Finding Sources for Paper #2

The goal for conducting research is to become more aware of the conversation surrounding your topic.  If you’re doing a ‘guide’ to some activity, you want to read other sources’ ideas first, so you can understand where you fit into the conversation (and find the naysayers).  Additionally, if you’re doing the definition essay, and you say, “I consider myself an X,” you want to know how other people discuss being an “X,” and if you agree with them. 

EX: I want to write a guide about how to self-publish your own novel.  What are other writers saying about this?  What is their advice?  Is it the same as mine?  Who would the naysayers be to my approach/ideas?

Step #1: Go to the Linschied Library’s webpage (found at the top of the ECU website); in the “EBSCO Discovery Service” search, type in your search term (you might need to play around with this to get the right result).  I would try “self publishing novels.”

Step #2: I found 215 results, from a variety of articles and books (you can choose to search just articles or just books from the beginning).  Skimming the first page, I found 3 that look interesting: “A Book Industry Couple Tries Self-Publishing, “Colliding With Readers,” and “Of Decisions and Dream Chasing.”  I decide to click on “Of Decisions and Dream Chasing.”

Step #3: The link brings me to a summary of the article complete with an abstract: “The author discusses his experience self-publishing his novel "The Breeders." Topics include the benefits and drawbacks in his experience of attempting to publish a book in eight months, the risks of ruining his reputation through not using a traditional literary agent and publisher, and the lessons he learned by self-publishing his book.”  From this, I can click on the PDF Full Text link (to the left) to read the entire article.

Step #4: After reading the article, I find ideas to respond to as well as a slight ‘naysayer’ response to my own ideas.  On the right hand side, there is a “Cite” link that gives you the MLA citation for your Works Cited page (so you can cut and paste).  When you quote this in your paper, cite the author and page number (Beier, 68)—since this is a magazine article, it has a page number. 

Step #5: Repeat for other sources or to find a more applicable source.  If you don’t find anything worthwhile, vary your search terms.  Also, don’t forget to search for books in the library.  Remember, you don’t have to read an entire book to use it as a source: read selectively, look through the table of contents and the index at the back for useful pages. 

REMEMBER, you can’t write a paper until you know the conversation.  Even if you know a lot about your subject, you need people to respond to.  Sources are the conversation.  The more you read, the easier this paper will be to write!  

Paper #2: Self-Help or Semantics (due Thursday by 5pm)

For your second paper, I want you to consider the conversation we’ve been having in class over the past 3 essays (and the one to come): writing guides to a specialized activity/event or to a specific identity.  Each of these authors is trying to initiate you into a complex experience that has its own rules, customs, beliefs, pitfalls, and language.  Now I want you to enter this conversation by writing an essay over one of the following:

·         A “how-to” guide to some activity you have experienced or are knowledgeable about

·         A “definition” essay where you define yourself as the member of a specific group or identity

Consider how the previous essays have addressed this: Koeppel compiled the advice of experts on how to survive a 35,000 foot fall; Eighner discussed the complex rules of dumpster diving; Mairs defined her identity as a “cripple,” and in our fourth essay, Tan will explore the difficulties of being Chinese-American and speaking what many consider “broken English.”  Your essay should be modeled on one or more of these, as you attempt to help us see a world we haven’t experienced and might never experience.  The goal of writing is to respond to a conversation, so your paper is a response to on-going conversation about this topic, how you fit into it, and what others can learn from it.

The Role of the Naysayer: You must introduce a naysayer(s) into your paper that offers other ways of looking at your activity or your identity.  For example, Koeppel offers conflicting theories of how to survive a terrible free-fall, whereas Mairs offers more polite names for her disease—“handicapped,” “differently abled”—which she rejects.  In your essay, I want you to consider how other people’s opinions and advice might argue with yours, and how you can respond to this in helping people see your point of view.  You need at least 2 outside sources on your subject/identity that can be used to offer other perspectives than yours, that you can either use to suggest alternatives or disagree with. 

Some ideas for this paper could include, but are not limited to: a guide to surviving high school, being a specific ethnic group, being a specific regional group (Redneck, etc.), playing a specific sport, learning a musical instrument, being a mother/father, surviving an addiction, being in a relationship/ marriage, doing a specific job (from working at Braum’s to something more specialized, like being a vet’s assistant),being a gamer (or some other sub-group), or having a difficult family relationship (divorce, a parent/sibling in prison, a death in the family), etc.  In each of these, consider how other people might view you or the activity in question; how might they disagree with your ideas and advice, and how can your response to this form the basis of your essay? 

REQUIREMENTS: at least 4 pages, double spaced; 2 outside sources (quoted/cited following MLA format); due on Thursday, Oct.2^nd by 5pm.  Late papers lose 10 points a day until Sunday at 5pm; after that you get a zero and cannot use this paper in your portfolio.  

For Thursday: Tan's Mother Tongue (pp.232-237)

For Thursday: Tan's "Mother Tongue" (pp.232-237)

Answer TWO of the following...

1. What does Tan mean by the statement, made at the very end of the essay, that “I began to write stories using all the Englishes I grew up with”?  What are “Englishes” and how might this relate to your own culture/language?

 2. What larger argument is Tan making about culture and language in this essay?  How do factors like the SAT’s play a role in supporting her argument?  Consider her statement: “Math is precise; there is only one correct answer.  Whereas, for me, at least, the answers on English tests were always a judgment call, a matter of opinion and personal experience.”

 3. Why do we call Tan’s mother’s English “broken” or “fractured”?  Re-read the passage where she is narrating the story of her neighborhood.  Why would Tan claim that this language is not “broken” but culturally inflected speech?  Why, for example, might it sound “normal” to Tan?

 4. What does she mean when she writes, "that was the language that helped shape the way I saw things, expressed things, made sense of the world"?  How can a language change the way you see things ? Aren't things the same no matter what language you use?  How can a language change your experience with life itself?  

For Tuesday: Mairs, On Being a Cripple (pp.142-151)

Nancy Mairs, circa 1988

For Tuesday: Mairs’ On Being a Cripple (142-151)

A few words I might look up if I were back in college... (optional)

1. semantics (157)

2. slovenliness (158)

3. predelictions (160)

4. concomitant (161)

5. vichyssoise (163)

Bonus: in extremis (note: it’s Latin)

Answer TWO of the following

1. Why does Mairs want to be called a “cripple” instead of being called “handicapped” or “disabled”?  Related to this, why wouldn’t she call anyone else a cripple? 

2. What does Mairs mean when she writes that “These two elements, the plenty and the privation, are never pure, nor are the delight and wretchedness that accompany them” (146)?  How does this give us a unique insight into the reality of having MS? 

3. Why does Mairs suggests that MS is even more difficult for women, since they are (according to her) confined “in their bodies as objects of desire”?  What unique challenges does the female MS sufferer have to endure that might not even enter the picture for men? 

4. On page 149, Mairs makes it very clear to her reader that “I am not a disease.”  What does she mean by this statement, and how does it relate to her greatest fears and her struggle to balance her life with the demands of MS?  

For Tuesday: Eighner, On Dumpster Diving (sorry--didn't post the first time!)

For Tuesday: Eighner, "On Dumpster Diving" (pp.377-387)

Answer TWO of the following:

1. How does Eighner distinguish between the different kinds of scavenging and the types of people who do it?  What does it mean to have a “scavenger ethics”?  Can someone who rummages through thrash really have a professional/moral code of ethics?

2. What does dumpster diving reveal about our culture and society?  What lessons does it teach him about living in the Western world, and about having a “healthy state of mind” regarding material possessions? 

3. If you were forced to scavenge to survive, what is the most practical advice that Eighner offers in his essay?  While some of this advice in common sense, what advice comes simply from day-to-day experience and scavenger wisdom? 

4. Why is there such a stigma against dumpster diving in our society?  How is it materially different from going to garage sales, flea markets, or even finding something abandoned in a parking lot?  Is it just for health reasons that most people avoid it, or is there an aspect of hypocrisy in refusing to do it?  Do we all “dumpster dive” on some level? 

For Thursday: How To Fall 35,000 Feet and Survive (pp.470-474)

For Thursday: Skoeppel’s “How To Fall 35,000 Feet and Survive” (pp.470-474)

Definitions: look up any words you’re not sure of…I might test you in class on Thursday!  J

Answer TWO of the following…

1. Why do you think Koeppel is writing this article, especially since, as he explains, “the odds of any kind of accident on a commercial flight are slimmer than slim and…you will likely never have to use this information” (474-475)? Does it have a purpose beyond humor or morbid fascination?

2. Surviving a free fall at 35,000 feet is a very tricky situation, and no one totally agrees on how to do it successfully.  How does Koeppel use Naysayers in his conversation to highlight the different theories of surviving? 

3. Koeppel does something very unusual in this essay by employing second person narration: “You’re 6 miles up.  You’re alone.  You’re falling” (471).  Why does he do this, and how might it be important for his essay?  Why, on the other hand, do you think second person is so seldom used? 

4. Having read the essay, do you feel that survival is more a matter of skill or luck?  What do you think Koeppel thinks, despite the wealth of evidence he offers on both sides?  Does he think he can empower us to survive—or is this essay simply a way of understanding the odds against us?

Paper #1 due IN-CLASS on Tuesday and MLA references

Remember that Paper #1 is due in-class on Tuesday (not at 5pm, which I also stated on the handout for some reason).  Below are the MLA/Quotation handouts for your reference. Please remember to cite properly when introducing other voices into your conversation. Good luck! 

Using Quotes in your paper:

“A photograph such as this one, where time has stopped on an ordinary scene full of innuendoes, partakes of the infinite.”

The Quotation Sandwich: Introduction + Quotation + Response

As Simic writes, “A photograph such as this one, where time has stopped on an ordinary scene full of innuendoes, partakes of the infinite” (578).

OR

In “The Life of Images,” Simic notes that “A photograph such as this one, where time has stopped on an ordinary scene full of innuendoes, partakes of the infinite” (578).

Then, Respond...

In other words, when we look at a photograph without context, there’s no limit to what it could be, or not be.  Only our imagination limits its possibilities as we try to piece together the clues and innuendoes.  Thus, even the most obvious picture becomes infinite, not only in its possible meanings, but in its ability to exist forever outside of the original event.  It is now literally eternal, and each new viewer can decide for him or herself what it means or expresses.

The Works Cited Page

On a separate piece of paper (the last page of your essay) list all the essays you referenced in your article like so:

Morris, Errol.  “Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire.” The Writer’s Presence.  Ed. McQuade,

            Atwan.  Boston: Bedford St. Martin’s, 2012.  pp. 753-758.

Simic, Charles.  “The Life of Images.”  The Writer’s Presence.  Ed. McQuade, Atwan. 

            Boston: Bedford St. Martin’s, 2012.  pp. 575-580.