Mr. Druffel 

FIQWS 10103

Susan Dimarco 

19 December 2019

         This past semester, was my first semester in college. It was definitely a challenging experience and very different from highschool. I have learned and enjoyed a lot in my FIQWS 10103 writing class.  

        One thing that I really enjoyed was the contract grading. Contract grading is a list of requirements to get either an A, B , C, or D. This way we know what grade that we will get and our final grade is not a surprise to us. It also prevents professors to have biases when grading because the assignment is not graded on how well it is done, its graded more based on how well it has been completed. 

        One thing that I have learned in this class is about conferences. Before going to this class, I had almost no idea what a conference was and what people did at them. Now I know that conferences are when a group of scholars meet in a certain place and discuss certain research problems and talk about their solutions. However before going to the conference, you have to get accepted and to do that you have to write a conference proposal. After you get accepted, you have to write a conference paper and during the actual conference, the conference paper is the speech that you read to everyone. After the conference is over, if someone really likes what you had to say during the conference, you can be asked to slightly change the conference paper and turn it into a journal manuscript.  I have written a conference proposal, a conference paper, and journal manuscript as well. While writing my conference proposal, I learned that the most important thing is to state your research question clearly. The research question can be difficult to write because it needs to be very specific. If the question is not specific, it becomes very difficult to write about and the answer would be very general. An example of a bad research question would be “ Should women have equal rights?” The answer is obviously yes but it becomes hard to elaborate more. When writing my conference paper, I found that it is very important to have a source of information such as a movie, a book, an article to back up what you are saying. For example, in my conference paper, my research question was “How are housing projects portrayed as scary?” and for me to answer this question I had to watch a movie named Candyman. In the movie, there was a lot of scenes that included housing projects which helped me answer my question. I have also learned that in the journal manuscript, one helpful and important step is to go on the ccny library and read other articles first. This way, it is easier to format your article. For example, many of the articles on the website include subtitles, abstracts, and citations which you can use in your article as well. Lastly, as you can see I have learned a lot of different styles and techniques of writing. 

FIQWS 10103

29th October 2019

Mr. Druffel 

Susan Dimarco 

Publication Research

           Recently, I have been looking to find an academic journal that would be a good fit for me to write my conference paper in. So far, I have read three different undergraduate journals that I could possibly write for. The three are “Do African-American Female Stereotypes Still Exist in Television?”,“A Descriptive Character Analysis of Olivia Pope” by Kendell King, “Exaggerations and Stereotypes of Schizophrenia in Contemporary Films” by Nikita DeMare, and “A Contemporary Analysis of Action Films with Female Leads” by Myranda A. Dapolita. I choose to write in “Do African-American Female Stereotypes Still Exist in Television? A Descriptive Character Analysis of Olivia Pope” because this journal has more similarities to my conference paper.  My conference paper and this journal are similar because they both explain one group stereotyped in films. I will be changing my conference paper to an article that will suit this journal’s topic better.

          I have noticed that the main idea of this journal is how African American women are still stereotyped in the television. It is specifically discussing a very popular show called Scandal and a African American woman named Olivia Pope that stars in it. My conference paper is about questioning how are housing projects are portrayed as scary in horror movies. When I write my article, I will be changing the question to how are women that are living inside housing projects are portrayed as stereotypes in films and television? To answer this question I will find and watch a scene in the original movie that I have watched for my conference paper, which was the movie Candyman. I will find a scene in Candyman that shows how women living in the Cabrini-Green housing projects are portrayed. I can compare how the movie shows women that are not living in those housing projects versus the woman that do live there. I will then analyze that scene and explain how it portrays them this way. Then I will explain why it is very important to find an answer to this question and how to prevent those women from being portrayed as stereotypes and to find out ways to make sure that this will not happen again.

              Another way I will be changing my conference paper is changing the type of font. My conference paper had Times New Roman and 12 inch font. I have noticed that the font in this journal is 10.5 and Georgia font. The line spacing will stay the same being double spaced. I will be changing the structure of my paper as well to fit the journal more. There will be a reference section at the bottom of my article listing the sources I have used.  Also an abstract will be will be included on the top of my article to fit their style more. Lastly, doing these changes to my article should fit more with the journal that I have chosen. 

Mr. Druffel

Susan Dimarco

13 October 2019

FIQWS 10103

Conference Paper 

              Hello everyone. The ideas that I would like to share today are not to talk badly about film makers because you guys contribute a lot to today’s entertainment world. They are not to offend any actors and actresses because you guys are very talented. I would like to thank you all for your work. The ideas I am sharing today are educate everyone more about the film world and introduce new ideas.

          To start off with, I am pretty sure everyone in this room has watched a horror movie or two, some of you guys love them because of the thrill and excitement they give you. Some of you guys hate them because you get too scared and can’t sleep for a week. Most horror movies are set up the same way, usually there is a bad guy or bad thing that attacks and hurts the people. The people try to escape it and some of them survive and some of them die. 

            However, we don’t usually observe who in the movie is portrayed as the scary person or villain and who are the people trying to get away and survive. In many horror flicks, certain places are portrayed as scary. One place that is portrayed as scary and dangerous in horror films are housing projects. Why are housing projects portrayed as scary? What makes them scary?  To try and come up with an answer to this question, I have watched a horror movie called Candyman, that was made in 1992. This movie is about an urban legend. An African American man named Daniel Robitaille was a slave who worked in a plantation. The plantation owner asked him to draw a picture of his daughter, but then he fell in love with the plantation’s daughter and they had a child together. This was not allowed by the plantation so he hired a mob to kill Daniel. They chased him, cut his hand off and covered him with honey and threw him into a beehive. He turned into a ghost seeking to get revenge. The legend says that if you say Candyman five times in the mirror he will come up behind you with a hook in his hand and kill you.

             One character in Candyman was a woman named Helen Lyle and she was a graduate student that was researching urban legends. She talked to several people to find out about the Candyman and his story. After talking to them, she discovered that Candyman’s ashes were dispersed all over the Cabrini-Green housing projects and that he had killed a woman named Ruthie-Jean there. Helen decides that she wants to write a thesis about Candyman. She ends up going to the Cabrini-Green projects with her friend Bernadette Wash to try to see the murder scene.

           In one scene I have analyzed, Helen and Bernadette are driving to the Cabrini-Green projects to take a look at the murder scene of Ruthie Jean. As Helen is driving, Bernadette proceeds to pull out weapons in her bag that she has to defend themselves, one being arsenal. Helen asks why she has arsenal because they are going only eight blocks away. Bernadette tells Helen “You’re the one who got us dressed up like cops”. Helens tells her that she said to just dress conservatively but Bernadette insisted again that they look like cops. Helen asks Bernadette why she’s trying to scare her. Bernadette tells Helen that she is not trying to scare her, she states “The gangs hold this whole neighborhood hostage”. Then Helen suggests them to turn back and she says they’ll just write a boring thesis about what is usually written about urban legends. Bernadette doesn’t know what to say after and then Helen says “We’ve got a real shot here, Bernadette. An entire community starts attributing the daily horrors of their lives to a mythical figure.” They both agree that Trevor who is Helen’s Husband and Archie would be too afraid to do this. Bernadette ends up agreeing to go and they drive off to the Cabrini-Green projects. When they get there, the movie shows a deserted, creepy, and quiet looking housing project. The background music is also very creepy and I believe this did this to make it seem eerie. Finally Helen and Bernadette arrive to the Cabrini-Green housing projects. When they leave their car, several men are outside and they say things like “Want somethin’ baby? I got it for you” and “Which way you going?”. Helen and Bernadette ignore all these comments, however when they get closer to the buildings the men ask about where they are going. Helen tells them that they are just going inside to visit a friend. The men follow them to the elevator surrounding them and so Helen decides they should take the stairs. 

         This scene shows how housing projects can be depicted as scary. One way is that they can be seen as scary is that there are lots of violent and dangerous gangs in them. Bernadette tells Helen she thinks that they are dressed up like police because if the gangs and criminals think they are the police it could be potentially more dangerous for them. The gangs might think they are there to find information out about them or to arrest them, so they could possibly attack Helen and Bernadette to prevent them from doing that.  

         Another way housing projects can be depicted as scary are the creepy people living inside these housing projects. For example, when Helen and Bernadette walked past a group of men, the men made inappropriate comments towards them, and asking where they were going. When Helen and Bernadette were going to take the elevator, the men followed them there and surrounded them, so they took the stairs to be more safe. 

          Lastly, we have discovered an idea of why movies show housing projects as a scary place in horror movies. The people living in them are usually very dangerous so it is a place that the characters try to avoid going as well. 

12 October 2019 

Mr. Druffel

FIQWS 10103 

Susan Dimarco

                                                       Conference Paper Proposal 

           Throughout time, people have been unfairly treated in different ways. One of the ways people have been unfairly treated is in film acting. My name is Susan Dimarco and I am a student at the City College of New York. I have been learning about films and I am very educated regarding this topic. In many films, whitewashing happens. Whitewashing is a tendency that most of the actors and actresses in films and movies are white. Some of the white actors play roles that were supposed to be made for non-white characters. Also, most of the award winning actors and actresses at the Oscars are white.  As you can see, this is a real and serious issue because people of color are not given the same opportunities therefore are not represented as much in films. I have proposed a solution to this problem, which is boycotting certain films. I believe that we as the consumers who watch these films and movies should stop paying and going to ones that don’t show diversity. Then the creators of these movies will realize that people want changes. Additionally, consumers should go see and support movies that include different races. Obviously, everyone deserves a chance to be in leading roles regardless of race. My suggestions will create more successful well known actors from all backgrounds and they can inspire the youth that they can succeed no matter where they come from. 

Welcome to CUNY Academic Commons. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!