POETRY PROJECT reflection
When I began writing my poem, I didn't take an interest in poetry at all. I had trouble understanding and analyzing the deeper meanings within it. After reading more and more poetry, I realized that I enjoy poems with lots of repetition, such as “Rock Out” so I began modeling my poem with non stop repetition throughout it because it is my favorite kind of poetry. After attempting to write my poem with constant repetition, I decided to change the repetition in my poem to better communicate my message by saying how I think poetry is useless in society in one stanza, and how I think poetry is meaningful and influential in society. I decided to change the way I wrote it because the original way I wrote it, I didn't feel that it communicated the message that I was trying to convey as well as it does in its final form.
Throughout the writing of my poem, then biggest and most important change or revision that I made to it was adding an additional stanza that explains the message of how I think that poetry is essential to communicate certain feelings and thoughts in life in between the stanzas where I communicate how I think poetry is useless and unessential. I decided to make this large change to my poem because my opinion on poetry is complex and has multiple sides to it. On one side, I think poetry is useless, and confusing to analyze and evaluate to uncover the hidden meanings in it. On the other side, I think that poetry is a beautiful and essential part of describing the indescribable moments in life, such as the butterflies someone would get in their stomach on their wedding day.
In the rough draft of my poem, I had a very simple ending, saying: “Its useless, its essential, Its Useless It is poetry.” After reading it and comparing it to my overall message of my poem, it felt incomplete, so I revised it to convey my message in a more clear way: “As useless as silent letters, as influential as Einstein, It's uselessly essential, Its muck, Its art, Its poetry.” The revision to the ending made it satisfying to read, while still communicating my message, and summarizing it in a strong way. The original ending still communicated my message, but felt plain and bland, while the new revised ending completed the poem in a way that left the reader satisfied and not confused.
The final revision I decided to make to my poem is add the word “Poetry…” before each stanza in the poem. I decided to add this into the poem because I chose to preform my poem in the style of spoken word. The word poetry followed by a few second pause fit my poem because I spoke fast reading the stanzas, but then contradicted that with a pause before each stanza by reading fast. This added a different aspect to my performance and mixed thing up so it wasn't being read at the same pace the entire time during the reading of the poem.
Throughout the writing of my poem, then biggest and most important change or revision that I made to it was adding an additional stanza that explains the message of how I think that poetry is essential to communicate certain feelings and thoughts in life in between the stanzas where I communicate how I think poetry is useless and unessential. I decided to make this large change to my poem because my opinion on poetry is complex and has multiple sides to it. On one side, I think poetry is useless, and confusing to analyze and evaluate to uncover the hidden meanings in it. On the other side, I think that poetry is a beautiful and essential part of describing the indescribable moments in life, such as the butterflies someone would get in their stomach on their wedding day.
In the rough draft of my poem, I had a very simple ending, saying: “Its useless, its essential, Its Useless It is poetry.” After reading it and comparing it to my overall message of my poem, it felt incomplete, so I revised it to convey my message in a more clear way: “As useless as silent letters, as influential as Einstein, It's uselessly essential, Its muck, Its art, Its poetry.” The revision to the ending made it satisfying to read, while still communicating my message, and summarizing it in a strong way. The original ending still communicated my message, but felt plain and bland, while the new revised ending completed the poem in a way that left the reader satisfied and not confused.
The final revision I decided to make to my poem is add the word “Poetry…” before each stanza in the poem. I decided to add this into the poem because I chose to preform my poem in the style of spoken word. The word poetry followed by a few second pause fit my poem because I spoke fast reading the stanzas, but then contradicted that with a pause before each stanza by reading fast. This added a different aspect to my performance and mixed thing up so it wasn't being read at the same pace the entire time during the reading of the poem.
Op-Ed |
OP-ed reflection |
The Poison Apple
Over half of the world electronics are produced and manufactured by one company called Foxconn, a company who supplies over 1,000,000 Chinese citizens with jobs and work. 300,000 of those employees were working exclusively on Apple’s iPhone 5s. No matter what device you have in you’re carrying in your pocket right now, the odds are it came from Foxconn. In recent years, the popularity of all things Apple has grown exponentially. Increase of demand of products means increase of production, forcing apple to loosen its guidelines. Although Apple is a very profitable corporation, and can benefit from its poor labor conditions, the conditions in which the employees are forced to work in are not only morally wrong, but ethically wrong as well. In 2010, as a result of poor conditions of the Apple factories and to protest to Apple, 150 employees flocked together on the roof of the 3-story corporation to commit suicide. Eighteen of the 150 employees jumped from the building in attempt to take their own lives, with 14 of them succeeding to do so. After two full days and fourteen suicides later, the mass of protesters were coaxed into coming down from the roof by Chinese officials. In response to the suicides at the factories, Foxconn, the factory in which the suicides occurred, installed suicides nets to catch employees who try to take their own lives during work hours. An investigator visiting the factory comments on the nets saying “they look like nets they put out to catch fish…” (youtube.com, Tsiyonut times) The BBC sent in reporters who wore secret cameras to film and observe what really goes on in the Apple factories. The video evidence is a shocking sight as you see overworked and underage employees sleeping at their one hour lunch break instead of eating their food. One employee says: “Even if I was hungry I wouldn't want to get up to eat. I just wanted to lie down and rest” the working conditions in these Apple factories are so poor and strenuous that the workers would rather go hungry than risk not sleeping, forcing themselves to sleep and nap at their work stations. The effect of the employees being overworked extend beyond their behavior in the factory, they take it home with them. “I was unable to sleep at night because of the stress.”, an employee of Apple says. The high quota that the managers and the corporations put on the employees daily send the employees home stressed to the point where they can't sleep, fatiguing themselves, making it impossible to meet the next days quota. A video by the BBC titles the factory as “an exhausted workforce” when they see the employees in the factories falling asleep while they are assembling the devices. Apple has not ignored all the claims made by the BBC responding to the news article with: "We are aware of no other company doing as much as Apple to make sure fair and safe working conditions.” If the conditions that are present in the factories are “fair and safe” by Apples’s definition then how would they treat their employees if they weren’t safe and fair? Carrying an i.d card in China is essential to getting a job and should be carried at all times, but when reporters were sent in to the Apple factories through job agencies, their crucial i.d cards were taken from them and not returned by Apple. One of the reporters comments after his i.d card was taken from him in an interview he says: “…I felt helpless” The BBC says that the guidelines and rules set by Apple and immediately and routinely broken by immediately taking the employees i.d cards from them when they are sent from job agencies. Everyday Foxconn produced about 500,000 iPhone 5s per day at the factory running twenty-four hours per day seven-days a week. When Apple partners with a corporation such as Foxconn, which supplies more than half of the worlds electronics, it's expected that some human rights violations occur, but when an average Apple consumer finds out the extent it happens, you cant help but look into it more. The conditions at Apple factories push the limit of peoples rights and need to have tighter restrictions on their labor guidelines if they want to continue to grow in success and in revenue. The next time you walk into an Apple store and are overwhelmed by the glamour of its shiny new products, or take your shiny new iPhone out of your pocket, think about what got it there in the first place. Works Cited: Bilton, Richard. "Apple 'failing to Protect Workers'" BBC News. N.p., 18 Dec. 2014. Web. Tsiyonut times. "APPLE EXPOSED: The TRUTH About ISlave's At FOXCONN Factory!!" YouTube. YouTube, 19 Oct. 2012. Web. Heffernan, Margaret. "WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THE FOXCONN SUICIDES." Cbsnews.com. N.p., 7 Aug. 2013. Web. |
For this project, each student chose a topic to research that relates to globalization and write an Op-ed and create a political cartoon to represent our opinions on the topics we chose. I wrote my Op-Ed and created my political cartoon on the working condition of the employees working in factories by Apple corporations in China.
After completing the project and researching about the Apple factories and the unfair working conditions, I learned that in todays world, money and profit of large companies is put over the safety and well being of the people that work for and support the company. The corporate heads of larger corporation such as Apple would rather make a larger profit overall than increase wages or decrease working hours in the factories for the workers. Continuing in this process traps families in third world countries in an endless cycle of living in poverty in which they cannot escape from. Throughout writing my Op-Ed, I had to adapt what I already know about writing to fit the Op-Ed writing style. When writing an Op-Eed it is custom to write shorter paragraphs with lots of ideas packed into them, writing them in a casual conversational tone. Writing the paper was easy for me because I enjoy writing in a semi-professonal tone as if I'm having a normal conversation with the reader, expressing my opinion about the topic I chose. |
Political cartoon Reflection
Comparing my first dust with my last draft of my political cartoon, I have grown as a cartoonist by taking in constructive criticisms from me peers and implementing it into my cartoon. In addition to revisions based on critiques, I have learned to use more clear symbolism in my cartoon to make the message that iim trying to convey in the cartoon more clear so the audience understands it more fully and clearly.