The final draft of a significant writing project I did can be found with the link below.

is art a waste of time essay- FINAL

The first draft of a significant writing project I did can be found with the link below.

is art a waste of time essay (1)

Over the years and throughout ENG 110 I have developed some revision strategies that work best. I have always adapted well to lots of different writing techniques however the ones on my writing process sheet are the ones I favor most. My favorite active reading strategy overall is to annotate or underline the text. This is very important in gathering strong information- quotes, facts, key words, etc. It makes the reading more understandable as soon as concepts and main ideas are highlighted, also making the writing process easier overall when developing a rough draft. The second strategy that goes in order is brainstorming strategies and I believe that I work best by creating a venn diagram or a web diagram that lists the information out in a different order. Being able to see material presented in a different way allows me to focus better on the main ideas that I need to work on in my essay. Also as simple as it is, I have always made a list with key words on it, and I find that it helps me so much in formulating ideas. My favorite drafting strategies would be to make a duplicate copy of my essay in which I have practiced doing a lot in my ENG 110 class. It is important to go back and review your work when making drafts, and to include the writer’s own opinion. I realized not only was this a way to improve by essay, but to spruce it up with an opinion. My favorite revision strategy is to have a peer review workshop with my peers, as I feel it is the most effective way to get positive feedback. I have used all these strategies in every class, from writing scientific reports to writing prompts in psychology.

After receiving all my peer’s comments on my essay, I was really able to focus on what it is that I need to improve for my final draft. First and fore most, I need to elaborate on my topic and opinion. Seeing that everyone has their own opinions with beauty and art, I need to make sure that my opinion is equally distributed throughout my essay. It is very important for the writer to stay true to their own voice, especially if there are a lot of points and ideas that are being explained and mentioned. I believe I have great pieces of media incorporated into my text, I just really need to focus on how I can connect them to the authors as well as my opinion. The hardest part I think about having an idea is making sure it I elaborate it fully and not distract the focus. I know that I will be able to achieve all of these things, just be taking a re-look and writing down what my main points are and choosing the best quotes to back up my ideas. I believe that my peers have been of great help, and I know to reach out to my professor with any questions I have. I think one of the best ways to fix mistakes and expand thoughts is by having a peer of any kind to read and comment about the essay. You as the writer are directly placing an individual into your writing, allowing them to voice their opinion and explain the things that need work.

In my final piece of writing, I have chosen to incorporate linguistic, auditory, visual, and spatial into the essay. The overall idea that I am going to push for is that beauty has purpose and makes humans better. The structure I am going to set my essay into will be segments that each approach art in a different form. I believe that with this unique structure, it will help me in focusing my ideas in an effective way. There are many different ways that I am going to incorporate these pieces of media into my essay. I am going to set the mood and allow the reader to feel an emotion by inserting a picture that relates to what I am saying. I will also color specific words in the text to devote more meaning and bring attention to the main ideas. In terms of auditory, I am hoping to incorporate a song that will help provoke emotions and guide the reader throughout the text. The use of media and forms of communication is a great way to open up and allow a reader to connect with the points you are trying to make. I have been spending a considerable amount of time searching for links and videos as I want to have strong modes of communication.

My Outline:

Art is a way to see deeper meaning. In one paragraph I want to talk about the true beauty that lies within art, and how it it viewed by others. I am planning on talking about what I believe is beauty as well as what society perceives beauty as. I am going to hopefully insert an image of nature or what should be appreciated more as beautiful. The use of an image will allow the reader to see something “beautiful” and develop a concept on beauty.

Art keeps us grounded. This idea I am planning on elaborating and connecting with my childhood. The use of healing drums and music therapy helped me in staying positive as well as relaxed when I was sick. Here I plan to incorporate a beat from drums or even a soothing song. I think this will allow a reader to really feel the emotions through the song, and It would aid me in presenting an aspect of beauty to the reader in a effective way.

Schiller’s viewpoint upon art is that its beauty is hidden within. He talks about art needing some sort of balance in order to get full potential. I wanted to connect this with Aaron and Stephen’s song. Here I want to insert a video clip from the song and develop my ideas around the meaning and emotions that are showed in the video.

Armstrongs statement, “To regard beauty as a luxury adornment or a social signifier was to miss the true potential of the experience”, is very powerful. I agreed with his statement even before I read his essay. I believe that beauty should be looked at deeper, exploring the many ways that beauty can be further looked at besides such pertaining to money and wealth. I believe that there are some types of beauty, especially those enhanced on today’s society that focus on the wealth and social status of an individual and not much more. In my opinion, there is much more to beauty- such as the natural state of the world in which we live in. The true beauty of nature and world phenomenon’s should be viewed by more. Beauty is anything that anyone finds truly aspiring that pertains to a emotion, whether it is going for a hike and appreciating nature, or strolling through a museum filled with art. A quote that struck my attention in Armstrong’s essay was the, “Idea that beauty lies in the eye of the beholder”. Mentioned first thing in his essay, this powerful quote caught my attention because the author poses a great statement that gets my mind thinking. Everyone will have their own meaning and explanation of what they themselves think is beautiful. Beauty can spark ideas of imagination and creativity, all that which individuals can benefit from in the long run, even myself. Armstrong focuses his ideas within his essay by explaining the deeper meanings that beauty can arise to, allowing for connection and emotion. There is always a deeper meaning to everything but it is up to the individual to uncover the emotions and tie beauty with specific experiences, in order to achieve beneficial results.

After watching most of the Art presentations in the class, one that struck out to me and connected to me a lot was Olivia’s presentation. I loved the approach she addressed art from, relating art to the hospital and sick kids. It was really touching to understand her perspective on art and how she had a personal experience with a friend of her’s being ill. It was interesting how she saw art in the hospital, on walls. I did see art from a different perspective when I was looking at the murals, they are colorful and happy. If I were a child that was in the hospital sick, I would enjoy seeing those murals. These murals are a way to distract the children from the pain they are in, allowing them to feel happy inside. I think this a great escape for the children. If art didn’t continue to exist and be recognized, children couldn’t experience this. Art I believe should be recognized in a variety of places, and I think that it was awesome to see a hospital using the power of imagination and skill to design murals for these children. I loved how she set up her presentation with images of her and her friend that was sick, as well as actual pictures of the murals themselves. I took great attention to the detail and abstract that these murals had. I think overall Liv did a great job with her art project, showing a different perspective that art can bring to people.

Link to Olivia’s presentation:

My Personal Experience With Art

For this blog post, I had to “connect the parts.” After using They Say/I Say I was able to further address my essay. I highlighted my claim sentences in yellow, the points of focus in pink, and the transition sentences in blue. I also realized after re-reading my essay that I have repeated the word “focus” a lot in my essay. This specific exercise in They Say/I Say helped me realize the words that are often repetitive. I can now go back when I am editing it again, to make sure I incorporate other words besides “focus”, as there are many synonyms I can use instead.

I noticed that I have errors that can be fixed within my essay. I can improve my paper a lot, by just directing my attention on the little things. I think that if I focus on my claims, and have the proper evidence to back it up, all while incorporating a strong opinion, I will have a better written essay.

A specific paragraph I know that I will need to spend some more time working on, is my conclusion. I have some ideas about how I am going to approach it, I just have to focus on wrapping up the essay in a strong way. I know that I need to address the authors and their stance with art, as well as my own opinion. Doing that, I would have a strong conclusion and a great way to end my thoughts.

The main focus that Jonah Lehrer has is the implementation of art in the sciences. His argument centers the idea that the educational system should be recreated to incorporate art in the subjects. He even has examples that help him in supporting his argument. His ideas are to change the current STEM model in education to the STEAM model, the A being Art. He states in his article that there are often unanswered questions in science, and with the help of art it could reveal more answers. I noticed that Lehrer tied emotions into his explanation of the effectiveness of art. There are lots of emotions that can be revealed with incorporating art, and this is a very beneficial idea that can tie into the sciences and elaborative thinking. This would open up and allow a student to focus on the bigger picture while still staying with the main idea of study. He mentions that the skills that come from art- collaboration, flexible thinking, and disciplined imagination, allow a student to be successful in the sciences. The way the author incorporated these two subjects together made me think about the benefit students could have if the educational model was changed. His idea about creating a culture that derives from both science and art, gives way to a successful future a student could have if this idea was implemented in the educational setting. All professions could benefit from this change, as student’s would have the skills needed to conquer complex tasks in their jobs.

Glossing the text

Heisenberg uncertainty principle: any of a variety of mathematical inequalities asserting a fundamental limit to the precision with which certain pairs of physical properties of a particle, known as complementary variables such as position x and momentum p, can be known

Bridging principle: How a pair of concepts are connected but also focused on separately, containing similarities and differences between the two

Reductionism: the practice of analyzing and describing a complex phenomenon in terms of phenomena that are held to represent a simpler or more fundamental level, especially when this is said to provide a sufficient explanation

Synapse: a junction between two nerve cells, consisting of a minute gap across which impulses pass by diffusion of a neurotransmitter.

Epiphenomenon: a secondary effect or byproduct that arises from but does not causally influence a process, in particular

Holistic perspective: a perspective in which many different factors are taken into account to generate a picture of the culture as a whole

Metaphor: a thing regarded as representative or symbolic of something else, especially something abstract

Bolster: support or strengthen; prop up

Qualia: the internal and subjective component of sense perceptions, arising from stimulation of the senses by phenomena

I chose to look up Richard Feynman and Virginia Woolf. Richard Feynman was a theoretical physicist who formed the quantum mechanics and composed multiple scientific theories as well. Richard Feynman was was of value to research, because his statement in Lehrer’s article was that science has more beneath the eyes, if focused on. He supports the idea that if we have art in science, we are able to focus on the bigger picture instead of the little things. This would build on our understanding of the sciences. Lastly, the second contributor that I researched was Virginia Woolf. She was an English writer recognized as being a powerful writer in the 20th century. She focused on the idea of consciousness and incorporated her ideas in her writing. She was very modern, and her influence can reflect on the idea of combining both the sciences and arts together as one and bringing out the consciousness in education.

The start of Yo-Yo Ma was when his article was first published in January 2014 in Switzerland. From context clues and annotating, I have been able to learn a lot about Yo-Yo Ma. He was a cellist and songwriter, very interested in art since he was very young. Reading his short biography, I noticed that he contributed to positive influencers: Elon Musk and Tony Blair. One concept I enjoyed reading about in his article was his piece on STEM and STEAM. I enjoyed how he talked about education, and how art should be added to the curriculum. His idea is to be able to incorporate the idea of creativity into education, in the form of art for all ages. I believe it is important to continue teaching art, as it it’s complexity is beneficial to students. There is more than just STEM: science, technology, engineering, and math. Art as stated in the article art focuses on concepts such as “integration, collaboration, flexible thinking, and disciplined imagination” that add to a student’s learning. Understanding the STEAM model, I never really realized the impact that art could have on a student’s learning. I am in favor with Yo-Yo Ma’s ideas and concepts, as they are only beneficial to one’s education, and do not hinder their overall learning. His ideas are elaborated nicely in his essay, and get the reader like me really thinking about what art could bring to society if it was accepted and appreciated more. The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate the positive effects that art can have on society, varying from education to everyday life. The scope is greatly expanded, as the author mentions lots of aspects that add to art. The purpose of the scope is to integrate art in the educational system, possibly changing STEM to STEAM. I believe if we had more art in everyday life, it would improve our futures and the world. The question that Yo-Yo Ma presents is whether art should be introduced and focused on in the educational system. The author is trying to convey the message of art, and the benefits it had. This new way of thinking provided by Yo-Yo Ma, will enhance our minds and get student’s and educators believing in the power of art.

The three words I glossed and discovered in the text were:

Interdependence: The dependence of two or more people or things on each other

Empirically: By means of observation or experience rather than theory or pure logic

Tandem: Having two things arranged one in front of the other

(Definitions obtained from Google Dictionary)