Welcome to Perspectives 2012

 "Perspectives” is an online journal whose goal is twofold:
first, to provide new and emerging writers a forum in which they may present their work; and second to provide readers, both those who enjoy history and those who have yet to discover historical writing, access to material that may pique their interest in historical characters or periods, especially those which may have been obscured or overlooked by mainstream understanding and study of history.

Join us!
"Becoming Americans: Immigration over the Centuries"
Conference style presentation of our final papers will be
Monday, April 23 and Wednesday, April 25
1:00 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. and 2:30 to 3:45
Papers will be presented in a panel format
followed by time for
questions and answers from the audience
Building 11, Room 217

Conference Title:
"Becoming Americans: Immigration over the Centuries"
Course Topic: Immigration

 This journal was originally created as a graduate project for a 2011 Creative Writing workshop on publishing. It has since been revamped to give Composition II students at the Univeristy of West Florida a forum to present their final papers. Selected papers from the M-W courses taught by Beth Rodgers will be presented as individual entries in this journal (see the table of contents to the right under "Blog Archive").

Theme for this section of Comp II was published as follows: Immigration: Ellis Island and Beyond. "Although the issue of immigration is currently a ‘hot topic’ dividing those who are citizens against newcomers, we are, in fact, a nation of immigrants. Our exploration of the theme of immigration will include not only the immigrant’s motivations and experiences, but also how the concept of being an immigrant has evolved and changed over the years." 

Our focus for the beginning of this course revolved around the history of immigration to the United States. Students were divided into groups and each group created a powerpoint presentation, an outline and a handout covering one century of immigration to America (1600's, 1700's, 1800's, and 1900's). They were asked to focus on a variety issues and research into the historical, sociological, and even the biological aspects of becoming an American, including but not exclusively through the gateway of Ellis Island. From this broad base of information, students were asked to focus on one idea on which they would write their final paper. We have undertaken this topic as follows: 

• viewed ABC News 20/20 documentary “Is America Number One?”(John Stossel, 1999);
• considered first person accounts of immigrants and created profiles;
• viewed the film Gangs of New York (Martin Scorsese); 
• viewed the documentary "Dying to Get In" (2007); 
• read and discussed the essay “The Great Divider” by George Saunders (as published in Braindead Megaphone).

Students were given the option to research and write on any era or any topic with the requirement that immigration or an immigrant had to play a central role in their research and their final paper. The contents of this journal represents the best work of the students in two sections of UWF Composition II, Spring 2012. 

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Disclaimer: This blog journal is being revised as a project for Composition II, University of West Florida, Spring 2012.  All papers published remain the sole property of the authors who indiviually retain the ownership of their intellectual property. Papers may not be copied for the purpose of plagiarism; such acts are governed by the University of West Florida and violators are subject to UWF rules. All material contained herein is covered by laws established under U.S. Copyright.  All general blog contents (comments and introductions) are 2012 copyrighted by the editor.