Final Paper: In-Class Discussion

My in-class discussion was with Michelle. We discussed each other’s thesis and she told me that I should combine my thoughts to make one complete thesis instead of having to different veiws in seperate paragraphs. Michelle also advised me that I could use more quotes and examples of how gangster films are unsafe in my paper. The advice I gave to her were mostly about her grammatical errors. Her paper had strong statistical information in it and I couldn’t help but agree with her thesis.

Final Paper Peer Editing

My paper was edited by Reaksmey, who is revising his first paper, and so his final paper is on the topic of gangster films in the 30s, and how these films are not dangerous and do not cause violence; his view was that only ignorant people cause bad things to happen, whether or not they claim to be influenced by a film. His paper was very organized and I enjoyed reading it because it was easy to follow and his underlying argument was something I can agree with. After we finished filling out the editing sheets, we talked to each other about what we thought should be edited/revised. I only had a few things to say to him about some of his sentence structuring,  wording, and obscure grammar issues. My main suggestion was that he make his thesis clearer, by bringing his ‘mini’ thesis statements together somewhere in the first paragraph. As for my paper, he told me that it was very convincing for him, but he also had some suggestions for me pertaining to sentence structuring, long paragraphs, and filler words. Because of his suggestions, I was able to take out a lot of unnecessary words and split sentences in half to make them easier to read.

My thesis has not changed, and my paper is coming along with minimal problems.

Final Research paper: in-class discussion

Laura and I discussed my paper on community policing, and her paper on Scarface and the effect the violence may have had on the viewer.  She’s a lot farther along than I am, and her paper was well organized.   I suggested researching for studies on naturally violent children to help her expand on some of the ideas stated in her paper.

I’m a very messy writer, and tend to write in chunks, ignoring parts of the paper until I’m ready to tie them together.   I also do a lot of rewriting, which meant my thesis statement wasn’t even in the paper.  I’d redone it several times, trying to get the wording right, until I gave up and concentrated on other portions of the paper, and hadn’t had a chance to go back and finish it.  (sorry about that, Laura!)  I also hadn’t gotten to my conclusion, but was able to explain to her what I intended to write.  My thesis is essentially that community policing helps reduce crime, but I included so much police history that I wanted to expand my thesis to incorporate it, and explain why it’s taken so long for community policing to become both popular and effective.  I need to write more before I can make that thesis work.

Final Research Paper Proposal- Teresa S.

I changed the topic of my final research paper. Now, I am going to write about the regulation of children’s television and movies. I don’t think that the violence going on among children is necessarily the fault of the televisions shows and directors. I think that instead of blaming the television shows and the directors of films for problems like this, that we should realize that a lot of the problems are started in the home, and that parents nowadays should just have better control over their kids. In this topic, it is just as much the parents’ fault as the directors and the television shows.

Revised Proposal-Lindsay C

After my group discussion with Dee, I am feeling a little more confident about what I will be writing on. Initially, I had a lot of different ideas that I wanted to combine but due to time constraints I realize that it will be too big of a paper to tackle by the deadline. My Final paper will be on why the Hays Office allowed Scarface to be shown in movie theaters when they were so dead set to crack down on violence in the country, and place the blame on movies for violent behavior that occurred. My thesis which yes, I am still working on it is,…

“Even though violent behavior on-screen was a major concern of The Hays’ Office in the 1930s, Scarface was still permitted to be shown in theaters because the Hays Office was more concerned with real life criminal behavior and Hawks and Hughes use of indirect violence in the movie appeared to lessen the violent impact.”
During class I also discussed with Dee his ideas for the final research paper. had a clear idea about the direction he wanted to take and basically wants to debate that the problem violent movies are not the main problem and that the way people are raised to perceive them is what society needs to address. I totally agree with his position he is taking on that issue and was glad to get his advice on my paper topic which is a little bit harder to understand. I wish I wasn’t as interested in it but that was all i kept thinking about writing on, so I’m just going with it.

Final Research Paper Plan/ Revised Plan Bashir Ahmad

I have altered my original plan of parallel reactions to new forms of media, and how these actions were manifested via censorship and regulation. I have now decided to focus only on internet regulation in developing nations that have governments with authoritarian leanings. I will explore how these respective nation’s population have grown more bold in their criticism of the government as they grow more educated and are exposed to new medias and are given outlets for opinion and dissent that these medias provide. I will discuss how the internet is a powerful political tool for criticism and dissent and how governments acknowledge this threat and have taken measures to censor and regulate internet traffic and speech. In the end I believe that the internet will prove to erode the influence of the state and governments will in the future be forced to accommodate dissenting opinions.

Final Research Paper Plan/Partner Conversation

My plan is still to focus on why there should be no further restrictions or regulations imposed on video games, because they have a lot of potential to teach advanced motor skills, creativity, and cognitive dexterity. But I will refrain from stating that video games are only good, because even though no evidence or proof has ever been documented that violent games cause violent behavior, there are still negative side effects that come into play here, and those will always be present — and most people see more importance in documenting the negative effects of gaming rather than viewing things from the positive side, like how video games can engage an individual in some sort of activity (such as the Wii) and teach them things like coordination, internal organization, advanced logic, and how to make faster decisions. These are just a few examples of so many different facets of internal and external skills that can be gained from the experience of video games.

I spoke with Kate about her ideas on her final paper so far, and she is working on the exact same topic as I am, with some differences. Her thesis is that video games don’t necessarily cause violence, since there is no link between the two, but there are many other dangers that exist and do plague game players, such as addiction, a breakdown of social skills, and these can both lead to a sedentary lifestyle. She also gave me some new examples that I could most certainly use in my own paper, like the Nintendo DS games, which focus intensely on game tools that can improve your skill in subjects such as english and math; they also have games with memory enhancing exercises, and even games to teach you foreign languages — all of which can fit in the palm of your hand.

proposal update-Thomas A

for my final paper i will revise and extend my original paper on how the film “Scarface” was not dangerous. i am going to discuss the changes made to the original film by the critics and how they were not necessary. i will also use the 1983 remake of “Scarface” to show how the excessive use of violence in the film did not create a criminal class. instead both films deterred people from becoming criminals by showing the downfall of criminals. i believe that it is not the job of film makers to protect children, it is the job of their parents. movies are made for entertainment and by censoring films they are taking away the right of film makers to entertain. i also plan on discussing how the new rating system helps by preventing children from viewing something inappropriate but at the same time allowing everyone else to enjoy films.

Updated Proposal-Laura M

I will be continuing with my original plan with the research paper.  I am going to extend my Scarface paper and research more on the studies conducted during the 30’s and today.  I will be arguing that there is no definite answer on whether or not violence in films really does have a physiological effect on the audiences. 

I will also incorporate my own personal opinion on whether or not I think violence in film have an effect on audiences and explain my reasoning.

 

 

 

 

Revised Plan-Michelle P

I was originally going to write about Mae West’s overall career and how it was ultimately destroyed by the Production Code.  However, due to timing issues, I have now chosen to narrow my topic to the aspects that made West’s films so controversial.  The main movies I will be focusing on are Night After Night (1932), I’m No Angel (1933), and My Little Chickadee (1940).  After analzying the films, I will provide arguments both in favor and against the themes in Mae’s films.  My group agreed that this was a nice topic.