Journal VI

Journal VI

Chimamanda Adichie’s “The Danger of a Single Story”

1. What is Adichie’s primary argument in this video? What is a “single story?”

Adichie's primary argument is that a single story can pollute ones view of the subject. The "single story" refers to a single reference, reading, or side to a subject that is heard regularly because of either its positive or negative side. But since it is told and heard so much one tends to believe that is how it always is.

2. How do you think the idea of the single story is relevant to our class theme?

The idea of the single story is relevant to our class because we need to realize that the one story is not the final idea or representation to a whole, but there is a second that shows the other side.

3. Give an example of a time when a single story was told about you.

My sisters were masters of this kind of argument. They would tell my mother that i did something, whether it was true or not. My mother on the other hand would take their word without listening to my story because of their age. In some cases I deserved the punishment or ridicule i received, but other times they were the ones in the wrong.

4. Give an example of a single story that you told about an individual, community, or country.

Oh i tend to do this all the time sadly enough. When I travel to go visit my mom i tell her of all of these "great drivers" we have here in El Paso. This is only one side because its always 1 out of 100-200 drivers that fits into this characteristic. 

5. Give an example of a single story told about your semester topic.

One side to my topic is that Teaching to the Test is causing our students education standards to drop. Although this is what i believe as well, I have found research that proves other reasons besides this one to be the cause.

6. We are in the process of conducting research on our semester topics. How can a single story negatively impact the ways in which we conduct research?

We may become to focused on proving our side of the story that we forget about the other that exist, and possibilities that we need to account for.

7. What are some steps that we can take to avoid telling a single story in our research?

We need to try and keep biases and other influences out of our papers. This will allow us to conduct research that shows our topic without it being a persuasion paper.