Homework for Tuesday, 12/1:

- Since we didn't have time in class, remember to do the following exercise to show that you can translate professional language into a language you would incorporate into your own essay the author's ideas...

Take the following quote excerpts from last Tuesday's reading and re-interpret what the author’s main ideas are in your own words.

Instead of an over-reliance on quotes, there are two other major ways to use secondary source material:

1) Summary – focus on explaining the main idea of a couple of lines or paragraphs, or a whole chapter/text. Instead of shortening the length of the article, what you are really trying to do is focus on the larger idea taken from the text.

2) Paraphrase – restating a piece in your own words, but in the same length as original text. For example, instead of quoting two lines of a text in its professional language, rephrase the lines into a language for a more general audience.

Excerpts to translate from “Heat on the street” by Charles Piot:

“Moreover, these playscapes seemed simultaneously wrapped in fantasy and cued into the everyday world…” (353).

“All of these explanations remain securely embedded within the world of the modernist subject – of a stable subject whose maturation involves identity struggles, gender differentiation and – when paradise is lost (at the end of the millennium) – the search for compensatory socialization mechanisms” (355).

“The fragmentation, ephemerality and chaotic flux of post-Fordist capital markets, and bourgeois society’s increasing reliance on the manufacture of imaginary appetites, have produced a culture which celebrates spectacle, fantasy, fashion, ephemerality, difference, and the commodification of cultural form. In postmodern culture, image reigns supreme, and there is a preoccupation with surface and style…” (358).

“Rather I see the violence as symptomatic of today’s new world order of boundary violation – of the assault on the nation-state, of the reconfiguring of global and local, of the dissolution, deterritorialization and remapping of the subject and of corporeality. It is also expressive of the paranoia, dystopia and conspiracy rhetoric that character [video game worlds] (and that proliferate in popular culture today…)” (360).

“…These games seem to provide, and indeed incite, ways of re-imagining bodies and selves. Here the body is experienced as detachable/combinatory and porous rather than bounded and whole, and the self as ‘intensity’ – and site of intense action – rather than as ‘emotion’” (361).

Also, as for major assignments:

- Remember that Defining 4 & 5 are due on Tuesday!!!

- Also, based on Tuesday’s discussion, start putting together at least four (4) example draft pages of your final essay that include secondary sources integrated into the text, along with a preliminary Work Cited page attached to the end of four pages! This Work In Progress 2 will be due on December 3, 2009 – the same day your Interview Culture Report is due.

Purdue's OWL website: In-text and Work Cited

Here is a link to Purdue's OWL tips on in-text citation - which provides a more thorough discussion and example page than we have time to do in class today... Since we cannot cover all of this in so short a time, make sure to go here for help as you do the final edits on Major Essay 2 to make sure you've properly cited material.

You also need a Work Cited page at the end of your essay. The OWL website also provides another on-line source for you to go to after today, by clicking here!

Student Example: Source Report

The following is a solid example of what is expected for the Source Report. The main critique of this successful report, in short: the student attempts to integrate relevance of article throughout, though at points the source is overly summarized and the Cultural Inquiry project could be discussed more to balance out. Despite the imbalance of summary, there is a strong attempt at synthesizing the guiding principle from the article.

The other major issue, is that the citation is incomplete -- if one is to cite an article, one must include which journal the article is from (where it was published); if the article was found on-line, then there needs to be inclusion of where on-line the article was found. Also, page numbers!

Student Example:

DeGrandpre, Richard “Ritalin Nation” 1999.

DeGrandpre writes “Ritalin Nation” focusing on the culturally induced disorder ADHD and the nationwide usage of its treatment drug Ritalin. The book takes on a touch of a bias and opinionated stance. The author openly doubts the legitimacy of the disorder. ADHD, in DeGrandpre’s opinion, is a culturally created phenomenon due to human’s constant need for sensory stimulation and ultimately a fast pace lifestyle. He describes the concept of a “rapid-fire culture” which thrives off society’s need for speed. In my research, I want to explore the origin of the disorder ADHD; examining the medical and psychological properties of ADHD, as well as the possible notion that it is a result of various cultural influences. DeGrandpre explains the latter theory in detail in his book “Ritalin Nation”.

People who are diagnosed with ADHD, are exposed to a ‘treatment’ option. A stimulant drug is prescribed with its purpose to control their ADHD symptoms. “ADD has become the most commonly diagnosed child psychiatric disorder in the united states. Ritalin, prescribed as treatment for ADD in about 90 percent of all cases, is a powerful psychostimulant that, when taken via the same route of administration, has pharmacological and psychological effects that are almost indistinguishable from those of cocaine.” This quote describes the prevalence of ADD and its corresponding drug. DeGrandpre discusses the background of Ritalin and its underestimated powerful effects. Various studies have shown the similarities between cocaine and the stimulant drug Ritalin. DeGrandpre states “As one journalist puts it, referring to the similarities between Ritalin and cocaine, ‘Americans would be horrified to learn that 2 million children across the nation are being given cocaine by their parents and doctors to make them behave better in school. It’s also close to the truth that it takes a chemist to tell the difference’”(DeGrandpre, p 176). The public or society’s view or understanding of the drug is an area I want to investigate in my research. Society seems to have quite a distorted view or understanding of Ritalin. Although studies have compared cocaine to Ritalin, the drug’s actual effects are still undermined. The context, of which the drug is being used, seems to alter the public’s view of its questionable negative effects. Since people are being prescribed this pill from a trusted doctor, the powerful effects of the drug seem to be well justified.

The misuse of stimulant drugs is another thing I want to explore, whether it is someone with ADHD or someone using recreationally. Specifically I want to research the methods of consumption and their varying effects, the distribution of pills, experimenting with different dosages, using recreationally, and developing an addiction. DeGrandpre states, “To give an example of what can happen, one college student reports: ‘I know a girl in the freshman class who actually stole a script pad from the heath center and faked her own prescription. She’s an unbelievably smart girl, got a 1600 on her SAT, but is convinced she needs to snort Ritalin in order to do all her work. She’s become an absolute speed freak- up all night and strung out all day. Ironically, she’s failing two of her classes.’”. Addiction to Ritalin and other stimulants used to treat ADHD, is a vital aspect I want to explore in my research. DeGrandpre touches on addictions that can result in the consumption of these medicines. Addiction to Ritalin is common, yet it is mentioned that it is not as likely to occur within people who are legally prescribed the medication. They take the pill in the mindset that it is medicine, with the purpose solely to “treat” their symptoms. Addiction is more likely to occur for people who are consuming the stimulant with the hopes to “get high” or to have recreational effects. Regardless of the context of which it is being taken, the drug still maintains the same properties and powerful effects.

“Ritalin Nation” will be a key secondary source for my research paper. However, I will need many more, considering it is somewhat outdated. The background information and the theories he expresses will be considered, analyzed and integrated into my research. His explanations of how ADHD is merely a reaction to high-speed society still may remain applicable today (ten years after the book was published). In fact, with the rapidly growing rise in technology and other varying means of convenience, that since then have occurred, his theory may be even more relevant and perhaps valid. Next, I will gather sources that focus on the medical explanations of the disorder.