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.

Project 3 Introduction

Project 3 Introduction

Whether we know it or not, everyone belongs to one or more discourse communities. A discourse community is essentially a group of people who share the same goals, skills, ideas, and so on. A discourse community can be a group of any persons; it is not just limited to academia. While the idea that comes to mind when one thinks of discourse community is academic, another example of discourse community could be persons who avidly play Call of Duty.

          Once one understands the concept of discourse community, one can begin to understand how relationships with others are so much a part of our writing and language. Discourse communities tend to have a lexis; or ways of communicating between members. This is one way that writing is influenced by discourse community. If the target audience of a piece of writing is one’s own discourse community, the language would be different than a piece that wasn’t targeted to non-members of the discourse.

          A few authors have given readers insight to the topic of discourse community, but perhaps one author that really spells out his idea of how this concept is defined is John Swales in his article “The Concept of Discourse Community.” He uses six characteristics to define discourse community, which one can relate back to writing. These six characteristics are that the group has an agreed set of public goals, has mechanisms of intercommunications among members, uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback, utilizes one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims, has an acquired lexis, and has a threshold level of members with relevant content and discoursal expertise.

          To add to Swales’ argument, one could look at a few articles by Amy Devitt, Anis Bawarshi, and Mary Jo Reiff. These three articles focus on genre analysis to define a discourse community. They use relationships between teachers, students, and researchers within a hospital to explain discourse community. The article shows how the things that these people do in this setting is much like a discourse community.

          Another author that adds a great deal to the conversation about discourse community is James Paul Gee in his article “Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics.” He takes a different approach to discourse than the previous authors listed because in this article Gee focuses on how discourse defines us as people; not how the discourse community is defined itself.

          Gee also introduces the concept of primary and secondary discourses; proving his point even more. To briefly explain this concept, a primary discourse is the first discourse that we belong to; these are set by our families and the things that are instilled in us early in life. Therefore, a secondary discourse is one that we encounter later in life and often choose.

          Elizabeth Wardle also expands upon the concept of discourse community in her article “Identity, Authority, and Learning to Write in New Workplaces.” This article also deals a lot with identity and how it relates to writing and discourse community with her example of Alan, a newcomer to a job setting.

          According to these authors, there is more than one way of defining discourse community. To get the best definition, perhaps one would have to look at all of the ways there are to define discourse community and combine them.

          If there was a set definition of discourse community, would it differ from one discourse to another? If one were to study a discourse related to video games, would anything change if the discourse studied was related to art?

          Perhaps discourse community is a mixture of a few definitions; and not only has a definition, but also the power to define us. If a person identifies as an artist, does that mean that they’re discourse defines them?

 

Reading Response No. 17

Summary:
Inher article "Identity, Authority, and Learning to Write in New Workplaces," Wardle attemps to show writers the problems that can arise when someone enters a new enviornment such as a school or workplace. She argues this by giving her readers and example. She tells the story of someone who is put into a discourse community that he does not belong to. He does not feel apart of this community, and Wardle therefore uses this as a way to tell her audience that it takes more than aquiring the skills of a discourse community to belong to it.

Synthesis:
This article can be related to all of the texts we have read about discourse community. It can be related to Gee because both articles use discourse community as a way of defining one's self, or a way to form identity. Wardle also agrees with Swales with the six characteristics of discourse community, but also puts in her own thoughts about identity into the argument. In the Devitt et al. article, the authors define discourse community based on genre analysis, which one could relate back to Wardle because of her argument that a discourse can exist so long as all members have simalar ideas.

Project 3 Proposal

1. A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals.

The discourse community that I would like to study and analyze is the Fine Arts discourse community. (In other words, people who paint, draw, sculpt, and so on.) The public goals of this discourse community are to express their ideas, values, and thoughts to those outside of their discourse community.

 

2. A discourse community has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members.

Not only can artists communicate between each other with art lingo; things such as technique and medium, but they also share the feelings that they feel when they create art. They share the knowledge of what goes into a painting as well.

3. A discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback.

Artists do this by receiving feedback from other artists and also art critics. Sometimes they hold events where their art is displayed where people can buy their art; feedback and information usually takes place at such events. While art may seem like a private and personal thing, artists have many opportunities to receive feedback and information about what other artists are doing at the ti

 

4. A discourse community utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims.

Artists have more than one genre of communication. They can obviously give and receive feedback by verbally stating their opinions, but one artist can critique another through art itself. In the realm of street art, one artist can talk to another by creating a picture. For example, if one artist paints something on a wall, another artist can answer them by painting something or even finishing the original picture. It only seems fitting that artists can communicate and give feedback with art itself.

5. In addition to owning genres, a discourse community has acquired some specific lexis.

Artists have lexis because if they are speaking to another artist, they can probably speak more freely about a piece, rather than if they were speaking to someone who does not do art, they might have to explain terms or ideas or say “how do you not see what I’m seeing?” However, if two artists are talking about a painting, they might pick out the same characteristics and therefore are able dig deeper into the meaning of a piece of art.

6. A discourse community has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise.

I think that artists do have a threshold level of members. One could think of artists like Van Gough or Picasso as masters of their craft and therefore expert painters. One who is involved in art could only dream of reaching their level of skill and prestige. Therefore, this discourse community has relevant content and obviously contains discoursal expertise.

I am interested in studying this discourse community because I am interested in art but also came across a couple articles that a friend of mine had from her art class and read them because I had nothing better to do at the time. I was captivated by the articles’ discussion of painters as a community and the feeling that goes into a painting. The articles also described how one can tell if the painter was sitting or standing or what mood they were in when they were creating the piece. I found this very interesting and want to know if this is actually true among artists I know.

I have a couple friends who are art majors, so I could interview them. If both of them do the same type of art, perhaps they could refer me to someone who works with different material than they do. This would give one or two different perspectives, which would be a great asset to the project.

I think the biggest text that will help me with this project will be the interview. Since most of this is based upon what an artist feels, their answers will probably be the most relevant resource I can use. However, I could also find more articles like the ones I previously read that put emphasis on artists as a discourse community.

Reading Response No. 16

Summary:
In the article "Materiality and Genre in the Study of Discourse Communities," DeVitt, Bawarshi, and Reiff attempt to show the audienece how genre relates to the study and definition of discourse community. They argue that studying genre can help one understand the concept of discourse community.

Synthesis:
One can relate this article to a few of the articles we have read. The articles written by Gee and Swales both deal with what a discourse means by definitions that they created. This article defines discourse community based upon genre.

Personal Response:
I thought that this article was helpful becasue it opened my eyes to yet another way to define a discourse community. This comes in handy as I think of discourse communities to choose for project three. It gives me a few more options to choose from, I guess.

Reading Response No. 15

Getting Ready to Read:
Two activities that I participate in are my classes in school and playing music. I do not have an instrument here at school, so these two things stay separate. The only I can think of school influencing my musical abilities is if i had an instrument here, studying may get in the way of practicing, but other than that the two activities would remain separate.

Summary:
In his article "Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics," Gee attempts to explain to his audience the difference between discourses and language and grammar. Gee explains discourses as ways of being. He argues by stating the discourse can define someone, and that we move from a initial to a secondary discourse due to our life experiences.

Synthesis:
One could compare this article to the Swales article we read. Both articles try to touch on what a discourse is. Both also deal with definition. Using the six characteristics, Swales defines the term discourse community while Gee says that we can be defined by a discourse community.

Questions for Disscussion and Journaling:
When Gee says this, he is saying that context matters with grammar. Perfect grammar to one person who doesn't speak well obviously isn't the same as perfect grammar to a person who does. In school, we are not taught this. We are taught that one should speak and write with good grammar all the time.

Personal Response:
I found this article interesting because it made me look at discourse communitites in a new way and also look at grammar in a new way. I think that it will be useful when I have to pick a discourse community for project three because I view discourse communities as something that can exist outside of academia, which is something I've never done.

Reading Response No. 14

Before you read:
One time that I have felt of place recently was when I started getting involved in a Christian organization on campus. Being new to not only the group but also to the group's brand of faith, I felt out of place at most events I attened with the group. Watching others worship with such ease confused me and made me feel very out of place. To watch people praise and understand seemingly without effort discouraged me to go back because I could not fit in with many of the group's members.

Summary:
In his article "The Concept of the Discourse Community," Swales attempts to shed light on the definition of discourse community to readers and wiriters. He argues by saying that the defintion of discourse community needs or be separate or different from the definition of speech community. He says that this can be done with six methods such as a set of common goals within the community, methods of communication among members of the discourse community, using group communication for feedback, using multiple genres for understanding, use of a vocabulary within the community, and members who are counted as qualified.

Synthesis:
Obviously, one could compare this article to the Porter article "Intertextuality and the Discourse Community." The article uses the concept of discourse community to discuss intertexuality. While Swales goes more into discourse community, both articles explain the concept of discourse community.

Questions for Discussion and Journaling
5. I think one discourse community I belong to would be the realigous group I mentioned previously. For example, one way that it posseses the six characteristics of discourse community is a set of common goals, which is to share our faith with others. Obviously, there is a lexis between members, and the group also uses different genres to accomplish our goals.

Personal Response:
I thought it was interesting that Swales used certain characteristics to define discourse community. I feel that these are a great way to separate speech and discourse communities, one of the things that the article wanted to accomplish.

My Literacy History Narrative Draft

Having a first grade teacher who still made her class sing "God Bless America" after saying the pledge of allegiance, my first memory of reading were old Dick and Jane like books. These included readings about animals and other things children enjoy. My first memory of writing is your standard learning how to shape letters with the dotted lines on paper. I think I learned to write well quickly, however it wasn't until second or third grade that a teacher corrected me for always using a capital A at the end of my name instead of  lowercase A. In grade school, we were given short story assignments in which I would usually give the teacher four pages on Friday when the assignment was two pages on Wednesday. I also learned to read well quickly. I usually read the same things as everyone else until about the sixth grade; when everyone was reading The Magic Treehouse or American Girl books, I was reading The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Now that I think about how quickly I learned how to read and write, it kind of makes me sound like a freak who could read and comprehend literature in grade six. However, I wouldn't have been able to do these things if I hadn't had the sponsorship I had. I'd like to say that I learned to write the way I did because it's something I enjoy doing, and while this is true, I also learned to write mostly because of my sister not wanting to play with me, therefore making me come up with things to do when I was bored. This is the same case with reading. My sister is an avid reader, she would either read to me, give me books to read, and so on. We used to hold contests of who could read the same page of a book the fastest, in which I always lost, but things like this helped us grow as readers and get better at reading. Another sponsor I had were my teachers. The thought to read The Scarlet Letter in grade six wouldn't have even entered my mind if the teacher hadn't had the book on her shelf for me to read in the first place. She had more advanced books that I eventually read and understood before my peers. As I continued through school, both of these sponsors continued to challenge me with both reading and writing, and have helped me reach the level of skill in both of these areas.

Reading Response No. 13

Getting Ready to Read:
Since my internet never works and I can't provide a picture of the ad I'm about to describe, I'll do the best I can. the ad that I chose was the Microsoft ad that aired in 1984 during the superbowl. It was to promote a new computer that was coming out that year. I liked the ad because it alluded to the novel 1984, which I loved, but I didn't like it because I didn't because I didn't understand why a new microsoft computer would prevent 1984 from becoming like the book 1984, as the ad states.

Summary:
In her article "The Sticky Embrace of Beauty," Wysocki attemps to show readers how art and or pictures can affect people and their perceptions. She argues that either our or society's notions about beauty can spur different feelings within us as we look at a picture. She also states that this happens with everything we see; not just art.

Synthesis:
This piece could technically be related back to the Berger article we read about nudes, but also I think you could relate it back to the sponsorship articles we read as well. Like how sponsors shape our view of reading and literacy.

Questions for Discussion and Journaling:
2. This would qualify as a low-visual text, due to the few diagrams it contains. Other than these, I thought that visually, it was like any other essay that I have read.

3. This adverstisment doesn't really work for me as a consumer. The ad indeed catches my eye, but I don't feel the need to purchase the book or learn more about the erotic photos it contains.

Applying and Exploring Ideas:
2. I do believe that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. This is because everyone has different ideas of what beauty actually is. I agree with Kant in some sense of what she is saying because no matter how much people diagree about beauty, there is still a general idea of what is at least visually pleasing and what is not.

Meta Moment:
I think that that statement fits this article quite nicely because Wysocki's arguement could be applied to many different types of art, or anything visual, really.

Personal Response:
As I do with most articles, I found this article interesting. However, I didn't understand most of it. So, I guess the parts that I could comprehend were good, but I had trouble wrapping my head around a lot of this article.

Reading Response No. 12

Getting Ready to Read:
While my parents were in school, the typewriter was the dominant wiritng tool. This tool could be compared to the computer, which is the dominant wiritng tool now. With typewriters, it is much harder to fix a mistake than it is on a computer. When I used to use our old typewriter just for fun, I remember thinking about what I was going to put down much more than I do with a computer; since errors were almost unerasable.

Summary:
In his article "From Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literary Technologies," Baron discusses different technologies that can be related to writing and how writing is a sort of technology as well. He argues that all wiritng technologies take time to be accepted by society, noting that even lead pencils were once a new technology, and therefore opposed at one point. However, Baron also states that each new technology, wether it is pencil, typewriter, or computer, has infiltrated the writing world and have been embraced by all wiriters.

Synthesis:
This article could be related back to the literary sponsors article by Brant that we recently examined. It says that we become literate by way of sponsors. In this case, when new technology comes about, we have to become literate with that as well, and sponsors can play a key role in that as well.

Questions for Discussion and Journaling:
4. One technology that may not be considered technology anymore is the typewriter. When one thinks of technology they probably think of something that runs off of a rechargable battery or electricity. Since typerwriters use niether of these and have been replaced with computers, they don't seem as high-tech as they did when they first came out.

Personal Response:
I thought that the way Baron compares technologies that could be related to writing and writing itself wsas interesting. Also, I liked how much he related technology with the way things are written; how changing technology can change the way we write.

Reading Response No. 11

Getting Ready to Read:
One way that my community encouraged reading was having summer reading programs and book sales and the library. These activities draw in many drew in many children and adults; when the library started an adult book club. The reasons for being a good reader and writer are usually gven by the people who host the events. The reason that I heard the most was that being a good reader and writer would help me in school.

Synthesis:
This piece seems to be an entirely new topic. While it is interesting, I can't think of any past readings to compare it to. We haven't talked much about literacy yet but maybe you could compare it to the article we read about the writing process and how it differs from person to person; much like the writing process.

Summary:
In her article, "Sponsors of Literacy," Deborah Brant attempts to show her audience that one becomes literate not on their own, but with things she calls sponsors. She argues that literacy is shaped by a person's evniornment, and their enviornment also shapes how literate they become.

Applying and Exploring Ideas:
2. I can't remember any literacies being withheld from me, but my school did have approved reading lists for most book projects we did. The lsits included many books written before the 1980s. So our approved reading included a lot of classic novels or novels that are famous and have won awards. If a book had been banned from my school, an alternative sponsor would be a public library or a bookstore that carried it.

Personal Response:
I thought that this article was interesting and truthful. I had never considered the concept of sponsors and literacy,and as I read I began to remeber my sponsors in life as I became literate.

Reading Response No. 10

Getting Ready to Read:

1.      How has technology changed the way we speak to each other? Is it grammatically correct? Does that affect your understanding of what others are saying? Can you come up any examples of ‘new’ words?

 Technology has greatly changed the way we talk to each other. Some of the new ways we talk to each other is grammatically in some aspects, but not usually. If one is up to date on the new ways that technology has changed our language, it would change their understanding of what others are saying. All of the examples of new words I can think of are thoughts that are abbreviated such as "I don't know" being abbreviated as "idk" or the word "obviously" being shortened to "obvi." Another new word that has been created due to technology are the different variations of the word text. Text is now not only a noun, but a verb. One can say "I texted your mother after work" and this would now be an acceptable sentance in the eyes of society.

 

Summary:

In his article "Good English and Bad," Bryson attemps to challenge the standards of good English and bad English, and show society why we speak English the way we do. He argues that the "rules" of English are not so black and white due to its history and the preferences of others. This is because, over the years, English has been changed and fought over. However, only one set of rules is taught to this somewhat democratic language in schools.

 

Synthesis:

This article could be compared to Dawkins' article "Teaching Punctuation as a Rhetorical Tool" because of the way that they both put such emphasis on how grammar is a democratic thing, but it also matters a lot in writing. Both articles also examine how lots of people don't seem to grasp correct grammar, even though it has been taught to them multiple times in school.

Questions for Discussion and Journaling:

1.      Why does Bryson say English has such a complex grammar structure? What about its history makes it so complicated?

Bryson says that English has such a complex grammar structure because its rules come from Latin-a language that English has very little in common with. It has also always been assumed that classical languages serve as models for others, therefore, even though it has been somewhat changed, no one has challenged the old rules of grammar.

Applying and Exploring Ideas

1.      “One of the undoubted virtues of English is that it is a fluid and democratic language in which meanings shift and change in response to the pressures of common usage rather than the dictates of communities” (67).  What does Bryson mean when he says that English is fluid and democratic? What examples of that fluidity have you seen in your own and others’ writing in different rhetorical situations?

What Bryson means when he says English is fluid and democratic is that one can slightly bend the rules of English without facing much opposition. English can be easily changed by anyone who feels the need to do so. I have seen some fluidity in other's writings such as novels or short stories. Like in some short stories when a charcter is speaking and there is no puctuation for their whole speech.

Meta Moment

Make a list of some parts of speech. Are these things you consciously think of as you write? Have you learned them in school? If you did not, has that affected or inhibited your writing thus far? Do you think knowing the parts of speech and grammatical terms can help you to write better? Why or why not?

Parts of speech:
verb
noun
pronoun
interjection
I have learned these parts of speech in school more than once. I think that knowing these parts of speech can sort of help your writing. Most of the time, however, you could get along just fine without knowing what an interjection is.

Personal Response:
I thought this article was interesting on an educational level. I didn't know that English grammar is based on Latin grammar, and also all the history behind the changes of our language. It also gave valid points about the fludity of language and how it varies from person to person when they are writing.

Project 1 Introduction Draft

Plagiarism Project Introduction

 

          At some point during their American education, every student learns and is warned of committing plagiarism. While most teachers and students could give practically the same definition of plagiarism, however, educators and students may have a distorted view of this writing construct. Now, there’s another word a student may not understand; construct. A construct is a sort of a misconception about something; and one can say that plagiarism is definitely a writing construct. Plagiarism is a bit blurry in the writing world because society has put a sort of double standard on this concept.

          For example, when professional writers “borrow” things from other texts, no one bats an eyelash at this, but when one college writer borrows something from another college writer, it spells expulsion for the both of them. So why is using someone else’s work acceptable in one situation but not the other? It has been said that no piece of writing is truly original due to the fact that writers are always borrowing things from other writers. Take for example Tim O’ Brien’s book Going After Cacciato and Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland. One is about the Vietnam War and one is about a silly girl who dreams she follows a talking rabbit down a hole in the ground. O’Brien couldn’t have borrowed anything from Carroll in his book about Vietnam right? Wrong. In Going After Cacciato, the characters fall through a hole in the road, and one even says that the only way out of the hole would be to fall up. From there, the characters in Cacciato discover an alternative world after they fell down into the Vietcong tunnels, much like Alice did when she fell down the rabbit hole into Wonderland. By looking at these parallelisms, one can tell that Tim O’Brien borrowed things from Lewis Carroll (Foster).

            Going After Cacciato and Alice In Wonderland are both acclaimed as great novels on their own merits, even though one borrowed a few things from the other. Couldn’t a student write a great paper if they borrowed an idea from another student or even another writer? In the eyes of the American education system, no. The rules of plagiarism are more strictly enforced in high school and college than when the pros submit writing. There is even special software to detect if students are plagiarizing. This double standard with plagiarism can get confusing when it comes to avoiding it. What exactly counts as plagiarism? What doesn’t? Curiouser and curiouser!

            The current definition of plagiarism is to steal and pass off (the words or ideas of another) as one’s own. It is useful to have a law that prohibits literary theft, but how exactly can one steal ideas? (What is Plagiarism?) Besides the fact that everything that is written down is protected by copyright, an idea, since it isn’t a physical object, seems like it cannot be stolen.

            In fact, with this double standard, one could view the current take on plagiarism as a contradiction. This is apparent when students are told to develop a topic on something that has already been written, but by using something new and original, or give credit to sources but also make their own contribution (Brizee, Paiz, and Stolley). This can get confusing to students who are unsure about what counts as plagiarism and probably don’t care; they just want to get the paper done.

            Furthermore, while there is a technical definition for plagiarism, it is evident that it can still be confusing when a writer is trying to avoid plagiarizing. Also, there is a great double standard surrounding plagiarism that perhaps benefits one group of writers but not another. What we need to assess is, if we could change the definition of plagiarism, could that change the double standard that goes with it?

 

 

Works Cited

"What Is Plagiarism?" Plagiarism.org. Web. 19 Sept. 2012. http://plagiarism.org/

Brizee, Allen, Paiz, Joshua M, Stolley, Karl. "Welcome to the Purdue Owl." Purdue OWL.            Web. 19 Sept. 2012. <http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/>.

Foster, Thomas C. "Now Where Have I Seen Her Before?" How to Read Literature Like a            Professor. New York: HarperCollins, 2003. 29-30. Print.

Reading Response No. 9

Getting Ready to Read:

●      Look at text heavy advertisement. Analyze how the text is working in conjunction with the image. Where are you most drawn? Does the image emphasize the text, or does the text emphasize the image? Write out your thoughts.

When looking at a text heavy advertisement, I am usually drawn to the text. However, I think that the image could emphisize the text or the text could emphisize the image. This would depend on how the advertisement is et up, or which one they are trying to sell you; the text or the image. If the advertisement is for a physical product, then the text would compliment the image of what it is trying to sell you. However, if the advertisement is for something like a service, an image would compliment the text telling you about the service being provided.

Summary:
In his article, "Seeing the Text," Bernhardt attempts to show writers the importance that visuals play in writng. He argues that communication can be done not only with the written word, but with pictures as well. This is because pictures can not only compliment writing, they can also help get the message across to the audience since humans identify and communicate with pictures so often and well.

Synthesis:
This writing can be related back to the "Vocabulary of Comics" article we read by Scott McCloud. Both articles discuss how images are a great tool that humans use to communicate, and that simple words on a page are not the only way to convey ideas.

Questions for Discussion and Journaling:

1.       Bernhardt characterizes the typical classroom essay as consisting of “full, declarative sentences, arranged in paragraphs with low visual identity” (36). Do you struggle with generating or reading this conventional, low-visual type of writing? Why or why not?

I do sometimes struggle with this type of writing only because it's easy for me to lose focus or lose my place when I'm reading. When there are pictures or some sort of visual model, however, it is easier to understand a concept if there is a visual example of it along with a written explanation.

Applying and Exploring Ideas

1.       Think of the writing projects you have been assigned to do in this course, in other college courses, or in high school. Have there been any times when you used an unconventional visual structure outside of usual essay format? How might you use visual strategies to present your writing in the future?

In high school, I was assigned to write a paper about education reform. The topic that I focused on was the high school dropout rate and how it can be improved. In the begining of the paper I gave a little backround on the topic and used a couple graphs to show different statistics of the dropout rate through the years. I may use visual strategies such as this to show things like statistics in a paper or to give a visual example to the reader.

After You Read:
How would Scott McCloud have represented Bernhardt’s argument?
McCloud probably have represented this argument by explaining the whole argument in pictures instead of writing about it, like he did in his article, "Vocabulary of Comics." This, however, would perhaps make the reader see the entire argument in a different way.

Meta Moment:

Bernhardt writes, “By studying actual texts as they function in particular contexts, we can gain an improved understanding of what constitute appropriate, effective strategies of rhetorical organization” (44). In what particular contexts do you consider visually thinking about text to be most appropriate? Of all the formal writing assignments in this course, which one calls for the most visual thinking about presentation of text?

Thinking about text is most appropriate when one needs aid in understanding the material they're reading. Reading something then looking at a picture of it could help them comprehend their reading. I think out of all the reading I have done in this class, this article and the article by Scott McCloud both call for the most visual thinking about text because that is what those two articles are about; visual images in text and how we identify with them and use them in writing.

Personal Response:
I thought this article made interesting points about thinking about texts visually. I believe that trying this in reading and writing would be useful to both myslef and my audience.

 

Reading Response No. 8

Getting Ready to Read:
Make a list of all the ways you get "help," of any kind, with your writing. Where do you get ideas, advice, feedback, and assistamce.
I get help with my writing by talking to other people about it, having them read it, or reading something simalar by another author to see how they wrote through the problem I'm having.

Reading Response:
In his article "Intertexuality and the Discourse Community," Porter attempts to educate writers about how plagarism may not be as black and white as we thought it was. He argues that the writing communtiy is full of intertextuality, because every piece of work has pieces of other works in it-that nothing is truly original.

Questions for Discussion and Journaling:
4. Evaluating a writer's work by acceptability is simalar to the way I think writing should be evaluated, but much different than how my writing has been evaluated in the past. In the past, my writing has been evaluated by a cut-and-dry set of rules or criteria that it had to meet. If the work did not meet the criteria, it would either drop the grade or the paper would be failed.

5. Porter's work fails to reflect the principles he writes about because all through his article he talks about how every piece of work is never truly original, but he never talks about his inspiration for this particular article, or if he recieved help from anyone, or if there are traces of other articles in this one.

Applying and Exploring Ideas
2. if i were to write a new definition based upon Porter's standards, it would go a little something like this:
Plagarism: Purposely copying all of someone's work to call one's own.
The original definition of plagarism and the one I just wrote have some simalarities. Both do not condone copying another person's work to pass off as your own, however, the new one specifies that plagarism is copying all of someone's work and not just parts of it.

Meta Moment:
This study does change the way I feel about writers. I feel that now I know why writers borrow things in their work. This will change the way I write when I feel like I'm plagarizing other authors when there is actually no need to worry about this.

Personal Response:
I thought this article made good points about intertextuality and plagarism. It made me rethink the concept of plagarism and some of the things I've read with traces of other works in them.

Reading Response No. 7

Getting Ready to Read:

1.      How do you construct an identity using your Facebook profile? What do your different choices of what to include within your profile say about your identity online versus your identity at home?

One constructs an identity on Facebook based upon the information they choose to put on it. If one is friends with people on Facebook that they do not know in real life, then all they know about each other is what is listed on thier Facebook accounts. Identity on Facebook and identity at home can be very different. For example, I don't put everything I say and do on Facebook due to the fact that I'm Facebook friends with my Pastor and his wife. One could also put false information on Facebook and live a completely different life at home.

2. When you typically write academic papers, professors will often outlaw the use of "I" within your writing. How would your writing be different if you were able to use the first-person within this assignment?

If I could use "I" in wiritng assignments, it would be easier to convey to the reader what my argument is and also give examples to support my argument. However, using "I" could make the work come off as biased if the writer does not use it carfully and correctly.

Reading Response:

In his article, "Voice in Writing Again: Embracing Contraries," Elbow attempts to show writing teachers the role that voice plays in writing and reading. He argues that voice is everywhere in all types of writng. Although he says that voice can help both the reader and writer, he says that writers should not use voice in their work, due to the fact that voice can distort the way that the audience interperets the text.

Questions for Discussion and Journaling:

1.      When you look at infographics online, are they voiceless? Can they have an agenda? Based on your answer, do you agree or disagree with Elbow's statement made in paragraph 67 on page 55? why or why not?

Infograpghics are not voiceless and can have an agenda. I do agree with the statement Elbow makes. Teaching writing without voice will force students to produce stronger pieces that are deliever the message effectively.

2. How do you define voice? Have you encountered different definitions of voice in the past and how do they compare to Elbow's definition of voice?

I have not encountered any different definitions of voice, but I define it as the tone of how the author speaks to the audience. This is simalar to the way that Elbow defines voice, but it is also different because Elbow argues that the voice of a piece holds more meaning to the way that the piece is precieved by the audience.

Applying and Exploring Ideas

1.      What happens when you listen to a passage rather than reading it silently? Elbow asserts that it often makes your reading less complicated. How has "ear training" affected your comprehension of something in the past? Based on this, do you believe it's a tool you should use and when should you implement it?

Listening to a passage can make your reading less complicated, but also make you comprehend the material better. By hearing it, you have a better chance of remembering what it was about. Ear training has helped my cromprehension in the past by helping me remember key points of the passage. I believe you should implement ear training either before or after you read it silently.

2. Elbow identifies two kinds of voices linked to any writer: sincerity and resonance. Can you write single sentence definitions, using your own words, for sincerity and resonance? And if you struggle with this exercise, what does this say about trying to use them in your own writing?

Sincerity means to say something and truly mean what you say. Resonance is to reflect on something in writing. Since I srtuggled with the word resonance, I have a feeling that I don't use it in my writing often, if I even have the correct definition.

Connections to other readings

1. Elbow says that our inherently rhetorical voice is used to make arguements. When Kliene said that we adopt a scienttific voice, we use that to make arguements as well. Therefore, the two are interconnected because of the fact that writers use both their scientific and rhetorical voices to make arguments.

2. I do not think that voice is a part of the myth that Allen fights against. I think it is a way out of the "haunting ghost" because one uses their voice to make arguments and influence the audience.

Meta Moment

I do think this is possible. I make this happen in my own work by finding a happy medium of the two when it is appropriate for either side.

Personal Response:

I thought this article was a little confusing when it was talking about the two sides to voice and how they can co-exist, but I also thought it was very informative about voice in writing; something that I had never took the time to examine.

Reading Response No. 6

Getting Ready to Read:
Consider whether you have any writing rituals. For example, do you have to have a cup of coffee while you write? Du you need to write on paper before typing? Do you have to take a nap or clean the house?
I don't know if I really have any writing rituals. I usually write to music, unless I really cannot focus on what I'm doing and have to turn it off. After I'm done writing for the day or for that time, I usually read over it and write notes on a piece of paper about what could be changed or improved.

Reading Response:
In their articles "Decisions and Revisions: The Planning Strategies of a Publishing Writer," and "Response of a Laboratory Rat-or, Being Protocoled," Berkenkotter and Murray attempt to show college writers that writing is a process; the actual words you put on the page are the final step. They argue that everyone goes through a different process to come up with their finished product, because some people have different methods of writing, as well as collecting their thoughts and revising their work.

Questions for Discussion and Journaling:
1. What was your impression of Murray's writing processes as they're described here? How do they compare to yours? What do you do the same or differently?
Some of Murray's processces are the same as my writing processes. When he revises work and writes down his thoughts exactly as they come to him is simalar to what I do when I revise a piece of writing.
3. How did this study change Berkenkotter's understanding of writing processes, particularly planning and revision?
Berkenkotter discovered that the writer can go back and forth between planning, editing, and drafting. The writer can do this rather than going from planning to drafting to editing.

Applying and Exploring Ideas
1. I usually spend my editing time going through the piece little by little to check for grammatical errors. It's rare that I wil go back and dramatically change the actual text. I would characterize my level of writing experience as a "beginer's level." Writng is something I enjoy doing and I'm fairly good at, but I am nowhere near the level of an experienced writer. I think these two are very closely related. A more experienced writer would spend more time on revising their work than I do.

Meta Moment
One thing I learned from these articles that will help me write more effectively are the techniques that Murray uses when he is revising. Some of the things he does would be helpful to try.

Personal Response:
I think that these articles are very helpful to those who want to write. It gives a lot about revision, editing, and he writing process from the study of an experienced writer. To see "how a pro writes" can help one get on the right track with their wiritng.

Reading Response No. 5

Getting Ready to Read:

● Imagine that you are going to draw a picture of a woman. Which way would she be facing and why? Is she the only object in the picture? What kind of scene do you put her in? Is she naked or nude?

If I were to draw a picture of a woman, she would be facing the left, she would be the only object in the picture, and there may not even be a scene in the backround for her to be in. Since the woman I'm drawing would probably be a stick figure, she would be naked or nude on a technicality. However, I most likely wouldn't go that far as to draw clothes on a stick figure.

Reading Response:

In his article "Ways of Seeing," Berger attempts to show society how both men and women are precieved in classical oil paintings and how gender roles are clearly defined in such paintings. He argues that due to the separate gender roles, the way that society sees women has not changed, and that women are often dipicted much differently than men. This is because the intended or assumed audience are men.

Questions for Discussion and Journaling:

1. Do you think artists of these paintings knew what they were doing when they created? Why? Would Berger agree with you?

I think that the artists of these paintings knew what they were doing when they created the images. If anything, painting nudes was a way to express sexuality in a time when it was unacceptble to do so. However, if the painting was of Adam and Eve, perhaps the artist didn't quite have sexuality in mind when painting a biblical scene. I think Berger would agree with me because in the last paragraph of the article he says that women were painted that way to flatter the male audience.

2. Berger mentions that a woman’s presence is defined by her mannerisms, her attire, her surroundings, and how she expresses herself. This presence is in contrast to a man’s presence, which “is dependent upon the promise of power he embodies”(208). Are these assumptions about culture any different now than they were when the article was published in the 1970s?

 

I would say that yes these assumptions are different now than they were in the 1970s because of the changing times and the changing gender roles. The gender roles that were around since the begining of time began to change in the 1970s, therefore, when this article was published, the gender roles that were in place were basically the same gender roles that were in place when those paintings were created.

Applying and Exploring Ideas

1. Can you think of artwork that represents men in a particularly viewed way? Is there a generation gap between the paintings Berger chose and the one you can think of? Do you think that gap contributes to how the image is viewed?

I think that most artwork portrays men as the dominant figure in society. Wether he is in a painting with a woman, or a painnting of a battle, men are usually always dipicted this way, once again, due to the set gender roles. I can think of one painting that does have a generation gap between some of the paintings that Berger chose. The painting, whose title I cannot remember, is of a man and woman dancing. The woman is wearing a red dress, and the faces of both dancers aren't visable. The generation gap between this painting and the classical era paintings does have an impact on the way thisi image is viewed because of the fluid gender roles our society accepts. The two look more like equals rather than the man being the dominant one in the image.

4. How does humor define a person? Is humor something that is compensating for something else? Or as Berger states, does humor fall on gender lines? Explain your answer.

In some respect, humor can define a person. Depending what what kind of jokes they are telling, wether they be smart jokes or a simple "why did the chicken cross the road" joke. Not only could humor define how smart a person is, but also how uptight someone is. I think that humor fell on gender lines when gender roles were stricter than they are today. In old movies or movies that take place in the past, a woman who is funny and likes to tell jokes is usually pinned as strange or someone who doesn't quite fit in with the other women around.

Meta Moment

Why do you think you need to read an article concerned with the similarities and differences between nudes, nakedness, spectator, viewer, art, and advertisement? How could any of these concepts be connected to writing, audience, and authorship?

Since writing is an art form, I think reading an article like this could be beneficial. Putting together the pieces that connect nudes, nakedness, men, women, gender roles, and so on could be beneficial to writing because this article paid attention to the way women were portrayed in paintings and how the audience responded, which is a very good thing to pay attention to in wiritng; how the audience responds.

Reading Response No. 4

Getting Ready to Read:
Consider why some children use stick figures when drawing pictures of themselves. Is it possible that stick figures show the development of a child in relation to his own self-awareness?
I do not think that children draw stick figures of themselves due to self-awarness. If a child is small enough, a stick figure is the easiest way to draw people, therefore, that is the way a child draws people. Usually, children do not develop the skills to draw people in detail.


Try to recall what your favorite cartoon was or still is. Do you relate to a character and find yourself connecting? What features do you think help you connect?
I will admit that my favorite cartoon to this day is Spongebob Squarepants. As a child, the character I related to most was the tomboy squirrel (the somehow is able to live underwater) Sandy. I felt that if it was okay for Sandy to be a tomboy, then it was okay for me as well. Now that I think about it, that show is kind of rediculous, and it would be hard to relate to much of anything in it, but that's what I got from that character.

Reading Response:
In his article "Vocabulary of Comics," McCloud tries to educate his audience about the interaction between icons and the connections that humans have to them. He argues that humans' self-awarness can be compared to cartoons. As if the way we see ourselves can be as simple as a cartoon sketch of a person, which is why our minds automatically see faces when we see two cirlces and a line arranged in the right way. This is because, as humans, we easily see oursleves in things such as cartoons or different icons.

Questions for Disscussion and Journaling:

1.      Why does McCloud use the comic book format to convey his ideas to the reader? How would his points have suffered if expressed them only through writing?

McCloud uses the comic book format to convey his ideas to the reader by showing how humans respond to icons rather than trying to tell them. The fact that he uses pictures for this piece gets his point across better than it would with just text. His point would have suffered had he used just text because he couldn't make the point about the narrorator being a blank slate and a part of the audience. It also would have been hard to explain any of his points without using the pictures.

2.    McCloud suggests that if the narrator looked more realistic, and less like a cartoon, you would be more preoccupied with him as the messenger and less with message at hand. Is this true? Are cartoon characters, overall, a “blank slate” that we fill with our own identity? Why or why not?

I don't think that if the narrorator had been more detailed that I would have been more focused on the drawing than the message. However, that does not mean that others would focus on the message rather than the narrorator; this could just depend on the person. Since humans do connect with cartoons and icons so much, characters could be blank slates that we fill with our own identity. This is why we can relate to characters so well.

 

Applying and Exploring Ideas

1.      Why does McCloud contend that we are more likely to see ourselves in generic, cartoonish images that do not accurately resemble human faces? Contrary to McCloud’s argument, have you ever looked at a photograph or realistic portrait of a person and identified with the subject?

McCloud says that we are more likely to see ourselves in generic cartoons rather than detailed cartoons is simple. When one sees a cartoon face that resembles a human face exactly, if one does not look like this, then they are less likely to identify with it because the two do not look alike. However, if a cartoon face is more generic and does not resemble a particualr human face, one is more likely to identify with it becuase it is easier to see themselves in it.

2.   Why do you think some adults “grow out” of watching cartoons, or at least say that they do, when it is clear that they encounter icons or cartoons every day?

Adults say that they have outgrown cartoons due to the social stigma that cartoons ar efor children. Cartoons also usually explore situations that children or young adults experience, or childish themes. However, this does not mean that they stop indentifying with cartoons; making it clear that everyone sees icons and cartoons everyday.

 

In my opinion, this article gave good insight to the complicated subject of self-awarness. The concept is new to me, so I liked the fact that it was "to the point" for most of the article. However, I'm still figuring out how this connects to academic writing.

Summary of library tutorials

How to find scholarly full text articles using articles plus:
Scholarly articles are sometimes known as academic articles. What makes them different from regular articles are their title, author(s), abstract, introduction, article texts, conclusions, and references or works cited. These are things one should look for when reading scholarly articles. Go to articles plus and search the topic of an article. When you have more results than you want or need, click on "refine results." This will take the number of articles down and they will al be full text, reviewed items. Most of the time an article will come in a pdf; you can also print, email, or save the article to your drive. If the article does not come in pdf, you can click on the words "find it with link source" which will open a window with a citation at the top. The window will also tell you if full text is available anywhere else on the library database.

How to find a book:
Type in the subject of the book you are looking for. (Try to use key words of the topic you want to search. For example, if you want a book about marketing for Hispanics, use the words "Hispanic" and "marketing" in your search.) When that's done, scroll through the list of books on your topic and see if one or more is available. Write down the call number of the book, or you can have it sent to you as a text. On the same page, it will tell you what floor the book is on. By clicking on that, it will tell you where on the floor the book is. When you get to the floor the book is on, there will be signs telling you where your call number is located. On the shevles, there will be more signs mapping out where call numbers are located. Find the appropriate asile and look for your call number in those books. There, you should find more books on your topic. Take your books to the fourth or second floor desk to check them out.

How to request books through Ohio link:
If Alden library does not have the book you want or its checked out, you can request one from Ohio link, which should deliver in three business days. Click on "search Ohio link" to see how many copies are available in Ohio. Click "request" and put in what school you need the book delivered to-Ohio University-then click "submit." Log in with your Ohio ID and password and slecet a pick up spot (Alden library, Athens) before clicking "submit" again. After clicking "submit" the screen will tell you if your request was successful, and you will recieve an email saying when the book will arrive. (Three business days).