Suggestion for writing #2

After reading both Gilchrist's and Ebert's movie reviews, I can't help but wonder if they were even watching the same movie. While Gilchrist pin pointed every possible flaw he could muster up, Ebert praised Spidey's sequel as if he had witnessed a miracle. Being professional movie critics, they both hit on similar subjects ranging from special effects to plot development, but had severely contrasting opinions on everything. Who do I believe, when one liked the first movie but not the sequel, and the other wasn't keen on the original but absolutely drooled over the second?
They can't agree on anything. While Gilchrist rolled his eyes at all the emotionally slower moments, Ebert applauded the in depth character analysis of our hero and his supporting characters. The former believed the writer's held the audience's hand a little too much. If they were familiar with the the first Spiderman, or could formulate thoughts, they could follow along just fine without a play by play. On the other hand, Ebert thoroughly enjoyed the extra attention to Spidey's past. The constant reminder of where Peter Parker came from reminds everyone that he's only human and should deal with his problems like a normal person. Just because he gets to strut his stuff in a really cool costume doesn't mean he doesn't have feelings.
Moving on to Spidey's super special effects. What do you get when you mix quickly moving action scenes with well balanced weight distribution? Yes, another discrepancy. Gilchrist couldn't get over the nauseating speed and movement of the action sequences. They took him back to the director's previous work on the Evil Dead movies and the cameras reckless abandon. Of course, Ebert was thrilled with the improved human-like movements of Spiederman, opposed to the cartoonish flying in the first movie. I think it's safe to say that Ebert has a stronger stomach.
All in all, I think it comes down to personal preference. Gilchrist had high expectations after the success of the first Spiderman film but was dismally disappointed with the sequel. At the same time, Ebert wasn't a fan of Spiderman but is a sucker for the genre and found what he believes to be the "essence" of superhero movies in Spiderman 2.

Persepolis: Comic and Movie

After finishing my first graphic novel, I'm shocked at how much I enjoyed it. I was skeptical at first but now I realize that no matter the medium that a story is in, it can still get its points across.
As for Persepolis, the story really gave an inside look at the Iranian Revolution. If I hadn't read it, I doubt I would really understand what happened. The author made the characters lovable and endearing - something most would not expect these days.
I enjoyed the film in class, but the graphic novel has so much more detail that I think I'm leaning in favor of it. And it's not just the easy-to-understand story line, but being able to see scenes back to back made me want to read more. It also had great emotional effect. I remember specifically one page with two large frames. On the top, there were young soldiers dying, and below that, Marjane's first party. Seeing suffering next to celebration hit me at how intense the situation was.
Now, I'm seriously considering reading the sequel. How could she leave us hanging like that?!

Graff ch.1 ex.1

1. A number of scientists have suggested that there are dangerous levels of chemical X in the Ohio groundwater.
2. After a long debate, the critics have decided that this novel has certain flaws.
3. In its recent showing, football has been deemed boring because its lack of viewers.
4. It has become common today to believe that male students dominate class discussions.
5. Surprisingly, a large number of viewers believe that the film is really about the problems of romantic relationships.
6. Many students be live that writing templates will stifle their creativity.

Eisner and McCloud

After reading up on Eisner and McCloud's descriptions of comics, I'm utterly floored. I had n0 idea that comics were so complicated. Everything from Eisner's writing about how comics are a legitimate source of reading and all the time and energy that comic writers have to put into them to make sure they are easy to follow was very interesting. Some would say that comics are harder to create than novels. With McCloud's writing, he really went in depth about what a comic actually is. He starts with sequential visual art and ends up with a long, drawn out definition of what a comic really is. I can now say that I'm impressed with comic writers. I definitely stereotyped them as Sunday paper comics and weird super natural handbooks. Now I can see that not all comics are for sci-fi convention participants, and that they are just another form of literature.

ch.4 ex.4m

The writing process can be challenging sometimes, but i try to be somewhere comfortable - not too comfy, or I'll fall asleep. Usually my desk. I never type up a first draft. And I never use pencil, so it's just a pen and some paper.
Hopefully I haven't procrastinated to the point where I have no choice but to work in a loud environment, so I work when my roommate works, and we always have some type of music playing, so we don't get distracted by the other talking to herself.
Since I can remember, I've always used an outline as a prewriting idea catcher. All my ideas are in a logical order, so I don't miss one and am forced to put it somewhere it doesn't belong.
After I finishing the first draft, I'll reread it myself, type it, and then let someone else read it over to make sure I don't sound illiterate.
I usually hope I haven't made too many mistakes for my proof reader to check, but I do take constructive critism. Unfortunately, unless I'm not too attached to a particular idea, it's hard for me to let go of some things.
In the past, I haven't had much experience with work shopping except for asking friends to look for grammatical and spelling mistakes, and of course anything that really sticks out that sounds bad.

Workshop Draft as a Genre

Workshop drafts are a compilation of ideas in the form of a paper. Although not nearly complete, this draft allows the writer's peers to look over basic grammatical errors, sentence structure, and of course content. It is almost impossible to go from nothing to the real deal, which is why, as students, we have been taught to write up at least one rough copy before we submit the final piece. This draft is not always pretty and is used to get an idea of the direction the writer wants to follow. The final is the cleaned up, edited, and perfectly understandable and ready to be turned in for credit or even publishing. The audience changes once the final draft is complete. Now it will be read by teachers who will mark it for grading, or the community who will decide if the piece of work gets across its point in an entertaining way.
If Essay R was given to me in a workshopping group, I would grab the nearest red pen and scribble away fixing grammatical and spelling errors, sentence structures, and content confusion. Hopefully after I was through with it, it was a little better for the next work shopper to critique.

Essay R Evaluation

Essay R is an attempt to describe the differences of professional wrestling from past to present. Although I'm sure his intentions were good, the finished piece probably didn't deserve a gold star, to say it nicely.
The author's purpose was clear in his thesis - to talk about how wrestling has evolved throughout the years, but it was extremely hard to concentrate and follow his work with the multitude of grammatical errors, choppy statements that didn't always fit together, and a very bland vocabulary.
I also felt as though he didn't take full advantage of his source. There were only three citings woven into the entire paper. Either he's a professional wrestling textbook, or he forgot to give credit where credit's due.
Overall, the goal was achieved weakly. He gave us his opinion and backed it up with a hand full of facts, but reading it was a struggle with all the problems listed above. If I had to pin a letter grade to this essay, it would probably be a C.