Gmr vol16 full by George Mason

THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW

THE

GEORGE MASON

REVIEW 2006-2007

Reba Elliott, Editor Jason Hartsel, Layout Edior

TABLE OF

CONTENTS ESSAYS IN THE HUMANITIES Lara Ayad

*Winner of the Judges’ Prize for Humanities

8 Adam Gurri

Mirrors on the Walls: Representations of Turkish Muslim Society in Renaissance European Art

Alex Antram

Anthropological Engagements with War, Violence, and Social Suffering: Response to Carolyn Nordstrom’s Shadows of War

Eva Wolfberg

CREATIVE WORK Jonathan Kirk

20 You Want to Help But You’re Just

ESSAYS IN THE SCIENCES Tri Tran

Sciences Discussion Questions

*Winner of the Judges’ Prize in Creativity

Semasiology in the Current Discourse of Autobiography

Humanities Discussion Questions

Making Mason’s Databases More Accessible

One Man

Angela Panayotopulos

Mark Strandquist

Tina Delis

Creative Discussion Questions

Dimensions of Sapphire

Phone Book

*Winner of the Judges’ Prize for the Sciences

The Association between Periodontitis and Central Nerve Disorders

The Carrot Compromise

APPENDICES

organization, in tone, in writing style? How has the writer organized his ideas into paragraphs, and the paragraphs Appendix A 54 into a paper? Asking questions like Reflections on the Writing Process these will let you analyze the essay’s construction, and not just its content. Anna Habib To help you along, we’ve included Assistant Director of the a few discussion questions at the end Writing Center of each section. You’ll see that the diAppendix B 57 gest is divided into four parts: essays in the humanities, essays in the sciences, Guide to Citation creative work, and appendices. After each section, you’ll find a short list of Appendix C 62 questions to prompt your thinking. We’ll ask you to think about how the Liaison Librarians standards for writing in each discipline guide you, and how each of these auCover Art thors has approached those standards. Johanna Mueller, Feet Eater And to further help you think about how each piece is written, we have included with each essay a short note from its author. In these notes, the writers will tell you what the assignment was, what writing process they took, and how they feel about the results. In selected essays, a similar note from the instructor will tell you The George Mason Review is a what she expected from her students digest of the best essays and creative and what an ideal assignment response work written at GMU. The pieces in looks like. These short notes from stuthis anthology contain excellent writ- dent and instructor can be invaluable ing from classes like yours, and they to you in settling in with your own aswill guide you to better craft in your signments. own classes. The appendices at the back of Successful writers typically attend the book range from an essay on the very closely to craft, or how a piece writing process through citation style is written. As you read through each guides to a list of discipline-specific piece in the anthology, ask yourself a librarians. Keep this digest close, and few questions. Why was any particu- you’ll have all the tools you need to lar essay chosen? Is it exemplary in succeed as a writer.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

ESSAYS IN THE

HUMANITIES

Mirrors on the Walls: Representations of Turkish Muslim Society in Renaissance European Art Lara Ayad The turban’d Turk who scorns the world, May strut with his whiskers curled, Keep a hundred wives under lock and key, For no one else but himself to see, Yet long may he pray with his al Koran, Before he can love like an Irishman. -Jane Austen, “The Irishman” “Antichrist is the Pope and Turk together. A beast full of life must have a body and soul. The spirit or soul of Antichrist is the Pope, flesh or body the Turk. For the Last Judgment draws nigh, and the angels prepare themselves for the combat and to strike down Turk and Pope into the bottomless pit. The Turks are the people of the wrath of God.” -Martin Luther, Table-Talk A new world was opened to Europe when it made contact and developed conflict with Turkey both during the Crusades and in the late 15th century. Here, “the West” met “the East,” Christianity encountered Islam. Turkey was geographically and symbolically a bridge between Asia and Europe, allowing for an Occidental experience of the Orient. Europeans’ responses to communication and warfare with the Bernard Lewis, A Middle East Mosaic: Fragments of Life, Letters, and History (New York: Random House, 2000), 12. Ibid., 13.

Turkish “other” during the Crusades and in the late 15th Century produced Renaissance and Baroque art. This art attempted to depict Turkish peoples and sultans for the Western gaze, but it revealed much more about European cultures and politics than it did about the people of Turkey. From Medieval and Renaissance art, by Italian and German artists such as Gentile Bellini and Albrecht Dürer, to nineteenth century French paintings, one can see a combination of cultural, racial, and gender stereotypes and the simple application of European styles to portraits of sultans and the nobility of the Ottoman Empire. European artists made paintings, engravings, sketches, and frescoes of Turkish peoples and sultans that engaged viewers’ ideas about the “other” and spoke, by extension, about themselves. Differing levels of exoticizing exist, with the most minimal resulting from direct control by the sitter. Some European artists worked under the guidance of leading Turkish figures such as Sultan Mehmet II, also known as Mehmed the Conqueror, who provided patronage and instruction. Mehmet II was the seventh sultan of the Ottoman Dynasty and one of the first sultans to have such close contact with Europe through his exchanges with Italy. At the age of 23 3 Basil Gray, “Two Portraits of Mehmet II,” The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 61, no. 352 (1932): p. 2, http://links.jstor. org/sici?sici=0951-0788%28193207%2961%3A352

he conquered Constantinople in Turkey, converting its name into Istanbul, and despite his aiding in the spread of Islam to Turkey avoided destroying Christian churches, relics, or art. Instead, Mehmet II accommodated the reality of difference in Turkey by appointing non-Muslim commanders to lead the Ottoman armed forces and permitting the growth of a popular religious movement that strove to minimize the differences between Islam and Christianity. Moreover, the Sultan was skilled at diplomacy with European countries. A year after the Pazzi Conspiracy attempted to assassinate Lorenzo de Medici, the Pazzi assassin of Lorenzo’s brother, Giuliano, was arrested in Istanbul by Mehmet II. As a token of their appreciation, the Medicis honored the Sultan’s request for Italian sculptors, painters, and medalists in the royal court in Istanbul. Mehmet’s request for art, rather than for grain or weaponry or gold, was based on his dual fascinations with European art and European history. In his adolescence the sultan had made portrait bust sketches and caricatures of men in both the Turkish and European styles. As an adult, he commissioned two %3C2 %3ATPOMI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-T. Julian Raby, “A Sultan of Paradox: Mehmed the Conqueror as a Patron of the Arts,” Oxford Art Journal, 5, no. 1 (1982): p. 3, http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=01426540%281982%295%3A1%3C3 %3AASOPMT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-C.

Ibid., 3 & 5-6.

http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2004/artexchange/artexchange_ss30.shtm.

tutors to school him in Latin and Greek. Mehmet the Conqueror understood the value of flattering and accurate historical representation. One of the most famous portraits of Sultan Mehmet II is a painting on canvas made by the hand of Gentile Bellini, a Venetian medalist and painter well-known in Italy. The painting is heavily influenced by classical Roman art in its use of depth and shading and in the delicate architectural elements and dark, flat background reminiscent of Pompeian frescoes. Interestingly enough, this portrait was created after Bellini returned to Venice from his 2-year stay in the Sultan’s court. Portraits made of Mehmet II in Istanbul, such as the medals made by Costanzo da Ferrara, Bertoldo di Giovanni, and even Bellini, still exhibit a strong European influence. Ferrara, for example, created both a beautiful painted portrait of the Sultan in profile, with a gold background and an attention to physical form and a portrait medallion the style and layout of which are based on the painting. The fact that these portraits were made under the direction of Mehmet II in his court (and the fact that the Sultan found European art and history appealing) tells us that the Sultan wanted to be depicted in a contemporary Italian European fashion. Nevertheless, other sultans and Turkish peoples of various social statuses did not have so much, or any, control in how they were to appear in portraits, sketches, engravings, and painted scenes made by European artists. The views as well as misconceptions of many Europeans regarding Turkey and the expanding Raby, A Sultan of Paradox: Mehmed the Conqueror as a Patron of the Arts, 4. Gray, Two Portraits of Mehmed II, 5-6.

Ottoman Empire arose primarily from their fear of Islam. Even Mehmet II, with his extraordinary religious tolerance and open-mindedness, was not immune to these European anxieties. A medal made in the fifteenth century by an anonymous artist shows the Sultan’s distinct silhouette and a sole inscription: “Teror Christianorum.”10 The works of Italian and German Renaissance artists reflect Europe’s fears, alternately encouraging and pacifying what was perceived as an encroaching threat to Christianity and Western culture. The painted portrait of The Sultan Mehmet II by Costanzo da Ferrara was created in the Sultan’s court and was thus made to look the way the Sultan instructed. Mehmet’s desire to emulate classical European portraits is evident in his upper body profile position, the sfumato rendering of his beard, and the background painted in gold. Furthermore, the Sultan, despite his reputation as a tyrant in Europe, appears with a rather placid facial expression. A much more “Europeanized” portrait of Mehmet II is an engraving by Antonio del Pollaiuolo made most likely during the Sultan’s lifetime (Pollaiuolo lived from 1433 to 1498 and Mehmet II from 1429 to 1481). There is no evidence, however, that Pollaiuolo had ever been to Turkey at all, and it is probable that he created this portrait based on profiles made by Bellini or Ferrara. The engraving is much like the Ferrara portrait in that it presents the Sultan from the shoulders Sakisian, Armenag. “The Portraits of Mehmet II,” The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 74, no. 433 (1939): p. 178, http:// links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0951-0788%28193904% 2974%3A433%3C172%3ATPOMI%3E2.0.CO%3 B2-1. 10

Ibid., 178.

up and in profile, but it is very different in that Mehmet II is dressed in elaborate European garments and hat and wears long hair along with a luxurious beard. In fact, if one had not read the title of the engraving stating that it is a portrait of Mehmet II, she or he would never know that the “sitter” is a sultan or even someone from “the Orient.” Differences in style in the two profile portraits are due to the fact that the Ferrara portrait was meant to stay in Istanbul whereas the engraving by Pollaiuolo was made solely for Western viewers. Another profile portrait, this time an early Albrecht Dürer sixteenth-century sketch of Ottoman Sultan Suleyman I, correctly depicts the Sultan in Ottoman Turkish dress but relates his person as a caricature. Suleyman’s neck is elongated and bulky, his mustache is exaggeratedly curled, and his bulbous chin and large nose protrude abnormally. This cartoonlike, and intentionally insulting, rendering of Turks is repeated in a study by Dürer of Turkish male costume. Two of the three models are Turkish while the third is simply Black, and Dürer portrays the latter’s nose as overly bulbous and the former’s mustaches as extremely long and curled. Moreover, the robes the men wear are much too baggy and long, making their Islamic way of dress appear ridiculous and farcical. While Pollaiuolo tries to turn Mehmet II into a more familiar and less threatening figure by making him look completely like a European nobleman, Dürer presents Suleyman I and the Turkish people as a joke, where the punch line is their ugly facial features and absurd ways of clothing themselves. So ridiculed, these Turks, with their garish and flamboyant lifestyles, pose no threat to Christianity or to Europe as a whole.

Comparing the reverse of Costanzo da Ferrara’s portrait medal of Mehmet II and a German woodcut of Suleyman I, we see again the contrast in style and message. Mehmet II enjoyed having his portrait cast in medals, as he was intrigued by European bronze sculpting. The obverse side of the medal that Ferrara created for Mehmet shows him in profile from the shoulders up and is modeled, as mentioned above, on the profile portrait of the Sultan painted by the same artist. On the reverse is a profile image of Mehmet II riding valiantly on horseback, emulating the European equestrian portraits often shown on bronze medals. The Sultan is shown riding with dignity and heralded by an inscription in Latin. Suleyman I, in contrast, did not patronize any German artist to create an equestrian portrait of him. A German woodcut showing Suleyman I on horseback was made in 1526 (the same date as the Dürer sketches) and caricatures him in a way similar to Dürer’s. The Sultan has long, curled whiskers; he wears a large turban; he rides on an ostentatiously bedecked horse; and is followed by a Black male attendant, complete with large, droopy lips, and eyes, holding his Empire’s flag. Racist attitudes against both the Turkish and Africans is not only apparent in the exaggerated rendering of their facial features, but also in the juxtaposition of images of haughty and despotic Turkish sultans and noblemen with representations of indolent and submissive African slaves and servants. By creating and perpetuating these cultural and racial stereotypes, European societies present their own governments and lifestyles as a foil to those of the Muslim Turkish world. The Renaissance European emphasis on a republican form of government, coupled with Christian

faith, was intended to contrast with the despotic sultans, their enforcement of servitude, and the heretical religion of Islam in Turkey. Islamic Turkish society was not only depicted as being excessive in worldly riches and tyranny, but also as populated by belligerent Muslims attempting to destroy Christianity. Medieval European depictions of Muslims often center on battle scenes or stories of religious persecution or conversion. A page from a mid-thirteenth century manuscript, Twenty Stories of the Life of Saint Francis, has two registers with their own scenes. The top register depicts Saint Francis of Assisi preaching to the Birds with Saint Francis shown lifting his hand giving sermons to rows of uniform birds perched on the branches of a stylized tree. Dressed as Medieval European monks, Saint Francis and the two other saints or followers behind him have the same types of faces, alluding to the importance and widespread use of icons in the Middle Ages. In the register below, Saint Francis preaches in the same way, but to the Mamluk Sultan Al-Kamil and his subjects instead of birds. The Sultan is larger than his subjects, who are positioned exactly as the birds are in the above register, and seated on his throne on the right side of the page. European Christians believed that Muslims, without belief in the Christian God and in Jesus Christ as their Messiah, were leading immoral and sacrilegious lives. This tenet justified advocating battle, both physical and spiritual, with Islam and its believers. The parallel drawn between the passive birds and the Sultan and his subjects tells the viewer that the proper role of the Christian is conquering, subduing, and converting Muslims. Renaissance paintings of less allegorical battle between Turkey and

Europe are some of the few representations of Turkish peoples in number made during that period, a clear signal of tension between the two regions of the world. In the mid-sixteenth century Jacopo Robusti Tintoretto painted The Capture of Constantinople in 1204. Why would Tintoretto depict this event more than three hundred years after it occurred? The Ottoman Turks had again made direct contact with Europe in the late fifteenth century. Sultan Mehmet II’s arrest of the Pazzi conspiracy assassin and commissioning of portraits and paintings by the Italian artists had reawakened the Europeans’ fears, reminding them of the previous Turkish “threats” to Christianity and Europe. In response, Italian artists such as Tintoretto created battle scenes harkening back to the conflicts Christian Byzantium had with the Muslim Turks. This type of response exploited the contemporary political tension and reinforced apprehensions about revived contact with the Ottomans. In all the abundance of Renaissance paintings, etchings, woodcuts, and artworks containing images of Turkish sultans or peoples, depictions of Turkish women are rare. Artists who visited Istanbul in the fifteenth century probably did not often see women at court, since women and men were proscribed from mingling much in their daily activities. The Western misconception that women in the Ottoman Empire are slaves subjected to being locked up in harems, victims existing only for the sexual gratification of men, was borne from several of factors: a lack of communication with Turkish women; the incredibly sexist and racist attitudes of the European artists; and a lack of understanding vis-à-vis the customs and practices of Islamic Ottoman Turkish

culture. A portrait of a Turkish woman called The Turkish Slave was painted by the Italian artist Parmigianino in the first half of the sixteenth century. The slave referred to is a woman probably in her late twenties and holding to her chest what looks like a feather duster (if she were labeled a noblewoman I would have concluded that the object was a fan). Strangely enough, she doesn’t look so glum about being a slave, but rather eyes the presumably male European viewer flirtatiously. Furthermore, her clothing and headdress are too rich and delicate to suit the wardrobe of a slave. This paradox of a willing slave perpetuates the idea that Turkish Muslim women are both in captivity, hidden away from the eyes of men other than their husbands, and sexually available to men, especially foreigners. In her gaze, clothing, and unfortunately low status in Turkish society her bondage and servitude is eroticized by the male Western gaze. As with those of sultans and crowds, this painting of a woman exemplifies European fears of Turkish Muslim tyranny. In addition, it is important to point out that this slave looks European and not Turkish. Not only do Renaissance European standards of beauty dictate that all women should have very light skin and eyes, these features were associated with the upper classes of European society. It is unfathomable that a European male would find a darker-skinned or more Turkish-looking woman attractive, and thus Parmigianino portrayed this seductive Turkish slave as a White European. Another way for European Renaissance artists to hyper-sexualize and glorify gender and racial hierarchies in Turkish Muslim society is the practice

of depicting Turkish women in the communal bath, or hammam. As late as the early twentieth century French male artists have made careers out of painting scenes of nude women in large bath complexes, belly dancing and engaging each other in erotic behavior. The Turkish Bath, by Jean Auguste Ingres, represents a scene just like this, continuing the Renaissance idea that Turkish women and women from Islamic societies are so sheltered and repressed that they enact their sexual fantasies together. Moreover, these women are again depicted as whiteskinned with blonde hair, lying completely nude and yet wearing a veil or headdress at the same time. Lack of knowledge about the practice of veiling among many Muslim women and of the religious ritual bathing carried out for purposes of purity contribute much to these ignorant conceptions of the culture of the “other.” Racial hierarchies are repeated in this painting as there are African female slaves attending to the “White” Turkish women in the bath. Thus, the layering of sexual and racial hierarchies is emphasized in European Renaissance artists’ depictions of Turkish Muslim women in order to reiterate the ways in which Islam and Turkish “despotism” threaten the liberty and Christianity of European society. It isn’t difficult for one to see the difference that patronage and intended viewership made on the execution, style, and message of a portrait or painting of Turkish sultans or peoples. Mehmet II’s control over how and by whom his portraits were made eliminated the opportunities his Italian court artists would have had to portray him as that which Europeans thought him to be: an aggressive despot and a threat to Christianity. Nevertheless, the Ottoman Empire’s spread of Islam

struck fear in the hearts and minds of Christian Europeans who believed that any contact with Turkey would result in religious conflict and warfare, despite the Sultan’s diplomatic approaches to Christian religious structures and practices in Istanbul. These anxieties over culture, government and religion had a huge impact on the Italian, German, and French works of art depicting other Turkish sultans, noblemen, and women, thus representing social hierarchies that supposedly characterize Turkish Islamic society. Regardless of how many Turkish men and women these European artists try to caricature, “Europeanize,” or hypersexualize, they expose the perspectives of the “Western” cultures they come from instead of providing visual information about the “Oriental” sitters for the European viewer.

Bibliography Gray, Basil. “Two Portraits of Mehmet II.” The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 61, no. 352 (1932). http://links.jstor.org/ sici?sici=09510788%28193207%2961% 3A352%3C2%3ATPOMI%3E2.0.CO% 3B2-T Lewis, Bernard. A Middle East Mosaic: Fragments of Life, Letters, and History. New York: Random House, 2000. Raby, Julian. “A Sultan of Paradox: Mehmed the Conqueror as a Patron of the Arts.” Oxford Art Journal 5, no. 1 (1982). http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0142-6540 %281982%295%3A1%3C3%3AASOP MT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-C Sakisian, Armenag. “The Portraits of Mehmet II.”

images and various journal articles, all of which were found on art image databases, online journal databases, and through the Interlibrary Loan. After reading my essay again I http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2004/artexchange/ am struck by, and quite content with, artexchange_ss30.shtm the way my research and writing for the paper stretched into territory that I did not expect to explore. Originally, I intended to compare Turkish and Persian depictions with Italian images of sultans (some of those portraits commissioned by Mehmet II himself). That original topic led me to see the ways that “Western” Mirrors on the Walls: ideas about religion, race, class, and Representations of Turkish Muslim Society gender intersected to create a tapestryin Renaissance European Art was originally like discourse responding to contact with written for my Renaissance and Baroque the emerging Ottoman Empire. This great Portraiture class, instructed by Dr. Sheila web of images and portraits of “the Other” ffolliott in the spring semester of 2006. consequently acted as a mirror instead of The various subjects in portraiture, as well a window for the “West” and reflected as the styles and ideas behind the portraits, European ideologies and hierarchies. revealed much about Italian, French, and northern European cultures from the 14th Sheila ffolliott, to the 16th centuries. Near the end of the Professor of Art History course we were required to select a topic on Lara Ayad’s Mirrors on the Walls: for a twenty-minute presentation, and Representations of Turkish Muslim Society also to submit a comprehensive research in Renaissance European Art paper about a related subject. I chose Renaissance portraits of Sultan Mehmet Lara Ayad wrote this essay as part of a II created by Gentile Bellini and Costanzo seminar on Visual and Verbal Portraits in de Ferrara. While conducting research the Renaissance. At that time, the term I realized that the Italian portraits of the portrait connoted a wider range of object sultan actually reflected the “Western” than it does today—what we call a biography perspective more than they did that of or someone’s coat of arms might have the predominantly Muslim “East.” I had been called a portrait, as well as painted previously taken a Representations of or sculpted representations. Students Islam course that covered extensively were asked to give a general presentation Edward Said’s concept of orientalism. on the topics of their choice. Then, after This, coupled with the suggestions of my that presentation and discussion that classmates, compelled me to draw on the ensued, the presenter developed a paper ways European representations of “the from one or more points introduced in Other” revealed more about the creators the presentation that the listeners thought of those representations. I collected many were in need of further thought and The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 74, no. 433 (1939). http:// links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0951- 0788%28193904%2974%3A433%3C17 2%3ATPOMI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-1

Notes

development. For these papers students were asked focus on developing their main argument/s and presenting them in logical succession. Papers must always be annotated and demonstrate their author’s use of appropriately authoritative sources. A successful art history paper involves careful visual analysis of all objects under analysis. As for writing style, I emphasize precision (in choice of words), condensing, avoiding passive voice, and varying sentence structure.

Anthropological Engagements with War, Violence, and Social Suffering: Response to Carolyn Nordstrom’s Shadows of War Alex Antram Carolyn Nordstrom applies the philosopher Michel Foucault’s approach to analyzing power in Shadows of War. Like Foucault, Nordstrom asserts that one must not “attempt some kind of deduction of power starting from its centre and aimed at the discovery of the extent to which it permeates into the base, of the degree to which it reproduces itself down to and including the most molecular elements of society” (Foucault 1972: 99). This dictum is relevant for social scientists, proposing we conduct an ascending analysis of power and the violence related to control; we should attempt to locate the nucleus of a movement beginning with the individual agents, the marginalized peoples affected. In this we see the classic bottom-up approach to ethnography. Nordstrom attempts an examination of the mysterious politics of social conflict, the hidden networks of power that pervade the global economy by first assessing the state of those most accessible, those most violently affected by the processes of war. This essay discusses the shortcomings of Nordstrom’s analysis and presentation, including the difficulty of defining notions behind social conflict, objectivity in research, and the complexity of ethnography. Nordstrom’s bottom-up approach falls short as Shadows of War offers no deep scrutiny of those at the center of

violence who profit from war. We are given the stories of the victims, and while this ethnography is a heart-wrenching account of individual tales across continents, the details of global profiteering and the powerful institutions that benefit from and perhaps promote war are never fully defined. Nordstrom does not give me a deeper understanding of the perpetrators of violence beyond insisting that all nations play a role in the shadow economies of war, and that industrialized societies reap the most rewards of conflict in periphery nations. Nordstrom emphasizes that the extra-state affairs that accompany, fuel, and result from violence have been realities from the beginning of civilization. While globalization has ossified and to some extent regulated these informal power networks, more clandestine social puppetry has always existed, and therefore should be a focus of the academics who study societies. However, because it is difficult to access shadow networks, perilous to study them “ethnographically” for an extended period of time, and hazardous to publish findings that may violate trust and endanger informants, it seems the academy instead focuses on those institutions and power structures that make their presence most known. Nordstrom emphasizes that most academic disciplines, notably neo-

classical economic theory, are unable to properly analyze shadow economies and define the influential actors (Nordstrom 2004: 99). Is anthropology better suited, then, to shed light on shadow institutions, analyze their operations, and produce works that benefit our knowledge of social relationships? It seems Nordstrom believes such, although she never explicitly states that anthropology is a holistic approach best capable of understanding shadows of war, violence, and power. How is anthropology, and specifically ethnography, best suited to study the shadows? Perhaps because anthropologists (should) recognize that social networks do not exist in neat economic and political spheres, they are better prepared than analysts in related disciplines to handle global issues. However, I find it difficult for even ethnographers to encapsulate social problems, and especially a problem as ill-defined as global shadow institutions, for analyses. One of the first exercises required of my fellow students and me during an ethnographic field school was mapping. We were not to simply sight the physical space of the village in which we worked, but also to neatly record in our journals familial and power relationships. Although we realized the place we studied was involved in networks far beyond those of that particular village, or the island, or the country, our sense of logic nevertheless impelled us to define its limits. As students of anthropology, it seems the first tenet of ethnography is to map, to limit perspective, to capture a village/culture/economy in a sphere we can comprehend. Nordstrom avoids these restrictions by making the world her place of research. However, this approach

equally stifles research, as an overly expansive style may ask more questions than one can answer. Several times while reading Nordstrom I was overwhelmed by her attempted cross-cultural analysis of a system of shadows that can’t be readily accessed or defined in the first place. The redundancy I felt while reading Shadows of War comes perhaps from the inability to define such heavy terms as “war,” “violence,” and “power.” Conceptualizing these abstractions forces one to perform what has been called the “god trick” (Jenkins 1998: 124). Any analysis of such concepts requires an “invocation of constructs and theories characterized by the curious quality of at once being located everywhere and nowhere” (Jenkins 1998: 124). The god trick must be applied when examining shadows, and it is necessary in understanding Nordstrom’s view of extra-state networks that operate across all societies, regardless of socio-economic status, specific conflict, or time period. But because of their omnipresence the shadows cannot be contained, cannot be found in one place and thus cannot be studied first-hand, a real dilemma for the ethnographer. The medical anthropoplogist Janis H. Jenkins offers that “our interest must then lie in the political and psychological specification of violence,” and Nordstrom takes this approach (Jenkins 1998: 124). Where Nordstrom has difficulty in specification beyond generalizations, she more than emphasizes the psychological trauma (individual and social) associated with war. She avoids mapping and instead proposes a cross-cultural examination of the effects of war on individual psyches. The shadows are ambiguous by nature, but the stories of individuals are distinctive and may be told through ethnographies.

I realize ethnographies are not supposed to offer clean answers or explanations of social phenomena, but I hope they bring a clearer understanding of some operation in our world; they engage in an effort to help us understand ourselves and how to relate to others. Nordstrom’s accounts of conversations and (seemingly perfect) soliloquies are an example of how the life of a mind affected by war represents the life of war as a whole. The eloquence of Nordstrom’s informants was engaging, but also seemingly manufactured. Such beautiful self-reflection and narration led me to wonder how much Nordstrom embraced selective (re)presentation and selective translation of the informant voice. Certain conversations (presented as interviews) stopped illogically, and seemed to offer a dramatic effect. Nordstrom’s masses of questions in nearly every chapter offer a similar effect. In investigating truth and justice in global politics, Shadows of War plays on our intellectual and emotional sensibilities while raising questions about its own agenda. Nordstrom’s investigation encourages to consider the politics she describes, and to consider our reaction to them. Should we act? In this, Nordstrom raises the issue of advocacy (and therefore objectivity) in anthropology. Though Nordstrom may suggest the academy benefits from a deeper understanding of the shadows, she is equally promoting activism, as ethnographers are trained to analyze peripheral social movement (unlike most political scientists) as it happens (unlike historians), and what is the good of recognizing evil unless one provokes empathy and engagement from the reader? Shadows of War, then, is a prime example of a subjective approach

to ethnography, anthropology not as science, but as cultural critique. One may argue that the cross-cultural analysis that Nordstrom promotes is in itself scientific as it attempts to make generalizations about violence and dominance in all societies. However, simply dealing with the emotional dimensions of war challenges any analysis’s objectivity. Defining the emotions expressed by a subject of violence stems from one’s own social and scholarly enculturation. In such an emotionally and physically charged place as the front lines of war, where Nordstrom believes the ethnographer may decipher the shadows, I have difficulty believing she was able to separate her fear from her interlocutors’, that she was able to consider their pain without sympathy, without introducing their perceptions of war and peace into her own psychological framework. My own emotional involvement with the speakers in Shadows of War, Nordstrom’s play on my conscience, makes me realize more than before how difficult objectivity is in performing ethnography. Shadows of War is both a classic and innovative ethnography. Classic, as it tells the stories of marginalized people, and innovative in that the research was global and took place in the midst of several different spheres of space and conflict. Nordstrom’s position is that that these places and the violence consuming the people living within them are comparable entities, as the power structures that feed the movements are the same across continents. Shadows of War is neither an objective nor scientific approach to understanding the violence and hope that seem to be so enmeshed in our being. It is nonetheless a powerful account of economic and political injustice.

References Foucault, Michel 1972

Jenkins, Janis H. 1998

Power/Knowledge, trans. Colin Gordon et al. New York: Pantheon Books.

The Medical Anthropology of Political Violence: A Cultural and Feminist Agenda. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 12: 122-131.

Nordstrom, Carolyn 2004 Shadows of War: Violence, Power and International Profiteering the in Twenty-First Century. Berkeley: University of California Press.

discourse would help develop my own reaction to Shadows of War. Thus, using my themes, I researched what other social scientists had to say about anthropology in terms of war and power dynamics. Of course I couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t include all of my reflections in six pages, but rather chose to develop themes that spoke to my field experiences in ethnography and interest in politically engaged anthropology. This essay helped me better understand my role as an aspiring cultural anthropologist, and the difficulties I am sure to face separating my emotional engagement with informants from an objective analysis of social situations.

Notes The assignment was simpleâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a reflective response to a text we read in class. We had no restriction save for a page limit, and the expectation that our writing be up to par with the scholarly dialogue. Somewhat frightened by this freedom, I relied on a writing process I have come to accept as my approach to open-ended assignments. After reading Shadows of War and marking especially salient passages, I engaged the text by recording quotations and paraphrases into a word document and adding my own commentary. I then rearranged the passages into themes. Though this was a reflective essay, and sources other than the primary text were not required, I felt reading related

Semasiology in the Current Discourse of Autobiography Eva Wolfberg Most 20th and 21st Century autobiography theorists agree with the theory of autobiography that Northrop Frye develops in Anatomy of Criticism. According to Frye, the autobiographical discourse cannot be defined as simple nonfiction because of the autobiographer’s impulse to fictionalize himself or herself following “a creative, and therefore fictional, impulse to select only those events and experiences in the writer’s life that go to build up an integrated pattern” (307). The conventions of the genre that writers and critics take into account recognize and allow fictionality in autobiography. These conventions, however, clash with the convention that autobiography is or should be a highly accurate text of one’s life, an idea commonly held by the readers of autobiography. The disparity between expectations for the genre has led theorists to debate whether autobiography is a genre at all. Some theorists, such as Paul De Man, argue that it is not a genre but “a figure of understanding that occurs, to some degree, in all texts” (921). Others such as Roy Pascal argue that autobiography is less a genre than a method of tying author and reader together in “a spiritual experiment, a voyage of discovery” (132). But regardless of whether autobiography constitutes a genre, most agree that the discourse is in itself problematic, and noted autobiography theorists generate terms other than autobiography to compensate

for the ambiguities in the discourse that stem from the clash between authors’ and readers’ expectations. According to Pascal, autobiography should be referred to as “autobiographical writing” (12). This term avoids readers’ expectations “from autobiography a totality rather than a quintessence” (12). The basis of Pascal’s argument is readers’ expectations of what an autobiography should be. He argues that readers of autobiography expect a complete picture, one that encompasses the entire landscape of the author’s life, instead of an interpretive landscape that is not comprehensive. In order to be a true autobiography, according to Pascal, the work must start from the source, incorporating everything that occurs from the time of the author’s childhood to the time in which he begins writing the work. Pascal views true autobiography as a process that allows the audience to see the writer develop over the course of his life. But most of the autobiographies published do not span an entire life holistically; they place more emphasis on either later or earlier years. Therefore, Pascal suggests that the majority of works called autobiographies should actually be called autobiographical writings, because they lack the completeness that autobiography suggests. Pascal focuses on the difference between the terms “autobiography” and “autobiographical writing” in his effort to solve the complications implicit in the

discourse. Like Pascal, James Olney looks at autobiography as a process that is present throughout an entire life. Olney finds the term autobiography very limiting, and refers to the piece of writing as a “final work” in his 1980 book Metaphors of Self (4). According to Olney, the experiences in a person’s life make the autobiography, rather than the autobiography shaping the experiences, and the term “final work” is better suited to the discourse than “autobiography,” because it is denotes an end. The final work will be representative of the autobiographer and of the process throughout which he writes his text. Olney uses the term “lifework” to describe the “impulse” that causes someone to write down the story of his or her life (4). In his 1996 book Memory and Narrative, Olney describes the array of terms such as “confessions, autobiography, memoirs, periautography, and the most frequently employed term-life-writing” that suit the discourse (xv). Olney at this stage of his writing prefers to use the term periautography, “which would mean ‘writing about or around the self,’” because its “lack of generic rigor, its comfortably loose fit and generous adaptability” make it well suited for the range of possibilities called autobiography (xv). This flexibility is important because it would give the work more creative space in the genre. While Pascal and Olney theorize that true autobiography must span an entire life, Paul John Eakin theorizes that autobiography ordinarily contains a large narrative element. Because of this, he refers to most autobiography as “life writing,” a term that carries an implication of self-narration (99). Eakin connects the autobiographer’s personal experience with

the relaying of it in text, and believes this connection to be an important element in the discourse of autobiography. Whenever the autobiographical element is used, Eakin proposes, “life writing” is the term that properly connects the autobiographer to her own experience in the text. Pascal’s, Olney’s, and Eakin’s discussions of autobiography and the semasiological arguments about it are based in the literary structure, and not on the background of the autobiographer. In contrast, Domna Stanton focuses on gender, and refers to women’s autobiography as “autogynography.” Stanton differentiates between the autobiography written by men and autobiography written by woman, and argues that due to differences implicit in the life writings of women, the word autobiography alone does not do women’s life writing justice. The word autogynography is a combination of the words autobiography and gyno, Greek for woman. The word gyno inserted in autobiography works as an intensifier, and reminds the reader that he is reading an autobiography written by a woman. Stanton challenges what she sees as a discourse full of patriarchal terminology. Several autobiography theorists’ preferences for what they call autobiography have been described throughout the course of this review. Roy Pascal proffers the term autobiographical writing for works that do not span entire lifetimes. James Olney used life work earlier in his work, and then used periautography, which is writing around the self, to describe autobiography later in his career. Paul John Eakin has linked narration and self to the term life writing. Domna Stanton invented the term autogynography to describe autobiographies written by women.

All the scholars reviewed find unique terms for the discourse in order to move past the problems that all four agree are intrinsic in the genre. There is no universal agreement among scholars on what term to use. Theorists’ lack of insistence on sticking with a term for autobiography in their own works complicates the discourse of autobiography greatly. What is a memoir; what is life writing; what is periautography? How can the reader distinguish between the terms, and pick up on the subtle differences if the theorists themselves are not consistent? The discourse of autobiography is like a house of mirrors, each of which distorts the reader’s own image. As soon as a reader has a term that helps her understand the conventions of the genre, she sees her own image reflected. She passes this term to find another and sees again her own reflection, another problem in the genre, and the entire discourse becomes distorted all over again.

Works Cited De Man, Paul. “Autobiography as De-Facement.” MLN. 94.5 (1979): 919-930. Eakin, Paul John. Fictions in Autobiography. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985. Eakin, Paul John. How Our Lives Become Stories. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999. Frye, Northrop. Anatomy of Criticism. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1957. Olney, James. Metaphors of Self. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972.

Olney, James. Studies in Autobiography. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. Pascal, Roy. Design and Truth in Autobiography. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1960. Stanton, Domna. “Autogynography: Is the Subject Different?” The Female Autograph: Theory and Practice of Autobiography from the Tenth to the Twentieth Century, Ed. Domna Stanton. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984, 1-29.

Notes Dr. Broyles English department on Eva Wolfberg’s Semasiology in the Current Discourse of Autobiography A literature review surveys the important scholarly literature on a topic under debate; it should comment on all the major writings on the topic, objectively summarizing their main ideas or conclusions. Essays should also discuss the important trends or patterns of thought the students found in their research. The goal of Ms. Wolfberg’s paper, for example, is not to argue for her own definition of autobiography as a genre but to clarify how autobiography is or is not defined in the academic community. Students are graded on the thoroughness of their research, the clarity and concision of their summaries and paraphrases, the quality of their thesis, and how well the thesis is supported.

Essays in the Humanities: Discussion Questions 1. These essays are drawn from classes in Art History, Anthropology, and English. The assignments were different and their authors have different voices, but the essays all belong under the humanities umbrella. What characteristics join them? What do professors in the humanities value in student essays?

her thoughts, cite evidence from Nordstrom, or both? 5. How can you apply Alex’s method of criticism to Alex’s own essay? What issues would you raise with the way Alex approaches ethnography?

6. Eva Wolfberg’s essay, Semasiology in the Current Discourse of 2. Lara Ayad’s essay, Mirrors on Autobiography, reviews the terms used the Walls: Representations of Turkish by a variety of critics of autobiography. Muslim Society in Renaissance How does Eva connect those brief European Art, looks at a series of reviews to a larger thesis? Can you artworks. How does Lara guide you, find a connection to the thesis in the reader, through the multiple works her discussion of each critic under she lists? What does she do to prevent review? your becoming confused? 7. In her introductory statement, 3. Where and how does Lara Eva says “I, too, am inconsistent in the connect her own arguments and ideas terms I use for autobiography.” Why to the pieces under discussion? What does Eva feel that this is problematic, are the benefits and drawbacks of Lara’s and how does it connect with the structure? theme of her essay? Where and how would you edit Eva’s paper to give her 4. Alex Antram’s essay, suggestions for greater consistency? Anthropological Engagements with War, Violence, and Social Suffering: Response to Carolyn Nordstrom’s Shadows of War, takes issue with Nordstrom’s approach to the ethnography of war. What are some of the issues Alex raises? Why is she dissatisfied with Nordstrom’s work? How does she support each of her concerns—does she write out 23

ESSAYS IN THE

Sciences

The Association between Periodontitis and Central Nerve Disorders Tri Tran Abstract Recent technological advances have allowed doctors and medical experts to identify specific pathways and mechanisms by which dental pathology associates with cardiovascular diseases (CVD). CVD has been known to systematically spread and cause central nerve disease and brain dysfunction. This is evident in cardiovascular diseased patients experiencing secondary infections resulting in meningitis, pneumonia, and cerebrovascular accident, otherwise known as a stroke. The link provided by the cardiovascular system between periodontitis (PD) and central nerve diseases indicates the capability of periodontal pathogens to cause secondary infections. With further research, medical experts may be able to determine if PD can directly cause neurological diseases without the onset of CVD. The majority of publications and journal articles emphasize that central nervous diseases occur as the result of cardiovascular and other systemic diseases. The scope of this proposal, however, is to determine if PD can directly infect the brain and set off a harmful central nervous response through a series of pathways and mechanisms that do not include the cardiovascular route. The first half of this report summarizes the current understanding of how PD elicits CVD. This claim is supported with

research publications and journal articles consisting of case studies and data reports. The second half of this report explains how CVD can eventually spread to damage the central nervous system. Both halves will then merge and the relationship between PD and central nervous disorders will be clearly stated.

How are Periodontitis and Cardiovascular Diseases Related? In the journal American Society for Microbiology, periodontal disease is defined as â&#x20AC;&#x153;an inflammatory condition [occurring] in the mouth that is caused by a chronic bacterial infection with specific gram-negative-organismsâ&#x20AC;? (Dorn, Dunn and Progulske-Fox, 1999, p. 5792). Gramnegative organisms are subcategories of bacteria with specific physical properties that aid in evading and infecting their hosts. Recent epidemiological data have indicated a strong correlation between PD and CVD. This relationship is quite complex, but there is a basic understanding of how each condition is agonistic toward the other. This direct relationship shows that an increase in one will lead to an increase in the other. A case study was performed and published in 1989 by the British Medical Journal in which acute myocardial infarction (AMI) was more prevalent in patients with poor dental

health than in those found in a control population (Matilda, p. 779). Bacteria are always present in the mouth, and these bacteria are capable of becoming pathogenic and infectious toward the oral epithelial tissues. If a person’s immune system is significantly compromised, bacterial plaque can cause gum inflammation and the opening of pores in the sub-gingival lining. These openings enable bacteria to enter the bloodstream and travel to several organ systems in the body, including, in this case, the heart (Gutshall & Duff, 2005, p. 1). Two studies, first by DeStefano et al., and a second by Genco et al., examined this relationship between PD and CVD. In both studies, the researchers were interested in porphyromonas gingivalis and Prevotella intermedia (gramnegative bacteria), oral pathogens that have systemically caused heart infection. Researchers from the first study extracted samples of blood serum and gingival tissue samples from patients suffering from PD. They used DNA centrifugation to isolate the DNA in the blood serum and tissue sample to determine bacterial identity, and then ran isolation assays to find the glycoprotein makeup in the lipopolysaccharides (LPS) of the bacteria. They found that both Poryphyromonas gingivalis and Prevotella intermedia were present in the blood serum and heart tissue samples (DeStefano, Anda, Kahn and Williamson, 1993, p. 689). The latter study performed a different experiment, employing in vitro methods with Poryphyromonas gingivalis and Prevotella intermedia to stimulate a pathogenic infection. Growth performed in vitro is prompted in a controlled environment, like a laboratory, outside an animal’s body (Genco, Offenbacher and Beck,

2002, p. 15S). In this case, researchers inoculated fetal bovine ventricle and aortic endothelial tissue cells with the two bacteria. The scientists graphed a logistical curve to chart the rate of bacterial growth and concluded that both bacteria had exponential growth in a shorter period of time than other bacteria.

How do Periodontal Pathogens Invade the Cardiovascular System? These studies prove that PD can lead to CVD, but how did infection take place on a molecular level? Two departments at a research center in Gainesville, Florida ran a series of tests infecting human coronary artery endothelial cells (HCAEC) and coronary artery smooth muscle cells (CASMC). Results from the experiment showed that Poryphyromonas gingivalis and Prevotella intermedia were capable of invading HCAEC and CASMC by causing cells to rearrange their cytoskeleton and activate certain chemicals within the cells’ organelles (Dorn et al., 1999, p. 5792). Certain strains of the two bacteria were more invasive than others, but each strain was consistent in weakening the cells’ infrastructure and increasing their susceptibility to infection. The study concluded that the “oral cavity of periodontitic patients served as a potentially large reservoir for gramnegative pathogenic organisms that could interact with cardiovascular tissues” (Dorn et al., 1999, p. 5792). In patients with periodontal activity, bacteria in the mouth will signal the host’s body to produce chemicals and cause the inflammatory process to begin.

These processes damage coronary arteries that can lead to AMI. This study proves that certain periodontal pathogens are able to invade human coronary artery cells by key pathways and mechanisms. Lack of oral hygiene increases bacteria diversity in the oral reservoir. Bacteria are classified into categories based on their virulence and when overall health deteriorates, the immune system decreases its levels of activity and fails to protect the mucosal membranes effectively. Patients become more susceptible to severe infections and deadlier pathogens become frequently detected.

Periodontitis and Other Forms of Cardiovascular Diseases G. Rutger Persson, lead researcher at the Department of Periodontitis and Oral Medicine at the University of Washington, examined PD and various forms of CVD, excluding AMI. In this study, patients underwent periodontal examinations by dentists using techniques such as “probing pocket depths at four sites per tooth (distance between the gingival margin to the perceived bottom of the pocket and clinical attachment) using mmgraded periodontal probes. They checked for the presence of supra-gingival dental plaque and gingival bleeding” (Persson, Ohlsson, Pettersson and Renvert, 2003, p. 2109). The study determined that patients with PD had high instances of fatal coronary heart diseases (CHD). The research team “determined the odds of having CHD and CP, and identified [the] diagnostic periodontal threshold [would be] significant in association for the two diseases” (Persson et al., 2003, p. 2109).

Fabio Angeli, of the American Heart Association, reported that periodontal diseases have caused abnormal growth of the Left Ventricular Mass (LVM). Individuals were screened, analyzed, and given four quartiles ranging from zero to four. A zero meant no quadrants and indicated the healthiest degree of periodontal activity. A four represented the worst-case scenario, in which all four quadrants were filled, and was considered unhealthy (Angeli, Verdecchia, Pellegrino, Pellegrino, Pellegrino, Prosciutti, Giannoni, Bentivoglio and Cianetti, 2003, p. 488). These individuals were then monitored by an echocardiograph instrument that generated a 3-D image of the heart using ultrasonic sound waves. This 3-D map allowed the team to determine if structural and functional abnormalities were present in the patient’s heart. Results showed that “the progressive increase in LVM with the periodontal status and the prevalence of moderate-to-severe PD in the four quartiles of LVM [were] detected [and] subjects in the fourth quartile of LVM showed the highest forms of moderate-tosevere periodontitis” (Angeli et al., 2003, p. 489). Individuals with PD have recurring infections in their mouths due to bacterial release of endotoxins, exotoxins, heat shock proteins, and acutephase reactants. These influxes of foreign antigens stimulate the body to promote active immunity and inflammatory responses leading to an increase in hypertension (blood pressure) in the body, and the constant rise of unnecessary blood pressure overworks the left ventricle of the heart. Athletes experience similar growth in their LV, but the increase in heart size here is a result of their intensive

training, and athletes’ strengthened heart muscles are capable of handling the systolic and diastolic pressures of blood flow. Non-athletic individuals don’t have strongly built heart muscle fibers, and the increase in size of the left ventricle creates problems for the force of the blood flow. Pressure overload induces LV hypertrophy, which narrows the luminal diameter of microvessels, causing microcirculatory dysfunction and arteriolar and capillary rarefaction (Angeli et al., 2003, p. 491) Aside from LVM increase, CVD often leads to different systematic infections in the body. Oral infection can lead to other secondary non-oral diseases such as cavernous sinus thrombosis (nasal infection), sinusitis, lung abscess/ infection, skin ulcers, osteomyelitis (bone marrow infection), inflammatory bowel disease, prosthetic joint infection, toxic shock syndrome, systematic granulocytic cell defects (blood cells) (Persson et al., 2003, p. 548). In the context of this research proposal, CVD does lead to cerebral infarction and has contributed to numerous kinds of central nerve disease.

How are Cardiovascular and Central Nerve Diseases Related? The incidence of CVD may cause secondary infections resulting from bacteria infiltrating the blood-brain barrier and causing neurological disorders. The blood-brain barrier is a membrane that limits which substances pass from the blood into the central nervous system. Another facet of this interconnectivity is the vagus nerve, which connects the brain directly to the heart. This nerve is primarily responsible for parasympathetic

activity of the heart, maintaining its constant influx and efflux of information. Chronic PD damages this innate and adaptive immune system, and the bloodbrain barrier becomes compromised. A compromise in the barrier allows pulmonary bacteria direct access to the brain, where all the nerve cells and neural protein are denatured. Upon bacteria arrival, endocrine glands secrete chemical messengers, flooding the brain. This can cause the brain to become inflamed, pinching nerve vessels and restricting blood flow. Insufficient blood circulating to the brain reduces oxygen delivery and can result in adverse neural responses. Research is already being conducted on the incidence of cardiovascular diseases and their relation to cerebrovascular accidents. A cerebrovascular accident occurs when “blood supplying to the brain is interrupted by a clogged or ruptured blood vessel. This can be caused by bacteria aggregation or thrombosis leading to the cerebrovascular disease” (Highleyman, 2002, p. 13). The “inflamed periodontium releases inflammatory cytokines, LPS, and bacteria into the systemic circulation, and they may promote atherosclerosis and affect blood coagulation, the function of platelets, and prostaglandin syntheses, thereby contributing to the onset of a stroke” (Li, Kolltveit, Tronstad and Olsen, 2000, p. 551).

How do Cardiovascular Pathogens Invade the Central Nervous System? In their CVD and stroke studies, the Department of Oral Biology and Department of Endodontics at the University of Oslo used a multivariate

logistic regression equation and model to explain how secretion of inflammatory chemical messengers initiates strokes (Li et al., 2000, p. 554). Prostaglandins are pain chemicals that signal the brain that certain tissues in the body are being physically damaged or infected with pathogens. Release of prostaglandins in turn causes the release of thromboxane, a chemical messenger responsible for blood coagulation. Blood coagulation is a healthy attribute, but excessive coagulation in people suffering from heart disorders can lead to an ischemic stroke. Pathogens’ invading the bloodbrain barrier and other systemic tissue can cause paralysis or tetanus, and these pathogens can come from the dental area. A build-up of plaque in the mouth causes deep-pitted invaginations in the dentition. These pits can form pockets that become sealed with additional plaque. The pockets are impermeable to oxygen, and anaerobic bacteria trapped in these pits are able to grow and reproduce. An anaerobic gram-positive bacterium can secrete a neurological exotoxin that inhibits neurotransmitters from binding to muscle receptors in the brain. This causes the body system to slowly shut down, and individuals suffering from this disease die due to a failure of the respiratory system. Other bacteria, such as Clostridium tetanus, can elicit an entirely different neurological response. Clostridium tetanus is also a gram-positive bacterium, but its exotoxin causes the neurons to continuously fire neurotransmitters to the muscle receptors at abnormal rates. The rapid firing is too fast for receptor binding and this causes sporadic movements and uncontrollable seizures. The presence of bacteria in blood serum (bacteremia) often increases after many types of dental

procedures. “Bacteremia was observed in 100% of the patients after dental extraction, in 70% after dental scaling, in 55% after third-molar surgery, in 20% after endodontic treatment, and in 55% after bilateral tonsillectomy” (Li et al., 2000, p. 547).

The Relationship Between Periodontitis and Central Nerve Disease Bacteremia often happens after procedures like third molar extractions or root canals because when removing a tooth and its root, the bone dentition is reduced in size, decreasing the surface area in the mouth. Loss of surface area weakens epidermal surfaces in the gums and bacteria can infect the body more readily and attack blood vessels. Bacteremia can be treated with anti-biotics and treatment is not difficult, but because bacteria are always in the mouth, treatment can not be administered infinitely. The normal flora in the mouth protect the mouth from foreign particles and bacteria, or transient flora. Administering antibiotics kill the transient flora, but kills the normal flora as well. A case report at the Gill Medical Center explained that a patient treated for PD ended up suffering from severe headaches and dizziness a month after treatment. The problems persisted and he soon experienced weakness in his extremities leading to hemiparesis (partial body paralysis). “A computed tomographic (CT) scan of his head revealed a left-sided hypodense parietal lesion (3 by 2.7 cm) with cystic, contrast ring enhancement and perilesional edema exerting a significant mass effect” (Lee, Lee, Kim, Yang, Seo

and Cho, 2004, p. 2338). Doctors believed it to be a brain tumor, but an emergency osteoplastic craniotomy revealed a biopsy of an encapsulated mass containing yellow-whitish pus. Doctors reevaluated the diagnoses and determined that it was brain abscessment (Lee et al., 2004, p. 2338). Culturing the pathogen, doctors revealed the bacteria to be Gemella haemolysans. Gemella haemolysans is a gram-negative rod bacterium that is often a component of plaque. This bacterium has been linked to individuals suffering from “meningitis, endophthalmitis, pharyngeal abscess, thorax spondylodiscitis, but especially endocarditis” (Lee et al., 2004, p. 2339). Gemella haemolysans is part of the transient flora in the mouth, and individuals who are immune compromised and have poor dental hygiene can suffer from rapid colonization and infection by this bacterium. This bacterium can travel through the systemic circulatory system and cause endocarditis. Endocarditis has been known to cause brain abscessment due to the interrupted blood flow from the brain to the heart. “Apical venous drainage is connected with the cavernous sinus, and a septic embolus could move by reverse flow, which occurs during yawning and mastication” (Lee et al., 2004, p. 2339). This in turn may lead to brain abscesses caused by oral anaerobes present in endocarditic patients. In the ordinary circulatory route, blood is dumped from the sinus cavity (oral site) back into the top portion of the heart (apical venous), but an embolism could interrupt the flow in endocarditic patients to send the bacteria directly from the heart to the brain. But there is perhaps a greater probability that oral bacteria could invade the central nervous system directly without the infection of the

cardiovascular system. New and unusual enzymes in bacteria capable of degrading collagen fibers have recently been discovered by J. Harrington, Dean at the School of Health Sciences, University of Sunderland. These enzymes are referred to as “collagenases” and have been found in Streptococcus mutans and Porphyomonas, which are well known pathogens in periodontal and gingival diseases. The body consists of collagen fibers made up of mucosal polysaccharides that strengthen bone structure and blood vessels. Collagenases allow the bacteria to destroy the structural collagen fibers often found in tendons, spongy bone, ligaments, teeth and the extracellular matrix proteins that regulate the blood-brain barrier medium (Harrington, 1996, p. 1888). This could directly hinder the efficiency of the bloodbrain barrier making the CNS more susceptible to bacterial infection. Studies have shown that mammals (including humans) produce the same collagenases in their cells, but due to unknown mechanisms, scientists are still uncertain how mammals are capable of avoiding autonomous self destruction in cells with these collagenases. Other studies have discovered that “bacterial proteinases may be capable of activating latent mammalian collagenases, thus contributing to the degradation of collagen indirectly” (Harrington, 1996, p. 1885). In order for doctors to fully understand this medical mystery, more research and studies must be conducted. Progress has already been shown in rat models where “bacterial collagenases have disrupted the extracellular matrix surrounding brain tissue and cause opening of the blood-brain barrier, resulting in hemorrhagic lesions and edema in brain tissue” (Kato & Kato, 1997, p. 1).

Proposal and Future Studies There is potential research for the scientific community to determine if there is a definite link between periodontitis and central nervous diseases. This paper stresses that more research needs to be conducted to verify and confirm that this relationship is valid and significant. Research in this field of health can allow doctors to understand the mystery behind bacteria protein signaling for host cell production of enzymes to inflict self-damage. When doctors are able to understand these mechanisms, they can produce newer antibiotics specifically geared to these kinds of bacteria. Advanced pharmaceutical treatments could be capable of inhibiting these bacterial proteins by shutting down their mechanisms for protein production to prevent host infection. This would require pharmacologists to use their pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic skills to create a drug that will target specific DNA strains of bacteria and viruses that damage the oral and neural route. Aside from finding cures and treatments, scientists can also use their knowledge about oral pathogens causing central nerve diseases to develop preventive health measures, such as vaccine production. Vaccines have the capability of reducing risks of bacterial or viral infections. They could be administered to children or high-risk patients likely to suffer from both diseases. Patients can be exposed early to certain particles of infectious micro-organisms or viruses (vaccine subunits) to elicit an immune response and allow themselves long term immunity and protection even if suffering

from chronic PD. This way, periodontal activity in patients can be eliminated or localized in the oral cavity. Localization would mean the bacteria is restricted to the confines of the mouth and not spread progressively to other organ systems in the body, such as the heart or the central nervous system.

Works Cited Angeli, Fabio, Paolo Verdecchia, Concetta Pellegrino, Giacinto Pellegrino, Rosaria G. Pellegrino, Lucio Prosciutti, Claudia Giannoni, Maurizio Bentivoglio, and Stefano Cianetti. “Association Between Periodontal Disease and Left Ventricle Mass in Essential Hypertension.” American Heart Association 41 (2003): 488-492. 8 Dec. 2006 <http://hyper. ahajournals.org/cgi/reprint/41/3/488. pdf>. De Stefano, F, RF Anda, HS Kahn, DS Williamson, and CM Russell. “Dental Disease and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease and Mortality.” British Medical Journal 306 (1993): 688-691. Dorn, Brian R., William A. Dunn, and Ann Progulske-Fox. “Invasion of Human Coronary Artery Cells by Periodontal Pathogens.” American Society for Microbiology os 67 (1999): 5792-5798. 7 Dec. 2006 <http://iai.asm.org/cgi/ reprint/67/11/5792.pdf>. Genco, Robert, Steven Offenbacher, and James Beck. “http://www.ada.org/prof/resources/ pubs/jada/reports/suppl_hearthealth_ 03.pdf.” American Dental Association June-July 2002. 10 Dec. 2006 <http:// www.ada.org/prof/resources/pubs/jada/ reports/suppl_hearthealth_03.pdf>. Gutshall, Kerry, and Amy Duff. “Levels of Bacteria in Plaque Beneath the Gum Line May Increase Risk for Heart Attacks.” Eurekalert. 19 May 2005. The American Academy of Periodontology. 5 Dec. 2006 <http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_

releases/2005-05/aaop-lob051905.php>. Harrington, Dean J. “Bacterial Collagenases and Collagen-Degrading Enzymes And.” American Society for Microbiology os 64 (1996): 1885-1891. 10 Dec. 2006 <http:// iai.asm.org/cgi/reprint/64/6/1885.pdf>. Highleyman, Liz. “Cardiovascular Disease in People with HIV.” The Body 2002. 7 Dec. 2006 <http://www.thebody.com/sfaf/ summer02/pdfs/cardiovascular.pdf>. Kato, Naoki, and Haru Kato. “Molecular Detection and Identification of Anaerobic Bacteria.” Journal of Infection and Chemotherapy 3 (1997): 5-14. 10 Dec. 2006 <http:// w w w. s p r i n g e r l i n k . c o m / c o n t e n t / d10n138785115n03/>. Lee, Mi Ra, Sang-Oh Lee, Sue-Yun Kim, Sun Mee Yang, Yiel-Hae Seo, and Yong Kyun Cho. “Brain Abscess Due to Gemella Haemolysans.” Journal of Clinical Microbiology os 42 (2004): 2338-2340. 7 Dec. 2006 <http://jcm.asm.org/cgi/ reprint/42/5/2338.pdf>. Li, Xiaojing, Kristin M. Kolltveit, Leif Tronstad, and Ingar Olsen. “Systemic Diseases Caused by Oral Infection.” American Society for Microbiology. os 13 (2000): 547-558. 7 Dec. 2006 <http://cmr.asm. org/cgi/reprint/13/4/547.pdf>. Matilda, KJ. “Association Between Dental Health and Acute Myocardial Infarction.” British Medical Journal os 298 (1989): 779-782. Persson, Rutger G., Ohla Ohlsson, Thomas Pettersson, and Stefan Renvert. “Chronic Periodontitis, a Significant Relationship With.” European Heart Journal ns 24 (2003): 2108-2115. 8 Dec. 2006 <http://eurheartj.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/ reprint/24/23/2108.pdf>.

Notes This paper was assigned to me as a final research paper. My professor explained to the class that we each should

choose our research topic in a scientific field related to our major. I chose dental pathology because I just recently got into New York University’s dental school and dentistry is a profession I am passionate about. I wrote three separate drafts and revised the paper with peer editors. I also had a 20-minute session with my professor to evaluate and critique the final draft of my paper. I talk about dental and heart diseases that are commonly known, but I am pleased with my ability to investigate if these diseases in turn can cause an emergence of secondary neurological diseases. Carroll Hauptle English Department on Tri Tran’s The Association between Periodontitis and Central Nerve Disorders For this paper, students select their own topic, researching a “gap” in the scientific literature related to an area of science they are personally interested in. We discuss (and usually narrow) the thesis in class, and students produce an annotated bibliography. Their initial draft is peer-reviewed and then revised and submitted to me for review. We meet individually to discuss further revision before they produce a final version. The ideal response shows both critical thinking and familiarity with the existing literature. Organization is dictated by standards for the field, which follow a fairly rigid structure from abstract through literature review to results. The style is APA and they are required to fit its requirements. I encourage a great deal of in-class discussion about the way the material presents unique opportunities for creative thinking within the context of expository writing.

Making Mason’s Databases More Accessible Adam Gurri George Mason University’s databases are among its most valuable contributions to the academic community. Their accessibility, accuracy, and currency provide students and scholars with powerful tools in their research. Yet in the era of Web 2.0, Mason’s databases still retain the keyword, category-search feel of the mid-1990’s. The average web browser has access to many powerful tools unavailable on the Mason databases. I propose the integration of a handful of tools which will make George Mason’s databases more usable, increasing the accessibility of information with each use. Tagging metadata, biasing searches in favor of those sources most cited by other sources, providing suggestions based on past behavior, and providing a place to submit reviews of each source are just some of the methods for achieving this result. Metadata is, simply, data about data. For a Mason database, metadata comes in the form of subject-categories. Just what those categories are and the particular sources put under them are determined by decisions made more or less arbitrarily by the people maintaining the database. This arbitrariness can breed problems, and difficulties associated with categorization are numerous. For example, a book on Thomas Jefferson could be put categorized as “Colonial American History,” or as “19th Century American History,” or even as “General American

History.” The intuitive, illogical quality of subject-categorization prevents a user from knowing in advance how to search for the book; one must guess what the people at the top decided to put it under. I do not argue that this is a bad system. It is an entirely necessary system, which addresses certain problems that originate in the multiplicity of categories associated with any one subject. However, there is a very simple approach that can compensate for many of this system’s shortcomings. On the Internet, a special activity called “tagging” allows metadata to be modified and clarified relatively easily, with a single word or phrase. A webmaster might tag his own page with the word “politics,” so that it would be more likely to be found if “politics” were typed into a search engine. But a more revolutionary form of tagging comes from the browsers themselves. Take del.icio.us , for example. Users of del.icio.us download a button they add to their browser toolbars. This button allows the user to tag any interesting webpage she comes across. When she hits the button, activating del.icio.us, a new window pops up with the URL and title of the site. The user can then add a summary and, most importantly, a one-word tag. A bookmark of the page is then saved and can be viewed in the user’s personal list of tagged pages. Unlike a normal bookmark aggregator, del.icio.us is equipped to handle massive numbers. Hundreds or

http://del.icio.us/

even thousands of bookmarks can be saved by one user alone. Since each bookmark is tagged with very specific information, it will never be lost in the crowd—the user can search for her personalized tag to easily find the bookmark. There is no limit to the number of tags a user can attribute to any given page; the more tags per page, the easier it will be to find. Yet internal function isn’t half the story. When a del.icio.us user tags a webpage, that page and the metadata added by the user are saved to the larger site itself, which can be searched by anyone. If someone else has bookmarked the page, both sets of tags will be attributed to it. If the second person has chosen to identify the page with the same tags, the page carries more weight and receives higher priority in searches that use those words. The benefit to this communal tagging is clear. To return to the earlier example, if 3,000 people tag an article on Jefferson with the word “colonial,” it will be more likely to appear at the top of a keyword search for “colonial” than if it had been tagged only 30 times as “colonial.” In this way, adding tags capitalizes on the shared wisdom of Internet users, as pages are categorized in the way the mass of users agrees on. The benefits are even more exciting when applied to scholarly research. Using tags, students and researchers could have their own spaces in which to save and organize their digital sources. And the very act of organizing those sources would contribute information to make future research easier. Tagging is not a foreign concept here at Mason. Zotero , a program developed by our very own Center for

History and New Media, utilizes tagging in order to help students organize their notes. In fact, its system of allowing entire phrases to be used as tags is, in my opinion, far more effective than the oneword system utilized by del.icio.us. The main contribution of del.icio.us is the system of unintentional collaboration that it creates which makes it continually easier to find relevant information. Like tagging’s reliance on its inherent collaboration, the Google PageRank system uses collective user wisdom. The PageRank system is an excellent example to follow in databases that contain scholarly articles. As the Google page itself explains ;

http://www.zotero.org/

PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages “important. This system of linking pages, the essential unit of the Internet, can be easily applied to the linkage of citations, the essential units of scholarly research. Just as Google uses links to determine the value of a webpage, so too can citations listed within scholarly sources be valued. In fact, the original article on the PageRank http://www.google.com/technology/

algorithm compared links to citations . In this use, the database search engine would be biased toward those sources that have been cited most frequently by other sources. As with Google, a degree of authority is built into the system, as the weight conferred by a citation from any particular source will be determined by how frequently that source has itself been cited. And, as with tagging, a degree of collective wisdom is built in. Who better to decide what the best sources are than scholars themselves? The third method of data organization is inspired by the Amazon. com recommendation system. Many of us are familiar with this system. When a user looks at a book on Amazon, a small selection of suggested purchases appears, headed by the line “customers who purchased this book also purchased _____” . In incorporating this recommendation function into scholarly research, a database manager could simply track which sources have been accessed by the same user in a single session. As with Amazon, that information would be fed into a list of recommendations to appear at the beginning or the end of every source listing. In this case, the line might state something like “researchers who accessed this source also looked at _____”, providing a potentially helpful lead for students feeling lost in the sea of sources. As with all of these tools, the recommendations system gets increasingly helpful the longer it is used and the more users it tracks. My final suggestion is based on http://dbpubs.stanford.edu:8090/ pub/1999-66 http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/102-5760467-5725721?ie=UT F8&nodeId=13316081#yourbrowsing

the customer review, another Amazon feature. The value of this is similar to the other metadata, in that the greater the number of reviews submitted, the more likely it is that the review will be a useful to future scholars. As with that of Amazon, this feature should include the ability to rate other people’s reviews. It is also necessary to provide the option of viewing the newest reviews, or the reviews with the highest average rating. This allows the reviews found most useful by the largest number of people to flourish, while also giving the newest reviews that haven’t had enough time to accumulate good ratings the chance to receive exposure. I know that many of these suggestions may not be easy to implement. Tracking which sources are cited by whom is certainly an arduous task. But I am confident that if these tools become a reality, Mason will be on the very cutting edge of information organization. More importantly, we will shrink the world of sources, and enrich the world with countless people who will be better informed as a result.

Works Cited [1] J. Schachter, “Home Page – del.icio.us,” Del.icio. us. [Online]. Available: http://del.icio.us/. [Accessed: Feb. 9, 2007] [2] George Mason University Center for History and New Media, “Zotero – The NextGeneration Research Tool,” Zotero Beta. [Online]. Available: http://www.zotero. org/. [Accessed: Jan. 8, 2007].

[3]

L. Page and S. Brin, “Our Search: Google Technology,” Why Use Google? [Online]. Available: http://www.google.com/ technology/. [Accessed: Feb. 9, 2007].

[4] L. Page and S. Brin, “The PageRank Citation Ranking: Bringing Order to the Web,” Stanford Infolab Publication Server, Oct. 31, 2001. [Online]. Available: http://dbpubs.stanford. edu:8090/pub/1999-66. [Accessed: Feb 9, 2007].

My primary focus was on a model of organizing information that was dynamic, rather than the static and arbitrary system that already existed. I submitted the paper to my professor and she was quite pleased with it, though we were unable to get anyone at Fenwick or the Center for History and New Media to take a look at it.

[5] J. Bezos, “Welcome to Amazon.com Help,” Amazon.com. [Online]. Available: http://www.amazon.com/gp/ help/customer/display.html/102-5760467-57257 21?ie=UTF8&nodeID=13316081#yourbrowsing. [Accessed: Feb 9, 2007]

Notes Our class was assigned to take the time to learn about the Mason Databases. To this end, we were given a presentation at Fenwick Library. I was the only one to go further by giving a written response to what I had seen, but I had been given the same presentation before, and so I felt that I could demonstrate what I had learned through a written critique. The paper that I wrote utilized tools that I had been researching for some time already. The tagging website del.icio. us, the Amazon recommendation system, and the Google PageRank algorithm were all subjects I had done a great deal of reading on. Since the paper was written for a research class, I explained how these tools might make the databases much more efficient for the research of future students.

Essays in the Sciences: Discussion Questions 1. These essays deal with Medicine and Technology, topics which do not seem on the surface to be related. But they both belong under the sciences umbrella. What characteristics join them? What do professors in the sciences value in student essays? 2. Tri Tran’s essay, The Association between Periodontitis and Central Nerve Disorders, is written following an established format. Why has Tri Tran organized his essay in this way? What are the benefits and drawbacks of following a pre-set format in a scientific essay? 3. What argument is Tri Tran making in his essay? How does he lay out his evidence? 4. Adam Gurri’s essay, Making Mason’s Databases More Accessible, is based on the premise that one student’s ideas can have an impact on university life. How does Adam convince you that you should trust his ideas and that he is an authority on this subject? 5. How does Adam join ideas? How and where would you edit his essay to help him make transitions smoother?

CREATIVE

WORK

You Want to Help But You’re Just One Man Jonathan Kirk Kiko killed herself today. For three days she’d stayed at the back of the cage chewing on her own mangled limbs, and then she killed herself. I find her facedown in her water dish, the bandages I had carefully wrapped every night for so many days now sloppily hanging from her butchered limbs. Something pops inside my chest, and I reach out and poke her arm. She rolls over a little, the edges of her waterlogged face showing. Her eyes, which had been lustrous with fixed sadness, are like runny eggs. In the cage above, Zinedine is crawling circuits around her elaborately laid sticks. She hoots and shakes her head like a blind piano player really digging into the chorus of some old blues ballad. I don’t think she has any idea about Kiko, though they are only separated by a quarter-inch of metal. It has been a little more than two weeks since an American tourist found Kiko on the road and brought her in. She’d been electrocuted by a power line, a distressingly common occurrence for a Mantled Howler Monkey living on the Northwestern fringes of Costa Rica. I sink to the ground. A mound of fire ants is circulating just a foot away, closing in, but I don’t move. What little hope has been left in me, what little naiveté has been forcing me to rise at the break of dawn and labor through these long tough days, leaves like a balloon rising up through the silent, sticky air. Fuck, I say to no one.

Beads of sweat roll down the contours of my face and into my eyes, and after a while I can’t be sure what is tears and what is a product of the murderous heat. The park’s pair of scarlet macaws waddle over to peck at my feet and screech. Fuck, I say again. And then I rise slowly and slowly get to work. A month ago I was having a goodbye drink with my friends at the bar, and I admit that I was somewhat smug. My friends had never been off the East Coast, and here I was going to the goddamn jungle for a month. I’d soon be sacrificing time and sweat to make the Earth a better place while their main concerns would still be getting beer and getting laid. I tried not to let my selfrighteousness show. I told them that it was nothing; I just needed a break from suburban life. And some part of that was true. I was sick to death of seeing the same old faces, burnouts from high school hanging around the bar whom I’d pretend not to notice, feeling ashamed. I felt like I should have been gone. I was twentyone years old. In ancient times, that was middle-aged. I tried to rouse the spirit of adventure in my friends. I’d entertained notions of a cross-country trip, but my friends weren’t so enthusiastic. Anything involving planning and money and distances seemed farfetched, outlandish. That was a thing for rich retired people,

they’d say, and then we’d go to a bar and drink until the world resembled a Picasso painting. I had almost resigned myself to life this way, going straight from school to a full- time job, knowing the broader world through a subscription to National Geographic. But then something changed, or I changed. It was morning and I was hung over. I was swirling the cream into my tea, listlessly watching it cloud in the center of the cup and then expand until everything turned gray, when something heavy dropped into place. It was a sudden awareness, a hasty waking to the simple fact that I was in complete control of my own life and always had been. That day I scoured the Internet and found a volunteer program working with exotic animals in Costa Rica. Right away I had a vision of myself tramping through thick foliage, wearing a safari hat and high, mud-spattered boots. I envisioned myself encountering a group of Spider Monkeys who first regarded me curiously, and then saw that I was a friend who spoke their language. They followed me away from the filthy, greedy poachers who were tracking them mercilessly as part of an international illegal pet trade. Fifteen hundred dollars and three months later I was on my first plane ride to a country I knew very little about. My girlfriend Esther had quickly decided she’d come with me, and I am almost embarrassed to admit how glad I was. To be truthful, I was terrified of being thrown by myself into something so completely new. The exhaust coming through the bus windows had put me into a hot, fitful sleep. Our bus driver, a small, angry,

mustachioed man, roughly woke Esther and me when we reached our stop. I looked out the smudged window and saw the decrepit sign: Monkey Park. The bus driver had dragged our rolling bags from the luggage compartment. They were filled with survival gear we would never need. I gave the park a good look. To our immediate left was a guard shack the size of a telephone booth in which windows were broken and newspapers were strewn. To our right were two cages, one containing three vicious raccoons and the other a lackadaisical Spider Monkey. The whole place reeked of bananas. I could see it wasn’t that big. A few parrots squawked way out in the distance. “Some place, huh?” Esther said. Months of dreaming had led me to believe we’d be working in a modernday Eden. I read the printed description of the place again. Waterfall—no. Two volcanoes—no. The only thing the description was accurate about was the extraordinary heat. A golf cart with a shirtless teenager skidded to a halt, throwing up a dramatic spray of gravel. “You are voluntarios?” he asked with a heavy Spanish accent. Roberto took us to a squat creamcolored house on the top of a hill and then gave us a ride to the souvenir shop. Along the way we got a better view of the park and its inhabitants. The closest were the parrots, their tiny homemade cages sinking in the mud. Next to them a pen held a wild boar who rubbed his mudspattered face against the rusted wire, occasionally flashing jagged, yellow teeth. The next cage contained a dozen deer who froze as we sped by, their shiny eyes

watching keenly. And we passed a quillless porcupine, two Spider Monkeys, two Mantled Howler Monkeys, four WhiteThroated Capuchins, a raccoon, a dozen White-nosed Coatis, three crocodiles, two vultures, a concrete pit of turtles, an owl, two coyotes, two margays, and two parakeets. All with the same listless, resigned attitude. Esther and I did not talk, but observed and contemplated what we had gotten ourselves into. Despite the park not being anywhere near as grand as I had imagined it, my determination to do something good made it seem full of possibilities. Two workers were leisurely digging for irrigation in the wet earth. My tireless efforts would galvanize these people into action. I was sure of it. We spent our first night tossing and turning in our murderously hot room. After a breakfast of granola bars we’d brought from home we met Vanessa, the supervisor, at the souvenir shop. Her eyes were red and swollen, and her shoulders had a heavy droop. “Today Carlos is going to show you what to do,” she said, and dismissed us. Carlos was a short lively guy, with a thin beard that looked as if it had been perfected by a lot of time in front of a mirror. “Como se llaman ustedes?” he said, approaching us. At my look of shock, he laughed and said, “What is your names?” in a very staccato tongue. I liked him right away. He took us around the park, explaining each animal’s reason for being there. Many were former pets that had been mistreated. Their depressing injuries included cigarette burns, broken wings,

broken paws, separation from their pack, near starvation, electrocution, injury on the highway, and just plain neglect. I was determined to help. Finally Carlos took us to an enormous pile of basketball-sized stones. “What are we doing here?” I asked. Carlos pointed to the stones, and then to the half-finished trail. Rocks lined either side of it a few feet out. “You move,” he said, almost apologetically. When Carlos had gone, Esther and I turned to the pile. A tarantula stuck its head out from a crevice between the stones and then scurried back in. Esther gave me a biting look. I could only return an “I had no idea” shrug. Three loads later, feeling the deep ache settling in my muscles and the steady flow of sticky sweat down my back and legs, I realized that I would have been hard-pressed to accept ten dollars an hour for a job like this back home. Feeling the fool, I almost found myself wishing for a dark corner of the bar with my friends. We were there a week before could feed the animals. Carlos showed us how to measure and cut the fruit. Most of it was turning brown with rot, and sometimes we’d cut open a papaya only to find the inside half-eaten by bugs. It was a nice change to be able to visit each animal in the morning, though all they paid attention to was the fruit in the buckets we carried. When the monkeys saw us coming, they would swing toward us at reckless speeds and open their mouths like a mail chute, expecting a delivery of banana. Our duties also saw us playing baby-sitter to American tourists. I knew virtually nothing about the animals,

but Vanessa said that was unimportant. Just make up stories, she said, and make sure they turn their camera’s flash off. Invariably, every tourist’s first picture was accompanied by a bright flash. I acquired a new loathing for kids, who screamed and stuck their tongues out at the monkeys. One of the capuchins, who was in the park as a result of the abuse he suffered at the hands of murderous children, would go crazy at the sight of kids, flashing his jagged teeth and reaching through the bars to grasp at their faces. This only excited the children more. They would lean forward until their faces were just inches from the monkey’s grasp, taunting him to the point of exhaustion. Like Chinese water torture, the days began to wear on us, drop by drop. We spent the first hours of each day cutting up half-rotten fruit in the scorching tin shack, then making our rounds. There was no joy in feeding the ravenous animals anymore, but we did it slowly to limit the time spent clearing paths. I no longer had illusions of becoming friends with the animals. That took great patience—patience I no longer had. If we finished our morning tasks too quickly, we’d drag our aching bodies behind the coyote pen, where we’d drink orange soda and eat coconut cookies. When we could no longer safely hide out, we’d scrub the bird cages and then rake sticks off the path. It was a pointless task designed only to keep us occupied. When raking in front of the Capuchin cages I’d see Vanessa playing solitaire. In the afternoon we’d walk the three miles to town for lunch, until the weeks rolled by and we were too tired to make the trip. We bought bread and cheese from the store and settled for

grilled cheese sandwiches every day. After dinner, we’d take icy showers and then lie in our stagnant room for an hour or so before falling into a dead sleep at 8:30. In the middle of too many nights Vanessa and her friends stumbled home from the bar to play music and dance. I kept telling myself five more minutes of this and I’m going to say something. For many nights I never did. One day as Esther and I were eating lunch a car pulled into the park. The window rolled down, revealing a young American girl. She asked if we worked there. We nodded our heads. “I have a sick monkey,” she said. “I found it on the road.” She opened the hatch of her car. In the middle of a blanket was a shaky black lump that I recognized as a Mantled Howler Monkey. Its knees were pulled up, its arms wrapped tightly around knees and chest. It raised its head slowly to look at us, black damp eyes impossibly wide with fright. Its bottom lip poked out, and it looked like it was just holding back fullblown sobs. My weariness left me. Esther scooped the monkey up as tenderly as if she were trying to preserve a snowflake. Because it was Sunday, there was no one on duty at the clinic, but we had empty cages and water. I found newspapers and a blanket to line a cage, then cut some papaya and put fresh water in a bowl. The monkey in Esther’s arms made little wheezing noises. I looked at her small worried face and wished I could speak her language to tell her it was going to be all right. Esther reluctantly set her in the cage. We watched. For many minutes the monkey just hugged herself and shivered. Gradually,

she tipped over like a bowling pin and lay there, wide eyes staring back at us. For the rest of the day Esther and I looked in on the little lump of fur, whom we’d begun calling Kiko. Her food remained untouched, and she hadn’t stopped shivering at the back of the cage. Vanessa eventually came to check things out. “They just keep a’coming,” she said. The next morning the vet looked over Kiko. After a brief prodding of the ribs and listening to the heartbeat, she gave her a shot of something and placed her back in the cage. After dinner Esther and I stopped to check on her. Seeing her lying at the back of her cage, her back turned to us, my compulsion to offer her any comfort outweighed the rule to never open a cage without supervision. At the squeak of her cage door, Kiko turned to face me hesitantly. I held a piece of papaya in the palm of my hand. She looked from the papaya to my face, and back to the papaya, as if waiting for instructions. She did not come forward, despite our coaxing. As nightfall descended and the mosquitoes began to swarm, hungry for blood, we gave up. We shut the cage and began the long march home. We checked on Kiko the next morning to find that her tail wrapped in bandages. Her eyes seemed to plead with me, and what was so terrible was that I did not know what she wanted. When I asked the vet what was wrong, she said that Kiko was biting herself. It was a common occurrence among monkeys kept in captivity. Esther and I continued to check on her as much as we could, often shirking our regular duties. We tried coaxing Kiko

toward food, which was always the freshest we could find, hoping it would entice her. We even tried singing. “You Are My Sunshine,” and “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay.” Nothing worked. Kiko was like a shrinking statue. With every day that passed it seemed another bandage appeared. Then a full bandage around the area where her tail should have been. Then three days later her left hand. The vet enlisted me to help with her care, and each morning I brought food she never ate, water she rarely drank. I wrapped bandages and spread the ointment over her self-inflicted wounds while Esther watched over my shoulder. My entire existence narrowed to caring for Kiko. I found it increasingly hard to sleep at night. It went on like this for two weeks. With three days left until we were to leave, I had become frantic. That was when I found her facedown in her water dish, dead. After we drag our bags down the front entrance, Esther and I make a last stroll around the park. The animals are still mostly oblivious to us. I feed sunflower seeds to a few of the monkeys. When they see I have nothing left they go back to on their frayed ropes, waiting for the next feeding time. At the souvenir shop Vanessa thanks us and gives us Tshirts that advertise the park. On the walk to the front entrance, we see the irrigation ditch, still unfinished. As we go by the clinic I catch a glimpse of Kiko’s cage, as empty as it was before. I feel like I’ve been given an injection of molten lead. Esther and I sit quietly waiting for the bus that will take us back over the hot rugged mountains to the airport;

and from there to our over-populated, over-developed suburbs, so depressingly familiar. It is just getting to the hottest part of the day. A rented Jeep coming down the road draws our attention. It pulls in and the driver, a man with a long, untrimmed beard, obviously American, asks, “Is this the Monkey Park?” I point to the sign right above our heads. “Oh, thanks.” In the backseat of the car two kids are flinging their toys around screaming in unison, “Monkeys! We wanna see the monkeys!” Esther lays her head on my shoulder, and gives me a sad and knowing smile. I kiss her on the forehead and pull her closer. Sometimes, I think, the best thing a person can do is keep things going a little while longer. I look across the road at the dense foliage of the jungle, no longer alien to me. My girlfriend and I find ourselves smiling when, from out of its depths, sounds the guttural howl of a Mantled Howler Monkey.

did not achieve my original aim (to more or less change the world single-handedly), I came back with confidence that I could make it on my own, a suitcase full of wood carvings and clay pottery, and scores of extraordinary memories. I don’t know many people who can say that they bottle-fed a monkey, stepped into a cage full of mischievous raccoons, got nipped in the hand by a pair of scarlet macaws, or butted heads with a white-lipped peccary who thought he was a dog. It’s all part of a sad, sweet, and thrilling chapter of my life, one that will take a good long while to get close to being topped.

Notes My reasons for wanting to write this piece are many and varied. I think that my primary reason, however, became my need to better understand what I had gone through in Costa Rica. I had returned feeling somewhat disillusioned and overall depressed, but when I began to write and reflect, I realized that I had gained many things from this experience that were not immediately known to me. Most importantly, I realized that while I

Dimensions of Sapphire Angela Panayotopulos An ocean awash with bloated veins of silver cloud Is the dome of heaven, stabbed upward By the white-washed walls of the church steeples Rearing out of an isle clasped in the embrace of stony ground. Kyrie Eleison, the monks chant their mantra; it is Noon, and the bells toll—hear them— A bugle arching upwards, extension of a brawny arm Raised in lyrical defiance of the impending tribe, their Faces stained a tattooed swirl of sapphire and white; The twilit shadow of a tablecloth needlework, Webbed beneath the bowl of mangos, Billowing in the briny breath of wintry waters— It takes a hefty axe to slice through the ice. Tilt back, my love, from the pull of the sled Ensnared by strands of wolf-fur, and trace The crown of constellations garlanded by the waves Which flicker their flaking white-fringed tails And seep the sky with the blue blood of the sea.

Notes “Dimensions of Sapphire” began as a work of nostalgia. One drizzly afternoon I wished my window opened to the scene of my computer wallpaper: a kitten basking on low whitewashed wall, framed against a Greek church steeple rearing out of a bright blue sky. My poem took off from there. A swirl of church, sea, and sky—I began writing, transporting myself from a gray afternoon to the sunkissed warmth of the country I love. I could hear the priests chanting, I could feel the noon sun beating down. Experimenting, I

tried incorporating twists into the poem by digression. I imagined a peaceful world falling apart like a raided monastery; the nomadic tribes of Celtic legend sprung into my mind with tattooed faces and bristling spears. I linked the patterned tattoos to embroidery like that in my grandmother’s cottage on the Ionian Sea. My thoughts tumbled again to the ocean, and I imagined Greece’s waters stilled in winter. I urged you, my reader, to “tilt back” and let the poem steal you away on a journey of nostalgia and mood-framed randomness, an antidote to rainy days.

Phone Book Mark Strandquist If you asked them what their favorite color was, Howard would say Blue. Jacqueline, Brian, George, and Edgar would all say the same. Renee would quickly choose black. Ellen and John and Courtney, and I’m pretty sure Debbie would all say red, while Janice and James would say orange. Sam, just to be different, would say white, and Gary wouldn’t be able to make up his mind. Nancy would say Green, Scott would say Brown, Colleen, no surprise to anyone, Would say pink, bright pink. Harry would definitely say Navy-Blue, while his wife, Martha, would disagree per usual, and choose some muted tone of nothing in particular. Someone would probably pick Purple, or Magenta or Turquoise, and if they all lived in Washington DC, then at least one of them would have HIV.

Notes This poem began on the Metro. I was sitting in front of a poster of a young woman whose body—though cut with eye-catching curves—was decomposing and dying. Her skin was falling off and her body was overrun with rashes. She was crowned by a message that read in big yellow letters, “One of every 20 D.C. residents is HIV-positive.” I was floored. Appalled. Disgusted beyond imagination. How, in our nation’s capitol, where the world’s most rich and powerful hang their hats and coats each week, could we have become so morally corrupt and disconnected from our community? I quickly scribbled something down and got off at the next stop. When I came back to those notes, I was troubled by the coldness of the stats—there was no face to this pain, only the distorted figure from the poster. I ran my fingers through the soft pages of a DC phone book, stopping at random, and jotted down first names. For the 20 names, I chose “their” favorite color. If this poem has any power, any reason to be printed (to kill trees for!) it is this simple exercise: in two minutes, with twenty names, you can connect to someone who needs your help. Find a phone book, pick 20 names, and ask yourself: What’s their favorite color?

Carrot Compromise Tina Delis A correspondence through a series of letters between a fourth grader and his mom, delivered in a simple blue lunch box. Dear Mom, I have a problem. I don’t like carrots in my lunch. Can you please replace my vegetables with fruit? Remember I LOVE apples, bananas and candy-lope. I will die of starvation before I will eat a carrot. Love, Nicholas, your son who HATES carrots! Dear Nicholas, HI! It was a fun surprise to see your note. I am sorry you’re so upset…I did not know you dislike carrots so much. You know I love you and only want you to be happy. I also want you to grow up healthy, so I cannot stop putting carrots in your lunch box. Please don’t starve yourself. Carrots are good for strong eyes and I only put one carrot in your lunch box. You can eat it. Have a good day! Love, Mom, who packs your nummy healthy lunches Dear Mom, I know you are busy, so maybe you didn’t have time to read my first note well enough. How can I have a good day with those orange things in my lunch? I HATE carrots. I am not sure you know how bad this is? I see the carrot at the bottom of

my lunch box and want to puke! Do you want me to miss school because I am sick? Think about all the kids I’ll gross out. Please, mom, stop giving me carrots! Love, Nicholas P.s. I got an A on my spelling! Nicholas, Hi!! Of course I don’t want you to gross everyone out at school. But one carrot isn’t going to make you sick. In fact, why don’t you ask your friends whether or not they like carrots. You might be surprised to find that their moms put carrots in their lunches too! Love you! Mom P.S. Yes, I saw your A! You should be very proud, you studied very hard! To: Mom John says his mom only gives him what he loves. (He’s lucky!) Griffin eats hot lunch and can tell the lunch lady no thank you. (He’s lucky too!) Stephen says his mom puts carrots in, but he just throws them away. (He’s smart!) Ryan and Phillip thinks this is a dumb question. And Fargo says she likes carrots. (Isn’t that a good enough reason to hate them?) I still think you should stop putting carrots in my lunches! From: Nicholas

Nicholas, Well, it looks like you are not as lucky as your friends. Sorry. But I hope you will try the carrot anyway. You may find you actually like it. Dip it in the ranch dressing I included. Love you always! Mom P.S. Remember to pay attention in class so you understand what Mr. Triche is teaching. To: Mom O.K. I don’t think you know how serious the carrot issue is. Today in class I found out carrots can turn your skin orange. Mr. Triche taught us that if I eat too many carrots my palms can turn orange. Do you want a son with orange palms? And what if I choke to death? Plus, I think I am allergic to them. From: Nicholas, your son who is struggling to stay alive. Nicholas, Goodness! The last thing I want is an orange child. But I am positive one carrot will not harm you. You would need to eat a hundred carrots in one week and I am sure you would never dare do that. And allergies are not a laughing matter. I think it is a good idea for you to be tested for any allergy. I called Dr. Bradley and made an appointment for next week. Don’t worry… it is really simple. Dr. Bradley will draw 30 dots on your back and poke you 30 times with a needle to find what you are really allergic to. You will miss baseball practice, but I think this is more important.

Have a great day! Love, Mom To: Mom I thought you should know I rubbed a carrot on my skin. I didn’t get hives. I don’t think I’m allergic. I don’t think I should miss baseball practice. Please cancel the doctor’s appointment. From: Nicholas P.S. Mr. Triche wanted to know why I was distracted today. I was honest and told him it was because you are forcing me to eat carrots. Nicholas, I am so relived to hear you are not allergic. That was quite a scare! Don’t worry I have already canceled your doctor appointment. I did not know I was causing you such distress at school. Please try not to focus on the carrot in your lunch, instead think about the yummy Twinkee I packed! Love you! Mom To: Mom Today Mr. Triche began teaching us about the legal system. He told us if we have a problem we can solve it by suing, and all we have to do is write what the problem is and give it to the problem-maker. Problem: I hate carrots. Carrots keep being put in my lunch box. I would like to have the carrot replaced with fruits. Problem maker: My mom, she makes my lunches Below is a list of reasons why I should not have to eat carrots: • They make my teeth orange

• They hurt my teeth when I bite into them • They taste like dirt • I already have perfect vision • I will puke • I could choke and die a slow painful death • Girls will want to kiss me because they like carrots • It causes my grades to go down because I am always worried about having to eat carrots. From: Nicholas P.S. You will notice John signed it at the bottom, my witness that all this is true. To: Nicholas, the plaintiff From: Your Mother, the defendant On behalf of your mother, I, your father and the acting lawyer, hereby offer a compromise, hereafter to be known as the “Carrot Compromise.” The Carrot Compromise is as follows: 1. Nicholas tries one bite of carrot at lunch time. 2. If Nicholas does not find that the carrot likable or agreeable to his constitution, his mother will discontinue putting the said orange vegetable in his school lunches. Signed: Your Mother Signed: Your Father (Proof that we love you!) To: Dad, mom’s lawyer Thank you. Tomorrow I will agree to eat small bite of carrot. Will you please tell mom? From: Nicholas Signed: John, because it is still true.

Nicholas! Hey handsome! I just wanted you to know I’m thinking about you and can’t wait to see you after school! Enjoy your lunch! Love, Mom Dear Mrs. Delis, I am sorry to inform you that your son Nicholas vomited in the cafeteria during his lunch period. His vomit caused a chain reaction, making all the students at his table and several other tables do the same. After thoroughly checking Nicholas for flu-like symptoms or high temperature, the only diagnosis for his apparent illness is what he describes as a “Carrot Compromise.” I do not know what this is, but the custodian cleaned up an overwhelming amount of orange evidence. Because Nicholas is healthy in every other manner we felt strongly he should finish the remainder of the day at school. We would just ask you on behalf of the administration and his class to not send any more carrots in his lunch. I am sure both Nicholas and you do not want this incident to reoccur. Sincerely, Mr. Triche Wolftrap Elementary 4th Grade Teacher Dear Nicholas, I am sorry about the carrot incident. I had no idea one carrot could cause such a traumatic event. I promise I won’t put any more carrots in your lunch box. But, I hope you enjoy the celery sticks with peanut butter and raisins. I will be thinking of you today! Love,

Mom Mom, Thanks for not giving me any carrots. Mr. Triche said he is glad too. Have I ever told youâ&#x20AC;ŚI hate celery?! Love, Nicholas P.S. Fargo says she hates carrots now too!

Creative Work: Discussion Questions 1. What strategies do creative writers employ that academic writers wouldn’t? How does a creative writer get her message across to the reader? 2. How does the heightened language in Jonathan’s nonfiction narrative differ from the heightened language in Angela’s poem? 3. In Angela Panayotopulos’s poem, Dimensions of Sapphire, you might find yourself in a different location with every line. How do you react to this dislocation? 4. In his author’s note, Mark Strandquist says that he wanted to put “a face to this pain” in his poem Phone Book. Do you think Mark has succeeded? 5. What role does lineation play in the rhythm of Mark’s poem? 6. Tina Delis’s story, The Carrot Compromise, is intended to be read by children. How does Tina address her juvenile audience? How does she change her writing to fit their reading?

APPENDICES

Appendix A: Reflections on the Writing Process Anna Habib, Assistant Director, University Writing Center All writers are anxious about starting an essay. We stare at our blank computer monitor with a head full of ideas, but we struggle to get them out. The voices in our head feel like they’re playing tug-o-war, pulling us back and forth. Everything we write doesn’t sound “quite right”. Maybe we just don’t “get it”? The truth is you do get it. You just need to learn to listen to yourself. It’s easy to ignore your ideas and assume they’re not good enough, but if you slow down and stay quiet (while that cursor blinks on the screen in front of you), you’ll hear your internal voices . You’ll notice that they make good points and that you should listen more often. Your opinion on any given topic—say, American pop culture, for example—is as interesting as mine, or as your classmate’s, or as a PhD candidate in Cultural Studies. And, you need to trust that. The most important characteristic about yourself, a trait you should always tap into, is your inherent curiosity. When you listen to your professors lecture, notice the moment when you stop jotting down notes and hear yourself say “oh, wow, I didn’t know that”, or “I wonder why”, or “that’s confusing”. When you’re reading an article, or a book, or a poem, pay attention to the minute when you feel yourself getting frustrated by the author’s point, or confused, or intrigued. Take notes in the margins: insert a question mark, or an “I disagree” or a “Why?” or a “How?”

We are all naturally curious to find out more information about a topic we’re interested in. That internal twoyear-old still lives in us all: “But, why is the sky blue?” “But, why doesn’t the sun go to sleep at night?” “But WHY, why, why . . .?” Embrace that; it’ll get you places. When your eyes are shifting back and forth from the blank computer screen to the assignment prompt, I urge you to start typing. Don’t let writer’s block take over. Knock the wall down. Start with one word. Imagine yourself sitting at a piano and hitting a random key. You’ll hear the note. It’ll echo for a second and then call for another note to complete it. Maybe the notes don’t sound right together, but at least you’re making noise. Writing involves the same process. You have to start somewhere, even if you have no real idea where. Start typing all the random thoughts that come to you about the essay topic. Maybe you just want to start by writing about your confusion. I’m so confused about this assignment. I don’t know what I think of American Idol. I’ve always thought it was just entertaining, and never thought much about it. I do know that a lot of people get really obsessed with it though. I wonder why. In the above example, you’ll notice that the question “why” came up. That’s your inherent curiosity coming

out. Spend time with it; consider the possibilities. Write them down. You’ll have a first draft before you know it. It will probably only make sense to you, but that’s Ok. You’ve played the piano, even if you never thought you could. Now, you need to start figuring out which notes sound good, or which ideas are the most interesting to salvage. Writing is a recursive process, which means it goes on and on and will never feel completely finished. If you trust your own ideas about a topic, you’ll realize that you’ll always have more ideas, more to say, more to revise. Writing takes time because it’s an integral part of thinking. None of us think in a hyper-organized way, so naturally, when you first start tackling an essay, your thoughts aren’t going to be extremely logical, unless the topic is something you’ve been thinking about for a while. So just start writing something. Anything. Soon enough, you’ll write your way into your central idea, your thesis statement. The light at the end of the tunnel. Once you reach your main point— a version of your thesis statement— highlight, cut, and paste it at the beginning of the first draft. Now, go through the draft and pick out the sub-points that will reinforce the thesis statement. You’ve finally designed an outline that will help you write the second draft. You know what your main points are now; you need to support them with evidence and then analysis of the evidence. Even though the word research can be intimidating, try to view it as rewarding instead. There is so much information out there, especially with the Internet at our fingertips, that it can understandably become overwhelming. But tune into your natural curiosity and start sifting through

your sources. Figure out what others are saying about your given topic. Ask a librarian to help you find reliable and credible sources that will reinforce your thesis. Not all information that you find on the web will be reliable, so you want to make sure you evaluate each site: Who is the author of the source? When was it last updated? Does it include a bibliography or is it just someone’s subjective opinion? Once you’ve located trustworthy sources, read them carefully, paying close attention to your reactions. Underline, circle, or highlight the points that you find interesting or helpful for your own research. Think of the research you’ve done as a conversation you’ve been eavesdropping on. What do you want to contribute to the conversation? How can you respectfully and smoothly insert your own opinions and ideas? You could acknowledge the good points that have been made— always making sure you state who made them—and then build upon them. If you disagree with one of the speakers, you should tell them that you do, but you should always tell them why you disagree. Otherwise, they’ll ignore you and assume you’re taking issue with their person not their argument. Think of this second draft as a conversation with others, not a solo performance. Your ideas are growing now; they’re become clearer and more complex because they are engaging with others. It’s no longer your internal voices playing tug-o-war, but now other writers are sharing their voices. It’s becoming louder, but more interesting. With any essay, imagine an audience watching, listening, questioning. Even if they didn’t particular agree with your points, you want them to respect you.

So, you are careful with how you present yourself. You don’t want to speak in code—you don’t want to over-complicate or over-simplify your language. You want the audience to understand you easily, without too much effort. Who is in the audience? Is it your classmates? Your professor? What are their values? Beliefs? Opinions? You need to be sensitive about what you’re saying in your essay so that nobody is offended and nobody is left confused. The audience of your essays depends on the type of essay you’re writing, what your professor has said about audience, what class you’re writing for. So, when you’re revising your first draft, keep your audience in mind and be aware of what gaps you need to fill for them. It’s common to view writing as a test to show what you’ve learned. Try to revise the way you see it though. Ultimately, writing is a venue where you can explore, question, and engage with what you’re learning. See it as a process of a discovery, not as a barometer of knowledge. If you stay true to your internal curiosity and trust your own opinions, you will actually appreciate the process of writing because it is a way for us to grow and develop as thinkers. So, don’t hold back because you’re afraid you don’t have anything “good” enough to say. We all do; we just have to write our way into it.

Appendix B: Guide to Citation Citation is a big concern for many student writers. You probably know already that you must cite when you’ve taken information from a book, journal article, or website. But you may be confused about the mechanics of citing correctly—what information do you include, and in what order? If you do feel confused, you aren’t alone. It’s easy to get lost in the fact that every type of source has its own particular type of citation, and that what this is will change from discipline to discipline. To shed some light on citation, the George Mason Review has partnered with the Writing Center to provide you with this beginning guide to citation. As it is a beginning guide, we’ve chosen just the two most popular citation styles. The MLA (Modern Language Association) style is often used by classes in the humanities, and the APA (American Psychological Association) style is often used by classes in the social sciences, and a bit less often by classes in the physical sciences. Citation is all about choices, and you’ll begin to cite correctly by finding out what style of citation is appropriate to your class. (Ask a librarian if you aren’t sure; you may find that it is neither MLA nor APA). Next, you’ll want to take a look at what kind of sources you’ve used. Books? Journal articles? Web sites? Each of these kinds of sources has its particular form within the style, both for in-text citation (what you put in the body of the paper) and bibliographic citation (what you put at the end). This guide will help you get

started, but you may find that more research is needed. In that case, contact the Writing Center, at wcenter@gmu.edu or 703-993-1200. Or take a look at the discipline-specific librarian guide which follows. These librarians are eager to help you with research. The following information has been condensed (with permission) from handouts which are available online at the George Mason University Writing Center web site: http://writingcenter.gmu.edu. MLA CITATION STYLE Citing Print Sources in MLA Style (The examples below are taken from A Writer’s Reference (4th ed.), by Diana Hacker.) In-Text Citations (Citing Print Sources in the Paper Itself) The “signal phrase” is the words you add to a quote in order to help the reader understand why the quote is important and how it fits into the rest of your paper. In the first example below, “Turback claims that….” is the signal phrase. If the author is named in your signal phrase: Turback claims that “regulated sport hunting has never driven any wild species into extinction” (74). If the author is not named in your signal phrase: Though the number of lion attacks on humans is low, the rate of increase of

attacks since the 1960s is cause for serious concern (Rychnovsky 43). The List of Works Cited (Bibliographic Entries) The basic format for all MLA works cited entries, no matter what the source, includes 1. the author’s name; 2. the title of the work (underlined if a book, in quotation marks if an article); 3. the city of publication; 4. the publisher; and 5. the year of publication. Some examples: Basic format for a book Tannen, Deborah. The Argument Culture: Moving from Debate to Dialogue. New York: Random House, 1998. Basic format for an edited book Kitchen, Judith, and Mary Paumier Jones, eds. In Short: A Collection of Brief Creative Nonfiction. New York: Norton, 1996. Basic format for an article in a monthly magazine Kaplan, Robert D. “History Moving North.” Atlantic Monthly Feb. 1997: 21+. Citing Internet Sources in MLA Style (Taken in part from MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, Fifth Edition, Joseph Gibaldi, ed. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1999). In-text Citations (Citing Web Sources in the Paper Itself) An in-text citation for an Internet source is similar to an in-text citation for any other source. It must clearly point

to a specific source in the list of works cited, and usually consists of an author’s last name and a page number placed in a parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence. Some examples: · On Gillian James’ website, Ernest Hemingway Online, she offers new and unique views on the writer she calls “one of America’s greatest.” · The Super Sports Drinks, Inc. home page provides valuable information for anyone interested in the current state of the soft drink industry. The List of Works Cited (Bibliographic Entries) A works cited entry for an Internet source is similar to a works cited entry for any other source. As much information as is available about the source should be given, in the following order: 1. Author’s name, if given. If only an editor, a compiler, or a translator is identified, cite that person’s name, followed by the appropriate abbreviation (ed., comp., trans.) 2. Title of the material (website, article, online book) 3. Name of any additional editor, compiler, or translator, if any 4. Electronic publication information, including any version numbers given (such as from an online encyclopedia), date of electronic publication or of latest update, and name of any sponsoring institutions or organizations 5. Date you accessed the source/site 6. Web address Some examples: A web site: personal or professional— James, Gillian. Ernest Hemingway Online.

1995. English Dept., Weatherby U. 24 Oct. 1999 <http://www.weatherby.edu/~james/ hemingway.html>. Super Sports Drinks, Inc. Home page. 1 May 1998 <http://www.sportsdrinks. com>. An online book Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Ed. Henry Churchyard. 1996. 10 Sept .1998 <http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/ pridprej.html>. An online article Calabrese, Michael. “Between Despair and Ecstasy: Marco Polo’s Life of the Buddha.” Exemplaria 9.1 (1997). 22 June 1998 <http://web.english.uf1.edu/english/ exemplaria/calax.htm>. APA CITATION STYLE Citing Print Sources in APA Style (The examples below are taken from A Writer’s Reference (4th ed.), by Diana Hacker.) In-text Citations (Citing Print Sources in the Paper Itself) Basic Format for a Quotation According to Hart (1996), some primatologists “wondered if apes had learned Language, with a capital L” (p.109). Basic Format for a Summary or Paraphrase According to Hart (1996), researchers took Terrace’s conclusions seriously, and funding to language experiments soon declined. Researchers took Terrace’s conclusions seriously, and funding for language experiments declined (Hart, 1996).

Format for a Summary or Paraphrase in a Work with Two Authors Patterson and Linden (1981) agreed that the gorilla Koko acquired language more slowly than a normal speaking child. Koko acquired language more slowly than a normal speaking child (Patterson & Linden, 1981). Format for a Summary or Paraphrase in a Work with Three to Five Authors Researchers found a marked improvement in the computer skills of students who took part in the program (Levy, Bertrand, Muller, Vining, & Majors, 1997). Note: In subsequent citations, use the first author’s name followed by “et al.” in either the signal phrase or the parentheses. For example: (Levy et al., 1997). The References Page (Bibliographic Entries) Basic Format for a Book Tapscott D. (1998). Growing up digital. New York: McGraw-Hill. Basic Format for a Book with Multiple Authors Hamer, D., & Copeland, P. (1998). Living with our genes. New York: Doubleday. Basic Format for an Edited Book Duncan, G.J., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (Eds.). (1997). Consequences of growing up poor. New York:Russell Sage Foundation. Basic Format for an Article in an Edited Book Fesmire, S. (1997). The social basis of character: An ecological humanist approach. In H. LaFollette (Ed.), Ethics in practice (pp. 282-292). Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.

Basic Format for an Article in a Journal Paginated by issue: Roberts, P. (1998). The new food anxiety. Psychology Today, 31(2), 30-38. Paginated by volume: McLoyd, V. (1998). Socioeconomic disadvantage and child development. American Psychologist, 53, 185-204. Citing Internet Sources in APA Style (The examples below are taken from A Writer’s Reference (4th ed.), by Diana Hacker.) In-text Citations (Citing Web Sources in the Paper Itself) For all direct quotations, give page numbers (or paragraph numbers) if they are available. However, if page numbers are not available leave them out of the intext citation. With most Internet browsers, readers will still be able to search for the quoted material anyway. APA style papers use fewer direct quotations and rely on paraphrase and summaries since the data itself is most important. Basic Format for a Direct Quotation If the author’s last name is used in a signal phrase, place the date in parenthesis directly after the name. If there is a page or paragraph number, place that in parenthesis at the end of the quotation. If the author’s last name is not used in a signal phrase, place both the author’s last name and the date in parenthesis (and page/paragraph number if you have one) directly after the name. Some examples: According to Ajzen (2004), “behavioral beliefs produce a favorable or unfavorable attitude toward the behavior”. . .

“As a general rule, the more favorable the attitude and subjective norm, and the greater the perceived control, the stronger should be the person’s intention to perform the behavior in question” (Ajzen, 2004). Basic Format Paraphrase

for

Summary

Weiser (2001) examined the relationship between Internet use and college students. In an examination of the relationship between Internet use and college students (Weiser, 2001). . . Note: If these citations look exactly like the citations from non-electronic sources, you’re starting to get the idea! In APA style, there is no difference between “normal” and electronic in-text citations. The only exception to this rule is when you want to direct your reader to an entire web site (rather than a specific document or piece of information on the site): Mason’s primatology department posted its findings on their Web site (http://www. gorillawarriors.org). The References Page (Bibliographic Entries) While in-text citations for internet sources are essentially identical to normal citations, the entry that appears on your reference list is slightly different. To cite an electronic source, cite the same information you would from a print source, followed by a “retrieval statement” (i.e. when you accessed the information and the URL or database where you found it).

Some examples: Document from a Web Site: Ajzen, I. (2004). Constructing a TpB questionnaire: Conceptual and methodological considerations. Retrieved April 17, 2006, from http://people.umass. edu/aizen/pdf/tpb.measurement.pdf Document from a Web Site without an Author or Date: GVUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 8th WWW user survey. (n.d.). Retrieved August 8, 2000, from http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/user_ surveys/survey-1997-10 Document from an Internet-Only Journal Coomber, R. (1997). Using the Internet for survey research. Sociological Research, 2. Retrieved March 26, 2006, from http://www.socresonline.org.uk/ socresonline/2/2/2.html Document from an Online Database Rosen, G. M. (1987). Self-help treatment books and the commercialization of psychotherapy [Electronic version]. American Psychologist, 42, 46-51.

Appendix C: Liaison Librarians Many students are unaware of the liaison librarian program, although it may be just the thing they need to move ahead with a difficult paper. Liaison librarians are experts in their fields, and they work with students to find sources, move through research, and organize information. If you have a question about your paper, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a good chance a liaison librarian can help. The following list of librarians is organized by discipline. Move down the list to find your class, and then the librarian associated with it. Academic Program Accounting Administration of Justice African-American Studies Alternative Education American Government American Type Culture Collection Ancient Mediterranean Art & Archaeology Anthropology Applied Statistics Art and Visual Technologies Art History Arts Management Asia-Pacific Studies Association Management Astronomy Athletic Training Biodefense Bioinformatics Biology Bioscience Management Business Administration Business Administration Chemistry Classical Studies Climate Dynamics Coaching in Organizational Learning Collaboration & Learning in Policy Organizations

Command, Control, Communications & Intelligence Communication Communications & Networking Community College Education Community College Teaching Computational Modeling Computational Science & Informatics Computational Science & Informatics Computational Techniques & Applications Computational Techniques & Applications Computer Engineering Computer Science Conflict Analysis & Resolution Counseling & Development Creative Writing Cultural Studies Culture, Values & Social Policy Curriculum & Instruction Dance Data Analysis Decision Sciences & MIS E-Center for E-Business E-Commerce (Public Policy) E-Commerce (SITE) Earth Sciences Earth Systems Science Economics Education Electronic Journalism Engineering, Civil, Environmental & Infrastructure Engineering, Electrical & Computer English English Language Institute (ELI) Enterprise Engineering & Policy Environmental Chemistry Environmental Management Environmental Science and Policy

Executive MBA Exercise, Fitness & Health Promotion Exercise Science Federal Statistics Film and Media Studies Finance Folklore & Mythology French Genomics Geographic & Cartographic Sciences Geographic Information Systems Geography Geology German Gerontology Global Affairs Global Education, Center for Global Systems Global Trade Management Governance Systems & Policy Management Government Documents History Honors Program Honors Program in General Education Information & Software Engineering Initiatives in Educational Transformation Initiatives in Educational Transformation International Commerce & Policy Krasnow Institute Latin American Studies Linguistics Management Manufacturing Engineering Marketing Mathematics

Modern & Classical Languages

Jen Stevens | Fenwick | 993-2211

Music Neuroscience

Steve Gerber | Johnson Center| 993-9051 Victoria Shelton | Mercer | 993-8347

New Century College New Europe Nonprofit Management Nursing Parks & Outdoor Recreation Peace Operations Philosophy & Religious Studies Physics Physical Education Psychology Public & International Affairs Public Choice Public Policy (Master’s Programs) Public Policy (Doctoral Program) Recreation, Health & Tourism Shared Research Instrumentation Facility Social & Organizational Learning Social Work Social Work Sociology Special Collections & Archives Systems Engineering & Operations Research Telecommunications Telecommunications Policy Theatre Tourism University Life University 100 Urban Systems Engineering Women’s Studies