OCG533, Fall 2002
Homework assignment 15, due 21 October
Guess the paragraphs
To do:
Based on the principles of changing
paragraphs outlined in Chapter 8 and “A primer on paragraphs,” guess where
new paragraphs start in each of the two examples of writing shown below. Feel
free to offer any comments you wish on the structure of the resulting
paragraphs.
E-mail messages between J. Oxley and K. Rahn
Dear Ken,
Can you give your Kennedy assassination talk Tuesday Feb 26 to my Intro to Criminalistics Class? It will be a new group of people who won't have heard you the last time—so it can be the same talk. 3:30 to 5 pm in Pastore 234. Thanks, Jimmie
*****
Jimmie,
The short answer is yes. The longer answer is that I am usually occupied on Tuesday afternoons, but will rearrange my schedule for that day. You are also lucky in that Larry Sturdivan (HSCA ballistics guru) and I have just submitted an article to JFS on the subject, which I can use as the outline for a shorter talk, and maybe even in PowerPoint if we get really ambitious. I presented the subject at a JFK meeting last November, and have horror stories to relate if the students are interested. Ken
*****
Fantastic! We are using the Saferstein text book—under Inorganic Analysis the topics listed are the JFK assassination & analysis—I thought you would be perfect for this. Thank you. Jimmie
*****
Jimmie,
If memory serves correctly, it was that same passage that first introduced me to the role of NAA in the JFK assassination. Will there be a computer projector available for the class in case we can get a PowerPoint version ready? How many are in the class? Ken
Selection from Chapter 9 of The Nature Of Prejudice,
by Gordon W. Allport
Doubleday/Anchor, 1958
Ask yourself what would happen to your own personality if you heard it over and over again that you were lazy, a simple child of nature, expected to steal, and had inferior blood. Suppose this opinion were forced on you by the majority of your fellow-citizens. And suppose nothing that you could do would change this opinion—because you happen to have black skin. Or suppose you heard daily that you were expected to be shrewd, sharp, and successful in business, that you were not wanted in clubs and hotels, that you were expected to mingle only with Jews and then, if you did so, were roundly blamed for it. And suppose nothing you could do would change this opinion—because you happened to be a Jew. One’s reputation, whether false or true, cannot be hammered, hammered, hammered, into one’s head without doing something to one’s character. A child who finds himself rejected and attacked on all sides is not likely to develop dignity and poise as his outstanding traits. On the contrary, he develops defenses. Like a dwarf in a world of menacing giants, he cannot fight on equal terms. He is forced to listen to their derision and laughter and submit to their abuse. There are a great many things such a dwarf-child may do, all of them serving as his ego defenses. He may withdraw into himself, speaking little to the giants and never honestly. He may band together with other dwarfs, sticking close to them for comfort and self-respect. He may try to cheat the giants when he can and thus have a taste of sweet revenge. He may in desperation occasionally push some giant off the sidewalk or throw a rock at him when it is safe to do so. Or he may out of despair find himself acting the part that the giant expects, and gradually grow to share his master’s own uncomplimentary view of dwarfs. His natural self-love may, under the persistent blows of contempt, turn his spirit to cringing and self-hate.