Active Reading

In order to incorporate sources into an argument, one must start by actively reading the articles. I read and made annotations on Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates,  ““More Than Skin Deep”: Stress Neurobiology and Mental Health Consequences of Racial Discrimination” by Maximus Berger & Zoltán Sarnyai, and the “Effects of Diversity Experiences on Critical Thinking Skills Over 4 Years of College” by Ernest T. Pascarella et al.. The act of annotating allows for a more engaging and critical read through. In the humanistic source, I made comments questioning topics, giving my opinion, and addressing topics. In the scientific source, my annotations were more about highlighting interesting findings and trying to understand the methods. The social science annotations included relating to the other sources, noticing the results, asking questions, and discussing my thoughts. My approach to annotations includes highlighting important parts, underlining things I don’t understand, circling unfamiliar words, adding symbols along the margins, and writing questions. My homework assignments serve as a way to discuss the sources and reflect on what I read. I used quotes, paraphrases, and then agreed or disagreed with the article. In homework entry eleven, I broke down the style of writing Coates used, picked out memorable quotes, and then made my own realizations. In homework entry twelve, I wrote about the findings from the scientific article and my overall thought on it. These writing exercises are helpful because it allows me to understand the meanings more. 

Humanistic Source Annotation Ex:

https://jstevens20.uneportfolio.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5026/2023/12/file-1a-3.pdf

Scientific Source Annotation Example:

https://jstevens20.uneportfolio.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5026/2023/12/file-2-1.pdf

Social Scientific Annotation Example

https://jstevens20.uneportfolio.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5026/2023/12/file-3-1.pdf

Homework Entry Eleven:

The excerpt from Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates was very inspiring. The text takes a more narrative approach in the form of a letter written to the author’s son. I very much enjoyed this style of writing as it felt very personal and like Coates was telling his story directly to me. The beginning of the excerpt talks about Coate’s childhood and his experience in education, which sets up the rest of the text nicely. It goes on to describe his realization of the Civil Rights movement and the extreme injustices that black Americans were facing.  In order to make sense of these issues, Coates turned to literature. The author read book after book in search of answers and guidance from the words of famous authors. “I had to inhale all the pages” (Coates 4). I can understand the need for grasping every bit of information from a source of writing. I often find myself becoming passionate about a topic or issue and feeling the need to learn as much about it as I can. At the end of the excerpt, Coates acknowledged that all of this learning can lead to discomfort. In the author’s case, he realized that the process of getting his dream would instead break all the dreams. All of the comfort he knew would be taken away to reveal the terribleness of humanity. This is a problem with learning as it does not always give you the outcome you desire and can often lead you to hard realizations. Overall, I really enjoyed this excerpt. I found myself engaged and interested in every word that Coates was saying. I believe that the humanistic style is a style that I prefer. It let you feel all the emotions that the author was feeling.

Homework Entry Twelve

The scientific article titled “More than skin deep”: stress neurobiology and mental health consequences of racial discrimination, explored the mental and physical toll that racial discrimination can cause.  The article explored the negative impacts from racism that affect people everyday. It discussed having a higher chance of mental health, anxiety, and mood disorders. A notable example would be schizophrenia. Psychological distress is also associated with discrimination. It even affects parts of the brain, cardiovascular functions, and leads to an increase in chronic stress. I found this article to be very interesting as I am a psychology major. I also work in a psychology research lab so I am very familiar with research processes and am very interested in research studies. Overall, I preferred the narrative excerpt more because it was more engaging. However, I wouldn’t say that I disliked this but rather that I just liked the other more.