Summary Self Evaluation

In order to evaluate how I feel I did on my summary of Christo's Valley Curtain, I'm going to use the holistic rubric as a guideline.

Rhetorical Knowledge
How to use sources appropriately- The summary was a nice refresher for MLA citation. Having never cited a film before, the refresher was especially useful. Before this project, I didn't know how to cite a movie. I would not have known if the title should go first or the directors and whether or not I should include the names of actors. I also learned that, even for a movie, I have to cite the source directly in the paper even if I did not pull a direct quote from the movie. If we didn't discuss in class about how we needed to conclude our last paragraph with (Curtain), I would have never known to do it.

Kairos, syntax, and flow- This project taught me what I should include in my paper and what I should not. I wanted to set up my paper with outside information so that the viewer could really get a sense of what was going on, and where, and by whom, but I soon learned that, that was not advisable for a summary. I learned that I had to focus on what was explicitly found in the film. I also learned that my flow was originally a tad hard to follow because I had really long sentences loaded with commas. To make the paper easier to read, I had to get rid of some of my commas and I had to cut down the size of my sentences.

Critical/Creative Thinking
Draw reasonable inferences- It's hard to say how much this project helped in this category. Though, I must say that this project is a good foundation for the critical thinking and creative category. I'd say drawing reasonable inferences was involved with this project. I had to determine which details are important in order to get the reader to understand my summary. I chose which details to use and I had to use reasonable inferences to determine with details to focus on.

Genre Knowledge
Summary vs. Analysis- This project helped me realize how to write an objective summary without my own subjective opinions. I really wanted to say that Christo was elated or Christo was nervous but I couldn't. I could only say what I saw. You can't see happy but you can see a smile. "The show don't tell" advise, although tricky (for me) to adhere to, was very helpful.

Mechanical Knowledge
I didn't learn much mechanically from this project. Two things I did learn were that, for a summary, I should shorten my sentences, and that I sometimes overuse my commas.

What Makes a Good Question?

What makes a good question? Really? What is “It” that a good question possesses? What is “It” that a “bad” question lacks? Who is to be the God of our ever questioning world? Who is He (or She) to pass judgment on the questions we ask? Who is He that obtains the authoritative divinity to determine whether our questions are sensational or subpar? Who is He that draws the line between a “good” question and a “great” question? By what measurement can our questions be determined by? Is a “good” question asked by me also a “good” question when asked by Joe? Or Suzie? Or Tom? Where do “good” questions come from? When is a question “good” or “bad”? Seriously, what makes a good question?

Truth be told, there is no real way to determine if a question is really “good”; it all depends on the context of the situation in which the question had been deployed, such as who asked the question and why. In my opinion, if a question is to be deemed “good”, the answer must have the potential to enlighten the questioner, to have a favorable outcome for the questioner, or to spark initiative within the questioner.

Let’s say you are sitting in college level Calculus class and, for some crazy reason, something within the girl beside you provokes her to ask what the answer to two plus two is. Everyone stares unapprovingly. “You’re kidding right?” one of them shouts. And can you blame them? It was a stupid question. There is no way that a student enrolled in a college level Calculus class could not know basis elementary school math. By asking the “bad” or “stupid” question, she didn’t gain anything because she already knew the answer to two plus two. But what if the answer “four” was not the answer, or rather response, she was looking for? What if she is striving towards becoming a psychologist and what if the “stupid question” was really part of her attempt to answer a psychological phenomenon? Is her question still “stupid” or has it crossed over to the “good side”? To really know if a question is good or bad, the context of the question has to be known.

Continuing with the question “what is the answer of two plus two”, the “goodness” of the question can also be determined by who is asking it and to whom. If a college student asked what two plus two is, it is incredibly likely that they already knew the answer was four, thus they were not enlightened by their peer’s response, making the question a “bad” question. But what if the college student was asking the question to his two year old nephew? Is the question still “bad”? Not exactly. What if the college student asking the question came from Germany? What if he is just learning the English language? In German he may know how to say “four” but perhaps not in English, thus making the question “good” because he is being enlightened by the answer. Now let’s put age into consideration. If a three year old asks her parents what two plus two is, the atmosphere is completely different than that of the educated college student. This three year old child doesn’t have the schooling to know basic math yet, unless their parents are already forcing math upon them, that is, and so by asking such a seemingly simple question, the child learns, and whenever a question produces learned material, the question is “good”, by my standards.

As the prior paragraph suggests, a “good” question for Suzie may not be a “good” question when asked by Tom because every person is different in their range of knowledge. That being said, the only person who can determine what is a “good” or “bad” question is, is you, your own self. Only you know what you know or what you don’t. The only way a question could be “bad” is if you walk away with nothing from it. All other questions are “good”. Yes, some questions are more genius than others but the question at hand is not what is the difference between a good question and a sensational question, the question at hand is simply what makes a good question. A “good” question is a question that you gained knowledge or approval (or disapproval) or incentive from. A “good” question could be anything the human mind can think of depending on who is asking it. What is a “good” question? Only you can answer that.