Ongoing drafting and revision plans ...

To help you focus effectively on completing our current assignment, I’d like you to reflect on Monday’s writing workshop. How do you feel about this assignment? What’s working well for you? What remains challenging? Based on your discussion with your peers and their feedback, what are the top three issues that you think you should prioritize as you continue to draft and revise?

Final Responses To Nickel And Dimed

Having finished Nickel And Dimed, what are some of you final reactions to the text? Barbara Ehrenreich has presented her account of the low-wage working conditions in America through her experiences, in what ways do you think her perspective of low-income America Changed throughout the novel? In what ways do you think her experiences reflect closely what the situations are for "real" poor people in real life? How did your views change regarding low-wage workers in general? Finally, Barbara ultimately failed in her ability to sustain a low-income lifestyle despite her declared "cheats," does her inability to acheive this in any way affect your reaction to the novel? What is your opinion of Ehrenreich now? 

Most interesting course blog

My impression of Nickel and Dimed is my most interesting blog. I think that I depict several different aspects of the book and the qualitative research that Ehrenreich does. This book really caught my attention. I find it intriguing for a woman to put herself in the shoes of low wage workers to see how they make ends meet. I was able to distinguish between the negatives of her study as well as the positives. Writing about the differences between her study and everyday, real life experiences was really interesting and opened my mind to the real life struggles that people go through. This writing was important because it covers what goes on for people. Daily struggles were mapped out, and to be able to write about how the readings have struck me makes this my most interesting writing.
Joe Bassetti’s post on Nickel and Dimed, was interesting to me. Many of us know that Ehrenreich is successful, and lives a comfortable life in reality. However, for her to put herself in other’s shoes takes courage, time, and a lot of energy. I find it interesting that her taking her time out to experience partially what people go through is not of interest to him. Many of us would like to hear the story from a real low wage worker. The struggles will be firsthand and honest. However, I think it is important for us to empathize and try to walk in other’s shoes. It is one thing to read about the lives of the impoverished, but it’s another to live it. Although she has a nice bank account, she does experience some struggles. My question to Joe would be, “Do you have respect for Ehrenreich’s movement and decision to empathize with others? Although she is really not going through the daily struggles, do you trust or believe that she has gotten a certain level of understanding for these people?”

Impressions of Nickel and Dimed

After reading a few chapters, what do you think of the book? Overall, how realistic does the book seem so far? Do think her experiences of being homeless in Key West and Portland have been close to the lives of real homeless people? How do you think her life has changed? Can you connect or relate to Ehrenreich at any moment in the book? Was there an event or moment from the book that triggered any kind of emotion with you? And finally, what is something you would have done differently than Ehrenrich?

Writing, interpreting and revising ...

To begin class today (4/14), I’d like you to reflect on last Wednesday’s writing workshop and the feedback you received on the first draft of our current assignment. What did you gain as a writer from this experience? What have you learned about doing interpretive or text-based research so far? How are you planning to revise your essay in the next week?

Weekly Blog

For the past few weeks, we have been finishing up Ragged Dick and watching The Pursuit of Happyness. Now we have started turning our observations from these sources into ideas of our own. After picking a topic for our papers and reading through sources, Kristen and I were wondering if anyone had discovered anything interesting or worth sharing; Maybe some of your research introduced new ideas or perspectives on homelessness, respectability, or the like. Possibly information you found helped erase stereotypes you may have had beforehand. Have you come across anything difficult to handle or that maybe made you want to make a difference in the homeless community? If your research hasn't impacted you, how has it been different than simply reading books and watching movies on the topic? Have you experienced different feelings now that you are working on a narrowed topic in the same general category?

The Pursuit of Happyness

As we are watching Pursuit of Happiness, we see that Will Smith’s character was struggling to get by when he was married, but still was in an apartment with food on the table. After he splits up with his wife everything temporarily goes downhill leading him to being homeless with his son. Amongst homeless adults, how much of a factor do you think failed marriages play in putting them on the streets?