TOW #21- "What are Masterpieces and Why are There so Few of Them?"

           Written in the 1900s, during the time of the great depression, this controversial piece of literature reminds us of the time when the Americans, including Stein, believed that they could no longer be inspired to create masterpieces. In the Essay “What are Masterpieces and Why are There so Few of Them,” Stein displays her opinion on what builds a masterpiece. Through the use of ambiguous sentence structures and repetition, Stein intrigues the readers’ curiosity to get to her purpose in explaining what a masterpiece is, isn’t, and why there are so few of them.

            Stein’s style of writing ignores the rules of grammar and sounds as if she is directly speaking to the audience. However, Stein purposely manipulates her words to display the exact mess of thoughts on why there are very few masterpieces: “I’m I because my dog knows me but, creatively speaking, the little dog knowing that you are you and your recognizing that he knows, that is what destroys creation” (Stein, 131).  This ambiguous sentence structure shows how ironically, clarity on one’s identity consequently make one remember themselves and fail to produce originality, a masterpiece.

            In addition to his unique style of language, Stein continuously repeats words and phrases to emphasize the negative effect of over thinking. By stating that “Remembering is never clear [because it] makes secondary writing [when] one begin[s] to write something and suddenly remember something. If [that person] continue[s] to remember, [the] writing gets very confused” (130). This shows the difference between pieces and masterpieces and how it requires one to avoid labeling and limiting their possibilities on their creations.

            Overall, I don’t think that Stein’s devices are effective, because even though they were insightful and deep, the purpose got lost in the complex ideas that he wanted to share. However, her way of approaching the readers was unique, one of the qualities of having a masterpiece.

TOW #20- China’s Big Test

             In most Eastern Asia countries, it is a strong belief that elite U.S. education is beneficial when applying for successful jobs in foreign countries. In 2013, “U.S. reached more than 270,000” Chinese students, with a “16.5% increase each year” (Rauhala, 5). During the October SAT test in 2014, however, the College Board administration has found evidences of students in China illegally obtaining and sharing test materials, and told the students that their SAT results would be delayed. This left the Chinese students with devastation as college admission deadlines approached. In the article, “China’s Big Test”, Emily Rauhala reveals anecdotes and juxtaposes two ideas in order to compare and contrast different existing opinions on Chinese students in America.

            In the beginning paragraphs, Rauhala introduces a story of Xu Quing, a Chinese student preparing to study abroad. Her anxious process of studying for the SAT test and the shocking response after receiving an e-mail from the College Board reveals the author’s sympathetic feelings toward the innocent Chinese students who were affected by those who cheated. The writer also includes China’s nature of cheating my mentioning “Gaokao”, an exam that determines the lives of young Chinese, which give them undeniably high pressures, essentially become a leading cause to why they cheat. Not to mention, the Chinese parents have stressed the importance of education since they only have one child due to the “one child policy”. The writer than, juxtaposes the Chinese students and the American students to portray a different side of the situation.

            Showing a different view of the problem, the author mentions how Harvard has admitted only “5.9% of applicants for the class of 2018” (Rauhala, 7), stressing how it has gotten more difficult for Americans to get accepted in colleges. The parents in America are worried that the foreign students will take over the jobs and positions in high authority. They have recently begun to voice the unfairness as the Chinese are taking advantage of the time difference between America and China to allegedly cheat on the exam. This has added more to America’s uneasy relationship with East Asia.

            Overall, Rauhala’s anecdote and juxtaposition of two opinions leaves the readers with a great understanding of the existing conflict between China and America.

TOW #19- “Americans are Moving to Europe for Free College Degrees”

            Lobosco, a reporter in CNN news, states that there has been more than several cases where an American college student dropped out of school to go to Europe, such as Germany, where tuitions are free. Lobosco than continues to state that because “a lot of American students don’t pay full price for tuition, . . . moving to Europe might not be that great a deal” (7). Unfortunately, Lobosco believes that studying abroad does more than allow you to save money, but give you the benefit of learning a new language, travel opportunities, and being prepared to work in a global economy”. Although those factors might seem to outweigh the negative consequences, as those studying abroad seem to save up more money, they are simply unrealistic expectations as more money is actually spent on visa and residency permit.

            Although not an expert in legal matters for immigrants, I have experienced the process of getting visa and residency permit myself, often translating English and writing emails to our lawyers for my Korean parents. Although they might be designed to be an easy process, without cars, fluency in language, and most importantly, money, it is nearly impossible to achieve the dream of living aboard. If lucky, the process can be as long as two years. However, for certain families, the time range can be extended up to more than ten years. This results in spending thousands of dollars on lawyers and green cards, when they could be spent on American education.

            Even when graduated from a foreign college, those opportunities that has given you the “prepa[ration for] work[ing] in a global economy”, can’t give you jobs. Although being bilingual gives you more advantage when competing for jobs, there are so many education systems that are already available for the American students starting in middle schools, that give them the opportunity to not only travel around in Europe, but also experience “student exchange”, programs that allow students to completely submerge into the culture that they study in.

            Although America is known for their expensive education and cheeseburger with fries, it is undeniable that moving to Europe to study abroad is far less beneficial as students will face visa and residency permit, that will leave them if not just as much, but more money in debt compared to those who stick to receiving the American education.

TOW #18- Visual Text

            From Kanye West's to President Obama's speech, student loan is something that affects everyone from students to parents. The rapidly increasing college tuitions are slowly killing the people's desire for education as students are choosing their careers based off of how much scholarship they receive. This political cartoon that i came across on social media, went viral as students with accounts such as twitter and facebook could deeply relate to it. The artist, Adam's use of juxtaposition and appeal to pathos not only portray the life of many students, but also helps to spread the their voices on media in hopes that it will be heard to the public.
            Looking at the political cartoon, it is evident that the student's hand, if not the boy itself is much smaller compared to the lender's hand that is shown on the right. This is to portray the small and helpless students and their small voices that fights for lowered tuition. Not only that, but the big, gripped hand looks aggressive and scary, almost drawing the emotion of fear from the viewers. In order to deeply appeal to pathos, the artist draws arched eyebrows, frowned face, and chains around the wrists to show the indescribable feeling that students in debts feel. Instead of holding a diploma, the person is holding a paper that says "debt" to show that colleges give you more debt than education itself.
            There are many reasons why this picture became popular on social media, and that is because the artist successfully drew the emotion of fear, sadness, and stress that students go through to receive college education. This was an opportunity for all students to let their voice to hopefully be reached to a person with a solution in their hand rather than a chain that tie them down. 

TOW #17- “How Is The Ku Klux Klan Like a Group of Real- Estate Agents?”

            Chapter two of the non-fiction, “Freakonomics” compares the similarities of Ku Klux Klan and the Real Estate Agents. It talks about how fear is what KKK tries to breed as they use violence within their closed society just like how the real estate agents deal with the fears of selling the customer’s houses for little or no value of money. This chapter, just like any other chapters uses logic and facts. However, the authors Levitt and Dubner’s use of imagery helped to show the significant relations between the KKK and real estate agents.

            The incorporated use of imagery helps the readers see the KKK “ riding horses through the country- side while being draped in white sheets and pillow case hoods” (51) and how they are physically different from the real estate agents who are described as “fixer uppers” (53). This helps to intrigue the reader and question how the two very different groups of people to be similar. The use of imagery was the author’s way of intriguing the readers into a topic that may seem bland and uninteresting. Not only that, but the authors also use graphs and charts that visually compares the lying methods that are used by KKK and the lying methods that are used by those who use dating sites. This is one of the most persuasive parts of the chapter, as the author mentions how the dating sites are statistically the same as KKK in terms of lying to the public to make themselves more appealing, essentially supporting the argument of the text.

            Although the authors appeal to logos and ethos in most of the chapters, they also incorporated the use of imagery to strongly support their purpose of revealing the significant relations between the KKK and the real estate agents.

IRB intro #3- "Freakonomics"

"Freakonomics" by Levitt and Dubner is a series of discussions based on dissimilar topics that share commonalities. They do this by sharing statistics and appealing to logic. The study of economics and the exposure to different ways of thinking that this nonfiction contains never fails to surprise and impress me.

TOW #16- IRB “What Do School Teachers and Sumo Wrestlers Have in Common?”

            Although the professions of being a schoolteacher and a Japanese Sumo Wrestler seem distant, they have one thing in common and it is the beauty of incentive, a thing that motivates or encourages one to do something. The author compares the possibility of promotion that provokes teachers to inflate their students’ scores to the ways that sumo wrestlers purposely lose matches due to bribery and black mail. Not only that, but the author also mentions how factors such as guilt and pride are weak motivators when compared to money and social incentives, which has power to influence anyone and anything. Through emphasizing causes and effects of events and appealing to logos, Levitt explores and emphasizes the effect of incentives on people’s choice of actions.

            Causes and effects often have the power to reveal consequences of a decision. By revealing that posting pictures of criminals of prostitution and shaming their reputation has decreased the amount of people soliciting prostitutes and mentioning the fact that money that is awarded to teachers with high overall class grades have increased teachers cheating for their students shows the scary results that are brought by social and money incentives. Not only that, but the author mentions how the effect of making three dollar fines for late- arriving parents in day cares is less than making three hundred dollar fee in terms of influencing parents and encouraging them to pick their children on time. Not only that, but the author incorporates the use of statistics to emphasize his point. With numbers that show the decrease in homicides and the logic of teachers changing the same consecutive answers that makes cheating easy and often times what catches them red handed, the author appeals to the readers logically and strongly makes his position.

            Through the author’s use of cause and effect and appeal to logos, I was very much convinced and was amused to see the author’s view and claim that asserts that schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have many things in common because whether in a classroom or a wrestling match, most people have incentive to cheat.