Reading Response No. 24

Summary:
In her article "Tllili Tlapalli: The Path of the Red and Black Ink" Andzaldua conveys to her audience what writing means to her. She refers to her writing at some point as "blood sacrifice." This tells the audience that she believes that her writing is somehow apart of her that she gives to others. She also says that her writing heals her and brings her great joy. This only reiterates how personal writing is to the author.

Synthesis:
One could relate this article to the articles we have read recently about identity. The Smitherman and Delpit articles deal with race and how that plays into our identitiy in writing, and the the Alexander article puts emphasis on gender and identiy in writing. I think that you could compare these articles because Andzaldua puts emphasis on identity as well by saying that writing is a blood sacrifice. This tells the reader that writing is a part of this author's identity.

Applying and Exploring Ideas
1. I think that one could look at it both ways. In a way, western art is not a communal thing becasue since art is such a personal thing--much like writing--it is hard to think of it as a communal thing. But on the other hand, in today's world, many people are connected to art. I guess it might depend on the type of art one is reffering to.

2. I don't thik that this piece would be more effective of it had been written in an academic format. In fact, it probably would take something away from it. The creative expression of the piece adds to the fact that the author is talking about her identity.

Personal Response:
I liked the way that this piece was written. It was a lot more fun to read than the other articles that were written in more of an academic format. This also made it a little bit eaiser to read as well.

Reading Response No. 23

Summary:
In her article "Viewpoint the Laugh of Medusa," Cixous attemps to convey to her audience that women need to write with their own voices. She goes on to say that doing so will help women writers discover themselves in a male doninated industry.

Synthesis:
One could relate this article to the Flynn article we read. Both talk about how women and men hold different positions of authority in the writing community. This article and the Alexander article are a little simalar because the Alexander piece talks about transgender rhetorics, and this article mentions bisexuality. Although gender and sexuality aren't really the same thing, people in the transgender community and the bisexual community are often grouped together.

Questions for Discussion and Journaling
1. This article didn't make me uncomfortable as much as it made me groan and say "oh this again?" But I think I didn't get uncomfortable because I have read articles like this one before. I don't think thsat the author was trying to make the reader uncomfortable; she was probably just trying to make a point.

2. I think she is saying that women should find their voices and themselves in writing, and overcome this male dominated industry to find their own stories.

Personal Response:
I thought that this article was alright, but it placed too much balme on the males. It seemed like I've heard this argument half a billion times, which I have. Women should embrace their different writing style, and by doing this they will overcome the male domination of this industry

Reading Response No. 22

Summary:
In his article "Transgender Rhetorics: (Re)Composing Narratives of the Gendered Body," Alexander attemps to show his audience how transgender and feminist studies are needed to understand gender.
He argues this by stating that gender should not be defined by using sterotypes, but should be fluid.

Synthesis:
The article that this one relates to the most is the Flynn article. Both deal with identity, feminism, and gender.

Applying and Exploring Ideas:
3. "Normally gendered" students can gain exposure to gender roles and how gender plays into society and politics. I think that this can apply to the other minorities that we have read about in class.

4. Alexander calls gender a construct because society often puts expectations on gender even though it is a very personal thing. However, gender also affects politics. Since gender affects politics (as well as writing) it needs to be discussed in today's classrooms.

Personal Response:
I liked this article. I thought it was interesting to think of gender as a construct that affects politics, even though it is highly personal.

Reading Response No. 21

Summary:
In her article "God Don't Never Change," Geneva Simtherman attempts to persuade her audience that Black English should be held in the same regard as White English. She argues this point by giving examples of papers that recieved bad grades due to incorrect grammar written by black students. She goes on to say that this is invalid, claiming that black English is more style than error.

Synthesis:
One could relate this article to the Flynn and Wardle articles, because all three deal with identity. I thought about the Flynn article while reading this because both article put emphasis on identity in adulthood in relation to identity in youth. Delpit can also be related to this article because it also talks about Black English.

Questions for Discussions and Journaling
1. The author uses Black Idiom rhetorically by inserting in the text and therefore showing the audience that is it acceptable.

2. Those that hold power usually hold the responsability for "deciding" what is right and wrong; this is also true in writing. According to Simtherman and Delpit, this is racist toward blacks, and opresses black people.

Personal Response:
I really didn't like this article much. I think the author is using black English as an excuse for bad grammar. I also don't think that the English language opresses black people. Language gives people voice, it doesn't opress them.

Reading Response No. 20

Getting Ready to Read:
In high school, I did have a female teacher who favored male students over female students. Usually she would end up flirting with her favorite male students, and all the girls would blame our bad grades on the fact that we were "competition." While I doubt that our grades were the result of her jealousy, it was obvious which sex she favored in her classroom.

Summary:
In her article "Composing as a Woman," Elizabeth Flynn attempts to show her audience that most writing today is geared toward a male point of view and then tries to persuade them that this fact needs to be changed so that females have an equal point of view. She does this by including texts by both males and females, proving her point of how writing is geared toward a male point of view.

Synthesis:
One could compare this article to the article we read by Wardle. Both articles are written about idenity and how writing and discourse define us.

Questions for Discussion and Journaling
1. The quote is saying that writings by women are held to little value, due to the opression of women in (and probably outside of) the writing world. the author compares this group to minority groups, who also have little influence in writing due to oppression.

Personal Response:
I thought that this article was alright. Feminisn really isn't quite my thing, but it was interesting to hear about how women's writing really does have less influence than writings by men. It was also interesting to read about the lack of influence that minority groups have in writing.

Reading Response No. 19

Summary:
In his article "Memoria is a Friend of Ours: On the Discourses of Color," Victor Villanueva attemps to explain the writing concept of memoria to his audience. Memoria uses greek philosophies of logic, emotion, and credibility, and helps to expose information about the author's heritage. He does this by examining texts that use memoria. He uses the concept of memoria to introduce the concept of colonial discourse; which is between natives and their conquerors. This is often between two different races, which is the point that the author wants to make.

Synthesis:
The only article I can think to relate this one to is the article we read by Wardle about discourse in the workplace. Both aricles bring new meaning to discourse by exploring new situations that discourse community can be related to.

Questions for Discussion and Journaling:
7. Villanueva's primary discourse community would be his family, and his secondary discourse would be his public life outside of the home.

Personal Response:
I thought that this article was really interesting because, as I've said before, it relates yet another topic to discourse community that I never considered. It tells me that pretty much anything can be classified as a discourse community, and the term doesn't only apply to academia.

Reading Response No. 18

Summary:
In their article "Autism and Rhetoric," Paul Heilker and Melanie Yergeau attempt to educate their audience about the concept of autism being a discourse community. They argue this by pointing out that people who suffer from autism have a focus on communication in social situations, much like any discourse community. They catergorize it as a rhetoric becasue both things have shared characteristics.

Synthesis:
This article can be related to the articles we read that deal with the definition of discourse community. The authors use such language to label autisim as a discourse community as the other authors do when they define other discourse communities.

Personal Response:
I thought this article was interesting because I never considered that autisim could be a discourse community. The authors did a good job of pointing this out and giving a good argument on the subject.