- This essay was first published on the World-Post, an online news blog site in January of 2014. The essay was written by Yo Yo Ma who is a cellist and songwriter, a winner of over 18 Grammy Awards, and a producer of over 90 albums. He is also a graduate of Julliard and Harvard University. This displays that Ma is extremely qualified in the musical arts and we can tell where his viewpoint throughout the article will be.
- The purpose of reading and annotating this text is to better understand the content of the essay and to be able to purposefully use the information within the essay to write a solid English paper.
- The rhetorical situation that we are being presented with is how integrating arts and empathy into the sciences and maths will help advance the human brain. He illustrates this by explaining how we need a balance between the two to be able to achieve our full potential. Ma explains to the reader the biological reasoning and research behind adding art and empathy into science and maths. This makes us, the readers, aware of how impactful it would be if we were to integrate that into our schooling systems and even in our jobs.
Three words I wasn’t sure of:
- Interdependent: (of two or more people or things) dependent on each other.
- Ma uses this words in the opening sentence of the essay, “In our highly interdependent global civilization, a lot of things are not working.” He uses this word to display how all the countries around the world are dependent on each other and how we need art and empathy to further strengthen that connection.
- Bolster: support or strengthen; prop up.
- He uses this word to show that when we combine the arts and the sciences together it helps to provide a new energy to our “weary civilization,” as Ma states.
- Lascivious: (of a person, manner, or gesture) feeling or revealing an overt and often offensive sexual desire.
- Ma uses this word to describe a type of dance first originated in North Africa and how it was passed from culture to culture.
Amazing work! Good job!