Anthony's Delectable Site

 

Overall, I thought this text went into a ton of detail in regards to the current issues surrounding neuroscience and modern physics and how the human mind interprets different ideas whether they’re simple or complicated. It took Lehrer quite a while to hit home on his main point that art should be incorporated into science, but he does a nice job at going in depth with the current issues around the brain and how they can be resolved. He starts off talking about art in a small piece when he discusses the Bohr model and the visual representation that it gives us. He then goes off discussing how there’s still much more to learn about the universe than we think and how our unknowns haven’t receded very much. He then notes that neuroscience has to develop an intimate understanding of higher order mental events which seemed confusing at first, but it made sense when he put the concepts of arts and science together later to elaborate how these unresolved problems can be solved. He states that art can teach us who we are and what everything surrounding us is which is something that you have to attain from both art and science.

 

Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle: Establishes a limit to the precision at which something such as particles can be known (Dictionary).

“The bridging principle” (You may have to look at the text itself, for this definition.): Used to connect one idea to another? (art vs. science).

Reductionism: The practice of describing a complex issue in terms of facts held to represent a more fundamental level (Dictionary).

Synapse: A junction between 2 cells which is composed of a minute gap across them in which impulses can pass via diffusion of a neurotransmitter (Dictionary).

Epiphenomenon: A secondary effect that can arise but not influence a certain process or experiment (Dictionary).

Holistic perspective: Different factors taken into account to help generate a picture of a certain culture as a whole (Study.com).

My annotations I feel like are improving. I was able to use my annotations to summarize, ask questions, and define a few words here and there.

 

The essay “Necessary Edges: Arts, Empathy, and Education” by Yo-Yo Ma was originally published on the World Post and was launched in January of 2014 in Davos, Switzerland. I noticed in Ma’s bio that he began performing at 5 years old, won more than 17 grammy awards, and produced more than 90 albums. He graduated from Harvard University and has won numerous awards throughout his career. Based on his bio, I can tell he’s a successful musician and could probably give in depth advice on how art and music has changed his life.

My personal reading experience on this essay was fine. I don’t care for the department of arts by any means in fact, I never supported a mandatory taking of an art and music class during junior high and high school years, however I felt as though Ma brought up a good point toward the end of his paper when he discussed the idea of being more cultured. My purpose of reading this text was to get a different perspective of learning beside the basic STEM program and after the read, I slightly support his ideas of STEAM more than I would have before reading this.

Ma basically begins the essay giving some background on why he feels as though our country is so “uneducated” and how we shouldn’t just focus on “innovation”, rather place ourselves in someone else’s shoes and see their perspective and try to understand that. He discusses how art can teach people “values of collaboration, flexibility, imagination, and innovation” which is tied back to his point of changing the STEM program to STEAM in incorporate the ideas of art into everyone’s life. People who have a well balanced education in their own major plus the adapted cultures of others will have reached a point of equilibrium which is a major concept he repeatedly uses in his essay. At the end he provides examples of countries that have “shared their knowledge but are also curious and eager to learn other forms of expression” which builds off his point of equilibrium. There are many more ways of life to people than we see on the outside which is why we need to put ourselves in their shoes in order to get an entirely new culture and perspective on life.

 

Posited: Assuming as a fact or putting forward as the basis of an argument (Dictionary).

Empathy: The ability to understand and share the feelings of others (Dictionary).

Invigorate: Giving a certain type of strength or energy to someone or something (Dictionary).

I have to say I was a big fan of “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott because I felt like it really distressed my worries about having to write a really good sounding first paper with little to no mistakes. I understand now that the first draft is meant to have tons of errors and it’s the second draft that should be used to compile all those pieces into one structure. For me, my first draft somewhat compared to the ones that she was describing, particularly when she mentioned the opening paragraph taking up a whole page. My strategy for making my first draft was to try writing more than what was expected just to get all my ideas out there and then trim some parts of my essay back to make it sound more clear and concise. Overall, I enjoyed the reading, especially the sense of humor Lamott uses in her discussion.

 

 

After reading my peers comments and having the peer review in class, I definitely know that I need to reorganize parts of my essay and cut back a little on some of my thoughts by trimming down words and combining paragraphs. My biggest goal obviously is to convert my paper from a “shitty first draft” to a coherent well sounding final piece of work that is clear to any reader.

 

In order to achieve this goals I feel that I must:

• Restructure my opening paragraph so it goes from general to specific rather than going from general to specific and back to general
• Change around the order of my paragraphs and read it aloud which was recommended by one of my peers
• Consider combining a couple of my paragraphs that are very similarly related and cut back words from each one so it doesn’t take up an entire page.
• Make sure that I don’t start a sentence off with a quote, but instead, address the author’s name and then list the quote followed by analysis and synthesis
• Try not to end my paragraphs with another claim unless it directly relates to my next paragraph. Starting with a claim sounds more professional than finishing with one.
• Make sure my reader understands my references such as “the furniture” from Erard before I mention it in my own words.

 

Out of these goals I’ve listed, there are some I feel will me more challenging to achieve than others. I think changing the structure of my opening paragraph will be alright because one of my peers listed the order I could set it up in and I liked the way that looked. Changing and combining paragraphs might be a pain, but if it doesn’t sound any better, then I can always revert it back to the original. The claim and quote issues will be minor tweaks which I can revise simply by reading back over my work carefully. The hardest goal for me to challenge myself with is the last one which is making sure the reader understands what exactly I’m referring to before I refer to it. I like to write with an advanced style of language that may not settle as easy with peers as it does with an instructor, however I did notice there were some parts of my essay that probably wouldn’t sound clear to the majority of the audience reading it. I plan to go back and make my essay as clear and organized as possible while still hitting home on all my claims to tie back to the thesis.

When I was giving feedback, I definitely found it more challenging to come up with global edits rather than local edits, however it will hopefully be more beneficial to the writer. I’ve noticed that in using global edits, I’ve had to dig deeper in my comments than simply reading and correctly small errors in spelling or grammar. Global editing requires you not only to read the text, but interpret it and be able to find areas that the writer should expand on. Most of my edits were about expanding on the text and trying to incorporate more examples from Geary, Erard, and Khullar’s texts instead of just making a point and moving on. This I would find helpful if I were a writer, especially if my word count didn’t meet the expectations because it gives you the opportunity to expand upon thoughts rather than just simply making a simple spelling or grammatical correction. Global editing it appears can really do a nice job at turning a C paper into an A paper compared to the local edits which can just tidy up very small errors that might not even have an affect on your overall grade. It’s essential to get the deepest feedback that you can whether it be taking out words or expanding upon others. Nobody wants a short essay without background but at the same time, people don’t want to read a 10 page paper that rambles and reiterates the same ideas over and over again. Global editing allows you to find that happy medium on the right about of details in the essay by simply looking at sentences that should be added to and sentences that should be removed. In my revision, I tried my best to give detailed insights on where the writer could expands their thoughts and I was able to provide specific quotes for some of their points that they could add in.

 

 

          Imagine living in a world where you have the capabilities to not only control your own thoughts, but to control the thoughts of those around you. Some may claim that “It’s impossible to control someone” which is entirely true physically, but metaphorically, this idea becomes a whole different ball game. Using the language of metaphors, you possess an entirely new set of abilities with the English language. You may simply use metaphors to compare two objects to one another or to something totally different, yet you also have the ability to completely alter someone’s perception on a specific topic for the rest of their life. Metaphors offer us a world of tools that we can establish through our vocals, hands, body, and mind. The most interesting aspect of metaphors that I find is how often we use them, yet how often we forget to use them when it matters the most such as a persuasive essay or a debate. Writers around the world frequently incorporate metaphors into their papers or novels to offer a rollercoaster ride of their topic and still we read their words, try to make our best perception of them but fail to interpret and understand their true meaning and continue on to the next chapter. I’m nearly certain, the metaphor assimilated into that last sentence was missed as well. This is the problem with those of us who read and communicate worldwide which is the simple statement that we’re missing out on the bigger picture. We’ll spend hours reading a book or talking to a friend, but in the end, how much have we actually gotten out of that reading or discussion and do we have the memory to be able to retain it down the road? Did we visualize the text and be able to generate a response? Did we absorb the words our friend delivered and did they intake our own input? The best way to approach this issue is to find the metaphor. That said, take a moment to slow down the pace, reread the text, and document important compelling points that could invoke a response. When communication with someone, listen to them rather than thinking about what you have to say next. Metaphors give us the opportunity to stay fully engaged with our reading and communications to completely gain the maximum understanding of whatever topic you’re on. These metaphors are a gift that we need to unpack slowly by carefully unwrapping them rather than going straight through the packaging and damaging that gift that will quickly be forgotten unless fixed by re-reading or asking questions when communicating. As soon as we have the capability to recognize these metaphors around us to be able to interpret and reuse them, we’ll then be able to turn the tides to shape our own world around metaphors. We not only have the ability to better understand those around us, but we have the ability to change those surroundings forever simply through the power of the metaphor.

 

          Metaphors are a wonderful tool in which we can use to generate a world of new ideas and perceptions about any topic out there. They help us simplify society by assigning certain aspects into certain categories. All pets are fun but all jobs are bad. We use metaphors far more often then we think and more frequently do we read about them. Authors and writers use the power of the metaphor to generate a list of ideas that connect characters to certain categories which sways the readers opinion on their thoughts on certain characters. We as humans come up with metaphors on the daily and continue to create new ideas to give each other new perceptions on aspects of life. However, metaphors aren’t all positive. Some may ask, “What are the downsides to metaphors?” And although I would love to respond to that with, “sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me” unfortunately, words often have a greater pain that goes far more in depth than simply a cut on the wrist. When we’re in difficult situations, metaphors only seem to knock us down even more instead of picking us up and giving us the outlook on life that we need to see. Sometimes, we assume that what we say to attempt to cheer someone up is actually bringing them down and because of the metaphor, we are no longer in control of what we say, because even if something may be false, it also happens to be metaphorically true. Therefore, it’s nearly impossible to get every single person off board with associating two negative ideas against someone. The metaphorical dictionary will always work against the English dictionary of the way we think because essentially, everything works in reverse. Anyone who’s ever been in a difficult situation, specifically the hospital, understands that they have a way or multiple ways of trying to look at that idea to push through it, although the world around us who may view it in an entirely different manner, wish to alter our outlook and change the way we feel. This may have no physical impact, but mentally, there’s almost no climb out of that hole. It’s simply like being in an argument where you have one idea about a topic, but the people around you all view it differently and because of a certain “metaphorical rule”, they are no longer willing to cooperate to suit the best of your needs. Anyone who’s ever dealt with health issues or know someone who’s dealt with this type of hardship must take action in order to better our lives as well as those around us. The only way to pursue and achieve this goal of trying to restore our mental health through the use of language is to recognize how often we use metaphors, understand their power with how they change our perspectives, and realize that even the brightest people in the world such as medical professionals have to change their language.

Dhruv Khullar speaks to the issue of how society approaching fighting against a disease or form of cancer versus how the patients themselves feel they should approach it. Khullar gets at the concept of military language which is used heavily in the medical field when people describe themselves as “fighters” or when Doctor’s describe their battle as a “war against cancer” for example. Early on, Khullar brings up multiple questions in his topic of discussion saying “Does this patient feel she lost the battle because she didn’t fight hard enough?” and “Might she have suffered less at the end if she hadn’t felt compelled to try one more drug, determined to soldier on?” Throughout his writing, he continuously references the words “Soldier” and “War” to reiterate his main idea that military language is widely used throughout the medical field. He later on points out how every aspect of a hospital can be directly relating to something involving war such as “the enemy (cancer), a commander (the physician), a combatant (the patient), allies (the healthcare team)” which is used to give his audience a clear mental image of how similar these concepts are between hospitals and the military directly relating to the reason we often times correlate them without even realizing.

Coming into this reading, I didn’t know exactly what to expect from hearing the title “Medicine’s Metaphors” even though the very minute I began analyzing it, I recognized a handful of these military terms that I had never directly associated before. At first, I didn’t exactly agree on Khullar’s take on the whole concept as he seemed to take it into a negative direction. I didn’t like that he called out the fact that these terms can lead to people making themselves feel bad if they “lose the battle” because in my mind personally, no matter how long it takes for a fatal illness to kill you, then you’ve still won as long as you’ve lived the best possible life. There is no such idea as losing when it comes to this matter which is something I wished he noted. However, despite his lack of consideration, I felt as though the entirety of this passage was intriguing. The background on perception with the “hot coffee”, “hand washing”, and “cities crisis” tests enveloped this idea that metaphors truly can change perception even more than a politician (noted later). I thought this was a good way to get back to his main point so people could understand how a Physician telling a patient “this is going to be a battle” could have such an extreme impact on their perception. The point that his home was when he quoted “They deserve to be the keepers of the lens through which they view their illnesses.” This was something I pointed out at the beginning which is that in the end, it’s up for the patient to decide their most effective coping mechanisms, not the one’s around them.

 

Geary

“But whenever we give a thing a name that belongs to something else, we give it a whole network of analogies too”

This quote gives a good insight to why metaphors stand out and are more valuable then we think.

 

Erard

“Designers look for a common conceptual domains in which analogical mappings are easy to find”

This gives a background on how people such as Erard look to relate their metaphors to the public simply but effectively.

 

Khullar

“Ultimately, any metaphor – military or otherwise – is not inherently good or bad. Rather, the utility of each depends on a patient’s culture, values, experiences, and preferences.”

This line gives a nice summary to how metaphors have no true intent, but how the public perceives based on their own prior knowledge and experiences is what gives them all the meaning and power they possess today.

The second time I read Erard’s writing on metaphors, I found that I really understood the specific examples he provides throughout his reading far better than the first. The most helpful part of my better understandings were the group activities we did in class the same day. I found that most of what I was highlighting and annotating were from the questions being asked in class. This helped a lot because the points I highlighted before were mainly just the basic topics on metaphors and a quick summary on each paragraph, but the second time reading, I found that I was able to go much more in depth to solve the questions we did in class and achieve a better understanding on the entirety of the reading itself.

One of the topics I understood more were the pseudo-mistakes. When I first read this, I didn’t really understand what he was talking about at all and skimmed through that passage. However, after talking with group members in class, I understood the second time reading that these pseudo-mistakes were used to generate a list of metaphors to narrow it down to the best one. That made sense why Erard chose the word pump to relate to the paintbrush. I also recognized the “evidence is a weapon” line that was mentioned in class that I didn’t highlight the first time. I realized if one can use a metaphor in their debate, it can get many others on board with their specific argument.

One of the other main topics Erard talked about a lot were the “windows and doors that frame toward the reality outside”. This was another point I didn’t quite perceive strongly on my first reading, but after discussing it with classmates and rereading it, I know now that these people who create metaphors have the power to move this metaphorical window around to show people a certain aspect of the outside world that many weren’t familiar with.

Finally, one word I noticed that was still unfamiliar when I was glossing the text the second time was the word semantic which was used in the line “The richness of the semantic resources that a designer built-on biases and preferences” … “block certain kinds of understandings”. After looking it up, I realized this line was saying that you can strengthen the language in your metaphor so much that it may permanently stick with that person and their opinion on other perspectives is “blocked” as their mind is only set on one idea simply because of a metaphor.

 

There were a handful of points that stuck out to me throughout “See Through Words” by Michael Erard. Early on he writes that metaphors are “meant to make someone realize they’ve only been looking at one side of a thing” which was a great introduction into the rest of his paper. This quote gave a basis of finding new perceptions of things. It was simple but enforced people to look at both sides. There will always be a handful of people who think differently than the others, but if one’s metaphor can get the majority of people to think and agree with what they’re saying without much conflict, then you’ve written something well.

This led to a later quote when Erard talked about the idea of “mapping between two concepts” and trying to build the best metaphorical bridge possible. One of the examples discussed earlier was the health department who used the metaphor “the department holds the key for unlocking health” which ties back into the use of the bridge connecting two concepts. Different people will perceive the space between those two concepts differently (as noted) which is unavoidable. If you can map out these concepts after sorting out the best metaphor from the group, you may just find one that works the best.

The last quote I found intriguing was “To design a metaphor, you have to get beyond what people say they like or don’t like.” This meant to be you have to spark emotions. You can just write “The hospital is a home” because not everyone will really key into what you’re saying. You need to be in depth and descriptive and say “The hospital is the cure for life” because it strikes a certain emotion that will get people to hopefully become brave enough to walk in if they were afraid before. When comparing two different topics however like the children and the flowers, it’s important to prevent hierarchy as Erard mentioned. In this case with the hospital, it seems to be alright to use the art of emotion because it only focuses on one subject.

I like the way this ePortfolio is set up even though I haven’t really learned a lot about it. I’m sure I’ll be more interested in the website in a few months once I’ve started generating more posts and editing my own personal page. For now, I think it’s a great way to get my own thoughts out onto a website where other people can comment and interact. It seems like Facebook except a lot more formidable and classy. I’ve never really used a program like this before, the closest thing was Google Classroom but everyone was linked onto the same website. I definitely like the idea of having my own page and link more than just posting on a single page that everyone shares.