In this New York Times article by Charles McGrath, he discusses about a tall, longed haired, and usual author named, Will Self, that only walks to place to place. Mr. Self lived in London but he had to travel to New York. He didn’t take any transportation to get to the airport, but walked there. To think how he has the ability and time to so much walking in one day. In the past, Mr. Self was struggling with drug and alcohol addiction. It was affecting his career and life, so, he turned to the path of becoming clean for eight years. He rebuilt his energy by taking extreme hikes and walks and it helped him stay away from the addictions. While he was visiting New York, he came across many things in the city and seen things that even New Yorker didn’t notice or acknowledge. This man didn’t like to be sociable or happy in the past when his demons were holding him down, but eight years later, Mr. Self changed into a new and inspiring man that walks anywhere and enjoy anything he sees.
Category Archives: ENG1101
Annotating a reading/ reviewing for the midterm
What do we do when we read with a pen (or pencil, or highlighter) in hand?
vocabulary/cultural references–words to look up: underline, use context and then look up later. After: write them in the margins, or on the back, or on a separate sheet.
highlighted, underlined sentences that worked together to establish the article’s argument
think about color-coding the text
things that repeated–note page or paragraph #
short summaries of important paragraphs
connect ideas to other things you read/experienced
ask questions: for clarification or to engage with the author/speaker
tone: sarcasm, joking
note the things you know well, have expertise
main idea: or example that explains the main idea
passages you might want to quote when you write about this article
drawing–sketch an idea
drawing arrows, circles
number code for different ideas eg 1=walking 2=exploring life 3=landmarks
bullet points about the different people or places
tagging
reading more than once
identify arguments/main points:
- walking vs drug addiction: helps him keep his mind off drugs, coping,
- his experience of NYC vs other people’s experience
- walking lets you discover, pay attention (buildings, parks), but if you’re driving, you miss all of these things. EXPLORATION, physically and visually/intellectually rewarding
anticipate questions:
- Consider your preferred form of travel compared to Self’s idea of walking as the only way of exploration
- think about a time when you developed a healthy habit. How does this relate to Self’s idea of walking instead of taking drugs?
- What emotions do you experience when walking? How does walking affect your point of view?
- How does walking give you a different/better experience than other forms of transportation
- views on NY–exploration
- views of perseverance/persistence
Organizing your in-class essay:
make an outline/organizational representation of your ideas
focused freewrite
bring in examples from the reading–
draft a THESIS STATEMENT
- main argument or point of your essay
- it’s a roadmap to your essay
- it isn’t a question, it’s the answer–it’s a statement!
- when you’re writing about a comparison, a good template for your thesis statement is to show how two things that seem different are actually similar, or two things that seem similar are actually different, or some combination of these. Try “Although my healthy habits involved going to the gym rather than taking long walks like Self did, we both had the opportunity to explore places where people from different backgrounds come together.” I’d expect that the essay would describe your experience of making healthy choices by going to the gym, and maybe in another paragraph how it exposed you to different people from different backgrounds, all coming together in one place. Then you would do the same for Self’s experience, and then offer a comparison. Your outline is right there in the thesis statement!
- it comes at the end of your introductory paragraph.
(leave space after the first paragraph to be able to come back and revise)
write the essay!
make sure that your essay fits with 1-the question 2-the thesis statement
at the very end, proofread a few times. Here are a few tips:
- before the exam, check out the list of Frequently Confused Words (and add to it via the comments) to help you prepare for the midterm
- You might try reading your essay sentence-by-sentence starting with the last one and moving backward to the beginning–it helps you read out of context, so you pay better attention to the construction of the sentence.
- Read through looking for one thing at a time: first if you’re following all of the instructions/answering the question, then if you’re supporting your thesis statement, then if you have good organization, sentence structure, use the right words, spell them properly, etc. You can see that my list starts with the most important and moves to the less important.
Camera Lucida
Looking at the picture on p 22:
- soldiers, guns, namely assault rifles->war
- (Nicaragua)
- rubble, aftermath ->destruction, depression
- nuns
- small village
- trees
- cloud?
- ground, road
- sandbags? = fortification
- pile of bricks
- pole–street light? telephone pole?
- dictatorship?
- why are there soldiers with heavy artillery next to the nuns?
http://monoskop.org/images/c/c5/Barthes_Roland_Camera_Lucida_Reflections_on_Photography.pdf
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fnewlinearperspectives.files.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F11%2Fbarthes-punctum-vs-studium.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fnewlinearperspectives.wordpress.com%2Fphotography%2Fsontag-barthes-berger-benjamin-on-robert-capa%2F&h=700&w=700&tbnid=dNMUJQefw-eljM%3A&zoom=1&docid=7aA2yEA7JX-_LM&ei=QxhFVK6UD9LhsAShq4CYCw&tbm=isch&ved=0CCMQMygFMAU&iact=rc&uact=3&dur=1013&page=1&start=0&ndsp=17
Project 2 Final
What is a city? In my opinion, the city is the place that contains multiple areas, such as political areas, residential areas, financial centers and etc. New York city is the place like this. To know more about this fantastic city, I take a walk around our campus. At very beginning, I felt like only Manhattan can represent New York City because the first impression he gave me was sleepless, amazing, ambition, but far away. When I close to this city, I realize that New York City not only has a shiny surface, but also has a lovely and busy place called Brooklyn.
As I taking a walk, I was thinking about the juxtaposition. Where can be the best place to represent juxtaposition? This took a long time for me to make a decision because every place has its mission to stand on his way. I’ve walked several place from our campus to the Brooklyn Bridge Park, even further the Brooklyn Bridge. However, on a morning when I passed by the supreme and family court, I found my answer finally.
My positions are located between Brooklyn Bridge Park and the Supreme and Family court. Brooklyn Bridge Park, a place that people would like to share happiness with family and friends where locates under the Brooklyn Bridge. Sitting on the stone beach, I’ve viewed the great scene of Manhattan Island. It was not that big as today. With the development of the society, the park extends with those piers. Back to the park, I had a really relax the afternoon at the park. Everyone enjoyed their coffee or their afternoon-topic. The Sun shines on the river brilliantly. People seat on benches or play near the river. Such a relaxed picture.
Usually, I pass by the Supreme and family court is on my way school or home. Maybe because of the rush hour in the morning, people stand outside of the court always look like seriously. Obviously, court house is a serious place, but compares with Brooklyn Bridge Park where just locates 10 blocks away, the atmosphere is totally different. At the family court people usually worried about support or their children belong to, not share their happiness which is sad. The sun like a fire shines on them with abandonment. They fan their folders, open their mouths with helpless and anxious. They have stories that cannot tell.
However, not everyone from court house hates the city, still have a happy ending for some family. They went out of the lobby with smile and hug, like the people who seat on benches at Brooklyn Bridge Park or enjoy the Sun.
Colson Whitehead, the writer of ‘City Limits’，in the book, he found out New York City is different by feeling it. I cannot oppose his opinion that we could feel the city because we are in it. The city can go on without us, but that city doesn’t belong to us, doesn’t it? At the same time, same place, but different events are happening which are building your own New York City.
Glossary Entry #3: juxtaposition
juxtaposition (Noun):
an act or instance of placing close together or side by side, especially for comparison or contrast.
I encountered this word in our guideline paper for project #2.
In the project, we are expected to have a better understanding of the word in our writing, so i thought this would be a good word to search up on for some who struggle about the word. judging by the definition of the word, we are expected to make comparisons about the places we walked around and how we can describe them compared to “City Limits” by Colson Whitehead. Now that i searched up the definition, i have a better understanding of what is expected in the project and what we have to do to meet the expectation.Project #2: rough draft
As a fresh New Yorker, I think I’m not deeply know this mystery city. So for me, the old New York City is more like a dream place that appeared in my mind which is sleepless, busy and fancy. But when I came here, what I’ve seen are totally different from my mind.
As a foreigner, every information I’ve got from books, movies and internet, but for some reasons, they’re so limited because I cannot see the real color of the sky, I cannot stand on the top of the empire Building to enjoy the night view of this fantastic city, I cannot walk through the Brooklyn Bridge to feel relax. The best way for me to well-know this fabulous city is movies which can give me visual information to feed my thirst. When you have a dream destination where you really want to go, you’ll add your expectation on there. So do I. Compared with my hometown, I thought New York City is more colorful, especially the Times Square, never lightless and there is a great bridge called Brooklyn Bridge. Be honestly, I barely knew the information about the New York City before, I even didn’t know New York isn’t representing the New York City. I didn’t know anything about that five boroughs. I felt like everyone in New York City is rich and happy. There might have a department sent money to people. I forgot the reason why I thought like this, but those are what I considered New York City before.
As a fresh New Yorker,the first thing I’ve done when I came this dream destination that was jumping on the floor.” Finally,I’m here.” I talked to myself. I was a little disappointed about this wonderful city truly. The subways are dirty and busy. People are from all over the world, and not everyone is rich and happy here, not everybody gets free money from somewhere, they work. The New York City is the best place to teach me “No pain, No gain.” People get support from their hands. However, The new New York City is more powerful and alive than what existing in my imagination because people offer alive elements to the city, like Colson Whitehead said, you are the part of New York because you witness it and join in. Those different cultural diffusion makes today, the new New York City. I realized that I’m here to know the city much deeper than I knew it on books or other media. I’ve found that Times Square is not the only place to feel modern, I cannot see stars at night, but the sky is really beautiful, 34th is not the only place to buy beautiful and fashion clothes, Chinatown isn’t the only place that Chinese live in. For me, those are elements that consist of the new New York City.
“New York will go on without us.” Building your own New York City by your unique eyes.
Reference: Colson Whitehead, “City Limits.”from the Colossus of New York.
Our Trip, Center For Book Arts.
On our last course, we had a field trip which was really cool. Especially the Center for Book Arts! I really like the 30 feet long comic painting called Accretion Scroll, by Mike Estabrook which is super genius! It caught my attention at all. I’ve “read” it from the left to the right and I was trying to find out the order of his painting, but that was so hard. Standing in front of the work with a distance, the picture shows a clear contrast between black and white. When I stepped in, there’s really a mass!But when I watched it much closer, I noticed there are plenty of stories which are connected! It was like people are on the way working, or a corner of a supermarket, or a super great war place of a star war! This painting is so fabulous which makes me think of thousands of ideas, they just jump out of my mind!
Art works are always a good communicating tool to express what you want to say!
Project 2 Research: Location
I think everyone is familiar with this place. The Brooklyn Bridge which starts from Jay St, ends in Chambers St. About 5989 feet long and 85 feet in width. It takes about 45mins walking through the bridge. I only walked through this bridge three times. The first time was in the first month I came to New York City. Everything was strange, for me that was just a bridge. The second time was in my first summer in NYC. That was a volunteer project. The third time was more meaningful for me. That was on the first day of my college life. I walked with my parents.
When I stood on the bridge, my view was much wider. The sky is blue and close to me. The wind blows gently from the Easter River. Everything at that moment was just like in a picture. Under the tower of the Bridge, I was looking towards Manhattan, lots of grand buildings, cars looked like very tiny, people were like ants, but the only feeling I have is peaceful.
The Brooklyn Bridge is an important part of New York City. The Bridge was built in 1867 and opened to the public in 1883. At first it was used to connect two different countries, not the two boroughs like today. Time flies, the Brooklyn Bridge not only becomes one of the famous landmarks of New York City, but also be shot in various TV programs to represent the New York City.
Summary of the reading, “City Limits”
To think New York wasn’t the New York that’s infront of you. That’s strange to think about as you gaze at the Freedom tower. But the tower wasn’t always there. You just believe or imagine having your own New York to make you feel at “home”.
Colton whitehead, whom wrote the reading, “City Limits”, states that as the years go by, old New York is changing rapidly without everybody knowing or being herald. So it can’t ever come back. He still sees some buildings now as they were in the past. He even says that the people who own those old buildings didn’t even know that it was neglected and abandon,so, it was gone without saying goodbye. Even if we don’t see or know the Old or new New York, whithead states that the city knows everything about us. Basically, he says you can have your own New York but it’s wrong.
Chart of my course – Eng1101 Project#2
A lovely 15 mins walk from City Tech for the English Project #2
