A Writer's World
"In the beginning, was the WORD"
Annotated Bibliography for Re-Purposing
Jacks, Matt. "The History of the Wedding Ring – A Recognizable Symbol of Love."TheHistoryOf.net. 09 Sept. 2008. Web. 14 Dec. 2011. <http://www.thehistoryof.net/history-of-the-wedding-ring.html>.
This article is about how the evolution of the wedding ring’s symbolic meaning and how it has come to mean what it means today. The author gives a basic history of the ring by describing the process of how rings were created, then how the element of the ring affects the “future” of the couple, and why the ring is historically worn the left hand. The article is written in a conversationally formal tone, much like historical textbooks but with a more casual voice. There are a prevalent number of examples from history that are described not in an authoritative manner, but rather as possible theories for why the ring is used for love and weddings. This article is very useful for my repurposing because it describes a lot of historical context in simply, easy to understand ways and ties it back to how it influenced modern practices of wedding rings today. This information can be used for my re-purposing when I have to describe the historical events associated with rings in a casual and more engaging voice.
“The History of Engagement Rings”. Readers Digest. <http://www.rd.com/advice/relationships/the-history-of-engagement-rings/>.
This Reader’s Digest article gives a timeline on the multiple historical events that culminate in the formation of the engagement ring. The writer starts from the very beginning of the caveman times all the way to the 2000s and how the engagement ring has evolved. It is written in a very minimalistic format with consecutive events that influenced the culture behind the engagement ring. Each event has a specific date along with a couple concise sentences describing how the rings were used in their respective time periods. While it is hard to determine the legitimacy of the information in this article, it does give a nice overarching history of how the ring has evolved overtime that also leads up to the current times.
Tan, Cheryn. “History and Cultural Symbolism of Rings. Suite 101. https://suite101.com/a/history-and-cultural-symbolism-of-rings-a173161
Cheryn Tan’s article on the history of rings goes beyond talking about the general history of rings. Instead, she talks about the common symbols that rings represented in historically based tales. According to Tan, rings symbolized love and eternity, emblems of power, charms against evil, and symbols of slavery”. In fact, different meanings of rings came from different cultures of the world. Stories from the Bible, the Lord of the Rings, and also Greek myths contain rings as crucial tools or symbols. Tan argues that while the symbol of love is common for the ring, it also has significance in culture and history for other things. The writer organizes the piece into different paragraphs for different meanings and describes the stories from myths as evidence. This is very useful for my re-purposing because it gives me plenty of historical examples and stories to base my argument off of. Through this article, I can also go look for these stories and read them to get a better understanding of how the rings were used in the stories.
Pearce, Eve. “The Ring as a Symbol: What Does it Mean to You?” Jens Hansen. http://blog.jenshansen.com/blogs/news/10698097-the-ring-as-a-symbol-what-does-it-mean-to-you
While Eve Pearce’s blog post does talk about the Lord of the Rings ring and how it differs from the ring being a symbol of love, it takes a deeper look into the ring as jewelry. The Jens Hansen jewelry company was the one who originally designed The One Ring for the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The article focused on wedding rings and what the rings symbolized. It also described how the rings were made. The blog post describes the rings in separate paragraphs and then in each paragraph it talks about how these different elements influenced The One Ring from the movie. This is useful for me because it gives me basic background information for the types of wedding rings that were created in different civilizations and it also describes the materials that rings were made out of back in the day. It gives me a more tangible picture of ancient rings and could be a good starting point to research why certain materials were used instead of others and if those materials have meaning behind them.
Rockcastle, Mary. “Emma Stone Calls Out Boyfriend Andrew Garfield For Being Sexist” Bust Magazine. http://www.bust.com/emma-stone-calls-out-boyfriend-andrew-garfield-for-being-sexist.html#.U173hBy1Er0
Bust Magazine blogger Mary Rockcastle talks about the dynamics between romantic celebrity couple Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield and what happens when one of them makes a sexist comment. The article describes a publicity event where the couples were taking about their newest Spiderman movie. When Garfield began talking about how Spiderman sewing his costume was feminine, Stone responds by directly questioning him. The blogger states that Emma Stone “smartly called out her boyfriend” and this resulted in Garfield quickly changing his statement. Rockcastle uses a tone filled with attitude as she describes the event. This article is useful for my re-purposing because she talks about events and information in such a way where her opinions are clearly present in the article. Then she presents her opinion and asks the readers what they think of the event. It’s similar to how I want to structure my article as well as the tone.
Haight, Kelsey. “Katy Perry’s Feminism: Is The Movement Changing?” Bust Magazine. http://www.bust.com/katy-perrys-feminism-is-the-movement-changing.html#.U1732hy1Er0
Bust Magazine blogger Kelsey Haight discusses how Katy Perry is changing her views on Feminism. When previously asked, Perry denied that she was a feminist, but that she believed in “the power of women”. But recently, she had changed her opinion and is now calling herself a feminist. Haight presents Perry’s impact on the pop music industry and how her interviews with reporters seem to suggest that she identifies herself as a feminist. But then she goes on to discuss the implications and possible impacts of Perry identifying with the feminist movement. Because Perry also portrays very stereotyped images of women, it could potentially backlash. Haight uses a more academic tone than Rockcastle, but her method of cautiously discussing the material has the effect of inviting the readers into a discussion of the information, rather than just presenting them with her opinion. This article is useful for my blog post because my article is also more information oriented so I want my tone to sound informative but at the same time very conversational. Perhaps combining Rockcastle and Haight’s tone of voices would be the most optimal choice. Also Haight’s article is about how culture influences people’s views on gender, which is related to my topic because I use culture to talk about people’s views on rings. So this article provides a good example of how to write my blog.
Annotated Bibliography for Re-Mediation
Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrRtJY28ps8#t=350
This video is a presentation on how the media is influencing teenage girls to think that their sexuality is vital to their social acceptance. Professor Mary Pipher narrates this discussion and she talks about how advertisements and other media make girls compare themselves with idealized and sexualized images of women’s bodies. This causes these girls to go out and present themselves to men sexually in hopes of feeling good about their beauty. Pipher discusses the information in an academic tone where the focus is more on the information being presented than the actual visuals. There is text next to the images, making the information more clear without the visuals being distracting. And by having images juxtaposed together, it allows for comparison and visual analyzing of the magazine images. They clearly show viewers the similarities between playboy magazines and fashion and popular media images. It is useful for my work because it gives me a good outline of how to present information in a video without the images overshadowing the information that’s being presented. Also because we are both talking about sexist problems and ideologies, it helps for me to see the ways in which she discusses the information.
Jefferson Here and Now podcast pt. 1
This is a podcast created by the history channel. It talks about the backstory of Thomas Jefferson and how his works have impacted our society today. Specifically it focuses on the political views of Jefferson and whether or not he was a liberal or a conservative. The visuals are very simple in that there is only one image of Jefferson during the whole podcast. There is also music playing in the background, and they start off by interviewing people to see whether or not the greater public knew where Jefferson stood. The simplicity of the image was good because it provided visual context, but it was not distracting to where I couldn’t focus on what was being said. This podcast was useful in that it gave me another possible option of how to format a podcast. I liked how they had different people speaking, especially the people reading the historical evidence. It gave the clip more diversity and it was easier to be engaged. I also want to mimic the ways in which the speakers discuss the material in an externally processing, conversational manner.
Is the Law Making Us Less Free?
http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=287225158&m=287225332
This is an NPR segment where lawyer Philip K. Howard talks about the current U.S law system and how it has immobilized workers such as doctors and teachers from working fully because the possibility of being used hangs over their careers. The NPR’s radio segment is very informative but it manages to sound like a discussion. The radio host’s tone is very conversational. He is very inquisitive and discusses the material instead of merely presenting it. It is very useful for me because I want my podcast to cause listeners and viewers to think and engage with what they are hearing by asking them about the information that’s being presented. The conversational way the NPR radio host discusses whether or not the law is making us less free, makes the podcast sound more like the host and listener are figuring things out together.
How to Make a Podcast that Doesn't Suck
This article is filled with tips and advice on how to make a podcast engaging and interesting. The writer begins by talking about the podcast and how it has become a part of our society. He then goes into detail about tips such as using a good microphone and having more than one person speak in order for the podcast to be interesting. It also describes the audience of most podcasts and how one shouldn’t feel required to make a video along with it because most audiences listen to their podcasts without the visuals. It is written in a casual, blog format with clear bullet points. It is just one article in a blog site that discusses many different things from technology to politics. This article is useful for my work because it gives me advice on how to make my podcast engaging to its targeted audience. Also because some of the tips were technology tips, it gave me a better idea of how to record myself and how to edit the structure.