Medium Is the Message- Self Assessment

Self Assessment #1 I truly enjoyed this essay. It made me think. The topic puzzled me to the point where I had to figure out what in the world medium meant. I read the box over and over again. I started to underline words that kept showing up over and over again. I tried to understand what MuLuhan is talking about gives me a headache. Once I thought I had it figured out I was shot down and this happened many times. I researched, I thought about it extensively in class and out side of class. I used reasonable logic to find my meaning of medium. This time by golly I think I got it. For the first paragraph I followed directions. I explained exigence. I explained why medium is important for discussion. I related it to how I came to my definition. I also, explained why it needs defining. I feel I did an extremely good job on this part because I under stood. I re-read my work over and over again. Played with what I wanted to say and did the best job I could do to put my message on the page. I feel I did a really good job on this paragraph and am satisfied. My second paragraph was denotation or the dictionary definition and connotation, other’s opinions. I followed direction. I used the Oxford English Dictionary as you requested. One thing that might hurt me here is that I got lazy and did not want to write out the whole thing every time I made a reference to it so I made an abbreviation. OoOoo†¦. Big deal. If you take points away for that, that’s dumb because I know you don’t want to read the Oxford English Dictionary over and over again. I made a reference to, two different definitions. One’s I felt were good. As I read what you gave us in class and developed my choice based on what I felt medium meant and these would be the best for my argument as they were polar opposites. I could have done more internet research or other definition research but I felt I didn’t need it because I felt I got a well developed censes for my connotation. My connotation, I felt it would be smart to do a mix of people, ranging by education, age, and gender. This is how I came to ask my brother, my mom and an old professor of mine. My third paragraph is my prize, my winning grade paragraph. I know I got my definition right this time. I feel it in my gut. I was in the â€Å"zone†, you even told me. I feel I really understand meaning. My sentence, to make it work is beautiful. So beautiful it only took me two sentences to explain myself. To be honest I never cut anything I wanted to say out and I never even went onto two pages because I felt I knew what I was talking about. I feel accomplished and I want to share my writing with other people. The pressure put on by you helped with that. You said it is hard to impress you so I worked hard to at least come close or try to. My essay is work at least a B. AT LEAST! I worked my butt off on this essay. So help me if I get lower than a B I am going to flip out. No I will go crazy. My work here is above average as I completely understood the assignment and gave through analysis. This is some one my best work. I studied the context and I read the book. Off the record, meaning you can not say this information to them. We know I was my group leader and those boys would be no where with out me. I carried them; no I rocked their socks off. Robert was still in this parallel universe land and who knows what they Asian gang bangers were thinking. So that means I had to think twice as much to come up with something reasonable than other people in other groups because I had no real input from my class mates. To be honest I feel this paper is an A-/B+. I spent too much time on this assignment to be just average. The only reason I said, at least, least being the lowest a B is because I did not want to sound cocky. Ali Smith 24 April 2009 English 105. 28 Jeff Cravello The Logical Definition of Medium Logic implies that an intellectual human being must use their brain to break down a complicated situation in order to simplify it into easier terms through proper analysis and extensive research. The more a person uses logic; the more intellectual and professional sounding a person becomes. People in the elite work force praise intellectual superiority because this means you are educated. The more logical and educated a person is, the higher their salary will be. This is some of the reasoning behind as to why people attend college. It is to practice their logistical skills to make the right decisions in life and develop a career based on logistical analysis. Based on this, the exigence related to the word medium is that medium a very complex word that needs simplifying. The only way to come to a reasonable definition of the word medium is through logistical thought. The Oxford English Dictionary definition and every context that contains the word as a tangible object, are too extensively different that the possibilities to find one universal meaning for the word leads to many different possibilities. The only way to find a reasonable definition for medium is to think logically. The Oxford English Dictionary (O. E. D. ) defines medium as, the plural form of media as being â€Å"A middle quality, degree, or condition†¦ something intermediate. † For the context of how Marshall McLuhan’s book, The Medium is the Message, uses the word medium; this definition does not work because it makes no sense. Even defining media does not helps, which by the O. E. D. is defined as, â€Å"newspapers, radio, television, etc. , collectively, as vehicles of mass communication. † Figuring, some words have multiple definitions. Another O. E. D. definition defines medium as being, â€Å"pervading or enveloping substance; the substance or element in which an organism lives, one’s environment. † This makes no sense because how can one word be defined as a tangible object, an environment, the middle between two things and the plural of media if there is nothing in these definitions that connect? Sometimes sources for information can be misleading. On an internet site, www. dictionary. com, medium is defined as fifteen different things. One of those definitions is, â€Å"something intermediate in nature or degree. † This site was no help because all its definitions were the same definition of medium being the middle. So if a dictionary is no help then maybe a person might know what this word means? A Cal Poly Pomona economics professor said that, â€Å"A medium is the average. † An eighth grade boy said it was, â€Å"The middle. † A mid-aged business woman said that, â€Å"medium is the stuff that is in between. † The definitions from each person connect but each person only gave a one sided answer. Given the context, medium is something tangible so the definition for this word is more complex than just being the middle between two things or just an environment alone. The definition for a medium is a propagated material object used to cause a connection to occur and create a surrounding environment that can perceive our signals, waves, and forces between one and another. One way to prove if a definition works, take the word defining and apply it in a sentence. Yesterday, my whole mode changed within seconds when I received word through a medium that I had won tickets to meet my favorite band. Going off this model, when I received the news I heard it through a martial object, my cell phone. A connection was made; therefore my environment, my mood; had changed as I perceived the information from another person to myself. The medium is the message. Works Cited – McLuhan. Marshall. The Medium is the Message. – The Oxford English Dictionary – Debi Smith (50 year-old mother) – J. R. Smith (13 year-old brother) – Professor Amrik Dua of the economics department – www. dictionary. reference. com- http://dictionary. reference. com/browse/medium