Crossfire

So using “The Method” I was able to come upon a couple different points but the main observation I made was the binary opposition helping/hurting. In Crossfire two different people come on the show with opposite viewpoints of an issue. Instead of two people coming on the show it was just John Stewart. From the beginning of the show you could tell that it was clearly these two oppositions going against Stewart. The main binary opposition I want to focus on is the words “helping/hurting”. Stewart describes the media as hurting America because they are always putting opposing views on one another and trying to make and issue with completely opposite viewpoints, which is a binary opposition. This relates to my focus and notice notes because all three of my points are how each one of them is attacking and trying to stir the debate. Stewart says this is exactly what’s wrong with the show and how by doing this it is actually helping politicians lie and tell the people what they want to here. My next point I found through the notice and focus is how its interesting from the beginning of the show each side decides to immediately take different stances and attack one another. Stewart uses his comedy to defend himself while the other politicians try to use facts about Stewarts past interviews to defend their side. But relating it all back to “So What” I think the reason the show clip got so many views is how controversial it is. The fact that these three adults are insulting one another right to their faces is something we are not used to which garners our interest. We normally wouldn’t ever see adults taking opposing views and straight up attacking each other in a normal conversation but that is why we watch. By watching this it hurts America because the media shows exact opposites instead of working towards coming together.

High School Writing

When writing essays in high school the hardest part for me was my grammar. I’m not to good at proof reading and will often times miss my mistakes. Another part of essay writing I feel I struggled with was getting started on the essay. I knew what I wanted to say and had all the information I wanted to put in their but wouldn’t know how to get it started. I also usually procrastinate until the last few days then feel rushed and will just try to put my ideas down. I feel I am good at organizing all the information into different categories but sometimes by doing this I will lose the focus of the essay and have to always remind myself what exactly the point of the essay is. When I’m writing I am most productive with either complete silence or classical music playing at a low volume. This keeps me going and prevents writer’s bloc for me. One reason I don’t think I got great grades on my essays in high school was from not writing enough drafts and changing the material I had down. I was pretty stubborn with what I wrote and wouldn’t want to change the whole flow of the essay because of one problem. I am not good at writing essays that have a word count or page count because if I do end up short I trying just adding irrelevant information to what ever I’m trying to prove and that is another way my essays can sometimes lose focus. My best essays are the ones in which I feel real interested in what I am writing about.  Overall I don’t think I’m to great of a writer, which is why I’m looking forward to taking this class and learning different ways and styles of writing essays.