Pecar como Dios manda – A controversial book

Andahazi (2008) is an Argentinian psychoanalyst by profession who decided to entirely devote himself to investigating and writing about the history of sexuality in his country. “Pecar como Dios manda”, the first book of a forthcoming trilogy, was first published in 2008 and hundreds of readers have been captivated by the topic dealt with in his book.
The essence of a country cannot be understood unless its inhabitants know all the ins and outs of their historical sexual relationships which contributed to the development of their country (Andahazi, 2008).
Andahazi carried out an extensive research which extends from the pre-Columbian peoples to our days before he embarked on such a thorny subject. Andahazi (2008) explains during the presentation of his book in the Book Fair in Buenos Aires how sacred sexuality for the Babylonian culture was. However, when the Hebrews succeeded in liberating from the Babylonian peoples, so strong was the condemnation that they repudiated and demonised what had once been sacred.
The book is divided into four sections which are further subdivided into chapters documenting Andahazi’s work which unveils the secret sexual adventures of most renowned protagonists of Argentinian history. The Catholic Church took a dim view of this book stating that most of Andazhazi’s words cannot be proved since there is no present evidence. Despite all the opposition and threats the writer received, nothing or no one seems to have stopped him from launching his book into the market.
Even though the book has sold thousands of copies, it still remains controversial and its author has always failed to produce publicly some of the proofs and supporting documentation he asserts to have found. I have never considered him a historian making factual information known but a writer who has seen a great opportunity to make a society involved in topics never dealt with before.



References

Andahazi, F. (2008). La historia sexual de los argentinos, según Federico Andahazi [Video File]. 35º Feria Internacional del Libro, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Retrieved October 7th, 2009, from http://blogs.clarin.com/diariodelaferia/2008/5/11/la-historia-sexual-los-argentinos-segun-federico-andahazi

Andahazi, F. (2008). Pecar como Dios manda (2nd ed.). Buenos Aires: Editorial Planeta.

Descriptive-informative annotated bibliography

Flanagan, J. C. (1954). The Critical Incident Technique. Psychological Bulletin. American Institute for Research and University of Pittsburgh. 51(4). Retrieved August 28, 2009, from http://www.apa.org/psycinfo/special/cit-article.pdf

Flanagan (1954) defined The Critical Incident Technique (CIT) as “set of procedures for collecting direct observations of human behavior in such a way as to facilitate their potential usefulness in solving problems and developing psychological principles.” (para. 2). These observations are carried out to find solutions to practical problems in order to contribute to the betterment of critical social problems in different fields.
The Psychological Bulletin by the University of Pittsburgh reports a substantial number of studies of critical incidents carried out by different qualified personnel. These studies cover a wide range of social fields and so were the varied methods utilised to interview contributors. The bulletin also reports on data collection, the qualitative analysis and final delivery of a detailed report of each study.

The relationship between reading and writing

Purpose: To show the importance of guiding students into reading in academic context
and illustrate its close relationship with a high level of proficiency in writing.
Audience: Students attending EAP courses.
Thesis: Those novice writers who would like to commence writing in academic contexts should be led into reading techniques to acquire academic literacy.


1. Reading processes (Reid, 1993, as cited in Pintos, 2008).
1.1. Pre-reading activities for brainstorming.
1.2. While-reading activities for interaction.
1.3. Post-reading activities for reflection.

2. Reading and writing relationship (Stotsky, 1983, as cited in Pintos, 2008)
2.1. Reading achievement and reading ability.
2.2. Writing quality and reading experience.
2.3. Reading ability and acquisition of complex syntactic structures.

3. Reading in academic contexts (Bloor, 1985, as cited in Pintos, 2008)
3.1. Psychological approach – Process involved in reading.
3.2. Linguistic approach – Language oriented.
3.3. Content-oriented approach – Specific purpose for reading.
3.4. Pedagogically-oriented approach – Selective choice of materials for
motivation.


4. Academic vocabulary teaching (Martin, 1976, as cited in Pintos, 2008).
4.1. Research-process vocabulary – Analysis of verbs and nouns in academic contexts.
4.2. Vocabulary of analysis – high frequency verbs for information presentation.
4.3. Vocabulary of evaluation – Academic adjectives and adverbs in EAP writing.

Reference
Pintos, V. (2008). Unit 1: Building up a community of teachers and prospective researchers. Universidad CAECE: Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Never give up hope.

Jobs (2005) defined life achievement in three life stories recounted to some students from the University of Stanford.
He reported that he had abandoned university in order to study calligraphy, which he later found exceptionally useful in his life. Secondly, he stated that he and a colleague created Macintosh. After 10 years he was dismissed and forced to start again. He finally informed he had been diagnosed with pancreas cancer, from which he fully recovered after surgery.
Jobs’ (2005) concluding words suggest that one should never give up hope. Any individual’s principles should comprise personal intuition and dreams.


Reference

Jobs, S. (2005). Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address. [Video file]. Stanford University. Palo Alto, California, U.S.A. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc