Controversial Topic Ideas

I am not quite sure which topic that I will be researching yet, but I found two topics that I want to explore. The topics are: "Family Abuse" and "Suicide". I know that these are two very general topics, but I am a psychology major and I want to take a look at why these things happen. What makes a person want to committ suicide or what causes someone to put harm on a young child?Those are just some basic ideas that I have, so I hope that these library visits will help me figure out which one I want to explore and how to go about writing this interesting paper.

Thesis for Essay #1

Whether it is by a male, a female, or just society as a whole, women are constantly being judged and looked at.

"Cion Blog #1"

The crowd roared with excitement when the ball went into the circular-shaped net. Moments of uneasiness spread rapidly through the crowd everytime a player went down too hard. "Boos" were screamed everytime the opposing team would score, or even worse, when they just had possesion of the ball. I sit watching and admiring the different faces of the true fans in the stand. Some seemed happy, others focused on every situation happening, and others seemed bored. Why do I take the time to focus on the crowd? Well in hopes that I will become familiar with this game, which they call, Basketball. It doesn't seem too hard to grasp the concept of this game because the players are just trying to put an orange ball into the net. I will one day become a true fan of this sport, but for now, I just like to sit, watch, and admire the beauty of the game, but better yet, the people who seem to enjoy it so much.

"Essay 1 Pre-write".

The essay that I think that I will be writing my essay to will be Deborah Tannen's Essay on "There is No Unmarked Woman". She depicted some of the issues of stereotyping woman in today's society and I think that it would be interesting to respond to that. Now the first question that I want to respond too comes from the "Question-Asking Strategies for writing a rhetorical critique". The first set of questions is based on Audience and Purpose. "Who is the intended audience?" I believe that in this essay the intented audience is both male and female. "What is the writer's purpose?" Tannen's purpose for writing this essay was to show how females are constantly being judged, by both men and women, and how society judges on sex harder than the other. And lastly, "How well does the text suit its particular audience and purpose?" I believe that the text covered exactly what the reader was expected to know when you read and understand the thesis of the essay. The second question focuses on the Use of Evidence. How reputable, relevant, current, sufficient, and representative is the evidence? Throughout the essay, Tannen uses countless, up-to -date examples to justify her point. From the use of make-up, items of clothing, too the use of pronouns in the English language. She also uses a male source in her essay to further present her case of her thesis.

Now questions for the section on "Question-Asking Strategies for Writing an Ideas Critique" get more interesting as I further break down Tannen's essay. The first question states, Where do I agree with this author? I believe that Tannen makes a strong case throughout the whole article, but the part that I agree most on would be when she argues the point that women have to make lots of choices. Whether they are leaving for work, going to class at a university, an interview, etc., we woman must make choices. Between comfortable or attractive shoes, certain clothes, how to wear your hair, the choice of wearing make-up or not, etc. and if one of these items seem to be off, then that marks you as either presenting yourself to much or not enough at all. The second question states, Where do I disagree with this author? Overall, Tannen essay was great, but when she stated her point about surnames being marked, it through me off a bit. I can see where she would suggest that being married puts you in Box A, while being single, puts you in Box B. But what I didnt agree with were the stereotypes that she thought people had about the value of those letters. In today's society, I believe that everyone looks at being single and married as a personal decision. I mean yes, marriage is way more serious and suggests a bigger commitment, but at the same time if you have a Ms. in front of your name then that doesn't mean that you can't find a husband or simply to complicated to be with, but it merely suggest the fact that you can make your own decision about that situation. Its a choice and people chose everyday.

Summary of Tannen's Essay

Deborah Tannen is a professor of linguistics at Georgetown University and the author of one of her most favorite writings: “You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation". The essay "There is no Unmarked Woman" was published in 2004 in "50 Essays". I believe that Tannen's thesis in this article focuses on the idea that women can never really just be themselves. They have to walk, talk or dress in a certain way or else they would be considered outcast by society while men can just say, dress, or do whatever and it will be ok. Tannen's context for this essay came about while she was observing how the men and women would wear or act at a conference that she attended. The term "marked" in linguistics terms refers to the way language alters the base meaning of a word by adding a linguistic principle that has no meaning of its own. In this essay, Tannen uses this word to argue the point that men have the option to be umarked whereas with females, every choice they make is available to be marked. Women are marked when they choose between attractive and comfortable shoes, certain hairstyles, clothing, makeup, accessories, etc. There are alot of assumptions out there about women's choices. An example would be a woman's hairstyle. There are many different styles out there for woman and it each has its own personality. But on the other hand, if a woman whose hair has no particular style or design to it, then she can be perceived as not caring about how one looks. Tannen mentions Raplh Fasold's in her essay. By doing this, I believe that she was trying use a male's opinion about a subject that she cared deeply about. He stresses the point that culture is way too hard on the stereotypes of women when in biological terms the male should be considered marked as well. He also says that the prononouns "she" and "he" should reflect biological terms because then "she" would include both sexes while "he" would only specifically refer to men. At the end of her essay, it is interesting to find out that she is marked by writing this essay. How? Well the whole article makes her sound like an extreme feminist. That term can be positive or negative according to some people. Even though she had strong ideas about human behavior and a linguistic background, it gets overshadowed due to the fact that the essay catered more to women than men. In my opinion, Tannen opened and ended the essay with a vivid illustration about the topic, so to me she concluded using a "Hook and Return" strategy.