Heather

At first, I was going to use the topic I wrote about for my mini essay as the topic for my final paper. However, after writing the mini essay, and having trouble squeezing out enough information for that, I realized to write a 10-12 page paper, I was going to have to change my topic. A couple of days later, a list posted from the summer class was available with broad topic ideas. Using this, I found a topic on the media and society. However, the topic was open to interpretation, so I changed the direction the paper was going in. With a broad topic and an idea of where the paper was going, I started to look for sources. On the other hand, it was kind of hard to look for sources without a narrow search. With the broad search, sources came from every direction and angle. There was no telling which sources would be useful and which wouldn’t be used at all because the topic was too open. Thats when we did the topic development exercise in class. This was one of the most helpful exercises we could have done. It allowed me to organize my thoughts about my topic on paper, covering all angles of the broad topic, and breaking it down into categories and going from there. At the end of this exercise, I used number 4 of my open ended questions as my topic. After narrowing the topic down, sources became easier to find, and through evaluating those, I eventually wrote a rough outline, and then started on the paper.
In my opinion, the part of the paper that shows my ability as a writer is incorporating sources as well as my own writing and making the paper “flow” correctly. In writing a paper, if I make a statement, I always try to find a source that backs up what I’m trying to say. That way, no rock goes unturned; everything is covered. I believe my paper shows that I can incorporate sources, paraphrasing, direct quoting, summarizing, and citing efficiently and effectively. I don’t think there were many places with awkward transitions of my own writing into using sources and back. In creating a Works Cited page, Zotero was a God-Send because it helped organize and set the sources in the right direction. A few revisions were needed to get the Works Cited right, but it helped nonetheless.
In content, I would rate a 9-10. I believe I wrote on topic with my research question. I believe I stayed on track and very rarely strayed from the topic direction. I think everything I wrote about, from background information of the history to the repercussions of eating disorders, related to and was important to the development and argument of my paper.
In organization, 9, because I went from background information, to the problem, to some of the fixes, to some of today’s solutions for fixing the problem. There may have been too much background information for the paper, though.
In mechanics and revision, I would say 9-10, because in revising, I had a few people read my paper to tell me where they had questions or if they saw any grammar errors that I may have missed. That alone helped strengthen my paper and most of the mechanical errors were found and fixed.

Before this class, the only english class I knew of was the pen and paper, novels and essays english class. The ones that you read a novel or an essay of some sort, sat down and physically wrote out a response to whatever was read. So in that aspect, this class did a huge 180 for me in the ways that we wrote our responses or collaborated with each other. Before this class, I never even realized how a blog could be used in a classroom–I always thought that a blog was for personal recreation… never a way of submitting assignments. Also, the only thing I knew about wikipedia was that it was controversial in the news. That anyone could post there, so how was it reliable? After this class, I realized how wikipedia works and that it is a place where people can share common knowledge and information. Its also a way to connect with group members, like how we used it in class. I’ve even caught myself using wikipedia in my spare time, outside of class. I had never even considered using it before. Also, the introduction to Zotero was a God-send. In writing a paper, electronically or physically, one of the hardest parts for me is keeping my sources straight. After that, its organizing and writing a works cited for them. Zotero kept things in order. It took snapshots of pages, it recorded the author, title, webpage–just about any information you could give it. When it came time to write out a Works Cited, Zotero was a major, major help. In fact, for other students that I know are taking an English or writing course, or just have to write a paper for a class, I’ve recommended using Zotero just to make writing a paper (and life) a little less stressful. Most of these students have felt the same that I did once I started using it. In the process of managing sources, it helps. Going into the class, the digital theme was somewhat overwhelming. There is a huge technological world out there and suddenly we were thrown into it. However, starting with the small articles and into McLuhan’s book, this class sort of eased its way into the tech aspect. I never realized the way things were going in a technological sense. There are so many different roads to travel down in discovery and improvements. This class opened my eyes to the fact that technology is not just limited to the new computer coming out or the new definitions on the tv. There is so much to learn about technology. Its an entire new world that is forever changing and progressing.

In revising, the area that I had the most problems in was finding a variety of sources. It was incredibly easy to find blogs of every type on my topic and all of them were readily available. One problem was distinguishing which blogs could be used as valid sources and which weren’t all that reliable. The exercise we did in class that helped make this process easier was when we took some of our sources and ranked them in categories of 1-5. This was helpful because it made you really look at the sources validity, and “user-friendliness”, almost.
Also, another problem I had was finding scholarly sources. Which was number 2 in my Revision Steps. There were many promising books or journals available–but none in their entirety. Most gave ’snip-its’ of what I was researching, but when I went to find the related topic I was looking for, it wasn’t offered for viewing. This made researching for sources incredibly frustrating.
The last, but most important part of my revision plan was adding more information. As mentioned above, most of my sources were blog posts for a while. So when I wrote the first draft, I would mention developing ideas but no real, hard evidence to back up what I was arguing. This made my paper unbalanced. I had many points for how the media influences young women, but when I got into my argument to show how celebrities and companies were fighting back, there was no substance. Only under-developed ideas. So my main focus while editing my paper was to strengthen my argument. After the teacher revision, I knew the main topics of my paper that were strongest for my argument to develop. By narrowing my search down to these main topics, it became easier to word my searches and find factual evidence to back my ideas. An example of this was in talking about plastic surgery–I added a media source, television, to back up the image represented. Another example was under-weight models being banned from runway shows. In the first draft, I just mentioned it and kept going. In revising, I gave an example and a quote from an article which added more to the point, instead of just bypassing or skimming it. This area–writing major points but not developing them into strong arguments, is where I need to work on the most to improve. The most helpful, though, was having other people read my paper. By having other people read and comment, I got a chance to see where they were confused or thought I needed to add more.

In the research process, using the Topic Development exercise helped me the most in getting to know my topic. It started as a broad “Digital Culture and the Media” and by using the Topic Development exercise, it gave me an organized way to break down that topic into every possible category that could be considered, from Children and the Media, Parents and the Media, Teachers and the Media to the broad topic I actually used with Teenagers and the Media. It helped me revise my research question and narrow it down to a size that was suitable for an 10-11 page paper. Specifically, asking open ended questions that turned into working research questions was the most helpful. Each question could be considered for a topic and ultimately, I chose my research question “Do the images that are shown to teenagers at impressionable ages in magazines and in movies affect the body images they see for themselves?” from that list. After creating this topic outline, it was easier to scope out possibilities in my mind and I was left with something I could write about.

1. Do a bit more research. There were many spots in my paper that I had the right idea going in and failed to develop. By doing more research, there will be in depth evidence to back up my argument. By delving deeper into some subjects, it will make my paper flow easier and make my argument stronger.

2. Do more research to find better/more/a variety of sources.

3. Watch Organization– there were some places in the middle of the paper that I talked about some subjects that I did not mention or hint at in the beginning of the paper.

4. Editing– fixing grammar/spelling/sentence structure.

Original:

For every woman in society, there are two types of “bodies.” There is the “Advertising body”, of which we are shown through magazine ads or on television, or simply, the “ideal body” that women are striving for. On the other end of the proverbial spectrum, the “Everyday body,” the body we see, everyday, on the street (Female Body Shapes of the 20th Century).

New:
Magazines and the media lead us to believe in one certain body type. However, for every woman in society, there are two types of “bodies.” There is the “Advertising body”, of which we are shown through magazine ads or on television, or simply, the “ideal body” that women are striving for. On the other end of the proverbial spectrum, the “Everyday body,” the body we see, everyday, on the street (Female Body Shapes of the 20th Century).

Original:
“Teen-age girls who viewed commercials depicting women who modeled the unrealistically thin-ideal type of beauty caused adolescent girls to feel less confident, angrier and more dissatisfied with their weight and appearance (Media’s Effect on Girls).” In this light, many young girls haven’t realized that the “Advertising Body” is a farce and try setting their goals to this level.

New:
Watching TV causes strong emotions in our minds that we are completely unaware of. “Teen-age girls who viewed commercials depicting women who modeled the unrealistically thin-ideal type of beauty caused adolescent girls to feel less confident, angrier and more dissatisfied with their weight and appearance (Media’s Effect on Girls).” In this light, many young girls haven’t realized that the “Advertising Body” is a farce and try setting their goals to this level.

Original:
On another aspect, ads in magazines are an enormous part of the problem. Most designers create pieces of clothing that are originally a size one or two, to fit the mannequin, so they hire models that will be able to fit the original pieces.

New:
On another level, ads in magazines are an enormous part of the problem. Most designers create pieces of clothing that are originally a size one or two, to fit the mannequin, so they hire models that will be able to fit the original pieces.

“I think it would be nice if hating the way you look weren’t so good for the economy. […] We know, too, that women in ads, knockouts to start with, are artificially perfected beyond human emulation. We know, but we forget. (Female Body Shapes of the 20th Century)” This statement, said by Ann Bolin, an anthropologist at Elon College, is one of the most accurate descriptions of the way women and young girls are influenced by the media to shape the images they have of themselves. Too often, the media sends the wrong message to the wrong audience. With super-thin stars as role models and the option of photo-shopping by editors, the wrong message is being broadcast and saturated into all aspects of our lives. However, some ad campaigns for companies and some celebrities are fighting back.
Looking back, history has seen a myriad of trends. Most of which, society hopes never raises to the surface and seen again. However, there is one trend that seems to endless. The trend of body images, cored from certain role models in the spotlight, and their effect on people in a certain time period. During the Renaissance, curvy and healthy women were idolized. Having extra fat on the body was taken as a sign of wealth and prosperity. If the woman was able to show that she eats, she must have money to buy the food. Most “tiny” women in the Renaissance were in the roles of prostitutes to make money to live. Where as women with wealth, able to eat, were painted and considered ideal. Also, in the 1950s, take Marilyn Monroe, for example. She is one of the most recognizable women in history. But if you compare her 14 dress size with the 1-2 dress sizes of the models today, she would barely book modeling jobs. Had Marilyn Monroe been born into today’s society with her voluptuous, full-figure, you can guarantee she would have been directed into another profession. Along the same lines, was the model pin-up girl of the 1940s, Betty Gable. She’s known as “the girl with the Million Dollar Legs.” However, compare her legs with the skin and bones of pin-ups today and those legs would hardly see the lime-light (Female Body Shapes of the 20th Century).
There are two “bodies” for each woman in society. There is the “Advertising body” and the “Everyday body.” The advertising body is the body one would see in magazines or on television; the “ideal” body that society is striving for. While on the other hand, the everyday body is the body we see on the street (Female Body Shapes of the 20th Century). Even though women know that the Advertising Body is usually photo-shopped and edited to perfection, like Ann Bolin said, “we know, but we forget.” And in forgetting, women make impossible aspirations for themselves that are attainable only by the drastic repercussions of surgery.
“Teen-age girls who viewed commercials depicting women who modeled the unrealistically thin-ideal type of beauty caused adolescent girls to feel less confident, angrier and more dissatisfied with their weight and appearance (Media’s Effect on Girls).” In this light, many young girls haven’t realized that the Advertising Body is a farce and try setting their goals at this level. Girls today are concentrating on becoming and staying a size double zero, (which if one really thinks on the aspect of double zero, double zero doesn’t exist, for it is not a real number) and using any means necessary to achieve these sizes, instead of dreaming to become doctors, lawyers, or even the first woman president and ultimately making a difference in the world.
Where do these new aspirations originate from? How has the female population and some of the male, gotten this “standard” engrained into their brains? Many of the criteria for the ‘perfect’ body stems from the images the media portrays to us through television, television commercials, magazines, movies, and even the internet.
Since World War II, the ideal image for a woman’s body has gotten increasingly smaller, and now more physically fit, with every year (Media’s Effect on Girls). As young girls are watching their favorite television shows or reading their favorite magazines, they’re getting bombarded with the idea that thin is ideal. “A 1996 study found that the amount of time an adolescent watches soaps, movies and music videos is associated with their degree of body dissatisfaction and desire to be thin (Media’s Effect on Girls).” The media tells girls that to succeed in careers or succeed at life in general, one must be thin and attractive (Small). The image of successful now-a-days, is being a movie star or a recording artist. However, in a study done by Mundell, done on fifth graders, 10 year olds of both sexes admitted that they were dissatisfied with their own bodies just after viewing a clip from the television show “Friends” or a music video featuring Britney Spears and her backup dancers (Media’s Effect on Girls).
On another aspect, ads in magazines are also a part of the problem. Most designers create pieces that are originally a size 1 or 2, so they hire models that will be able to fit the original pieces. These models get their pictures in magazines, and the no hips, no curves image is projected to the women reading the magazine. Even though the model was only hired because she could fit into the least costly amount of material to buy and not be indecent, women believe this is a standard they should compare themselves to.
This self-dissatisfaction that’s directly correlated to viewing various media sources is leading young girls to drastic measures and “quick fixes” to restore their self-esteem. Within the United States, five to ten percent of girls and women suffer from eating disorders after puberty. This translates to five to ten million girls, of which fifty thousand will lose their lives to eating disorders; this does not include the cases that were hidden out of embarrassment or the secret of the diseases.

“I think it would be nice if hating the way you look weren’t so good for the economy. […] We know, too, that women in ads, knockouts to start with, are artificially perfected beyond human emulation. We know, but we forget. (Female Body Shapes of the 20th Century)” This statement, said by Ann Bolin, an anthropologist at Elon College, is one of the most accurate descriptions of the way women and young girls are influenced by the media to shape the images they have of themselves. Too often, the media sends the wrong message to the wrong audience. With super-thin stars as role models and the option of photo-shopping by editors, the wrong message is being broadcast and saturated into all aspects of our lives. However, some ad campaigns for companies and some celebrities are fighting back.
Looking back, history has seen a myriad of trends. Most of which, society hopes never raises to the surface and seen again. However, there is one trend that seems to endless. The trend of body images, cored from certain role models in the spotlight, and their effect on people in a certain time period. Take Marilyn Monroe, for example. She is one of the most recognizable women in history. But if you compare her 14 dress size with the 1-2 dress size of the models today, she would barely book modeling jobs. Had Marilyn Monroe been born into today’s society with her voluptuous, full-figure, you can guarantee she would have been directed into another profession. Along the same lines, was the model pin-up girl of the 1940s, Betty Gable. She’s known as “the girl with the Million Dollar Legs.” However, compare her legs with the skin and bones of pin-ups today and those legs would hardly see the lime-light (Female Body Shapes of the 20th Century).
There are two “bodies” for each woman in society. There is the “Advertising body” and the “Everyday body.” The advertising body is the body one would see in magazines or on television; the “ideal” body that society is striving for. While on the other hand, the everyday body is the body we see on the street (Female Body Shapes of the 20th Century). Even though women know that the Advertising Body is usually photo-shopped and edited to perfection, like Ann Bolin said, “we know, but we forget.” And in forgetting, women make impossible aspirations for themselves that are attainable only by the drastic repercussions of surgery.
“Teen-age girls who viewed commercials depicting women who modeled the unrealistically thin-ideal type of beauty caused adolescent girls to feel less confident, angrier and more dissatisfied with their weight and appearance (Media’s Effect on Girls).” In this light, many young girls haven’t realized that the Advertising Body is a farce and try setting their goals at this level. Girls today are concentrating on becoming and staying a size double zero, (which if one really thinks on the aspect of double zero, double zero doesn’t exist, for it is not a real number) and using any means necessary to achieve these sizes, instead of dreaming to become doctors, lawyers, or even the first woman president and ultimately making a difference in the world.
Where do these new aspirations originate from? How has the female population and some of the male, gotten this “standard” engrained into their brains? Many of the criteria for the ‘perfect’ body stems from the images the media portrays to us through television, television commercials, magazines, movies, and even the internet.
Since World War II, the ideal image for a woman’s body has gotten increasingly smaller, and now more physically fit, with every year (Media’s Effect on Girls). As young girls are watching their favorite television shows or reading their favorite magazines, they’re getting bombarded with the idea that thin is ideal. “A 1996 study found that the amount of time an adolescent watches soaps, movies and music videos is associated with their degree of body dissatisfaction and desire to be thin (Media’s Effect on Girls).” The media tells girls that to succeed in careers or succeed at life in general, one must be thin and attractive (Small). The image of successful now-a-days, is being a movie star or a recording artist. However, in a study done by Mundell, done on 5th graders, 10 year olds of both sexes admitted that they were dissatisfied with their own bodies just after viewing a clip from the television show “Friends” or a music video featuring Britney Spears and her backup dancers (Media’s Effect on Girls).

“I think it would be nice if hating the way you look weren’t so good for the economy. […] We know, too, that women in ads, knockouts to start with, are artificially perfected beyond human emulation. We know, but we forget. (Female Body Shapes of the 20th Century)” This statement, said by Ann Bolin, an anthropologist at Elon College, is one of the most accurate descriptions of the way women and young girls are influenced by the media to shape the images they have of themselves. Too often, the media sends the wrong message to the wrong audience. With super-thin stars as role models and the option of photo-shopping by editors, the wrong message is being broadcast and saturated into all aspects of our lives. However, some ad campaigns for companies and some celebrities are fighting back.

The mass media is a mainstream way to advertise and get specific points across. But how many times are these points and advertisements sending the wrong message to the wrong audience? With as many super-thin stars as famous as they are today – its no wonder teenage (and younger!) girls are having self-image complexes. Are there any celebrities and companies that are aggressively taking some kind of action to change their images and get the correct message across to the correct audiences, or is it just staying the same battle is has been?
Looking back, history has seen a myriad of trends. Most of which, society hopes never raises to the surface and seen again. However, there is one trend that seems to endless. The trend of body images, cored from certain role models in the spotlight, and their effect on people in a certain time period. Take Marilyn Monroe, for example. She is one of the most recognizable women in history. But if you compare her 14 dress size with the 1-2 dress size of the models today, she would barely book modeling jobs. Had Marilyn Monroe been born into today’s society with her voluptuous, full-figure, you can guarantee she would have been directed into another profession. Along the same lines, was the model pin-up girl of the 1940s, Betty Gable. She’s known as “the girl with the Million Dollar Legs.” However, compare her legs with the skin and bones of pin-ups today and she’d also be out of work (Female Body Shapes of the 20th Century).
There are two “bodies” for each woman in society. There is the “Advertising body” and the “Everyday body.” The advertising body is the body one would see in magazines or on television; the “ideal” body that society is striving for. While on the other hand, the everyday body is the body we see on the street. Ann Bolin, an anthropologist at Elon College says, “I think it would be nice if hating the way you look weren’t so good for the economy. […] We know, too, that women in ads, knockouts to start with, are artificially perfected beyond human emulation. We know, but we forget. (Female Body Shapes of the 20th Century)”