finish the task at hand with little thought or time put into it. When I was assigned my first paper in Writing and Critical Inquiry, assigned by my professor Darcy Mullen, I looked at the topic (experience paper: how humor has affected you as a writer) and said to myself “First off, how am I supposed to write about the influences of humor within my writing?” and “ This will just be a quick five page paper that I can easily get at least a B on just by bull-shitting about the effects of humor in my writing”. At first I thought the class would be just like any other class that I could half ass my papers and get by but later I came to the realization that I was in for of a writing experience more than I had originally thought; my first thought …show more content…
The first, and probably the thing that impacted my writing the most, was that I needed to be writing in eleven font, which was something I had never done before. Coming to the realization that writing in twelve font is a lot different than eleven font forced me to better manage my time, as it would take me a longer time to write, what used to be a quick, five page paper. The second thing that I learned from the first essay was that the grading was strict and that I actually needed to pay attention to the rubric, instead of just writing bull-shit to answer the topic of the paper that was assigned. Professor Mullen, after the first essay, informed us that she had an excellent “bull-shit detector”. After hearing this I realized that I would actually need to put effort and thought into my pieces of writing throughout the rest of the semester. The sense of the strict rubric grading put me into a position of stress and worry and I was thinking that I had finally been put into a position where I would be forced to out more effort into my writing; later I would find out that pushing through the hardships of writing the strictly graded papers, on topics I did not particularly, like would better myself as a student, not only in my writing class, but also in all other …show more content…
After figuring out that much effort was needed in order to be successful in my Writing and Critical Inquiry class I was then assigned another paper, later on in the semester, regarding humor as the “umbrella” for the topic of the paper. The assignment was to write a research paper and relate it in some way to the “umbrella” topic humor. Opposed to the first essay, I took my time and decided that if I wanted to become the best writer I can be during my time in Writing and Critical Inquiry, I would need to accept the fact that I needed to incorporate the idea of humor into my writing, instead of pushing it away and thinking how hard or absurd it is to write about humor. For the research paper I decided to research and write about how humor is widely used as a coping mechanism. Now that I had accepted that I could not do anything to change the umbrella topic for the class, I was able to write freely without making excuses and inadvertently stopping myself from creating a well-written piece of writing. For the research paper I followed the instructions on the rubric and put in more time and effort than I had in the first paper for the class. I received an 18 out of 20 points (a 90) on the research paper with my new perspective on how to write in Professor Mullen’s class,
What is the most common perception held in this country concerning the people and the way they live in the South? The perception most of the country has about life down here in the South is one of slow-paced living, simple-minded people, and stubborn, unwarranted pride. One of the best ways to combat this perception is through the use of humor; Lewis Grizzard was one of the best at this, because he could take the experiences from his own life as well as the lives of others in the South and turn them into humorous semi-fictional stories. He was one of the preeminent fictional authors this country has ever seen because of his ability to connect with people and joke about everyday life in the south, without offending the subjects of those jokes, despite the popular opinion the rest of the country held.
Both of the articles “Dancing with Professors” by Patricia Limerick and “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott resolve the issues faced by college students when writing papers. The first article, “Dancing with Professors,” explains why college professors expect more elaborate papers even though they assign dull and un-motivational reading to their students. On the other end of the writing spectrum, “Shitty First Drafts” explains how valuable the first draft is to students, and why students should not feel weary about writing them.
Humor can come in many different forms. Many people are aware of the blatant humor of slapstick, but it takes a keener mind to notice the subtle detail in sarcasm or satire. In A Modest Proposal, Jonathan Swift was able to create a piece of literature addressing the faults of the Irish culture while embedding in a humorous essay. Swift’s satire allows for the gravity of the Irish standings to be exploited under the disguise of a proposal for economic benefit.
The therapeutic use of humor can be loosely defined as any activities that use the positive emotional responses associated with humor, smiling and laughter to specifically benefit one or more clients’ social, emotional, physical, cognitive or wellness domains. Using humor, therapeutically, involves establishing specific desired outcomes for a client which are facilitated by the use of humor and related techniques. Dattilo & McKenney, (2011) define the therapeutic use of humor when “specialists and others use humor in practice, they play for it to lead to specific therapeutic outcomes”. They emphasize the use of evidence based practice and a goal oriented approach as essential in using humor for therapeutic purposes. Similar to other techniques used, Therapeutic Recreation is using humor to achieve client-established goals requires a systematic approach that harnesses the medicinal benefits of the involved and evoked behaviors.
In my English class, I wanted to do well and ultimately became competitive to be the top student. I would read several passages, plays, and books through the year and at all times write as much as I could for the essays. My overall goal was to prepare for the ACT during junior year and earn “Advanced” score on my EOC/Benchmark scores. Hence, any writing techniques I could learn from my teachers, I would. I learned a majority of my writing skills and techniques in my sophomore and junior honors English classes. During my sophomore year, it was the first time I was in an honors course and it challenged me with writing even more. The summer assignment for the class was reading the book “A Separate Piece” by John Knowles and to complete and A, B, C of literacy techniques and elements, which was simple enough. While beginning the assignment, there was what appeared like a heap of unknown and new words, which left to question if the class was for me. By the end of that one assignment, I learned several new literacy elements and techniques that I would go on to enhance my writing as well as add new vocabulary to my everyday conversations and papers. My sophomore year also required a good amount of writing for state standardized tests. In my Honors English II course, for a certain score on the standardized tests, the student would receive extra credit points for class. Parallel to when I was in
One thing that I learned from this course is to follow directions. In the first assignment, we were told to write a personal story of what shaped you as a whole. At first, I had a difficult time thinking of a topic to write about, but after viewing other students’ essays, I finally understand what the professor was asking for, and I came up with an idea of writing how I got my cats and wanted to become a veterinarian. Writing this type of essay was difficult because I am not good at expressing myself. Therefore, I always did a bad job in describing my feelings, my thoughts, and etc. Since English is my second language, I know I have a lot of mistakes with my writing. Thus, I went to the Writing Center to ask for professional help. The tutors are very nice and willing to give you academic advices. After going to the writing center, the essay turned out to be my favorite essay that I have even written. However, the assignment was not asking to tell the story, the main theme is to write what shaped you as a whole. As a result, I got a poor grade and realized that this college level course was not the same as a high school writing course. In high school, I was only satisfied in completing the essay and receiving an A. What really ...
Before taking Mrs. Hawkins’ English 102 class, I used to hate writing; no, I despised it. Along with my hatred for writing, I, as many other college students, am a terrible procrastinator. In my past English classes, my procrastination had affected my grades, especially when it came to papers dealing with multiple steps and drafts, due to the fact writing takes many timely processes to
At the beginning of the semester, I had a different idea of what is considered as good writing. In my first rough draft for my first essay, “Post-secondary education and cultural backgrounds”, I demonstrated mostly of my preconceived idea of what good writing is suppose to be. I tried to sound intelligent by asking rhetorical questions and using big words improperly. I noticed that there was no harmony and organization on my essay as a whole. I had no idea what MLA was. With the help of the Writing Center and my determination on continually revising my essay, my scattered ideas developed into cohesive statements. I learned the use of topic sentences, thesis, reference page, page number, and other given structures on writing a paper. As I tried to develop my skills to becoming a good writer, my writing and knowledge has slowly grew into the accepted academic text.
Many people tend to use humor as a positive communication skill to make us laugh. It has long been used as a tool to navigate how we better understand media and politics. In today's crucial times of political chaos, social unrest and in-fighting between political parties, the use of Satire humor is more relevant than ever before. According to Oxford dictionary, satire is defined as the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues. In the last decade there has been a staunch increase in technology and a rise in social media, this comes with its own benefits and downfalls. The use of satire humor has been represented
The author of Everyman manages to engage us in this religious drama through the use of humor, using humor keeps the reader entertained. There are many examples in Everyman that show how the use of humor entertains the reader and conveys the moral lessons embedded in the play. Examples of this humor is evident in the responses Everyman receives when he summons his various qualities to ask them to accompany him on his journey to death, an example of such humor is when Everyman reveals the journey destination to Fellowship who initially agreed to accompany him, “Now, by God that all hath bought, If Death were the messenger, For no man that is living today I will not go that loath journey! Not for the father that begat me!”(Everyman), here we see
The spectrum of therapeutic techniques available within the health care continuum is very complex and varied. From traditional medicine, to holistic remedies, and anything in between, nurses have a rather large arsenal at their disposal when it comes to treating the patients that are under their care. Humor as an alternative therapy has long been understood as a proven means to aid in the recovery process. “With so much power to heal and renew, the ability to laugh easily and frequently is a tremendous resource for surmounting problems, enhancing your relationships, and supporting both physical and emotional health” (Smith & Segal, 2015). The purpose of this paper is to discuss situations in which humor would be a viable alternative therapy
...ople need to take some pride in their work. If you have a paper due tomorrow, don’t go out with your friends and drink and then come in at midnight and try writing. You may not particularly like doing work. You may not like the class, but the work you do is a representation of you, so do your best work!
According to Gazzaniga, Heatherton, and Halpern in Psychological Science, an effective to regulate emotion is through humor (430). Humor allows individuals to distance themselves from negative emotions and can strengthen social connections to others (Gazzaniga, Heatherton, and Halpern 431). In Native American communities, laughter and humor are often utilized to cope with stereotypes imposed upon Native Americans by non-Native people. Illustrations of this occurrence can be found throughout works by Native peoples, such as that by Sherman Alexie. These sources involve Native Americans embracing, rebelling against, and bringing attention to stereotypes about who they are and who the can be, all while using humor to cope with the emotions involved
Throughout this course, I have faced many obstacles. One of the biggest struggles I faced was procrastination and being forgetful. I don’t feel that I am an awful writer; I feel that many of my low grade papers come from writing them the night before they were due. I’ve always had problems with writing papers last minute in high school. The difference between the two is that in high school if I didn’t have a paper in on time, I could turn it in late and still receive positive feedback and a pretty decent grade. In this course, it is a big deal to turn in something late. I feel that if I had used my time wisely and paced out the papers that I wrote, they would be better
Humor is the tendency to look at things from the mirthful or incongruous side. It is the quality that makes something laughable or amusing. Humor is the ability to perceive, enjoy, or express what is amusing or comical. It is the source of laughter and the catalyst of smiles. Humor is the spark that lights our eyes as well as the cause of tears that never grows old. Humor is a state of mind.