Final Draft of Evaluation Essay

Amy Mihalich
Evaluation Essay
2001: A Space Odyssey
Never has a movie ever had such mixed reviews. 2001: A Space Odyssey was directed by Stanly Kubrick in 1968. This science fiction film was based on a novel by Arthur C. Clarke. While some believe that the film was a milestone in the film industry, others believed it to be the most boring film of all time. “2001: A Space Odyssey” did make a huge impact, but I was just not that interested in the story it told and could barely understand it.
I have to say that I lost my interest right at the beginning of the film, when all that is filmed are monkeys. I understood that Kubrick was showing the “Dawn of Mankind”, but could not understand why he needed to do it for twenty minutes. He showed the progress of how apes became more and more advanced, until a huge black object is placed before them. Kubrick then skips millions of years and shows a space shuttle in space, leaving us still wondering what just happened. While he does a great job of creating mystery in the film, he also creates much confusion.
The film does have an introduction of the monkeys, but lacks an introduction into the space section of the movie. It dives right into a space trip that we know nothing about and barely introduces the characters. He also has many irrelevant characters such as the people that Dr. Heywood Floyd, the main character at the time, are sitting and chatting with. He then is suddenly in a press conference in which we know nothing of the reason or the people there. This section of the movie left me confused on who the characters were and what the main story line was. The characters are all males, with females in the roles of stewardess or secretaries. None of the characters seem to show much emotion, even when the “HAL 9000” computer refuses to let Dave, one of the men on the mission, back inside the space shuttle.
I believe the main reason for my lack of interest was the lack of dialogue. The only sounds in the first half hour are that of apes. From then on, conversations came in short spurts while the other time was either taken up by silence, computer sounds or symphonic music. There were sections of the film that even had ear-piercing sounds for far too long. However, I do think that Kubrick did a great job of choosing to play symphony music because this created feelings of suspense.
Although the film did not intrigue me, one thing I was very impressed about was the technology. It is obvious how much time and effort the set designers put in to make the set look as real as possible. It is also impressive to think that this was done forty-one years ago, when props were usually made out of hokey objects. In the beginning of the space section part of the film, Dr. Heywood talks into a “voice analysis” device, something in which is still being worked on today. I am sure this amazed the 1968 audience. I thought that the most interesting piece of technology was that of the “HAL 9000” computer. This computer seemed to show more emotion than the humans themselves. Hal not only controls the whole operation, but also communicates with the men on the mission and asks them their opinions. I would say that Hal was more of a character than just a piece of technology.
Nothing confused me more than the ending though. The bright and colorful lights show that Dave is traveling quickly through space in his space pod. He then ends up in a room with old-fashioned furniture, leading the audience to believe that he had traveled through time. Dave explores the room to find an older version of himself, followed by another older version of himself lying in a bed. The black “monolith” appears and then shown is a baby in a womb. The movie finished, and I had not understood what anything meant.
Reviews have said that 2001: A Space Odyssey is the greatest science fiction movie of all time. I believe that these reviews probably came from filmmakers or people in the film industry. For people like me who are indifferent about science fiction, this movie lacked a plot, dialogue and could not keep my interest.

second evaulation draft

Amy Mihalich
Evaluation Essay
2001: A Space Odyssey
Never has a movie ever had such mixed reviews. “2001: A Space Odyssey” was directed by Stanly Kubrick in 1968. This science fiction film was based on a novel by Arthur C. Clarke. While some believe that the film was a milestone in the film industry, others believed it to be the most boring film of all time. “2001: A Space Odyssey” did make a huge impact, but I was just not that interested in the story it told and could barely understand it.
I have to say that I lost my interest right at the beginning of the film, when all that is filmed are monkeys. I understood that Kubrick was showing the “Dawn of Mankind”, but could not understand why he needed to do it for twenty minutes. He showed the progress of how apes became more and more advanced, until a huge black object is placed before them. Kubrick then skips millions of years and shows a space shuttle in space, leaving us still wondering what just happened. While he does a great job of creating mystery in the film, he also creates much confusion.
The film does have an introduction of the monkeys, but lacks an introduction into the space section of the movie. It dives right into a space trip that we know nothing about and barely introduces the characters. He also has many irrelevant characters such as the people that Dr. Heywood Floyd, the main character at the time, are sitting and chatting with. He then is suddenly in a press conference in which we know nothing of the reason or the people there. This section of the movie left me confused on who the characters were and what the main story line was. The characters are all males, with females in the roles of stewardess or secretaries. None of the characters seem to show much emotion, even when the “HAL 9000” computer refuses to let Dave, one of the men on the mission, back inside the space shuttle.
I believe the main reason for my lack of interest was the lack of dialogue. The only sounds in the first half hour are that of apes. From then on, conversations came in short spurts while the other time was either taken up by silence, computer sounds or symphonic music. There were sections of the film that even had ear-piercing sounds for far too long. However, I do think that Kubrick did a great job of choosing to play symphony music because this created feelings of suspense.
Although the film did not intrigue me, one thing I was very impressed about was the technology. It is obvious how much time and effort the set designers put in to make the set look as real as possible. It is also impressive to think that this was done forty-one years ago, when props were usually made out of hokey objects. In the beginning of the space section part of the film, Dr. Heywood talks into a “voice analysis” device, something in which is still being worked on today. I am sure this amazed the 1968 audience. I thought that the most interesting piece of technology was that of the “HAL 9000” computer. This computer seemed to show more emotion than the humans themselves. Hal not only controls the whole operation, but also communicates with the men on the mission and asks them their opinions. I would say that Hal was more of a character than just a piece of technology.
Nothing confused me more than the ending though. The bright and colorful lights show that David is traveling quickly through space in his space pod. He then ends up in a room with old-fashioned furniture, leading the audience to believe that he had traveled through time. David explores the room to find an older version of himself, followed by another older version of himself lying in a bed. The black “monolith” appears and then shown is a baby in a womb. The movie finished, and I had not understood what anything meant.
Reviews have said that “2001: A Space Odyssey” is the greatest science fiction movie of all time. I believe that these reviews probably came from filmmakers or people in the film industry. For people like me who are indifferent about science fiction, this movie lacked a plot and anything interesting at all.

2001: A Space Odyssey

Amy Mihalich

Evaluation Essay

2001: A Space Odyssey

Never has a movie ever had such mixed reviews. “2001: A Space Odyssey” was directed by Stanly Kubick in 1968. This science fiction film was based on a novel by Arthur C. Clarke. While some believe that the film was a milestone in the film industry, others believed it to be the most boring film of all time. “2001: A Space Odyssey” did make a huge impact, but I was just not that interested in the story it told and could barely understand it.

I have to say that I lost my interest right at the beginning of the film, when all that is filmed are monkeys. I understood that Kubick was showing the “Dawn of Man Kind”, but could not understand why he needed to do it for twenty minutes. He showed the progress of how apes became more and more advanced, until a huge black object is placed before them. Kubick then skips millions of years and shows a space shuttle in space, leaving us still wondering what just happened. While he does a great job of creating mystery in the film, he also creates much confusion.

The film does have an introduction of the monkeys, but lacks an introduction into the space section of the movie. It dives right into a space trip that we know nothing about and barely introduces the characters. He also has many irrelevant characters such as the people that Dr. Heywood Floyd, the main character at the time, are sitting and chatting with. He then is suddenly in a press conference in which we know nothing of the reason or the people there. This section of the movie left me confused on who the characters were and what the main story line was. The characters are all males, with females in the roles of stewardess or secretaries. None of the characters seem to show much emotion, even when the “HAL 9000” computer refuses to let Dave, one of the men on the mission, back inside the space shuttle.

I believe the main reason for my lack of interest was the lack of dialogue. The only sounds in the first half hour are that of apes. From then on, conversations came in short spurts while the other time was either taken up by silence, computer sounds or symphonic music. There were sections of the film that even had ear-piercing sounds for far too long. However, I do think that Kubick did a great job of choosing to play symphony music because this created feelings of suspense.

Although the film did not intrigue me, one thing I was very impressed about was the technology. It is obvious how much time and effort the set designers put in to make the set look as real as possible. It is also impressive to think that this was done thirty-one years ago, when props were usually made out of cheap objects. In the beginning of the space section part of the film, Dr. Heywood talks into a “voice analysis” device, something in which is still being worked on today. I am sure this amazed the 1968 audience. I thought that the most interesting piece of technology was that of the “HAL 9000” computer. This computer seemed to show more emotion than the humans themselves. Hal not only controls the whole operation, but also communicates with the men on the mission and asks them their opinions. I would say that Hal was more of a character than just a piece of technology.

Nothing confused me more than the ending though. The bright and colorful lights show that David is traveling quickly through space in his space pod. He then ends up in a room with old furniture, leading the audience to believe that he had traveled through time. David explores the room to find an older version of himself, followed by another older version of himself lying in a bed. The black “monolith” appears and then shown is a baby in a womb. The movie finished, and I had not understood what anything meant.

Reviews have said that “2001: A Space Odyssey” is the greatest science fiction movie of all time. I believe that these reviews probably came from filmmakers or people in the film industry. For people like me who are indifferent about science fiction, this movie lacked a plot and anything interesting at all.

Compiling a Portfolio

This weeks reading was about creating a portfolio. There are many different types of portfolio but the chapter concentrates on writing portfolio. You should include your best work in the portfolio along with free-writing, rough drafts, and reflections on your work. For paper portfolios, you need to label everything and rearrange your work from earliest to latest. You may also create an online portfolio as a website. It is also a good idea to include an explanation of the portfolio.

Evaluations 2

In the first section of the reading, the first evaluation article is about cell phones. The author presents a couple points of what the latest cell phones have to offer. Then the next section of the article is "how to choose" a cell phone. I was a little unsure of what the author was writing about, either how to choose a cell phone or to tell about cell phone's features. The next article was about a restaurant. Throughout the article she compliments on almost everything, then waits until the end to make suggestions and give critiques. The third article was a book review, in which the author waits until halfway through the piece to even mention what book she is reviewing. It seems like she is more talking about the personal life of the author of the book. The last and final article is a movie critique. It seems as if the author is giving a play-by-play instead of a critique.

Evaluations

In this reading, a person evaluates the show "Dawson's Creek." I have heard of this show, but never actually seen it. It looks to cheesy to me. The author makes the point that it brings up real issues that teens are going through, and that they deal with them in a respectable way, rather than the typical teen-show. Then he brings up a point on how critics said that the issues aren't appropriate for the audience, and argues that it is a good show for teens to watch. I believe the purpose of this was to show how to evaluate something.

our group

Our group is doing our project on self defense for girls our age. We are doing four different pages including, Tips for self-defense, Tricks to defend yourself, Facts and statistics, and Weapons. We researched different websites and pulled information from there. We are including different links for even more self defense information. Our group is almost finished, we just have to put it all together!

Reading Strategies

I already agree with the first sentence of this section when it says "Academic reading is challenging". In my opinion, it is hard to read a text book! The reading says that is difficult to pick out the main ideas because of the concepts and vocabulary. It may be tempting to skim right over it but you really need to read carefully so you don't miss anything. A good idea is to preview the text. In this case you can skim over it because you are looking at what you will be reading. Annotating is when readers highlight key words, sentences, phrases or write questions in the margins. The reading suggests doing this as if you are talking to the author. This will help you understand the text better. Another part of the reading talks about a "believing and doubting game" which reminds me of a pros and cons list. To do this, you write everything that you can believe about what the author is saying. Then after doing that, you write as if you doubt everything that the author has said.

Editing and Proofreading

In the introduction the book says that readers of resumes may reject applications if they contain just one error. This shows how important proofreading really is! That would be like losing a job just because of a misspelled word. But before you proofread, you must edit. This is when you tear apart the writing and look for punctuation errors, problems with sentences and making sure the words are spelled correctly. They give some suggestions on how to proofread such as using a ruler to read so your eyes don't jump ahead, read your sentence out loud, or ask someone else to read it.

Assessing Your Own Writing

This week's reading talks about assessing your own writing. The first section is about the writing that you do for yourself. It says that if you're just writing for yourself then just let the ideas flow. It's best just to free-write when you are writing for yourself. You can use lists, journal writing or cubing writing. The next paragraph talks about writing for others. It brings up a good point that we need to make our writing as good as possible because we are never there to explain why we wrote what we wrote. The reading says to assess writing in two stages: consider how well it meets the rhetorical situation, then study the writing itself to check it's focus. You need to check your focus, the support and the organization of the writing. The next chapter talks about revising. It says to bring it to writing-center tutors because they can point out problems that you might have not seen in your work. After they make their points, you must revise your work. Some reasons to revise are to sharpen your focus, strengthen the argument, improve the organization and for clarity.

Reading #3

This weeks reading starts off with how to start writing. It says to make a schedule with dead lines so you won't be rushing around at the last minute and throwing things together. Freewriting is a good way to start your writing. You just start writing anything, even if it sounds terrible. This will get you warmed up and ready to write. The reading also tackles the problem of writer's block. To solve this problem, it says to stop trying. Get up and do something else for half an hour. When you come back you'll feel refreshed and ready to write. The next section is about describing. You really need to go into detail so the reader feels that they are actually there. It says to be as specific as possible. Next, comes narrating. It stresses the importance of sequencing, by using chronological order. You may also use reverse chronological order or a flashback. The last reading was about dialogue and why to add it. It is a way of bringing other people's voices into the story.

How Literature Affects People's Lives

In Chapter 50 of Literacy Narratives, there are five different narrative. In the first narrative, a girl talks about how she is of Mexican decent and how she barely spoke a word of Spanish. She tried to go through her life acting as if she was Caucasian. Then, she learns to embrace her heritage. In the next story, a slave tells his story of how he wanted to learn to read and write so bad. He would make friends with the white children, give them bread, then ask them to teach him. After doing this, he finally accomplished his dream of knowing how to be literate. The third, and most interesting story, was about Malcolm X. He tells how he copied the dictionary in jail everyday and soon became a man who loved books and reading. Jail had turned him into a very wise man. The fourth story is about an author or novels, children's books and essays. She talks about how she had to use two kinds of English; the proper way and then a sort of broken English. Her mother barely speaks English, so Amy Tan had to talk into a shortened version of English. She talked very proper with everyone else. The fifth and final story tells how a boy started to become interested in science after reading. He would make up elaborate stories and tell them. He then became to love science fiction stories. All of these stories talk about how literature has affected people's lives and how in some ways, even changed people's lives.

Types of Writing

In Part One of Rhetorical Situations, the first chapter is about the purpose of your writing. There are many purposes of writing such as persuasion, informing, entertaining and many others. It's important to know the purpose so you can word things the right way. In the second chapter, they discuss audience. I think that audience is one of the most important parts in writing because if you don't know your audience, you could offend someone! The next point they talk about is the genres of writing. I learned that basically any type of writing is a genre, from letters to jokes. Another part of the chapter was about stance. This is how you come across to your reader, your attitude of the piece. The last part of the chapter was about media/design. We use many things to communicate such as the tone of our voice, our body language and all the technologies.