I liked the research project because the project made me think about writing in a more argumentative way. The project allowed me to research different author’s perspective on humanity and what it means to be human. For my research project, I chose to argue that Data in Star Trek is not human, but instead just an android. At first, I wanted to argue that Data was human based off of certain sources that had philosophical ideas about what it means to be human. Pretty early on into my research though I found that arguing that Data is not human would make more sense and have more evidence to support it. The research I did to show that Data was human was not wasted though because I was able to use what I learned as a counterargument later in the paper. The project was difficult because it was hard to map out how I was going to set up the paper and what different sources I would use in what places in the essay. It was also difficult to figure out how I was going to argue that Data was not human, such as, what aspects of humanity I wanted to dissect and then use in my argument. To start my research, I brainstormed first and came up with a bunch of different sources that I could use and went over past materials that were looked at in class. After that, I started to make an outline and figured out what I saw as most important in supporting the argument and then what could be used as a counterargument to be refuted. Overall, this experience did inspire me to make some changes for future assignments, especially in future English courses.

My understanding of science fiction has changed a lot since the beginning of the semester. I personally, am not a big science fiction person and have never really watched many science fiction movies or read any books related to science fiction. I always perceived science fiction to be a bunch of made up creatures like aliens who do something entertaining with the Earth around them. This class has opened my eyes to how science fiction can be used as a form of social commentary. What challenges and oppressions characters go through can be intended to critic our society and how people in the society today treat other people. This can be especially seen in the science fiction series, Star Trek, that we were introduced to in class. In the series, in the episode, “Measure of a Man”, the character Data, who is an android, is faced with many obstacles that stem from his identity as an android. Another character named Mannox who is human wants to use Data for testing to create more androids like it to make technological advancements that could benefit the StarFleet crew in their future missions. Data firmly does not want to be tested on because of the risk that the android could possibly “die”. Mannox argues that Data is not human and instead property of the StarFleet ship and therefore has no right to reject. Captain Picard, another main character in show, argues that Data should be able to make his own decisions. In conclusion, I learned that science fiction can be used as a tool for change in the world and not just a source of entertainment.

My favorite TV show of all time is “Friends”. The show is about six friends who embrace going their twenties and moving into their thirties. The characters are Monica and her brother Ross, Chandler, Phoebe, Joey, and Rachel. Monica is played by Courtney Cox. Ross is played by David Schwimmer. Chandler is played by Matthew Perry. Phoebe is played by Lisa Kudrow. Joey is played by Matt LeBlanc. Lastly, Rachel, my favorite character, is played by Jennifer Aniston. The six of them go through many different relationships and portray their dating lives in really funny ways. The show reflects on friend hook-ups, misunderstandings, and unexpected pregnancies in today’s present day culture. It portrays our culture today as kind of a hook-up culture and not really serious relationships. The show is a pretty accurate representation of what happens and relationships between different groups of people. My favorite episode is season 5, episode 14: “The One Where Everyone Finds Out” where Phoebe and Chandler pretend to be dating to prove that Monica and Chandler are not seeing each other when they actually are. I also like season 7, episode 23/24: “The One With Monica and Chandler’s Wedding” where Monica and Chandler profess their love for one another. This episode is extremely funny because for a long time Chandler and Monica had been hiding their relationships from their friend group. Overall, the show is extremely funny and all of the characters are very down to earth and realistic. I highly recommend watching it if you have never seen it before.

 

I picked the Star Trek episode, “Charlie X” for Star Trek the original series to find a popular internet source about. The source that I found is called “FANDOM”. The link to access it is http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Charlie_X_(episode). Although, the source has a summary of the episode that is pretty accurate and breaks the episode down act by act, I do not think the source is reliable. There are references listed at the bottom of the page as well as unreferenced material. I do not think it is reliable because I cannot locate where any of the authors are of the work on the page itself. I also cannot find if the work has been scholarly peer-reviewed. For something to be reliable, it has to be peer reviewed by other scholars to make it scholarly. I think the article is more fan-based and for popularity of the Star Trek episode rather than use for academic reasons. Furthermore, the article has not been used as a reference for any other works. The website also has tabs across the top of it such as games, movies, TV, video, and wikis. There are also ads, which are generally not attached to scholarly reliable articles. I would definitely not use this website in any scholarly writing that I would have to do because it does not have authors attached to it, is not scholarly peer-reviewed, and looks like it is used as a source of income for money through the use of ads. So, in conclusion, the website is definitely not a reliable source.

The article, “Beyond ‘Star Trek’” by David Allen Batchelor, argues that “Star Trek” failed to portray certain important technological innovations. Batchelor mentions how “Star Trek” inspired the visions of many new technologies that ended up being created. Star Trek has inspired technologies such as smartphones and quantum physics. There is no doubt that the author believes that “Star Trek” has done amazing work to inspire new technology and technological advancements. However, Batchelor argues that if the series gets enough money and fans that it deserves, the creators could do more to use technology that could make the series seem more realistic.

This could be arguable because other critics of “Star Trek” could make a counter argument that “Star Trek” is amazing as is and could not be any more realistic. Another argument that could refute Batchelor’s argument is that it does not matter if the series is realistic or not because it is only watched purely for enjoyment and not for any real educational purposes, since it is technically fiction.  The author goes on to point out that the use of seatbelts in many different episodes could keep the crew members from being shaken up, especially in the episode Enterprise when the starship gets hit. Someone could argue against Batchelor’s idea, though, by saying that “Star Trek” is only science fiction and that it makes sense to have some flaws in the technological aspects. These flaws could make the series more entertaining and opens the plot up for more conflicts. But, the author of the article has a valid point in arguing that the series glosses over super common technologies and jumps straight to more advanced technologies, some of which have not even been invented in real life yet.

Batchelor, David Allen. “Beyond ‘Star Trek.’” Communications of the ACM, vol. 60, no. 5,            May 2017, pp. 104–105. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1145/3069382.

I thought the Literary Analysis assignment was a good assignment overall. I liked that the assignment had choices and you could choose what story or episode you wanted to analyze instead of just being forced to analyze one particular work. I chose to write about “Bloodchild” because it was my favorite story and could kind of be analyzed in different ways. I got to think about the story in different ways and then see what the author actually intended when she wrote the work versus what I interpreted the work to mean. Furthermore, the assignment made me use skills that I would not normally use in other writing assignments like five-paragraph essays that are usually just summary based. The assignment itself was not that difficult because I have completed assignments like it before for other classes. It was difficult though because of procrastination and time management. I struggled to kind of stay on top of the assignment and break it apart into smaller due dates instead of just doing the entire assignment at once. My experience with this assignment definitely inspired me to make some changes for the next assignment. For the upcoming research assignment, I plan to schedule myself some smaller due dates to have certain parts of the assignment finished. I also want to block out certain times throughout the week in my calendar that is devoted only to working on the research project alone and not just whatever homework I have. I feel like this will make me more productive because when I do homework or work on projects I usually do whatever homework I like doing the most first instead of prioritizing what needs to be worked on.

I watched season 1 episode 8 of the Star Trek:Enterprise series on Netflix. The episode was about the Enterprise crew finding another planet that had civilization of a different species on it. When Captain Archer and T’Pol got there, there was a mysterious shop and people were dying from some type of disease that came when a guy named Garos started a shop. The crew meets Riann who helps them figure out why all these people are dying because her brother also died from the disease. I suspect Garos, from a different planet, was trying to take over the city. This episode of Star Trek engages in cultural commentary by showing how cities that are not industrialized yet can and do get easily taken over by people of power. This has to do with colonization and people’s desire for power even if it harms others in the process. Garos literally said in the episode that he didn’t care if a couple thousand of the Akaali  get killed and he insinuated that he has a fascination with power when he held up a mask in his shop that was of some ruler from the planet he was from. I think the episode comments on this because it is so important and people still take advantage of poor, underdeveloped counties even today. The episode is kind of teaching us to do the right thing even if that can be challenging for us. Captain Archer literally almost died fighting the other guy who was a part of Garos’ crew. The Akaali survived and were cured from the disease that was given to them by Garos in an attempt to overtake them.

I liked the Audio Memoir assignment because it was a different type of writing that I am not used to doing. I had the chance to write a little less formally and experiment with my voice more than in formal essays. With that being said, it was a little difficult though strictly because it didn’t follow a five-paragraph formal essay structure. It was kind of challenging to come up with topics to start writing about and thinking about past experiences that had to do with technology. Technology is so much a part of my life that it is hard to pinpoint specific experiences that were significant involving technology. I kind of procrastinated a little bit in writing the Audio Memoir, so for the next assignment I want to not procrastinate to the best of my ability. Although, the way the peer review and in class work for the assignment was structured, it made it a lot easier and almost impossible to completely procrastinate, which was helpful. For my writing process, I kind of just started looking at other memoirs and some ways in which other people did theirs and then started generating ideas and then I wrote the memoir. I really liked the topic for the assignment and learning to work with Audacity. For the next assignment, I want to come up with ideas earlier and then maybe work on making my writing better and stronger especially in an argumentative essay. I feel like the next assignment will be easier because it is what I am used to writing, but harder at the same time because it will require more research and analysis.

 

In The Norton Field Guide to Writing by Richard Bullock, the Describing chapter that starts on page 399 of the book introduces the use of description in a writing and their impact on a work. In the chapter, there are small shorter works and in one of these works, the use of the rhetorical triangle helps to shape the author’s message. In The Paradise of Bombs by Scott Russell Sanders, the occasion of the work is to get the audience to understand the author’s experience with working with his father who was a carpenter and what the job entails and how much his father cares about him. Furthermore, the author is the speaker, Scott himself talking about his own past experiences. The audience is anyone who Scott wants to read his work about sawing wood as a child. The rhetorical triangle might have shaped the author’s message by helping the reader to understand the speaker’s experiences and why the experience is so memorable to him. The descriptions Russell gives about the event is very vivid and detailed as if the audience was with him sawing the wood too. Depending on the author’s purpose there may have been more or less description since the occasion kind of shapes the story and how it is written to get across the purpose of the author’s work to the reader.

I think science fiction is used for cultural commentary because it is considered a form of fiction and is therefore not completely true. Writers of science fiction can integrate their ideas about the world around us using a philosophical approach without having to have any real concrete research or evidence for what they believe. I think science fiction can be effective in cultural commentary through the use of characters and stories that could be real but aren’t. For example, “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins is about rebellion and standing up to people in power if the ones in charge are wrong or unjust. The novel is about a girl named Katniss Everdeen and how she struggles to survive and change the society in which she is living in. The book gives insight into human morals and how people should be treated in general. The characters are treated like a game or objects that don’t have any real value even though they are human beings by the people with power. The people in power make up the Capitol. I think Collins was effective in getting her audience to think about the culture in the book and the culture in which we live now and how the two are similar and different. I honestly do not know if there is a more effective way to use science fiction as a means of social commentary without taking away from the suspense in the individual stories themselves. In conclusion, every author has a different social goal or message that he or she is trying to get across.

“The whole point of science fiction is that you explore the effect of ideas on a society.”                                                                                                                                                 ~Peter F. Hamilton