Hello and welcome to my e-portfolio. This is my opportunity to let you know who I am and what I’ve taken from this class. So let’s start with who I am.
First and foremost I am a student. Eventually I will be getting a Bachelors of Human Services thru WWU here at Everett CC. My parents, older sibling, and nearby family all never went to college. But I do have extended family that have been extremely successful and happy after finding careers out of college, so I knew college was where I wanted to be. My family is always been behind me and is my largest motivation in life. My mom raised me on her own, and taught me the importance of education, and open mindedness. It’s because of this that I was very interested in this class and all the varied writings we read and analyzed.
All this reading and writing has expanded my views of the three themes of the quarter: identity, community, and tradition. I learned that genetics and culture work together to form identity. I discovered a world of new communities, including Barbie collectors, taxidermists, and online support groups. I realized how many American traditions, like “traditional” Thanksgiving dinner, are relatively new creations. These new lessons expanded my ideas on how personality affects daily life, what it means to be a community, and what traditions are really worth following. I think I am much more open-minded when dealing with other people now. At work, when helping all different type of customers, it is helpful to recognize the different personality types and cultural backgrounds of individuals. This sensitivity of the different forces behind people’s actions and attitudes has helped me handle customers in ways appropriate to their situation.
I have done a lot of learning, thinking and writing in this class. More than in any other course I’ve taken. This online format required dedication and focus to stay on track, and demanded a lot of critical thinking skills. Reading these short stories took active attention, discussions with classmates took careful thought, and writings took detailed analysis. All of this work paid off in the lessons I learned this quarter. My biggest lesson from this class was to always ask questions and find information to form my own conclusions. The pieces in this portfolio should serve to show my improvement as a writer and my expanded understanding of our main themes.
I have four pieces and four introductions, in this portfolio. My first essay, Social Expectations, displays the critical analysis used throughout the class. My blog, If you found my Wallet, is an example of the power of revision to give a writers ideas a better presentation. My writer’s choice piece is Communities Make us Feel Special is the essay I spent the most energy planning, writing, and revising. To show my understanding of voice and audience, I’ve included a few writing samples from our discussion board activities.
These are just a few examples of the work I’ve completed this quarter. If it were possible to show how much I’ve gained in organization and dedication by doing this class online, I would. I want to thank the instructors and my fellow students for a mind expanding experience. This class was special because of your influence and participation. I hope you enjoy my writings and the ideas they represent.
-Chris
Friday, June 3, 2011
Introduction: Writers Choice
This second essay is pretty special to me. I spent a lot of time participating in the paper talk discussions, creating a detailed outline, forming my ideas, writing the essay, and correcting to perfection. Unfortunately the Professors were not as impressed with this essay as I had expected; it actually received the lowest grade of my three essays. That was really my own fault for going past the prompt of “argue for a specific function of communities” and describing the effects of the community function that I had decided on. Even if I did go past the prompt, it is the piece of writing I’m most proud of this quarter, and that makes it perfect for the writer’s choice category of this portfolio.
Introduction Revision Selection
The following piece is the first major assignment of the quarter. Which explains why my voice was not right for the audience, my organization was messy, and my thoughts were not displayed very effectively. In this revised blog entry I corrected these problems and created a piece that better portrays my intended message. You will notice that the revised version is drastically different from the original. That is because I was frustrated with the order of my ideas, so I had to rework the entire piece. I am much happier with the new version of the blog. The corrected draft comes first, followed by the original draft in italics.
Introduction: Critical Thinking Selection
This essay deals with personality and the effects of social influences on individuals. I find that differences between social expectations concerning role and a person’s own self identity are the “greatest obstacles or challenges to developing a strong sense of self-identity “. I use critical analysis by synthesizing ideas from multiple readings with my own conclusions. This is displayed through my analysis of Queen Latifas thoughts about African-American woman being placed in societal roles when I write, “When African-American woman, or any individual with identity makers, falls to the pressures of social expectations they limit their own ability to form self identity.” This essay scored well and is a fine example of the basic, but vital, skill of critical thinking and analysis.
Writers Choice Selection
Communities make us feel special
Communities play a vital role in our daily lives. Our sense of identity is closely tied to our communities. Many of our daily thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the communities we inhabit. One function of communities in our daily lives is that communities make people feel special.
Feeling special is a normal human desire. Everyone wants to believe that they are somehow unique and that their life is important based on that difference. Communities can function with two types of feeling special. First is the positive feeling of specialness, which can result in high self-esteem and a group feeling of superiority. Many communities with a sense of superiority also have an Us vs. Them mentality. Secondly, communities can have a negative feeling of specialness. Members of these communities feel different, or less than, members of other communities, resulting in low self-esteem and a sense of inferiority. Negatively special communities can promote, or deter, these feelings of inferiority. A community, whether it gives a positive or negative feeling of specialness, has positive and negative functions in our daily lives.
Communities form a sense of superiority when members of a group believe they are separated from non-members based on differences. This difference, whether trivial of substantial, is the basis for the belief that members in the community are special in some way. David Berreby, a writer for the New York Times, touched on this issue in his article “It Takes a Tribe.” Berreby uses the relationship between rival Universities to explain how communities believe that “an essential trait separates them from the rest of humanity” (120). When members of a community believe that they are better than other communities because of a unique quality, a sense of superiority forms.
A community feeling of superiority may sound like an inherently negative thing. But there are both positive and negative results of this community function. The positive effect is that members of the community form close ties with another and form high self-esteem. Members of college fraternities or sororities often feel close ties with other alumina. These ties can develop into personal and professional connections that result in opportunities non-members may not find available. The negative result is a possible belief that others are inferior and deserve to be treated as such. This was a large factor in racial prejudice throughout history. Europeans believed African people were inferior. That belief was why European slave owners were able to justify their practices. This feeling of superiority based on differences between groups is also key to the development of an “us” vs. “them” mentality.
When a community places importance on a fundamental difference between themselves and others; they are classifying the two groups as different. This is best described as a feeling of “us,” the community, and “them,” the outsiders. In and of itself, this differentiation between groups is simple classification. But often communities form relationships with other communities that take on a competitive edge. This results in the “us” vs “them” mentality. Results of this mentality, like all aspects of communities forming a sense of specialness, are both positive and negative.
Some competitions, like friendly rivalries, boost motivation to improve, without causing friction between communities. In high school, I competed for my school’s NJROTC program in Individual Armed Drill. This competition relies on basic drill moves, and more varied exhibition rifle spinning skills. Competitors were driven to improve their spinning skills, but competitors would spend time every meet helping others learn new moves. The “us” feeling of my school pride drove me to beat the “them” of the other schools. Yet the competitors were more interested in general improvement than in defeating opponents.
Other results of this mentality include the obviously negative result of hatred between competing groups. Sports fans are an obvious community of likeminded people. Yet fans of opposing teams often get into brawls for no other reason than that the two groups support other teams. This hatred between “us” and “them” over simple competition can be found in work places, within larger communities, and between members of opposing groups and often have negative impacts on the lives of the individuals involved.
Inferiority, like superiority, is connected to the feeling of specialness that is a function of communities. Members of communities that feel inferior to others do feel unique and special based on their differences. But unlike members of communities with feelings of superiority, members of communities with feelings of inferiority do not feel better than others due to their differences. Instead, members feel as if they are worse than non-members.
Mim Udovich, another New York Times writer, illustrates an example of this type of community, the pro anorexia community (pro-ana), in her article titled “A Secret Society of the Starving”. Udovich speaks with Ellen Davis, the clinical director of the Renfrew Center of Philadelphia, a eating-disorder clinic. From Davis we learn that members of this pro-ana community “believe they're unique and special” (152). Pro-anas describe themselves as “vile, worthless, and useless” (Udovich 153). They see themselves as special, but also believe this specialness is a negative.
Membership in these communities results in low self-esteem and a distorted view of self-worth. For these communities the specialness that they feel is detrimental to daily life. The function of communities in this situation can take two forms. One, these communities can function in a way that promotes the view that their specialness is a negative thing. Two, these communities can deter the negative effects of this view by encouraging and supporting each other to face life in a more positive way.
The pro-ana community is a community that functions to promote the inferiority aspect of the community’s member’s lives. Online web-pages act as support groups for the anorexic lifestyle. Members are discouraged to receive treatment because the community as a whole portrays treatment as unhelpful. Members are led to believe they don't “deserve help”, because they own symptoms are not as bad as other community members who are surviving without treatment. Communities like the pro-ana community, ones that promote the inferiority that members feel, only serve to worsen the lives of its members. If these members were a part of a community that functioned to support members and deter these feelings of inferiority, they would be more willing to seek treatment and improve their lives.
Communities that function to deter feelings of inferiority, have a positive effect on the lives of their members. Members of one group who feel inferior based on their unique difference are the grieving. I recently spoke with a coworker, a recent widow. After many years of fighting cancer her husband passed this last summer. She had supported him through many heart surgeries, including a heart transplant, and multiple cancer remissions and recurrences. In the past months she has kept her strength, thanks in large part to the grief support group she joined. This community of fellow grievers encouraged her to accept that “it's okay to grieve”. The community supported the positive aspects of her new life that allowed her to make it through the toughest time in her life. With their help she was able to stop feeling inferior to people who she perceived as handling their grief better than her. When communities who function with an inferior view of specialness support one another, they are able to accept their uniqueness and promote healthy lives.
Communities affect how we evaluate our own self-worth based on our perceived specialness. The function of that feeling in our lives can take many forms. It can make a person feel better than a rival. It can make a person feel like the worst person in the world. It can form friendly rivalries. It can form anger-packed competitions. It can lead to helpful social connections. It can lead to harmful racial prejudice. It can promote a positive self-view. It can promote an unhealthy lifestyle. Communities form these feelings of superiority or inferiority, and these feelings play a vital role in how our lives play out.
Work Cited
Latterell, Catherine. Remix, Rading + Composing Culture. Comp. Boston: Bedford/St.Matrin's, 2010.Print.
Berreby, David. "It Takes a Tribe." New York Times Magazine. Aug. 2004: Print.
Udovitch, Mim. "A Secret Society of the Starving." New York Times Magazine. 2002: Print.
Revision Selection
Revised Peice
I use to keep my wallet packed with personal trinkets and random odds and ends. After losing it twice in the last two years I’ve given up on keeping anything important in there. I do have a few cards and scraps of paper that someone would find interesting if they were to find this wallet in the likely scenario that I lose it once again.
The first thing he or she would find would be my Student ID card. The card would give them my name and the picture would give them a clue as to who I am. My grease hair hangs down over my eyes and is spiking in back thanks to my cowlick. I’m wearing a beat up hoody and my glasses are bent crooked on my face. With this information it would be fair to conclude that I am a slob of a young adult who is taking the easy college route by attending community college.
I have a business card from my work, but without my name on it. I also have a business card for “Americas Best- Contacts and Eyeglasses”. Finally I have a little slip given out by managers when they want to show appreciation for a good job done. Unfortunately this slip again doesn’t have my name on it and without knowledge of my workplace the finder would have no idea what the card represented. Together the three cards would serve more to confuse the finder than they do to help them learn about who I am.
The finder would next find a few receipts I’ve left in my wallet. These receipts would show a twenty dollar purchase from the Disney Store, two movie tickets, and more than a few fast food meals. This would give the finder the impression that I am wasting my money. He or she would think I was a stereotypical college student; dumb with money, eats fast food for every meal, and more concerned with entertainment than anything else.
Finally, my debit card, a lone dollar, and some loose change would lead the finder to think I was broke. While the lack of personal items and photos would make them believe I was impersonal.
The truth behind these items is very different from the first glance conclusions they raise. My picture was taken on a very bad day, right before I cut my hair back to its usual short trimmed look. I am actually a bit of a neat freak and hate that my picture portrays me as a slob. The Americas Best eyeglass card is there because I am practically blind without my glasses and am in the middle of ordering a new pair. Glasses are a huge part of my self-identity, yet my wallet only hinted at how important they are to me. The work cards, if they had my name on them and were easier to understand, should have let the finder know I am working my way through college while trying to impress my managers and hopefully stay on after the Christmas season. The Disney Store and movie receipts are only there because of odd timing. I had just bought my girlfriend a present and still had tickets from over a month ago. I am actually frugal with my money and rarely waste it. I was forced to buy fast food that week because three days in a row I went straight from school to work, with no time in-between to grab the lunch I normally bring from home. Finally the lack of sentimental items is because I’ve learned my lesson not too keep anything too important in something as easily lost as my wallet.
Together my wallet portrays me as a rumbled college student with little money who likes to waste the money he does have on fast food and entertainment, and who has nothing important enough in his life to keep around for sentimental value. This conclusion is fair, but inaccurate. Wallets only give hints of a person’s identity. A person’s identity is a hard thing to understand, even when you have known them for a long time, so expecting to learn a person’s identity just from the items in their wallet is a misguided adventure. The finder will get results, and some of their conclusions may be true, but it is far too easy to misjudge a person based on this information alone.
Original Selection
Usually my wallet is fairly spars and contains little personal information. But sense it is fairly full right now it might be possible to figure out a little about me. I have few cards, a few scrapes of paper, and few other odds and ends.
Let’s start with the cards. My EVCC ID gives my name, my school, and a fairly accurate image of my face. It also has an example of my horrible hand writing representing my signature. Depending on the finders opinion of students and community colleges it could be determined that I am either a hard working person trying to gain an education, or that I am a slacker student partying my way through college. Other items in my wallet are needed to gain a better understanding.
My employee business card and an old slip acknowledging my hard work from a manager give the impression that I am working my way through college and probably lead a busy life. A business card from “Americas Best – Contacts and Eyeglasses” shows that I had an eye exam scheduled for last week. That card fails to show that I have very poor eyesight and am entirely dependent on my glasses. Without that knowledge it would impossible to know that my glasses are very dear to me and a key part of my own self image.
Moving on from cards the finder would next examine the receipts I have in my wallet. The Disney Store receipt actually shows a gift I recently purchased for my girlfriend, but by itself would seem very odd in a young college students belongings. The finder could assume that the item was a gift and that I am a loving boyfriend, or they could assume that I am a bit of a pansy and buy myself stuffed animals. My movie ticket receipt from over a month ago show that I went on a date, because I purchased two tickets, and that for some reason I enjoyed the movie enough to keep my stubs. From this the finder could conclude that I loved this movie or that it was a first date or that it was some special occasion. It would not show them that this was the first movie I had been able to afford to take my girlfriend to in many months, and that my identity as a good boyfriend is very important to me.
Finally my lone debit card and low amount of money would possible lead the finder to assume that I am poor or broke. In reality I simply lose my wallet on a fairly regular basis and therefore try to keep important items out. This is also why there are no pictures or sentimental mementos. But sense the finder does not know this they could easily conclude that I was impersonal or that I had no close ties.
As you can see there are many ways to interpret the contents of my wallet. The many ways have a lot to do with the perspective of the person who is doing the looking. A person’s belongings can only tell so much about them, and only with a small amount of certainty.
Critical Thinking Selection
Social Expectations
Identity is a definition of a person. A description of self is referred to as self-identity. Self-identity is how a person describes who they are. A description of identity from our community is referred to as social identity. This social identity is a formation of the expectations society places on its members. It is social expectations that pressure a person into thinking about identity as who I should be, rather than as who I actually am. To have a strong sense of self-identity a person must form their identity based on who they are, not who others expect them to be. Because of this, the pressure of social expectations is the greatest obstacle for creating a strong sense self-identity.
A large portion of self-identity is a person’s choice of what future they follow after high school. When describing ourselves, we often refer to our career choices. Careers can be found in college, or in other forums such as volunteer work, military service, apprenticeships, and through work experience. The pressure of social expectations can limit student’s options during this stage of development by pushing all students to attend four-year universities.
Alexandra Robbins, in The Overacheivers, illustrates this pressure when she writes, “Millions of students are raised to believe that there is nothing more important than success, and nothing that reflects that success more than admittance to a top-tier college” (251). Under the pressure to achieve success by attending a four-year university, students are not allowed the opportunity to make a major identity decision for themselves. When students allow social expectations to influence major identity decisions, they are not making decisions based on their own personal beliefs. If students were to make this life decision based on who they are, rather than who they are expected to be, they would develop stronger self-identities.
Creation of a strong sense of self identity is also hindered by the social expectations placed on an individual due to identity markers. Gender and race are two markers that carry inherent social biases concerning identity. Society will classify an individual based on their identity markers and then expect that person to act a certain way. Individuals are pressured to have identities that fit into these cultural expectations. Queen Latifah illustrates the influence of social expectations on the identities of African-American woman when she writes, “For so long in this society, we have been given – and have allowed ourselves to take – the role of slave, concubine, mammy second class citizen, bitch, ho” (34). When African-American woman, or any individual with identity markers, falls to the pressures of social expectations they limit their own ability to form self identity.
The hindering effect of social expectations also affects individuals of other groups. Examples can be a male expected to be aggressive, an immigrant expected to be ignorant, a female expected to be submissive, a teen expected to be selfish, a bum expected to be lazy, or any number of other social expectations based on identity markers. It is easy for an individual to be influenced by these expectations and form their own self-identity based on who others believe they are. When an individual looks past these strong pressures and forms an identity without these influences, they will have a stronger sense of self identity. Queen Latifah exemplifies this as an African-American woman who ignored social expectations and refused to be the stereo typical bitch. Instead she defines herself with the statement “I am a queen” (34).
The pressures of social expectations can also take the form of judgment from others. Individuals who allow the judgment of others to control their own self-identity will have a weak sense of self. Lucy Grealy describes a rare moment in which her facial deformity was not a factor in her social interactions due to the mask she was wearing for Halloween. She writes, “I began to realize why I felt so good. No one could see me clearly. No one could see my face” (67). Here we see a young girl whose sense of self is strongly tied to the judgments others make of her; she is only able to have a strong sense of self when others are not judging her for her deformity. This clearly shows the relationship between negative social expectations and negative self-identity. The pressures of society’s judgments and expectations had a strong impact on the development of Greely’s sense of self. All children face some form of social pressure through the judgment of their peers.
Social expectations can pressure students into life decisions, individuals into negative social roles based on identity markers, and children into forming self-identities based on the negative judgments of others. The social expectations we face are a strong influence on our development of a strong sense of self identity. To create a strong sense of self-identity, individuals must look beyond who others expect them to be and focus on who they actually are. This pressure to conform to a socially expected identity is the greatest obstacle to forming a strong sense of self-identity.
Work Cited
Grealy, Lucy. “Masks.” Latterell 66-71
Latifah, Queen. “Who You Callin’ a Bitch?” Latterell 33-36
Latterell, Catherine. “Remix – Reading + Composing Culture.”
Boston, Bedford/St. Martins, 2006, Print
Robbins, Alexandra. “The Overachievers.” Latterell 250- 257
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)