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Poetry Reflection
Our assignment was to provide a perspective relating to peace, war, or violence in a poem. This poem could be presented in a variety of ways, including kinetic texts or spoken word poems. This poem was the result of three inspirations: a form inspiration, which we found by looking at several different examples of formats ranging from Shakespearean Sonnets to Haikus; a performance inspiration, where there are illuminated texts and live performances included in this category; and the content inspiration, where the subject matter in the poem was inspired by either something we had gone over in class or a current event. Before the project, we learned about different components and techniques commonly used in poems, such as figurative language and specific rhyme schemes. We also practiced analyzing poems that made use of certain techniques.
When we put these techniques into practice, we were able to create several drafts and types of poems. For example, one assignment was to take random words from a specific text, and reorganize them into what was called a “found poem.” Using these and other techniques, we were able to start writing professional poems, until we were able to incorporate our favorite aspects of previous poems into our final products.
Before this project, I never took poetry seriously, and never realized that if you took certain devices that are commonly used in creative writing, such as figurative language or alliterations, you can create a poem that is very effective and descriptive. Poetry doesn’t have to be a cheesy collection of extended metaphors, but I learned that if you can apply metaphors throughout your poem effectively, not only does it help you drive home the message of your poem; it helps you to not only drive home the message, but also make the poem interesting for your audience. I also learned that the language doesn’t have to be ridiculous to be professional and meaningful, but that it just needs to be what you need it to say, in a unique way. For example, instead of saying something along the lines of, “kids run like they’ll never stop,” I said instead, “children running and screaming through life with icy friction.”
When performing a poem, I always assumed that the only way to deliver the poem to an audience was spoken word, which is not a strong area for me. I was really inspired by the option of kinetic text, and how it was able to capture the actions of the words with the actual words. Upon trying the program that is used to make kinetic texts, I quickly realized the program was too advanced and complicated for me, and not the best option for me to make a project that I would be proud of. So from there, I decided I’d take the basic concept of the kinetic text, but apply it to Photoshop. I portrayed these metaphors in pictures made in Photoshop, and found that they had the same effect on the audience as a kinetic text, and was very pleased with my final product.
Artist StatementAt the beginning of this project, I was struggling with what message my poem would deliver. I had the idea of basing my poem off of current events, such as the fight for Libya or the tsunami in Japan, but I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to say about the current events. At this point, the class had to select a reading from a collection of works given to us at the beginning of the school year. I came across a collection of documents about the My Lei Massacre. Although this event was not a current event, it really brought my attention to the fact that “my side” can be at fault. A lot of perspectives lecture about the faults of others, but there have been few that recognize personal faults. In my poem, I have worked in the idea that we are at fault, but I have taken that idea and transformed it by applying several modest examples of heroism and beauty. From these ideas, I was able to incorporate both into the solace of the poem; so that people could recognize that even with these faults, there can be hope and consolation.
The poem that really inspired me to write an elegy was the poem “For the Union Dead” by Robert Lowell. I noticed how he narrated from different time frames and also keyed in on different details throughout the poem. For example, Lowell went from depicting a trashed city in a “Sahara of snow” to facing “Colonel Shaw and his bell-cheeked Negro infantry.” I thought it would be cool to try to replicate this idea into my poem, and by using this technique, it would help me be able to transition between the major parts of the poem. Once I established the basics of what I wanted to include in the different parts of the poems, I realized that the basic ideas in my poem fit almost perfectly into the framework of the elegy format. Having established that the poem would be an elegy, there was use of the poetic technique “turn.” This allowed me to throw the audience into several different instances abruptly. For example, in the first three stanzas, there are turns within each stanza, which makes the contrast between perspectives very clear. Also, the poem is grouped into the three sections (mourning, lament, and solace) that make up an elegy. These parts are separated by more drastic turns that are very obvious, which helps me to effectively communicate the problems communicated in the poem.
I based the performance aspect of my poem off of a former student, D’Vaughn McCrae, and her poem, “Get It?” D’Vaughn was able to create a poem on the computer, but instead of using After Effects, she used something like a PowerPoint and was still able to present the poem in a very effective and professional way. This gave me confidence because I knew that I wouldn’t be able to do a project in After Effects and be satisfied with the final product. I think that she was able to carry out this project because her pictures in the slide show were very dramatic and portrayed her message effectively. I think that I will use this idea and try to incorporate Photoshop into the pictures so that the project comes off as professional and sophisticated as possible, but still within my range of ability. When I apply these aspects to the poem, it will turn out to meet my level of satisfaction without stressing me out on an overcomplicated program.
Tragic Hope
Tragic Hope
Kids scatter like euphoric dogs let out of a cage,
Running and screaming through life with icy friction--
Blissfully oblivious to the other children who
Slave in mines across the world for an empty wage.
Women share toxic words as though scheming.
They busy themselves with the worries of social slaughter
While wives waver on whether or not they should alter
The hostile familiarity of their being.
Happy people speak of the government with loathsome remarks,
As they look into a mirrored window--
Ignorant to those on the other side who quietly tiptoe
And drag real rebels down into a devastating dark.
Who are we to live in a world this lavish?
While others wallow in petrifying anguish?
But wait.
A child in the night lies brewing,
Soothed to sleep by mother’s soft cooing.
The gentle voice and warm embrace
Subtly relaxing the trampled face.
Somebody sits alone on the rattling train,
Staring wistfully out of the twinkling window pane.
A stranger enters the coach and makes friendly conversation,
Instilling a sense of rapport in the solemn coach station.
A woman lies in a withering trance,
Waiting for someone to give her the chance.
But a heroine stands with fists erect!
Delivering hope in overwhelming effect.
We are lucky to experience the ones
Who do not let history relapse into tragic reruns.
The world is in a drought, parched for the benevolent soul.
We have to plug this relentless black hole.
We must take the risk to play the hand,
And hope no one will call our bluff in this loaded game we call life.
Propaganda Project
End the War
During World War One, there were several groups that wanted something out of the war. Some wanted land, others wanted victory, and some just wanted it to be over. Several different strategies were used for trying to recruit people to support the missions listed above. The effect I wanted to have on the viewer for my poster was to show that World War One was a waste of several lives of men who were patriotic towards their country. By showing the soldiers “bleeding” their country’s flags, I hope it to have somewhat of the same effect as letting a flag touch the ground, and because of honor it must be burned. I think that by showing their flags bleeding out of them, it will show how their patriotism has been wasted unnecessarily, just like the flag must be burned simply because it touched the ground. By also adding more relative phrases in the slogan, such as brothers and fathers, I tried to make it even more personal to not only unite everybody under patriotism, but also to unite everybody under the value of family. Patriotism falls into the flag waving category, which is an attempt to justify an action on the grounds that doing so will make one more patriotic, or will in some way benefit a group, country, or idea (Fisher, 2010). In this case the patriotism is that of the world. This was the main technique in the poster, because we cannot “demonize” the world or lie to their faces to cover up something miserable, because the war is already a miserable and disastrous thing, which brings us to the goal of the poster, which is to end the war.
Dada, which I posed as the creators of this piece of propaganda, was an anti-war group that denounced war with visual arts. They were based in Switzerland, and were around mainly from 1916-1922 (Dada, 2010). Because WW1 started in 1914 and ended in 1918, the Dada movement fit perfectly with the timeline of WW1. Also, because Dada funneled its politics through visual arts, a piece of Dada propaganda fits perfectly into the context of WW1. Dada revolutionized art by creating several new methods of visual arts, such as photo montage and collages, both which were used in several Dada pieces. Dadaism was actually a way of conveying their hate and anger of and towards the war through art. Although this piece of propaganda doesn’t necessarily show anger explicitly, it shows anger at all of the reasons for the starting of the war. Ironically, Dadaists, being against all of the reasons for the start of the war, hated nationalism as it was one of the major contributions to the start of the war (Esaak, 2010). This piece was directed at the world though, so in a sense this piece uses the technique of “demonizing” the enemy, in the way that it makes people from the opposite viewpoint appear subhuman. In this case all military personnel with power were the subhuman group.
I think that propaganda affects the world in several different ways. On one hand, it is the basis for advancement consumption and always wanting the next best thing, which propaganda conveniently advertises for us. On the other hand, propaganda can bring out the worst in people by sending a negative message to a group of people or single person, as in political campaign commercials, which can be a bad thing. Neither example delivers the whole truth about a product or person. Propaganda tells the public what they want to hear if they want to portray something positively. Conversely, the audience would be told exactly what they don’t want to hear if it was to be portrayed negatively. In most cases, it hides the entire truth from the audience. No matter how much a person tries not to be influenced by propaganda, it is impossible to block out the messages propaganda implants in our subconscious, which means that we can’t control what society is putting in our heads. Independent thought is very important to Americans, and from the theory above, conclusions can be drawn that American’s no longer have solely independent thought. An article by Noam Chomsky explained that because we live in a democratic society, there is no way the government can control us. Because of this, they must find a way to implicitly take control. These methods are mainly broadcasted through propaganda. Some of the techniques used include having two completely different sides or positions in an argument but are somehow arguing for and explaining close to the same thing. Another technique used is to leave out either key details of a real debate or to leave out one side of the debate entirely; this way, nobody can vote or have a say in the matter. This article implies that we are being lied to through the teeth of our own government, and some conclusions can be drawn that this is true to a point. Now with most thoughts and actions, we carry them out because of some subconscious command that might have been specifically programmed to affect the American society the way the American government wants.
Citations
Chomsky, Noam. "Propaganda Review." Media Alliance (1988): 1-4. Print.
"Dada." Wikipedia. N.p., 20 Sept. 2010. Web. 20 Sept. 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dada>.
Esaak, Shelley. "Dada-Art History 101 Basics." About.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2010. <http://arthistory.about.com/cs/arthistory10one/a/dada.htm>.
Fisher, Lori. "What is Propaganda?." Peace, Violence, and Power. Vol. 1. Durango, CO: n.p., 2010. 81-83. 1 vols. Print.
Reflection
This Propaganda Machine project was an assignment to analyze and create your own piece of propaganda that somehow ties in to World War One. We will also analyzed different pieces of propaganda from World War One: One from the Central Powers point of view and another from the Alliance. We also analyzed a modern piece of propaganda and analyzed how it affects us personally. The process for this project included several drafts. Our own posters went through at least three drafts before they were printed out on Photoshop, and the analysis of our posters also went through about three drafts.
Drastic changes were made in both the poster and analysis between rough and final drafts. Some of these revisions included changing the idea of a solitary soldier in the poster to two soldiers of different nationalities to show this kind of world-wide loss. Some critiques that helped me make such changes were making it seem really superficial so that it appeared to be more dramatic and had an eerie sort of feel to it as well. Poster analysis revisions included explaining the type of art Dadaists used, as opposed to just explaining who the Dadaists were and only giving readers a partial understanding of who this society was.
At first, I thought I wouldn't like this project at all, but once I got my idea for the project, I started getting into it. The final product I am really proud of, especially given the minimal amount of time given to create a Photoshop piece, which requires lots of tedious work. I especially like the idea of soldiers bleeding their country's flag, like they're bleeding their patriotism, and that more than a soul had been lost, but a part of that nation. Parts that I don't like about this final product are how hard it is to make a soldier appear to be bleeding a flag. Although I put all effort into making the bleeding look as realistic as possible, I still am not completely satisfied with it. Regardless, I am still very proud of both my analysis and poster. The part I liked the most about this project was how flexible the guidelines were so that I could do this anti-war movement poster as opposed to a piece of propaganda making the same message to the same group of people with a couple of words switched around and maybe a couple of different graphic options.
Several ideas, theories, and concepts have been dealt out to us during the course of this project. I think that some of the most important ones included the idea of nationalism, and how much it can affect an action or motive from a group or individual. The catch with this idea is that groups may support their country in different ways, some more extreme or unnecessary than others, which is how World War One started in the first place. The result of the war resulted in several unnecessary deaths, which is what I wanted to convey in my poster. This lesson also showed us the influence alliances had on the war and people during that time period, as well as the importance of development and how that tied into the huge number of deaths during the war.
If I were to do this piece over again, I would only change minor details about my poster, such as making the background smoother so that the soldiers would stand out more instead of blending in with the background. Overall, though, I don't think I would change much because I love how perfectly the message of my poster fits in with the Dadaist society and how the historical context blends in perfectly with the message and the patriotism displayed in the poster.
International Involvement in the Bosnian Genocide
Background Summary
Everything in Bosnia started to fall apart when Josep Tito, the president of Yugoslavia, died in May of 1980, and Yugoslavia was split into separate independent nations. Following Serbia and Croatia’s example, Bosnia declared itself as an independent nation in April of 1992. Then, Bosnia consisted of three different ethnicities: the Bosnian Serbs, the Bosnian Muslims (Sunnis), and the Bosnian Croats (Roman Catholic Christians). The new independence resulted in the forming of the Republika Srpska, the Bosnian Serb Army, which occupied ¾ of Bosnia.
The tension between these ethnic groups had built up after Tito died, so the Bosnian Serb Army made it its goal to cleanse the nation, and rule Bosnia as a single ethnic group. Tito represented the glue that held Yugoslavia together, and because he was now gone, the Bosnian Serb leaders immediately started to put their plotting to action. They would reach their goal of a singular ethnic nation by driving out the remaining Croats (most of the Croats had been driven out at the forming of the Republika Srpska) and get rid of the Muslims using whatever means necessary. This plan was named the Ethnic Cleansing Campaign, a term used to make the plan for extermination less obvious to international watchdogs. This is a classic example of the propaganda technique euphemism.
The Ethnic Cleansing Campaign was carried out from 1992 to 1995, and used the method of assaulting key cities, such as Srebrenica, Sarajevo, Bijeljina, and Zvornik to carry out the killing. These major cities were shelled and bombed by the Serbs until nothing was left. A street in Sarajevo was even named “Sniper Alley” because of how frequently civilians were shot in the designated area. The assaulting lead to the demolition of a significant population as well as several important institutes and landmarks in Bosnia, such as the Stari Most, or “Old Bridge”, one of the most famous bridges in the world. The Bosnian Serb Army also used concentration camps, which were eerily related to the camps used by Nazis in World War II in the sense that both used mass shootings, forced confinement in the camps, and terrorizing to repopulate towns and manipulate women.
The most tragic event during the Bosnian genocide occurred in Srebrenica in July of 1995, resulting in the mass murder of 9, 300 men and the deportation of all women out of Bosnia or into nearby concentration camps. The tragic event in Srebrenica started with heavy shelling of the city, resulting in the evacuees of Srebrenica to dodge the snipers, some unsuccessfully, and flee to the UN base, which was supposed to provide a safe haven to the Muslims. When the Serbs saw that the majority of the population had made it to the base, they promised the Muslims a safe exit out of Serb territory. The Serbs lied, and the UN did nothing. The Srebrenica Massacre was a result of poor judgment by the UN Secretary-General, Boustros Ghali, lack of equipment to keep the Serbs at bay, and the Serb in charge during the happenings in Srebrenica, Ratko Mladić. Once word got out about the Srebrenica Massacre, international committees took action, and went to work on putting an end to the Bosnian Genocide. Unfortunately, one of the greatest perpetrators of the crime of genocide, Ratko Mladić, remains at large, even today, serving as a constant reminder of the horrors that occurred in Bosnia.
International Involvement Analysis
Based on what you’ve read, you’re somewhere in the spectrum of mildly surprised to extremely disgusted by the international inaction. Or you think I’m conspiring against the existing system of international powers. Even though what people may desire is more international involvement in instances such as the Bosnian Genocide, there is a point at which this involvement does more damage than good. It’s not that international involvement isn’t advantageous or helpful, because it’s a fact that international involvement helped to end the Bosnian genocide. But what’s important is what happens post-genocide, in the reconciliation stage, which is where the advantage of international involvement crumbles. This is important because if international involvement interferes with the natural cycle of violence, the country may not be able to reconcile itself as effectively as a country independent of foreign assistance. Although international involvement helps in all stages of conflict, there are stages that require different types of international involvement at different times. For example, peacemaking should happen in the of the negotiation stages in the natural conflict cycle mentioned above, not in the middle of the violence. In Bosnia, international involvement was ineffective in certain stages of the genocide because the right type of support was not given at the right time.
In a normal life cycle of genocide and intervention, the first stage is generally that of difference or disagreement. Even in the first stage, peacebuilding can be found, when international powers try to smooth over the situation. This is a period of negotiation, but if negotiation is not accomplished, this may result in a stage of social conflict; which can be exemplified by hate speech or discrimination. This is the stage at which the friction builds, but the collective violence doesn’t usually happen until the barriers slip and all hell breaks loose. At this point, peacekeeping is enforced, and barriers are set up between the two conflicting groups. After the groups have been separated, the stage of relief and cease fire, international involvement really starts to concentrate itself, with organizations such as UN Security Council enforcing something along the lines of a cease fire, and UN human rights agencies and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) would provide relief for the oppressed. Despite the international involvement, almost as soon as the barriers have been taken down (literally and legally), there is almost always more collective violence until peacekeeping has been enforced once more. At this point, negotiation would be necessary again, unless the conflict has been resolved on its own. Normally at this point, the bloodlust has been set aside, which is why the second negotiation is usually much more effective and successful the second time around, and peacebuilding would take place once again to help the country get over the differences and disagreements that sent the country into the tumult initially.
International Involvement is too broad a term, so from now on the category will be classified as two sub-categories: international governments and international aid. Both have been outrageously helpful, the governments arresting and trying 98% of the genocide oppressors in the Bosnian genocide, and the aid providing as much of a sanctuary as possible for the victims. Unfortunately, that remaining two percent escaping the hand of justice consists of the second highest ranked officer, Ratko Mladić, along with a few other insignificant others. But the problem is these two percent were not insignificants, they committed the crime of genocide.
There is no way that the existing system of corporations, non-profits, and governments can be efficient in situations such as the Bosnian Genocide. With several different organizations working together to find a solution to the same problem in their own way, it’s no wonder the process isn’t always successful; there are too many methodologies and too many different interests. For example, even determining whether or not the tragedy in Bosnia was a genocide proved difficulty between the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), who did not declare the happenings in Bosnia as an official genocide, and the United States House, who classified the events as genocide. If international governmental powers can’t even decide whether something is or isn’t a genocide, how can they expect to end the genocide in question effectively? The Srebrenica Massacre is an example of the downfall of this involvement. The Massacre was the UN’s responsibility as well as the Bosnian Serbs, the point being that the international powers stayed too long and did little after the genocide, and in the specific instance of the Srebrenica Massacre, did little to nothing at all. In this specific instance, the lack of coordination between the international powers was partly responsible for the inaction in Srebrenica. Coordination and communication are vital for success in these instances, and if these two necessities are not performing optimally, there is no way these powers can expect to save the lives of thousands from those who are so eager to kill them.
The model of the cycle of conflict and intervention mentioned above shows that after the violence has subsided, there is a stage of peacekeeping, which would normally lead to peacebuilding internally, using the basic rules of law as well as an internal effort to break down the psychological and cultural barrier that built up during the stage of social conflict. This was not the case in Bosnia. Instead, peacekeeping, the enforcement of the barriers between groups, spread into the stage at which peacebuilding should be taking place, which is the natural time in which these barriers should be broken. Even if these barriers have not quite been broken so far, it is necessary that international involvement allows the country to, once again, reconcile itself so that it does not become dependent on peacekeepers and NGOs.
There is no question that countries in a state of emergency need international involvement to help pull them out of the crisis, but once the extermination has been stopped, the only involvement within the country should be that of NGOs providing aid and the minimal amount of soldiers hunting down those who have escaped arrest so far. All other corporations should be left to trying criminals outside of the country, at The Hague or another international court. With the power of international governmental agencies, such as the International Criminal Tribune, hanging over the head of the country, and a handful of peacekeepers stationed throughout Bosnia, an outburst is unlikely from the Serbs; therefore, it can be reasoned that the genocide was ended as effectively as possible and from that point it would be left to the responsibility of the Bosnian’s to restore its country.
***The two pieces above are the two major pieces of writing that I have excerpted from my project
Artist Statement
During the research stage of the project, I kept switching my area of focus for the project, because there were so many typical genocide happenings that were present in Bosnia. I decided on International Involvement because I thought that the involvement in the Bosnian Genocide was an interesting case. The amount of involvement that resulted in successfully ending the genocide was interesting in itself. However, “A model of the cycle of conflict and intervention shows that after the violence has subsided, there is a stage of peacekeeping, which would normally lead to peace building internally… This was not the case in Bosnia . Instead, peacekeeping, the enforcement of the barriers between groups, spread into the stage at which peace building should be taking place, which is the natural time in which these barriers should be broken.”<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[1]<!--[endif]--> When I was writing this piece, this was the part in which I started to take notice of the abnormalities of international involvement to the norm of which this involvement occurred in other genocides, and this new knowledge really helped me to realize the errors and validities of the taken actions.
While I was writing this analysis, I actually narrowed down my opinion on the issue. At first, I thought that International Involvement was minimally beneficial, in the sense that it was only good for halting the violence and then international involvement should be limited to NGOs. This opinion changed as I found out more about cycles of conflict, and that although efforts have been made by the international community to assist in rebuilding the country, interference in the country’s affairs in order to obtain peace is usually a hit or miss. This is because of the country’s inability to recover their key infrastructures (economic, physical, political), and they have become dependent on international aid.<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[2]<!--[endif]-->
From this point, my opinion expanded to the idea that international involvement should be minimally present post-genocide, strictly in order to provide aid and maintain peace until agreements can be made between groups. Once these agreements have been arranged, international officials should leave excluding a handful of peacekeepers, which should be stationed for a certain amount of time until noticeable progress has been made to reconcile the country.
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The points above were made in my International Involvement Analysis, which is what I thought really tied together the project and all of the different stories and analyses. This was my favorite part of the project because I thought it was one of the more professional analyses that I have ever written and it closely resembled a peace and conflict analysis. Specifically, my favorite part of the analysis was when I compared the happenings of the genocide to a model of a typical conflict cycle, and the abnormalities that occurred in Bosnia . Writing the International Involvement Analysis specifically introduced the great challenge to me of writing a very careful conflict study paper. I found it increasingly difficult to take a side on the analysis while still trying not to draw radical conclusions from the limited information available to the public. However, I am confident in my final product and am proud of the conclusions and points I was able to draw out of my research and reflect in the analysis.
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<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[1]<!--[endif]--> International Involvement Analysis
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[2]<!--[endif]--> Malek, 2010
Project Reflection
Although I am very proud of my collective project, I am the most proud of my International Involvement Analysis because of its professionalism and of how strong the conclusions are. The hardest thing about the analysis was that I had to be careful with where and when I drew my conclusions in the argument, because I had to draw conclusions based on facts, not assumptions. I think I was able to draw my conclusions accurately enough and I am very proud of how accurate the paper is while at the same trying drawing the right amount of conclusions.
If I had one more week to work on this project, I probably could have made a couple different, shorter analyses to follow up on specific parts of the project. For example, I probably could have drawn up a quick analysis on the Failure to Arrest Mladic piece so that people were able to understand my view of the issue before being thrown into my perspective all of a sudden in the final analysis. I also probably would have had time to kind of fine tune the project’s aesthetic presentation, finding more efficient ways to hang up the different pieces of writing instead of worrying that the entire project will fall down in the middle of exhibition. However, overall I am very satisfied of my project because during the entire project work time, I pushed myself and was able to do so much for the limited amount of time given, and am still very pleased with the final outcome of my project.
I think that my strongest category in the writing rubric was Development, mostly because my entire project was based on guiding the reader through all of the points to develop their mindsets in order to understand the points made in my International Involvement Analysis. The Development Category requires that ideas are fully explored through explanations. My project was able to tell these people about all of the things that were done to stop the Bosnian Genocide, yet argues that these things were not effective enough by going through a walkthrough of what lead up to the inefficiency and why it was inefficient, which essentially gives the who, what, where, when and why of the idea. I was able to support my perspective based on the facts that were given on the presentation, so there is no questioning the accuracy of conclusions draw because the audience has access to everything I used in order to draw these conclusions.
I think that the area that I am weakest in on the writing rubric is actually evidence. Although I do use evidence frequently in my project, the way in which I used it was probably not optimal. I used the same source of evidence in the same part of my project, which doesn’t really show different perspectives in that single piece of work. For example, in my Reconciliation piece, I only used my and Malek’s point of view on the issue, without taking into account another professional opinion. Although I used a ton of evidence on the project collectively, and some points were made using two pieces of evidence, I probably could have done a better job making the overall project more convincing using a surplus of resources as opposed to writing a part of the project based on one resource. I think that if I were to improve this project, I could either use the evidence I already had and loop that into the other parts of the project than what the resource was specifically used for, or I could have tried to find more resources in the first place, even if the information was somewhat limited on the specific part of that writing.
In the Organization category of the project, I think that I deserve an A because of how I presented the project. I had all of the little pieces, such as a piece of the Srebrenica Massacre, and International Criminal Tribunal Trials, which all made points that would help lead up to and support the points and conclusions drawn in my International Involvement Analysis.
In the Development category of the project, I think I deserve an A because it was my strongest category for reasons listed above.
In the Evidence category of the project, I think that I still deserve an A. Although this was my weakest category, I still used the evidence and resources well and was able to support points with these resources. The difficult part about the evidence was that the pieces I had needed evidence so specific to that point, that it was a slim chance that I would find anything relevant to such a specific subject. In the Srebrenica part of the project, I was able to use Hasan’s book as a second source, but I could not find much else for other parts of the project. So, considering what I had to work with, I think I used it as well as I could and therefore deserve an A.
In the Sentence Craft category of this project, I also think that I deserve an A. In order to direct the audience into a certain mindset before continuing to the International Involvement Analysis, I had to devise the sentences carefully in each specific part of the project, so that I implied things in certain parts, or shied away from focusing on other points. For example, I used very explicit evidence for my Boutros Ghali aspect, but on Milosevic’s speech, I focused on specific parts of his speech instead of other, more implicit parts.
In the Proofreading category of this project, I think I deserve an A. As you know, I am very anal about punctuation and grammar, so I proofread each piece at least twice. Unfortunately, I found one error in my International Involvement Analysis in the LAST sentence! Grr. I said Bosninan’s as a possessive instead of a plural form and I can’t believe I missed it until right before exhibition! Nevertheless, considering the amount of writing I had and that one stupid apostrophe, I still think I deserve an A because there were no other proofreading errors and by the time I had finished reading and proofreading everything, I was very close to brain dead.
