Dodson Response--Afterword

In Bill Dodson's conclusion, I liked how he addressed not just his previous topics throughout his book, but he reiterates the main challenges of China.  In more of a summary, Dodson narrows down China's trends and makes implications on how they can improve as a country.  I think Dodson makes too many implications on how China's primary issues can be solved, but he doesn't include enough of his own personal accounts to share with the readers.  I think Dodson could have included some of his opinions, likes and dislikes, and ultimately, anything he learned from the subject.  For my essay, however, I do want to reiterate my question and address solutions for my topic as Dodson did, but I also want to include personal references and my experiences as well.  I also don't want to leave my audience with a high expectancy to address another topic.  At the end of his afterword Dodson writes, "But that's a whole other story completely" (236).  That statement didn't feel as complete to his topic as I hoped it to be and I felt that it was unnecessary to bring up another topic if it was totally different from his original topic.  In my conclusion, I hope to wrap up my discussion with my question answered for myself and the readers and to include personal references, and a concluding sentence revolving around my main focus.

Dodson Afterword Reflection

Throughout  China Inside Out, I felt as if there was a disconnect between the author and the book.  Although this may have been intentional (as to not pose a bias in the information presented), I still feel that it only weakened the overall appeal of the book.  When it came to his conclusion, Dodson was no different; presenting hardly a personal touch.  However, the author makes it clear that the information in this section is his opinion, stating that “Perhaps one of China’s greatest contributions to the world, then, is . . .” (Pg. 227), which made me wonder WHY he wouldn’t then discuss his personal account of this research process (which is obviously one he is deeply committed to and impacted by).  Another thing I noticed about Dodson’s conclusion, or “Afterword” was his nice job of summarizing the past chapters.  Although this got to be a bit lengthy, I think that in his final paragraph, he did a nice job of recounting the issues discussed and analyzed (Pg. 236).  Perhaps I can take from him, if anything, his ability to (very) accurately recap what has happened in a piece of literary work.  It is in this way that I hope to give my reader a full and complete understanding of the topics I cover.  

"China Inside Out" Afterword

The Afterword of “China Inside Out” by Bill Dodson is largely a summary of all the major points that the author made while writing this book, just in case the reader forgot why they were reading. It is much like his introduction in the way that he summarizes his points, just without referring to each chapter by name. He does, however, introduce the subjects with a few different anecdotes. For example, he brings up the damage done to New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina and the length of time it took them to recover compared to China coming back from its own disasters (Dodson 225). In my conclusion, I intend on referring back to the beginning of my essay. Dodson does this by referring to human flesh searches in Chapter 10, but not his Afterword (Dodson). He also speculates for future research, something that I will attempt, by leaving the open ending of “that’s a whole other story completely” (Dodson 236). Finally, he does a nice job of speaking about the global impact of China’s future, but he does not speak as much to the personal impact that his research has, something I intend to flesh out more in my own essay.

Afterword

The conclusion that I am writing for the braided essay describes more of what I personally learned about my topic through the means of the research and the information I gathered. Dodson's afterword recaps all of his main points from the previous chapters and makes some connections. He also makes predictions of the future and advises on what needs to happen. While I am doing a similar type of style in my conclusion by bringing forth my main points from previous sections and also drawing conclusions for what the future entails, my focus is a little different than Dodson. My main focus is gathering what I have learned through my research and explaining to my reader why this is important and how this information sums up the entire process. I also end with another personal story and how this really affects me whereas Dodson had no personal touches throughout his afterword. 
Haley Martin

Afterward

After reading Dodson’s Afterward I feel like what we’re asked to do for our essay is pretty much the same thing Dodson did for his book. We are supposed to find our discoveries, make assumptions, and find valuable points that tie our essay together and talk about them like Dodson does at the end of his book. We are also supposed to talk about our personal stories that we discover throughout our process of writing this essay and throughout the class. All of these elements are intended to make our essay come to a conclusion and have everything we learned come to an end. It’s the last leg of the race basically. So personally I do think that Dodson’s conclusion and the conclusion we are supposed to write for our paper will turn out to be the same thing however our conclusion and Dodson’s conclusion will be written on two different topics. Dodson’s Afterward would definitely be considered a reference for how to properly write a conclusion.  

Afterword

So as to compare the conclusions: Dodson took the approach that we are being asked for thinking about how he thinks his work can and will affect the way people in other parts of the world will be affected by his research.  Clearly he wanted some sort of worldly exposure of his work, because its is based off of the Chinese culture but written completely in English, for an English speaking audience.

To contrast: We are asked to ponder our own ideas and make connections into a grand scheme that makes sense.  Dodsons’ conclusion seemed to be just a reiteration of all of his chapters in a way that the main points of them all seemed to flow and be connected a little bit more.  He seems to connect everything in a chronological and in a flow that sums up the “Big Picture” idea that each disjunct chapter stated.

Delaney on Dodson's Afterword

In Dodson’s afterword he begins by summarizing up each chapter again. He goes through the themes and ideas of each chapter and reevaluates them. He also uses his own personal opinions again in his afterword. Offering us each more insight into what he believes to be great things about China and also it’s downfalls. This afterword is very useful for what we are asked to do with our conclusion. We are supposed to summarize the three main ideas of our paper into this conclusion. We are also supposed to engage with the reader by offering up our own opinions once again. We are challenged with putting our topic into a global and personal perspective in the fact that we need to say how it affects these things. We are also charged with trying to use something from our introduction to tie it in altogether. He ends his conclusion with a cliffhanger. We too should strive to keep our readers interested in our topic and make our conclusion reflect a need to know more.