More Outline Blabbering

I've discovered how to write a thousand words without traditional writing anxiety. All I have to do is write the paper inside the outline. I can't explain it but it's the most effective way to write a paper for me.

Not only does it show a more visual pattern of how sentences branch off of each other, it is so easy to see if things do not follow in logical order rather than searching through several paragraphs.


Anyway,

I really enjoyed writing the analysis part of the research paper. I ended up with an even better scene to pair alongside the one with Tony and Rhodes; it's the one where Tony goes to talk to Ivan Vanko right after the Monaco fight. I'll put an excerpt here from my draft.



"With Tony remaining silent, Vanko continues with a key line, “ If you can make God bleed, the people will cease to believe in him. And there will be blood in the water. And the sharks will come. The truth, all I have to do is sit here and watch as the world will consume you.” This can be interpreted as a metaphor for stigma. If someone like Tony holds a godlike status, they have ultimate credibility and are at the forefront of the normal group as Goffman called it. However, if one “can make God bleed,” they ultimately are showing his weakness, or something discrediting. This can be said of both Tony’s cockiness in saying that the arc reactor technology would not be seen elsewhere for many years, but on a deeper level it explains Tony’s refusal to tell anyone about him dying. His ego will not allow him to be discredited in any way if he can avoid it. “The world” does not consume Tony nearly as much as he seems to destroy himself, as in one final line, Vanko says, “Hey, Tony. Before you go, palladium in the chest, painful way to die.”"

Outlines

Today I went with a friend of mine to watch her get a tattoo. She went to fix up an older tattoo of an arrow, and replaced it with a stemmed rose. In addition to being a cool thing to watch, it got me thinking; first, the idea of getting one myself is now very tempting, but also, the concept of outlines. 

Outlines are important. Before the artist started tattooing on the side of my friend's body, he first made a rough sketch on paper, then he transposed that image via sharpie to her skin. It took four revisions of that sharpie drawing before she was satisfied with it, and then the artist began the actual inking. 

Meanwhile, here I am at my laptop now, sitting with a half-finished outline of my paper. I continually learn that without an outline, my papers turn out disorganized to the point that I can't even figure out what I'm trying to say, let alone other people. It would be like getting a tattoo without deciding on placement, size, or even the image concept, and just letting the artist do "whatever".

Now maybe there are some artists that can produce something brilliant without an outline, but I'm not one of them (and that goes for both physical drawings, and my writing). 

Like the tattoo artist today, I need to revise the outline enough times until it is at the point that it will translate well to the finished work- the paper itself. 

Wish me luck.

research and writing schedule

I've been steadily researching ever since assignment 2, and I think I have a decent body of resources. I've read through several of them completely, and only relevant chapters in the full book sections.

I have pages in my notebook for each source, where I documented certain topics by page number so it will be easy later on for in-text citation. For instance, I have a page for author Erving Goffman, who wrote about social stigmas, on one of his book chapters. I'll have a phrase like "definition of stigma, being discredited" and next to it the page number in parenthesis. Handy, and better than littering my books with post it notes serving the same function.

With project 5 coming up, I'm first and foremost going to have to construct a general outline, because as I know, if I don't make an outline, my paper reads like s**t. And of course  I end up editing my outline as I write the paper to keep things straight and organized.

Next, I'll have to write at the bare minimum, a paragraph a day after that, even on days that I usually schedule the majority of my chemistry homework on. Whatever it takes to get something written.

Speaking of organic chemistry, my honors project for it also includes a ten page paper. (The subject is on art conservation and restoration techniques.) I'm using some of the structure from this english class to organize it, starting with a research proposal and an annotated bibliography. Definitions will probably be easier since they're concrete and technical terms, which to be honest, I prefer.

Enough on that, though.

Cheers!

What I found in a scene

I never thought I'd say that I took notes during an Iron Man movie. I'm not complaining.

I've found several scenes of importance to my paper, but the biggest one has to be Tony sitting in his garage when Rhodes comes to tell him about the PR crisis going on after the racing incident.

I don't think there's a more poignant scene demonstrating shame theory than that one. And consistently, Tony uses avoidance the entire time. I'm telling you, it's gold: Rhodes tells him to get up and come help, but as soon as he sees Tony's eyes practically glazed over, he becomes concerned and asks if Tony is okay.

Tony doesn't answer the question (avoidance right there,) and quietly says "let's go." He stumbles out of the car. Rhodes helps him over to the desk.

They have a conversation, mostly with Tony facing away from Rhodes (avoidance yet again). Rhodes watches him silently for a moment, Tony asks him what he's looking at, hardly able to look at Rhodes himself.

At the end of the scene, Tony assures him that he has everything under control. (Need I say it again?)


Now before this scene happened, there was a segment where both Tony and Pepper are on the plane coming home from Monaco. Tony had at least five opportunities to tell Pepper right then and there that he was ill, but instead he avoids her gaze, even when she gives him the golden opportunity by asking: "What are you not telling me?"

Tony's way of processing shame is avoidance! Cool, but why does he feel shameful at all? I'll have to answer that in another post.


Until then, cheers.

Critical Model, As I Understand It, revised

I love spring break because it's essentially just a giant week for catching up and getting ahead on all my classes.

And sleeping, a lot of sleeping. I think I took two naps in one day on Saturday, partly because I was getting over a gross cold that started on Thursday and partly because I've been so exhausted. 

Anyway,

My critical model. As you know I've picked disability studies, and consequently have felt way over my head because of it while simultaneously learning a ton about it. I've read through so many essays on the topic, but for whatever mental block I must have, I don't feel like I truly understand it.

There's the medical model of disability studies, which is as it sounds: based on the study of medical conditions that people with disabilities have. 

Then there's the social model, which seems to be concerned with how disability is viewed in society. Pretty broad topic. 

I'm using the social model for my critical analysis, and from it I'm examining stigma in relation to disability. If anything, I feel more confident when it's narrowed down to this topic. In order to better explain stigma, I had to explain shame theory. Now it's like I'm doing two critical models. 

Maybe this will get easier when I have the movie as a basis of examination. I can apply concepts like shame and stigma to actual examples.

Until next time, cheers.