GERMANTOWN AVENUE, THEN & NOW

(Germantown & Broad, facing south, 1911)

(Germantown & Broad, 2009)

Roughly 80 years before Elijah Anderson's narrative of Germantown Avenue in Code of the Street, Edward Hungerford took a walk down Germantown Avenue and wrote a similar narrative organized by space and place. The piece is entitled "William Penn's Town" and appears as the fourth chapter in The Personality of American Cities (1913).

As we move into comparison and contrast, it may be useful to read these two texts side by side, noting not only how the avenue has changed, but also how the two writers use space/place as an organizing principle, what they focus on in the environment, the relationship between story telling and analysis, and so on.

Click this link to read Edward Hungerford's "William Penn's Town."

SIDEWALK BALLET: JANE JACOBS ON HUDSON STREET

(Above: Jane Jacobs at the White Horse Tavern on Hudson Street, 1961.)

Here's an excerpt from Jane Jacobs' The Death and Life of Great American Cities. It's not only a great example of careful attention to minute particulars of environment, but also a lovely piece of writing. Note the extended metaphor of dance (ballet) that runs through the passage, as well as how the rhythms of the writing (sentence structure and length; word choice) seem to imitate the changing rhythms of the street itself. Also note how this passage moves us chronologically through one day in the life of Hudson Street.

*

Under the seeming disorder of the old city, wherever the old city is working successfully, is a marvelous order for maintaining the safety of the streets and the freedom of the city. It is a complex order. Its essence is intricacy of sidewalk use, bringing with it a constant succession of eyes. This order is all composed of movement and change, and although it is life, not art, we may fancifully call it the art form of the city and liken it to the dance--not to a simple-minded precision dance with everyone kicking up at the same time, twirling in unison and bowing off en masse, but to an intricate ballet in which the individual dancers and ensembles all have distinctive parts which miraculously rein¬force each other and compose an orderly whole. The ballet of the good city sidewalk never repeats itself from place to place, and in any one place is always replete with new improvisations.

The stretch of Hudson Street where I live is each day the scene of an intricate sidewalk ballet. I make my own first entrance into it a little after eight when I put out the garbage can, surely a prosaic occupation, but I enjoy my part, my little clang, as the droves of junior high school students walk by the center of the stage dropping candy wrappers. (How do they eat so much candy so early in the morning?)

While I sweep up the wrappers I watch the other rituals of morning: Mr. Halpert unlocking the laundry's handcart from its mooring to a cellar door, Joe Cornacchia's son-in-law stacking out the empty crates from the delicatessen, the barber bringing out his sidewalk folding chair, Mr. Goldstein arranging the coils of wire which proclaim the hardware store is open, the wife of the tenement's superintendent depositing her chunky three-year-old with a toy mandolin on the stoop, the vantage point from which he is learning the English his mother cannot speak. Now the primary children, heading for St. Luke's, dribble through to the south; the children for St. Veronica's cross, heading to the west, and the children for P.S. 41, heading toward the east. Two new entrances are being made from the wings: well¬-dressed and even elegant women and men with brief cases emerge from doorways and side streets. Most of these are heading for the bus and subways, but some hover on the curbs, stopping taxis which have miraculously appeared at the right moment, for the taxis are part of a wider morning ritual: having dropped passengers from midtown in the downtown financial district, they are now bringing downtowners up to midtown. Simultaneously, numbers of women in housedresses have emerged and as they crisscross with one another they pause for quick conversations that sound with either laughter or joint indignation, never, it seems, anything between. It is time for me to hurry to work too, and I exchange my ritual farewell with Mr. Lofaro, the short, thick-bodied, white-aproned fruit man who stands outside his doorway a little up the street, his arms folded, his feet planted, looking solid as earth itself. We nod; we each glance quickly up and down the street, then look back to each other and smile. We have done this many a morning for more than ten years, and we both know what it means: All is well.

The heart-of-the-day ballet I seldom see, because part of the nature of it is that working people who live there, like me, are mostly gone, filling the roles of strangers on other sidewalks. But from days off, I know enough of it to know that it becomes more and more intricate. Longshoremen who are not working that day gather at the White Horse or the Ideal or the International for beer and conversation. The executives and business lunchers from the industries just to the west throng the Dorgene restaurant and the Lion's Head coffee house; meat-market workers and communications scientists fill the bakery lunchroom. Character dancers come on, a strange old man with strings of old shoes over his shoulders, motor-scooter riders with big beards and girl friends who bounce on the back of the scooters and wear their hair long in front of their faces as well as behind, drunks who follow the advice of the Hat Council and are always turned out in hats, but not hats the Council would approve. Mr. Lacey, the locksmith, shuts up his shop for a while and goes to exchange the time of day with Mr. Slube at the cigar store. Mr. Koochagian, the tailor, waters the luxuriant jungle of plants in his window, gives them a critical look from the outside, accepts a compliment on them from two passers-by, fingers the leaves on the plane tree in front of our house with a thoughtful gardener's appraisal, and crosses the street for a bite at the Ideal where he can keep an eye on customers and wigwag across the message that he is coming. The baby carriages come out, and clusters of everyone from toddlers with dolls to teen-agers with homework gather at the stoops.

When I get home after work, the ballet is reaching its crescendo. This is the time of roller skates and stilts and tricycles, and games in the lee of the stoop with bottletops and plastic cowboys; this is the time of bundles and packages, zigzagging from the drug store to the fruit stand and back over to the butcher's; this is the time when teen-agers, all dressed up, are pausing to ask if their slips show or their collars look right; this is the time when beautiful girls get out of MG's; this is the time when the fire engines go through; this is the time when anybody you know around Hudson Street will go by.

As darkness thickens and Mr. Halpert moors the laundry cart to the cellar door again, the ballet goes on under lights, eddying back and forth but intensifying at the bright spotlight pools of Joe's sidewalk pizza dispensary, the bars, the delicatessen, the restaurant and the drug store. The night workers stop now at the delicatessen, to pick up salami and a container of milk. Things have settled down for the evening but the street and its ballet have not come to a stop.

I know the deep night ballet and its seasons best from waking long after midnight to tend a baby and, sitting in the dark, seeing the shadows and hearing the sounds of the sidewalk. Mostly it is a sound like infinitely pattering snatches of party conversation and, about three in the morning, singing, very good singing. Sometimes there is sharpness and anger or sad, sad weeping, or a flurry of search for a string of beads broken. One night a young man came roaring along, bellowing terrible language at two girls whom he had apparently picked up and who were disappointing him. Doors opened, a wary semicircle formed around him, not too close, until the police came. Out came the heads, too, along Hudson Street, offering opinion, "Drunk . . . Crazy . . . A wild kid from the suburbs.” (He turned out to be a wild kid from the suburbs. Sometimes, on Hudson Street, we are tempted to believe the suburbs must be a difficult place to bring up children.)

Deep in the night, I am almost unaware how many people are on the street unless something calls them together, like the bag¬pipe. Who the piper was and why he favored our street I have no idea. The bagpipe just skirled out in the February night, and as if it were a signal the random, dwindled movements of the side¬walk took on direction. Swiftly, quietly, almost magically a little crowd was there, a crowd that evolved into a circle with a Highland fling inside it. The crowd could be seen on the shadowy sidewalk, the dancers could be seen, but the bagpiper himself was almost invisible because his bravura was all in his music. He was a very little man in a plain brown overcoat. When he finished and vanished, the dancers and watchers applauded, and applause came from the galleries too, half a dozen of the hundred windows on Hudson Street. Then the windows closed, and the little crowd dissolved into the random movements of the night street.

The strangers on Hudson Street, the allies whose eyes help us natives keep the peace of the street, are so many that they always, seem to be different people from one day to the next. That does not matter. Whether they are so many always-different people as they seem to be, I do not know. Likely they are. When Jimmy Rogan fell through a plate-glass window (he was separating some scuffling friends) and almost lost his arm, a stranger in an old T shirt emerged from the Ideal bar, swiftly applied an expert tourniquet and, according to the hospital's emergency staff, saved Jimmy's life. Nobody remembered seeing the man before and no one has seen him since. The hospital was called in this way: a woman sitting on the steps next to the accident ran over to the bus stop, wordlessly snatched the dime from the hand of a stranger who was waiting with his fifteen-cent fare ready, and raced into the Ideal's phone booth. The stranger raced after her to offer the nickel too. Nobody remembered seeing him before, and no one has seen him since. When you see the same stranger three or four times on Hudson Street, you begin to nod. This is almost getting to be an acquaintance, a public acquaintance, of course.

I have made the daily ballet of Hudson Street sound more frenetic than it is, because writing it telescopes it. In real life, it is not that way. In real life, to be sure, something is always going on, the ballet is never at a halt, but the general effect is peaceful and the general tenor even leisurely. People who know well such animated city streets will know how it is. I am afraid people who do not will always have it a little wrong in their heads--like the old prints of rhinoceroses made from travelers' descriptions of rhinoceroses.

On Hudson Street, the same as in the North End of Boston or in any other animated neighborhoods of great cities, we are not innately more competent at keeping the sidewalks safe than are the people who try to live off the hostile truce of Turf in a blind-eyed city. We are the lucky possessors of a city order that makes it relatively simple to keep the peace because there are plenty of eyes on the street. But there is nothing simple about that order itself, or the bewildering number of components that go into it. Most of those components are specialized in one way or another. They unite in their joint effect upon the sidewalk, which is not specialized in the least. That is its strength.

—from The Death and Life of Great American Cities

THIRD PLACES IN PHILADELPHIA

In “The Problem of Place in America,” Ray Oldenburg defines third places as “public places that host the regular, voluntary, informal, and happily anticipated gatherings of individuals beyond the realms of home and work” (104). Unlike the private space of the home, third places are public. However, unlike the public place of work, third places are not defined by production. Also, Oldenburg seems to argue that these third places are not defined by consumption, although some of his examples of third places could be defined as consumer spaces (cafes, bars).

Based on Oldenburg's definition, what is a third place you go to on the Temple campus or in Philadelphia-at-large? What makes this place a “third place”? Why do you go to this place? How do you feel when you're in this third place?

TEMPLE CULTURAL PASSPORT

New cultural passport program debuts

PEX passport gets freshmen into dozens of Philly arts culture venues

Friday, Ausut 28 , 2009

One of Philadelphia's top draws as a college town is the city's world-class arts and culture scene. Yet for many students, tickets for concerts and museums can be too expensive — especially during a recession.

A new Temple program for entering freshmen aims to fix that by offering freshmen free or steeply discounted access to a breathtaking range of arts and culture destinations in the region. Starting this fall, Temple's General Education program will provide every Temple freshman a 2009-10 Philadelphia Experience Passport — also known as a PEX Passport — containing coupons for free or significantly reduced entry to 37 different museums, theater companies, concert venues, dance studios, an independent film festival, the zoo, an historic home and more. The coupons in each PEX Passport represent a potential total savings of more than $450, including free entry at more than half of the participating destinations.

Ryan S. Brandenberg/Temple University

The Philadelphia Experience Passport (PEX passport) gives freshmen free or reduced-price access to 37 Philadelphia-area arts and cultural destinations.

Although some other universities have similar programs, GenEd Director Terry Halbert says Temple's cultural passport stands out for the breadth of its offerings and its integration into the university's undergraduate curriculum.

"Philadelphia's cultural landscape has been burgeoning," Halbert said. "The PEX Passport gives you bite size chunks of all flavors — not just mainstream, established organizations like the Philadelphia Museum of Art or the Philadelphia Orchestra, but smaller, emerging, alternative groups like Theater Exile or Pasion y Arte, a Flamenco dance company. No matter how students choose to wet their feet, this is a great way to explore the city and begin a life-long exploration of art and culture."

Halbert says the PEX passport is a natural extension of GenEd's Philadelphia Experience theme. About half of Temple's GenEd courses include out-of-the-classroom experiences in Greater Philadelphia.

"Our GenEd faculty have learned about these destinations and are embedding them in their work," Halbert said. To help Temple instructors incorporate the passport into their courses, the GenEd program is running a series of workshops led by Philadelphia arts and culture expert Kenneth Finkel, an American studies faculty member who has taught several GenEd courses, and Deborah Block, director, performer and founder of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival — a PEX passport participant. The next workshop is Tuesday, Aug. 25, in room 111 of the TECH Center from 1 to 3 p.m.

About half of Temple's entering freshmen will have received their PEX passport at orientation. Freshmen who do not receive a passport at orientation can claim one at the information desk in the Howard Gittis Student Center by showing their OWLcard (limit of one per student).

To use the PEX passport, Halbert recommends starting by visiting the Temple GenEd web site at www.temple.edu/gened and clicking on the passport image. Visitors will find an interactive map of arts and culture destinations, descriptions of participating organizations and information on public transit. To gain admission at a participating destination, students simply show their passport and their OWLcard, after which a coupon stub will be torn from the passport. Each coupon can only be used once.

The PEX passport is valid for one year, starting on Sept. 1, 2009 — a date that can't come soon enough for the delighted students who’ve received passports so far.
An arts and culture menu for any taste

Temple's new Philadelphia Experience (or PEX) Passport program will get freshmen in for free or at steeply discounted prices at the following arts and culture destinations throughout the region in 2009-10. For more information on each outlet, including coupon conditions, visit www.temple.edu/gened and click on the PEX Passport image.

Academy of Natural Sciences
African American Museum of Philadelphia
Arden Theatre Company
Azuka Theatre
Ballet X
Barnes Foundation
Bartram’s Garden
ComedySportz Improv
Curtis Institute of Music
1812 Productions
Eastern State Penitentiary
Fairmount Waterworks
First Person Arts
Flashpoint Theatre
Franklin Institute
Independence National Historical Park
Independence Seaport Museum
Institute of Contemporary Art
InterAct Theatre
International House
Kun-Yang Lin Dance
Lantern Theater
Mauckingbird Theatre Company
Miro Dance Theatre
National Museum of American Jewish History
Painted Bride
Pasion y Arte Flamenco Dance
Pennsylvania Ballet
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Philadelphia Fringe Festival
Philadelphia Art Alliance
Philadelphia Orchestra
Philadelphia Shakespeare Company
Philadelphia Zoo
Rosenbach Museum and Library
Theatre Exile
Wagner Free Institute of Science

"I wanted to go to school in a city that had a lot going on in the arts," said Owen Pelesh, a freshman in the School of Communications and Theater. "The edgier stuff is exciting. I'll get to experience some cool things that I've never even heard of before. I'm going to go to every one of the places that's in [the PEX passport]."

That's good news for Philadelphia's arts and culture outlets, many of whom are eager to build new audiences.

"What's great about this program is it gives students a chance to try something new at low risk that will resonate with them for them for the rest of their lives," said Tobin Rothlein, producing artistic director of Miro Dance Theatre, a PEX Passport participant. "That's important to us, because we want audiences who are passionate."

Blog 5

I’ve always enjoyed analyzing the world around me and researching things I found to be interesting. I was fascinated by the topic of pop culture because it’s all around us, and therefore affects us everyday. Signs of Life allowed students to enhance their writing skills instead of never ending research on an unfamiliar topic. Before English 802 teachers would usually suggest I was being too “wishy washy” or supported both sides instead of displaying a clear argument. This course has definitely helped me display a stronger argument in writing.

In the first two essays I had trouble finding sources that were valid and supported my argument. In the beginning of the course I would just basically write most of my essay and then try to find sources that fit into it. I found out that this process wasn’t the best and eventually later discovered it would be extremely hard to do essays 3 and 4 with this strategy. Over time I’ve learned to make an outline of ideas I already had about a particular topic, and then research secondary sources before the writing process. In this way, finding secondary sources didn’t seem almost impossible and I could incorporate other people’s ideas instead of papers being only my opinions on things.

English 802 also helped me realize that I need to get more organized. Sometimes I would loose a secondary source and then spend a lot of time trying to relocate it. I was also very happy that Temple Library Database give you the actual MLA format for a specific source. I discovered that the Paley Library isn’t so confusing and the librarians are very helpful if I need more help later in my college years. I like how essays were divided up in workshop groups and conferences so it would give a chance to collect some insight and ideas from others to improve my work. This class contained a lot of analyzing and work, but I’m glad I took it because I feel like I have more confidence in writing

Blog 5

Writing is quintessential to communicate our ideas, thoughts or opinions in life; therefore, it is important to develop good writing abilities since an early age. Having taken this course has helped me to improve my writing skills in English as well as to learn how to use appropriately this language. Due to the fact that English is not my first language, sometimes I find it difficult to express my ideas in a coherent, cohesive and effective way. Before taking ENGL 082 I was not used to write essays in a language different to Spanish; consequently, this class meant a challenge to me. As I look back to see my initial papers, I can notice a big difference. Reading and writing in this course helped me to think and organize my compositions, enrich my vocabulary and improve in general my fluency in English. Furthermore, writing made me aware of using synonyms and forced me to stop translating into Spanish. Sometimes when trying to say something in English I wrote it as if I was saying it in Spanish, such in the case of my prepositions.

I found it useful when we had peer workshops and they gave me suggestions to correct my essays. Likewise, while reading my classmates’ papers I learned different writing tones and styles. In addition, the individual conferences were so effective when I had questions or doubts. I received a great feedback that encouraged me to correct and improve my final essays. I liked the fact we had the whole semester to keep checking and revising each of the assignments.

ENGL O82 not only gave me the tools to improve my writing, but also opened my eyes to different cultures when reading the essays in Signs of Life. I found interesting the concepts of counterculture, consumer culture, mass media and advertising. Similarly, I liked the readings regarding the outlaw hero and the hero archetype.

Finally, this course taught me diverse strategies to start a research paper. I learned how to differentiate between an academic source an a popular one. Now each time that I want to look for a credible source I consult first Temple’s library database. It is a great place to find books, magazines, journals, films, and so on. A last aspect to mention is how useful I found our book “A Pocket Style Manual.” It is a handful source to consult MLA formatting and in text citations.
Overall, having taken ENGL 082 was an enriching experience that I know will help me in future courses.

Blog 5

Blog 5

Looking back at this semester, I see that I was very optimistic about what we we're learning and how we were approaching it (through open dialogue and constant feedback). However, as the semester progressed I became increasingly more frustrated with the assignments and the class. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy it, it's quite the contrary. It was the idea that even though class was informative, it was taking time away from work time. I feel as though I put too much thought into the papers, expecting too much to be accomplished by them. I dug myself in too deep. That's pretty much the whole shebang. I plan too much for the time allotted to me. I feel as the semester went on my writing got worse due to my push for more complex ideas and papers. If I were to take this class over (hopefully I don't have to), I would pick simpler topics, spend more time on quality than quantity, and stop forgetting these blogs and the digital dropboxes. In one respect, I wish I could have done much better, but in another respect, I don't see how I could have done better than I did. I gave this class everything I could and in some sense I'll be proud of anything I eventually get out of constantly forgetting the small procedures that have hindered my success in this class. I think this class may have temporarily diminished any desire I've had for writing but I has helped me articulate my observations more clearly, which is incredibly useful as a Fine Arts student. I think this class will inspire me to keep a journal in collaboration with my sketchbooks in a way that links the two subjects and ideas of expression together. Thinking about my in class writing assignment on the first day, that's all I really wanted out of this class.

Blog 5

Throughout this semester I have learned how to properly analyze sources and integrate evidence into my paper. I was never asked in an English class before to analyze my sources. I was always taught to just add evidence/facts and throw a citation at the end. After taking this class I have improved my writing a lot, my writing has become stronger because of knowing how to properly integrate evidence. I still find it extremely hard to start off my papers, but once I get the ball rolling it doesn’t stop. The library days helped me out the most, finding credible secondary sources was always a problem for me but the databases available here at Temple help out a lot. I learned that having scholarly sources greatly improves your papers and gives you more to work with. When writing my first two papers I realized that I have to take the revision process more seriously. At the time I had a lot to learn about writing and those papers were evident of it. I learned a lot from the workshops and conferences. My group helped me figure out what I needed to elaborate on more and where my paper didn’t make sense. From meeting with you in conferences I realized that my writing skills were not as terrible as I thought. There were areas where I needed improvement but I was heading in the right direction. My third paper showed my progress with synthesizing my sources into my paper and connecting them with my thesis. This process helped me out a lot when it came to writing my final paper. We were required to use many outside sources to back up our thesis. Without learning how to properly synthesize and integrate citations with my thesis, my paper would have been a sloppy mess of ideas thrown together with no real connection. I believe I have learned a lot from this course and will use what I have learned to better my writing for future courses.

Blog 5 Reflection

Looking back on all that I did this semester I can say confidently that I have greatly improved my writing. All those workshops I did with other students really helped me out a lot. The conferences were also a really big help for me. Looking back on some essays that I previously did in high-school and in my first semester in college I really can see an improvement. The feedback from other students and from my teacher really helped me improve. I also greatly improved my skills on gathering information. I used to have a difficult time trying to find the right quotes and info to incorporate into my essays, but because of this class I have gotten better at that since every essay demanded you to find and incorporate quotes and outside info. I have definitely gained more confidence in myself as a writer because of this course. Every assignment really helped me to improve my writing skills. The journals were also a big help for me, they were very interesting and fun to do since the questions they asked were interesting to me and made me want to learn more. I believe the Final essay is what helped me the most; it pushed my writing skills to its limit due to all the information needed to complete the assignment. That was probably one of the toughest essays I wrote since it involved so much gathering of information through outside sources. All in all this class was very fun to me. It really helped me out a lot as a writer and I still am hoping to keep improving my skills as a writer as I move on to other classes. Looking back on all those essays I did for this class I am thankful to have had people help me out and critique my work so that I could push myself harder when I wrote revised essays.

Blog 5

This year was an interesting year in developing my writing skills. Starting with English 701 was a great way illuminate that I had no idea what I was doing when I was writing. 701 helped to create a structure for my writing, but I needed more guidance to actually be able to write. I came into this course thinking that I could write like the rest of them, but from simply having my peers read my work in a workshop convinced me otherwise. I had never experienced a workshop that was aimed at improving papers. Honestly I never had edited a single paper in my past classes, so editing was a whole new topic for me. After writing my first paper and going to my first workshop, I was convinced that I didn't have to edit. I took my horrible first draft paper into my conference draft and that was the point when I realized that I needed guidance in writing. I actually took my paper back and edited it for the first time ever. When writing my second and third papers, I thought that I had mastered the concept of writing, but that is exactly what I was missing and it took me until my fourth paper to realize it. I put the most time and effort that I had ever put in any paper i've ever written. I actually researched, I actually took notes and read, and I actually had positive results. Regardless of what grade I receive on my portfolio, my fourth paper was the paper alone that opened up my eyes to writing. I realized that I am not perfect and that neither is anybody else, so revising is essential in writing a paper. I'm just very surprised that it took me until my freshman year of college to realize this. From what i've learned this year, and in this course specifically, I will use my knowledge to continue improving my writing skills. I may never be a master of writing, but I will know exactly how to be one. 

Blog 5

After reflecting back on what I have written this semester I feel like I have greatly improved since last semester. I am better at analyzing ideas and examining arguments. My word choice and flow of sentences has gotten better thanks to the significant amount of critiquing I did in every sentence I wrote. I felt as though at times my work was not as organized as it should be. I also did not feel comfortable with certain quotes I chose to place in some of my essays. I worked hard on synthesizing and sophisticating every essay for a high-educated read. The tone I chose while writing an essay pleased me and did not seem too over the top. I avoided trying to use humor in my essay because, in my personal opinion, it makes essays sound cheesy and awkward. I realized that the tough part for me when it comes to writing an essay is starting out. The introduction of any essay I write stresses me out during the process. Once I get the ball rolling, ideas come easier to me, which allows me to elaborate off other ideas that come to mind. I always intended to write as professionally as possible whenever I was given an assignment. I believe I achieved this, to an extent, but there is so much more I can work on. Awkward sentence structuring, for example, will sometimes weaken my essay. This usually happened when the wording made sense in my head, but in fact sounded weird to others. Another aspect of writing I want to work on is being able to explain and elaborate on points as much as I possibly can. Sometimes I felt like my papers were not strong enough when I had nothing more to say about a certain point I was making. Hopefully, as my years through college continue, I will master my flaws of writing to become completely satisfied with any paper I turn in.

Blog 5

I learned a great deal in this English course. I remembered the first time we wrote a paper about writing. Just a few months ago, I was writing at a very low level. Now, I've learned how to enhance my writing with varies techniques. I was also never able to cite or have a work cited page. This English course helped me a lot, not only writing but also the way I read and look at things. English 802 requires me to look at things outside the box. I was never able to do that before. I wouldn't even be able to put it into words. My reading improved significantly throughout the semester. Every week we were required to read atleast three articles and i think that helped me improve my readings. I am now more able to read with the right mind set.

Before essay 1, I had much troubles with structures and transitions. After essay 1, there were still major structures and transitions problems in my essays. Up until essay 3, my problems were getting better. Essay 4 was the real challenge. No more conferences so I had to use what I learned. In the end, I was able to revised all my drafts and finish the essay 4 with ease.

English 802 showed me how writings can be written in a more complex sophisticated way. I believe i can move on to my next courses without the worries that I will have troubles with writing. It was well worth it to be in this writing course. I believe that if someone can pass this course, then they will have no trouble writing papers later on.

Blog 5

When the semester first began, my assignment one paper lacked any real thought or structure. I came down with the flu and missed a few classes, leaving me at a disadvantage to the other students. However, prompted to redesign an area on Temple’s campus, my second essay shows significant progress in my writing. I also enjoyed writing this essay because I had the ability to be creative and express my own ideas. I took the time to truly revise this essay as well, although there is always room for improvement. With a new assignment, we had to connect the film Man on Wire to the September 11th terrorist attacks, I was quite disappointed with the outcome of this paper. Although my thesis was interesting, this essay lacked organization as well as fully supported ideas. I should have taken more time out to revise my third essay and regret not doing so. In contrast, I believe that my fourth essay turned out well. I tried my best to revise it as much as I could and consulted the “Pocket Style Manuel” as well.

Throughout the course we have learned how to perform semiotic analysis, for instance, in films or in essays. From our readings in “Signs of Life” and “Everything Bad is Good for You,” we took a look at today’s popular culture, which surrounds us all. With the help of our “Pocket Style Manuel,” we were able to properly cite our sources, format our papers in MLA, and touch up on some grammar techniques.

All in all, I think that this course taught me how to better analyze not just writings, but the world around me. For example, I am constantly witnessing people taking the “invariant right” mentioned in one of the Signs of Life essays. I also believe that it will be beneficial to me next semester when I take Mosaics I.

Blog 5

            This semester I have critiqued my writing more than I have in any previous class that required research and analysis for essay writing. My first essay for the class was initially subpar as it lacked focus and organization of ideas, which has always been my weak point. I struggled with using the sources to strengthen my paper as well as having the quotations flow with the essay and not just be shoved in some place. I quickly found out that my ennitial effort level in the course would not be satisfactory and I made an effort to prioritize with time management of my work. This what easier said than done, as I have yet to completely master the concept. However, I began to get into the habit of planning out my essays before I actually sat down and wrote them. This proved to be a useful decision as I ended up spending less and less time actually writing the essay because I had prepared a through outline in advance. I found that by spending small amounts of time in preparation for my essay, a while in advance, that I could actually spend less time on the entire essay. However, though my struggles with organization have lessened, I find that I continue to present my ideas as though I were speaking and not writing. In this aspect though, I have in a way found a style of writing that I am most comfortable with. Seeing as how the majority of the literature that I study is philosophy, I am accustomed to presenting ideas in writing in a more discursive and argumentative fashion. I found this to be most noticeable in the third essay I wrote about Man On Wire, where I took a direct stance against Petit and presented arguments and explanations for my reasoning. I would say that the third essay is the best example of how I have progressed as a writer this semester, as it demonstrates an organization of ideas as well as a clarity that lacks in the other arguments I have taken.

Blog 5

After completing the course of English 802, I think that my writing skills have significantly improved. By taking this course, I have an opportunity to due with different types of essay. Throughout the semester, the topics of essay that I am dealing with seem to interest me a lot. Unlike the class of English 701, which requires the students to read about gender norm, I find that the reading for English 802 is much more interesting since it dues with popular culture, and other matters that familiar to us. I actually enjoy the third and the last essays when I have to write a paper that talk about hero in society and video games before and now, which are my favorite topics. Overall, I think that this class has improved my skill in reading and writing paper. I am now more capable in writing my thesis statement since I know exactly what I do need to focus on and organize my idea in order to write a good essay. The fact that my first paper turned out to be not as good as I have expected, which I realized it was a good thing. Because being able to realize my mistake when writing a paper at such an early time of the semester allows me to have more time to go through a paper again, find mistakes and improve it. The lesson of the first paper has dramatically affect on the next three papers, which I spent lots more time for researching, looking for ideas, and organizing the ideas before beginning to write an essay. Overall, I think that I have enjoyed this semester, and it is a good experience for me as well as a good opportunity to prepare myself for a higher and more difficult class.

Blog 5

Throughout this semester I’ve learned and grew a lot as a writer. Before this class I wasn’t very good at writing or comprising a paper. I usually just wrote papers the night before they were due saying whatever popped into my head at the time. Throughout this course I learned to structure and plan out my papers. I never really had a problem doing research. I didn’t enjoy it but I knew how to do it. The library days helped me to use the resources that Temple’s library offers. I’ve used the databases and research tips I learned in a couple other classes this semester as well and will probably continue to use them until I graduate. Editing and grammar have always come easily to me and I kind of enjoy it but the actual writing was never a joy to me and probably never will be. But, I learned my strengths and weaknesses of my writing style and what I need to work to keep improving. I found that I needed to integrate my quotes and illustrate them much more. My first two papers were evidence of this. I took this into consideration while writing my final paper and focused on integrating and illustrating my quotes properly and I believe that it came out much better. Finally, I learned that I needed to connect the points I made throughout my paper. My first papers did not flow and were points that were randomly made.  I also worked and thought about this while writing my final paper. Hopefully, I did a better job connecting all of my points and supporting arguments. Overall I improved my writing skills and the process in which I normally went about writing papers. I learned that revision helps immensely and is probably the best way you could possibly improve your paper.

Blog 5

Overall,I think that my ability to read articles and sources and gather the information properly has greatly improved through this semester. I’ve learned that there is a strong relationship between reading and writing. I have learned a lot about how to analyze texts, summarize them, and use them in my arguments. I still however, have trouble finding amusement in the readings or essay assignments. I did enjoy some parts of Essay 4 because I was able to discuss a television show that I had an interest in. But with many of my essays I found that I was easily made bored but them. Also, when developing ideas for my essays, I found that I either would have too much to say or not enough. This would typically result in me getting off task with my writing. Once I finally enjoyed reading the secondary sources, I found it much easier to analyze them. One of my weaknesses of writing is still conclusions.This class however, has really helped me to improve my writing and my papers overall.I felt much more comfortable editing and revising my own papers than I would have in the past.I believe that my writing has improved noticeably, since the start of my freshman year and even since the start of the spring semester. I’m looking forward to Mosaics next semester because I believe it will really challenge my writing skills and I will see how I have truly developed as a reader and writer.

BLOG 5

When going into English 802 I had hoped to really enhance my writing skills to a higher level. English 701 assisted me a little bit with writing, but really was not anything that had a big impact on my writing abilities. I knew going into English 802 that my writing skills were definitely going to be put to the ultimate test, and they were. With the introduction to our first essay, and all the talk of semiotic and rhetorical analysis, I knew I was going to be in trouble since I had never really gone in depth with analyzing something, especially an advertisement. I did the essay wrong the first time around and this gave me a chance to really take a closer look at the essay to seriously improve it. The fact that I messed up the essay the first time was actually a good thing for me, because it gave me a chance to grow from my mistakes as a writer. The second essay also involved using semiotic analysis, but instead with studying a space then proposing a new idea to make it better. I also did this essay incorrectly, which was frustrating, but I just pulled it together like I did with the first essay and did it all over again. Since I had already had practice with failing at an essay and redoing it again, I had no problem going back and doing the second essay all over. Screwing up on these two essays, I think, was for the best because it allowed me to learn from my large mistakes as a writer. When the third essay came around I was expecting the worst, since I had no luck with the first two. Surprisingly I found the third essay a lot more interesting since it involved studying a movie and I love movies. I attacked this essay slowly, but surely to avoid making the simplest mistakes and it came out really good. Since I knew what it was like to rush writing an essay and have to redo it, I took my time as a writer and put my love for movies and patience on paper and it came out satisfactorily. Towards the end of English 802 I had endured all I could possibly endure with writing, so I was very ready to take on the fourth and final essay. This essay was by far the hardest since it had to be lengthy and involved difficult topics. I again took my time as a writer with this essay and carefully compiled good, scholarly sources instead of going to Google.com like I did in the beginning of the class. By having better sources and understanding of the essay, I believe I nailed it. It took a lot of time and concentration, but the result was successful. Overall I endured a lot through English 802 and it really helped to mold me as a good writer. I feel like English 701 was an introduction to English 802 and what it had to offer. Since I am done with English 802 I feel like I am ready to tackle any other essays thrown at me in the future. I just have to make sure I take my time, compile good sources, and analyze, analyze, analyze.

Blog 5

I think I have developed into a more organized writer since taking English 701 last semester. When I finished 701 I felt that I had become a decent writer after that class but was hoping 802 would help me step it up a little bit and take my writing to another level. This class definitely helped. The texts were interesting and I especially enjoyed watching the film Man On Wire. I enjoyed writing essay 2 and essay 3- I'm not really sure why- I think the material just struck me in a way that tapped into my best writing. Essay 4 was difficult because I was completely on my own to do research. I do find myself thinking about cultural symbols a little bit more semiotically than I used to- this class has helped me transform a simple observation into a powerfully written semiotic analysis that will probably help me in the future beyond college.

Blog 5

Since the start of this semester I believe my writing has improved drastically. When I look back at my first essay, I realize how much my writing has improve in such a short period of time. At the start of the spring semester I was not as confident as a writer as I'm today. Even though I did well in English 701, I still did not have the confidence of a great writer, but my confidence has gown through the roof since the start of the spring semester. During this semester I have learned so much about writing and english. During this semester I have become a better editor of my work and I have become a better reader. The two of the most important things I improved on this semester was learning how to cite sources and anaylizing reading material in my writing. Before this semester I thought I new how to cite sources properly, but in this class I was taught the correct way on how to cite sources properly. The way I have been able to relate assigned readings from the Signs Of Life book and the secondary sources from the academic search to my writing has greatly improved since the start of the semester. Overall I know that the English 802 class has helped my writing and reading greatly.