Essay One. [Final]

Cairo Montgomery
English 111
Ishai Barnoy
Essay 1

The way in which we obtain information and how it affects us changes so much throughout time. The older we get the more we surround ourselves with information that reflects on how we feel and what's most important to us. Throughout the years technology has flourished more and more making information much faster to obtain and easier to deliver. We have reached the age where we can literally summon videos, music, and breaking news to the palm of our hands instantly. Where two decades ago society relied on newspapers, radio, and TV.

In our earliest stages of life (ages 1-5) our main source of information is our parents. Parents inform us about everything from how to behave in public (hopefully), family news, and religion, to what is right and wrong. We basically learn what they feel at the time is right. It's safe to say they help establish our moral foundation. At the same time our parents screen us from certain info or media they feel might be inappropriate for our age. When I was young, I remember the TV, the radio, magazines & newspapers to be the main source of information for people. There were some movies my parents didn't let me see because if exposed to the certain material the wrong way I might take some information and run with it leaving room for misunderstandings.

By the time we start going to school we are being introduce to a lot more than just what our parents expose us to. We are now being fed information every single day as we learn to broaden our horizons and establish a good scholastic foundation. However the older we get the more we are being exposed to a much wider variety of information and ideas. We start to meet different types of people from different cultures and backgrounds and we make new friends. Suddenly parental control has less of an impact as it once did and we start to develop almost all opinions on our own.

While we begin to develop our own points of view we are also influenced heavily by our friends and peers. They are the link between you and what’s going on in amongst your generation. You learn a lot from your peers such as how to interact with others, how to present yourself, the latest news & gossip, but most importantly what's "cool". Knowing what's cool is to know the popular opinion. Unfortunately for some people the popular opinion matters a lot growing up. Sometimes it sets the standard for what’s acceptable or what's out of style. Knowing these things might be vital to social life and is not easy always easy to understand. You might not have the right friends on your side to tell you that your clothes are "wack" or help to keep you up to date with music and movies etc.

Although considering the popular opinion may be beneficial, we grow to understand that our own opinions and ideas are what is most important of all. Throughout my growing experience I was fortunate watch the internet & technology develop more and more throughout time. Aside from computer games, and streaming video sites, the birth of social networks have become almost vital to our generation's social life and is a great way for us to express ourselves. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr all require us to state our opinions, and exploit our personal taste. Aside from old fashion conversation these online profiles help others find out who we are.

As we mature throughout our years we realize that knowledge really is power and that we can't sit around all day waiting for breaking news and quality information to present itself. We go out and seek information. If it’s through magazine subscriptions, or eavesdropping on public conversations we make it our daily business to discover news weather we realize it or not. It's impossible to be a productive member of society and be ignorant to common knowledge and current events.

Having a good variety of sources while writing or researching is critical. A source is the origin in which you obtain information. All sources are different and it is wise to be able to distinguish witch sources to go to for specific task. For example you wouldn't want to write a magazine article on school lunch when your only source of information is the cafeteria staff. They might swear up and down that they have cheapest and most delicious food at the highest quality. That’s clearly a biased view point. It would benefit you more to take a survey (from the people who actually eat school lunch) or speak with a health inspector. As you might have heard a thousand different times, "there is always more than one side to each story". It is always best to take all things into consideration before forming your own opinion and or main point in writing.

Sources come in all types of different forms and mediums depending on your purpose for research. Throughout our generation they have developed more and more throughout our media. Almost any form of media can be used as a source. Television produces many sources such as the daily news, informative networks dedicate to learning (The History channel, A&E, Discovery etc.), political speeches and debates, and various movies and reports. Some way or another almost all of those sources eventually end up on the internet. The internet is also the domain for other sources we take advantage of daily, such as, blog's, social websites, scholar articles, and video streaming sites. Search engines such as Yahoo, Wikipedia, and Google help to link us to almost every web page pertaining to any topic we might fathom. Another great database for information would be, of course, the library. The library is the home to huge mass of books and videos on various subjects from various decades.

While reading for information you should always be sure to pay attention to detail and take facts from your sources while not being swayed by a subliminal opinion. You will need to take this into consideration when resorting to mass media sources such as some scholarly articles, blog post and televised news reports.

A source such as books and informative videos poses many facts that are mainly general and specific. The main purpose of these sources is to teach one about a subject in detail. Usually these sources require more of an attention span because of the amount of information contained.

Many articles, in magazines and newspapers use many verbal references such as interviews or speeches as sources and contain a lot of quoted material. Usually good writers of articles use metaphors, word play, and make you use your analytical skills to understand their points of view.

Maintaining a good understanding of how to utilize these sources will give you a good foundation to base your information from and should make the writing process a lot simpler.

For a good example of how to manage sources I am going to choose a topic along with what should be three great sources for my research process. I myself have always admired the works of artist Salvador Dali and the style of surrealism in which he would portray. I know that Surrealism helped revolutionize not only paintings and other forms of fine art but also influenced many other fields such as music, poems, politics and etc. of its century. This should be a great opportunity to enlighten myself on how this revolution came to be. If I were to write a research paper on the influence of surrealism what sources would I use to have the most useful and effective information to help my writing?

I predict that the best sources for me to use for this type research of would be a book from the Library an and a MySpace profile dedicated to the exact topic that I've chose. I feel as though these sources I chose should leave me with plenty of information to give me a good overall sense of what's needed to know about my topic and should benefit me the most. Since my topic is more on the lines of history and wouldn't naturally be a hot topic in the latest magazine or news feed, a book from the library should be my best bet. The book I chose was called Surrealism, from the Eye on Art series by Hal Marcovits. The eye on art series produces a variety of books based on different forms, styles, eras, of art. Published by Gale cengage learning, self-proclaimed as "a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses". I assume the target audience of this series would be artist and art students. I was quite lucky to come across this profile dedicated to Surrealism on MySpace. For one this isn't really the typical place I would normally find information on this type of subject but never the less I am fortunate to have found this. I have noticed that there is a social profile for almost everything under the sun now a days. Maybe generations after us will be more prone to looking up research on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace than they are to actually going to the library. This page seems to have a great range of facts that should act as a good source as well. Since its on MySpace, I would assume that the target audience for this source would be anyone bored or interested enough to read this profile.

http://m.myspace.com/home.wap?bfd=webnext&isredirected=true#friends.list/profile/122264950.

The book Surrealism from the Eye on Art series, mainly states the, who, what where when and why of the entire surrealist movement. From the creator of the word "Surrealism" to surrealism in today's culture. Most importantly there is a chapter dedicated to the exact topic of my paper "The Influence of Surrealism", which goes into detail about every major influence of the era, and the ideas that came from it. They explain a lot about how to determine where the artist's head is in terms of giving their work a sense of purpose and how Surrealism plays its role in each. They state "If we wanted to assume the that picture has symbolic significance, we might take it for a self-portrait in which skirts of roots points a closeness to nature while the Renaissance jacket may suggest an affinity with art" while analyzing Dorothea Tanning's self-portrait. You can tell here that they show specific examples of Surrealism being influenced by Dorthea Tanning's portrait and the meanings behind her art. They go on explaining how Surrealism influenced pop art and how Andy Warhol displayed it through his all silver New York business office in which he called "the factory" where he covered everything in Reynolds aluminum foil. They go on to explain surrealism and social change where they explain how Breton and other early surrealist were drawn into left-wing politics and supported the socialists, communist, and anarchist who tried to gain foothold in post WWI Europe. This book contains all basic material needed in order for me to define my topic.

If you're familiar with a MySpace page you know the basic profile options. There is a section for photos, where The Revolution of Surrealism post many surreal paintings, photos and portraits. There is a more info section where most people would add their favorite movies, books, and heroes, all influenced by Surrealism. The most information beneficial to the topic of my paper would be located in the Blog section of the page. This section contains five subsections including Surrealism Without Walls, To Come to End with God's Ghost, Voices of the Hell Choir
, The Derrame Affair and Poetic Identity. However I must say these subsections are very confusing if you don't know anything about Surrealism to begin with. The subsections aren't really in any sort of significant order from what it seems to me. They are sort of just there. The content may be beneficial though if used correctly however the sections are very long and you almost have to already know what's being talked about before you read into them. As I read through the sections It’s clear that this would never work well as someone's primary source. It takes almost too long to get to the main point, or at least from my perspective, and It’s as if they never speak in general terms.

Starting off this essay you would resort to most of the facts generated from my first source and then produce your thesis witch would be stating why Surrealism was influential. Then use details from the internet page profile on surrealism as a second source and to help prove my thesis and balance facts throughout the body of the essay, while using the first source, the library book on surrealism, to back up facts. Then finally conclude the essay with an overall summery that generalizes the main point.