One hallmark of advanced writing is the effectiveness with which one uses another person's words and ideas. There are three ways to accomplish this: summary, paraphrase, and direct quote. To summarize or paraphrase means to keep the author's ideas but to reconstruct them in your own language, syntax, and voice (while giving attribution to the original author, of course). To directly quote a source is to keep the author's ideas and words (if the language is vivid enough to be worth keeping). However, when using a direct quote, writers should avoid free-standing quotes (also known as dropped, floating, or cut-and-pasted quotes). A free-standing quote is a quote that a writer uses without introduction or integration, and it will disrupt the writer's own tone and flow.
There are three ways of introducing quotes to prevent them from being free-standing.
1. Use a simple introductory phrase, like "According to" or "So-and-so argues." This method emphasizes the author, so a writer would use this when he or she wants to emphasize the person as an expert or someone offering testimony.
Here's an example.
According to Siegfried Kracauer, "While time is not part of the photograph like the smile or the chignon, the photograph itself, so it seems to them, is a representation of time" (424).
2. Write your own sentence, then use a quote (introduced with a colon) that functions as evidence or demonstration of your sentence's ideas. Be sure your sentence is a complete sentence; otherwise, the sentence becomes a fragment. This method works most effectively for using source material as evidence for the writer's own claims.
Here's an example.
In certain ways, a photograph functions as a more reliable witness than our own memory: "Memory encompasses neither the entire spatial appearance nor the entire temporal course of an event. Compared to photography memory's records are full of gaps" (Kracauer 425).
3. Instead of introducing the entire quote, integrate pieces (words, phrases, or clauses) into the context of the writer's own syntax. This method works best to synthesize ideas and to create a smooth flow.
Here's an example.
When we reduce our experience of the world to collecting photographs, we become guilty of the "warehousing of nature" (Kracauer 435) and loved ones in dusty albums as forgotten souvenirs.
Your assignment:
A. Find three quotes from Susan Sontag's On Photography that you will use in your essay.
B. Introduce those quotes and/or incorporate them into a sentence of your own that you will use in your essay.
C. Post those three sentences to the blog.
According to Sontag, “Photography has become one of the principal devices for experiencing something, for giving an appearance of participation” (Sontag,1977). Social commerce is all about getting consumers engaged in discussion about the brand’s products and sharing experiences among themselves on social media mainly through photography.
ReplyDeleteBrands with the aid of technology, are aggressively using photography to engage consumers on every platform of social media: “There is an aggression implicit in every use of the camera. This is as evident in the 1840s and 1850s, photography’s glorious first two decades, as in all the succeeding decades, during which technology made possible an ever increasing spread of that mentality which looks at the world as a set of potential photographs” (Sontag,1977).
Instagram is another popular social media used mainly by the younger generation to share photography as “mainly a social rite” (Sontag,1977).
Nice work. Just be sure to provide a page number in your parenthetical citation when you're using direct quotes.
DeleteThanks.
Delete1.According to Susan Sontag, “To collect photographs is to collect the world” (3). In other words, the author is trying to say that a person does not have to travel to other places of the world in order to get to know the world and many of us collect the world through photographs.
ReplyDelete2. A photograph is not just to be kept framed in a wall or to save memories: “photographs were seen as a way of giving information to people” (Sontag 22).
3. A photograph can show us a reality that can only be seen through an image and we can only see it if we “accept it as the camera records it” (Sontag 23) and many of us can get disappointed to see a reality that we do not want to see.
1) Susan Sontag states, “To photograph is to appropriated the thing photographed” (pg. 4). In other words, this can be interpret as putting oneself in a certain situation to the world and gaining knowledge from an image.
ReplyDelete2) Each photograph is a treasured memory, that turns into an object that one can look back as time goes by: “Photographs may be more memorable than moving images, because they are a neat slice of time, not a flow” (Sontag 17).
3) A camera is able to show the hidden details “photographic view is to show that it is hidden”(Sontag 121) that as we are growing up we do not seem to recognize small changes in us.
Juana, #1 and #2 look good. #3 is a fragment/run-on. Here's one possible revision.
DeleteBecause a camera is able to show hidden details, the "photographic view is to show that it is hidden" (Sontag 121) and that as we age we do not seem to recognize small changes in us.
1.) Susan Sontag stated that, “a photograph is a . . . passage of time” (Sontag 71). Pictures can hold someone’s entire life, through the memories captured in photographs.
ReplyDelete2.) depending on how the viewer perceives the photograph’s, “the photograph is, always, an object in context" (Sontag 9).
3.)A photograph becomes an object of beauty when “ [taken] of something beautiful, like a women [or], a sunset” (Sontag 28), and the photograph simply serves to show the beauty that is captured in the photograph .
Emily, be sure to use the form where you have a complete thought followed by a colon and then the quote.
Delete1. Many people share an emotional connection with photographs; Susan Sontag stated that, “Photography has always been fascinated by social heights and lower depths” (55).
ReplyDelete2. Susan Sontag declared, “[…]most households have a camera, but a household with children is twice as likely to have at least one camera as a household in which there are no children” (8). This could be because it is through one’s children that we see the best of our own accomplishments.
3. “Photographs cannot create a moral position, but they can reinforce one—and can help build a nascent one”(Sontag, 17). This can be evidenced by the reactions the public has to pictures that have been released which document suffering.
Morgan, in your first sentence, the "that" means you don't need a comma. Your last sentence is a free-standing quote (the quote is its own sentence, which you want to avoid doing in formal writing). Rewrite #3 as something like "Pictures that document suffering force the public to act: 'Photographs cannot create a moral position, but they can reinforce one--and can help build a nascent one' (Sontag 17)."
Delete1) Susan Sontag stated that “the images that have virtually unlimited authority in a modern society are mainly photographic images” (153), the human race seems to agree with this statement.
ReplyDelete2) “Reality itself has started to be understood as a kind of writing, which has to be decoded–even as photographed images were themselves first compared to writing” (Sontag, 160), apparently the business of ad photography is a new form of writing, as even something seeming to be real and untainted is nothing more than a lie that must be decoded to understand the true intentions behind it.
3) The truth of the matter seems to be that consumers "see reality as hopelessly and interestingly plural" (Sontag 173), denying their involvement in the evils of false advertising while spending money on those products day and night through Amazon and in person.
Greg, your second sentence is a comma splice. Rewrite it so that the quote comes second, and then use a colon to separate the two.
DeleteThe business of advertising photography is a new form of writing, as even something seeming to be real and untainted is nothing more than a lie that must be decoded to understand the true intentions behind it: "Reality itself has started to be understood as a new kind of writing, which has to be decoded--even as photographed images were themselves first compared to writing" (Sontag 160).
1.) Sontag states, “A photograph is not just the result of an encounter between an event and a photographer; picture-taking is an even in itself, and one with even more peremptory rights to interfere with, to invade, or to ignore whatever is going on” (Sontag 11).
ReplyDelete2.) “Photography implies that we know about the world if we accept it as the camera records it” (23). Implications on a photograph shows what we see the world as we need to see it in light of the fact that a camera just catches what we want to see.
3.) According to Sontag, “To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed. It means putting oneself into a certain relation to the world that feels like knowledge – and, therefore, like power” (4).
Julian, your first and third sentences follow the same pattern. Go back, and reread my description of the third option to see how it should be.
DeleteIn terms of #2, you need to avoid free-standing quotes! This should read as one sentence, something like this.
Implications on a photograph shows what we see the world as we need to see it in light of the fact that a camera just catches what we want to see: "Photography implies that we know about the world if we accept it as the camera records it" (Sontag 23).
Also, revise this sentence, as it does not make sense: "Implications on a photograph shows what we see the world as we need to see it."
1. Susan Sontag wrote, “To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed” (3).
Delete2. Furthermore, their work testifies to the fact that once something is out there in the netherworld, we truly can’t take it back: “photographs are also a trace, something directly stenciled off of the real, like a footprint or a death mask” (153).
3. Larson and Shindelman’s project seems to convey the embodiment of Sontag’s sentiment that the camera "may presume, intrude, trespass, distort, exploit" and isn't completely innocuous (13).
1. Photographs all have different intentions whether it is to inform, express, connect and identify depending on the context, they all share a similarity; photographs are all intentional. According to Sontag, “photographed images do not seem to be statements about the world so much as pieces of it, miniatures of reality that anyone can make or acquire” (4).
ReplyDelete2. In a familial culture, parents love to take pictures of their children to reminisce back to special moments at any given moment. As mentioned by Sontag, “it hardly matters what activities are photographed so long as photographs get taken and are cherished. Photography becomes a rite of the family. . .” (8).
3. Sontag describes photographs as “a way of certifying experience, taking photographs is also a way of refusing it . . . by converting experience into an image . . .” (9). This phrase is perfect in describing this photograph of progress. The experience of achieving a new goal in life has now turned into a still moment, a memory. No longer will the experience be present, but whenever the photographer looks back to this photograph, he or she will remember the experience of the progress
Yanira,
DeleteIn your #2, have this as one sentence.
In a familial culture, parents love to take pictures of their children to reminisce back to special moments at any given moment: “it hardly matters what activities are photographed so long as photographs get taken and are cherished. Photography becomes a rite of the family” (Sontag 8).
1. According to Sontag, "Photgraphs furnish evidence" (6). She is explaining how photographs are basically the final part of evidence. There is no denying what is seen in photos.
ReplyDelete2. "Photography is essentially an act of non-intervention" (Sontag 8).
3.Photos are very important and have so much "desire in the most direct, utilitarian way" Sontag 10, and create an effect on the people who view them.
Emilee, watch out for free-standing quotes! Your #2 needs a sentence of your own before the quote.
Delete1. To a fan, having a photograph of an athlete is more than just owning a picture, just like “having a photograph of Shakespeare would be like having a nail from the True Cross” (Sontag, 154).
ReplyDelete2. A goal for sports marketing teams using photographs to promote events is to make the viewers of the picture want to experience that photo in real life. According to Sontag, “Through photographs, we also have a consumer’s relation to events, both to events which are part of our experience and to those which are not—a distinction between types of experience that such habit-forming consumership blurs” (155-156). Should the viewer see these photographs as part of their own experience, it is more likely they will attend more games.
3. Taking an action shot photo is more than just snapping a picture of the athlete. Susan Sontag states, “The movie camera lingers in close-up to let us savor the mobility of each face; then we see the face frozen in the last of its expressions, embalmed in a still” (70).
Nadia, your #2 doesn't use the colon.
DeleteHere's a corrected version.
A goal for sports marketing teams using photographs to promote events is to make the viewers of the picture want to experience that photo in real life: “Through photographs, we also have a consumer’s relation to events, both to events which are part of our experience and to those which are not—a distinction between types of experience that such habit-forming consumership blurs” (Sontag 155-156).
1. Like Sontag stated “Photographs furnish evidence” (5). Photographs help give a visual image for when describing a place to your loved one or of oneself.
ReplyDelete2. Sontag also explains that “Photographs offer indisputable evidence that the trip was made, that the program was carried out, that fun was had”. (9) It gives us a way to reminisce in those moments and the feelings we felt at that time.
3. Sontag says, "A photograph is only a fragment, and with the passage of time its moorings come unstuck" (71). Pictures of our family, friends, favorite locations and interest, and also the not so great obstacle in life; they become us and without them, we would not be who we are today.
Vanessa, each of these three sentences is just the same form/method. Go back to the original instructions, and pay closer attention as to what you're supposed to do for #2 and #3.
Delete2. Not only do pictures show us a visual images of the captured moment, it also gives us a way to reminisce in those moment and the feeling we felt at that time:“Photographs offer indisputable evidence that the trip was made, that the program was carried out, that fun was had” (Sontag 9).
Delete3. Looking at pictures of our families, friends, favorite locations and interest, and the not so great obstacles in life soon "reveal" (Sontag 71) that without those people and events that we endured, we wouldn't be the person we are today.
1. Susan Sontag argues, "To take a photograph is to participate in another person's mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time's relentless melt” (96).
ReplyDelete2.Not everything can go unseen: "The history of photography could be recapitulated as the struggle between two different imperatives: beautification, which comes from the fine arts, and truth-telling [... for] the photographer was supposed to unmask hypocrisy and combat ignorance" (Sontag 86).
3. Certain photographs expose a "realistic" (Sontag 22) picture of the world we live in, but are not aware of.
Nice work.
Delete1.Picutres are more than just pictures, Sontag mentions, "Movies and television programs light up walls, flicker, and go out; but with still photographs the image is also an object, lightweight, cheap to produce, easy to carry about, accumulate, store" (Sontag 3)
ReplyDelete2. "Photographs are perhaps the most mysterious of all the objects that make up, and thicken, the environment we recognize as modern" (Sontag 3)
3. Sontag point of view is "Once one has seen such images, one has started down the road of seeing more-and more."
Susy, go back and pay closer attention to the instructions for #2 and #3 and then revise your sentences.
Delete1. Sontag mentions “Photographs may be more memorable than moving images, because they are a neat slice of time, not a flow” (17).
ReplyDelete2. “Any photograph has multiple meanings; indeed, to see something in the form of a photograph is to encounter a potential object of fascination” (Sontag 23).
3. According to Sontag, “Photographs are, of course, artifacts…to have the status of found objects-unpremeditated slices of the world” (69).
Houa, go back and pay closer attention to the instructions for #2 and #3 and then revise your sentences.
Delete1.Susan Sontag states in her book "On Photography" that "the industrialization of photography permitted its rapid absorption into rational-that is, bureaucratic-ways of running society" (Sontag 16).
ReplyDelete2.Sontag explains "The ethical content of photographs is fragile. With the possible exception of photographs of those horrors, like the Nazi camps, that have gained the status of ethical reference points, most photographs do not keep their emotional charge." (Sontag 16)
3.A quote from Susan Sontag fits this idea well "Photography opened up a new model of freelance activity-allowing each person to display a certain unique, avid sensibility." (Sontag 69).
#1:In the book On Photography, Susan Sontag states, “to take a photograph is to participated in another person’s (or thing’s) mortality, vulnerability, mutability,” (15)
ReplyDelete#2: If their was one photo of Jesus Crist in the whole world and the person who had it kept it to them selves that person would have a knowledge or power that others done: “To photograph… means putting oneself into a certain relation to the world that feels like knowledge – and, therefore, like power” (Sontag 4).
#3:In todays society people attribute good photographs to a good vacation because “the quality of feeling… depends on the degree of their familiarity with these images,” (Sontag 19)
#1 According to Susan Sontag, “The knowledge gained through still photographs will always be some kind of sentimentalism, whether cynical and humanist” (24).
ReplyDelete#2 Photographic images are evidence of certain moments of time. Interest in disaster acquires opportunities to document events: “War and photography now seem inseparable, and plane crashes and other horrific accidents always attract people with cameras” (Sontag 167).
# 3 Valuable memories are established through photographed images. “A photograph passes for incontrovertible proof that a given thing happened,” (Sontag 5).