A lot of the readings made me think about societal problems in a new way. I found the whole contact zone idea really interesting, and there has already been several times I have thought about that while I am interacting with someone who is quite different from me.

I feel like I grew as a writer because I put more effort into this class, and into my writing, that in previous courses. At first I was hesitant when you (Dr. A) said that we couldn't get by in this class simply by being a good writer, and that we would have to keep up with readings. However, I found that this structure kept me interested.

I think I liked the discussions most. I really like arguing about things that have no definite answer because I like to see the "battle of wits" of peoples bullshit, particularly my own :)

I had been thinking about how separating different branches of knowledge makes people stupid for a long time, and many of the readings in this course actually helped me make connections among my little understandings of the universe.

I had never really taken workshopping seriously until I took this class. In my past writing classes I just changed a few things and called it good, but I felt like I really put forth effort in my own growth as a writer this term.

I am sad that this will be my last writing class, as there is nothing left for me to take except scientific writing or technical writing, which sound horrible after this course.

This class has been one of the few that I have had throughout college that was truly a "contact zone," and "changed society--bizell style" for me. As much as I am excited to end my semester once I finish this post, I will miss this unique experience. Without the institution--which I "hate" so much, by the way :)--I find it difficult to write. I guess when I really think about it, writing isn't for professors, or classmates, but it is for the personal growth of the writer. Hopefully I will somehow stir up the motivation within myself to write for writing's sake. I believe that language is the glue that holds us all together and shapes the way we look at the world, and I am glad to have enlightened myself a bit more about this binding, powerful force.

Happy break, I'm done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

David has that same dissenting tone that I have come to love so much in writing. His memoir took something as simple as learning cursive and made a wonderful snapshot of the elementary-school kid condition.

I can see a great improvement in his writing structure throughout the course of the semester. His memoir was very well organized, and I felt like the organization of the paper helped reflect the mood of being a child.

David has shown me that he can write creatively no matter what the parameters of the assignment. I see him the kind of guy who treads softly, but carries a big stick as I have read his little bits of "social commentary" as I like to call it. I find this interesting that others can share similar ideas, yet not feel the need to complain about them (or maybe just hear myself talk) as much as I do.

I hope that you continue writing no matter where life takes you, good luck with the post-college life!

I particularly like her writing style, as it is contrasted from my own. I tend to use long, drawn out, superfluous, sentences--with lots of interruptions (distractions) in between. Her voice has shorter sentences and well organized paragraphs that are easier to follow but do not take away from her "personal voice."

I liked her first paper especially, because she was talking about fighting the man as it relates to creativity in the composition classroom. I saw this belief reflected in the final draft of her memoir, as she really elaborated on what she was trying to say, citing sources as such. Although that isn't "the format" of the memoir, she made it work and kept her thinking true to herself, without compromising for the sake of the assignment.

I think Jackie's greatest quality as a writer is the way she constructs her arguments. I could read her paper fast or I could read it slow, and I would still get all of the information. I don't have much advice for her to improve her writing other than keep doing it, which I'm sure she will because she is an English & Writing student.

I feel like I am better at workshopping others' papers than I am at writing, but I was unable to do that too well with her work because her writing is far beyond mine, at least in ways that I'd like to improve, like not writing run-on sentences, or not having super jumbled thoughts....

Good job

The best piece of Katie's, in my opinion, was her memoir. I was especially moved by her story of how Catcher in the Rye inspired her to begin writing seriously, and how it shaped her journaling from events to deeper thoughts. I read Catcher in the Rye my junior year of high school as well-as I remember I ditched school to read it because I was pissed off about something...

Katie's writing really pulls the reader in, at least for me, but again I'm all about cynicism. I saw her writing go from hesitant to confident in reading her blog. I hope that this course contributes to her writing skills, no matter what discourse or medium they are utilized.

Gate's memoir is talking back because his style & story uses language that is not considered polite, or politically correct. He pushes people's boundaries in order to get them to understand what racism was like in the 60's era in Piedmont. His ideas are pushing against the ideas of the ruling class.

Ian Pratt

WC: 2,194

as for me and my louse, we will serve the hoard

The summer before my junior year of high school, I came across a book titled "Understanding Human Behavior and the Social Environment." It was a textbook for a master’s level program in Social Work. This book had everything anyone had ever said about human behavior. Every single personality theory known to man was in this book. There were charts of "eye accessing cues," a way to tell whether a person was recalling a visual, auditory or tactile memory based on the direction their eyes were looking as they recalled the memory. This was the moment that I fell in love with psychology.

            My junior and senior years of high school, I read psychology texts religiously. I even ditched school some days and stayed in my room reading psychology books all day. I read the DSM IV, the reference book for every single mental disorder that has been classified, cover to cover. In one of the appendices, there was a list of axes proposed for further study. I wrote a 30 some question personality test that was designed to determine which seven defense mechanisms a person used most frequently, as a way to contribute to the DSM. I designed double blind experiments to determine the effects of caffeine on academic performance. I took an AP statistics course with the goal of study psychology in college in mind. I got a D in the class but aced the AP exam with a 4.

            I went to college and majored in psychology, only to be disappointed. The psychological dogma of trying to make people fit into nice, neat little labels and explanations became clear to me as a fallacy. I was an intern for a sexual assault advocacy group, and though I was happy to help some people that needed it, I discovered that the psychologists are usually more screwed up than their clients.

            I participated in many groups on campus for a while, trying to get experience "helping people." I even ran for student council and lost, only to find a way to start a student group to give me a seat on the council. After my short lived foray into politics and horrible depressing internship as a sexual assault counselor, I learned that I really don't care about helping people. I suppose it isn't that I don't care, but I've learned that I internalize other people's problems and their problems make my life horribly depressing.

            So here I am, about to graduate with a shitload of experience in counseling, the only field that I have any credentials in, and counseling is probably the last thing on earth that I would want as a profession other than politics. I've been exposed to "Colorado's Best University Experience," and have quite a negative opinion of it. It's not that college hasn't been the best four years of my life, or that I haven't made a bunch of lifelong friends, or that I haven't learned some of the most interesting things about the world, life, and myself...but I've learned that I don't like American Society. Throughout my life I have always rebelled against all of the institutions that have been forced on me, be it the education system, the police, religious society, or government. At each stage of my life, I always thought that things would be better when I got to "the next step," or that it was only that particular institution that was screwed up (at least in my mind.) In truth, any other college I could have gone to would have the same form of bureaucracy and what I call "edutainment" that I hate. Whatever city I lived in would most have policies that conflict with my libertarian ideals.

            To many, I might come across as a Holden Caulfield, as one of those people in high school who labeled himself with the obvious contradictory title of a "non-conformist." Until I leave everything that I own and hide away from every other human soul out in the woods by myself, I am just as much of a conformist as everyone else. Even if I did say "fuck society" and live in the woods, I would still take my language and the skills that I have learned from other people with me. So, for all purposes, I really can't escape society, and I can't escape American culture. This has become more and more apparent to me as I have matured. These feeling may be deduced to the same angst that every child feels when he realizes that he won't be a rock star or an astronaut or president of the world and that he will actually have to put forth some effort into life to get by on not very much money at all.

            My greatest fear is being miserable. I suppose this can be equated to the universal fear of "being alone." I am not literally alone, and I know I will never be because I have family and friends and a girlfriend that I will most likely settle down with at some point. The problem is the lack of connection with people, with society, with American society. I absolutely despise this culture which I was born into. This is not to say that Americans are all stupid, lazy people. I am one of them. I too am part of the problem. This realization just fuels my internal conflict even more.

            All of these technological advances that are supposed to make life more comfortable and connect people to each other do just the opposite of that for me. Cable television has seventy plus basic channels with nothing but "reality" shows of spoiled high school girls bitching about how they got a beamer instead of a range rover for their sixteenth birthday or newscast by "political analysts" who have never spent a minute in government talking about how they know what's right for America.

            Every institution in this society has been reduced to entertainment. Presidential candidates appear on WWE Raw, or the Colbert report during their campaigns. It's sad that most Americans get their news from newscast comedies, and these comedies seem to have more relevant news than the twenty four hour news channels. Our education system is all about edu-tainment—entertainment masked as a legitimate education—where masters level students are required to make posters for their research projects, or undergraduates are supposed to run statistical analyses on data they've collect from watching reality TV shows.

            American workplaces are crammed full of people who do nothing but sit at their desks all day and watch you tube videos, particularly in government jobs that burn through public money. Our country is in an economic crisis because every single damned person, business, government agency, and financial institution in this country (including, and especially me) has borrowed way beyond their means and just wants to borrow more and more and more thinking that that will somehow help their situation.

            And here I am, a melodramatic soon-to-be college graduate who basically doesn’t want to work a day in his life, who instead wants to play like a college freshman for the rest of his life, is forced to make an immediate decision on how he can conform and assimilate to working life in this country and still maintain his sanity. I fight this thought more and more every day. Why should I have to contribute to society? I didn't ask to be born, I didn't ask to be a part of a "nation-state," I don't agree with the way human society is organized. I was never consulted about these matters.

            As much as I would like to live in the woods an own lots and lots of guns and have a giant barbed wire fence warning people to stay out of my libertarian fortress/paradise, I can't. I am still an American, as much as I don't want to be forced to be defined by an institution, I am, and there is no escaping this. So how can I integrate in to society's institutions while still maintaining my sanity? When am I going against the grain for the sake of being different and when do I really have better ideas than everyone else, at least as it relates to my own world view and my own happiness.

            I'm reminded of a conversation I had with a true anarchist. This guy really said "fuck society." He rode around on freight trains and never contributed to society a day in his life. As a young, socially integrated, “proud-to-be-an-American”, I argued that submitting to the will of society and government allowed for the most freedom for the most people. He replied, "What freedom? The freedom to consume?"

            That comment has stuck with me for some time. We are in the land of the free. We are free to do whatever we want. But to do whatever you want you have to have the money to do it. And usually, what we want to do is consume material things because that has been beaten senselessly into our heads by every aspect of our culture since we were old enough to understand language. Our culture equates consumption with happiness. I am just as guilty as the rest of America. Sometimes I am so antsy because I can't think of what I need to put into my body to be entertained, be it an energy drink, a cigarette, a glass of whisky, etc... I even know that consumption is not what leads to self satisfaction. It is expressing our humanity that makes us human. This does not mean that you have to be a great artist, or writer, or musician. It can be as simple as taking a walk at sunrise, or running the park, doing those things that truly make us human. So much of human intelligence and creativity and emotion are wasted on entertainment and useless technology that ruins our attention spans and keeps us further and further detached from what is going on right in front of our faces.

            How much emotion and talent must be wasted on pointless endeavors? I ask this to myself as I prepare to leave the best four years of my life behind—a four years filled with the constant flow of ideas and virtuosity—and dive into the ever-so-nostalgia-hyped working world so that I can struggle to convince people to buy shit they don’t need with money that they don’t have.

            The conclusion that I have come to is that expressing humanity, or finding “the true self” is the only way for me to be content with this society that I am forced to participate in. In writing this memoir, I look at my way of thinking about the world and determine that it is flawed, not in the sense of my opinions about what is wrong with American culture, but flawed in the way that I approach these opinions. A middle school counselor once told me, “Our greatest strengths are our greatest weaknesses.” As cliché as that sounds, it is true. I believe that one of my greatest strengths is my desire to challenge every piece of information I encounter, yet my greatest weakness is that same desire can cause me to haphazardly reject information that could be beneficial to me, or to dwell on how much is wrong with the world rather than making the best of my little piece of it.

            As I finish this writing, it occurred to me that the criticism I have of the psychologists is the same method of thinking that I have about my place in the world. People don’t fit into nice, neat, little boxes, but society will never fit into the boxes that I want it to. It’s like going swimming. If you fight the water, you are most likely going to drown. Complaining about how horrible the swimming pool you’re in won’t save you, nor will whining about the lifeguards who are supposed to be paying better attention, nor will bitching about how you put yourself in the situation. The only thing you can do is accept your circumstances and swim. The water doesn’t care about your problems. The only way the water will listen to you is if you speak its language and become one with it, gliding to safety. The same goes for society: I can’t escape it, and the more I fight with it, the more grief it will cause me. I don’t have to like every part of it, and I don’t have to participate in every part of it. The greatest difficulty is discernment, something many cultures refer to as wisdom. I choose to waste my time watching TV. I choose to let the negative parts of my culture “suck away my soul.”

            I am guilty of the black-and-white thinking that characterizes these United States. I don’t have to be society’s tool, but I don’t have to go live in the woods by myself. For those who wish to integrate completely and try and make the world a better place, you have my blessing. As for me, I can’t save the world yet because I’m too busy trying to save myself from it.

And memory insists on pining

For places it never went,

As if life would be happier

Just by being different.

—Dana Gioia

WC: 1,731

The summer before my junior year of high school, I came across a book titled "Understanding Human Behavior and the Social Environment." It was a textbook for a master’s level program in Social Work. This book had everything anyone had ever said about human behavior. Every single personality theory known to man was in this book. There were charts of "eye accessing cues," a way to tell whether a person was recalling a visual, auditory or tactile memory based on the direction their eyes were looking as they recalled the memory. This was the moment that I fell in love with psychology.

            My junior and senior years of high school, I read psychology texts religiously. I even ditched school some days and stayed in my room reading psychology books all day. I read the DSM IV, the reference book for every single mental disorder that has been classified, cover to cover. In one of the appendices, there was a list of axes proposed for further study.   I wrote a 30 some question personality test that was designed to determine which seven defense mechanisms a person used most frequently, as a way to contribute to the DSM. I designed double blind experiments to determine the effects of caffeine on academic performance. I took an AP statistics course with the goal of study psychology in college in mind. I got a D in the class but aced the AP exam with a 4.

            I went to college and majored in psychology, only to be disappointed. The psychological dogma of trying to make people fit into nice, neat little labels and explanations became clear to me as a fallacy. I was an intern for a sexual assault advocacy group, and though I was happy to help some people that needed it, I discovered that the psychologists are usually more screwed up than their clients.

            I participated in many groups on campus for a while, trying to get experience "helping people." I even ran for student council and lost, only to find a way to start a student group to give me a seat on the council. After my short lived foray into politics and horrible depressing internship as a sexual assault counselor, I learned that I really don't care about helping people. I suppose it isn't that I don't care, but I've learned that I internalize other people's problems and their problems make my life horribly depressing.

            So here I am, about to graduate with a shipload of experience in counseling, the only field that I have any credentials in, and counseling is probably the last thing on earth that I would want as a profession other than politics. I've been exposed to "Colorado's Best University Experience," and have quite a negative opinion of it. It's not that college hasn't been the best four years of my life, or that I haven't made a bunch of lifelong friends, or that I haven't learned some of the most interesting things about the world, life, and myself...but I've learned that I don't like American Society. Throughout my life I have always rebelled against all of the institutions that have been forced on me, be it the education system, the police, religious society, or government. At each stage of my life, I always thought that things would be better when I got to "the next step," or that it was only that particular institution that was screwed up (at least in my mind.) In truth, any other college I could have gone to would have the same form of bureaucracy and what I call "edutainment" that I hate. Whatever city I lived in would most have policies that conflict with my libertarian ideals.

            To many, I might come across as a Holden Caulfield, as one of those people in high school who labeled himself with the obvious contradictory title of a "non-conformist." Until I leave everything that I own and hide away from every other human soul out in the woods by myself, I am just as much of a conformist as everyone else. Even if I did say "fuck society" and live in the woods, I would still take my language and the skills that I have learned from other people with me. So, for all purposes, I really can't escape society, and I can't escape American culture. This has become more and more apparent to me as I have matured. These feeling may be deduced to the same angst that every child feels when he realizes that he won't be a rock star or an astronaut or president of the world and that he will actually have to put forth some effort into life to get by on not very much money at all.

            My greatest fear is being miserable. I suppose this can be equated to the universal fear of "being alone." I am not literally alone, and I know I will never be because I have family and friends and a girlfriend that I will most likely settle down with at some point. The problem is the lack of connection with people, with society, with American society. I absolutely despise this culture which I was born into. This is not to say that Americans are all stupid, lazy people. I am one of them, I am part of the problem. This realization just fuels my internal conflict even more.

            All of these technological advances that are supposed to make life more comfortable and connect people to each other do just the opposite of that for me. Cable television has seventy plus basic channels with nothing but "reality" shows of spoiled high school girls bitching about how they got a beamer instead of a range rover for their sixteenth birthday or newscast by "political analysts" who have never spent a minute in government talking about how they know what's right for America.

            Every institution in this society has been reduced to entertainment.

Presidential candidates appear on WWE Raw, or the Colbert report during their campaigns. It's sad that most Americans get their news from newscast comedies, and these comedies seem to have more relevant news than the twenty four hour news channels. Our education system is all about edu-tainment as well, where masters level students are required to make posters for their research projects, or undergraduates are supposed to run statistical analyses on data they've collect from watching reality TV shows.

            American workplaces are crammed full of people who do nothing but sit at their desks all day and watch you tube videos, particularly in government jobs that burn through public money. Our country is in an economic crisis because every single damned person, business, government agency, and financial institution in this country (including, and especially me) has borrowed way beyond their means and just wants to borrow more and more and more thinking that that will somehow help their situation.

            And here I am, a melodramatic soon-to-be college graduate who basically doesn’t want to work a day in his life, who instead wants to play like a college freshman for the rest of his life, is forced to make an immediate decision on how he can conform and assimilate to working life in this country and still maintain his sanity. I fight this thought more and more every day. Why should I have to contribute to society? I didn't ask to be born, I didn't ask to be a part of a "nation-state," I don't agree with the way human society is organized, I was never consulted about these matters.

            As much as I would like to live in the woods an own lots and lots of guns and have a giant barbed wire fence warning people to stay out of my libertarian fortress/paradise, I can't. I am still an American, as much as I don't want to be forced to be defined by an institution, I am, and there is no escaping this. So how can I integrate in to society's institutions while still maintaining my sanity? When am I going against the grain for the sake of being different and when do I really have better ideas than everyone else, at least as it relates to my own world view and my own happiness.

            I'm reminded of a conversation I had with a true anarchist. This guy really said "fuck society." He rode around on freight trains and never contributed to society a day in his life. As a young, socially integrated, “proud-to-be-an-American”, I argued that submitting to the will of society and government allowed for the most freedom for the most people. He replied, "What freedom? The freedom to consume?"

            That comment has stuck with me for some time. We are in the land of the free. We are free to do whatever we want. But to do whatever you want you have to have the money to do it. And usually, what we want to do is consume material things because that has been beaten senselessly into our heads by every aspect of our culture since we were old enough to understand language. Our culture equates consumption with happiness. I am just as guilty as the rest of America. Sometimes I am so antsy because I can't think of what I need to put into my body to be entertained, be it an energy drink, a cigarette, a glass of whisky, etc... I even know that consumption is not what leads to self satisfaction. It is expressing our humanity that makes us human. This does not mean that you have to be a great artist, or writer, or musician. It can be as simple as taking a walk at sunrise, or running the park, doing those things that truly make us human. So much of human intelligence and creativity and emotion are wasted on entertainment and useless technology that ruins our attention spans and keeps us further and further detached from what is going on right in front of our faces.

            How much emotion and talent must be wasted on pointless endeavors? I ask this to myself as I prepare to leave the best four years of my life behind—a four years filled with the constant flow of ideas and virtuosity—and dive into the ever-so-nostalgia-hyped working world so that I can struggle to convince people to buy shit they don’t need with money that they don’t have.

WC: 1,689

The summer before my junior year of high school, I came across a book titled "Understanding Human Behavior and the Social Environment." It was a textbook for a master’s level program in Social Work. This book had everything anyone had ever said about human behavior. Every single personality theory known to man was in this book. There were charts of "eye accessing cues," a way to tell whether a person was recalling a visual, auditory or tactile memory based on the direction their eyes were looking as they recalled the memory. This was the moment that I fell in love with psychology.

            My junior and senior years of high school, I read psychology texts religiously. I even ditched school some days and stayed in my room reading psychology books all day. I read the DSM IV, the reference book for every single mental disorder that has been classified, cover to cover. In one of the appendices, there was a list of axes proposed for further study.   I wrote a 30 some question personality test that was designed to determine which seven defense mechanisms a person used most frequently, as a way to contribute to the DSM. I designed double blind experiments to determine the effects of caffeine on academic performance. I took an AP statistics course with the goal of study psychology in college in mind. I got a D in the class but aced the AP exam with a 4.

            I went to college and majored in psychology, only to be disappointed. The psychological dogma of trying to make people fit into nice, neat little labels and explanations became clear to me as a fallacy. I was an intern for a sexual assault advocacy group, and though I was happy to help some people that needed it, I discovered that the psychologists are usually more screwed up than their clients.

            I participated in many groups on campus for a while, trying to get experience "helping people." I even ran for student council and lost, only to find a way to start a student group to give me a seat on the council. After my short lived foray into politics and horrible depressing internship as a sexual assault counselor, I learned that I really don't care about helping people. I suppose it isn't that I don't care, but I've learned that I internalize other people's problems and their problems make my life horribly depressing.

            So here I am, about to graduate with a shipload of experience in counseling, the only field that I have any credentials in, and counseling is probably the last thing on earth that I would want as a profession other than politics. I've been exposed to "Colorado's Best University Experience," and have quite a negative opinion of it. It's not that college hasn't been the best four years of my life, or that I haven't made a bunch of lifelong friends, or that I haven't learned some of the most interesting things about the world, life, and myself...but I've learned that I don't like American Society. Throughout my life I have always rebelled against all of the institutions that have been forced on me, be it the education system, the police, religious society, or government. At each stage of my life, I always thought that things would be better when I got to "the next step," or that it was only that particular institution that was screwed up (at least in my mind.) In truth, any other college I could have gone to would have the same form of bureaucracy and what I call "edutainment" that I hate. Whatever city I lived in would most have policies that conflict with my libertarian ideals.

            To many, I might come across as a Holden Caulfield, as one of those people in high school who labeled himself with the obvious contradictory title of a "non-conformist." Until I leave everything that I own and hide away from every other human soul out in the woods by myself, I am just as much of a conformist as everyone else. Even if I did say "fuck society" and live in the woods, I would still take my language and the skills that I have learned from other people with me. So, for all purposes, I really can't escape society, and I can't escape American culture. This has become more and more apparent to me as I have matured. These feeling may be deduced to the same angst that every child feels when he realizes that he won't be a rock star or an astronaut or president of the world and that he will actually have to put forth some effort into life to get by on not very much money at all.

            My greatest fear is being miserable. I suppose this can be equated to the universal fear of "being alone." I am not literally alone, and I know I will never be because I have family and friends and a girlfriend that I will most likely settle down with at some point. The problem is the lack of connection with people, with society, with American society. I absolutely despise this culture which I was born into. This is not to say that Americans are all stupid, lazy people. I am one of them, I am part of the problem. This realization just fuels my internal conflict even more.

            All of these technological advances that are supposed to make life more comfortable and connect people to each other do just the opposite of that for me. Cable television has seventy plus basic channels with nothing but "reality" shows of spoiled high school girls bitching about how they got a beamer instead of a range rover for their sixteenth birthday or newscast by "political analysts" who have never spent a minute in government talking about how they know what's right for America.

            Every institution in this society has been reduced to entertainment.

Presidential candidates appear on WWE Raw, or the Colbert report during their campaigns. It's sad that most Americans get their news from newscast comedies, and these comedies seem to have more relevant news than the twenty four hour news channels. Our education system is all about edu-tainment as well, where masters level students are required to make posters for their research projects, or undergraduates are supposed to run statistical analyses on data they've collect from watching reality TV shows.

            American workplaces are crammed full of people who do nothing but sit at their desks all day and watch you tube videos, particularly in government jobs that burn through public money. Our country is in an economic crisis because every single damned person, business, government agency, and financial institution in this country (including, and especially me) has borrowed way beyond their means and just wants to borrow more and more and more thinking that that will somehow help their situation.

            And here I am, a melodramatic soon-to-be college graduate who basically doesn’t want to work a day in his life, who instead wants to play like a college freshman for the rest of his life, is forced to make an immediate decision on how he can conform and assimilate to working life in this country and still maintain his sanity. I fight this thought more and more every day. Why should I have to contribute to society? I didn't ask to be born, I didn't ask to be a part of a "nation-state," I don't agree with the way human society is organized, I was never consulted about these matters.

            As much as I would like to live in the woods an own lots and lots of guns and have a giant barbed wire fence warning people to stay out of my libertarian fortress/paradise, I can't. I am still an American, as much as I don't want to be forced to be defined by an institution, I am, and there is no escaping this. So how can I integrate in to society's institutions while still maintaining my sanity? When am I going against the grain for the sake of being different and when do I really have better ideas than everyone else, at least as it relates to my own world view and my own happiness.

            I'm reminded of a conversation I had with a true anarchist. This guy really said "fuck society." He rode around on freight trains and never contributed to society a day in his life. As an integrated, proud-to-be-an-American, I argued that submitting to the will of society and government allowed for the most freedom for the most people. He replied, "What freedom? The freedom to consume?"

            That comment has stuck with me for some time. We are in the land of the free. We are free to do whatever we want. But to do whatever you want you have to have the money to do it. And usually, what we want to do is consume material things because that has been beaten senselessly into our heads by every aspect of our culture since we were old enough to understand language. Our culture equates consumption with happiness. I am just as guilty as the rest of America. Sometimes I am so antsy because I can't think of what I need to put into my body to be entertained, be it an energy drink, a cigarette, a glass of whisky, etc... I even know that consumption is not what leads to self satisfaction. It is expressing our humanity that makes us human. This does not mean that you have to be a great artist, or writer, or musician. It can be as simple as taking a walk at sunrise, or running the park, doing those things that truly make us human. So much of human intelligence and creativity and emotion are wasted on entertainment and useless technology that ruins our attention spans and keeps us further and further detached from what is going on right in front of our faces.

            How can I dispel my fear? Do I have no faith in people, or am I just bitter because I'm lazy (I also blame society for my laziness)

During my first semester of college, I took a course about the sport of orienteering. Orienteering is the sport of navigating through the woods with a topographical map and compass, with the goal of finding “control points” that are marked on the map. At the control points, there are special hole punchers that the participants use to mark their punch cards to prove that they made it to all the control points. After all of the control points have been reached, the participant returns to the starting point.

For the final project of this course, our class went to Lory State park, where our instructor set up a course for us. I was paired up with a group of three upperclassmen, one of which was an RA. I practiced reading topo maps and using the compass and grid lines in class, and I was confident that I knew how to find all of the control points. I am great at convincing others that I know what I am talking about when I may not be 100% sure. My group members didn’t take much persuading, as they did not know any more about reading topo maps that I had learned in the few weeks of the class.

I led my group off trail and up a hill full of cacti. One of the girls that was in my group started crying and called her mom right from the side of the hill. We ran back to the staring point to get the instructor to deal with this hysterical girl and then went on our way.

The entire course was along the length of a valley. Logically, it was apparent that the instructor would not have us go off trail into the mountains. However, the rationality of the apparent logic was superceded by my confidence, and thus I lead a group of older, more experienced college students into a dangerous situation.

If you can convince others that your audience that you are a creditable source, they will believe just about anything; thus, voice in writing is all about style. It is not as important to have a legitimate argument in your writing as long as you can convince people that your argument is legitimate. To convince an audience to agree with a viewpoint, the writer simply needs to build creditability with the reader. To do this, the writer needs to pay close attention to his/her voice. In order to build creditability, the writer needs to write in a style that makes them appear confident and knowledgeable about the topic. Audience is important here, because different audiences will be wooed by different tactics. The type of language that is used makes a key difference in this. Using fancy, over-the-topic jargon can make the writer appear arrogant, unless the audience is a group of people that use the same type of jargon. Making the language or arguments too simple or too complex can make it seem like the writer is talking down to the reader or make the reader feel like the writer is trying to prove how much smarter they are than the rest of the population.

To demonstrate this, I will imitate a passage from On Truth by Harry G. Frankfurt, taking his academic style and molding it to make sense for the rest of us:

Often, people trick themselves into believing that subjective appraisals cannot be defined as either true or false. Their thinking leads them to believe that statements which do not make a factual claim cannot be correct or incorrect because these kinds of statements are merely a reflection of a personal preference or opinion.

Statements that seem to be subjective or opinionated do indeed rely on facts. For instance, to say "I don't like the blue paint job on that Ford Focus" requires the acceptance of several factual claims. The first is that "blue" is the same color "blue" that is accepted by others as being "blue." The second is the fact that the object that the speaker is referring to is what we all know to be an automobile. Third, the speaker must accept the fact that the car that he/she is referencing is a Ford Focus. Without accepting these facts, it is impossible to make a judgment about the color of a Ford Focus. So, it is possible to say that subjective appraisals cannot be divided along the true/not true lines; however, we must rely on factual information to come to those conclusions.

Factual statements are invaluable to our self-concepts. What we choose as important to us and how we choose to spend our time may appear to be ideas based on our feelings and our beliefs. Nonetheless, our feelings and beliefs are derived from factual information we have gathered regarding these choices. We must know that we are justified in making sense of what we feel, believe, or choose to do by evaluating the facts of each alternative.

In reading and imitating this passage from On Truth, I felt like I was translating Frankfurt’s arguments and examples in a way that reflected my understanding of the world. I used language that appeals to a different audience. I also brought in some of my own ideas in describing truth, like “factual statements are invaluable to our self-concepts,” in place of Frankfurt’s “…statements of fact are indispensable in explaining and in validating the purposes and goals that we choose and that we set ourselves to pursue.”

However, voice is more complicated than simply convincing your audience that you are right. If the reader knows anything about your topic, or can see through you manipulative ways, the writer’s argument cannot be solely based on style. Style is the method of constructing a valid argument based on facts. If the writer cannot base his/her argument on facts, than there really isn’t any argument at all.

I recall a sociology course I took called Sociology of Childhood. In this class, I was researching both camps of the gay adoption debate. The only research I could find that was against gays adopting was from evangelical groups. One of these articles attempted to explain that gays were unfit parents because of a collection of news articles that depicted situations in which children of gay households were beaten, molested, or otherwise abused. The author stated the flaws of his research, saying that newspaper articles were not an accurate sample, yet still tried to push the conclusion that gays were unfit to be parents. Someone with no knowledge of social science research may have been apt to believe that gays are more likely than heterosexuals to abuse children; however, since I had an understanding of the rhetoric of social science research I knew that this information had no representative claim. What makes the news is what is sensational. News articles are not representative of the entire population.

Another example is child abduction. Parents are constantly worried that their children are going to be abducted by a stranger. In reality, child abduction by strangers is rare. Most abductions are perpetrated by the child’s own parent, often in the midst of a heated custody battle. Child abduction happens less often than physical and sexual child abuse, yet the public does not perceive this as the truth because of how convincing and scary all of the newspaper articles and news magazine specials that play on this fear to sell the news.

Voice cannot be lumped into categories of style and content. As I have demonstrated, the context of the rhetoric makes a big difference in which is regarded as more valuable. In the realm of political rhetoric, a politician’s style is viewed as a reflection of his character. It is impossible for the electorate to determine whether or not the politician will follow through with the content of his platform, but if he builds character with his constituents he is more likely to be regarded as an ethical statesman who will work to better his country. Also, when your job is to convince other people to trust your ideas all day, every day, being convincing is very important.

As to the question of style versus content: the more effective method of argument is determined by the discourse and the audience. Some discourses value the rhetorical style of an argument over the content. Others value cold hard facts over showy language. Some audiences do not understand the rhetoric of a field and are easily persuaded by people that appeal to their values or appear confident, regardless of the merits of their argument. Other audiences rely only on facts and neglect to look at the methods or assumptions involved in deducing those facts. The type of argument the writer uses depends on these factors. A good writer will take into account his audience, the discourse he is arguing in, and his ethics. The writer has the power to inform and enlighten, but also the power to deceive and manipulate. The ethical writer will state the limitations of his voice, be it an argument based on style or on content.

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