What Makes a Man

Chris BeecherArgument, Literary Analysis, New Voices, Social Criticism

Finding the yin to your yang is a quest most people spend their lives searching for.  In the novel Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, written by Benjamin Alire Saenz, Aristotle and Dante are teens on their way to discovering who they are. The narrator of this novel is Aristotle, aka “Ari.” The struggle with race, family, …

Black Women’s Empowerment in Beyonce’s Lemonade

Chris BeecherFilm and Media, Literary Analysis, New Voices, Visual Rhetoric

Beyoncé’s second visual album, Lemonade, is a masterpiece at its finest. Lemonade was created to reveal Beyoncé’s responses to the infidelity of a significant other, the empowerment of African American women, and police brutality. The most important theme is black women’s empowerment. Lemonade addresses black women’s empowerment by placing black women of different shapes and sizes into her visual album; …

The Struggles of Gender and Sexual Identity in Modern Society

Chris BeecherArgument, Literary Analysis, New Voices, Previous Editions, Responding to a Text, Social Criticism

American society shames specific people based on how they identify themselves. In the novel Every Day by David Levithan and the article called “Relearning the Mothertongue: Notes from a Second Generation Queer ” by Ryn Gluckman, both authors discuss gender and sexual identities. The novel’s main character “A” changes bodies each day and isn’t able to stay within one gender . In the article, Erin …

114B Portfolio – Julian Soriano

Chris BeecherArgument, Blog, Literary Analysis, Portfolio, Portfolio Preface, Responding to a Text, Website, Wings

In this online portfolio and blog, the author showcases his works for “Project Text” and “Project Space.” Throughout the essay “Medical Procedures and Psychological Scars in Literary Works,” he compares and contrasts Next to Normal by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey to One Flew Over the Cukoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. For “Project Space,” he submits a proposal to build …

English 114 Course Website – Nia Deocampo

Chris BeecherFilm and Media, Literary Analysis, Social Criticism, Uncategorized, Wings

This student takes the informal route in her exploration of relevant social and cultural issues, including finding one’s identity and social conceptions of beauty.  Here, you’ll also find an interesting reflection on this student’s 114B experience.  Informal and conventional aspects come together to create and interesting rhetorical experience.

Today I Am Alive – Lizeth Avalos

Chris BeecherArgument, Literary Analysis, Social Criticism, Uncategorized, Wings

This student’s multi-faceted site is an excellent example of the variety made possible on a digital platform.  Here, you’ll find formal essays analyzing contemporary novels, an exploration of the hypersexualization of women, and a blog.  To move fluidly from one kind of writing to another makes one thing clear about writing in the digital world — it too, is writing.

Composing Writing: Where Academia and Blogging Meet

Chris BeecherCreative Writing, Film and Media, Literary Analysis, Previous Editions, Wings

Composed of the work of an entire English 114B class, this website has tons of content to explore.  The site is divided mainly into three sections, each containing student work from one of the Projects: The Body, Beauty, & Gender; Monsters and Mythology; and Online Business Portfolio.  Spend time reading through the various student texts and remember to view the …