Assignment 1: Metadata In Analog Writing
Essay Assignment #1: Metadata in Analog Writing A writer is an artist who communicates particular ideas through text.(Wikipedia) Sometimes, there is more behind the text rather than the text itself. Behind every piece of writing there is some sort of inspiration or reasoning as to why a writer wants to express a particular topic. There are many different reasons as to why writers decide to pick up their pen, typewriter, or computer and write. Some may have a specific assignment they need to complete and others may just write just to express their thoughts and theories. Throughout this course, we have read and analyzed numerous articles and essays describing different out looks on race, gender, and class. What
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we failed to observe is what is behind the readings such as what has inspired a writer to write about a particular topic or the author’s beliefs on race, gender, and class or, why they chose to write a specific format. Writers write to express, inform, or to persuade their readers or even sometimes their selves.
Each author from these five readings: “White Privilege:Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”, by Peggy McIntosh, “Becoming Entrepreneurs: Intersections of Race, Class, and Gender at the Black Beauty Salon”, by Adia Harvey, “Chappals and Gym Shorts”, by Almas Sayeed, “Media Magic:Making Class Invisible”, by Gregory Mantsios, and lastly “The Great Gatsby” by F.Scott Fitzgerald, use their personal experience and interest to write a personal narrative, qualitative …show more content…
evaluation of others experiences, and quantitative measures to display their evidence. Personal narratives tell a story of something that has happened to you(Time). In Almas Sayeed’s narrative, “Chappals and Gym Shorts”, she discusses a story that talks about her conflict with religion and feminism. The readers could already tell from her name that her ancestors or family are not a traditional American Family. This narrative was published around 2002, when Sayeed was in her early/mid twenties, in a book called “Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Today’s Feminism”. During her sophomore year of college at University of Kansas, she experienced a confusion or conflict between her religion and her beliefs as a feminist. Her father and family are very strict with their Islamic Religion. In the Islamic religion, the parents schedule a planned marriage with their children at ages as young as 15. Almas was in her second year of college at the time and still was not married, which was a concern for her father. This narrative describes how Almas’ feminist ways help her to find herself. It helped her question herself and her beliefs as a feminist woman. Does she want to get married? Does she even like males as much as she thought? Does she still like women? These were questions she asked herself after her father brought up her arranged marriage. Dress code, arranged marriages and her religion in general, kept her from being free and expressing herself. Throughout this narrative she is very open with her experience because she is proud and confident of the person that she has become. In this narrative, Sayeed has a relationship with a white male but at the same time finds that she has a crush on a woman. “There was no way to explain my loving, charismatic, steadfastly religious father, who was inclined to the occasional violent outburst, that a traditional arranged marriage not only conflicted with the feminist ideology I had come to embrace, but it seemed almost petty in the face of larger, more pressing issues.”(Sayeed 25) This piece is more of a personal experience and realization rather than apiece filled with quantitative data. It is a writing where she does an experiment on herself. The theory is that it is important to acknowledge the differences between religion and culture. Sayeed uses a personal narrative because this event in her life was something that she came up with on her own and she wanted to express it. Unlike Sayeed, Peggy McIntosh uses her personal experiences to conduct an experiment on white privilege in, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”. Published in 1989 in “Peace and Freedom Magazine”, McIntosh breaks down the theory of white privilege and gives examples that came from her own point of view. McIntosh is a woman who has a strong opinion on privilege, race, and gender. Her opinion is so strong, that she teaches courses on privilege, race, and gender at many colleges, even the prestigious Harvard University. She also is a founder of a foundation called S.E.E.D. (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity), which is a company that helps teachers create seminars for diversity and equality. (McIntosh) McIntosh came up with a theory to white privilege: “ whites are taught to think of their lives as morally neutral, normative, and average, and also ideal, so that when we work to benefit others, this is seen as work which will allow ‘them’ to be more like ‘us’.”(McIntosh 50)
In this writing, McIntosh provides a list of examples of times where she feels “skin-tone” privileged. This piece provides the authors own experience as well as experience of others such as her colleagues and friends. Although this is not a quantitative piece of writing, it does provide more information than a regular narrative because of the fact that McIntosh wanted to provide great examples of white privilege. However, this is a qualitative evaluation of others and McIntosh’s experiences, because she uses other people and her experiences to collect data for this piece of writing. Gregory Mantsios, author of “Media Magic: Making Class Invisible”, truly believes in helping the poor.
Not only by giving back, but also by helping them succeed from the tools that they already have, being either poor or wealthy. This essay, published in 1998 in “Race, Class and Gender in the United States”, is about how the media misinterprets the poor. Although, the readers were clearly able to see that Mantsios is a male, we do not know he is a Latin man who used to be poor himself. Since he once was poor, he knows first hand by experience, that poor people are not what the media put them out to be. “When the media does put a face on the poor, it is not likely to be a pretty one. The media will provide us with sensational stories about welfare cheats, drug addicts, and greedy panhandlers (almost always urban and Black).”(Mantsios 386) This essay has a great amount of quantitative data because actual facts are the easiest way to prove that the overall perception of poor people by the media is false. Mantsios collected data from experience and other published writings to back up his
theory. Another writer who uses quantitative data to back up their subject matter is author of “Becoming Entrepreneurs: Intersections of Race, Class, and Gender at the Black Beauty Salon”, Adia M. Harvey. Although Harvey’s name is considered a predominately black name, the readers do not know she is automatically black even though it may be assumed because of the subject. Around the time of publication, 2005 in “Gender & Society” Volume 19 number 6, there were not any particular events to help inspire Harvey to write this essay except for her own experiences. Harvey does back track on time and expresses the difficulties of black/ethic women being successful. As a black woman herself, Harvey goes to predominately black hair salons and noticed that the salons are owned by black women. This writing discusses how becoming an entrepreneur and participant in the salon business was, and is, one of the only ways people of color can succeed due to limited opportunities.
Harvey collected data from 1997-2004 by doing research and conducting interviews with black, female salon owners on her own. Harvey’s best bet in establishing credibility in this writing was to attain actual facts to support her subject. Creating a personal narrative would have been nice, but it would not have the readers convinced enough. This piece is a qualitative evaluation of others experiences because of the results from the interviews combined with quantitative data because it is the best way to support the subject matter.
Lastly, F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of the infamous “The Great Gatsby”, wrote an American tale based off of the 1920’s, around the time of the depression and the “Jazz Age”. This book was published in 1925, which is why the story itself was based around this time. Around this era, many people started to create different views of the American dream and the wealthy and Fitzgerald wanted to take the basic interpretation of it and create a story around it. Although this is not a story based off of Fitzgerald’s actual personal experience, it is assumed that he generalized many people’s thoughts and experiences in one story. It is said that Fitzgerald did not really believe in the “Hollywood” lifestyle, which explains why he would write a narrative describing the negatives of people who decide to live the infamous Hollywood life. There are two theories in this novel one being that there are horrible people in this world and another being that the American Dream does not just consist of making a lot of money. Jay Gatsby, the main character of the book, considered having the love of his life his American dream although; he used money to try to earn it. This piece is all narrative and does not contain and quantitative data because it is just Fitzgerald’s personal interpretation of the Hollywood, glamour life and the false misconception of the American dream.
Overall, Sayeed, McIntosh, Mantsios, Harvey, and Fitzgerald, use their subject to distinguish what type of writing they want to use to display their evidence. Sayeed used a personal narrative to show her readers her conflict between her religion and her beliefs. She did not need quantitative data to back up her beliefs because her experience was enough to express her personal feeling. Fitzgerald also used a narrative to display his personal experiences with the wealthy and the common misconception of the American dream. A narrative is the easiest way to connect with readers, and more long term because numbers always can change. McIntosh thought that her personal experience would be a better way to have her readers identify what “white privilege” means. Although she used qualitative evaluation of others’ experiences as well as her own, creating a list of examples of white privilege help the readers connect and understand the actual meaning. Harvey used qualitative and quantitative data to back up her theory that becoming a entrepreneur and owning a beauty shop is the easiest way for people of color to succeed because of small amount of opportunity. Mantsios used the same format as Harvey by using quantitative data to support his theory that the media gives a false misconception of the poor class in the United States. Harvey and Mantsios both needed factual information to support their subject matters to easily grasp their readers’ attention. Authors use the subject matter to distinguish how they are going to use their evidence to connect with their readers and all five of these authors used their evidence in different ways.
Bibliography
"Peggy McIntosh, Ph.D.." Wellesley Centers for Women. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Mar.
2014.
we failed to observe is what is behind the readings such as what has inspired a writer to write about a particular topic or the author’s beliefs on race, gender, and class or, why they chose to write a specific format. Writers write to express, inform, or to persuade their readers or even sometimes their selves.
Each author from these five readings: “White Privilege:Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”, by Peggy McIntosh, “Becoming Entrepreneurs: Intersections of Race, Class, and Gender at the Black Beauty Salon”, by Adia Harvey, “Chappals and Gym Shorts”, by Almas Sayeed, “Media Magic:Making Class Invisible”, by Gregory Mantsios, and lastly “The Great Gatsby” by F.Scott Fitzgerald, use their personal experience and interest to write a personal narrative, qualitative …show more content…
evaluation of others experiences, and quantitative measures to display their evidence. Personal narratives tell a story of something that has happened to you(Time). In Almas Sayeed’s narrative, “Chappals and Gym Shorts”, she discusses a story that talks about her conflict with religion and feminism. The readers could already tell from her name that her ancestors or family are not a traditional American Family. This narrative was published around 2002, when Sayeed was in her early/mid twenties, in a book called “Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Today’s Feminism”. During her sophomore year of college at University of Kansas, she experienced a confusion or conflict between her religion and her beliefs as a feminist. Her father and family are very strict with their Islamic Religion. In the Islamic religion, the parents schedule a planned marriage with their children at ages as young as 15. Almas was in her second year of college at the time and still was not married, which was a concern for her father. This narrative describes how Almas’ feminist ways help her to find herself. It helped her question herself and her beliefs as a feminist woman. Does she want to get married? Does she even like males as much as she thought? Does she still like women? These were questions she asked herself after her father brought up her arranged marriage. Dress code, arranged marriages and her religion in general, kept her from being free and expressing herself. Throughout this narrative she is very open with her experience because she is proud and confident of the person that she has become. In this narrative, Sayeed has a relationship with a white male but at the same time finds that she has a crush on a woman. “There was no way to explain my loving, charismatic, steadfastly religious father, who was inclined to the occasional violent outburst, that a traditional arranged marriage not only conflicted with the feminist ideology I had come to embrace, but it seemed almost petty in the face of larger, more pressing issues.”(Sayeed 25) This piece is more of a personal experience and realization rather than apiece filled with quantitative data. It is a writing where she does an experiment on herself. The theory is that it is important to acknowledge the differences between religion and culture. Sayeed uses a personal narrative because this event in her life was something that she came up with on her own and she wanted to express it. Unlike Sayeed, Peggy McIntosh uses her personal experiences to conduct an experiment on white privilege in, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”. Published in 1989 in “Peace and Freedom Magazine”, McIntosh breaks down the theory of white privilege and gives examples that came from her own point of view. McIntosh is a woman who has a strong opinion on privilege, race, and gender. Her opinion is so strong, that she teaches courses on privilege, race, and gender at many colleges, even the prestigious Harvard University. She also is a founder of a foundation called S.E.E.D. (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity), which is a company that helps teachers create seminars for diversity and equality. (McIntosh) McIntosh came up with a theory to white privilege: “ whites are taught to think of their lives as morally neutral, normative, and average, and also ideal, so that when we work to benefit others, this is seen as work which will allow ‘them’ to be more like ‘us’.”(McIntosh 50)
In this writing, McIntosh provides a list of examples of times where she feels “skin-tone” privileged. This piece provides the authors own experience as well as experience of others such as her colleagues and friends. Although this is not a quantitative piece of writing, it does provide more information than a regular narrative because of the fact that McIntosh wanted to provide great examples of white privilege. However, this is a qualitative evaluation of others and McIntosh’s experiences, because she uses other people and her experiences to collect data for this piece of writing. Gregory Mantsios, author of “Media Magic: Making Class Invisible”, truly believes in helping the poor.
Not only by giving back, but also by helping them succeed from the tools that they already have, being either poor or wealthy. This essay, published in 1998 in “Race, Class and Gender in the United States”, is about how the media misinterprets the poor. Although, the readers were clearly able to see that Mantsios is a male, we do not know he is a Latin man who used to be poor himself. Since he once was poor, he knows first hand by experience, that poor people are not what the media put them out to be. “When the media does put a face on the poor, it is not likely to be a pretty one. The media will provide us with sensational stories about welfare cheats, drug addicts, and greedy panhandlers (almost always urban and Black).”(Mantsios 386) This essay has a great amount of quantitative data because actual facts are the easiest way to prove that the overall perception of poor people by the media is false. Mantsios collected data from experience and other published writings to back up his
theory. Another writer who uses quantitative data to back up their subject matter is author of “Becoming Entrepreneurs: Intersections of Race, Class, and Gender at the Black Beauty Salon”, Adia M. Harvey. Although Harvey’s name is considered a predominately black name, the readers do not know she is automatically black even though it may be assumed because of the subject. Around the time of publication, 2005 in “Gender & Society” Volume 19 number 6, there were not any particular events to help inspire Harvey to write this essay except for her own experiences. Harvey does back track on time and expresses the difficulties of black/ethic women being successful. As a black woman herself, Harvey goes to predominately black hair salons and noticed that the salons are owned by black women. This writing discusses how becoming an entrepreneur and participant in the salon business was, and is, one of the only ways people of color can succeed due to limited opportunities.
Harvey collected data from 1997-2004 by doing research and conducting interviews with black, female salon owners on her own. Harvey’s best bet in establishing credibility in this writing was to attain actual facts to support her subject. Creating a personal narrative would have been nice, but it would not have the readers convinced enough. This piece is a qualitative evaluation of others experiences because of the results from the interviews combined with quantitative data because it is the best way to support the subject matter.
Lastly, F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of the infamous “The Great Gatsby”, wrote an American tale based off of the 1920’s, around the time of the depression and the “Jazz Age”. This book was published in 1925, which is why the story itself was based around this time. Around this era, many people started to create different views of the American dream and the wealthy and Fitzgerald wanted to take the basic interpretation of it and create a story around it. Although this is not a story based off of Fitzgerald’s actual personal experience, it is assumed that he generalized many people’s thoughts and experiences in one story. It is said that Fitzgerald did not really believe in the “Hollywood” lifestyle, which explains why he would write a narrative describing the negatives of people who decide to live the infamous Hollywood life. There are two theories in this novel one being that there are horrible people in this world and another being that the American Dream does not just consist of making a lot of money. Jay Gatsby, the main character of the book, considered having the love of his life his American dream although; he used money to try to earn it. This piece is all narrative and does not contain and quantitative data because it is just Fitzgerald’s personal interpretation of the Hollywood, glamour life and the false misconception of the American dream.
Overall, Sayeed, McIntosh, Mantsios, Harvey, and Fitzgerald, use their subject to distinguish what type of writing they want to use to display their evidence. Sayeed used a personal narrative to show her readers her conflict between her religion and her beliefs. She did not need quantitative data to back up her beliefs because her experience was enough to express her personal feeling. Fitzgerald also used a narrative to display his personal experiences with the wealthy and the common misconception of the American dream. A narrative is the easiest way to connect with readers, and more long term because numbers always can change. McIntosh thought that her personal experience would be a better way to have her readers identify what “white privilege” means. Although she used qualitative evaluation of others’ experiences as well as her own, creating a list of examples of white privilege help the readers connect and understand the actual meaning. Harvey used qualitative and quantitative data to back up her theory that becoming a entrepreneur and owning a beauty shop is the easiest way for people of color to succeed because of small amount of opportunity. Mantsios used the same format as Harvey by using quantitative data to support his theory that the media gives a false misconception of the poor class in the United States. Harvey and Mantsios both needed factual information to support their subject matters to easily grasp their readers’ attention. Authors use the subject matter to distinguish how they are going to use their evidence to connect with their readers and all five of these authors used their evidence in different ways.
Bibliography
"Peggy McIntosh, Ph.D.." Wellesley Centers for Women. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Mar.
2014.