Fluent Essays

Analytical (Interpretive) Assignment Guidelines All academic analytical writing contains an intellectual argument or thesis, evidence to support the position, and a critical examination of various parts of the topic as well as an analysis of the topic as a whole. Analytical (interpretive) writing also should answer the “so what? what is the significance of this?” questions. Other questions that may be relevant include: - Why did this happen? - How did this happen? - Whom does this affected? What are the short and long-term implications of this? You need to explain why your analysis is relevant and why should I, as a reader care? The goal of this assignment is to develop and utilize analytical thinking and writing. You want to push past the superficial and dig more deeply in to the underlying reasons that may explain what you observed. Review your descriptive essay. Using bold face type weave your analysis into your descriptive essay. You are trying to take apart a scene, interaction, event etc. to examine and better understand it, to excavate or clarify the meaning of what you have observed and consider why it is significant. Look for patterns, themes, or contradictions. Focus on logic and try to offer evidence or possible explanations to justify/support your analysis. Your tone should be exploratory, not definitive. There are many ways to shape your analysis, depending on your descriptive essay. Some of you included very specific interactions that you may choose to focus on and decipher. Others may choose to address particular behaviors of people you observed. For ex. many of you noted the prevalence of tourists posing and picture-taking. You might ponder the significance of this behavior. Does this alter the experience of seeing? Who is the intended audience for these images? How and why do these photos circulate? Review some of the assigned readings to generate ideas about themes and patterns. Your goal is to generate 2 pages of analysis (so that your descriptive + analytical essay is a total of 4 pages).The once-bustling Main Street in downtown Memphis is left desolate under shelter-in-place orders during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Intersecting with the city’s most popular blues destination, Beale Street, the vacant streets are a sharp contrast to the normal rhythms of the area. Main Street is also a commonplace for the public congregation of tourists and locals, including members of the homeless community. The LUX was one of several hotels on the street. VAR 36.2 Fall 2020 380 Visual Anthropology Review, Vol. 36, Issue 2, pp. 379–400, ISSN 1058-7187, online 1548-7458. © 2020 American Anthropological Association. DOI: 10.1111/var.12216. Living at the LUX: Homelessness and Improvisational Waiting under COVID-19 LINDSEY RAISA FELDMAN & MICHAEL VICENTE PÉREZ ABSTRACT This photo-essay engages with the central theme of wait- ing under COVID-19 among a group of homeless women at the LUX hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. The images and text capture the structural shelter-in-place conditions and how the women worked within those regulations to construct a new relationship to time and the self. The images in this essay reflect what we call improvisational waiting, a con- cept that emphasizes the creative ways women at the LUX turned experiences of waiting into novel rhythms of life that held the promise of a better future. KEYWORDS waiting, agency, homelessness, shelter, COVID-19 mailto: mailto: Homelessness and Waiting Under COVID-19 FELDMAN & PÉREZ 381 Introduction COVID-19 has brought more to the world than illness and death. Moving swiftly across borders by human carriers, SARS-CoV-2, the airborne virus that causes COVID-19, has simultaneously induced new forms of isolation while exacer- bating existing social and economic inequalities. But as indi- viduals around the world struggle differently against the threat of infection, one experience unites us all: the act of waiting. Watching the news, we wait for case numbers to drop. Hoping for conditions that will allow safe return to work, we wait for the economy to improve. Infected, we wait for symptoms to diminish. Wherever the virus and disease are found, we wait under the shadow of uncertainty. Although waiting has taken a particular form under the COVID-19 global pandemic, with many government officials heeding the advice of medical experts and ordering people to “shelter in place,” waiting is diverse in both meaning and experience. Here, we explore one unique set of experiences of waiting during the global pandemic. We present images of a group of homeless women in Memphis, Tennessee, who used waiting in temporary shelter to improvise new daily rhythms that, in some cases, prepared them for the possibility of a more hopeful future. We show both the structures of life under shel- ter-in-place conditions and how it allowed for improvised so- cial and bodily practices that turned waiting into projects of transformation and well-beingShitty First Draf ts Now, practically even better news than that of short assign_ ments is the idea of shitty first drafts. All good w,riters write them. This is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts. people tend to look at successful writers, writers who are getting their books published and maybe even doing well financially, and think that they sit down at their desks every morning feeling like a million dollars, feeling great about who they are and how much talent they have and what a great story they have to tell; that they take in a few deep breaths, push back their sleeves, roll their necks a few times to get all the cricks out, and dive in, typing fully formed passages as fast as a court reporter. But this is just the fantasy of the uninitiated. I know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not one of them sits down routinely feeling wildly enthusiastic and confident. Not one of them writes elegant 2t ; i + = i { it r j } il if l{ ii tt e i* il i i ? ili iil i? + lit iIi g ili 1 ili ,i ; $ r r re I ,ii ;; .E ff tii g ifi ifl ifi ii1 i ii i t i $ € i *r € $ : iIg 5 * I€ i i;i 5 f + n 3 iF ; ri ii e lij ii iii F jii i iig ii $ ? i ? g iE ? -+ -g 3 a i: F 6 + 1 = _ E I i I q = il; i i g , * { f ; _ { B + r , e z S i 7 S T -- * _ _ E X = i ; * i T a a i= *! r + j!= .r ,a -4 5 -o d P i7 X 1 3 !? io b e = i.r 5 E ri la * !T :D v * + c. o I : - q r * jo : A -Y 6 ^ A .i 5 a < i :/ + 1 3 E 5 4 + g ;: 2 ^E ;- \% iL :r F E E € T E i; -i .; ? a ) :. a v 3 .* ro -t 2 1 ^- ,^ v ,E d F ri i i r E 1 i ; P f i s i; S r - i g ; i i f cJ i+ .: - i i rr = s -E = i i a - a - st L = - ^. a i 3 - i r i 3 r lt 3 i 3 i i r ; i t s a ; B q _ ; e * E g I ? ; 3 3 F ^ q -i :. v r - 4 e r i i ;; s. E i i{ { i i e -< i tr o E d i: a - P o + 6 - i i f i,8 g E F a E ti ; f, i il flE t; ? s H c l F + = * i = r ? 3 + m c- i s E q : 2 d ; fr ; I $ & a - rt a S jL A a jil E s i= .6 ic -E E C < { *d - ,; 5 S q = J= E F :j L f l s e d d i r i T t zE i :. = xa j.: F :- i:; d 6 ; a i q = x 4 o I E E = I) a - :i; :; r: {= *{ ili l: a 5 : d t a A i q i ; z o ,! .i: ,d -* i? .f .! .4 ;. A - J. F = cx 6 9 *= g ? q F + jT -: Y a c, -P -= ;a .- Y i= E = - o ? tu o -9 Z . i b e - ; ; f, i F 3 - :- 5 i, E 3 S i= r !_ .3 d . r. ) i a : + x q = r* e .s q 0 :t Z i3 + I y - - J