Loeb, Andrew “Constitutional Conundrum” POLISCI 318, 28 March 2013

 

            I wrote this paper in my Political Science 318 class on American Constitutional Politics, taught by Mariah Zeisberg. The class was in Winter of 2013, my sophomore year and was also the first of my Upper Level Writing Requirements. The paper was on the Mexican-American War and dealt with whether or not President James K. Polk acted within his constitutional authority leading up to the war. As I express in the paper, it is my belief that Polk did overstep his authority by starting the war, or at the very least manipulating its beginning. This was a continuation of my writing journey through the concept of political power. I think one area in which I was limited in this paper was that after I gave my thesis statement in the first paragraph, I was forced to sideline my own views and beliefs. I had opinions, but I had to keep them out of the paper in favor of factual evidence and very “by-the-book” interpretation. I think I was still developing writing techniques at this point, because this paper is not one of my best. Although to be honest, that might not have much to do with technique, rather political theory is not one of my strongest fields.

 

Loeb, Andrew “Electoral Fraud: The Purposes and Motivations” POLSCI 314, 22 April 2012

 

            This paper was a crowning achievement in the worst class I have ever taken at this university and it was only my second semester as a freshman. Political Science 314: American Political Parties was supposed to be an amazing class taught by Professor Hanes Walton Jr. Unfortunately, Professor Walton Jr. spontaneously went on sabbatical before passing away a semester later and this course was taught by a hastily found substitute who had no teaching experience whatsoever. I barely survived the class. Only through my GSI did I even make it through to the end. It was with this paper that I really figured out that writing was something I had the potential to do well. The assignment was very open-ended, a standard research paper that had to only be tangentially related to the class topic. I had read a little bit about electoral fraud, so I decided to explore the topic in more depth. The angle I took was that it was political interests that motivated electoral fraud, rather than economic interests. In terms of significance to my writing development, I think it is safe to say that this was one of the earliest demonstrations of my views on political power, or at least my opinion that political power was something important to keep in mind. I enjoyed writing the paper, especially because I learned more about elections in other countries, but also because I gained more knowledge on how to conduct research. It was a trial and error process, especially because I received minimum guidelines from the instructors about how to go about the paper. Going back into my writing history, I am surprised how much the idea of political power kept popping up throughout the various assignments I had in class.

 

Loeb, Andrew “European Defense Community: An Examination of the Army that Wasn’t”

            HISTORY 312, 6 December 2013

 

            This paper was for my class on European Integration, taken in the first semester of my junior year. The class was taught by Professor Dario Gaggio and it dealt with how the European Union formed in the wake of World War II. This paper was my final paper for the class and the prompt was very self-selected, meaning I could choose my topic. I decided to write on the failed European Defense Community, arguing that it failed because of nationalistic whims, specifically on the part of France. This paper definitely explored a situation in which political power, and its abuses, backfired with negative consequences outside of solely the political actors. In terms of writing development, this paper gave me invaluable experience at producing written work in a class that was not very writing based. Instead, this class relied on the lectures of Professor Gaggio and some readings, with this paper the only assignment. I did not have prior feedback from the graders before producing this paper, so I had to trust my gut for a lot of my decisions.

 

Loeb, Andrew “Manifest Destiny: The Blank Check of Westward Expansion” HISTORY 373,

            14 December 2013

 

            This paper hails from my History 373 class on the History of the U.S. West, taught in a very interesting fashion by Professor Michael Witgen. The class was a flipped classroom set up, meaning that the students were in charge of the discussions each day, creating questions and topics to discuss. As for this paper, it was the final paper of the class and again, was on a topic of my own choosing. I have always been fascinated by Manifest Destiny and the expansionism of the United States during the 1800s. My argument was that the ideology of Manifest Destiny gave lawmakers and officials the self-assured right to expand westward regardless of who stood in their way. Another example of how political power can have terrible consequences for those under its purview. In terms of development, I think this paper gave me an opportunity to utilize new media to accentuate the written word, but not replace it. One of my favorite paintings is John Gast’s American Progress, and I was able to feature it in this paper as a way to visualize what Manifest Destiny looked like.

 

Loeb, Andrew “Open Letter to Vladimir Putin” ENGLISH 225, 27 February 2014

 

            I look fondly back on this piece of writing because it came out of one of my favorite classes I’ve taken during college. Surprisingly, it was not even in either of my majors. This assignment was for my English 220 class on Academic Argumentation, taught by Joe Horton during the second semester of my junior year. What I was tasked to do was write an open letter to someone about something. That was the extent of the instruction. I chose to write to Vladimir Putin about the anti-LGBT legislation that was passed in Russia. Part of the reason I wrote was because the 2014 Winter Olympics were simultaneously happening and it provided a social catalyst for me to share my views. Again, political power seems to be creeping up into my writing as I wrote about the overstepping of the legislative body in Russia, the Duma, passing hate legislation that is prejudicial towards a certain subset of society. I think this paper was a strong example of me trying to make a persuasive argument, something I have thought about often during my time on campus, especially early on, when I was sure I was destined for law school.

 

Loeb, Andrew “Race and Politics and Recurrence” POLSCI 496, 26 April 2014

 

            This paper was written for my Political Science 496 class on Race and Politics, taught by the incomparable Professor Pamela Brandwein, and one of my favorite political science courses I took on campus. For the paper, I had to look back on the racial tensions of the 1900s and apply them to modern day issues of drug policies and incarceration. My argument was that white society crafts a dominant narrative to maintain domination in society, especially in the face of movements advocating for the rights of nonwhite citizens. Writing this paper, and others for this class was difficult because Professor Brandwein expected a lot from her students and was a strict grader. Additionally, this was a class in which I appreciated all of the content, but at times I did not understand it, leading to a unique method of writing.

 

Loeb, Andrew “Superman of Many Faces” LHSP 125, 14 December 2011

 

            I think this paper, more than any other in college, I had the most fun writing. It was my First Year Writing Requirement and I was in LHSP 125, taught by Carol Tell, the director of the Lloyd Hall Scholars Program. I was a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed freshman and when Carol told my class that we could choose our topics, I was at a loss for words. We had read a book called Moby Duck, in which the author had explored yellow rubber ducks from a variety of different angles and that was what we were to do with our topic. After giving it a lot of thought, I decided that I wanted to write about something I was passionate about, specifically comic books. I settled on Superman and I looked at him through all of his different incarnations, from the comics, to television, to movies, to even the radio. I thoroughly enjoyed exploring the history of this fictional character that had played such a prominent role in my growing up. Sure, I had started with Archie Comics, but I had quickly transitioned to Superman’s adventures as my main source of comic book enjoyment. As for my development as a writer, I think that this piece was the first or one of the first times that I was writing on a topic I was super passionate about and I think that translated into the piece, particularly because it was an 8-page assignment and I submitted 12 pages.

 

Loeb, Andrew “Turing Tables” 29 May 2011.

 

            This paper was a struggle, and represents the beginning of my collegiate writing experience. This was my Directed Self-Placement Exam and it was an intense experience to say the least. The topic was the Turing Test, which is when people have online conversations with another entity and have to figure out if it is a human or artificial intelligence that they are talking with. As mentioned in my Writer’s Evolution essay, I learned a lot about myself through writing this paper. It really showed me just how much of a journey I had to make to gain important writing skills, particularly in the realm of collegiate writing. I do not think I had the opportunity to put much thought and effort into the piece, especially because while I was writing it, I was not confident on how to write it.

 

Loeb, Andrew “War and Mythmaking” HISTORY 496, 22 January 2014

 

            This paper hails from my History 496 class, my colloquium in history, as well as my other Upper Level Writing Requirement. The class was titled “In the Aftermath of War and Genocide: War and Remembrance in Twentieth Century Germany” and was taught by Professor Kathleen Canning, the chair of the History Department. This class explored one of my other passions in history, the concept of memory and culture. The class dealt with how Germany moved on from the world wars of the 1900s, or how the culture reacted and absorbed the truths that existed. For this specific assignment, I discussed how in the wake of World War I, the German people bought into myths based around the war in order to preserve nationalism amongst German citizens. This paper was on the shorter side, but still allowed me to flesh out my point of view on the myths utilized by the German people, such as the Myth of the War Experience that crafted the war as a sacred event. Again, throughout this piece, I was able to convey that manipulation of the public came from the government, forcing a specific rhetoric in order to minimize loss of support after loss of the war.

 

Loeb, Andrew “Why I Write” WRITING 220, 19 December 2012

 

            This paper, nay, this exploration of self, came from another of my favorite courses of college, Writing 220. This gateway course to the Minor in Writing was taught by Ray McDaniel and was my first introduction to the concept that writing could be and should be for more than a grade. The assignment was to write our own version of the “Why I Write” essay made popular through the skillful crafting of George Orwell and later Joan Didion. One thing in particular that I loved about this piece, especially writing it, was that I was able to explore my past and reflect on my own history, while still crafting an argument. Of course, coming back to it a few years later, I still find issues with my phrasing and word choice, but that is simply nitpicking. I think this piece was very crucial to my development as a writer because it forced me to pause, take a step back, out of my life, and ask: why? Why is this something I do? And that was a very powerful experience for me.