Lamont, Anne. “Shitty First Drafts.” Language Awareness: Readings for College

Writers. Ed. by Paul Eschholz, Alfred Rosa, and Virginia Clark. 9th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2005: 93-96.

The author, Anne Lamont claims that having “shitty first drafts” helps cause great pieces of writing. It starts with a “down draft” where you put all your thoughts down onto paper. It doesn’t matter if it makes sense or not since no one is going to look at it. After editing the “down draft” you will make an “updraft” which is a new and improved version of the draft. Finally, a “dental draft” is the final draft created where you pick out every flaw and make sure the piece is 100% finessed. Just like in the dentist, we check every tooth – in this case every paragraph to critique and fix everything. Overall, Anne Lamont believes that every good writer must have a dreadful draft in order to work its way to having an excellent piece. 

Tan, Amy. “Mother Tongue.” Norton Field Guide to Writing. 2nd ed. New York, NY: W.W. Norton and Company, 2010. Print.

Amy Tan speaks about the importance and fascination of language. Language can present feelings, theories, ideas, etc. People around the world are able to use different dialects but still be able to read, write and communicate with one another. Her mother can read and write English almost perfectly. However, people underestimate and disregard her english skills due to her Chinese accent. Some people say they understand nothing that she says, 50%, or 80%-90% of it. To Amy Tan, her mother’s English is perfect. Once, her mother went to get a CAT scan speaking perfect English. They also lost her Cat scan results and continued to treat her carelessly. Amy Tan came into the hospital to draw apologies from the hospital employees. An accusation about asians were that they were better at math than English according to surveys. Stereotypes like this challenged Amy Tan to improve her English and prove many people wrong. 

Sedaris, D. (2003). Me Talk Pretty One Day. New York: Little, Brown & Co.

The author David Sedaris conveys that people who aren’t able to communicate to one another isn’t a great thing. Without communication, there is a barrier kept between them causing no progress. The author goes through numerous hardships and experiences of speaking French, to model perseverance. The text was created for an audience of people who are trying to learn a new language or learning anything new in general. David Sedaris wrote about when he was in French class and how he was arguing with his classmates. Both were arguing in broken French which was funny to them but they were still able to understand one another. 

Adler, Mortimer J. “How to Mark a Book.” N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

According to the author, marking up a book isn’t damaging the book but actually loving it. You can own a book by buying it full price but it still wouldn’t entirely be yours. In order to fully own a book, you must be the writer since the work specifically is yours. Three types of book owners are having the standard sets and best sellers, books that are read and still new, and those having a little books that have been used and bused. They weren’t taken care of well. Marking up a book helps a person remember their thoughts. A person will see two different sides of a book. The original copy and the marked version. The marked version is like a diary, full of thoughts and critiques. 

Reprinted from IGNORANCE: How It Drives Science by Stuart Firestein with permission from Oxford University Press, Inc. Copyright © 2012 by Stuart Firestein.

Stuart Firestein portrays ignorance being the bigger focus over knowledge. Knowledge is key to to various concepts however, ignorance- the thought of not knowing is greater. Not knowing something benefits scientists with their research because they’re constantly trying to find and learn new things. His central argument claims that as scientists, we should research on what we do not know, rather than what we do know. Ignorance can help us ask better questions, digging deeper into the unknown so that we can brainstorm more questions and do scientific observations on them. 

“The Scientist as Rebel,” a collection of book reviews published by the New York Review of Books, 2006.

Scientists are rebels, according to Freeman Dyson. He says that the most efficient way to understand science is to understand the people who practice it. Their drive in science is led by their imagination and theories. He talks about multiple figures from Issac Newton to Edward Teller to Ernest Rutherford to Albert Einstein and how they all had imaginary thoughts that had no limit to what they would focus on. The knowledge and possibilities are endless therefore they are always coming up with theories. Freeman Dyson doesn’t have a great opinion on reductionism because it misleads on what science is about. For example, mathematics. The thought of reductionism in mathematics limits the ideas in how a problem is solved. 

The journalist, Deepa Fernandes puts history, politics and narratives together to present the book Targeted. After the attack of 9/11, America considers a strong national security. Being one of the most devastating terrorist attacks in the United States, America takes precautions to improve their security from future attacks. Deepa Fernandes was an immigrant in America who wrote about her experience during this time. Many were affected with border zones, racism, crimes, deportation and many more. A tremendous amountof immigrants were being checked and looked at, bringing back immigrant policies that would affect the lives of many. Having a corrupt government filled with white supremacists affected immigration laws greatly. 

Kevin Mitnick explains how social engineering is related to hacking. Social engineering refers to psychological manipulation of indulging confidential information. In his book, Kevin Mitnick talks about how he was a cyber-desperado being released from federal prison. As a hacker he says it takes a thief to catch a thief. He talks about stories of his successful cyber attacks on government, businesses. Hackers are very intelligent and can always find a way to get into the system. They can portray as an employee who wants to work at home and may forget the passcode when asking for it. He also explains how an attack can be prevented. With this novel, Kevin Mitnick is able to open the thoughts of other people with the knowledge is cyber security. 

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