When it comes to writing a research paper you should be able to follow some steps that are part of the writing process. The process includes finding the right resources to search information, being able to research with keywords rather than an entire sentence. When looking for resources where to do our research we should focus on what research paper we are working on and what’s the thesis statement. It might be that we need resources only from books or scientific ones, that means we should probably research mainly in libraries. But if we need to do a research paper about a thesis statement that includes information we could find in newspapers or magazines, then we can research on Google search engine. When it comes on the information we put on the search engines or databases, its always better to use keywords or phrases rather than an entire sentence. When doing my research paper, this were the methods that i found more useful on doing my research. I used phrases and searched on Google as well as the college library database.
Author: Jona Hoxha
Research questions for the third paper
How do we hear our loved ones when digital technology is interfering?
Hearing and Listening
Hearing is the act of perceiving sounds through an organ such as the ears. Hearing is one of the five senses that humans have. But being able to perceive sound doesnt necessarily mean you are actively hearing this sounds. What i mean by that is that you could hear the sounds but not receive the messages that the sound is sending to you. On the other hand we have listening. Listening is the ability to receive and interpret the messages. When it comes to hearing we dont make choices on what we hear, unless we close our ears and stop every sound from being perceived. But listening is different, we are able to choose what we want to listen to and what information we want to receive and interpret. I think it depends on the situation or what is your goal on doing active listening. if your goal is to gather information or receive a message, for sure you will do active listening. I think that structural features like race, gender or social class may interfere on how the message is perceived. That meaning that how you interpret what you listen it is connected also with who you are, that means your gender or race. For example, an American woman from NY would interpret differently someone talking on a podcast about mental health, while another woman being probably from a country where mental health is not discussed as much as in America, would think that the podcast is nonsense and what she is listening would not probably be received and interpreted as in the American woman case. I think that another structural element that would affect listening is your life experience. This meaning that based on what people been through makes them receive the messages of what they’re listening in different ways. For the same thing that two people are listening, they might have different point of views and they might receive the messages that they find most important as based on their life experiences.
On the second episode of ‘Ways of Hearing’ it is described the relationship of people with listening and space around them. One of Krukowski participants on this episode says how ‘people nowadays are part of this bubble they create when they have their headphones’. They are not part of the social space, they block everyone and everything becoming asocial and create their own space on their own thoughts. While Schafer mentions how ‘the keynote sounds of a given place are important because they help to outline the character of men living among them.’ He goes further saying ‘ The keynote sounds of a landscape are those created by its geography and climate: water, wind, forests, plains, birds, insects and animals. Many of these sounds may possess archetypal significance; that is, they may have imprinted themselves so deeply on the people hearing them that life without them would be sensed as a distinct impoverishment.’ It is very interesting thinking of how important is hearing as related to space. What Schafer meant was that we connect sound to space and we get used with them to the point that not having them connected anymore would make our life not as lively as before.
Thesis Machine, Rosa Parks
Step 1
Topic: Rosa Parks
Step 2
Issue: Civil Rights activism captured in photography
Step 3
Position: Rosa Parks photography captures the reality of the Civil Rights issue through the vision of the photographer.
Step 4
Qualifications: Although the ‘50s were difficult times when it comes to Civil Rights activism, photography was used as a mean to express the reality.
Step 5
Counterargument: Although the photographs show a part of the reality regarding Civil Rights activism, protest were those that made the true changes when it comes to the Civil Rights Movement.
Publicity through pictures and oil paintings
- According to Berger, ”publicity proposes to each of us in a consumer society that we can change ourselves or our lives by buying something more.” What he means by that is that publicity is trying to convince us that we can become someone better by buying what is advertised. Publicity influences in the costumer the idea that you can become a better person, who is going to be envied by the society.
- As Berger states in this episode of ”Ways of Seeing”, publicity uses devices of art, such as poses, settings, symbol of prestige etc. While the oil painting uses the physical texture and tangibility of things. In my opinion this gives the meaning to what Berger says about the oil paintings being what the author already had, and publicity being what is aspired to have. Therefore, as the oil paintings are touchable as physical textures, makes them something that is already achieved. While the publicity is something that symbolizes what we aspire to achieve.
- As described in ”The dream of later tonight”, the consumer is influenced by what they see in the advertising, people who are enjoying life. It is a dream for every costumer to be part of the pleasure the people in the advertisement are having. They think that by being part of it, they would be bringing the greatest pleasure. But everyone know that this is just a dream, nobody really has a life that easy as it is described int the advertising.
Woman objectifying woman
On his second episode in “Ways of Being”, Berger says how ‘woman has to survey everything she is and everything she does because how she appears to others, and ultimately how she appears to men, is of crucial importance for what is normally thought of as the success of her life.’ This is what is generally thought after analyzing the nude oil paintings on Europe before and during 19th century. But what I think is that the same phenomena continues to happen nowadays as well. During the nude painting era man were the ones to objectify woman and they were the spectators. While nowadays, I think that women are objectifying women themselves, they are the ones that pose and the one that judge, the performer and the spectator at the same time. This is seen mostly on social media like Instagram or TikTok, where woman objectify their bodies using them to have attention and to gain popularity. Before, male figure would have control on woman image and she would not even be allowed to touch her breasts because her man wouldn’t allow her. Today women claim that they have control over their bodies. On the one hand, this is true because most woman around the world are shown to have control and to express themselves how they want to. But on the other hand, i think that women don’t have that much of control over their bodies as they claim. What is controlling them today is social media. A big number of women are seen to follow role models that appear on social media. They try to copy them in a way they lose their identity. They become someone they are not. Overall, i think that this phenomena is going to be discussed for more years to come. Human nature is complex in an infinite way.
Entering the conversation and analyzing artworks
- Entering a conversation in real life and mastering the art of speech, is kind of the same thing as entering a conversation on a writing passage and master the art of writing. Both times you are responding in one way or another to an argument coming from what ”they say”. As Graff and Birknstein state in the Introduction of this book, ”to make impact as a writer you need to do more than making logical statements, you need to enter a conversation with other’s view”. That meaning that the writer should make sense on what he/her is saying.
What i think is an advantage of ”entering the conversation” is the fact of knowing already what we are going to write about. We already know the issue we are going to argument about, giving as an advantage of doing our critical thinking and going deeper step by step. We have the chance to rise controversy with our arguments and make our writing as lively as we can. Being able to know how to ”enter a conversation” makes us more of a writer, rather than just someone stating a fact but not making sense. - I do agree with the statement that art helps us with analyzing other situations. As it is stated in the video ”How art can help you analyze”, looking at a artwork would help us think of it deeper and understand the meaning behind of it. The same thing is on other situations of our life, we analyze, criticize in order to give a meaning or find a solution. Same as a doctor does with his patients, looking at the symptoms to give the diagnose, that is what we do in real life, we analyze using our senses to give our judgment. The power to look through what is shown in the surface, makes us better critical thinkers. Therefore, we end up making the right decision and the right judgement.
