The Prownian analysis makes the students to be engaged more in their writing. This is something Maguire mentions in his article because he says that students nowadays are just not as engaged as before.

Any physical object can have meaning. Even the everyday items which we do not even think about still are a part of culture. For example, if we found a piece of clothing from a culture hundreds of years ago, to them the clothing would be something normal to them, but for us it could give us an idea of how the people dressed and what material they used to make the clothing. Another example is the AIDS memorial quilt. This quilt is no ordinary memorial. Memorials tend to be the same as other memorials. However, the AIDS quilt is more special than an ordinary memorial because by looking at it, you can see all the detail people put into making it. Also, keeping in mind that this quilt was made by millions of common people makes the quilt even more special.

definition: to give a clarifying explanation. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/elucidate

Descriptions become better and more vivid as the words one uses to describe become better. This is because the more rich vocabulary tends to be more specific giving a more accurate description. Rich vocabulary can also give off more feelings because they are not as commonly used. However, like Maguire suggested in his article, it is not wise to use big words if you do not really know how to use them. Using a rich vocabulary without really knowing how to do it well can create the opposite of your intended goal and make a very bad essay.

The Prownian analysis works because of how easy it is to just describe everything that you see. This relates with Maguire that claims that students should describe abstract ideas with physical objects until you find the perfect words that fully represent your idea.

The more closely you look at an object, the more you understand the object and the more you learn about its history.

Having a lot of imagination is the key in understanding material culture. One has to open their mind and think freely to understand the cultural objects.

All of our senses help us get a unique feeling from the object we are identifying. Objects can be made of different textures and different textures elicit different feelings. For example, something smooth may give you good feeling, but something rough will give you bad feelings. The individual panels of the AIDS quilt all have different textures. This makes some people feel a response to a certain panel that another person might not get.

The author is saying the material culture begins with just objects but is then further expanded with descriptions. Describing everything you see in an object brings out things in the object which someone would normally look over and miss. Maguire, in his article, mentions something similar to this but he says instead that abstract ideas come from the physical objects.

The physical objects of culture are important in helping us, future historians, understand the culture better. These physical objects are easier to be preserved over generations compared to abstract forms of culture. With the physical objects, we can infer what the culture was like and how the people of that culture lived.

Taking the time to think freely and in the context of the object can lead to better conclusions. You have to remember to think like the people of the culture because your opinions on some issues, for example death, can be very different to the opinions of the culture. You may think death is terrible and scary, whereas the culture could see death as the way to another life.

The more time you spend looking at an object, the more you will discover about the object. You will not see everything an object has to offer by looking only for a few seconds. If you take the time and fully analyze the object for a few minutes or longer, you can start to really notice more subtle things which you would have missed had you not taken the time to see for a longer time.

In this article, the author John Maguire attempts to solve the problem of why current college students are bad writers. Maguire says the students of today are much worse than students from the past because modern day students are not being taught certain skills that would have been commonly taught in high school back in the day. He says that now some students do not even know how to use basic elementary words in sentences such as "although" and "despite" despite them being college students.

One of the skills Maguire claims students are missing is the skill of giving specific concrete examples. He says an easy way to become a better writer is to write physically because all abstract ideas come from objects. The other problem he mentions is that students nowadays write too abstract. His solution is to get the abstract idea but then find objects which relate to the idea. This method helps the students write better examples. According to Maguire, although you may not become the best writer in the world, mastering these two skills will make you a better writer than before.