Anzaldua

SUMMARY:

In her article “ Tlilli Tlapalli: The Path of the Red and Black Ink” Gloria Anzaldia tells her story. When she was younger she says how she would always stay up late reading, and wouldn’t want to go to sleep. She began creating stories in her head and would begin writing them down. She sees a mosaic pattern within her book that she’s writing. Through out her article she makes many cultural references. For example she refers to Aztecs, tribal cultures, Western aesthetics, Indians, and whites. She also talks about myths.

SYNTHESIS:

I made a connection to Anzaldua’s article with “Queer Texts, Queer Contexts” by Harriet Malinowitz. Anzaldua compares being a writer to being queer. She states that “Being a writer feels very much like being a Chicana or being queer - a lot of squirming, coming up against all sorts of walls.” It reminded me of the discourse community of homosexuals. I also made a connection because she brings up culture. Someone of a different culture, and someone that is homosexual could face some of the same problems, just like every discourse community. 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

Through out reading her piece I often got confused or didn’t understand everything. She talks in a way where she doesn’t use typical English words and references. I think she made the choice to not explain the language she uses to leave the reader wondering. I think that she wanted to be different.

OPINIONS:

I thought that the reading was very descriptive and visual. However I found it somewhat hard to follow. I think that she made too many cultural references that were hard to pick up on. It wasn’t a bad read though, it was a good length. 

Cixous

This reading was confusing to me. I don’t quite understand what Cixous is talking about the whole time. I also don’t understand the sexual references that keep being made. What are they trying to say when they are comparing pregnancy to writing on page 257? I also don’t understand the part on page 258 where they are talking about women having a “loving desire” and not a jealous one.

Queer Rhetorical Agency

SUMMARY:
In their article “Queer Rhetorical Agency: Questioning Narratives of Heteronormativity” David L. Wallace and Jonathan Alexander discuss how the homosexual community is treated.They talk about how you shouldn't be discriminated against for being queer. They argue that you people should accept who you are and that you shouldn't hide in your identity.


CONNECTIONS:
This article reminded me of an article by Harriet Malinowitz called “Queer Texts, Queer Contexts. Her article also discusses the LGBT discourse community. They both talk about how they shouldn't be put into their own discourse community for homosexuals. They should be able to join other discourse communities without being judged.

OPINIONS:
I thought that this article was kind of hard to follow and understand. Parts of it were interesting though. I didn't like how they were comparing gays to not a normal family.

Delpit, Smitherman

DELPIT:

 In her article “The Politics of Teaching Literate Discourse” Lisa Delpit discusses  literacy educators. She talks about the difficulties the teachers can have while teaching literate discourse styles to all students. Delpit talks about teachers not knowing when students are ready to learn the material or not. She talks about an author that we previously read in class, James Paul Gee. She talks about how she agrees with much that Gee wrote. She also talks about students diversity. She believes that teachers need to treat every student the same. 

SMITHERMAN:

In her article “God Don’t Never Change”: Black English from a Black Perspective Geneva Smiterman attempts to show what English is from black persons perspective. She uses the term Black English to talk about the language. She believes that there is a difference between black and white language. She argues that it is not fair that black people have to learn white language. She believes that black language is just as important as white language. She feels as if society doesn’t accept black language. Smitherman is trying to get the point across that each individual speaks differently and society needs to accept it.

CONNECTIONS: 

I connected this two articles because they both talked about minorities in a way. In the first article talks about not knowing how to deal with students, or not knowing what to teach them, based on their background. The second article is about blacks having to learn white language to be accepted instead of just communicating with black language. 

OPINIONS:

I thought that both of the articles were interesting to read. I liked them because they both dealt with important issues that are going on. The articles made me think more about the topics they were talking about. 

Learning Experience

There is one learning experience that’s constantly in the back of my mind. I’ve learned many things from this experience. The morning of my high school commencement plays in my head every day. I woke up to get ready for commencement. I didn’t want to get out of bed yet, so I looked on twitter. The first tweet I saw was from my friend Savana who is two years older than me, it read “Today I lost my best friend, my other half, my sister, my everything.” My heart instantly dropped. I didn’t know what happened, or what it meant. I messaged her, and all she texted back was “Callie, she’s gone.” It was one of the worst texts I could have ever gotten. It was about my friend Lexi who is a year younger than me, who is Savana’s sister. Savana told me that Lexi got in a car accident and that she was with 4 of her friends, but that she didn’t know about anyone else. I went downstairs to tell my parents, and we were all crying. I then received another text from Savana saying that Blake and Jeff also passed away, and that Kevin and Julia were in critical condition. My parents have always been family friends with Blakes parents. They were devastated. After reading facebook status’s and talking to people I found out more information, also as the days went on we were given more information. They were jumping railroad tracks and when they landed the car spun into a tree. They were not under the influence of any drugs or alcohol, and were all good people that were known through out the Brunswick community. Kevin and Jeff were supposed to be at commencement with us that day. Lexi, Blake and Julia were juniors. Commencement was nothing like it should have been. No one said a word. There was no celebration, no throwing of hats, anything. Just silence. Once commencement was over we all just walked out. Later on that night we all went to a prayer service.After the service we found out that Kevin didn’t make it. Julia managed to walk away with only a broken pinky finger. My hometown Brunswick Ohio lost 4 amazing people that day, the day of our high school commencement, June 3rd, 2012. After the accident the next week and our entire summer was spent hanging blue ribbons all over our city. Being with our family and friends, mostly sitting there in silence, or reminiscing on the good times that we had with them. Also some of our time was spent going to wakes and funerals, at the age of 18. I’ve never been to church and I ended up attending several prayer services. The accident has been such a learning experience. I still don’t understand why it had to happen to them, but everyone is trying to think positive and think about how it can help others.  I have learned that you should live each day to the fullest, because it can be gone instantly. I have learned that you should make more of an effort to spend time with the people that mean the most to you. I have also learned that driving is something that needs to be taken very seriously. I have learned to be more cautious and think more about everything, and make sure everything I’m doing is safe. I have always believed that everything happens for a reason. The accident made me believe it even more. There’s no way this didn’t happen without there being a reason behind it. The tracks were also unsafe, and now the city is going to fix the road to prevent accidents. They could end up saving lives be people hearing their story. My friend Kevin, one of his 50 life goals that we had to write senior year was to save someones life. He is an organ donor, he ended up saving more than one life with his organs. This whole accident was a real eye opener, and made me realize a lot of things about life. Every day I think about it, and learn from it.

Villanueva

ROW: Villanueva (169-176)

SUMMARY:

In his article “Memoria Is a Friend of Ours: On the Discourses of Color” Victor Villanueva attempts to discuss the discourses of color. He brings up stereotypes and racism. He adds in many poems or other writing excerpts into his article. He also talks about memoria. He says that memoria calls and pushes us forward and that she is a friend of ours and that we must invite her into our classrooms and into our scholarship.Villanueva talks about authors that have all written about the connections between narratives by people of color and the need to reclaim a memory. Villanueva states that he’s trying to figure out who he is. He is an uneasy mix of races that makes for no race at all, yet he finds himself a victim to racism.

CONVERSATION:

Villanueva’s article reminded me of Queer Texts, Queer Contexts’ by Harriet Malinowitz.  They both talk about a touchy subject. They both deal with discrimination. Racism is found everywhere and often groups are formed within a race. Same goes for the gay community. They often come together because they need support from each other. 

OPINIONS:

I thought that this article was somewhat hard to follow. I didn’t really like how he kept adding random poems and pieces of writing. I’m not really a fan of poems and trying to figure out what they mean. However the topic of color, which goes along with racism, was interesting. I personally can’t stand when people are racist so I felt bad for Villanueva especially in the last paragraph where he says how he is a victim of racism. 

Autism and Rhetoric

SUMMARY:

In their article ‘Autism and Rhetoric’ Paul Heilker and Melanie Yergeau discuss autism. There is an amazing increase in public discourse about autism. They talk about how autism remains one of the greatest mysteries of medicine. Doctors still know very little about the neurological disorder.They also do not yet know what causes autism. They give supporting information to why autism is rhetorical and that autism is a profoundly rhetorical phenomenon. Autism is a way of being in the world through language. Given the definitional confluence of autism and rhetoric in communication and social interaction, it is simple to assert that autism is a rhetorical phenomenon. Paul Heilker talks about his experience with autism. His son is autistic, and Heilker sates that “understanding rhetoric lets me see that he is returning to his favorite inventive universes.” Melanie Yergeau also shares her experience with autism, she herself is autistic and she talks about her own experiences. In the article they talk about how some scholars suggest that autistics can not read or write in a rhetorically effective manner because they are empathetically challenged. Melanie also talks about the symbol of the puzzle piece that they use for autism speaks. Personally it offends her because she thinks it symbolizes what is wrong with popular autism discourse, representing autistic people as puzzling, mysterious, less than human entities who are “short a few cognitive pieces.”

CONVERSATION:

When I was reading this article, I connected it with “Identity, Authority, and Learning to Write in New Workplaces” by Elizabeth Wardle. These two were similar to me because they both talked about fitting into a discourse community and identity. In Autism and Rhetoric they talk about the discourse community of autistic people and how it differs from the community of non-autistic people and how there can be issues. In Wardles article she talks about how certain identities won’t work in a specific discourse community. 

OPINIONS:

I personally enjoyed reading this article the most out of all of the articles we have read so far. I found this article very touching, and for me easy to relate to. For many years I have been involved with autistic children. I have volunteer coached a special needs cheerleading team and volunteered in a special needs classroom. In both of those there have been autistic children. I could relate to Heilkers stories about his son, it reminded me of how the children acted that I’ve worked with. Some of the points brought up in the article angered me as well as Yergeau. There were statements made that seemed to degrade autistic people and make them seem not as important. It was brought up how they can’t read or write in a rhetorically manner.They make have some things that they deal with that can make them not fit in as well with their peers but they are capable of doing anything. 

Queer Texts, Queer Contexts

SUMMARY:

 In her article ‘Queer Texts, Queer Contexts’ Harriet Malinowitz talks about the change in the classroom climate around the subject of sexual orientation. Students now seem to regard the issue itself with much less suspicion or surprise than they used to. Malinowitz wants the field of composition to find out about its lesbian and gay students. She goes on to talk about how she herself is a lesbian and how she dealt with coming out. She said that she feared the loss of the warm, open, supportive relationship that she liked to have with her students, even if it was shakily based on false premises. Malinowitz talks about how she dealt with the subject “gay” in her classroom with her students. She also talks about the idea of a lesbian and gay culture, and how gays form a community. 

CONNECTIONS:

This article reminds me of our last reading assignment, ‘Materiality and Genre in the Study of Discourse Communities’. That article has three authors, but the reading assignment for today has one author. Each author wrote their own article. In their article it talked about a discourse community that they were aware of. I stated in my last reading response what discourse community each author was dealing with. In ‘Queer Texts, Queer Contexts’ Malinowitz is talking about the discourse community of lesbians and gays in the classroom. I connected all of the articles because each author 

explained a community.

OPINIONS:

I found this article more interesting than most of the articles we have read. I found it interesting because I think that people need to be aware of the difficulties of coming out and being open about being a lesbian or gay. It was interesting to hear Malinowitz story and her own experiences dealing with being a lesbian herself, and working with kids in the classroom. I think that it was a good example of a discourse community that  people should be aware of.

ROW: 98-109

SUMMARY:

In ‘Materiality and Genre in the Study of Discourse Communities’ there are 3 authors that are apart of this article, Amy Devitt, Anis Bawarshi, and Mary Jo Reiff. They use the idea of genre to study discourse communities. They examine several contexts of language exchange in which the use of genre theory may yield insight into teaching, research, and social interaction: legal practice, medical practice, and classrooms.

In Amy Devitts essay she examines jury instructions as a genre, considering how the genre affects the interactions of jurors in ways that inhibit the successful execution of their duties. Anis Bawarshi uses the patient medical-history form to suggest how a specific textual genre works in and provides critical access into doctors offices. Mary Jo Reiff discusses how the combination of ethnography and genre analysis can give teacher, researchers, and students clearer ways to understand their classrooms. The essays are all put together into one article because they suggest how genre analysis contributes to the use of ethnomethodology as a research technique that focuses on language and society and that is especially eligible to contribute to the pedagogy of text-dependent subject matters. 

CONNECTIONS:

 Personally I connected this one to Swale. I felt like they went about the same way of talking about discourse communities. They each talked about different things that make up a discourse community. They also explain what they think a discourse community is. 

OPINIONS:

I liked how the reading was broken up into sections. It makes it easier for me to read and follow. I personally liked the Reiff article the best because it talked somewhat about teachers and their classrooms. My major currently is education, so I found this article most interesting compared to the other two.

Project 3 Proposal

For project 3 I was going to do mine on the discourse community of cheerleading. Cheerleading has a lot of rules and skills that you don’t know about unless you are a part of that discourse community. I chose it because I already know a lot about it, so I thought it would be easy for me to write about. I was a member for 5 years, so I know a lot about cheerleading. There are also different types of discourse communities within cheerleading that I thought I could write about. There’s competitive cheerleading, then cheerleading for a school, which would be cheering for football or basketball. I would research some more facts about cheerleading. I could interview my friends that are cheerleaders, or one of my cheerleading coaches. 

Wardle

WAW: Wardle (520-537)

SUMMARY: 

In her article “Identity, Authority, and Learning to Write in New Workplaces” Elizabeth Wardle mainly talks about her beliefs on discourse communities. She is researching a guy named Alan and he is struggling to enculturate in a new discourse community. In her article she describes a new employee, fresh out of college trying to communicate with a new workplace community and failing miserably. He had a hard time adjusting to the new conditions and communicating with other member. He ended up leaving the company.

CONVERSATION: When I was reading this Wardle article I made a connection with Gee’s discourse article. Wardle went into detail about how the workplace is a whole different discourse community, and how one must get adjusted to the new environment and conditions. Gee talked about more of the sociological aspect of discourse and how to connect your mind to Discourse concept. Both of these authors went on about how discourse should be connected to apprenticeship and the functioning of language and the importance of communication within. Gee and Wardle both stress how important it is to get familiar with whatever discourse there is in your life, and to gain the knowledge to be prepared for the discourse communities.

BEFORE YOU READ:

Since I’ve come to college I have started using new phrases and have created my own discourse communities. I live on South Green, the farthest you can be from everything. Everyone along with myself calls it the “dirty south”. That was not a phrase I used before I came to college. When I came to college I didn’t know any sorority or fraternity names. Now I am in a sorority and have become familiar with all of the others. I would associate the sorority I’m in with a new discourse community. I learn things and go to things that only people in that sorority know about. 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

3.I think that Allan was not as cooperative as he could have been. I think he needed to try harder to communicate with the people at his work, and spend more time getting to become familiar with their discourse community. I think he could have handled this better by being more patient and understanding and it could’ve resulted in a more positive way.

5. I agree more with Wardle because I think it is easier for someone to become adjusted to another environment. Then there are always those stubborn people that will not change their ways of thinking and will not adapt to the new conditions. His Discourse might have been a little different from the start, but I think it is always possible to have less resistance in order to start something new.

OPINIONS:

I personally think that this reading wasn’t that bad. To me it seemed more simple to read, it wasn’t as hard to follow as some of the readings are. The whole story about Allan was a nice read. The language that was used in this article seemed easier to understand compared to some of the other readings on discourse communities.

Gee

WAW: Gee (481-497)

SUMMARY:

In his article “Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics, James Paul Gee attempts to explain his term discourses. Gee uses a variety of examples to make his definitions clear. Gee argues that you can’t “more or less” embody a Discourse, you’re either recognized by others as a full member of it or you’re not. He also explains that we are never “purely” members of a single Discourse but, rather, that a given Discourse is influenced by other Discourses of which we’re also members. 

CONVERSATION: I relate this article to the last Swales article we read, “The Concept of Discourse Community.” They both discuss discourse. However they use it in different ways, but yet they are related. They both talk about being a part of a discourse, either part of a discourse community or a member of discourse. 

BEFORE YOU READ:

Mushfake: prison slang for items owned by an inmate that may be legal to buy, but were constructed or obtained through illegal means, hence they are contraband

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

3. Discourses with a capital D means combinations of what is important is not language, and not grammar, but saying (writing)-doing-being-valuing-believing combinations. Discourses with a little “d” to him means connected stretches of language that make sense, so “discourse” is part of “Discourse”. No, it doesn’t really make sense to me. I just don’t really understand what he is talking about with the language and combinations.

13. A Discourse to which I don’t belong, but want to belong to is a team. I have been a part of a sports team my whole life, and I no longer am. You have to meet the requirements to be on that team, and they are much harder to meet in college. My own experiences aid me the most in becoming a part.

OPINIONS:

I personally found this article to be somewhat confusing. I don’t fully understand the difference between Discourse and discourse. The rest of the article wasn’t that bad of a read. I don’t really think it was that interesting or helpful to me.

Swales and Glenn

SUMMARIES:

SWALES: In his article “The Concept of Discourse Community”, John Swales attempts to describe what he thinks a discourse community is. His article is a chapter from his book that he wrote called Genre Analysis. He refers to the argument over the social constructed nature of language use and to arguments about what a discourse community is and how it is different from a speech community. Swale goes on to define his 6 characteristics of a discourse community.

GLENN: In her article “Constructing Consumables and Consent: A Critical Analysis of Factory Farm and Industry Discourse” Cathy B. Glenn discusses animal rights, the specific discourse surrounding factory farms, and the implications of said discourse to the larger culture. She argues that the factory farm discourse has implemented doublespeak to mislead audiences by being misleading and disingenuous.She also looks into the different rhetorical methods used to construct discursive practices and the conventions that have helped us to create this discourse. 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1.QD #5 on WAW page 480

A discourse community that I have been involved in would be a competitive cheerleading team. As a team we had a set of goals, intercommunication, and a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content. To be a successful team you have to have all of these characteristics. It’s lexis would be the entire routine that we have to be able to memorize and perform. It’s genre would be using music in the routines that are popular songs that people can relate to. 

2. For example all of the commercials for acne medication. They show all of the before and after pictures of people, with a lot of acne, then with perfect skin. Most of the time the medicines don’t work and you still end up having acne. I find these ads annoying and frustrating because they are so fake and try to make it seem like it will help you.

OPINIONS:

SWALES: I didn’t find this article very interesting. It just wasn’t that appealing. It wasn’t really something that I enjoyed reading. I don’t think it will be helpful to me. I don’t think that the information is important for me. These ideas compare to my own experiences somewhat though because I’ve been a part of a discourse community, most people can relate to that.

GLENN: I found this article more interesting than Swales. I liked how it showed a specific discourse community. I like animals so it wasn’t that boring to read about. These ideas don’t really compare to my own experiences. I didn’t really like when they talked about killing and eating the animals. I don’t like meat that much. 

5 quotes

When I downloaded your document all I could see was 3 blank pages. To make it easy to follow without columns, I will write my explanation under each quote.

1. “Williams offers four “design principles”-contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity- for visual arrangement.”

I picked out this quote because Wysocki refers to Williams “The Non-Designer’s Design Book” to describe how her eyes travel through Peek layout. Williams principles are important in this part of the article. William’s principles allow for the creation of a clear visual hierarchy of elements in this layout.

1. “At best, Williams’ principles allow us to talk about this body (as I did above) as yet another-as only another-formal aspect of this layout.”

The more essential goal that visual arrangement will make easy one’s access to what is most important in the layout. By teaching William’s principles it can encourage people to forget that there is someones body in that layout. 

1. “..., I don’t think any of us will judge the Peek ad as being about a woman alone with her own thoughts.”

The woman’s butt is at the center of the layout, and she has on tall boots. We are meant to see this layout aligned with men of power. Judgements will be given because we have knowledge about the articulations among women, sex, nudity, advertising, facial expressions, coffeetable books, and black thigh-high boots.

1. “If we want to change how we see women, then, or if we want to change how we see any group of people who are treated unfairly by our visual practices, it is therefore not enough to push for magazine covers and advertisements and catalogues and TV commercials that show (for example) women with fleshy and round and imperfect and aged flesh.” 

We need to try different and new formal relations in our layouts. We also need to see beauty as a kind of communication. Wysocki also states that if we see beauty as a quality we build, then we can potentially see beauty.

1. “...:what Foss describes - what Shklovsky describes- is a process by which we can change relations we build with each other through the communications we make for each other.”

If we think of beauty, we can develop not only strategies for teaching about it but also how we might go about making changes in the formal approaches to lives and detatched bodies. Wysocki believes that Shklovsky’s arguments go beyond “images”. 

Dennis Baron

WAW: (422-441) “From Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literacy Technologies” Dennis Baron

SUMMARY: 

In his article ‘From Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literacy Technologies’ Dennis Baron attempts to explain the history of writing technologies. He states how we used to think of pencils as state-of-the-art technology. Now pencils can be manufactured for a unit cost of a few pennies. He also believes that every writing technology has taken time to become established, and that writing technologies must be learned. He also believes that the computer is simply the latest step in a long line of writing technologies. Baron goes on to write about writing technology. The intended audience could be anyone that has seen technology advance, or are familiar with it.

CONVERSATION: I made a connection between Baron’s article and Deborah Brandt’s article on Sponsors of Literacy. The connection I made between the two of them is that they are both about advancement. In Baron’s article he talks about technological advancements and how they have affected writing. In Brandt’s article she talks about how literacy is sponsored by other things. You learn from the things around you, you gain knowledge over the years. By gaining knowledge you are advancing. In a way they both have to do with advancing and evolving. 

BEFORE YOU READ:

To me technology kind of means advancements. The most advancements are made through technology. For example, there are always new phones, computers, and televisions coming out. To me things that count as technology have to do something with electronics. When I think of technology, I mostly think of electronics, like I said before, phones, computers, and televisions.

QD: 

5. New literacy technologies present new opportunities for fraud. Baron states that “Not only must the new technology be accessible and useful, it must demonstrate its trustworthiness as well.” He goes on to say how procedures for authentication and reliability must be developed before the new technology becomes fully accepted. He compares this to pencil writing. He says how the authenticity of pencil writing is still frequently questioned. He brings up the point that we prefer anything permanent to be in ink, verses pencil. 

MM:

No, it doesn’t help me to think of writing as a technology. I don’t think it changes how I understand writing. I don’t think of writing as technology, although I do agree with some of Baron’s points. I agree how he talks about how aspects of education have evolved. The way teachers teach, and the types of equipment they use based on the technological advances.

OPINIONS:

I thought that this article was interesting. It made you realize how much everything has evolved. It also makes you realize how everything is computer based now. You never have to turn in papers that are written in pen and pencil. I don’t think this article will be that helpful to me because I am aware of the technological advances and how it compares to the way things used to be. I can compare it to my own experiences because I don’t trust technology or like how fast everything advances. I’m not good with computers and I don’t like how everything is done online now.

Malcolm X, Alexie, Hooks

WAW: Learning to Read, Malcolm X (353-361), The Joy of Reading and Writing:Superman and Me, Sherman Alexie (362-366)

ROW: Writing Autobiography, Bell Hooks (177-180)

SUMMARIES:

Malcolm X: In Learning to Read, they use a piece from ‘The Autobiography of Malcolm X.” It is used to show a comparison to Deborah Brandt’s article about sponsors. In Malcolm’s autobiography is very inspirational. It shows the role of motivation in literacy and learning. He also goes on to talk about how literacy sponsors affect the kinds of literacy that we eventually master. This articles goal is to make the audience be able to make a connection between their own experiences and Malcolm X’s. 

Alexie: In Sherman Alexie’s article ‘Superman and Me” he discusses how he came to literacy. He also makes a connection to Deborah Brandt’s article. He uses her term sponsorship and relates it to Superman comics and his dads love for books. He also talks about how he taught himself how to read at a young age by observing the pictures in comic books and assuming what they are saying in the picture. The audience to this article can be anyone, however it would help if you read Deborah Brandt’s article, so that way you have an understanding of literacy sponsors. 

Hooks: In Writing Autobiography, Bell Hooks writes about her childhood. She refers to herself as Gloria Jean. Hooks thought that it would be a simple task to write about ones life, an autobiography. Her autobiography is kind of sad and depressing. It dwells on the past and all of the bad things that happened through out life. However she feels better after writing the narrative because she feels as if she saved Gloria. The audience for this article is older students. This would be complicating to understand for children. 

CONNECTIONS: All three of the articles had the same kind of theme. They were all autobiographies. They all had a sappy kind of story in the beginning. At the end of all of them it turned out good and for the better. All of their lives all started out hard and they all went through a lot and didn’t have as many opportunities as others. However they all worked through it and created novels, and are now writers. 

OPINIONS:

Malcolm X: I thought that this article was very different than others. I found it to be interesting because they used a real life story. I thought it was interesting to read about what Malcolm X had to say, and how it related to Deborah Brandt’s article. I don’t really think it will be that helpful to me, it didn’t really tell me anything that I don’t already know.  I do agree when he says that college has many distractions. There are so many distractions here and sometimes it is hard to get things accomplished. 

Alexie: I personally liked this article because it was really short. I don’t enjoy the readings when they are a lot of pages. This one was quick and easy to read. I also liked how he talked about the Superman comic books and how he taught himself how to read. It can be compared to my own experiences because I would always try to read children’s picture books when I was little. When my parents would read them aloud I would try to memorize what was on each page, and I would eventually be able to read it. 

Hooks: I didn’t really like this article. I thought it was kind of depressing. Her life seemed to not be that good and she only pointed out the bad things. I didn’t really think it was that interesting. I can’t really make any comparisons between this article and my own experiences. I liked the other two articles better personally.

Sponsors of Literacy

WAW: Ch.3 Intro, Brandt (328-352) Sponsors of Literacy, Deborah Brandt

SUMMARY:

In Deborah Brandt’s article Sponsors of Literacy, she attempts to show how people don’t become literate on their own. She is saying that literacy is sponsored by the things around you, like people, institutions, and circumstances. Brandt also says how there are cases where people “misappropriate” a literacy sponsor’s intentions by using a particular literacy for their own ends rather than for the sponsor’s. Also that literacy sponsors can disempower and prevent people from becoming literate. She believes that we should assist and study individuals in pursuit of literacy, and also recognize how literacy is in pursuit of them.

CONVERSATION:

Deborah Brandt’s article somewhat reminds me of James Porter’s “Intertextuality and the Discourse Community.” I am aware that Porter’s was about text, and Brandt’s is about reading. The both seem more informative to me. They both seemed to be more based on information and a learning tool, where as some of the other articles are strictly just an argument. 

QD:

1. Literacy sponsors are figures who have turned up most typically in people’s memories of literacy learning. We normally think of sponsors as powerful figures.  They are usually richer, more knowledgeable, and more entrenched than the sponsored. 

AE:

2. I have not had literacy sponsors who have withheld certain kinds of literacies from me. I am unaware of my school banning any books, I have never been interested in reading. Sponsors have however forced certain kinds of literacies on me. All through out school I was forced to read books for class. Most of the time they were boring, but I had to read them in order to pass the class. My teachers always told us what we had to read, there was never an option. Except for summer reading we normally got to choose between 2 books. 

BEFORE YOU READ:

U.S. culture encourages and emphasizes reading. Through out your entire schooling from grades K-12, you are required to take some sort of English Class. You don’t always have to take a math, science or history. However English is always required. That’s how the U.S. emphasizes reading. There are always books being published, causing people to buy them and read them. In the community it is the same way, English is always stressed. We’re always having to read books and articles in our everyday lives. Normally people are good readers and writers because they read all of the time. Reading expands your vocabulary, as I have always been told by my mother. The more you practice something the better you will get, so the more you read, the better reader you will become.

OPINIONS:

I thought that this article was kind of interesting. I think that it could, however be shortened. I feel as if some of the information seemed repetitive and unnecessary. It could be helpful to me because I learned what literacy sponsors are. The ideas compare to my own experiences because I’ve had teachers that have taught me everything about literacy, so those would be my literacy sponsors. I agree with literacy sponsors because, my teachers have affected how I have learned literacy. 

Dawkins and Bryson

Teaching Punctuation as a Rhetorical Tool, John Dawkins (WAW:139-155)

Good English and Bad, Bill Bryson (ROW: 61-67)

SUMMARIES:

DAWKINS: In his article ‘ Teaching Punctuation as a Rhetorical tool, John Dawkins attempts to explain the problems with how people understand punctuation rules. Dawkins gears this towards ‘people’ in general, anyone who is involved with grammar and punctuation. He also wants us to think about grammar as rhetorical. He is saying that grammar involves choices, whereas when we learned about grammar we learned of it as a set of inflexible rules that had to be memorized and never violated.

BRYSON: In his article ‘ Good English and Bad’ Bill Bryson attempts to explain why the rules your teacher gave you about grammar seem arbitrary. He also goes on to talk about how complex and confusing English grammar is. Bryson also talks about the history of proper English and what was considered good, or bad English back in the 18th century, and today. I don’t think there is a specified audience, I think it is just a very general article. 

CONVERSATION: Both of the articles talk about grammar obviously. The Bryson article goes into more of the history and a comparison of how English used to be and how it is now. Where Dawson talked more about understanding grammar and the English Language.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

DAWKINS: 6. I don’t normally think about punctuation. I just write how I normally do, without thinking about it. When I learned about grammar in High School I had a really hard time with it. I could never remember all of the clauses, and all of the rules for grammar and punctuation. Reading about it kind of just made me confused because I don’t know the differences between everything and all of the rules.

BRYSON: Prescriptive is they should prescribe how language should be used. Descriptive is to describe how it is used without taking a position. In the past I have encountered the prescriptive grammar instruction. In my language arts class sophomore year I remember my teacher, teaching us grammar. She would just show us the ‘correct’ ways of grammar. She would just tell us how it worked and how it had to be done, and that was what we had to do.

OPINIONS:

DAWKINS: I feel like this reading was different, because it wasn’t just reading an article. There were examples through out it, so it made you stay more focused and interested. However I didn’t like the topic of the article. Grammar is one of my weak spots, and it just frustrates me.

BRYSON: I thought that this reading was kind of boring. I didn’t really find it to be that helpful. Some of it kind of stated the obvious. We all know that our English language is complex and confusing, and that it doesn’t really make sense.

‘Seeing the Text’ Stephan A. Bernhardt

SUMMARY:

In his article ‘Seeing the Text’ Stephan Bernhardt attempts to show us how written and visual communications can work together, and how they go together. He provides a couple visuals to interpret the text differently. He has information organized on a chart. The audience he gears this towards is students and teachers. It’s geared towards teachers because he wants them to encourage students to become creative composers. He argues that writing, when visually informative helps to make the writer more organized, because it encourages the writer to be exact about grouping related ideas, and delineating beginnings and endings.

CONVERSATION:

In a way this writing reminds me of the McCloud and Berger articles. They are all more informative and less of an argument. They also include information about visual text. They differ in the way they show the visual components, but they are on the same path of making text more visual.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. The advantages of using these visual cues is that it achieves rhetorical control. They are highly informative and share features. Headings might be most appropriate when you have a lot of different types of information you are trying to put out. It helps to organize your writing.
2. Yes, sometimes I feel like I am writing the same paper over and over again. I feel like a lot of my assignments have the same pattern and I do them the same way. I could add different styles of writing into my writing. I could make it more visual, by adding pictures, or charts and graphs. I could group the information better and put it into categories to make it more understanding for the reader. Bernhardt would recommend to make it organized through branching and recursion.

OPINIONS:

I thought it was very informative. However I didn’t think it was interesting at all. I didn’t like the whole concept of the sample text of the wetlands, it was just boring to me. I don’t think I will really take anything out of this reading.

Intertextuality and the Discourse Community, James Porter

SUMMARY:

In his article ‘Intertextuality and the Discourse Community’ James Porter talks about how our writing must be original, and if a writer borrows ideas without acknowledgement it’s defined as plagiarizing. The principle Porter explores is intertextuality. Intertextuality is the idea that there can be no text that does not draw on some ideas from other texts. It is the idea that all texts contain traces of other texts. He also goes into the two types of intertextuality: iterability and presupposition. He also talks about how the Declaration of Independence was made up of several texts. I don’t think this is really geared towards a specific audience, other than college students, which all of the articles are.

CONVERSATION:

I kind of made a connection with this reading and ‘Helping Students Use Textual Sources Persuasively’. They both talk about text. ‘Helping Students Use Textual Sources Persuasively’ talks about how to better understand text, how to use it,and how to identify it. In ‘Intertextuality and the Discourse Community’ Porter is talking about text and how original writers can be in constructing text. Personally I think there is a connection because they both talk about text.

BEFORE YOU READ: My little sister, Teagan loves to write. She’s always making up stories, poems, or songs. She always writes for people for their birthday or holiday. My sister said that “I see my family contributing to my writing, because all of my poems, songs and writings are about or for them and they really support me when I do it.” Teagan also said “I hope to see writing in my future. When I’m older I might want to work for a newspaper, but I will always write my own and always create different things.”

QD:

4. I didn’t know that writing had to have the expected social science sections. I didn’t even know what the expected social science sections were. It must use the journal’s version of APA documentation, which that I could’ve guessed because it is a main type of formatting. I’m not really sure how I thought writing should be evaluated. My writing has just been evaluated by my peers or my teachers, it’s never really gone through a process.

AE:

1. I recently saw a commercial for Wendy’s. It was about the Baconator. The commercial has intertextuality in it because it is like all of the other fast food commercials. They say the same things about their food to get you to try them. The cultural intertextuality is that it resembles other fast food commercials. They all have the same idea.

MM:

Porter didn’t really change the way I imagine writers and writing. It would probably change the way I write, because I would have to put more time into my writing.

OPINIONS:

I wasn’t really that interested in this piece of writing. It just seemed kind of boring to me. I don’t think it will be that helpful to me. I didn’t really get that much out of it, besides learning what intertextuality means. It doesn’t really compare to my own experiences. However once I learned what intertextuality means, I realized that it’s everywhere. I started thinking about movies, novels and other forms of writing and I realized that everything has part of something else in it. There’s always a correlation that you can make between writings. 

Elbow Article

ELBOW ARTICLE

SUMMARY: 

In his article ‘Voice In Writing Again: Embracing Contraries’ Peter elbow attemps to show the argument between using voice, and not using voice in writing. In the beginning he says the good things people were saying about using voice, like “everyone has a real voice and can write with power. Then he goes on to say the bad things people were saying, like “voice is a misleading metaphor”, or “we don’t write with a voice that is ours.”  He wants us to learn to adopt contrary stances towards voice. He also wants us to learn to be wiser in our scholarly thinking and writing. The audience he gears this to is any student. He makes the point that “students at all levels instinctively talk and think about voice.”

CONNECTIONS:

I see a connection between this article and Stuart Greene’s ‘Argument as Conversation.’ Both writers are explaining differences. In Argument as Conversation he is explaining the different types of arguments, and different ways to use them. In Voice in Writing Again he is showing both sides, of using voice, and not using voice. In both of the writings they are talking about more than one thing. 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. When you listen to a passage, you can make a better connection to the writer. It makes it easier to realize the mood of the passage, or to better understand the sarcasm the writer is using. By listening you get a more straight forward view on the writing. There shouldn’t be any confusion between the writer and the listener. With “ear training” you will see voice that is true in itself, fitting the writer or speaker. I think it makes it easier to read a passage if you know the tone of the writer. I think you should use the tool “ear training” because it will help you to better understand the writer, and what they are writing. You should always try to figure out the mood the writer is trying to set, from the start of your reading.
2. I think that Elbow is playing his “doubting and believing game.” By giving a full airing to each side of the debate you can learn so much more. You will end up seeing more things that you would “remain blind to” if you just stick to looking at things one way. You don’t want to completely resolve the tension because you want to be both the doubter and believer at the same time.

PERSONAL OPINIONS ON ELBOW:

I thought the Elbow article was actually interesting. I was thinking about using voice as the topic for my paper, so it was interesting and gave a lot of information. I like how it showed both sides, using voice and not using voice. It helped to show the differences and provide more helpful information.

PERSONAL OPINIONS ON WAW:

I liked Anne Lammot’s article ‘Shitty First Drafts.’ The first thing that caught my eye was the title. I liked how it didn’t sound so proper. I felt as if she was writing casually and I liked it that way. It was easier to read and easier to make a connection with the writer. She also made it clear that no one is a perfect writer. That it’s okay to mess up. She says that “you need to start somewhere.” The first draft you write shouldn’t be perfect, it’s just a base. I liked her attitude through out the article. She seemed real, as if you were listening to her talk in a casual conversation. It wasn’t proper and boring.

Berkenkotter, Murray, Allen

ROW:

SUMMARY:

In Sarah Allen’s article The Inspired Writer vs. The Real Writer she attempts to give advice to a student. The student reaches out for help, and Sarah gives the student advice. She talks about how you have to be driven to write. There has to be inspiration and it will come easily. She also says that you have to write to practice, your writing will get better over time.

WAW:

SUMMARY:

In her article Decisions and Revisions she uses information from Donald M. Murray. She observes him and applies what he does to her article. She attempts to go over the strategies of writing and the editing process. She gears this towards anyone who is writing a paper and needs tips on revising. 

CONVERSATION: This writing kind of reminds me of the one about a research paper. She is observing someone and then providing steps on how to revise. In the research one it tells you what you need to do to do good research. They both gave some helpful tips.

BEFORE YOU READ:

Explaining death to an 11 year old:

You know that no one can live forever, right? At some point everyone leaves earth, where we live. There are many different reasons for death. Sometimes people just die of old age. Eventually their body just shuts down and they can’t live anymore. Sometimes people die unexpectedly. People can become very ill and their body can’t fight off the sickness anymore, so they go away. Sometimes people die because of freak accidents, like a car accident or getting injured badly. No one really knows what happens when you die. Death is when your body completely shuts down and you can’t do anything anymore. It’s like you are going to sleep, but for a very long time, and you never wake up. You are supposed to go to heaven after you die, but I don’t know what heavens like. Your body gets buried in the ground, or cremated into ashes, which means it gets burned into ashes that you can keep in a vase or something in your house. People then can go to your grave, where you are buried and visit you, even though you aren’t there, people still feel like they can talk to people when they are dead. Death is basically when something goes away forever, and you never get to see them again.

I think it was kind of hard to write this. Death is kind of hard to explain, because no one truly knows what happens when you die, at east I don’t. It’s also hard to describe heaven and what happens to you after you die. While I was writing this I was thinking about all of the people that I know that died. I was thinking about my friends that I lost the night before commencement in a car accident. I was wondering where they are now and what they’re doing. It makes me wonder what heaven is like. It also makes me wonder why some people have to die, especially so young.

QD:

1. I thought that he seemed very efficient. It was good how he uses so many different drafts and editing tools. On the one article he was working on, he used 8 drafts before he sent it off. Berkenkotter said that Murray would have his wife edit his articles. I can relate to that because sometimes I will have someone else read my assignments before I turn them in.

3.Berkenkotter had to develop a separate code category for the evaluation of text or content. She says that  he had to make the concept of the other self still more concrete for his audience. Berkenkotter realized that you have to include your audience more.

AE:

1. I spend my writing time alone. I can’t write well unless I’m by myself somewhere silent. I don’t have that high of a level of writing experience, but it’s not that low either. I was in the journalism class at my school senior year, so I had to write an article every week. I don’t really spend that much time on the various parts of the writing process.

MM

I learned that it can be very beneficial to have multiple drafts of your writing and to have people edit it. I could reread my writings more and try to make corrections and not just turn in the first draft.

OPINIONS:

I didn’t think it was that interesting, it seemed kind of boring to read. It might be kind of helpful, but it talked about things that I already knew. I didn’t really learn that much. It compares to my own experiences because I have people double check my work for me sometimes. I agree with the editing process, because you could use as much help as you can get.