- Summarize: What are the main arguments? What is the point of this book or article? What topics are covered? If someone asked what this article/book is about, what would you say? The length of your annotations will determine how detailed your summary is. For more help, see our handout on paraphrasing sources.
- Assess: After summarizing a source, it may be helpful to evaluate it. Is it a useful source? How does it compare with other sources in your bibliography? Is the information reliable? Is this source biased or objective? What is the goal of this source?For more help, see our handouts on evaluating resources.
- Reflect: Once you’ve summarized and assessed a source, you need to ask how it fits into your research. Was this source helpful to you? How does it help you shape your argument? How can you use this source in your research project? Has it changed how you think about your topic?
- Who’s funding the research or publishing the article/video/website?
- Who’s the writer/director?
- Who’s the text’s intended audience?
- What are you trying to understand?
- What’s the text about?
- What’s the text’s purpose?
- What does the writer gain?
- What does the writer think you’re overlooking when comes to understanding the topic (the gap)?
- When was the text published?
- Where was it published?
- How does the medium affect you?
- How does the text change your understanding of your topic?
- What case (argument) is the text making about your topic?
- What rhetorical appeals are in play?
- An “objective” or “disinterested” style of writing is still a rhetorical appeal. Why would a writer deploy this type of narrator’s voice?
- Does the writer/director seem to be a reasonable reasoner? If not, why?
Source one: “Solitude.” New Hamburg Independent [New Hamburg, Ontario], 3 Jan. 2019, p. 1. Gale OneFile: CPI.Q (Canadian Periodicals), https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A568268672/CPI?u=ucinc_main&sid=CPI&xid=7c5ecbc8. Accessed 7 Nov. 2019.
Summary: Writer explains that solitude is the opportunity for one to find peace and tranquility. As he would roam and walk the fields and pastures, his mind would roam to his childhood, social interactions and he would also pray. The loneliness of solitude is the danger of it for him and this evolves into depression. He combats this by convincing himself that it’s melancholy. His definition of melancholy is beautiful with a touch of sadness. He finnishes by saying that beauty is what redeemed solitude for him. Solitude is the means by which he discovered beauty. This is important to him as an artist.
Assess: This is a popular resource. He doesn’t have any credentials; he is an artist. I believe that this source might be a primary resource because he speaks on his own account of his experience with solitude. Since he himself is an artist and he speaks through the lens of artistry, I believe it makes him credible. The goal of this source is to inform his audience on solitude. His goal is to speak of what it has done for him artistically but also how the difficulties of it was what it made it so beneficial.
Reflect: This is useful for my argument in that it gives a personal testimony to the experience of solitude and how to really reap from it. It is useful because it gives an in depth description and analysis of the internal journey of solitude. That is something this source does that my other ones do not.
Summary: “The fear of finding oneself alone – that is what one suffers from – and so they don’t find themselves at all.”- Andre Gide. The fear of isolation deeply runs through our veins. Nowadays we fear being alone at all. At root it’s a fear of oneself. Frightening thoughts are pushed out of our awareness when we are around people. What one takes to solitude is what grows there. Bring the beast and it will eat you. You do have to be careful and many think they shou
People are urged to never want to be alone. People go to eachother are saved form their solitude and become crippled verisons of our true selves. We go to eachother TO LOOK FOR ourselves and to lose ourselves.
Metaneeds- our highest needs. Needs for beauty truth and goodness. Can’t be completely fulfilled by another person. Cant get spiritual fullness from a person. Then codependence will happen. They will become God to you. They can just as easily become the devil. -ernest becker(the denial of death) You become the reflex of another person. You lose yourself in them. This adds an undercurent of resentment. We must develop the capacity to be alone. When we don;t we build our false self bc we become overcomplacent. mirror reflex of what we belive others want us to be. Our ability to be alone is the only way to gain back our true self to and false self can be broken down. Most people believe in object relations theory. Relationships are the sole reason for life. Implies that your life has no meaning outside of interpersonal relationships. Relationship with something creative that consumes our attention. Introverted creators achieve self realization. interact with their work rather than with other people. As essential for the mind as food is for the body. john bowbly, attachment and loss.
Solitude also enables us to act appropriately in the relationships we DO cultivate. We don;t really depend on them. We are independent beings.we don’t lose our identity in them.
There is nothing more dangerous than solitude. We can increase our ability to deal with the dangers if we consider the benefits of solitude lies in the dangers. It is only in confronting th darkness within and attain the self confidence as one who has gained sovereignty overhimself. We must trust in what is difficult. That someting is difficult means it is worthwhile and is one more reason why we should do it.
Assess: This source comes from a channel on youtube called Academy of Ideas. I would say this source is reliable because it all came from other sources such as ancient philosophers and authors. The video was produced by a channel that promotes mental health and philosophies of life. This may make it kind of biased because they want it to benefit their listeners. The goal of the video is to introduce a new persepctive to spending time alone. Rather the goal is to inform us and get us to inquire and ponder why we are so fearful of it. Throughout the video they quote many philosophers and authors such as Andre Gide, John bowbly, Ernest Becker and the guy who came up with metaneeds.
Reflect: This source is very useful for my argument because it is very informative about different perspectives of solitude. This shapes my argument
Summary: human beings are social cratures. many decided to live a solitary life. Since the beginning buddhist monks spend a lot of time time alone because they know happiness occurs within and not from other people. Deepens their meditations. our current society can’t stand it and judge people who do it and they think they’re suspicious. villains in. movies are depicted as a doliatry livers. IF USED WISELY solitude is extremely healthy. We make conscous decidions to close certain doors and open new ones. When we spend time alone many authors and artists spend a lot of time alone.
we cant replace our need form human interaction with netflix the internet and online relationships. we still need human interaction. To be productive in solitude, use no social media or phone.
Niklas tesla: He seculded himself and was a true hermit. Optimized creativity/ razor sharp focus. Contributed to the world. Many artists spend time away from the noise. Without great solitude no serious work is possible-pablo picasso. We observe our emotions and figure out whats going on inside our bodies and ourslevs. we explore and ambrace ourslevs. We observe our thoughts and physcial sensations as well.
if we appreciate our own company, we become less dependent on others’ company and stay away from company that might be very bad for us.
Oppotunity to cultivate love in solitude. We are free of in group preferences. We cultivate love for wider groups of people. We become more compassionate and
Assess: This source is a video from youtube
Reflect: This source offers multiple point of views and aspects to the benefits. He mentions that no great work is accomplished without solitude and gives the persepctive of Buddism and why it is so beneical to them. Also gives aspect of what it does for our view of the world and how it makes us less close minded.
Source 4: “Winter’s Watch” shortfilm The challenge of true solitude
Summary: Alexandra de Steiguer has spent her winters alone on an island off the coast of New England for the past 19 years. She would spend a lot of time alone as a kid: she found its advantages. It’s peaceful and she could use her imagunation. She feels connected to the web of life out on the island; life and death. She photograohs the vastness of the sea.
Assess: This source is a video from youtube on a channe about the atlantic. It is a shortfilm called “Winter’s Watch”. It is also kind of a documentary narrated by the woman who experienced it. This is a primary resource. It is credible because it’s coming directly from the woman who experienced it. The speaker has goodwill i believe. She does not gain anything from what we think about solitude one way or another. The source might be a bit biased.
Reflect:
Niqolas Ruud-ted talk art of alone
Summary: Benefits of being alone: it fosters creativity, takes stress down, and benefits the community. When he takes a moment to close his eyes it takes his stress down alot. He feels free form the expectations of others. All great ideas are born alone. If you tell a room of people to come up with an idea together it won’t be as succesful as telling them to come up with ideas alone and then come back and share them. He himself didn’t start practicing solitude until he started getting into outdoorsy stuff and he didn’t have any friends who wanted to go with him. As he started doing it, he saw the value in it. He became less of an angry person. Imagine a world where we all practiced this. It would foster a more peaceful community.
Assess: This is a ted talk given by a freshman at … named Niqolas Ruud. He does not gain anything from us believing in the power of solitude; he is not an organization or a company. He is just a student who has personally experienced the power of it.
Reflect: This is useful for my argument because it is a personal testimony. Personal testimonies have a different effect than other types of
Transcendentalism for Dummies
It is the ability to break free from societies’ constraints and follow our own moral beliefs. Nature is very important to it. living close to it. you escape material world. develepp spirtuiatul connection to earth. you escape connections to material things. understand that the world isnt reveolved aroundyou throw earthyly possessions away
to escape society thoaroe went to the woods and embraces the idea of nature he wanted to live deep and suck out all the murrow of life. seperate your sefl from social media. civil disobeduance. he didnt support the way bc he thought it would lead to the expamnsion of slaver, arrestedt for refuing to pay the taxes. the gright to resist the government
MLK wasa one. outsiders should not particisopate. negotiate not particiipate. do not condemn demostrations.
school of thought in the early 19th century. the word itself reveeals what its about. transcend rise to enlightnment the “oversoul”three ideas: the goodness of man, the gorliers of nature and the importance of free individual expression. solitude. centered around the individual. talks heavily on truth, to know and trust oneseld. embracing the world while remaining uniwue. to stay nonconformed. the sublimity of nature. itis what remains untouched by man. being aeak ewirh moral reform. becoming an agent of change. it is still alive today. nonviolent protests
Summary : The buddha said that one who does life alone will find pleasure. in the individiualistic western society loneliness it is the most common reason for deppression. The reality is that it’s not a punishment, it’s a way to grow as a person. How we spend the time is what makes it what it is. You have to be your own best host and treat yourself as your guest. It’s not surprising that we don’t like being alone if we are mean to ourselves. Show ourselves the same hospitality as we do to others. Become so entangled with our environment that it becomes part of who we are. Your body is your environment. Take care of it, and take care of your room. People feel tend to feel lonely when they are physically alone. They have a sense of being seperated from from fun. They feel left out. Loneliness is just a perception. we can percieve a situation as lonely even if we aren’t alone. We must also realize that we are always connected. Realize everything in this world is connected and we are all on the same earth. if we realize this how could we ever be lonely? “Men arent disturbed by things but by the principles and notions they form concerning things” -Epictetus. People that need to be around others all the time do everything to avoid introspection. By going inwards, we find out whats bothering us. Doing it helps us tremendously. Chase your dreams. being around people all the time gravitates us towards what they do. We begin to watch what they watch and do what they do. Solitude gives us the opporutinity to do what we actually want to do . all achievements have a sacrifice. you will start to embrace your time alone. you will want to have time alone. highly fulfilling. joy; feeling like nothing is missing
Assess: I believe this resource does not have anything making it biased. It is a swedish philosophy channel. It is not trying to gain profit for anything. This resource is different because it is giving instructions on how to do this correctly, instead of just convincing why it is a good thing.
Reflect: I believe it would be a good thing for my argument to add in exactly how to do it correctly. If I don’t explain it, then it would be a very big hole in my argument.
Click to access the-end-of-solitude-1.pdf
Google Scholars
Summary: Technology is taking away our privacy and our concentration, but it is also taking away our ability to be alone. You cannot hear God when people are chattering at you, and the divine word, their pretensions notwithstanding, demurs at descending on the monarch and the p riest. Communal experience is the human norm, but the solitary encounter with God is the egregious act that refreshes that norm. Modernism decoupled this d ialectic. Its notion of solitude was harsher, more adversarial, more isolating. The mob, the human mass, presses in. Hell is other people. The soul is forced back into itself — hence the development of a more austere, more embattled form of self – validation, Trilling’s “authenticity,” where the essential relationship is only with oneself. The mob, the human mass, presses in. Hell is other people. But we no longer live in the modernist city, and our great fear is not subme rsion by the mass but isolation from the herd. A constant stream of mediated contact, virtual, notional, or simulated, keeps us wired in to the electronic hive — though contact, or at least two – way contact, seems increasingly beside the point. The goal now, it seems, is simply to become known, to turn oneself into a sort of miniature celebrity. Young people today seem to have no desire for solitude, have never heard of it, can ‘t imagine why it would be worth having. In fact, their use of technology — or to be fair, our use of technology — seems to involve a constant effort to stave off the possibility of solitude, a continuous attempt, as we sit alone at our computers, to maint ain the imaginative presence of others. elevision, by obviating the need to learn how to make use of one ‘s lack of occupation, precludes one from ever discovering how to enjoy it. In fact, it renders that condition fearsome, its prospect intolerable. You are terrified of being bored — so you turn on the television. having nothing to do doesn’t have to be a bad thing. The alternative to boredom is what Whitm an called idleness: a passive receptivity to the world. The lost sheep is lonely; the shepherd is not lonely. But the Internet is as powerful a machine for the production of loneliness as television is for the manufacture of boredom. If six hours of tel evision a day creates the aptitude for boredom, the inability to sit still, a hundred text messages a day creates the aptitude for loneliness, the inability to be by yourself.nd losing solitude, what have they lost? First, the propensity for introspection, that examination of the self that the Puritans, and the Romantics, and the modernists (and Socrates, for that matter) placed at the center of spiritual life — of wisdom, of conduct. Today’s young people seem to feel that they can make themselves fully known to one another. They seem to lack a s ense of their own depths, and of the value of keeping them hidden. According to David Brooks, that reliable index of the social – scientific zeitgeist, cognitive scientists tell us that “our decision – making is powerfully influenced by social context”; neuroscientists, that we have “permeable minds” that function in part through a process of “deep im itation”; psychologists, that “we are organized by our attachments”; sociologists, that our behavior is affected by “the power of social networks.” The ultimate implication is that there is no mental space that is not social. Solitude enables us to secure the integrity of the self as well as to explore it. . But if solitude disappears as a social value and social idea, will even the exceptions remain possible? Still, one is powerless to reverse the drift of the culture. One can only save oneself — and whatever else happens, one can still always do that. But it takes a willingness to be unpopular. to hold oneself apart from society, is to begin to think one’s way beyond it. One must protect oneself from the momentum of intellectual and moral consensus. We, however, have made of geniality — the wea k smile, the polite interest, the fake invitation — a cardinal virtue. Friendship may be slipping from our grasp, but our friendliness is universal. But Thoreau understood that securing one’s self – possession was worth a few wounded feelings.
Assess: William Deresiewicz writes essays and reviews for a variety of publication s. He taught at Yale University from 1998 to 2008. This essay was written in April of 2009. The only implication I am making about that is that there are some parts that are a little out of date. Such as when he speaks of this generation being brought up with the web; we know longer use My space and calling people isn’t the main source of the problem. It has spread to being able to instananeaously be able to send temporary photos of our faces to eachother without even having to say anything.
Reflect: This source is quite useful for my paper as it touches on everything I plan to touch on. It is also unique in the sense that is gives a lot of historical examples of this idea and the importance of it such as Henry David Thoreau, and romaticism, and modernism etc. He also draws interesting parrallels between this generation and the generations before us. He explains momentum began and how it is not likely to stop. Another thing he adds into my argument is that the act of pursuing this is not only hard and rare but is rude to the outside world.
Click to access rmrs_p015_3_223_230.pdf
https://www.litcharts.com/lit/walden/solitude
Summary: Thoreau finds freedom in solitude. Nothing is expected from him to people or authority. Thoreau takes spiritual pleasure in being alone, which makes him feel that he could be anywhere. He feels that in nature he is never really alone. The company of plants and the elements never runs out. Thoreau is making a point to differentiate between solitude and loneliness, which one can feel even when one is in the company of other people. In fact, Thoreau argues, it is solitude, not society, which prevents loneliness. Even in solitude, one is connected to all things. Thoreau criticizes society for the way it prevents a person from enjoying solitude, which fosters his connection to himself and therefore allows him to create real connections to others. The work he does in solitude enriches him and gives him spiritual purpose.
Assess:
Reflect:
Kara's Blog 