Portfolio Cover Letter:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BydrCvQbOIepczkzaVRlV3NSZmEwaGl4X0dPSEhXdw
Paper 1:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BydrCvQbOIepZzJUS1Y4VnpRYjZ5MWpLSjIwVlZKUQ
Paper 2/rewrite:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BydrCvQbOIepY2tadnM0RVhSTlM1eE10UFJxdlY1Zw
Paper from another class:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BydrCvQbOIepTDVVU2IyX2hUeDJfUGtTcUlILW1WQQ
Paper 4:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BydrCvQbOIepNjQ4ZWJiRjhUenkwQ1BsQUpvZWJLUQ
Argument For An A:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BydrCvQbOIepbDdOYmExXzdSRHlEeTViZ2UxeWVLdw
Friday, March 16, 2012
Monday, March 5, 2012
Paper 4
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BydrCvQbOIepZU45aTFvQmtRTXVUVlJqQ09BXzI5dw
Cover Letter
I am still really iffy on this paper.. i think the word limit freaked me out a little bit. I feel as if i repeated a few of my thoughts too often. The basic gist of the paper however is: that for eternity, writing professionals have talked about how awful procrastination is, and that it is always always always harmful to your writing and your over all assignment. i do not agree with this claim, and that is what the paper is about. i want writing professionals to stop telling students to stop procrastinating, and start telling us how we can find out if we are in the group of people where procrastination would benefit us, and our writing. Like the past 3 papers, i really cannot tell if it is a ''good paper''. I know in my mind that all of my opinions and points in this paper are genuine and sincere, because essentially, the paper is about me and my road to finding my productive procrastinating-ness. And that is what is important to me, using my own experiences to benefit others writing and so my part to move the writing world along. I would like comments on the flow of the paper and if at any point i get off track/off subject at all. Thanks!
Happy week 10
-Katie
Cover Letter
I am still really iffy on this paper.. i think the word limit freaked me out a little bit. I feel as if i repeated a few of my thoughts too often. The basic gist of the paper however is: that for eternity, writing professionals have talked about how awful procrastination is, and that it is always always always harmful to your writing and your over all assignment. i do not agree with this claim, and that is what the paper is about. i want writing professionals to stop telling students to stop procrastinating, and start telling us how we can find out if we are in the group of people where procrastination would benefit us, and our writing. Like the past 3 papers, i really cannot tell if it is a ''good paper''. I know in my mind that all of my opinions and points in this paper are genuine and sincere, because essentially, the paper is about me and my road to finding my productive procrastinating-ness. And that is what is important to me, using my own experiences to benefit others writing and so my part to move the writing world along. I would like comments on the flow of the paper and if at any point i get off track/off subject at all. Thanks!
Happy week 10
-Katie
Friday, March 2, 2012
Paper #4 Introduction 2.0
I hope I never again witness such injustice as I did that fateful day in Mrs. Foley's 8th grade english class. We had a review due on Monday morning regarding the new school levy on the ballot. Mrs. Foley snaked through the aisles collecting the papers. For weeks she had been pestering us about starting our papers early and not waiting until the weekend, let alone Monday morning at 6 am to complete them. She claimed that there was no way anyone could possibly produce an adequate paper without properly preparing for and drafting it first. She claimed she would be able to simply read through the first paragraph and her 6th sense teacher senses would start tingling. I decided that I had a good enough grade in the class to test that theory.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Penrose/Geisler Reading
***MR. WHICKER: MY POST FOR PAPER 4 IS BELOW THIS ONE!***
Summary
In this article, "Reading and Writing without Authority" Penrose and Geisler perform a study where they look at the writing styles of two people. A freshman English student (Janet) and a philosophy doctorate student, (Roger). They ask both students to write papers on paternity. They looked at the context, and overall quality of the papers and made inferences about the authority the papers held. The purpose of their study was to investigate how such differences in authority are played out in the academic sphere. They were particularly interested in how the lack of authority shapes the reading and writing practices students adopt. They concluded that confidence in one's own authority is assumed to increase generally with age,but gender also may influence this development. They then looked into conflicting authorities, for instance, when two papers both seem authoritative, yet have conflicting information/opinions. Overall, I gathered that this article was about how to know if someone is an "insider". In other words, reading two passages, and being able to tell which one to trust/which one was written by the college freshman, and which was written by the philosophy doctorate student.
Questions For Discussion
3. Janet, like us, has just finished high school were we were taught that when you have to write a paper, you find a ton of information about the topic, (usually online) and you either mentally or physically copy and paste it into your paper. It is literally like second nature to me in regards to doing a research paper. We are stuck in the mold of "you need 6 sources, 2 books, 2 websites, 2 articles. I don't care how you do it, just put it in the paper." And that is what we do. In order to receive credit, we find any random book,website and article and stick it in the paper. However, in the situation, Roger is writing his paper a little differently. Actually, a lot differently. Because of his major, he doesn't necessarily need to look up a lot of information. He may already know a lot about paternity/remember cases/studies he has seen about the topic and be able to use that as information to put into his paper. Also, the information that he does include, unlike Janet, he can make in depth inferences about and reflect upon the matter in a philosophical and intellectual way that Janet cannot simply reach yet.
4. Janet is choosing to trust the authors of her text more than herself simply because they are published writers, and she is not. She is afraid to wonder from their main points and opinions because she is not sure if they are valid/she knows for a fact that the authors claims are legitimate and true. Or so she believes. She, like many people, are automatically trusting of other people that they perceive to be smarter than themselves. Which isn't a bad thing, but in my opinion, it can keep people from going out on a limb and making their own inferences, in saying "So-and-so believes X, Y and Z, while I understand their claims, I believe A, B, and C can also be true."
5. I believe my writing is more like Janet's. I am guilty of the information-transfer model. While I would love to be able to write like Roger, I believe that writing not only takes a level of bravery and confidence, it takes a lot of experience. I do not believe that Roger's writing is something that happens over night, or that can be rushed. I believe that if I go on to a master's degree, I will eventually, and unknowingly, begin to write more like Roger because of the knowledge and experience I have picked up along the way.
Meta Moment
Next time I go to write a research paper, this article will have helped me in 1. my writing style and 2. my confidence. In the beginning of the article, (in paragraph 1 on pg 604) the authors talk about how Janet feels the need to define paternity and what it means/functions as. In Roger's paper, he assumes that the reader knows this information already, and is able to get down to more in depth inferences. I don't know if feeling obligated to define your topic is novice, but I do think that skipping the basic information about paternity would have made her intro a little more mature. Also, I learned that saying "in this paper" is a big bad idea. It makes it seem like there was no author, and the paper holds the information, not the author.
My Own Thoughts
I thought that most of the information in this article was kind of assumed. I could have guessed that a doctorate student would write a more authoritative paper than a college freshman. However, I did learn from this article how to make my papers a little more mature by making slight changes/improvements to my style and how I structure some sentences. I didn't mind reading it because all in all, I did get some helpful hints out of it, however I thought that the study that they did was somewhat predictable. However, they did make inferences about the differences in their writing that I wouldn't have necessarily noticed. I am also happy that our readings due today were cut in half. So, I have absolutely nothing to complain about.
Summary
In this article, "Reading and Writing without Authority" Penrose and Geisler perform a study where they look at the writing styles of two people. A freshman English student (Janet) and a philosophy doctorate student, (Roger). They ask both students to write papers on paternity. They looked at the context, and overall quality of the papers and made inferences about the authority the papers held. The purpose of their study was to investigate how such differences in authority are played out in the academic sphere. They were particularly interested in how the lack of authority shapes the reading and writing practices students adopt. They concluded that confidence in one's own authority is assumed to increase generally with age,but gender also may influence this development. They then looked into conflicting authorities, for instance, when two papers both seem authoritative, yet have conflicting information/opinions. Overall, I gathered that this article was about how to know if someone is an "insider". In other words, reading two passages, and being able to tell which one to trust/which one was written by the college freshman, and which was written by the philosophy doctorate student.
Questions For Discussion
3. Janet, like us, has just finished high school were we were taught that when you have to write a paper, you find a ton of information about the topic, (usually online) and you either mentally or physically copy and paste it into your paper. It is literally like second nature to me in regards to doing a research paper. We are stuck in the mold of "you need 6 sources, 2 books, 2 websites, 2 articles. I don't care how you do it, just put it in the paper." And that is what we do. In order to receive credit, we find any random book,website and article and stick it in the paper. However, in the situation, Roger is writing his paper a little differently. Actually, a lot differently. Because of his major, he doesn't necessarily need to look up a lot of information. He may already know a lot about paternity/remember cases/studies he has seen about the topic and be able to use that as information to put into his paper. Also, the information that he does include, unlike Janet, he can make in depth inferences about and reflect upon the matter in a philosophical and intellectual way that Janet cannot simply reach yet.
4. Janet is choosing to trust the authors of her text more than herself simply because they are published writers, and she is not. She is afraid to wonder from their main points and opinions because she is not sure if they are valid/she knows for a fact that the authors claims are legitimate and true. Or so she believes. She, like many people, are automatically trusting of other people that they perceive to be smarter than themselves. Which isn't a bad thing, but in my opinion, it can keep people from going out on a limb and making their own inferences, in saying "So-and-so believes X, Y and Z, while I understand their claims, I believe A, B, and C can also be true."
5. I believe my writing is more like Janet's. I am guilty of the information-transfer model. While I would love to be able to write like Roger, I believe that writing not only takes a level of bravery and confidence, it takes a lot of experience. I do not believe that Roger's writing is something that happens over night, or that can be rushed. I believe that if I go on to a master's degree, I will eventually, and unknowingly, begin to write more like Roger because of the knowledge and experience I have picked up along the way.
Meta Moment
Next time I go to write a research paper, this article will have helped me in 1. my writing style and 2. my confidence. In the beginning of the article, (in paragraph 1 on pg 604) the authors talk about how Janet feels the need to define paternity and what it means/functions as. In Roger's paper, he assumes that the reader knows this information already, and is able to get down to more in depth inferences. I don't know if feeling obligated to define your topic is novice, but I do think that skipping the basic information about paternity would have made her intro a little more mature. Also, I learned that saying "in this paper" is a big bad idea. It makes it seem like there was no author, and the paper holds the information, not the author.
My Own Thoughts
I thought that most of the information in this article was kind of assumed. I could have guessed that a doctorate student would write a more authoritative paper than a college freshman. However, I did learn from this article how to make my papers a little more mature by making slight changes/improvements to my style and how I structure some sentences. I didn't mind reading it because all in all, I did get some helpful hints out of it, however I thought that the study that they did was somewhat predictable. However, they did make inferences about the differences in their writing that I wouldn't have necessarily noticed. I am also happy that our readings due today were cut in half. So, I have absolutely nothing to complain about.
Paper #4 Idea
Procrastination
>why does it have such a negative connotation?
>when does it work to your advantage?
>>when doesn't it work to your advantage?
>are there always correlations with procrastinators and poor writing?
>why does it have such a negative connotation?
>when does it work to your advantage?
>>when doesn't it work to your advantage?
>are there always correlations with procrastinators and poor writing?
Friday, February 24, 2012
Wardle Reading
Summary
Elizabeth Wardle writes this article because she is interested in how adults (moving from one discourse community, to another) learn how to read and write. She argues that learning to write ub fba dir bew situations and workplaces is complex in ways that go far beyond texts and cognitive abilities. She does so in two ways. First, she starts by outlining theories of identity and authority. In this illustration, she focuses on two different types of people. Compositionists: who focus on cultural-historical acitivy theory, and sociologists: who study apprenticeship. Second, she illustrates some of the difficulties inherent in writing and identity formation by telling the story of one new worker who struggles with written conventions and codes largesly because of issues of identity and authority. In this paggage, Wardle uses a very relaxed writing tone, she said that using an academic voice could impair her message and derive from the focus of the points.
Questions for Discussion 3-7
3. I believe that there was not a positive result, because in this example the costs outweighed the benefits, atleast in the eyes of those involved- and thus it was not worth the effort. His conflicts could have been handled better if he could have focused on the end result, and put in the work and the effort necessary to reach said goals.
4. I do agree that it is possible. That is the hard thing with written communication, the perception is not always the intended perception. I'm sure there are writers out there who use language with intention, infact- I'm sure all writers somehow use all language with intention- because that is it's purpose. However, how it is translated by the reader, is not always how it was meant to be translated. Thus, writers sometimes need to be extra clear in their writing, while trying to take risks with their word choices.
5. I agree more with Gee, because I believe this is how innovation occurs, and epiphanies happen. People enter into a situation with a fresh outlook and say "this could be better" or "something is wrong here" and they educate people on their opinions and their views, and they rally to make a change. If people entered every situation close minded, there would be no progress made in the world. For example, if I walked into my dorm hall when I first moved in in August and said "this looks nothing like my room at home, I cant live here." I would never get anywhere in life. It is okay to take your past discourse communities and what you have learned about through them, to new discourse communities, however, it is vital to keep an open mind and a clear conscience.
6. I would agree in the sense that this is a positive title as a "tool". Everyone is a tool. As long as they are contributing something to their discourse communities and helping fellow DC members along- they are helpful, and resourceful, and productive- then yes, they are tools.
7. Yes. I can think of a very specific instance. And I feel bad because Mr. Whicker will probably read this and possibly be offended. I apologize in advance. During like week 3 or so, we were getting ready to turn in our first paper, and Mr. Whicker was writing on the board ways that we could edit our own papers for fluency and he wrote on the board "read your own papers allowed" I almost fell out of my chair. I am an Engligh/Math middle childhood major and I had just made my 5th grade lesson plans for homophones. Which are words that sound alike, but are spelled different. In my lesson plans, I had made a worksheet and one of the questions was asking the student to write a sentence with the correct usage of aloud/allowed. He would have gotten that quesiton wrong. I'm sorry Mr. Whicker. But on the bright side, atleast you know I'm paying attention and reading everything you write on the board! Please don't fail me.
Applying & Exploring Ideas
To have authority over texts, to me, is defined by reading a text and not learning anything new. For example, if you were at OU on a soccer scholarship, being assigned a text about basic soccer regulations- and not learning anything from it because you already know all of the reguations. However, I do not believe it is completely possible to have authority over a discourse community. It is impossible to be certain that there is absolutely nothing you can learn, or no new views you can take from the people you are in the discourse community with. You never quite know when a fresh idea or outlook is going to come to the surface and make you change your opinions/gain a new viewpoint. I would say that I have authority of knowledge over the kids I teach swimming lessons to. Not only did I pass all of the levels when I was little, but when I turned 16 I went on to training on how to teach what I had already learned. However, every once and a while a little kid will come along that has a freshout look on how a stroke works, or a really unique way of thinking about a swimming concept, and it completely blows me away. It's not that they are a better swimmer than I am, they are simply thinking about how I explain something, and putting it into terms that they would better understand. For example, when I teach butterfly kick, I tell the girls to pretend that they are mermaids, and the boys to pretend that they are sharks. And one day a few summers ago a little boy said "do you mean we have to do the worm in the water?" and I was really confused, so he got out of the poool and he did the worm dance on the pool deck. It was exactly what I wanted them to envision, and then some. Even though I was the instructor, he was able to teach me new insight on something I had been doing for years. Proving to me, that I cannot have complete knowledge authority over that discourse because I had been taught something new.
My Own Thoughts
I really liked how this author kind of went off of Gee's article, yet made it more modern and understandable. Plus, I think it is a really relevant and important question to ask. Because when I think about discourse communities, I think about professionals. And really really smart old men in lab coats. But at one point, several hundred years ago, those really old men were first year undergrad students just like me. And I think it is interesting how they learn their discourse community, and how they learn how to fit in within that community. When I think about learning to read and write, I think about a kindergarten classroom, not a grad student. It definitely brought a new perspective on how I think about learning to read and write, and how it can literally happen at any age. It just depends on what you're learning to read and write.
Elizabeth Wardle writes this article because she is interested in how adults (moving from one discourse community, to another) learn how to read and write. She argues that learning to write ub fba dir bew situations and workplaces is complex in ways that go far beyond texts and cognitive abilities. She does so in two ways. First, she starts by outlining theories of identity and authority. In this illustration, she focuses on two different types of people. Compositionists: who focus on cultural-historical acitivy theory, and sociologists: who study apprenticeship. Second, she illustrates some of the difficulties inherent in writing and identity formation by telling the story of one new worker who struggles with written conventions and codes largesly because of issues of identity and authority. In this paggage, Wardle uses a very relaxed writing tone, she said that using an academic voice could impair her message and derive from the focus of the points.
Questions for Discussion 3-7
3. I believe that there was not a positive result, because in this example the costs outweighed the benefits, atleast in the eyes of those involved- and thus it was not worth the effort. His conflicts could have been handled better if he could have focused on the end result, and put in the work and the effort necessary to reach said goals.
4. I do agree that it is possible. That is the hard thing with written communication, the perception is not always the intended perception. I'm sure there are writers out there who use language with intention, infact- I'm sure all writers somehow use all language with intention- because that is it's purpose. However, how it is translated by the reader, is not always how it was meant to be translated. Thus, writers sometimes need to be extra clear in their writing, while trying to take risks with their word choices.
5. I agree more with Gee, because I believe this is how innovation occurs, and epiphanies happen. People enter into a situation with a fresh outlook and say "this could be better" or "something is wrong here" and they educate people on their opinions and their views, and they rally to make a change. If people entered every situation close minded, there would be no progress made in the world. For example, if I walked into my dorm hall when I first moved in in August and said "this looks nothing like my room at home, I cant live here." I would never get anywhere in life. It is okay to take your past discourse communities and what you have learned about through them, to new discourse communities, however, it is vital to keep an open mind and a clear conscience.
6. I would agree in the sense that this is a positive title as a "tool". Everyone is a tool. As long as they are contributing something to their discourse communities and helping fellow DC members along- they are helpful, and resourceful, and productive- then yes, they are tools.
7. Yes. I can think of a very specific instance. And I feel bad because Mr. Whicker will probably read this and possibly be offended. I apologize in advance. During like week 3 or so, we were getting ready to turn in our first paper, and Mr. Whicker was writing on the board ways that we could edit our own papers for fluency and he wrote on the board "read your own papers allowed" I almost fell out of my chair. I am an Engligh/Math middle childhood major and I had just made my 5th grade lesson plans for homophones. Which are words that sound alike, but are spelled different. In my lesson plans, I had made a worksheet and one of the questions was asking the student to write a sentence with the correct usage of aloud/allowed. He would have gotten that quesiton wrong. I'm sorry Mr. Whicker. But on the bright side, atleast you know I'm paying attention and reading everything you write on the board! Please don't fail me.
Applying & Exploring Ideas
To have authority over texts, to me, is defined by reading a text and not learning anything new. For example, if you were at OU on a soccer scholarship, being assigned a text about basic soccer regulations- and not learning anything from it because you already know all of the reguations. However, I do not believe it is completely possible to have authority over a discourse community. It is impossible to be certain that there is absolutely nothing you can learn, or no new views you can take from the people you are in the discourse community with. You never quite know when a fresh idea or outlook is going to come to the surface and make you change your opinions/gain a new viewpoint. I would say that I have authority of knowledge over the kids I teach swimming lessons to. Not only did I pass all of the levels when I was little, but when I turned 16 I went on to training on how to teach what I had already learned. However, every once and a while a little kid will come along that has a freshout look on how a stroke works, or a really unique way of thinking about a swimming concept, and it completely blows me away. It's not that they are a better swimmer than I am, they are simply thinking about how I explain something, and putting it into terms that they would better understand. For example, when I teach butterfly kick, I tell the girls to pretend that they are mermaids, and the boys to pretend that they are sharks. And one day a few summers ago a little boy said "do you mean we have to do the worm in the water?" and I was really confused, so he got out of the poool and he did the worm dance on the pool deck. It was exactly what I wanted them to envision, and then some. Even though I was the instructor, he was able to teach me new insight on something I had been doing for years. Proving to me, that I cannot have complete knowledge authority over that discourse because I had been taught something new.
My Own Thoughts
I really liked how this author kind of went off of Gee's article, yet made it more modern and understandable. Plus, I think it is a really relevant and important question to ask. Because when I think about discourse communities, I think about professionals. And really really smart old men in lab coats. But at one point, several hundred years ago, those really old men were first year undergrad students just like me. And I think it is interesting how they learn their discourse community, and how they learn how to fit in within that community. When I think about learning to read and write, I think about a kindergarten classroom, not a grad student. It definitely brought a new perspective on how I think about learning to read and write, and how it can literally happen at any age. It just depends on what you're learning to read and write.
Paper 3
http://prezi.com/x_ffazww3qcw/present/?auth_key=ebbjfz5&follow=-nvhqx7-pmqb
Cover Letter
Here is the link to my (and Madison's) Prezi. Neither Madison nor I had ever made a Prezi before, and I'll admit that it is definitely hardher than I thought it was going to be. But I did as much research/tutorials as possible and tried as best I could to utilize the presentation style as best I could. From our project, I really liked the templates that allowed you to put information side by side. Visually, I believe it put emphasis on the drastic changes that have occurred in literacy in the last 100 years. Also, unlike in a paper, it allowed us to be creative in how we separated ideas, and put emphasis on our thesis. That is why we repeated our thesis in a whole separate box. Also, I really liked the globe I was able to make, and edit in the information/percentages. If given more time, I would have liked to think about how we could have put more "us" into the paper, however we found that kind of difficult to do because the main point is about how much literacy has evoloved, thus making it less appreciated, yet Madison and I have only been on this earth for ~18 years, making it difficult to make comparisons to our own lives. Also, if given more time, I would have liked to get more creative in the graphics and see what else I could have done with Prezi. Also I would have like to connect out fact boxes with more text. I am concerned a little however, that the twists and turns are more distracting, than interesting. However, as student, I think it would be refreshing to see a new type of presentation, a breakaway from your average powerpoint. For the most part, we/I am pretty proud of out presentation, it's defintely not perfect, but it is probably the most informative project/paper I've ever written. I hope you enjoy a new kind of presentation. It was a lot of frustration and confusion, but fun.
-Katie
Cover Letter
Here is the link to my (and Madison's) Prezi. Neither Madison nor I had ever made a Prezi before, and I'll admit that it is definitely hardher than I thought it was going to be. But I did as much research/tutorials as possible and tried as best I could to utilize the presentation style as best I could. From our project, I really liked the templates that allowed you to put information side by side. Visually, I believe it put emphasis on the drastic changes that have occurred in literacy in the last 100 years. Also, unlike in a paper, it allowed us to be creative in how we separated ideas, and put emphasis on our thesis. That is why we repeated our thesis in a whole separate box. Also, I really liked the globe I was able to make, and edit in the information/percentages. If given more time, I would have liked to think about how we could have put more "us" into the paper, however we found that kind of difficult to do because the main point is about how much literacy has evoloved, thus making it less appreciated, yet Madison and I have only been on this earth for ~18 years, making it difficult to make comparisons to our own lives. Also, if given more time, I would have liked to get more creative in the graphics and see what else I could have done with Prezi. Also I would have like to connect out fact boxes with more text. I am concerned a little however, that the twists and turns are more distracting, than interesting. However, as student, I think it would be refreshing to see a new type of presentation, a breakaway from your average powerpoint. For the most part, we/I am pretty proud of out presentation, it's defintely not perfect, but it is probably the most informative project/paper I've ever written. I hope you enjoy a new kind of presentation. It was a lot of frustration and confusion, but fun.
-Katie
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Johns Reading
Summary:
Johns' article is yet another reading about discourse community. However, this article goes into detail on three different kinds of membership among discourse communities: social, political and recreational. This section also discusses how easy/possible it is to belong to multiple communities. (They do not have to be strictly professional). However, most communities are professional. Within the professional community, there are organizations, practices, textual conventions and genres that are special to that profession only. There are also academic communities which include their own basic, generalizable linguistic, textual, and rhetorical rules for the community to utilize. Like every community, there are conflicts: and John brings up this topic in paragraph 47. She goes on to say that for whatever reason, people are sometimes excluded from communities because of lack of social standing, talent, or money. There is also a 'cost of affiliation' that goes along with being a part of a discourse community. It also discusses sacrifices that are sometimes made to free up time and energy to be a part of a discourse community. There are also issues in authority regarding discourse communities because they are technically not a list of people, it is more of a cloud of people- there is no elected leader, or someone making executive decisions. It is every man for himself.
Questions For Discussion 1-6
1. Johns outlines complications regarding discourse community membership including having to make sacrifies. Discourse communities also struggle with issues with authority and decision making, and proper critique.
2. This means that a fresh outlook (a newcomer) is entering a situation with an unbias opinion and seeing flaws in the system and suggesting, or forcing, corrections to be made in order for the community to function at it's highest productivity level. With the goal being to advance themselves functionally, and intellectually as much as possible. These critiques and changes would then be beneficial and only be pushing the group along to future successes.
3. I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for in an answer, but I have a specific memory of being in my sophomore biology class and learning about evolution, and there were some people in the class that really got fired up about having to hear about evolution when they are creationists. It wasn't me that was being introduced to a new discourse community, but rather them. However, the teacher was asking them to write an essay on the topic, and they were definitely stepping outside of their comfort zones to look beyond their morals and their beliefs, and be asked to think broader.
4. I think that her claim is true, however I think that it is a positive thing. For the most part, as far as I know, it is not a bad thing to learn a new language- and it doesn't really interviene on my morals and personal beliefs. When I was learning French, I was doing so because I needed to fill a requirement for high school graduation. Either I don't understand this question accurately, or I'm missing the point of the question, but I do not think learning a new language would ruin my identity or personal beliefs.
5. I feel inferior to the texts I have been assigned for the most part. I trust that the professors know that I don't already know everything there is to know about my major- and that is why they assign the readings. However, I do have to say- there were a few assignments from my teacher education class that seemed a little silly. I probably could have done without the 'teacher ettiquette' reading assignment. But for the most part, I find myself inferior, and they are important to my education.
6. I do believe/agree that rule breaking is a hit or miss thing. It depends on the professor, and obviously the context. Sometimes it is the smartest thing you have ever thought of, but the teacher is absolutely blown away that you had the audacity to even think about it- or vice versa. You're afraid of being docked credit, so you play it safe- and the professor would have been okay with it, had they seen it. In my senior lit class last year, I used a different font for one of the words in the title of my final paper of the year and I thought my teacher was going to hit the ceiling. He was pissed. I convinced him thought that it was a mistake and I meant to italisize it.
MetaMoment
I think that after reading Johns' article, I think that discourse communities are a lot more intricate than I previously thought about. I never thought that there would be a downside to belonging to a discourse community, but apparently that's possible. I also never really thought about the lack of authority within a DC. However, I now understand what that implies, and how it effects the group as a whole. It made me think about why I would not want to join a discourse community: I may have to write about things/think critically about things outside of my comfort/moral zone. However, I'm an 18 year old female college student...stepping outside of my "norm" and exploring others opinions and ideas is one of my favorite pasttimes.
My Own Thoughts
I think this article covered way too many aspects of discourse communities. I would have been cool with this one simply being about the downsides of discourse communties and their internal flaws. While I am open to her opinions, I think for the most part being a part of a discourse community would be a beneficial thing. For example: i am a part of a learning community and the pros definitely outweigh the cons. I was exposed to people who did not always agree with me and who came from different walks of life- but I think that is what makes people better- to be exposed to someone unlike themselves. All in all, long article, lots of points, lots of confusion.
Johns' article is yet another reading about discourse community. However, this article goes into detail on three different kinds of membership among discourse communities: social, political and recreational. This section also discusses how easy/possible it is to belong to multiple communities. (They do not have to be strictly professional). However, most communities are professional. Within the professional community, there are organizations, practices, textual conventions and genres that are special to that profession only. There are also academic communities which include their own basic, generalizable linguistic, textual, and rhetorical rules for the community to utilize. Like every community, there are conflicts: and John brings up this topic in paragraph 47. She goes on to say that for whatever reason, people are sometimes excluded from communities because of lack of social standing, talent, or money. There is also a 'cost of affiliation' that goes along with being a part of a discourse community. It also discusses sacrifices that are sometimes made to free up time and energy to be a part of a discourse community. There are also issues in authority regarding discourse communities because they are technically not a list of people, it is more of a cloud of people- there is no elected leader, or someone making executive decisions. It is every man for himself.
Questions For Discussion 1-6
1. Johns outlines complications regarding discourse community membership including having to make sacrifies. Discourse communities also struggle with issues with authority and decision making, and proper critique.
2. This means that a fresh outlook (a newcomer) is entering a situation with an unbias opinion and seeing flaws in the system and suggesting, or forcing, corrections to be made in order for the community to function at it's highest productivity level. With the goal being to advance themselves functionally, and intellectually as much as possible. These critiques and changes would then be beneficial and only be pushing the group along to future successes.
3. I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for in an answer, but I have a specific memory of being in my sophomore biology class and learning about evolution, and there were some people in the class that really got fired up about having to hear about evolution when they are creationists. It wasn't me that was being introduced to a new discourse community, but rather them. However, the teacher was asking them to write an essay on the topic, and they were definitely stepping outside of their comfort zones to look beyond their morals and their beliefs, and be asked to think broader.
4. I think that her claim is true, however I think that it is a positive thing. For the most part, as far as I know, it is not a bad thing to learn a new language- and it doesn't really interviene on my morals and personal beliefs. When I was learning French, I was doing so because I needed to fill a requirement for high school graduation. Either I don't understand this question accurately, or I'm missing the point of the question, but I do not think learning a new language would ruin my identity or personal beliefs.
5. I feel inferior to the texts I have been assigned for the most part. I trust that the professors know that I don't already know everything there is to know about my major- and that is why they assign the readings. However, I do have to say- there were a few assignments from my teacher education class that seemed a little silly. I probably could have done without the 'teacher ettiquette' reading assignment. But for the most part, I find myself inferior, and they are important to my education.
6. I do believe/agree that rule breaking is a hit or miss thing. It depends on the professor, and obviously the context. Sometimes it is the smartest thing you have ever thought of, but the teacher is absolutely blown away that you had the audacity to even think about it- or vice versa. You're afraid of being docked credit, so you play it safe- and the professor would have been okay with it, had they seen it. In my senior lit class last year, I used a different font for one of the words in the title of my final paper of the year and I thought my teacher was going to hit the ceiling. He was pissed. I convinced him thought that it was a mistake and I meant to italisize it.
MetaMoment
I think that after reading Johns' article, I think that discourse communities are a lot more intricate than I previously thought about. I never thought that there would be a downside to belonging to a discourse community, but apparently that's possible. I also never really thought about the lack of authority within a DC. However, I now understand what that implies, and how it effects the group as a whole. It made me think about why I would not want to join a discourse community: I may have to write about things/think critically about things outside of my comfort/moral zone. However, I'm an 18 year old female college student...stepping outside of my "norm" and exploring others opinions and ideas is one of my favorite pasttimes.
My Own Thoughts
I think this article covered way too many aspects of discourse communities. I would have been cool with this one simply being about the downsides of discourse communties and their internal flaws. While I am open to her opinions, I think for the most part being a part of a discourse community would be a beneficial thing. For example: i am a part of a learning community and the pros definitely outweigh the cons. I was exposed to people who did not always agree with me and who came from different walks of life- but I think that is what makes people better- to be exposed to someone unlike themselves. All in all, long article, lots of points, lots of confusion.
Gee Reading
SummaryIn James Paul Gee's article, he discusses the topic of "Discourse" and how it differs from discourse communities. From what I gathered about the reading, Discourses differ from discourse communities because discourse community can be taught/learned. However, Discourse is the art of being/doing/believing in something. This cannot be forced/taught/learned. It is a personal process that can only occur if someone is ready and willing to take that step. A discourse is your identity, and a discourse community is your membership due to that identity. Gee also outlines two different kinds of discourses: primary and secondary. Primary Discourse is the first and natural way of communication we go to. Secondary Discourse, would then be the second, or third, mode of communication we innately use when communicating with others. He also goes into detail about literacy, and how it plays into Discourse (and vice versa.) He defines literacy as "the master of or fluent control over a secondary discourse.
Questions For Discussion 3-8, 11, 12 or 13
3. This distinction does not make a whole lot of sense to me. I think there should be two separtate words for their definition, however, that is not the case. Discourse (capital D) is the being/believeing/doing of literacy and knowledge, and discouese is simply put as "the connected stretches of language". While the definitions are rather similar, I still believe that there should be two words instead of this one word with two defintions.
4. Primary discourse is the way of communicating that comes most natural to you. Secondary discouse, being the 2nd most likely discourse(s) that you would be likely to use in everyday casual conversations.
5. "Discourses are connected with displays of an identity" means that (like the doctor example) anyone can get their medical licence, but not everyone can be calming and comforting to their patients. It is a way of life, and an identity that someone takes on based on their discourse community, or vice versa. I do find this claim to be true.
6 . First off, I don't really agree with this claim, or find it to be true. However, I believe, insaying that- Gee meant that you can teach reading/writing, but you cannot teach the desire to aquire these abilities. That desire is a part of a person's identity, thus, thier desire to read/write is a part of their Discourse.
7. In this example Gee is talking about how professionals "test" new comers by using their jargon to see if not only the new comer knows what the professional is talking about- but can reflect, and act upon their technical terms. An example I can think of is at the place where I work, older lifeguards will talk about things that have happened at the pool in the past to see if the new guards know about it/remember it.
8. I do believe that these "tests" happen. However, I do not believe that they are planned out or done consciously. Professionals probably don't even notice when they're doing it to interns or new coworkers, but I'm sure it does happen in the real world. It would be beneficial to members of a dominany discourse community because they would usually and technically have the upper hand in decision making, and they are the "know-alls" in the situation. Which means that they are valued as part of the group, and they are relied upon.
11. Meta Knowledge is a reflection using your own thoughts and opinions. For example, when we are done with readings, sometimes there are MetaMoment questions, which are usually thought provoking and an important step to learning how to think ciritcally.
12. I consider myself to be a part of the Ohio University Discourse. I know I have membership in this Discourse because I am here by choice, and I am with a group of people with common goals: to graduate-- on time.
Meta Moments
I wouldn't say this article helped me to unerstand my/other people's experiences better- I thought it was more about how Discourses work vs discourse community. I didn't think it helped me to see life through other people's eyes, perhaps I learned about how people begin to/learn how to associate with a certain Discourse/discourse community.
My Own Thoughts
I thought this was a reeeeally long article, and could have been summed up a lot more. I also read it basically back to back with the other reading, which made it kind of confusing because we talked about two differen things with the same name, and I didn't really understand at first if they were the same things. I would use this reading to understand how people get into other discourse communitties, and why they maintain their relationship in the community.
Questions For Discussion 3-8, 11, 12 or 13
3. This distinction does not make a whole lot of sense to me. I think there should be two separtate words for their definition, however, that is not the case. Discourse (capital D) is the being/believeing/doing of literacy and knowledge, and discouese is simply put as "the connected stretches of language". While the definitions are rather similar, I still believe that there should be two words instead of this one word with two defintions.
4. Primary discourse is the way of communicating that comes most natural to you. Secondary discouse, being the 2nd most likely discourse(s) that you would be likely to use in everyday casual conversations.
5. "Discourses are connected with displays of an identity" means that (like the doctor example) anyone can get their medical licence, but not everyone can be calming and comforting to their patients. It is a way of life, and an identity that someone takes on based on their discourse community, or vice versa. I do find this claim to be true.
6 . First off, I don't really agree with this claim, or find it to be true. However, I believe, insaying that- Gee meant that you can teach reading/writing, but you cannot teach the desire to aquire these abilities. That desire is a part of a person's identity, thus, thier desire to read/write is a part of their Discourse.
7. In this example Gee is talking about how professionals "test" new comers by using their jargon to see if not only the new comer knows what the professional is talking about- but can reflect, and act upon their technical terms. An example I can think of is at the place where I work, older lifeguards will talk about things that have happened at the pool in the past to see if the new guards know about it/remember it.
8. I do believe that these "tests" happen. However, I do not believe that they are planned out or done consciously. Professionals probably don't even notice when they're doing it to interns or new coworkers, but I'm sure it does happen in the real world. It would be beneficial to members of a dominany discourse community because they would usually and technically have the upper hand in decision making, and they are the "know-alls" in the situation. Which means that they are valued as part of the group, and they are relied upon.
11. Meta Knowledge is a reflection using your own thoughts and opinions. For example, when we are done with readings, sometimes there are MetaMoment questions, which are usually thought provoking and an important step to learning how to think ciritcally.
12. I consider myself to be a part of the Ohio University Discourse. I know I have membership in this Discourse because I am here by choice, and I am with a group of people with common goals: to graduate-- on time.
Meta Moments
I wouldn't say this article helped me to unerstand my/other people's experiences better- I thought it was more about how Discourses work vs discourse community. I didn't think it helped me to see life through other people's eyes, perhaps I learned about how people begin to/learn how to associate with a certain Discourse/discourse community.
My Own Thoughts
I thought this was a reeeeally long article, and could have been summed up a lot more. I also read it basically back to back with the other reading, which made it kind of confusing because we talked about two differen things with the same name, and I didn't really understand at first if they were the same things. I would use this reading to understand how people get into other discourse communitties, and why they maintain their relationship in the community.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Swales Reading
Summary
In John Swales' article The Concept of Discourse Community is about the six characteristics of the discourse community. He also explains how it differs from a speech community. The six characteristics include discourse communities having: a broadly agreed set of common goals, mechanisms of intercommunication, use of these mechanisms to form information and feedback, utilizes/posses 1+ genres of communication, aquired specific lexis, has a threshold level of members with a degree of enterprise.
Questions For Discussion (1,3,5)
1) In your own words, explain the 6 characteristics of discourse community, then provide an example from your writing experience to compare to the characteristic.
1. A discourse community has common goals that they all would like to achieve through their writing.---This is evident in my writing because when I am assigned a paper, my fellow writers (my classmates) and I all have the common goal to get a good grade on the paper and to influence the professor as much as possible.
2. A discourse community has certain lingo they use to communicate with eachother. ---I can relate to this because I believe there are certain words that I would be able to use to communicate effectively with my friends, that would not work with my parents. Thus making the words exclusive to my group of friends, aka my discourse community.
3. A discourse community can take those same terms and use them to provide feedback and information to eachother.---Sometimes when I see a peer review, or a comment on my blog, it may include a word that I would understand and put a meaning to, that other people wouldn't be able to relate to.
4. A discourse community is able to use their existing characteristics and goals to further themselves, and be able to advance their goals. ---In my writing, when I recieve a peer review, or when I give a peer review, they are done because we want to help eachother and advance eachothers writing.
5. "In addition to owning genres, a discourse community has acquired some specific lexis" ---I have no idea what this means, or how it would apply to my writing.
6. Discourse communities have an ever changing membership. This may be due to death or change in expertise, or opinion. --I am rather fortunate that I am of the age where none of my fellow writers have passed away, or passed me up in writing 'expertise' so I cannot really relate to this characteristic (that is, if I am translating it accurately).
3. According to Swales, would a first-year college classroom count as a discourse community? What about a graduate class? Why or why not?
I think there are two ways to look at this question, thus two ways to answer it. The first way I interpreted the question as in thinking about the two classes as their own individual discourse communities, inwhich they function on their own, with influences from other discourse communities, but mainly, each writer influences the other writers. In that case, yes, they are both individually their own discourse communities. However, if you were to look at this question with a 'world-wide' stand point, and consider all of the writers in the entire world as one discourse community, then I believe that the first-year college class would not be considered part of THE discourse community, however the graduate class would be. On the other hand, I could argue that it does not matter how old/educated someone is, they can contribute to the discourse community and come up with new and bright ideas about writing.
5. Consider a discourse community that you belong to, and describe how it meets the six characteristics of a discourse community. For example, what are its shared goals? What is its lexis? What are its genres?
A discourse community that I belong to includes my ENG 151 class. It is a discourse community because we are a group of writers that all have about the same writing ability and a common goal: to do well in our class. We help eachother to improve through our peer reviews. One could argue that we have our own secret lingo that we communicate with.
Meta Moment
I definitely didn't think that discourse communities were so intricate, and had so many different parts to them-- let alone, that I belonged to one. But I suppose anyone who has ever picked up a pen, or typed a paper (for any given purpose) fits into their own discourse community somewhere in the world. From reading this article, I have a better understanding of where I fit in on the DC spectrum, and how I contribute, and specifically what I get out of it. This article has helped me to understand how I can maximize my benefits and my contributions to my DC. This can be done by challenging myself to a higher standard of writing, and expecting the same out of my classmates so we can grow together in ability and communication of this ability.
My Own Thoughts
My meta moments reply basically sums up "my own thoughts". I liked this article because it pulled my concentration and focus away from "ME: the writer" to "US: the discourse community." And it was nice to look at it from a membership stand point where we are all learning from and supporting one another, and also challenging eachother to become better.
In John Swales' article The Concept of Discourse Community is about the six characteristics of the discourse community. He also explains how it differs from a speech community. The six characteristics include discourse communities having: a broadly agreed set of common goals, mechanisms of intercommunication, use of these mechanisms to form information and feedback, utilizes/posses 1+ genres of communication, aquired specific lexis, has a threshold level of members with a degree of enterprise.
Questions For Discussion (1,3,5)
1) In your own words, explain the 6 characteristics of discourse community, then provide an example from your writing experience to compare to the characteristic.
1. A discourse community has common goals that they all would like to achieve through their writing.---This is evident in my writing because when I am assigned a paper, my fellow writers (my classmates) and I all have the common goal to get a good grade on the paper and to influence the professor as much as possible.
2. A discourse community has certain lingo they use to communicate with eachother. ---I can relate to this because I believe there are certain words that I would be able to use to communicate effectively with my friends, that would not work with my parents. Thus making the words exclusive to my group of friends, aka my discourse community.
3. A discourse community can take those same terms and use them to provide feedback and information to eachother.---Sometimes when I see a peer review, or a comment on my blog, it may include a word that I would understand and put a meaning to, that other people wouldn't be able to relate to.
4. A discourse community is able to use their existing characteristics and goals to further themselves, and be able to advance their goals. ---In my writing, when I recieve a peer review, or when I give a peer review, they are done because we want to help eachother and advance eachothers writing.
5. "In addition to owning genres, a discourse community has acquired some specific lexis" ---I have no idea what this means, or how it would apply to my writing.
6. Discourse communities have an ever changing membership. This may be due to death or change in expertise, or opinion. --I am rather fortunate that I am of the age where none of my fellow writers have passed away, or passed me up in writing 'expertise' so I cannot really relate to this characteristic (that is, if I am translating it accurately).
3. According to Swales, would a first-year college classroom count as a discourse community? What about a graduate class? Why or why not?
I think there are two ways to look at this question, thus two ways to answer it. The first way I interpreted the question as in thinking about the two classes as their own individual discourse communities, inwhich they function on their own, with influences from other discourse communities, but mainly, each writer influences the other writers. In that case, yes, they are both individually their own discourse communities. However, if you were to look at this question with a 'world-wide' stand point, and consider all of the writers in the entire world as one discourse community, then I believe that the first-year college class would not be considered part of THE discourse community, however the graduate class would be. On the other hand, I could argue that it does not matter how old/educated someone is, they can contribute to the discourse community and come up with new and bright ideas about writing.
5. Consider a discourse community that you belong to, and describe how it meets the six characteristics of a discourse community. For example, what are its shared goals? What is its lexis? What are its genres?
A discourse community that I belong to includes my ENG 151 class. It is a discourse community because we are a group of writers that all have about the same writing ability and a common goal: to do well in our class. We help eachother to improve through our peer reviews. One could argue that we have our own secret lingo that we communicate with.
Meta Moment
I definitely didn't think that discourse communities were so intricate, and had so many different parts to them-- let alone, that I belonged to one. But I suppose anyone who has ever picked up a pen, or typed a paper (for any given purpose) fits into their own discourse community somewhere in the world. From reading this article, I have a better understanding of where I fit in on the DC spectrum, and how I contribute, and specifically what I get out of it. This article has helped me to understand how I can maximize my benefits and my contributions to my DC. This can be done by challenging myself to a higher standard of writing, and expecting the same out of my classmates so we can grow together in ability and communication of this ability.
My Own Thoughts
My meta moments reply basically sums up "my own thoughts". I liked this article because it pulled my concentration and focus away from "ME: the writer" to "US: the discourse community." And it was nice to look at it from a membership stand point where we are all learning from and supporting one another, and also challenging eachother to become better.
Friday, February 17, 2012
Paper #3 peer edit
http://prezi.com/x_ffazww3qcw/paper-3/
cover letter
I have never made a Prezi before, and it was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be, but we, (Madison & I) tried our best. We had a little trouble leading from one point to the next, not with the Prezi, but connecting the information. I would like to improve the project a little more by pointing each idea/supporting point back to the thesis. We only included 1/2 of our main ideas/points because we wanted some feedback before we finished the entire Prezi only to find out that it wasn't going to work. It's pretty difficult to go back in and insert information into the Prezi once you've finished, so we wanted a good starting point. Please let me/us know how we can improve the flow of the ideas/how we could insert ourselves, and our stories into the presentation more. We also want to veer away from it being a history project-- which is what it kind of feels like.
thanks, Katie
cover letter
I have never made a Prezi before, and it was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be, but we, (Madison & I) tried our best. We had a little trouble leading from one point to the next, not with the Prezi, but connecting the information. I would like to improve the project a little more by pointing each idea/supporting point back to the thesis. We only included 1/2 of our main ideas/points because we wanted some feedback before we finished the entire Prezi only to find out that it wasn't going to work. It's pretty difficult to go back in and insert information into the Prezi once you've finished, so we wanted a good starting point. Please let me/us know how we can improve the flow of the ideas/how we could insert ourselves, and our stories into the presentation more. We also want to veer away from it being a history project-- which is what it kind of feels like.
thanks, Katie
Friday, February 10, 2012
Paper 2
Cover Letter
I am definitely feeling more confident about this paper vs the first one. I think having the class-edit really helped me see that this paper didn't only make sense to me, other people enjoyed it too. If given more time I would have liked to put a few more sources in, and worked the Harris article in more. I did however like the flow of the ideas. I did end up taking the baby name reference out, because the more I thought about it, the more conscious I was that it may not have made sense to all readers, though I didn't really analyze it to the extent that the class did when I wrote it. I did use a lot of the tips that we talked about during the class edit, for example, taking the element of time out- so changing around the sentences a little bit so the readers wouldn't know exactly how old I was/if I were still a student. Over all, I was pretty happy with the result.
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BydrCvQbOIepOGM3OGQzZTctOWI0Ni00N2NlLWI2OTktYzAwYjRiZTJiM2E2
I am definitely feeling more confident about this paper vs the first one. I think having the class-edit really helped me see that this paper didn't only make sense to me, other people enjoyed it too. If given more time I would have liked to put a few more sources in, and worked the Harris article in more. I did however like the flow of the ideas. I did end up taking the baby name reference out, because the more I thought about it, the more conscious I was that it may not have made sense to all readers, though I didn't really analyze it to the extent that the class did when I wrote it. I did use a lot of the tips that we talked about during the class edit, for example, taking the element of time out- so changing around the sentences a little bit so the readers wouldn't know exactly how old I was/if I were still a student. Over all, I was pretty happy with the result.
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BydrCvQbOIepOGM3OGQzZTctOWI0Ni00N2NlLWI2OTktYzAwYjRiZTJiM2E2
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Alexie Reading
Summary
In Alexie's article, he talks about facing adversity with literacies, and overcoming obstacles and discouraging circumstances when it comes to literacy sponsors.
Question For Discussion
1. Even though he may have been young, he was aware of the expectations of him. It was a self-fulfilling prophecy, thus he didn't expect to go far with his reading and writing because he was told that the odds and the expectations are not in favor of him.
Applying and Exploring Ideas
1. I do believe in the power of adversity and motivation, however, as unfortunate as it is, finances hold back youth from advancing themselves academically in the world today. Due to the cost of education, there is only so far motivation can get you, despite the good grades and positive attitude, eventually push comes to shove and sadly, finances hold people back from furthering their education. Unfortunately, in today's world- resources and connections are everything.
My Own Thoughts
It's very unfortunate and frustrating that finances can hold people back from achieving their goals, and furthering their education. It's sad that having the brains and the will power are no longer enough to get ahead in this world. Now, and even more so in the future, loans and connections and resources and background is going to be vital.
In Alexie's article, he talks about facing adversity with literacies, and overcoming obstacles and discouraging circumstances when it comes to literacy sponsors.
Question For Discussion
1. Even though he may have been young, he was aware of the expectations of him. It was a self-fulfilling prophecy, thus he didn't expect to go far with his reading and writing because he was told that the odds and the expectations are not in favor of him.
Applying and Exploring Ideas
1. I do believe in the power of adversity and motivation, however, as unfortunate as it is, finances hold back youth from advancing themselves academically in the world today. Due to the cost of education, there is only so far motivation can get you, despite the good grades and positive attitude, eventually push comes to shove and sadly, finances hold people back from furthering their education. Unfortunately, in today's world- resources and connections are everything.
My Own Thoughts
It's very unfortunate and frustrating that finances can hold people back from achieving their goals, and furthering their education. It's sad that having the brains and the will power are no longer enough to get ahead in this world. Now, and even more so in the future, loans and connections and resources and background is going to be vital.
Malcolm X Reading
Summary
Malmcolm X's article is mainly about that hope that he found from his writing/reading in prison and throughout his religious journeys. He discusses the comfort and the revelations he felt due ot the writing/reading he experienced and how it molded him to be so open minded.
Questions For Discussion 1-4, 6
1. I believe his intended audience is the American public because of the way he discusses American history. I think he wanted to aim it at the American public so that people understood in a first-hand account of what went on during his lifetime.
2. Malcolm X defined literacy as simply being motivated to learn and to better yourself through reading and writing. He considered his reason to read, as motivation to read even more. He needed to read to get ahead, and to educate himself, which only drove him to want to read even more.
3. Malcolm X's literacy sponsors include religion, educators, politicians and the pressure/need to spread equality. I believe the American public was his greatest motivation- he saw the need to spread equality and to educate the public about equality, and he knew before this could happen, he had to educate himself.
4. People tend to underestimate the power of their literacy sponsors because they don't always understand that the sponsors are such a force in their lives. I do not believe this was ever the case with Malmcolm X because he read because he was always conscious of the reasons and the pressure he was under to keep himself educated and to keep reading and learning and studying and writing.
6. At the time, this claim may have been accurate. If this claim was to be made today, I believe it definitely would still hold true, even stronger. I believe the amount college students read per day, has decreased in the past few decades. The motivations I have to read include what i need to read for class, what I want to read for leisure (the newspaper) and the research I opt to do for my assignments.
My Own Thoughts
I liked this article because it applied what we learned about literacy sponsors to a read life situation/something that actually happened in American history. And especially because it really shows what African-Americans had to do to get ahead and to pull themselves to the literacy levels of the people they were protesting. The people pushing for equality not only had to provide logical and strong arguments for their case, they had to educate themselves on how to make these claims- this is a part of history that isn't thought about a lot. I really liked how this article pulled the literacy/literacy sponsor side of it into the readers knowledge and appreciation.
Malmcolm X's article is mainly about that hope that he found from his writing/reading in prison and throughout his religious journeys. He discusses the comfort and the revelations he felt due ot the writing/reading he experienced and how it molded him to be so open minded.
Questions For Discussion 1-4, 6
1. I believe his intended audience is the American public because of the way he discusses American history. I think he wanted to aim it at the American public so that people understood in a first-hand account of what went on during his lifetime.
2. Malcolm X defined literacy as simply being motivated to learn and to better yourself through reading and writing. He considered his reason to read, as motivation to read even more. He needed to read to get ahead, and to educate himself, which only drove him to want to read even more.
3. Malcolm X's literacy sponsors include religion, educators, politicians and the pressure/need to spread equality. I believe the American public was his greatest motivation- he saw the need to spread equality and to educate the public about equality, and he knew before this could happen, he had to educate himself.
4. People tend to underestimate the power of their literacy sponsors because they don't always understand that the sponsors are such a force in their lives. I do not believe this was ever the case with Malmcolm X because he read because he was always conscious of the reasons and the pressure he was under to keep himself educated and to keep reading and learning and studying and writing.
6. At the time, this claim may have been accurate. If this claim was to be made today, I believe it definitely would still hold true, even stronger. I believe the amount college students read per day, has decreased in the past few decades. The motivations I have to read include what i need to read for class, what I want to read for leisure (the newspaper) and the research I opt to do for my assignments.
My Own Thoughts
I liked this article because it applied what we learned about literacy sponsors to a read life situation/something that actually happened in American history. And especially because it really shows what African-Americans had to do to get ahead and to pull themselves to the literacy levels of the people they were protesting. The people pushing for equality not only had to provide logical and strong arguments for their case, they had to educate themselves on how to make these claims- this is a part of history that isn't thought about a lot. I really liked how this article pulled the literacy/literacy sponsor side of it into the readers knowledge and appreciation.
Baron Reading
Summary
Dennis Baron's article is about how technology has influenced literacy. Whether it be in a positive, or negative light. This article highlights how major publications such as The New York Times have teamed up with internet broadcasting companies to get their headlines out to the public faster, and on a more public stream. (This being a positive effect technology has had on literacy.) Negative effects include people's inability to spell because of their reliance on word processors to catch their mistakes.
Questions For Discussion
2. I believe that writing, like technology is always going to be evolving. And with in the last 10-15 years, writing and technology have seemed to change hand in hand. I agree that they are both changing, and quite possibly evolving into something greater. But I do not believe that technology has ever limited or permanently harmed writing.
4. The type writer is an example of something that used to be considered technology, but now it hardly is. Type writers have been over taken by computers and word processing programs. This is why it is barely considered technology anymore, because while at one point it was used every day to function, it had since been over taken and thus no longer needed to perform daily tasks.
6. The pictures that Baron puts in his text help to give it personality. Since they are mainly cartoons/meant to be humorous, it softens the opinions he has for both pro and anti technology and writing. I do consider them as writing only because they convey a message that wouldn't necessarily be available via words.
My Own Opinions
I really liked this article because it gave an opinion, not facts about how technology has influenced writing. I grew up in the decade right when technology first started being introduced into classrooms as a teaching device. I remember being in Kindergarten and using the 1996 Mac desktops in our classroom. The teachers didn't have desktops on their desks yet, but we started learning how to put our fingers on the keyboard because someone somewhere realized that that was where education and communication and writing in general was headed: technology. However at the ripe age of 6 I didn't understand the longterm, potential effects technology would have on writing.
Dennis Baron's article is about how technology has influenced literacy. Whether it be in a positive, or negative light. This article highlights how major publications such as The New York Times have teamed up with internet broadcasting companies to get their headlines out to the public faster, and on a more public stream. (This being a positive effect technology has had on literacy.) Negative effects include people's inability to spell because of their reliance on word processors to catch their mistakes.
Questions For Discussion
2. I believe that writing, like technology is always going to be evolving. And with in the last 10-15 years, writing and technology have seemed to change hand in hand. I agree that they are both changing, and quite possibly evolving into something greater. But I do not believe that technology has ever limited or permanently harmed writing.
4. The type writer is an example of something that used to be considered technology, but now it hardly is. Type writers have been over taken by computers and word processing programs. This is why it is barely considered technology anymore, because while at one point it was used every day to function, it had since been over taken and thus no longer needed to perform daily tasks.
6. The pictures that Baron puts in his text help to give it personality. Since they are mainly cartoons/meant to be humorous, it softens the opinions he has for both pro and anti technology and writing. I do consider them as writing only because they convey a message that wouldn't necessarily be available via words.
My Own Opinions
I really liked this article because it gave an opinion, not facts about how technology has influenced writing. I grew up in the decade right when technology first started being introduced into classrooms as a teaching device. I remember being in Kindergarten and using the 1996 Mac desktops in our classroom. The teachers didn't have desktops on their desks yet, but we started learning how to put our fingers on the keyboard because someone somewhere realized that that was where education and communication and writing in general was headed: technology. However at the ripe age of 6 I didn't understand the longterm, potential effects technology would have on writing.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Brandt Reading
Summary
In Deborah Brandt's article Sponsors of Literacy, she digs to find the reasons/ways people become literate and the ways in which people actually acquire literacy skills. From this, Brandt introduces the concept of "literacy sponsorship" which is defined as the supporting ways and reasons one learns literacy skills.
Applying and Exploring Ideas
1. My primary literacy sponsors were my parents and my education. From this, I was taught academic and civic literacies. I would definitely consider my access to literacy sponsors adequate. Growing up, I didn't have a whole lot of religious literacies, which I am okay with. I was instead able to gain musical literacy, which is even more rare than academic literacy.
Questions for Discussion
2. By Brandt's claim that sponsors always benefit from their sponsorship, (I believe) she means that to have literacy is a wonderful thing, but to be able to spead it, and teach it, is an even greater achievement. For example, I grew more appreciative of my ability to read and write during my senior year when I tutored kids who didn't have the same opportunities to learn that I did when I was younger. I had to think of new and different ways to explain simple literacy skills that I had understood for over a decade- but I now had to teach and spread to the kids I was tutoring.
4. By the word "stratified" (I believe) she meant it as in "stratagies", however this is simply hw I interpreted the word, I'm not 100% sure if that's accurate. And by the word "stakes" (I believe) she referred to keeping up with the literacy 'norms' and being able to keep up with society/academics in a modern world with the literacy needed to do so.
My Own Thoughts
I really liked this article. It really got me thinking about all of the outside forces that influenced me to learn how to be literate. Not just the physical and so straight forward influences, like teachers helping me read books in school, but the pressure and expectations from my parents that I adopted as expectations for myself simply because we come from a country where the majority of citizens place a lot of value on education and literacy and thus the sponsors and opportunities are usually abundant.
In Deborah Brandt's article Sponsors of Literacy, she digs to find the reasons/ways people become literate and the ways in which people actually acquire literacy skills. From this, Brandt introduces the concept of "literacy sponsorship" which is defined as the supporting ways and reasons one learns literacy skills.
Applying and Exploring Ideas
1. My primary literacy sponsors were my parents and my education. From this, I was taught academic and civic literacies. I would definitely consider my access to literacy sponsors adequate. Growing up, I didn't have a whole lot of religious literacies, which I am okay with. I was instead able to gain musical literacy, which is even more rare than academic literacy.
Questions for Discussion
2. By Brandt's claim that sponsors always benefit from their sponsorship, (I believe) she means that to have literacy is a wonderful thing, but to be able to spead it, and teach it, is an even greater achievement. For example, I grew more appreciative of my ability to read and write during my senior year when I tutored kids who didn't have the same opportunities to learn that I did when I was younger. I had to think of new and different ways to explain simple literacy skills that I had understood for over a decade- but I now had to teach and spread to the kids I was tutoring.
4. By the word "stratified" (I believe) she meant it as in "stratagies", however this is simply hw I interpreted the word, I'm not 100% sure if that's accurate. And by the word "stakes" (I believe) she referred to keeping up with the literacy 'norms' and being able to keep up with society/academics in a modern world with the literacy needed to do so.
My Own Thoughts
I really liked this article. It really got me thinking about all of the outside forces that influenced me to learn how to be literate. Not just the physical and so straight forward influences, like teachers helping me read books in school, but the pressure and expectations from my parents that I adopted as expectations for myself simply because we come from a country where the majority of citizens place a lot of value on education and literacy and thus the sponsors and opportunities are usually abundant.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Paper #2
Cover Letter:
With this paper, I was trying to communicate that I do not necessarily associate with or identify with a specific writing style or process because it depends on the individual assignment. My main claim was that you do not necessarily need to have a game plan/distinct writing style in order to be a good/successful writer. I supported this claim with examples of how I wrote in high school and now in college. I did not address any counter examples, however, maybe that is something that I should look into for my final draft of this paper. I thought the over well idea of the paper is working well, and the introduction. However I worry that the overall flow of the paper isn't working well and that the ideas are not connected well enough. In my readers response I want to know if the paper flows well and the claims and ideas make sense together as they are. I also would like to know if I should add anything in or take anything out. If given more time, I would have liked to map out my ideas a little better and had a better game plan of how I was going to connect them. I hope you like my paper, please please let me know if there is anything that doesn't fit/work/make sense. I want to do well on this paper and it's hard for me to read my own work and know how it's going. I think the over all grammar/spelling/technicalities are okay. Please look at formatting and sentence structure along with the flow of the ideas. Thanks!
-Katie
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0BydrCvQbOIepZDQzMjk4ODktNDM4NC00MWUwLWE5NDMtZTVlNGE5Njc2NWU5&hl=en_US
With this paper, I was trying to communicate that I do not necessarily associate with or identify with a specific writing style or process because it depends on the individual assignment. My main claim was that you do not necessarily need to have a game plan/distinct writing style in order to be a good/successful writer. I supported this claim with examples of how I wrote in high school and now in college. I did not address any counter examples, however, maybe that is something that I should look into for my final draft of this paper. I thought the over well idea of the paper is working well, and the introduction. However I worry that the overall flow of the paper isn't working well and that the ideas are not connected well enough. In my readers response I want to know if the paper flows well and the claims and ideas make sense together as they are. I also would like to know if I should add anything in or take anything out. If given more time, I would have liked to map out my ideas a little better and had a better game plan of how I was going to connect them. I hope you like my paper, please please let me know if there is anything that doesn't fit/work/make sense. I want to do well on this paper and it's hard for me to read my own work and know how it's going. I think the over all grammar/spelling/technicalities are okay. Please look at formatting and sentence structure along with the flow of the ideas. Thanks!
-Katie
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0BydrCvQbOIepZDQzMjk4ODktNDM4NC00MWUwLWE5NDMtZTVlNGE5Njc2NWU5&hl=en_US
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
2/1/12 Reading
Summary
What seems to be the longest reading every assigned, I have broken up to summarize into mini-summaries by author:
-Lamott: This article is about not only the existance of shitty first drafts, but the importance of them. Bad first drafts allow you to get out all of your crazy, off-beat, silly ideas and onto paper, thus allowing you to put together a sensible second and third draft after you select the ideas and main points from the first draft that actually make sense and are relevant.
-King: Not quite sure if this is Steven King, as in the psycho who wrote Carrie, but I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and consider that to be a "common name". I have absolutely no clue how to summarize this article. I really want to say that it is a man rambling about his writing habits and where he likes to write, mixed in with a letter to himself regarding the book that he is writing that is going to be published soon. Quite confusing, if you ask me.
-Goodman: This article starts out by talking about how "lonely" writing is thought to be, however it is actually a process that requires a lot of company. The article then goes on to discuss how writers can very easily psych themselves out by pondering whether or not their topic has been written about before, and if their efforts to write are even valid.
-Haruf: This article is about the weird situations that successful writers prefer in order to produce quality writing. The article then goes on to explain how writers should have their comfort zone, and their own area and circumstances to call their own, and their designated writing space. Interestingly enough, he then talks about how writing should be spontaneous, and that it doesn't matter where you're standing or who is watching, if there is a good idea in your head- there should be nothing stopping you from getting it onto paper.
Meta Moments
1. I learned that 1) no two writers have the same writing processes 2) it is not important to always have a game plan, and to stick to that game plan when it comes to writing, and 3) I have learned that no matter what writing process you call your own, as long as it produces your best writing- there is no right or wrong answer.
2. After reading this chaper, I have learned that there is no formula to good writing. It just simply does not exist. I have also learned that, in the same regard, what is considered good writing to some people, may not be acceptable to others (discourse community) and it is important to understand your audience when writing, so you can adjust to them accordingly.I have also learned that no two writers are the same. Also, that there are a lot of things about your personal writing habits that you may not even notice that you do- but they exist. A lot of writing processes and habits go unnoticed unintentionally because we do them without even noticing it, while someone who would be observing me would pick up on this habit right away.
My Own Thoughts
While this reading seemed to be pretty long and boring in the beginning, it ended up not being too bad. It helped to have a new article every 2-3 pages. Also the formatting of the authors/articles/pages definitely helped to separate the thoughts and the different authors. It was nice to see what writing meant to different writers, becuase they literally all had different meanings of writing and also different interpretations of the question "what does writing mean to you'' I thought it was interesting how one question could spark so many different and unique responses in so many different authors.
What seems to be the longest reading every assigned, I have broken up to summarize into mini-summaries by author:
-Lamott: This article is about not only the existance of shitty first drafts, but the importance of them. Bad first drafts allow you to get out all of your crazy, off-beat, silly ideas and onto paper, thus allowing you to put together a sensible second and third draft after you select the ideas and main points from the first draft that actually make sense and are relevant.
-King: Not quite sure if this is Steven King, as in the psycho who wrote Carrie, but I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and consider that to be a "common name". I have absolutely no clue how to summarize this article. I really want to say that it is a man rambling about his writing habits and where he likes to write, mixed in with a letter to himself regarding the book that he is writing that is going to be published soon. Quite confusing, if you ask me.
-Goodman: This article starts out by talking about how "lonely" writing is thought to be, however it is actually a process that requires a lot of company. The article then goes on to discuss how writers can very easily psych themselves out by pondering whether or not their topic has been written about before, and if their efforts to write are even valid.
-Haruf: This article is about the weird situations that successful writers prefer in order to produce quality writing. The article then goes on to explain how writers should have their comfort zone, and their own area and circumstances to call their own, and their designated writing space. Interestingly enough, he then talks about how writing should be spontaneous, and that it doesn't matter where you're standing or who is watching, if there is a good idea in your head- there should be nothing stopping you from getting it onto paper.
Meta Moments
1. I learned that 1) no two writers have the same writing processes 2) it is not important to always have a game plan, and to stick to that game plan when it comes to writing, and 3) I have learned that no matter what writing process you call your own, as long as it produces your best writing- there is no right or wrong answer.
2. After reading this chaper, I have learned that there is no formula to good writing. It just simply does not exist. I have also learned that, in the same regard, what is considered good writing to some people, may not be acceptable to others (discourse community) and it is important to understand your audience when writing, so you can adjust to them accordingly.I have also learned that no two writers are the same. Also, that there are a lot of things about your personal writing habits that you may not even notice that you do- but they exist. A lot of writing processes and habits go unnoticed unintentionally because we do them without even noticing it, while someone who would be observing me would pick up on this habit right away.
My Own Thoughts
While this reading seemed to be pretty long and boring in the beginning, it ended up not being too bad. It helped to have a new article every 2-3 pages. Also the formatting of the authors/articles/pages definitely helped to separate the thoughts and the different authors. It was nice to see what writing meant to different writers, becuase they literally all had different meanings of writing and also different interpretations of the question "what does writing mean to you'' I thought it was interesting how one question could spark so many different and unique responses in so many different authors.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Ransom Reading
Summary
Ransom did an experiment/observation on her self in this article where she observed her writing habits in a natural environment, doing a timed writing exercise. As she did the writing assignment, she kept on a separate piece of paper, a record of her thoughts about the assignment, and her mood. She observed that timed writing exercises caused her to write faster and more of a need to "get to the point", although it hindered her writng performance and process. Many simple mistakes were made in the time restraint writing assignment. She even noticed that pausing to write down her thoughts caused her to defer her concentration from the prompt/assignment at hand.
Questions to Consider
things I found interesting:
-the time constraint caused her to have 5-minute interval "writing bursts"
-misspelling/word choice/omitting information was a problem w/ time constraint
-15% of her writing time was spent editing
-9% of time spent formatting to a comfortable place
-despite being alone/in a quiet place, time was her biggest distraction
-she checked the time 8 times
Yes, for my communications final last quarter we had to make a concept chart. I found this to be really beneficial in the writing process. You started off with a word (given to you) in the center of a diagram, and then from there you had to write 5 other words that you thought related to that term (no matter how random/off-beat) and then from those words, use 5 more words to make a connection & explain why your brain wanted to link the original two words together. It helped me to really reach out to the farthest corners of the prompt in order to insure that I was exploring all possible connections and arguments. It kind of forced my mind to wander, and ponder the extent inwhich I could have taken the extended writng response on my final.
My Own Thoughts
I really liked this article. Mainly, I think, because it was a lot different than any of the other reading that we have been given. The information was presented in a new and different format, which made it a lot easier to not only read, but absorb and reflect upon. I liked the way the author organized her findings, and explained her experiment. It led me to think about my own writing habits. For example these responses (because in the reading, technically, she was doing the exact same thing I am now- typing out a response to a reading that she was assigned) I did notice a comparison to her findings and my writing habits. For example, if I wait until right before english class to do my blogposts then I notice that my answers are a lot more directly quoted from the readings, and a lot shorter. While, if I do them the day (or 2) before, like I am now.. I am able to reflect upon the reading more and thus write more indepth and reflective responses to the reading on my blog.....funny how that works out.
Ransom did an experiment/observation on her self in this article where she observed her writing habits in a natural environment, doing a timed writing exercise. As she did the writing assignment, she kept on a separate piece of paper, a record of her thoughts about the assignment, and her mood. She observed that timed writing exercises caused her to write faster and more of a need to "get to the point", although it hindered her writng performance and process. Many simple mistakes were made in the time restraint writing assignment. She even noticed that pausing to write down her thoughts caused her to defer her concentration from the prompt/assignment at hand.
Questions to Consider
things I found interesting:
-the time constraint caused her to have 5-minute interval "writing bursts"
-misspelling/word choice/omitting information was a problem w/ time constraint
-15% of her writing time was spent editing
-9% of time spent formatting to a comfortable place
-despite being alone/in a quiet place, time was her biggest distraction
-she checked the time 8 times
Yes, for my communications final last quarter we had to make a concept chart. I found this to be really beneficial in the writing process. You started off with a word (given to you) in the center of a diagram, and then from there you had to write 5 other words that you thought related to that term (no matter how random/off-beat) and then from those words, use 5 more words to make a connection & explain why your brain wanted to link the original two words together. It helped me to really reach out to the farthest corners of the prompt in order to insure that I was exploring all possible connections and arguments. It kind of forced my mind to wander, and ponder the extent inwhich I could have taken the extended writng response on my final.
My Own Thoughts
I really liked this article. Mainly, I think, because it was a lot different than any of the other reading that we have been given. The information was presented in a new and different format, which made it a lot easier to not only read, but absorb and reflect upon. I liked the way the author organized her findings, and explained her experiment. It led me to think about my own writing habits. For example these responses (because in the reading, technically, she was doing the exact same thing I am now- typing out a response to a reading that she was assigned) I did notice a comparison to her findings and my writing habits. For example, if I wait until right before english class to do my blogposts then I notice that my answers are a lot more directly quoted from the readings, and a lot shorter. While, if I do them the day (or 2) before, like I am now.. I am able to reflect upon the reading more and thus write more indepth and reflective responses to the reading on my blog.....funny how that works out.
Harris Reading
Summary
In Harris' article, "Composing Behaviors of One- and Multidraft-Writers" she explains the effects of pre-text, and the difference between revision and multi-drafting. She also covers an experiment done to observe the writing habits of people who have different drafting styles to see if there is a correlation between drafting styles and the overall quality of their writing.
Questions
I consider myself to be more of a one-draft writer. However, that one draft will change and evolve a lot from it's original state to the finished product. But never do I write multiple versions of one paper before constructing my final edition. According to Harris, I may not be able to fully expand my paper in all of the directions possible because I am writing to finish the paper. Unlike multi-drafters who could reread through the paper and decide that they want to take a new stance, or make a new point in the other direction. This would not be possible for one-drafters.
Reaction
This article was pretty long/at times hard to keep up with. I really liked how the author talked about the advantages/disadvantages to each kind of writing style in this article. It gave me the opportunity to reflect on my writing choices and see where I need to spend more time to ensure better quality papers. For example, fully thinking out all of my points and the directions in which I would like to take my points before starting the paper in order to ensure that I won't regret not putting a point into the paper after finishing it/turning it in.
In Harris' article, "Composing Behaviors of One- and Multidraft-Writers" she explains the effects of pre-text, and the difference between revision and multi-drafting. She also covers an experiment done to observe the writing habits of people who have different drafting styles to see if there is a correlation between drafting styles and the overall quality of their writing.
Questions
I consider myself to be more of a one-draft writer. However, that one draft will change and evolve a lot from it's original state to the finished product. But never do I write multiple versions of one paper before constructing my final edition. According to Harris, I may not be able to fully expand my paper in all of the directions possible because I am writing to finish the paper. Unlike multi-drafters who could reread through the paper and decide that they want to take a new stance, or make a new point in the other direction. This would not be possible for one-drafters.
Reaction
This article was pretty long/at times hard to keep up with. I really liked how the author talked about the advantages/disadvantages to each kind of writing style in this article. It gave me the opportunity to reflect on my writing choices and see where I need to spend more time to ensure better quality papers. For example, fully thinking out all of my points and the directions in which I would like to take my points before starting the paper in order to ensure that I won't regret not putting a point into the paper after finishing it/turning it in.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Tomlinson Reading
Summary
This article is all about the art of revision- the many ways inwhich writers do it, and the concept that perhaps there is not a "right or wrong" way of going about it.
Questions For Discussion #1-5
1. Because just like the Murray/Berkenkotter article stated: sometimes asking people to explain their actions and the process inwhich they do something is very different from actually watching them go about the task because you'll probably pick up on actions of theirs that they might not realize they do.
2. Focusing on metaphors may cause the mind to diverge. If the reader interprets the metaphor just like the writer intended-- all is well. But is that ever guarenteed? It is a risk writers take because there is no guarentee that the reader is going to understand and benefit from the metaphor. It may even distract them to the point where they struggle to comprehend the paper because they are still trying to piece together the metaphor. We can get around this problem by writing what we mean and meaning what we write.
3. I could relate to the "sculpting" metaphor because I often put analogies into papers to help the reader to relate to my topic and understand my points in a new light. I would be somewhat skeptical to use the "sewing/tailoring" stratagy because of the large insert of text. I would be afraid that it would diverge from my topic, or not be relatable.
4. I had a hard time understanding the diffferenences between all of the different kinds of metaphors she gave. But I understood them a little better because of the examples she listed for each of the different kinds of metaphors.
5. I think the metaphors have very little effect on the way I revise. I think everyone does it differently, and there's no exact way to put a label on what you are doing per sae when you are editing/revising. To me, it isn't a process I can explain because I can't exactly narrate my actions while I am fixing up a paper. It's almost subconscious.
My Own Thoughts
This was a pretty hard reading to get through...I had a hard time connecting the metaphors to the revision process. Maybe my brain isn't creative enough to pair a metaphor with revising...but I tried. I think it is a relevant article for us because we are in the final revision process for our 1st papers. (fixing the mistakes/suggestions that our peer edit partner suggested.)
This article is all about the art of revision- the many ways inwhich writers do it, and the concept that perhaps there is not a "right or wrong" way of going about it.
Questions For Discussion #1-5
1. Because just like the Murray/Berkenkotter article stated: sometimes asking people to explain their actions and the process inwhich they do something is very different from actually watching them go about the task because you'll probably pick up on actions of theirs that they might not realize they do.
2. Focusing on metaphors may cause the mind to diverge. If the reader interprets the metaphor just like the writer intended-- all is well. But is that ever guarenteed? It is a risk writers take because there is no guarentee that the reader is going to understand and benefit from the metaphor. It may even distract them to the point where they struggle to comprehend the paper because they are still trying to piece together the metaphor. We can get around this problem by writing what we mean and meaning what we write.
3. I could relate to the "sculpting" metaphor because I often put analogies into papers to help the reader to relate to my topic and understand my points in a new light. I would be somewhat skeptical to use the "sewing/tailoring" stratagy because of the large insert of text. I would be afraid that it would diverge from my topic, or not be relatable.
4. I had a hard time understanding the diffferenences between all of the different kinds of metaphors she gave. But I understood them a little better because of the examples she listed for each of the different kinds of metaphors.
5. I think the metaphors have very little effect on the way I revise. I think everyone does it differently, and there's no exact way to put a label on what you are doing per sae when you are editing/revising. To me, it isn't a process I can explain because I can't exactly narrate my actions while I am fixing up a paper. It's almost subconscious.
My Own Thoughts
This was a pretty hard reading to get through...I had a hard time connecting the metaphors to the revision process. Maybe my brain isn't creative enough to pair a metaphor with revising...but I tried. I think it is a relevant article for us because we are in the final revision process for our 1st papers. (fixing the mistakes/suggestions that our peer edit partner suggested.)
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Berkenkotter/Murray Reading
Summary: This article discussed the revising habits of writers, varying in ages and abilities. The observers of this experiment not only looked at their subjective testimonies about their revising habits, but monitored them with video cameras for a period of two years. The article describes their findings and attempts to explain their actions. Questions For Discussion 1. Murray described his writing environment as being in his study, with a long white wooden table, which looks out on the New Hampshire woods. There is also a poster of a littleboy and a dragon that reads "Donald imagined things." This compares somewhat to my writing environment. I like to surround myself with things that will engage my mind and my thoughts, however I do require somewhat quiet/peaceful/nondistracting surroundings so I can actually get things done.. 2. I try as best as I can to be conversational with my audience. I believe papers are easiest to write and read when they have a personality. It is sometimes a fine line that I have trouble with when I am trying to put a personality to my paper, but not go into innappropriate/unnecessary territory. 3. Berkenkotter realized how much of the writing process is subconscious. Also she came to find that stating goals for yourself, and your paper can change the way inwhich you look at writing. On page 223 in the second paragraph, it said "In this instance, we can see how a writing plan leads to a number of sub-plans" Applying and Exploring Ideas My own writing habits are not very proactive. I am the kind of person who knows their topic for a week or two, and doensn't necessarily type out my paper, but I write it in my head over and over until I have the version of it that I want. I usually organize in my head my thorough introduction, then my main points then a vague idea of my conclusion. I think this is a fairly common, yet unprofessional way of writing. I am brainstorming...but in my head and not out loud. Then I wait for the last minute to take the paper that is in my head, and bring it to life. I believe that there is a certain corrolation to the amount of writing experience you have, and the amount of time you put into a paper. I believe until a certain extent, I will always brainstorm papers the way I have literally since the beginning of time, however with more intelligence and purpose as I get older. However, I assume once I get to a certain level of writing, I will then be doing it because I want to, and not because I have to. Then, I will put more time and effort into my paper because I am doing them by choice and not as an assignment. Meta Moments I have learned that revising and editing are two different things. I used to think that they were the same process. Now I know that revising is looking at the placement of sentences/ideas, and looking at the overall flow of the ideas. And I know that editing is looking for spelling/grammatical errors that do not actually pertain to the theme/ideas of the paper, but the technical issues of the paper. My Opinion I think this was one of the harder articles to get through. Maybe because it was two articles kinda crammed into one, or maybe it was my focus. However, I found it informational. Especially because we are getting ready to turn in our first paper. | draft |
Monday, January 23, 2012
Kleine Reading
Summary
This article is based around the act and process of writing research papers. And of course, the research that goes into them. Kleine catagorizes two kinds of research paper writers: A hunter finds what he is looking for and a gatherer discovers that which might be of use. The article also included observations he made regarding people's attitudes and motives for writing research papers.
Discussion Questions
1. This article does not really line up with how I view research papers- though it should. When I think about a reseach paper, I think about sitting down at my desk, with Microsoft Word pulled up, and typing a paper. However, Kleine is trying to get me to look at research papers as more research, than typing. Which is probably how it is supposed to be. He is not describing how I do my research papers. I have always done them just to complete them (guilty, yes.) and not really to pack them full of as much information as humanly possible.
3. For the people that Kleine interviews, sources are everything. Not only were the people he interviewed doing a large amount of preparation for their papers, however they were doing a large variety of research including scientific, social and psychological. Having diverse sources helped them to piece together the best supported paper possible. In my past research papers, I would usually use the first statistics/quotes I could find and stuck them in my paper. I can explain this gap in saying that I was doing these research papers because I HAD to, they were writing these papers because they wanted to. They were able to put more effort and care into the papers simply because they were not being told to do it.
4. I would definitely start my research before I even started the paper. I would keep a chart to organize facts as I found them, and select specifically which ones I wanted to use and which ones I thought we're valid enough for my paper. I would also use a wider variety of sources, from social to statistical to scientific. Just to make my paper more well rounded and trust worthy.
My Thoughts
This article kind of made me realize the lack of effort I put into my research papers in high school. And kinda made me feel bad about it at the same time. I know that you have to work for the grade you want...but doing the bare minimum kinda let me slide by in my English classes in high school. However, now when I start my research papers- not only will I plan proactively to write them last and research them first, I will leave enough time for myself to do the research necessary for me to recieve the grade I want. This article helped me to see research papers as more research and less paper- you have to know your topic, and know it well to write a good, informative paper. Otherwise, you're simply doing what you need to do to get full credit on the rubric.
This article is based around the act and process of writing research papers. And of course, the research that goes into them. Kleine catagorizes two kinds of research paper writers: A hunter finds what he is looking for and a gatherer discovers that which might be of use. The article also included observations he made regarding people's attitudes and motives for writing research papers.
Discussion Questions
1. This article does not really line up with how I view research papers- though it should. When I think about a reseach paper, I think about sitting down at my desk, with Microsoft Word pulled up, and typing a paper. However, Kleine is trying to get me to look at research papers as more research, than typing. Which is probably how it is supposed to be. He is not describing how I do my research papers. I have always done them just to complete them (guilty, yes.) and not really to pack them full of as much information as humanly possible.
3. For the people that Kleine interviews, sources are everything. Not only were the people he interviewed doing a large amount of preparation for their papers, however they were doing a large variety of research including scientific, social and psychological. Having diverse sources helped them to piece together the best supported paper possible. In my past research papers, I would usually use the first statistics/quotes I could find and stuck them in my paper. I can explain this gap in saying that I was doing these research papers because I HAD to, they were writing these papers because they wanted to. They were able to put more effort and care into the papers simply because they were not being told to do it.
4. I would definitely start my research before I even started the paper. I would keep a chart to organize facts as I found them, and select specifically which ones I wanted to use and which ones I thought we're valid enough for my paper. I would also use a wider variety of sources, from social to statistical to scientific. Just to make my paper more well rounded and trust worthy.
My Thoughts
This article kind of made me realize the lack of effort I put into my research papers in high school. And kinda made me feel bad about it at the same time. I know that you have to work for the grade you want...but doing the bare minimum kinda let me slide by in my English classes in high school. However, now when I start my research papers- not only will I plan proactively to write them last and research them first, I will leave enough time for myself to do the research necessary for me to recieve the grade I want. This article helped me to see research papers as more research and less paper- you have to know your topic, and know it well to write a good, informative paper. Otherwise, you're simply doing what you need to do to get full credit on the rubric.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Paper #1
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WQKHyqzhRGJi8GMSV9j71D2XIdA3kKA4-xvPJmKp7Vw/edit
Cover Letter
With this paper, I was trying to get my point across regarding the writing contruct of grammar in the most personable, yet intelligent way possible. I wanted to put a personality to the paper, but at the same time, stay on the point. My main point was that grammar is too highly regarded when deciding if something is "well written". I supported my claim but first, a use of a personal anecdote, then using examples from our Writing About Writing book, along with brief historical examples. To oppose the other side of my argument, I used an article from The Cornell Daily Sun. I think my introduction/hook and close are working well. However, I am a little unsure about the middle. I would like to go more in depth with my historical examples, if I were to need to add length to my paper. In their responses, I would like my classmates to give me feedback regarding where they thought the paper wasn't so well supported, or if any of my points/claims seem off balance, or misplaced. Also, if they think I should head farther in one of the directions I started in, I'd like to know this too. I would have given my prep work more time, honestly. I would have liked to get more research done, and some more supporting facts perhaps about statistics on how much grade school teachers stress grammar, and why. I debated emailing my old teachers, just to see what input they may have. I didn't know if I should add more support to what's wrong with the current teachings of grammar, or focus more on how it is used today by professional writers- I really don't know. This is another thing that I'd like more of an opinion on.
Cover Letter
With this paper, I was trying to get my point across regarding the writing contruct of grammar in the most personable, yet intelligent way possible. I wanted to put a personality to the paper, but at the same time, stay on the point. My main point was that grammar is too highly regarded when deciding if something is "well written". I supported my claim but first, a use of a personal anecdote, then using examples from our Writing About Writing book, along with brief historical examples. To oppose the other side of my argument, I used an article from The Cornell Daily Sun. I think my introduction/hook and close are working well. However, I am a little unsure about the middle. I would like to go more in depth with my historical examples, if I were to need to add length to my paper. In their responses, I would like my classmates to give me feedback regarding where they thought the paper wasn't so well supported, or if any of my points/claims seem off balance, or misplaced. Also, if they think I should head farther in one of the directions I started in, I'd like to know this too. I would have given my prep work more time, honestly. I would have liked to get more research done, and some more supporting facts perhaps about statistics on how much grade school teachers stress grammar, and why. I debated emailing my old teachers, just to see what input they may have. I didn't know if I should add more support to what's wrong with the current teachings of grammar, or focus more on how it is used today by professional writers- I really don't know. This is another thing that I'd like more of an opinion on.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Dawkins Reading
Summary:
In the article "Teaching Punctuation as a Rhetorical Tool", John Dawkins attempts to explain grammar and punctuation, not as laws of right & wrong, but rather choices that you as a writer have to make every day- not whether you are going to use them or not- but where and how you are going to use them. Dawkins takes a stance, and tries to explain grammar and punctuation as a choice of the writer as to how they are going to push their point so it jumps off the page and clicks with the minds of the readers.
My Thoughts:
I have to admit, before coming to school- grammar and punctuation were the first things I looked for when I did a peer edit. "You need a comma here, this isn't capitalized correctly, reword the sentence, put the verb and helping verb in a different place here..." That was the easy part of editing to me, and the first place I ran to whenever I got a classmates' paper to look over. I got some strange and creepy adreniline rush from taking out my pen and marking up where comma's should be, and misspellings, and apostrophe's misplaced. It was weird, yet I loved it. However, after reading many articles about constructs, and the true problems behind writing, I am beginning to put my red pen down, and not worry about grammar/punctuation so much. Turns out...it's not that important. Infact, sometimes, it may have more meaning/weight if used in the wrong place. Who knew?
Getting Ready to Read:
1. My sister's wood-scrap and cardboard treehouse made a great place to play with her friends.
2. The tree house that my sister and her friends play in is made out of cardboard and wood-scraps.
3. My sister and her friends love to play in the wood-scrap and cardboard treehouse.
Questions For DIscussion
2. Dawkins makes this claim because he believes that college writing handbooks make the grammar rules look like bold laws, and not guidelines. In the 2nd paragraph, he says that he wanted readers to look at grammar as rhetorical. He wanted there to be choices involved.
3. Raising/Lowering is a "device for gaining rhetorical effect." By raising the comma, you are adding a break in the thought and a pause in the sentence early on in the sentence. And by lowering, you are moving the comma back towards the period (or end of the sentence..) also for rhetorical effect. Semicolons and dashes are examples of these devices also because it builds pressure in the sentence.
4. Dawkins calls his way of grammar "rhetorical" because he wants grammar to involve making choices about how you would like the grammar to effect the reader, and the flow of the sentence/paragraph.
5. After reading Dawkins article I learned the leaniency of grammar. They are not set in stone laws; but rather tools to help you ass emphasis and emotion into your sentences. They can add pauses, which can allow for readers to stop and reflect upon the writing. Grammar is a lot more freeing than I remember. In school we are taught that a comma must go in X spot, and dashes can only go in X spots as well. But writing is about saying "hmm I think I want a dash there. Regardless if my 4th grade language arts teacher taught me it should or should not go there- I want it there. And it's staying."
Meta Moments
I believe Mr. Whicker wanted us to read this article so that when we get ready to type our first papers due next week, we don't have to worry about being binded to laws and regulations that we were drilled with in grade school. Grammar is a tool to get your point across and to add emphasis. Not to make you write like a puppet-- which is something that I am used to doing in regards to "proper grammar and punctuation". By reading this article, I will be less stressed about getting the grammar in my paper "absolutely perfect" and worry more about using it to the best of my abilities, and to use it to benefit the reader in understanding my points of view.
In the article "Teaching Punctuation as a Rhetorical Tool", John Dawkins attempts to explain grammar and punctuation, not as laws of right & wrong, but rather choices that you as a writer have to make every day- not whether you are going to use them or not- but where and how you are going to use them. Dawkins takes a stance, and tries to explain grammar and punctuation as a choice of the writer as to how they are going to push their point so it jumps off the page and clicks with the minds of the readers.
My Thoughts:
I have to admit, before coming to school- grammar and punctuation were the first things I looked for when I did a peer edit. "You need a comma here, this isn't capitalized correctly, reword the sentence, put the verb and helping verb in a different place here..." That was the easy part of editing to me, and the first place I ran to whenever I got a classmates' paper to look over. I got some strange and creepy adreniline rush from taking out my pen and marking up where comma's should be, and misspellings, and apostrophe's misplaced. It was weird, yet I loved it. However, after reading many articles about constructs, and the true problems behind writing, I am beginning to put my red pen down, and not worry about grammar/punctuation so much. Turns out...it's not that important. Infact, sometimes, it may have more meaning/weight if used in the wrong place. Who knew?
Getting Ready to Read:
1. My sister's wood-scrap and cardboard treehouse made a great place to play with her friends.
2. The tree house that my sister and her friends play in is made out of cardboard and wood-scraps.
3. My sister and her friends love to play in the wood-scrap and cardboard treehouse.
Questions For DIscussion
2. Dawkins makes this claim because he believes that college writing handbooks make the grammar rules look like bold laws, and not guidelines. In the 2nd paragraph, he says that he wanted readers to look at grammar as rhetorical. He wanted there to be choices involved.
3. Raising/Lowering is a "device for gaining rhetorical effect." By raising the comma, you are adding a break in the thought and a pause in the sentence early on in the sentence. And by lowering, you are moving the comma back towards the period (or end of the sentence..) also for rhetorical effect. Semicolons and dashes are examples of these devices also because it builds pressure in the sentence.
4. Dawkins calls his way of grammar "rhetorical" because he wants grammar to involve making choices about how you would like the grammar to effect the reader, and the flow of the sentence/paragraph.
5. After reading Dawkins article I learned the leaniency of grammar. They are not set in stone laws; but rather tools to help you ass emphasis and emotion into your sentences. They can add pauses, which can allow for readers to stop and reflect upon the writing. Grammar is a lot more freeing than I remember. In school we are taught that a comma must go in X spot, and dashes can only go in X spots as well. But writing is about saying "hmm I think I want a dash there. Regardless if my 4th grade language arts teacher taught me it should or should not go there- I want it there. And it's staying."
Meta Moments
I believe Mr. Whicker wanted us to read this article so that when we get ready to type our first papers due next week, we don't have to worry about being binded to laws and regulations that we were drilled with in grade school. Grammar is a tool to get your point across and to add emphasis. Not to make you write like a puppet-- which is something that I am used to doing in regards to "proper grammar and punctuation". By reading this article, I will be less stressed about getting the grammar in my paper "absolutely perfect" and worry more about using it to the best of my abilities, and to use it to benefit the reader in understanding my points of view.
Murray Reading
Summary:
In Donald M. Murray's article "All Writing is Autobiography" he makes the point that all writing is a product of every person you've ever met, ever experience you've ever had and every lesson you've ever learned. When writing, you use your past experiences to put your best foot forward to produce the best paper possible that is going to reach the most amount of people possible. He quotes his own poem, then goes on to discuss how every single line, whether he meant it or not, is about a time in his life. And if those experiences had never happened- then this poem wouldn't be the same.
My Opinions:
I agree with Murray's article. It reminds me of another one we read, but I can't remember the name of it. However I think this concept translate into many areas of life. For example, every time you make an important decision, or even a small one for that matter- you decide based on past experiences you've had with an alike problem. You also use all people you have ever come into contact with. Subconciously, all of these guiding forces are like little hands molding you, and your actions. These actions include writing. I agree with Murray's thoughts and furthermore, agree that this concept can be applied into other areas of life.
Getting Ready to Read:
The main advice was to, like Murray was saying: not use the word "I". We were also taught not to put contractions into formal writing. Also, I think it was kind of a rule of thumb to use "intelligent" words. Which most of the time lead to me using the "synonym" tool on Microsoft Word to find a smarter word to replace the one I had used. I thought it gave your paper a good "vibe" from the start, if there was big words in them...which probably sounds really silly and superficial, but it's kind of true. I would be more impressed with a paper that used creative and colorful words vs mundane and overly-used adjectives.
Questions For DIscussion
1. He is asking us to reconsider the originality construct.
3. Murray's article is less formal than most articles published in a scholarly journal because it includes personal opinions and he basically reveals "himself" and how he identifies as a person, and how his "self" is evident in his writing. Scholarly journals are not supposed to be expressive, or personal. They are formal pieces of writing, designed to be informative. He broke out of the rules of writing by using words like "I" and "me" and referencing his own personal poem. Also, he talks about his own personal experiences in order to strengthen his point and give examples.
4. This is a really hard question to answer considering I just had my brain focused on how informal and unscholarly this article is, but if I had to choose, I think it is scholarly because it offers a new and fresh opinion on a topic that has been rehearsed and rehearsed the same way for so long. Also, it is meant to inform, not entertain, which makes it fall under the catagory of "scholarly".
5. His idea's don't really change the way I look at writing because I agree that everything you write is a product of every word you've ever spoken/heard. It is impossible for you to completely isolate yourself and your thoughts because you are constantly, and subconciously referencing your past experiences and knowledge. Every person you've ever learned from, and any experience you've ever learned from can be found evident in your writing. I do not believe that this really requires a change in how you write considering you've been doing it since you learned how to write. You may however, be more accepting of the idea that you are writing from the perspective, and with the help of every past experience/lesson you've ever had. It is not something you can really turn on/off, but more accept.
Meta Moments
As a writer, this article kind of gives me permission to write from the perspective and with the help of my past experiences. Every other article we have read has said that true scholarly articles look & sound like they have been written by robots, but this one makes it seem okay to let myself, and my experiences flow out. (without fear of rejection or hesitation.) Also, it kind of reiterates the fact that it is impossible to write and not be influenced by your past.
In Donald M. Murray's article "All Writing is Autobiography" he makes the point that all writing is a product of every person you've ever met, ever experience you've ever had and every lesson you've ever learned. When writing, you use your past experiences to put your best foot forward to produce the best paper possible that is going to reach the most amount of people possible. He quotes his own poem, then goes on to discuss how every single line, whether he meant it or not, is about a time in his life. And if those experiences had never happened- then this poem wouldn't be the same.
My Opinions:
I agree with Murray's article. It reminds me of another one we read, but I can't remember the name of it. However I think this concept translate into many areas of life. For example, every time you make an important decision, or even a small one for that matter- you decide based on past experiences you've had with an alike problem. You also use all people you have ever come into contact with. Subconciously, all of these guiding forces are like little hands molding you, and your actions. These actions include writing. I agree with Murray's thoughts and furthermore, agree that this concept can be applied into other areas of life.
Getting Ready to Read:
The main advice was to, like Murray was saying: not use the word "I". We were also taught not to put contractions into formal writing. Also, I think it was kind of a rule of thumb to use "intelligent" words. Which most of the time lead to me using the "synonym" tool on Microsoft Word to find a smarter word to replace the one I had used. I thought it gave your paper a good "vibe" from the start, if there was big words in them...which probably sounds really silly and superficial, but it's kind of true. I would be more impressed with a paper that used creative and colorful words vs mundane and overly-used adjectives.
Questions For DIscussion
1. He is asking us to reconsider the originality construct.
3. Murray's article is less formal than most articles published in a scholarly journal because it includes personal opinions and he basically reveals "himself" and how he identifies as a person, and how his "self" is evident in his writing. Scholarly journals are not supposed to be expressive, or personal. They are formal pieces of writing, designed to be informative. He broke out of the rules of writing by using words like "I" and "me" and referencing his own personal poem. Also, he talks about his own personal experiences in order to strengthen his point and give examples.
4. This is a really hard question to answer considering I just had my brain focused on how informal and unscholarly this article is, but if I had to choose, I think it is scholarly because it offers a new and fresh opinion on a topic that has been rehearsed and rehearsed the same way for so long. Also, it is meant to inform, not entertain, which makes it fall under the catagory of "scholarly".
5. His idea's don't really change the way I look at writing because I agree that everything you write is a product of every word you've ever spoken/heard. It is impossible for you to completely isolate yourself and your thoughts because you are constantly, and subconciously referencing your past experiences and knowledge. Every person you've ever learned from, and any experience you've ever learned from can be found evident in your writing. I do not believe that this really requires a change in how you write considering you've been doing it since you learned how to write. You may however, be more accepting of the idea that you are writing from the perspective, and with the help of every past experience/lesson you've ever had. It is not something you can really turn on/off, but more accept.
Meta Moments
As a writer, this article kind of gives me permission to write from the perspective and with the help of my past experiences. Every other article we have read has said that true scholarly articles look & sound like they have been written by robots, but this one makes it seem okay to let myself, and my experiences flow out. (without fear of rejection or hesitation.) Also, it kind of reiterates the fact that it is impossible to write and not be influenced by your past.
The Inspired Reader vs the Real Writer
Summary
In Sarah Allen's article "The Inspired Writer vs the Real Writer", she gives a first hand account of stories (as what I understood to be an English teacher) and how she explains basically that anyone who says "writing just flows from me, or writing is easy" is either lying or not REALLY writing. Her 10 page rant can be summed up in the saying "If you have at any point in your life sat at 11:30 pm on a Sunday night with a paper due on Monday morning, and wondered if at anypoint the perfect thesis or the perfect intro was just going to spring into your mind- or why it wasn't, for that matter-- then you are REAL WRITER. Everyone else who claims to be able to just sit down and crank out a paper, with no writer's block, or frustration- is clearly either Rain Man (writing edition.)
My Thoughts
I most definitely agree with Allen in that writing wasn't invented to be easy. We are only as good as the words we know. And thus, we can only communicate through the words we know- and our writing can only mirror our feelings and the points we would like to get across via those words we know. And this is difficult. In my opinion, half the difficulty of writing is the fear or anxiety that the teacher isn't going to like what I turn in. At the end of the day, let's admit: we are not writing to express ourselves, or because we so passionately want to share with the world our ability to form a 5 paragraph essay, we write because it is assigned to us! We write not to express ourselves, we write to please the prof, and get that A. She is absolutely right that the vision of a "good writer" is slurred by people's belief that good writers can write about anything, anywhere at any time, with ease- and it is going to be absolutely inspiring and flawless. I agree with her completely. Yes.
However, did I find it necessary to (let's be honest here.) use my long weekend to read this? Not exactly. I do believe that her points, and examples could have been condensed and even made more effective if the paper was shorter. About halfway in I caught myself drifting into la-la land, and pondering the questions "man, how many more pages of this? and wow, I still have to read out of the writing about writing book...I wonder if it's going to snow this week?" I highlighted points and details that I thought to be important to me understandind (and remembering for Wednesday) what I read...and the fact that I went without highlighting for 2 pages at a time, says a lot in my mind.
Discussion Questions
1. When writing, I get most anxious about whether or not the teacher is going to understand my view, or like the way inwhich I organized my points/quotes/every little detail. I do not worry about grammar and mechanics. In fact, if anything, that puts me at ease, because I know that I have a good eye for mistakes like grammar/punctuation/spelling, and those types of things are the first to go when I do a revision of my paper. Organization always worries me because I have always felt that it is like a secret that only the teacher knows as to how he/she wants to papers to flow- and you won't find out if you hit the nail on the head until you get your paper back. I have pretty good time management skills so I map out my papers by saying i'm going to write so many words this day, then X amount the next day, then editing this day. So that I am not up the night before staring at a blank computer screen with one eye and jealously watching my roommate sleep with the other. Length is rarely something that I struggle with (just look at this post...) However, it does happen. When I am writing about a subject that I'm not particularly a fan of- it is surely harder to write a lengthy paper on.
2. When sharing writing with classmates, I am usually nervous that they are going to point out a weird mistake I made such as "didn't you know we were supposed to use X margin? or didn't you know the citation was due along with the rough draft today?" (Basic little details that I may have overlooked in the assignment. When the teacher reads my paper I usually fear critiques including "Why didn't you follow the paragraph formula?" or "you're digressing in this entire page. bring it back to the topic." I have never really worried about anyone thinking my ideas are stupid, but more invalid, or unsupportive to the topic. I tend to veer off the road with my papers into thoughts and examples that make sense in my scatter brain, yet probably have no revelence to the topic.
3. These questions are related in that proving most writing related anxieties are self-causing and due to the fear of reaction. We are writing to please the teacher in the long run, but "peer edits on Wednesday" is flashing in the back of your mind. And questions arise such as "Is the teacher going to recollect our papers and randomly distribute them? God. I hope they dont. I hate that. What if So & SO gets my paper-- they're going to laugh at this part...should I even put it in?!" And before you know it, you're psyching yourself out about a hypothetical situation.
4. To address these anxieties, I would basically tunnel vision the end result: to get a good grade. My English teacher senior year encouraged his students to keep the prof in mind when we are writing. Because at the end of the day, they're the one with the red pen and the password to blackboard that will decide our fate. And that is what I have done thus far and it has worked out pretty well. Also, you can't sweat peer evaluations, because other than them finding grammatical mistakes, they don't know anymore about an A paper than you do. That is why theyre taking the class with you, not teaching it. So your attempt at a well written paper is just as good as theirs. As far as the deadline anxieties go, you really need to make a game plan early on in the assignment so it doesn't build up. Map out the paper (yes, make a concept map like you did in 3rd grade if that's what it takes) then go from there. If the paper is 1000 words and you have a week to write it, do 150/day then take the extra time to look it over/do your citation. It's all about having a plan and STICKING TO THE PLAN.
In Sarah Allen's article "The Inspired Writer vs the Real Writer", she gives a first hand account of stories (as what I understood to be an English teacher) and how she explains basically that anyone who says "writing just flows from me, or writing is easy" is either lying or not REALLY writing. Her 10 page rant can be summed up in the saying "If you have at any point in your life sat at 11:30 pm on a Sunday night with a paper due on Monday morning, and wondered if at anypoint the perfect thesis or the perfect intro was just going to spring into your mind- or why it wasn't, for that matter-- then you are REAL WRITER. Everyone else who claims to be able to just sit down and crank out a paper, with no writer's block, or frustration- is clearly either Rain Man (writing edition.)
My Thoughts
I most definitely agree with Allen in that writing wasn't invented to be easy. We are only as good as the words we know. And thus, we can only communicate through the words we know- and our writing can only mirror our feelings and the points we would like to get across via those words we know. And this is difficult. In my opinion, half the difficulty of writing is the fear or anxiety that the teacher isn't going to like what I turn in. At the end of the day, let's admit: we are not writing to express ourselves, or because we so passionately want to share with the world our ability to form a 5 paragraph essay, we write because it is assigned to us! We write not to express ourselves, we write to please the prof, and get that A. She is absolutely right that the vision of a "good writer" is slurred by people's belief that good writers can write about anything, anywhere at any time, with ease- and it is going to be absolutely inspiring and flawless. I agree with her completely. Yes.
However, did I find it necessary to (let's be honest here.) use my long weekend to read this? Not exactly. I do believe that her points, and examples could have been condensed and even made more effective if the paper was shorter. About halfway in I caught myself drifting into la-la land, and pondering the questions "man, how many more pages of this? and wow, I still have to read out of the writing about writing book...I wonder if it's going to snow this week?" I highlighted points and details that I thought to be important to me understandind (and remembering for Wednesday) what I read...and the fact that I went without highlighting for 2 pages at a time, says a lot in my mind.
Discussion Questions
1. When writing, I get most anxious about whether or not the teacher is going to understand my view, or like the way inwhich I organized my points/quotes/every little detail. I do not worry about grammar and mechanics. In fact, if anything, that puts me at ease, because I know that I have a good eye for mistakes like grammar/punctuation/spelling, and those types of things are the first to go when I do a revision of my paper. Organization always worries me because I have always felt that it is like a secret that only the teacher knows as to how he/she wants to papers to flow- and you won't find out if you hit the nail on the head until you get your paper back. I have pretty good time management skills so I map out my papers by saying i'm going to write so many words this day, then X amount the next day, then editing this day. So that I am not up the night before staring at a blank computer screen with one eye and jealously watching my roommate sleep with the other. Length is rarely something that I struggle with (just look at this post...) However, it does happen. When I am writing about a subject that I'm not particularly a fan of- it is surely harder to write a lengthy paper on.
2. When sharing writing with classmates, I am usually nervous that they are going to point out a weird mistake I made such as "didn't you know we were supposed to use X margin? or didn't you know the citation was due along with the rough draft today?" (Basic little details that I may have overlooked in the assignment. When the teacher reads my paper I usually fear critiques including "Why didn't you follow the paragraph formula?" or "you're digressing in this entire page. bring it back to the topic." I have never really worried about anyone thinking my ideas are stupid, but more invalid, or unsupportive to the topic. I tend to veer off the road with my papers into thoughts and examples that make sense in my scatter brain, yet probably have no revelence to the topic.
3. These questions are related in that proving most writing related anxieties are self-causing and due to the fear of reaction. We are writing to please the teacher in the long run, but "peer edits on Wednesday" is flashing in the back of your mind. And questions arise such as "Is the teacher going to recollect our papers and randomly distribute them? God. I hope they dont. I hate that. What if So & SO gets my paper-- they're going to laugh at this part...should I even put it in?!" And before you know it, you're psyching yourself out about a hypothetical situation.
4. To address these anxieties, I would basically tunnel vision the end result: to get a good grade. My English teacher senior year encouraged his students to keep the prof in mind when we are writing. Because at the end of the day, they're the one with the red pen and the password to blackboard that will decide our fate. And that is what I have done thus far and it has worked out pretty well. Also, you can't sweat peer evaluations, because other than them finding grammatical mistakes, they don't know anymore about an A paper than you do. That is why theyre taking the class with you, not teaching it. So your attempt at a well written paper is just as good as theirs. As far as the deadline anxieties go, you really need to make a game plan early on in the assignment so it doesn't build up. Map out the paper (yes, make a concept map like you did in 3rd grade if that's what it takes) then go from there. If the paper is 1000 words and you have a week to write it, do 150/day then take the extra time to look it over/do your citation. It's all about having a plan and STICKING TO THE PLAN.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Stedman Reading
Summary:
In Kyle D. Stedmen's article "Annoying Ways Poeple Use Sources" he discusses 6 different writing habits that bother him. Things ranging from odd usages of quotations to agitating citation mistakes. He convienently provides examples of these improper usages of sourses so that the cause and effect of the mistake is highly visable. After providing examples of each of these annoyances, Stedman gives "fixes" to each of the problems.
My Own Thoughts
I definitely agreed with the annoyances he listed involving quotations. To me, you have to know how and when to use a quote or it completely works against you. They can either be helpful or incredibly distracting. However, the interesting thing about quotations it that if you simply relocate them, or change their lead in- they can go from being completely random to a huge stepping stone for you to a point, or opinion or literally anything you could want to do in a paper. You just need to know how to do it to the paper's full potential. Anyways. I digress. I however believed that his annoyance involving the alphabitized citation/being able to look into the source more easily/quicker was a bit ridiculious. Maybe because I have never graded a paper and actually needed to look into the works cited...I'm just used to being pestered by having to make them. So, this example isn't exactly something that would annoy me, personally when reading a paper- however, I can understand if a professor had a stack of 20+ papers and needed to breeze through the citations-- it would come in handy.
Syllabus Questions
1) I believe that the Stedman reading and the previously assigned readings allign because they all involve fixing "distractions" or something that could occupy a reader before being able to fully understand the point of your paper. Also, they touch base on writer's flaws (not paper's flaws) that can be aknowledged before the paper is written/turned in that would help the writer better communicate, and the reader better understand.
2) In High School I was basically taught "you need X amount of sources...one need to be an article, one needs to be an interview, one needs to be out of a book.......ready.....go." and teachers never really cared that the sources had "meat" they just cared that on the due date they could run through the works cited page and see X amount of books, articles, interviews etc. I would be lying if I said that at some point in high school I didn't make up a source, or use my aunt & uncles names as authors of a book I made up simply because it was after midnight and I was tired of Googling sources. It happens. But more frequently, it goes unnoticed. I was taught the mind set of "I don't care what the sources contain...or if they're reliable...or if they're REAL...I just care that on the day you turn in your paper you have X, Y & Z and I'll give you full credit on your works cited. It's THAT easy." As a future language arts teacher I don't believe it should be THAT easy. It should be a hunt. For the most reliable, and the most educated source.
3) I have for sure changed my views on sources since the beginning of fall quarter. Through my speech class, and my EDTE class, I learned how to evaluate sources, and look deeper than "hmm it came off Google- it HAS to be true." I learned how to do APA style citation- and that literally changed the way I think of doing citations and research. Citing things is no longer "do it right and you'll get full credit." it is now "do it right and your paper will be full of useful information that will add substance and passion to your paper."
Questions For Discussion
1) In terms of "bending the rules for publication space/audience" I believe that the younger the audience, the bendier the rules. Depending on the topic of course, it is hard to put a general opinion on this because it depends so heavily on the topic. Say I was publishing an opinion column in The Post. I would most definitely use language and sentence structure that an OU student wouldn't just be able to read but would WANT to read while hiking Morton Hill, or waiting for a friend for lunch. However, if I were to be writing an opinion article in Times magazine, it would be more geared towards an educated, older audience. Thus requiring me to use different language/quotes/lead ins.
2) "Dating Spider Man"
In the January 9th edition of The Post, an article about MAC basketball did not start with a quote-
which I liked. It read: "Coming off a tough loss to Robert Morros, Coach John Groce said he was proud of his team's intensity despite its diffuculty executing."
3) Rank the annoyances from least annoying to most annoying:
1- I Can't Find the Stupid Link
2- I Swear I Did Some Research
3- Uncle Barry and his Encyclopedia of Useless Information
4- Armadillo Roadkill
5- Dating Superman
6- Am I In the Right Movie?
In Kyle D. Stedmen's article "Annoying Ways Poeple Use Sources" he discusses 6 different writing habits that bother him. Things ranging from odd usages of quotations to agitating citation mistakes. He convienently provides examples of these improper usages of sourses so that the cause and effect of the mistake is highly visable. After providing examples of each of these annoyances, Stedman gives "fixes" to each of the problems.
My Own Thoughts
I definitely agreed with the annoyances he listed involving quotations. To me, you have to know how and when to use a quote or it completely works against you. They can either be helpful or incredibly distracting. However, the interesting thing about quotations it that if you simply relocate them, or change their lead in- they can go from being completely random to a huge stepping stone for you to a point, or opinion or literally anything you could want to do in a paper. You just need to know how to do it to the paper's full potential. Anyways. I digress. I however believed that his annoyance involving the alphabitized citation/being able to look into the source more easily/quicker was a bit ridiculious. Maybe because I have never graded a paper and actually needed to look into the works cited...I'm just used to being pestered by having to make them. So, this example isn't exactly something that would annoy me, personally when reading a paper- however, I can understand if a professor had a stack of 20+ papers and needed to breeze through the citations-- it would come in handy.
Syllabus Questions
1) I believe that the Stedman reading and the previously assigned readings allign because they all involve fixing "distractions" or something that could occupy a reader before being able to fully understand the point of your paper. Also, they touch base on writer's flaws (not paper's flaws) that can be aknowledged before the paper is written/turned in that would help the writer better communicate, and the reader better understand.
2) In High School I was basically taught "you need X amount of sources...one need to be an article, one needs to be an interview, one needs to be out of a book.......ready.....go." and teachers never really cared that the sources had "meat" they just cared that on the due date they could run through the works cited page and see X amount of books, articles, interviews etc. I would be lying if I said that at some point in high school I didn't make up a source, or use my aunt & uncles names as authors of a book I made up simply because it was after midnight and I was tired of Googling sources. It happens. But more frequently, it goes unnoticed. I was taught the mind set of "I don't care what the sources contain...or if they're reliable...or if they're REAL...I just care that on the day you turn in your paper you have X, Y & Z and I'll give you full credit on your works cited. It's THAT easy." As a future language arts teacher I don't believe it should be THAT easy. It should be a hunt. For the most reliable, and the most educated source.
3) I have for sure changed my views on sources since the beginning of fall quarter. Through my speech class, and my EDTE class, I learned how to evaluate sources, and look deeper than "hmm it came off Google- it HAS to be true." I learned how to do APA style citation- and that literally changed the way I think of doing citations and research. Citing things is no longer "do it right and you'll get full credit." it is now "do it right and your paper will be full of useful information that will add substance and passion to your paper."
Questions For Discussion
1) In terms of "bending the rules for publication space/audience" I believe that the younger the audience, the bendier the rules. Depending on the topic of course, it is hard to put a general opinion on this because it depends so heavily on the topic. Say I was publishing an opinion column in The Post. I would most definitely use language and sentence structure that an OU student wouldn't just be able to read but would WANT to read while hiking Morton Hill, or waiting for a friend for lunch. However, if I were to be writing an opinion article in Times magazine, it would be more geared towards an educated, older audience. Thus requiring me to use different language/quotes/lead ins.
2) "Dating Spider Man"
In the January 9th edition of The Post, an article about MAC basketball did not start with a quote-
which I liked. It read: "Coming off a tough loss to Robert Morros, Coach John Groce said he was proud of his team's intensity despite its diffuculty executing."
3) Rank the annoyances from least annoying to most annoying:
1- I Can't Find the Stupid Link
2- I Swear I Did Some Research
3- Uncle Barry and his Encyclopedia of Useless Information
4- Armadillo Roadkill
5- Dating Superman
6- Am I In the Right Movie?
Monday, January 9, 2012
Rosenberg Reading
Summary
Karen Rosenberg wrote about the stratagies she developed on how to get through the oh-so-enjoyable assigned reading in college english classes. These stratagies included considering everything about the author, the intended audience and how to get the most out of the reading by paying close attention to the text.
My Thoughts
I really liked this reading, and ironically, since it is about assigned reading- I didn't think it was too hard to get through. She started out by emphasizing the fact that she, like us, hates assigned reading and struggles sometimes to stay awake while reading let alone understanding the text completely. I never really thought about some of the points she made, such as getting through "the abstract". I didn't even know that existed...but it explains why sometimes the hardest part of assigned reading is getting through the first few paragraphs. That's where all the big words hangout. I also never really read through "the goals" in my textbooks. They were always just something that I skimmed over. I also never really thought about academic journals lacking a hook- I guess if you're reading an academic journal, chances are you're doing it by choice, or you're doing it because you have a quiz on it- and your hook is recieving an A on said quiz.
**question about what rhetoric means to me is under "Response Blog # 2"
Karen Rosenberg wrote about the stratagies she developed on how to get through the oh-so-enjoyable assigned reading in college english classes. These stratagies included considering everything about the author, the intended audience and how to get the most out of the reading by paying close attention to the text.
My Thoughts
I really liked this reading, and ironically, since it is about assigned reading- I didn't think it was too hard to get through. She started out by emphasizing the fact that she, like us, hates assigned reading and struggles sometimes to stay awake while reading let alone understanding the text completely. I never really thought about some of the points she made, such as getting through "the abstract". I didn't even know that existed...but it explains why sometimes the hardest part of assigned reading is getting through the first few paragraphs. That's where all the big words hangout. I also never really read through "the goals" in my textbooks. They were always just something that I skimmed over. I also never really thought about academic journals lacking a hook- I guess if you're reading an academic journal, chances are you're doing it by choice, or you're doing it because you have a quiz on it- and your hook is recieving an A on said quiz.
**question about what rhetoric means to me is under "Response Blog # 2"
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