Christo Summary Reflection

Rhetorical Knowledge: 

• How to use sources appropriately- I felt that this project really helped me refresh on the proper procedures for MLA citation, especially considering the source was a film. I would not have been able to remember what an MLA film citation would have even looked like without the assistance from the Purdue OWL. I was also able to look up the citation format for a wide array of sources, such as journals, newspapers, movies, video clips, and web sites. I really enjoyed the extra push the demand for a proper citation gave me. Without that requirement, I am sure that I would have completely forgotten the MLA citation format and I would probably not practice its use on my own time. 
• How to organize thoughts, focus, and create an impression- This project was very particular in this subject area. What I found to be one of the most challenging elements of the composure of this essay was the strict limitation to just a summary of the short film. I quickly discovered the difficulty involved in keeping the essay strictly a summary rather than an analysis. As I delved deeper and deeper into my essay I found it so tempting to naturally insert my own opinions and thoughts and disrupt the flow of events in the film with commentary. However, after much editing and a better understanding of what a summary really should look and sound like, I was able to cut out the "chit chat" and get down to the business of composing a true summary. 

Critical and Creative Thinking:

• Draw reasonable inferences- Although this project did not require much analysis in terms of composing the summary, there where still many inferences that were made in class as to what the idea behind the making of the film was about. Many students were able to mutually agree that the moral of the film was that although Christo was doubted by everyone around him in terms of the success of his massive project, he was still able to disregard the overwhelming doubt and press forward with his project. The students and I in the class were able to pick up on this subject rather quickly using our critical thinking skills and see more meaning to the film that goes beyond the major focus of it. 

Genre Knowledge:

• #3 As you grow in academic writing experience, you'll encounter more types of academic genres: researched arguments, reports, reviews, summaries, personal testimonies, etc... - This assignment was especially helpful in distinguishing the differences between summary papers and analytic papers. Weeding out text that did not relate to the sole description of the film and unfiltered description only was the most difficult component to writing this paper. To be able to identify the difference between analyzing and summarizing was a huge skill to pick up on during the construction of this essay. After the completion of this project, i now have a much better understanding of the differences between analytic writing and summary writing.

Mechanical Knowledge:

• I must be honest, I did not learn very much about the basic mechanics of writing a paper in this assignment being that I am already very familiar with how composing an essay works. If anything, the assignment was an excellent means of refreshing my memory in terms of how organize an essay and put it into MLA format. However, what i did learn is that in terms of summarizing any sequence of events, it is best to compose a paper in a chronological fashion that corresponds to the chronology of the story line itself.  

  

         

What Makes a Good Question?

"The wise man doesn't give the right answers, he poses the right questions."-Claude Levi-Strauss

In my opinion, a solid question worthy of investigation and research must include the following:

• A question of good quality must not seem common or cliche. Common questions like "How are you?" or "What time is it?" are far too common in the modern world. They lack creativity and meaning are are not difficult to answer. Often times these questions can be answered on-spot without research or even complex thought. Simple, everyday questions pose no challenge and require no insight or research and, in simpler terms, can be described as boring. Questions worthy of thought and careful attention can be described  as complex questions with sometimes no definite answer. A question without an answer will send a curious human being on a journey through their conscious thought, knowledge, insight, history, and every other corner of the universe to find an answer. If a question does not take an adventure to answer it, then it is not a good question.      
• A question worthy of the world's attention is a question that cannot be answered by the modern internet search engine. Amazing questions are questions that even Google itself will respond "I don't know" to. Often times, it is too easy for Individuals, like myself, to log onto their Google account and look the answer to a question we cannot answer ourselves. Although this method has proven very efficient and beneficial, it is also harmful to human curiosity because it is far too easy to answer even the most complex questions because of the internet. The web has take away the thrill of traversing to the local library and vigilantly seeking out the required knowledge to answer the question that brought you to the library in the first place. Of course this fault does not apply to everyone because not every person on the face of the Earth has access to the internet, let alone a computer. In worst case scenarios, some individuals may not even have access to a library or any information database. We as students at a resourceful university would not understand the complications of not being able to access information, so I will drop the subject.    
• My final point on what an excellent question consists of is that the question must require a hint of philosophy and creativity to answer. Again, this brings me back to my previous point on a good question not having a definite answer, but it has to go beyond just being a complex question. Somewhere in the recipe required to answer it, "six cups of philosophy, three cups of facts, and a pinch of personal opinion" must be added to give the answer the "zest" it needs to solve the complex question. In other words, the question must have no definite answer and a mutual agreement between millions of insightful people as to what the answer should be before it can be deemed a good question.   

Summary: 

A good question contains complexity, requires intense amounts of research, cannot be answered by a search engine, presents a challenge to even the best of scholars, and in some cases requires agreement between many scholars as to what the answer should be.