Learning Essay

When I went to pick up books for my English 2 class with Professor Bousquet, I was pleasantly surprised by the book list— finally, I got to take a English class in which we would discuss important, current issues in America. This English class completely changed how I see the world. Having always considered myself a "science" student, I had no idea how passionate I could become about my English class, and the kinds of societal problems that we discussed.

Entering class on the first day, I went from being excited to stressed when I learned that we were going to be creating websites. I have always felt pretty comfortable with the standard essay, and I really didn't see the point of turning a good essay into a website. But I soon realized that making a hypertext essay is not the same thing as spreading out an essay onto separate pages. On the first day of class, I asked the professor if this class would require more work than a standard English class (he said no); I ended up putting an enormous amount of time into my work, but only because the creation of hypertext spurred so many intellectual and creative ideas that I couldn't stop myself.

I was relieved to find that the first project would be a personal website. Since I was comfortable with the material (myself), I had more time and energy to devote to exploring Dreamweaver and various ways of organizing a website. For the second hypertext, I was torn between writing about two issues that I view as big problems: global warming, and eating disorders in figure skating. I decided to write about the latter, a decision that I am very happy with. Throughout this class, Professor Bousquet has really emphasized the value of adding something of your own to a topic; I felt that through my experience in the ice dance world, I could contribute personal insight in to a problem that is seldom studied or discussed publicly. I am pleased with the steps I took in making my second project more visually intriguing, like using columns, background images, and font colors. I also learned that websites are the perfect area to combine multiple genres and styles of writing: for example, I could put personal anecdotes on one page, more factual information on another, and some one else's writing on yet another; I also utilized the ability to link to sites and relevant news articles providing more information on my subject.

I felt that I made major strides in my final hypertext essay. First of all, from getting pear response and looking at my classmate's websites, I learned the value in breaking up text by using graphic elements, multiple pages, or separate tables within a page. I still like to have information dense pages, but I think that by setting off quotes into separate boxes, varying the fonts, and using strategically placed photos, the pages come across as more "viewer friendly." In addition the the graphical element of my final essay, I feel that I learned a lot about my topic and really tried to make as many connections as I could between what I read in the books and articles and what I personally see and experience.

The process of creating a hypertext before writing the essay was incredibly helpful— the first draft turned out to be a combination of brainstorming and initial research. Usually when I write a standard essay, I am preoccupied with proving my thesis and making things work linearly; I often research many aspects of my topic, but sometimes become overwhelmed and lose sight of the overall picture. The ability to link pages allowed me to diverge into many different directions, exploring some more than others, while the overall theme of the site still remained in tact. Furthermore, by linking pages together, I got a greater sense of how all the different elements of my research were interconnected. This became helpful very helpful when creating the printable essay. Rather than simply taking chunks of my hypertext and stringing them together, I realized that links in my hypertext were places to mention additional information relevant to the linked phrase; I think this enhanced the fluidity of my paper. Turning my hypertext into an essay forced me to focus my project further. As my hypertext essay was coming across sounding too factual, and less passionate, I decided to add my personal voice back into the picture. I realized that this was more effective than presenting straight facts, (and I really liked that the books that we read in this class were opinionated and factual at the same time) so I added a segment to my hypertext that was entirely my perspective-- my personal vision of the Bay Area in contrast to the one that now exists. I do think that garment workers would find my site useful and "recommend it to a friend" in the industry. However, if I were to continue working on the site, I would add to the section on fighting sweatshops, and try provide useful resources to garment workers, like information regarding local community groups and unions.

The process of creating a website involves critical thinking. One definition that really applies in writing in hypertext is: "the development of cohesive and logical reasoning patterns." In every one of my topics, I found that one of the most useful ways to organize my thoughts was to design the layout of the website, and see where pages could link together. Figuring out how things logically connect on a web page is like sorting out the mess of thoughts in my mind into something clear and meaningful. Another form of critical thinking involves taking what you read and connecting it to what you have learned in other classes, and through real world experience. I feel that we did this a great deal in this class, for both our second and third hypertext essays.

At first the idea of having to write an annotated bibliography seemed like a bother. In another class, I had to write an an annotated bibliography after having completed my research essay, which seemed like a complete waste of time. However, writing the annotated bibliography first forced me to really dive in to the material, see how different people were approaching the issues, and determine what I wanted to focus on. This was very time consuming, as I used mainly books as my resources for the low wage life project. However, by the time I had completed the annotated bibliography, I felt I had learned a great deal about my topic. Doing the review of the literature, and trying to sort out the differences and similarities between the perspectives of my sources was the most challenging task. I tried to incorporate the elements that I found most successful in different sources: One book focused on sweatshops in Los Angeles; I liked the idea of centering my website around my hometown area, which is the Bay Area. I also tried to incorporate the feeling of another resource, which was dedicated to showing the lives and struggles of female immigrant garment workers.

In all, my website contains 6,905 words of my own writing, spread over fourteen pages. I also have a 9 item annotated bibliography; six of my sources were books, two were articles from journals, and one was the Sweatshop Watch website. There are roughly fifty links throughout my site, eight of which are external. My printable essay is 5,356 words.

I certainly will try to utilize the hypertext format in the future— while it may not be an option in my classes, I hope that in whatever I do after graduating from Santa Clara, which I hope will combine the fields of psychology, biology, and sociology , I can use the hypertext format to reach people who would be unlikely to go to the library for information.

In reading Strapped, I found a number of similar problems faced by young middle class workers and those in the low wage or "unskilled" categories. The fact that college tuition is so high may be one reason that some low wage workers can never move up to better paying jobs; however even those who have a college degree may spend the rest of their lives barely able to survive because of student loans. It was an interesting experience to read Draut's work, because much of what she discusses is so familiar. For example, the lack of affordable child care is an extremely big problem that my brother and his wife (both in their early thirties) are experiencing right now, as both have to work full time to may ends meat. Luckily, my mother is available to take care of the kids three days a week, otherwise their lives would be unmanageable. Another thing that was incredibly familiar to me was the lack of worth that having a college degree holds these days. My brother majored in Spanish before deciding that he wanted to have a career in the video game industry. He does not have the option of going back to school to get a programming degree, because of the cost of tuition and the income he would lose by not working. Instead, he fits perfectly Draut's descriptions of a "bouncer" and a "tempster." The last three jobs that my brother has had were temporary. While he was told they may lead to a permanent job, this never turned out to be the case. He commuted an hour each way to work in Santa Clara, where he made eleven dollars an hour (he was probably losing money, but he said hoping to get in with the company and move up). Meanwhile he has to continue to look for better jobs, but considering that he doesn't get home until seven and has two children to look after, this is very difficult.

It definitely seems that America is not the land of upward mobility that it is supposed to be. I found this out through researching garment workers, who have little hope to move into a well paying job. I was somewhat surprised, though, to learn that the middle class faces the same problem. The job and living climate that Draut describes in Strapped is very alarming. Besides the facts that union influence has decreased, wages are low and not increasing, and there is little upward mobility, it is more and more expensive to live in America (especially the Bay Area!) and the nation is becoming increasingly polarized. If it is so hard to live in the "working class" in this area, it must be so much more impossible for low wage workers. I really believe that the government has a moral responsibility to help close the widening class gap, which really goes against America's supposed values.