"Soft" Response Prompt

In a brief, 500-600 word essay, please respond to one of the following questions. Remember that this is a practice essay.

1. Soft is a film that is largely about the relationship between a father and a son, and their roles as man and child--respectively. In your essay, focus on how this relationship shifts throughout the film, and why you think the director chose to exhibit this role reversal. If you have an applicable experience that will further help your readers understand your points, please include this in your essay.

2.  Soft is an interesting title for the film. Give three examples from the film that shed light on the meaning of Soft--as it relates to themes of masculinity (and thus, femininity), power, and/or violence, and discuss how and why the title becomes necessary for understanding the film in this context.

3. Pick a major theme from Soft-- either masculinity, sexuality, class, violence, power, age, or violence--and make it personal. In this response, pick a theme that you can connect to your life, or the lives of others. Use specific examples from the film that help establish this connection. Focus on how the theme becomes relevant  off-screen to a current social issue.

DUE ON BLOG by SUNDAY at 5pm (in the comments sections). You will receive comments from both Lisa and Jaimie.

Pono, Marc, Winnie

PONO

MARC

WINNIE

Image for Rhetorical Analysis Presentation

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steve jobs response paper

Marc Vela

9/12/13

ENG 100

Steve Jobs Speech Response

            Steve Jobs, creator of Apple, and former CEO of Apple and Pixar Animations gave a speech for the graduating class of 2005 for Stanford University. The speech was given after Steve Jobs was thought to be cured from an extremely rare pancreatic cancer. The basis of the speech is the story of his life. From dropping out of college to starting Apple to be fired from Apple to reuniting with Apple to becoming a cancer patient was the series of events Steve Jobs spoke about to Stanford graduates. He talks about how experiences throughout his life as affected who he is as a human being. Talking about these experiences Steve Jobs tries to inspire future innovators and discoverers. Steve Jobs stresses two key points in life. One key point he stresses is to truly love what you do, as in your job, and to follow your heart and to be happy in life. The other key point is quoted here: “you cannot connect the dots looking forwards, you can only connect them looking backwards…you must trust the dots....believing that they will connect...even if they lead you off the well-worn path.” From a graduating student at Stanford to a freshman at the University of Hawaii at Manoa would be basically the same. To inspire and motivate us to do well in life, learn from your mistakes and to keep following your heart.

            The above quote to me means two things. That you learn best from your mistakes, I can’t tell you how many lessons I’ve learned from screwing something up in the past. I believe that this is true for just about everybody; that it is ok to make mistakes in life because you learn. As a freshman at the University of Hawaii at Manoa I will most likely encounter lessons that I will learn that will remember for the rest of my life. I’ll learn what to do in certain situations and what not to do in other situations. For example I am a student athlete so I will learn things from personal experiences and even from teammates. I will learn how to manage my time as an athlete and when I make a mistake it will only make me better. I will become more mature from being around the older teammates. I will also learn what to do and what not to do from their personal experiences. Steve Jobs would tell me to do the exact same thing, to gather information from your surroundings and to use that information to move forward in life.

            The other meaning from the quote that I gathered was that if you work hard in whatever it is you are doing and that you do everything correctly, good things will happen and things will work out. Even if things seem rough or that there is no light at the end of tunnel, things will work out because you put all that hard work and good will into whatever it is you are doing. Steve Jobs would tell you to keep working hard, follow your heart, and to be patient for the outcome because that outcome will be extremely rewarding and well worth it.

 

Speech/Slam

Steve Jobs Commencement Speech (2005)

Stanford University

Ethos - Pathos - Logos

Now that we've discussed the author, the audience, and the message, I want you to write a response to Steve Jobs' commencement speech, with the following prompt:

In the above commencement speech, Steve Jobs says "you cannot connect the dots looking forwards, you can only connect them looking backwards." He follows this by saying "you must trust the dots....believing that they will connect...even if they lead you off the well-worn path." He says this with the intention of imposing some wisdom on his audience, who is also concerned with issues of the past as much as the future. Even though you are only starting your college career, Jobs' gives advice that you might find relevant as your journey begins.

Using the above quote as a springboard for thinking about the author's message to his "intended" audience, write a short 500 word response to Jobs' advice, as it relates to you. What does the quote above mean to you as a college freshman?  What kinds of choices would Jobs want you to make?  Give specific examples, considering your own goals and life path. How does the purpose of Jobs' speech change as his audience changes from a graduating class at Stanford to an entering class in UH Manoa?

DUE: By Saturday at 5pm, posted in the comments field of this post.

---

Sumheir Hammad

Response to 9/11 - Then vs. Now

Assignment: Write a poem that either:

#1) speaks to YOUR experience with 9/11 regarding your own culture, gender, age, and social position
#2) RESPONDS to Hammad's rhetorical choises
#3) is in the voice of Hammad, 12 years after 9/11 (what kind of poem WOULD she write)?

Definitions

Composition:  Composition specifically focuses on the construction of thoughts and ideas into written words. Composition is the way we write: the rules of grammar that we follow and the styles we use to express our thoughts effectively. But is also, more broadly, the art of making.

Rhetoric has a number of overlapping meanings: the practice of oratory; the study of the strategies of effective oratory; the use of language, written or spoken, to inform or persuade; the study of the persuasive effects of language; the study of the relation between language and knowledge; the classification and use of tropes and figures; and, of course, the use of empty promises and half-truths as a form of propaganda. Nor does this list exhaust the definitions that might be given. Rhetoric is a complex discipline with a long history: It is less helpful to try to define it once and for all than to look at the many definitions it has accumulated over the years and to attempt to understand how each arose and how each still inhabits and shapes the field.

Patricia Bizzell and Bruce Herzberg, "General Introduction." The Rhetorical Tradition: Readings from Classical Times to the Present. p 1. (2001)