songs.<br />
<br />
Trapp has a very neutral standpoint in her article, she solely wanted to explore the difference between an artist who creates a new social movement and one who simply promotes an existing one. However, by the end of the article, she comes to a conclusion based on her research, without ever taking a side in the article.<br />
<br />
This article was useful for more than just information. Trapp's ability to make a conclusion about her topic without using bias, as I explained in the previous paragraph, will help me write my own paper. From an information standpoint, the use of the two contrasting theories is different from any other article I've read so far. Two contrasting ideas like this is always useful, because I'll be able to put both in my paper and allow the reader to make their own decision on which they feel is more correct.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Sullivan, Rachel. "Rap and Race: It's Got a Nice Beat, but What About the Message?." Journal of Black Studies, 33.5 (2003): 605-622.<br />
<br />
This article provides a first-hand look at how rap has affected rap music fans. It is different from many other articles that examine rap portrayal, in that, most focus on studies and writer's viewpoints, instead of the opinions of individual rap music listeners. Teenagers are the focus of the article, because they make up the majority of rap music listeners. Interviews are used to determine the difference of perception of rap based on race. It was found that rap music is liked by a wide variety of races, but was easier to actual relate to for a African American kids. The history and origin of rap provided in the beginning of the article shows why rap is characterized like is today.<br />
<br />
The author Rachel E. Sullivan, writes from a purely research-based standpoint. Once again, personal opinion is absent in this paper. As shown under the title, she is writing in affiliation with the University of Connecticut. The title- "Rap and Race: It's Got a Nice Beat, but What About the Message?" seems to show she wrote in a very similar manner as I will be. A question in the title like so, leads to inquiry, as I will also be doing.<br />
<br />
The interviews of teenage kids will be very useful to me when writing my own paper. I can relate well to other teenager's opinions of rap, because I am a teen that listens to rap as well. Also, because this paper is written in a similar way that I plan to write mine, it will be a nice guide for me to look at. <br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div>Tyson, Edgar. "Rap-music Attitude and Perception Scale: A Validation Study." Research on Social Work Practice, 16.2 (2006): 211-223.<br />
<br />
Tyson's article is actually a study that tests the Rap-music Attitude and Perception Scale (RAP), which apparently is supposed to measure a person's feelings towards rap based on the content of rap music. Using various theories, studies and procedures this study confirmed that the RAP was a good measure of people's feelings towards rap music. <br />
<br />
The author of this article wrote from a skeptical perspective. He probably felt that there was no way a sheet of paper like the RAP could prove a person's perception of rap music. He used experiments he conducted to prove himself wrong, and then put the results of his study into a paper.<br />
<br />
I don't really think this article is going to be very useful for answering my own research question, it contains a lot of information I really don't think will be useful to me. However, I feel the actual RAP Scale and its measures of people's perceptions may possibly be useful. I may try to find a copy of it and use it to support claims in my paper. <br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div>Herd, Denise. "Changing Images of Violence in Rap Music Lyrics: 1979-1997." Journal of Public Health Policy, 30.4 (2009): 395-406.<br />
<br />
The idea of this article is to explain the changes within rap music, especially lyrically from the 1970s to the 1990s. Obviously, rap music has changed tremendously in many ways since its beginning in the 1970s. This specific article focuses mostly on the appearance of violent references within rap songs. It finds that violent phrases have more than doubled in rap music as a whole in the 20-year span. Violence has gradually become associated with power, wealth, glamour, etc., which has also increased acceptance of rap. Changing social conditions and increased teenage violent behavior is seen as a cause of such a change. <br />
</div><div>It seems as though the writer is concerned with the content in rap music, especially violent references, which would be why she chose to write about such a topic. It seemed that by the end of the article she became more understanding of rap, based off of the information she gathered about changing social conditions which explained why rap has changed. <br />
<br />
The examining of actual content of rap music in this article will be very helpful in providing information to back-up a conclusion I'll eventually make about my own research question.<br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div><b>1 from Original Research Question:</b></div><div><b><br />
Research Question: "How has the portrayal of the father figure in television sitcoms changed throughout the life of sitcoms?"</b><br />
<br />
Scharrer, Erica. "From Wise to Foolish: The Portrayal of the Sitcom Father, 1950s-1990s." Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 45.1 (2001): 23-40.<br />
<br />
Summary: Over the years, the representation of fathers in television sitcoms has changed gradually but drastically. For example, jokes directed toward the man of the family used to be non-existent, where as today it is very common. The fact that sitcoms tend to follow the current economic and social states of a country, explain why this is true. Historically, when men were the main breadwinners for the family and women were stay-at-home moms, men were respected more than women. This idea of men being more important than women basically prohibited jokes being made against men in sitcoms. Today, women are much more present in the workforce and are viewed as equal to men, making jokes against men more appropriate.<br />
<br />
An aspect that changes more randomly is when relating a man's portrayal in sitcoms to their economic class on the show. For the most part, more shows with a middle-class father will make fun of the character when compared to a show with an upper-class father. The idea being a middle-class father has less "power" than an upper-class one. Overall, sitcoms represent real-life society and allow a "weak" father character to be the basis of a joke, whereas a "strong" is the opposite. For example, in real-life tall men are usually seen as powerful and short men viewed as weak.<br />
</div><div>Author's Perspective: While reading the article, I got a feel of a feminist perspective without even realizing that a woman wrote it until after i read it. A majority of the article is not only about how a father's portrayal has changed, but a wife's as well. I feel as though Scharrer likes the idea that today's portrayal is not as unfair; that is something she points out numerous times. She definitely feels that the portrayal of fathers in sitcoms has changed quite a bit, and rightfully so. Her research led right to that conclusion.<br />
<br />
How it helps me: This article provides a lot of information as to why the portrayal of fathers has changed and lays out how it occurred over time. I feel it will be useful for me when writing my own paper, especially from the "shift in power aspect." <br />
</div></div>Tyler Diedrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11837418477412187089noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8379446519663142723.post-81431661601598346062011-09-26T23:35:00.000-07:002011-09-26T23:35:04.304-07:00Research Paper Source #1Research Question: <b>"How has the portrayal of the father figure in television sitcoms changed throughout the life of sitcoms?"</b><br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f1f1f1; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 16px;">Scharrer, Erica. "From Wise to Foolish: The Portrayal of the Sitcom Father, 1950s-1990s." <i>Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media</i>, 45.1 (2001): 23-40.</span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f1f1f1; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 16px;"><br />
</span></b><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f1f1f1;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><u style="line-height: 16px;">Summary:</u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"> Over the years, the representation of fathers in television sitcoms has changed gradually but drastically. For example, jokes directed toward the man of the family used to be non-existent, where as today it is very common. The fact that sitcoms tend to follow the current economic and social states of a country, explain why this is true. Historically, when men were the main breadwinners for the family and women were stay-at-home moms, men were respected more than women. This idea of men being more important than women basically prohibited jokes being made against men in sitcoms. Today, women are much more present in the workforce and are viewed as equal to men, making jokes against men more appropriate.</span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f1f1f1;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><br />
</span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f1f1f1;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">An aspect that changes more randomly is when relating a man's portrayal in sitcoms to their economic class on the show. For the most part, more shows with a middle-class father will make fun of the character when compared to a show with an upper-class father. The idea being a middle-class father has less "power" than an upper-class one. </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">Overall, sitcoms represent real-life society and allow a "weak" father character to be the basis of a joke, whereas a "strong" is the opposite. For example, in real-life tall men are usually seen as powerful and short men viewed as weak.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><u style="line-height: 16px;">Author's Perspective:</u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"> While reading the article, I got a feel of a feminist perspective without even realizing that a woman wrote it until after i read it. A majority of the article is not only about how a father's portrayal has changed, but a wife's as well. I feel as though Scharrer likes the idea that today's portrayal is not as unfair; that is something she points out numerous times. She definitely feels that the portrayal of fathers in sitcoms has changed quite a bit, and rightfully so. Her research led right to that conclusion.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><u style="line-height: 16px;">How it helps me:</u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"> This article provides a lot of information as to why the portrayal of fathers has changed and lays out how it occurred over time. I feel it will be useful for me when writing my own paper, especially from the "shift in power aspect." </span></span>Tyler Diedrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11837418477412187089noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8379446519663142723.post-86954236107563341832011-09-22T09:55:00.000-07:002011-09-22T09:55:13.328-07:00Beginning the research paper<b>Task One:</b><br />
Two original questions:<br />
1. What role do television sitcoms play in people's lives?<br />
2. Are boy and girl stereotypes inborn or learned characteristics?<br />
<br />
Two revised questions:<br />
1. How has the representation of television sitcom characters changed over time?<br />
2. Should parents influence their children's actions, when based on boy/girl stereotypes?<br />
<br />
After learning more about the characteristics a good inquiry-based research paper needs, I realized my questions needed to be revised in order to write a good paper. The first question I chose I thought was too broad and would lead to a paper without enough structure, so I changed it so that I have a more specific question to start with. My second question was basically the opposite. It seemed as though it would not provide enough information to write a long research paper and was too much of a straight-forward question. By adding the parent aspect, I think there will be more information to work with and will lead to a more interesting paper.<br />
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I am leaning towards writing my paper on my first question about television sitcoms, because I am quite interested in that topic and enjoy watching a variety sitcoms. I think researching the history of them will bring out a lot of interesting information about how sitcoms have changed over the years. It seems as though it will be easier for me to research that topic than my other choice.<br />
<br />
<b>Task Two:</b><br />
Keywords, issues, ideas:<br />
<br />
<ul><li>Comedy </li>
<li>Entertainment</li>
<li>Influence on public</li>
<li>Story lines in place, but laughter is always present</li>
<li>Radio sitcoms </li>
<li>Once-a-week programs</li>
<li>Weight issue on children</li>
</ul><div>An idea that seems very important is the comedic aspect, because almost every article I searched at some point mentioned the comedy that is always within sitcoms. The influence on the public also seems like something I should focus on. A lot of articles were actually more focused on that aspect of sitcoms, compared to the actual content of them. Using the above keywords and phrases will guide me into researching different parts of sitcoms and then allowing me to mesh them all together into a paper.</div><div><br />
</div><div>This initial search allowed me to see what the best way to approach writing a research paper on sitcoms would be. The influence on the public is something I realized should probably stay in my paper. I think the best way to approach this topic would be to consider two sides of sitcoms: the actual content of them and how they have changed through the decades, along with the influence on the public. Incorporating both my original question and my revised question into one would probably be the best option, resulting in something like this:</div><div><br />
</div><div> "How has the representation of television sitcom characters changed over time, and how has this influenced the public over the years?"</div><div><br />
</div><div><a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1740144507001210">http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1740144507001210</a></div><div><a href="http://www.life123.com/arts-culture/television/sitcoms/tv-sitcoms.shtml">http://www.life123.com/arts-culture/television/sitcoms/tv-sitcoms.shtml</a></div><div><a href="http://public.wsu.edu/~taflinge/comhist.html">http://public.wsu.edu/~taflinge/comhist.html</a></div><div><br />
</div><div><br />
</div>Tyler Diedrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11837418477412187089noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8379446519663142723.post-22586307330446826142011-09-20T21:37:00.000-07:002011-09-20T21:37:15.927-07:00Research Paper QuestionsSorry I didn't post this with the first part of the assignment. I accidentally wrote my questions in my notebook. Here they are.<br />
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<br />
<ul><li>Why does time go faster when your having fun?</li>
<li>Do today's adults over-exaggerate how much more active they were when they were young, when comparing to today's youth?</li>
<li>Why are people so interested in the lives of celebrities?</li>
<li>How did piercings and tattoos become so popular?</li>
<li>How is the U.S. really viewed around the world?</li>
<li>Why do people's moods reflect the weather, and does a city's weather actually increase/decrease the suicide rate there?</li>
<li>Are boy and girl stereotypes inborn or learned characteristics?</li>
<li>What role does television sitcoms play in a people's lives? </li>
</ul><br />
<br />
Tyler Diedrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11837418477412187089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8379446519663142723.post-62158708253696597892011-09-19T22:00:00.000-07:002011-09-19T22:00:50.350-07:00Questions and InquiryI think that almost all questions do lead to inquiry, because simply just asking a question with the intent of learning something new is an example of inquiry. Inquiry is the desire to gain knowledge or information, and most questions do exactly that. Just asking someone a simple yes or no question, no matter how simple will in some way lead to the person gaining more knowledge than they had before. An example in which inquiry is closed down is in the instance of sarcasm, because the person's answer is of little or no concern to the person asking the question. The fact of them answering or ignoring the question really doesn't matter.<br />
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Now, obviously some questions lead to more inquiry than others. For example, Bryson's question as to where random components of his house originated from in the "Introduction" of <i>At Home </i>lead to more inquiry than say the question "How do birds fly?" would. Sometimes the simplest or weirdest questions, like "Why do forks have four tines and not three or five? (<i>At Home </i>5)" bring out the best examples of inquiry. The less straight-forward answers that come out of a question, the more inquiry the question leads to. If one question leads into other questions, more inquiry will come about. In Bryson's "Introduction" his questions about the churchyard/gravestones lead to questions about archaeological finds, and so on, leading to more and more inquiry.<br />
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Basically, if a question can be answered on the spot, or with a little research and then spat onto paper, there isn't much inquiry involved. However, if the question leads to the mind wandering and the answering of other related questions, there is a lot of inquiry involved. Simple as that!Tyler Diedrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11837418477412187089noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8379446519663142723.post-60885659464646338062011-09-15T09:58:00.000-07:002011-09-15T09:58:20.925-07:00"At Home" ResponseAfter reading a few examples of essays and excerpts about research and inquiry, I realized they all had one main thing in common. Despite their differences, all of them were able to fit both factual researched information, along with their own opinion into their work and make it flow. Without both of these two aspects, the reader would become less interested, because the writing would be harder to relate to. This is why I came to the conclusion that inquiry is really a somewhat open-ended, "do as the writer feels" type of writing. It's basically the gathering of information of a topic, meshing it together with the writer's own thoughts, and putting it on paper. Don't get me wrong, there obviously are some restrictions as to what a writer can do in a critical inquiry type paper, but there definitely aren't strict guidelines by any means. Whether the essay be argumentative or solely research, all inquiry has the same general background.<br />
<br />
In the excerpt of <i>At Home</i> that I read, most of the research and personal experience/opinion were separated. The "Introduction" being the personal part and "Chapter IV" being the more factual part. I am under the impression, however the rest of the chapters were similar anyway. The importance of the intro when relating to length is quite deceiving, due to the fact it provides a reason for writing the book. Bryson's transition throughout the "Introduction" from thinking about churchyards/gravestones to archaeological finds to the history of normal human actions is all in the process of wanting to gain knowledge. The quote in his introduction, "So I thought it might be interesting, for the length of a book, to consider the ordinary things in life, to notice them for once and treat them as if they were important, too. (pg. 4)," is the origin of the book.<br />
<br />
As I found out in Bryson's essay, even the most boring topics, like ice and cookbooks can actually turn into a good research paper. The idea of acquiring knowledge about "taken for granted" items throughout a house is actually kind of fascinating when reading the final product. This is a perfect example of what inquiry is; the gathering of knowledge about a topic and putting it on paper from the writer's own perspective. But really, who in their right mind would want to research the history of ice? No one. Now, if there is a reason to research it, such as the effect ice had on food preservation, some might want to know how it all started. If I didn't read this excerpt I would have never known the ice I now reach into a freezer for was once basically a delicacy in Europe, and sat in a store window. Bryson was even able to tie Mrs. Beeton and her apparent knowledge of cooking and food into the ice concept, she said: "The aged, the delicate and children should abstain from ices or cold beverages,... (pg. 77)."<br />
<br />
I think Bryson's essay fits our academic model well and is exactly what inquiry is. He used his own want to learn about certain subjects and tied them altogether to explain their origins.Tyler Diedrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11837418477412187089noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8379446519663142723.post-5919924900218116442011-09-14T21:16:00.000-07:002011-09-14T21:16:36.520-07:00Bill Bryson historyBill Bryson is a once college drop-out, who moved to England and wrote for the English newspapers <i>The Times </i>and<i> The Independent, </i>and is now an accomplished author. His potential audience is people who enjoy small things in life and like reading humorous stories. Bryson's books usually have a travel and/or language theme and have in depth descriptions throughout.Tyler Diedrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11837418477412187089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8379446519663142723.post-91905455575629821222011-09-13T00:13:00.000-07:002011-09-13T00:13:42.930-07:00"Building a Mystery" Response1. In the essay "Building a Mystery," Davis and Shadle are simply arguing the academic world's idea of what a research paper should look like. They feel that research papers should not be all grouped into large category, but broken down into four smaller categories based on the content and goal of the essay.<br />
<br />
2. Davis and Shadle had two main purposes for arguing the widely accepted and historical research paper. First, they wanted to provide teachers and students (especially college-level) with a new, more sophisticated way of writing research papers. Second, they wanted to see how the students' way of thinking changed after using their system.<br />
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3. The belief throughout the essay was that the current research paper was something that students put as little effort into as possible and was completed solely to be completed. They believed that instead of increasing their knowledge and gaining expertise on a certain topic, students were mindlessly taking information from sources and rewriting it in an essay. Their essay is basically an attempt to prove that the current research paper is obsolete when compared to their model and that it could solve the problems of current student research writing.<br />
<br />
4. Davis and Shadle thought that students would have a much easier time writing a research essay if given the opportunity to choose from a number of formats. By creating the four different types, students could choose the one that would best fit their information/ assignment and have an easier time writing the paper. For example, the personal research paper would be helpful when writing a research paper that required both factual/ studied information, along with personal experience.<br />
<br />
Personally, I feel that Davis and Shadle were correct in thinking that research essay writing is rather boring for students and is in most cases done as quickly as possible just to get it done. I've never been concerned about increasing my intellectual curiosity and exploring data further than just brushing its surface, unless I was really interested in the topic (which in many cases isn't the students choice anyway). Now, am I totally convinced that their system would work? Not really. I can't really see students becoming more interested in doing research just because they have a better model to work with. It may be a good idea, however, the fact that an old model has already been put into students' heads, makes it hard to believe this idea will work.<br />
<br />
Saying all this, there were good points throughout the essay that helped me understand research writing a little more. It seemed to be more lenient than i thought, due to the dependence on the information used and point of the paper. The section that helped me the most was the "personal research paper," because I now understand better how to incorporate personal thoughts into a research paper. One comment I found interesting was "The authors recommend that research writers imagine themselves in conversation with the readers" (Davis and Shadle 427). It made it easier to picture a way to put personal thought into the paper.<br />
<br />
A project that would work well with Davis and Shadle's model would be group research papers that require good communication from members of the group. A more detailed format would allow the final product to be more clean and organized.Tyler Diedrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11837418477412187089noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8379446519663142723.post-36803665001355219962011-09-07T22:46:00.000-07:002011-09-07T22:46:24.559-07:00Research WritingThe sample essay "The Media Affecting Teenage Rebellion," was quite similar to what a normal research paper would look like. It has many similar characteristics as to what we came up with in class and fit the picture in my head of what a research paper should sound like. The main goal of a research paper, which is to inform/ persuade the reader about a certain topic was definitely reached by the end of the paper. <br />
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When first looking at a paper, it is easy to tell if it is research using one distinct component, citations. Obviously, if there is quotations in a paper from an outside source (either using quotation marks or blocked text) it is a probably a research paper. Being a rather long research essay this sample features many examples of both. For example in the third paragraph the author uses a quote from Bucholtz 141, "Adolescence has been shaped by both education and urbanization" (2). Along with other short quotes, a few longer blocks are used throughout the paper as well. A bibliography at the end of the essay also indicates research had been done. Whether a list of 3 or 15 sources, the bibliography proves that legitimate sources were used to write the paper.<br />
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Even without quotations in a paper, it would be easy to realize this paper was a research paper. After reading a few lines it was easy to see this paper was not exactly meant to entertain, rather inform. The author's use of questions in the opening paragraph hints at what exactly the point of the paper is. The author straight up admits what the paper will be about by asking the question "in what ways does the media affect how adolescents rebels against authority" (1)? This main focus question is answered throughout the paper with information, and is then reflected upon through personal experience, surveys, etc. At one point the author states "I, personally, have witnessed a great deal of underage substance use through both my high school and college career" (4), which is then followed by information from other text to explain the reason behind the behavior. This directly correlates to the "reflection about learned information" topic we discussed in class.<br />
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The fact the author used many different points of view about the same topic and also allowed the reader to form his/ her own opinion on the topic, created a good overall theme for the paper. The topic of media affecting teenage rebellion was looked at from many different angles, and from both a positive and negative outlook. A balanced coverage type paper, as is this one, is needed to establish the argumentative/ persuasive feel which we discussed was needed for a good research paper. Overall, the paper was well-written and had all the needed aspects for a research-based essay.Tyler Diedrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11837418477412187089noreply@blogger.com1