Proposal.

Proposal:




I chose our third mini essay, which dealt with Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and what her traits are and examples from the book that portrayed them. I picked this essay because i know that there is a lot of room to expand, especially because I wrote about how she had strength and how she used that strength to get passed racism. I put a lot about how she gets passed peoples racism, but i would like to put more about the segregation topic in. Not only did she get passed people being racist to her and being separated from other races, but so many others did too. I would like to expand the essay from not only the book but to actually put in more of the history aspect of racism and how it applied to many races as well as add in segregation for races that came about later in history. Segregation is a point in history that I find very wrong however, it is also one of the most interesting to me to learn about and i would want to expand not only my knowledge of that time, but write about it too. This essay gives me the chance to do that.

Key Terms:

• Segregation for African Americans during the time of Maya Angelou

• " " during earlt America

• Segregation for the Japanese in America during WWII

• Racism in the past

• Racism today

• how people become racist  

• Racial profiling   

• Racism in jobs

They say I say

In the book They Say I say Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein write about the ways to help college students better their writing. One specific chapter they use to show their point is chapter nine. The title to the chapter is "Ain't So/ Is Not, Academic Writing Doesn't Always Mean Setting Aside Your Own Voice." Within the chapter they write about how students don't have to use large words and sound highly intelligent in their writing, the person can be themself. Many people, myself included, find themself feeling as if they must write in a way that doesn't portray who they are. I sometimes , when writing an essay, find myself questioning what  I've written for I don't know if it sounds good enough to be a college students paper. Even in high school i questioned myself because my teachers always wanted us to write with more academic writing than how one would normally write. However, both Graff and Birkenstein wrote that's not necessarily the case when writing. People can write the way they talk, they just need to not use a lot of slang and still use some academic language in their writing, it doesn't have to sound highly intelligent and use huge words to be good. Everyone has a voice, and each is different than another and we need to use our individual voices to not only speak aloud but on paper too. 

Chapter 14 of "I knkow why the caged bird sings."

Summary: Chapter 14 of Maya Angelou's, "I know why the caged bird sings," is one that caught my attention. Although the chapter is short, it talks about Maya and her brother, Bailey's, return to Stamps. After living with their mother in St.Louis for a little less than a year the two moved back to live with their grandmother and uncle Willie. The two had changed upon their return to their home town. Bailey had become very sarcastic and also became the source of information to the town folk about life outside of Stamps. Maya, however, was the opposite of her brother and the little girl they once knew. She was quiet and never spoke and worried over her own sanity. She would forget peoples name and the "customers whose accounts i had formerly remembered without consulting the ledger were now complete strangers," to her. The reason for her being quite and withdrawn in a way was due to the incident that happened up in St. Louis where she was raped by Mr. Freeman. Even though she wasnt sure if her Uncle Willie knew about what happened, she would often see him watching her with, " a far-off look in his big eyes. Then would quickly send me on some errand that would take me out of his presence" (91). Because of the way her uncle was acting she felt, "relieved and ashamed," for she didn't want his sympathy nor for him to view her as sinful and dirty.

Response: Like I said above, the chapter although short caught my attention. The reason for this was because of the way she talked about her Uncle Willie. In earlier chapters before the two left Stamps, it showed that she loved her uncle. It even said in the chapter that she didn't, "want Uncle Willie, whom I loved in my fashion, to think of me as being sinful and dirty." (92). It is sad to me that she would think her uncle would view her as that. Now I don't know if he did, I would like to think he didn't, but he worries over her and does seem to look out for her. I felt terrible for Maya after I read about the incident and when I read how they went back to Stamps I was worried about how Momma and Uncle Willie would act. In honesty I though Momma was going to freak out, like she does in a later chapter when Maya says, "by the way," but that didn't happen. I hope that Uncle Willie doesn't view her as sinful and dirty and I truly cant wait to read what else will happen in the story. Especially the relationship between Uncle Willie and Maya, and about if she remains quiet. 

Summary: Steve Craig's article, "Men's men and Woman's woman," is about how, often in advertisement,the commercials seem to be focused on a specific audience and gender.. Although  there are some commercials that appeal to both genders, many only appeal to one. The categories that Craig has created for his findings are "men's men, men's woman, woman's woman and woman's men." He uses examples in his article to prove his points by using old commercials that aired during the time the article was created. In addition to these commercials appealing to a certain gender, Craig points out that the viewer can also relate to or want to be the person in the commercials. Some relate to the ads therefore causing people to want to buy the product the advertisers are trying to sell.Craig also points out that certain commercials are aired at certain times. He states that most commercials aimed at "woman with children were nearly four times likely to appear during day time soap operas than during weekend sports" (189) and vice versa for commercials aimed at men. Men's commercials mostly aired during the weekend during sports. For men the commercials are pretty much like the woman's, where they want to be in the actors position or can relate to them. The people creating advertisements for the products they want to sell try to take the feeling of belonging and create a scenario that people want to be in. To sum it all up, Craig uses his evaluational of gender biased ads to tell readers of his discovery about our gender based world.

Response: I never really noticed the difference in commercials until I read Steve Craig's article for my English class. I did  notice, however, that I enjoyed some commercials and not others, but never put to much thought into it. Even though in class we are doing an essay about his article and an ad of our choice, I couldn't stop thinking about how I never thought about this before; how advertisers in a way have tricked people into wanting to buy there product and making said people relate to them or wanting to be the person in the ad. After some thinking, I have come to agree with what Craig has said about how commercials are often gender based. I now watch television and I can now see the very commercials he was talking about. The ones that appeal to one gender but not the other. It's funny how things like this you often only notice because someone else has pointed it out to you, like in my case. It begins to make a person think about if there is anything else they have missed that are gender based.