Post #8: Formal Introductions

The rough draft of your academic analysis is due this coming weekend.  To help you get started, this post will focus on the introduction to that essay.

Traditional introductions are comprised of three parts: the hook, the background/context, and the thesis.

The hook functions as an interesting opening to the essay designed to "grab" the reader's attention and provide a stylistic lead.  To be effective, a hook should be original, interesting, and consistent with the essay's topic and tone.  Some forms effective hooks may take could be a question (either rhetorical or literal), definition, description, anecdote, fact/statistic, or an example.

The second part of the introduction introduces all of the necessary background information to provide context for your analysis and argument.  Here is where you need to introduce (define and explain) your key terms and ideas.  In the case of this essay, you would need to introduce the idea of photography and then whatever concept you are focusing on to make your argument.

The third and final part of your introduction is where you present your specific argument about the topic.  The thesis statement will vary; an effective method to craft a strong thesis would be to return to the questions you posed in the last blog post.  Find the one question that seems to be the most important or significant.  Then, write an answer to your question; that will be your thesis.  As you are writing your thesis, do not reduce your argument to opinion by writing "I think" or "In my opinion."  Instead, just present your argument objectively.

For this entry, post your introduction to this blog.  These introductions should be a solid paragraph that would entail somewhere between half-a-page and a full page if you were to type it in a double-spaced essay.

Post #7

For your Academic Analysis, you will need to analyze at least two different photographs, one from a fellow student and one from the J. Paul Getty exhibit titled "Where We Live Now."  Your essay can discuss more photographs if you'd like, but you need to focus on at least two.

As for your essay, the general topic is photograph and what it means, and each of the authors you've read (Barthes, Sontag, and Kracauer) take a different approach to that topic.  Likewise, I expect each of you will take a slightly different approach in your essays.

To get started, you should ask yourself what it is about this topic that interests you.  Is it the relationship between photography and time?  Photography and memory?  Photography and art?  Photography and commemoration?  Photography and identity?  Photography as documentation or evidence?  Photography and attention?

Once you've found your "angle," you'll want to turn that focus into an analytical thesis statement.  For example, if you wanted to focus on the topic of photography and time, you should ask yourself a series of questions to get yourself started: how does photography capture a moment in time?  Why is that useful?  What are the limitations of such a captured moment?  How can such a moment be used (by us as individuals, by historians, by corporations)?

For this post, choose the angle you'll take for your essay, and come up with a list of at least five questions you plan on answering in your essay (and you can always change your mind later).

Feel free to borrow and steal good questions from your fellow classmates.  The purpose of this blog is to enable you to use your group-mind to help each of your single-minds.

Post #6

This post will be brainstorming for your essay.

First, read Roland Barthes's "Rhetoric of the Image."

Second, choose one photograph from a fellow classmate (on Post #4) and one photograph from The J. Paul Getty exhibit titled "Where We Live Now" (click on a photographer's name on the webpage).

Finally, answer this question: What is the message this photograph is trying to convey?

As Barthes describes, these messages can operate on a number of different levels and linguistic frequencies, so if you feel as though the photograph has more than one message, go ahead and list those possible messages.

Post #5

For this post, read Kracauer's "On Photography" (available on Blackboard). 

Then watch this video by Feist.

Finally, find one quote from Kracauer's essay that helps answer one of the questions from the Post #4. Provide the quote, and write a brief explanation as to its significance/meaning. Be sure to give the page number of the quote as well.

Post #4

Hello All,

For this post, read Susan Sontag's "The Image World," which you can find on the class Blackboard page.  Then find one quote that provides an answer to one of the questions from below.  Finally, provide a brief explanation (a couple of sentences) of why you found that quote meaningful.

Note: Do not repeat a quote someone has already posted; you must find a new quote to discuss if "your" quote is taken.

What is Art?  What are the qualities that would elevate a given object to the status of "art"?

Why do people create art?
Why do audiences want to experience art?
Does art require context?  In other words, does an artwork lose anything out of context?  Is a Picasso painting the same in person as it is as an image we might use as the screensaver on our desktop computer?

Can photography be art?
How is photography different from other forms of art (like literature and painting)?
How is it similar?
What qualities would a photograph need to possess to be elevated to the status of art?

Why do people take photographs?
What function/purpose/utility do photographs serve for us as individuals?  For us as members of a family or community?  For anonymous/unknown audiences?

Finally, if anyone is interested, the Bakersfield Museum of Art is hosting an exhibit titled "Photography in Mexico," with some fantastic photographs, including my all-time favorite: "Mujer Angel" by Graciela Iturbide.

Post #3

I will post your photographs here as I receive them.

C. Orozco's "Capture the Moments of Today"

A Davis's "Walking with Giants"

M. Hernandez's "North Lake Tahoe 1/1/2015"

T. Dunn's "Priorities"

A. Martinez's "Party Like a Rock Star"

E. Herrera's "A Promise"

L. Castro's "Up on Top of the Rock"

J. Campos's "Life of a Student"

J. Soto's "Penny"

M. Zamarripa's "Rusty the Cat"

S. Smith's "Hindsight"

D. Maciel-Gonzalez's "Mechanical Love Affair"

M. Ortiz's "Paws of Love"

A. Perez's "Family"

I. Mireles's "Setting the Example"

A. Rendon's "A Girl's Best Friend"

F. Gurrola's "Got to Save Gas"

V. Rojas's "The Life of a Flower"

E. Chum's "For All Ages"

K. Zakhary's "A New Love"

D. Montoya's "Afternoon at Red Rock"

B. Castro's "Four-ever Grateful"

J. Vega's "Baby"

M. Woodman's "The Magician"

S. Subia's "The Graveyard"

L. Gudino's "My Heart Lives Here"

Winter 2015, Post #2

For this post, review the syllabus, and post one question you have about the syllabus, the class, or one of the assignments.  Post your question by Friday, and I'll answer either on this blog or during our orientation on Saturday.

Winter 2015, Post 1

Hello All,

My name is Matthew Woodman, and I will be your instructor for English 305.  For this first post, to which you should post a comment/response by January 7, provide a brief introduction of yourself: your major, current job, career goals, what you hope to learn in this course, and any additional trivia about your life.

Here's a bit about me: I have been teaching at CSUB for fourteen years and have spent most of my life here in the central valley.  In addition to English 305, I also teach the freshmen writing course (110), another upper-division GWAR course (310), Advanced Technical Writing (ADM 510), Introduction to Literature (101), and the first-year-experience course (CSUB 101).  When I am not teaching, I am writing poetry; you can see some of my work here and here.  When I am not writing, I am probably reading a book (I'm in the middle of Bob Hicok's Elegy Owed) or working on some sort of painting.  In terms of this course, I hope to help you improve all aspects of your writing, from development and organization to depth and insight.  Along the way, my goal is to make writing a skill that you will enjoy improving.