Reading Response 24

Summary
In her article "Tilli Tlapalli: The Path of the Red and Black Ink," Gloria Anzaldua argues for the importance of  identity in writing.  She puts herself and her past into her own writing, making it much more personal and, in her opinion, better.  She also describes the difference between Western and tribal cultures in terms of art.  Tribal cultures treat their art as living things, but Westerners treat their art as just dead objects.

Synthesis
This article relates to bell hook's article.  Both of them deal with identity, and how putting it in your writing can help you as well as improve your writing.  These articles are not entirely similar, hooks argues more that writing autobiographically will improve your writing and allow you to come to terms with your past while Anzaldua describes how realizing your past will improve your writing

Review
I like this article more than most that we have read because it was short and simple.  It was easy to understand on the surface, although I don't know if I got all of her more complex ideas.  It was difficult for me to summarize and synthesize this piece because it was more about her and less about writing in general.

AE
1.  Western art is more individual than tribal art because tribal art has a similar meaning to all members of the community.  Small tribal communities are closely knit and the members are more likely to have similar belief systems than people of Western communities.  Literacy and art are becoming more individual because they are ways for people to express themselves and as time goes on people are becoming more free to express themselves.

2.  If this piece was written using a traditional method it would have been easier to understand but that would have come with a loss to how personal this article seems.  When I read this article I feel like I understand the author more than if I was reading an article written traditionally.

Reading Response 23

Summary
In her article "VIEWPOINT The Laugh of the Medusa," Helene Cixous argues that women should 'write themselves,' or in other words use their voice in their writing instead of using a male or non-gendered voice.  Writing allows women to discover who they really are, but (like everything else that is important) it has been primarily reserved for men.  Cixous expresses many other views in her article, such as how writing allows you to let go of the past and that men have made women hate women, but this seems to be her main argument.

Synthesis
This article primarily relates to the articles by Flynn and Alexander.  Flynn and Cixous both write about how it is different for men and women to compose.  Cixous has a much more negative attitude towards men and blames them for the fact that women are less confidant in their writing while Flynn focuses on the differences in their composition styles.  Cixous and Alexander both write about gender and sexuality.  While Cixous challenged the classical conception of bisexuality Alexander wrote about what it is like to compose as a transgender person.

Review
I did not like this article at all.  It was extremely confusing for me and I did not understand parts of it.  It is outdated, it was written in 1976 when gender roles were very different.  I do not know what it was like to be  a woman then compared to today so I will not judge Cixous too terribly but she seems to really hate men.  In  paragraph 12 she even wrote "Men have committed the greatest crime against women.  Insidiously, violently, they have led them to hate women, to be their own enemies, to mobilize their immense strength against themselves, to be the executants of their virile needs"(ROW 248).

QD
1.  This piece did make me uncomfortable, but not as much as it may have if I had understood it perfectly.  Cixous seems to really hate men and to stereotype them as all being evil.  I know that that can't actually be true; she must be exaggerating in order to prove her point.  I think that she intended to make the reader uncomfortable because she purposefully wrote a very strong article.

2.  Cixous wants females to write using their own voice, to put themselves into their writing.  She is suggesting that writing can help you discover your own identity.

Reading Response 22

Goals: "to demonstrate how transgender theories can inspire pedagogical methods that complement feminist compositionist approaches to understanding the narration of gender as a social construct; and second, to suggest how such theories might usefully expand and extend-for ourselves and for our students- our analysis of the stories we tell about gender." 9   What is the story we tell about gender?

Summary
In his article "Transgender Rhetoric: (Re)Composing Narratives of the Gendered Body," Jonathan Alexander argues that how we perceive gender is a social construct.  Gender is a set of rules that you are supposed to follow, and if you don't you may be outcast.

Synthesis
This article relates to the articles on identity that we have read this year, such as Wardle's article.  Alexander argues that your gender should have less of an effect on you identity than it does for most people. This article also strongly relates to Flynn's article; Flynn was even mention in it.  Flynn writes about the difference in composing as a man and as a women which directly relates to this piece because it is about gender identity.

Review
I did not like this article, it was way too long.  It seemed to hit on some of the same points multiple times and I think that the author could have made it shorter.  With that being said, I'm not sure if I agree with Alexander or not because I did not completely grasp his argument.

AE
3.  "Normally" gendered students can learn to look at gender as a social construction and begin to realize the things that you do because of you gender.  It can also help them empathize with transgender students.  Both of these are also true for every minority discourse we have read because learning about any group will help you empathize and understand them.

4.  Gender is a construct because it is a way that we look at the world based on what we think.  Men and women are each supposed to act certain, different ways.  People who don't want to act the way that people of their gender are supposed to act are looked down upon.  We have constructed gender roles.  These can also be political because historically men have had more power than woman because they are stereotyped as being better leaders and more intelligent.

Reading Response 21 Delpit

 Summary

 In her article “The Politics of Teaching Literate Discourse” Lisa Delpit argues that it is possible to join a secondary Discourse through schooling.  James Paul Gee wrote that it is only possible to join a Discourse through assimilation and Delpit is rejecting this theory.  She details many instances of poor, uneducated, black students who become successful and able to write well through the classroom.  She argues that since school is how these people joined an academic Discourse it must be possible for school to let someone join a Discourse

Synthesis

This article obviously relates to James Paul Gee’s writing because it is arguing against his ideas.  James Paul Gee writes that you can only join a Discourse through assimilation; interacting with people in the Discourse and adopting the identity of someone in the Discourse.  Delpit writes that it is possible to join a Discourse through studying it.  I think that there is a middle ground between these two authors.  When in school you are interacting with your teachers and classmates who have joined the Discourse, so you are actually assimilating into the classroom and therefore the Discourse.  Smitherman argues for a different way for black students who speak differently (what she calls Black English) to be successful.  She believes that rather than learn how to speak “properly” it is fine for people to maintain their current dialect.

Review

I found this to be more interesting than most pieces.  It was also easier for me to understand than most articles that we have read.  I agree with what she is saying, about how studying and good teachers can make you successful.

QD

3.  I agree with Delpit’s argument.  I have personally known people who came from poor uneducated families (not inner-city kids though) and worked extra hard in school and became very literate and successful.  She is very effective when she gives examples of students that came from parents that didn’t even graduate from high school and became very successful through hard work.  She does not include any counter examples to her argument, such as people in such bad locations that they have not opportunity to join a dominant Discourse, which are sure to exist. 

4.  To help students master dominant Discourses teachers should first “acknowledge and validate students’ home language without using it to limit students’ potential”(186).  They should next figure out 

Reading Response 20

Getting Ready to Read

I have experienced gender differences in class before.  I have had teachers that are sexist.  In middle school my woodshop teacher (an old man) was nicer to the girls in my class and was easier when grading their projects. 

Summary

 In her article “Composing as a Woman” Elizabeth Flynn argues that there are multiple differences in the way that men and women write.  One of her first theories is that when describing a past dilemma, women are more likely to focus on how frightened they felt while men are more likely to emphasize their enjoyment.  Women are also less competitive when they write and mostly write about interaction, connection, or frustrated connection while men write about achievement, separation, or frustrated achievement.

Synthesis

This article does not directly relate to any of the articles that we have read so far.  It covers a similar topic as Wardle; identity.  Flynn describes how your gender influences your identity and therefore how you write.  Wardle describes how your workplace influences your identity and how you write.

QD
1.  In the past, women have not been allowed to write books or express their opinions.  Even after that changed, it was still very frowned upon for women to even express their opinion in public.  This is similar to what happened to minorities because they too had no way of making their voices heard and were pushed down by the majority.

Reading Response 19

Summary
In his article "Memoria is a Friend of Ours: On the Discourses of Color" Victor Villanueva argues that although memoria is a good tool to use in writing, it "simply cannot be adequately portrayed in the conventional discourse of the academy."  He also writes about pathos, ethos,and logos.  They are the Greek words for emotion, credibility, and logic.  Many documents will have two of them and lack the third, but incorporating them all into a document is would make the document much stronger.

Synthesis
This article relates to Elizabeth Wardle's article.  Villanueva details his immigration to the United States and how he assimilated into the culture.  At first he did not know much about how Americans wrote, but eventually he learned and went to college.  In Wardle's article she writes about a man who tries to assimilate into a new workplace.

Review
I didn't mind the other texts in this text, it made the reading shorter and easier.  It was at times hard to follow his argument and I would have to go back to the last essay part and reread it.  Overall this article was better than most that we have read.

QD 7
Villanueva's primary Discourse is that of his Puerto Rican family.  His secondary Discourse would be any that involve English.  His situation is much more complex than this because he barely knows Spanish, the language of Puerto Rico, and he is fluent in English.  Gee would say that he is not in a Puerto Rican Discourse at all, because he argues that you are either fluent in a Discourse or are not part of it at all.

Reading Response 18

Summary
In their article  "Autism and Rhetoric" Paul Heilker and Melanie Yergeau attempt to change the readers view of autism.  They view autism as a rhetoric, or a way of experiencing the world through language.  People with autism don't view language in the same way or give language the same purpose, therefor they use it differently and talk differently.  The authors argue strongly against the current public view of autism as a disorder, rather than a difference.

Synthesis
This article relates to the Wardle article because they both deal with something being viewed as wrong when it is just different.  Wardle discusses how employees must adjust their writing style to fit a new workplace of be viewed as an outcast, even if their writing is good it may be viewed as defective, rather than just different. Heilker and Yergeau argue that autism should also be viewed as a different rhetoric, rather than a wrong one.

Review
I found parts of this article to be simple at some points and more difficult to understand at others.  I think that the concept of autism being a rhetoric is an interesting one and would like to read a response to this article that argued against it and see which one makes stronger points.

Project 3 Intro/Conversation

The concept of discourse communities is one that has been widely debated among English scholars.  Discourse community may have many definitions,  but James Porter' definition as "a group of individuals bound by a common interest who communicate through approved channels and whose discourse is regulated"(WAW) is a good one to begin with.  Basically what this means is any group of people read each other's writings and will talk, write, and act in a common way.  It is important to understand the concept of discourse community when reading because if you know who the person writing is and who their intended audience is, then you can more easily frame the document to how the writer intended it to be interpreted.  When writing, it is also important to realize what discourse community you are writing for so that you can determine how your writing will be interpreted.

Different scholars have written about their thoughts on different aspects of discourse community.  James Paul Gee describes discourse communities, or as he calls them Discourses, as a major part of a person's identity.  He calls Discourses "identity kits" which consist of how you act, talk, write, value, and think.  Since Discourses determine so much about their members, it is impossible to be somewhat fluent in one; either you are fluent or you aren't.  He also argues that you cannot become fluent in a Discourse by studying it, you must actually join it.  These views contradict the views of Swales who argues that joining a discourse community may or may not result in assimilation to the community's views of the world.  He gives the example of spies, who may join a discourse community because they do not agree with its views.  Swales also argues that "If they also assimilate they cease to be single spies but become double agents"(WAW 476).  This suggests that it is possible to "fake" being part of a discourse community.

In her article "Identity, Authority, and Learning to Write in New Workplaces" Elizabeth Wardle argues that "for workers to be successfully enculturated into new communities of practice or activity systems, including learning to write in ways that are appropriate to those new communities, neophytes must learn and conform to the conventions, codes, and genres of those communities"(WAW 521).  This means adapting to more than just how people in your new workplace write; you must also assimilate into all aspect of their discourse community.  As Gee would say, you must adopt their ways of saying, doing, valuing, believing, and all of the other parts of the identity kit.

One major aspect of discourse communities is genre.  As it relates to discourse communities, genre is a document that has a certain meaning to a discourse community.  For example, in the discourse community of runners, Runner's World magazine is a genre.  Amy J. Devitt points out in her article "Where Communities Collide: Exploring a Legal Genre" that there can be a disconnect between the author and reader of genres.  The author of a genre may have a different level of knowledge of the discourse community than the reader, so the reader may not interpret the genre the right way.  She gives the example of jury instructions and how they are written by lawyers, who are highly literate in the law discourse community, but read by jurors who are not nearly as familiar with the law discourse community.

Project 3 Proposal

For this project, I will be examining the discourse among business professionals in the renewable energy industry, particularly solar and wind energy.  This is an area that I have interest in, partially just because renewable energy is important but also because my father is in this business so I have some background knowledge in the area. 

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

The main goal of the members of the renewable energy are quite obvious; they want to make money.  Like every other industry, that is the main focus.  They also want to create jobs and electricity for people, but again those both work towards making money.  What separates the renewable energy business from other energy businesses is that they actually have another, less greedy goal; to help the environment by providing renewable energy. 

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

Members of the renewable energy business, like other business professionals, communicate primarily through formal emails, telephone calls, conference calls, and face to face meetings.

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

Members of the solar business use methods such as conferences to provide feedback for other members.  They also have internet forums.  

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

There are many genres in the solar energy business, there are emails among colleges or between companies, there are magazines about the industry, and letters sent to another company.  

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

Members of the solar industry have terms to describe anything from how to install solar panels to how to get jobs.  One example is the word bid.  In the solar energy, the word bid describes how companies will offer to do a job for the lowest pay, and whoever bids the lowest and meets the criteria wins.  

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

Different jobs at different levels require a different amount of expertise.  The more knowledge someone has about solar energy, the higher they are likely to be in their company.  

I am interested in this group because renewable energy is the way of the future and solar is currently the most available form.  I would like to find out whether this industry uses the same or similar discourse as other energy industries, such as coal and nuclear energy.  I would also like to find out if all members of this industry  are part of the same discourse community or if the industry is divided and novice members are actually part of a different discourse community.

For this project, I will interview my father because he is the founder of a solar business.  I may also find other members of his business to interview, but his interview will probably be enough.

There are many documents that can be analyzed as part of the solar industry.  There are magazines, websites, advertisements, letters, emails, and many more forms of communication.  Something that I will be looking for in magazines are letters to the editor.  They provide feedback from the readers to the writers.  

Reading Response 16

Summary
 In the article "Materiality and Genre in the Study of Discourse Communities" by Amy Devitt, Anis Bawarshi, and Mary Jo Reiff the author's argue that genre is a key element is understanding discourse communities.  Without genre, discourse communities would be unstructured, causing their content to be less specific and less useful.

Synthesis
This article relates to the articles by Swales, Porter, and Gee because they are all about discourse communities.  What this article does is it takes one of Swales' six characteristics of discourse communities, genre, and goes into detail about it and its effects on discourse community.

Review
This article was alright, it was not too difficult to understand and it really explained its points, especially that many forms are written by specialists in a discourse community for nonspecialists in that discourse community.

Reading Response 15

Getting Ready to Read
I play soccer and I (sometimes) attend a church.  These activities do not affect the way I participate in the other one because I view them as different parts of my life and don't consider how I do the one activity while doing the other.

Summary

In his article “Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics” James Paul Gee explains his concept of Discourse.  He argues that a Discourse is place or group where you act, value, believe, speak, and write a certain way while you are in it.  Discourses may have different characteristics, such as being your primary Discourse (the first one you every enter), a secondary Discourse (ones that you join), dominant, or non-dominant.  Gee argues that you cannot engage in a discourse but not be fluent in it.  You must be fluent in every one of your Discourse, otherwise you will be viewed as an outsider.

Synthesis

This article relates to James Porter’s article “Intertextuality and the Discourse Community” as well as John Swales’ article “The Concept of the Discourse Community.”  What Gee just calls Discourse is what Porter and Swales call the discourse community.  The main difference between Swales’ article and Gee’s article is that Swales goes into detail about discourse communities and their properties while Gee writes more about the kinds of Discourses and people’s relationships to them.

Response

Gee managed to describe Disco urse in a way that was much more enjoyable to read than Swales with Discourse community.  This article was actually interesting, I almost didn't fall asleep while reading.  I also found this article way easier to understand than Swales' article

QD
1.  Different groups of people in different places expect you to talk in different ways.  If you are around people that don't use perfect grammar and use a certain slang, then to talk with perfect English and no slang would be wrong because you would be out of place.  This conflicts with what I have been taught because I was never taught to consider talking with slang because of where I am.

Reading Response 14

Getting Ready to Read
One time, I went to a barbecue with my parents at one of their friend's house.  It sounded fun, but when I got there everyone there was an older adult and I felt out of place, with no one to talk too.  I felt like I was too young and that I didn't fit in with the crowd.  Eventually I just started talking to people and shrugged off the feeling.

Summary
In his article "The Concept of Discourse Community" John Swales attempts to define discourse community and separate it from a speech community.  Discourse communities must have six specific features.  First, the members must have agreed on goals for the discourse community.  This could be legislators wanting to pass laws or the makers of a newspaper wanting to sell more papers.  Members of a discourse community must be able to communicate with each other in order to maintain and advance the discourse community.  The members must also be able to criticize the discourse community in order to better it.  A discourse community must have specific genres, or how its members are supposed to write.  They must have some of their own lexis, or words that have a unique meaning to the group.  And finally, discourse communities must have some members that are new and some that are experts on the subjects in order to survive.

Synthesis
This article relates to James Porter's article "Intertextuality and the Discourse Community" because both articles dive into discourse communities.  The main difference is that Porter introduces the reader to discourse communities and writes about much less complex aspects of them than Swales, who goes very deep into them.

Review
I found this piece hard to follow and understand, although I do understand what a discourse community is and their six main aspects.  I think that Swales was writing for an audience that is much more educated and interested in English than I am.

QD
5.  I belong to the discourse community of my group of friends when we all text each other.  We have goals, we want to find out what the person we are texting is doing and hang out with them or ask them a question to get help with a class.  We have mechanisms for intercommunication, cell phones.  That is also our mechanism for information and feedback.  We like to text in certain ways and use words that reflect that, creating a genre.  We do not have words that have specific meaning to us, but there are words that may have different meaning to most people.  The last characteristic does not apply well because we are all on an equal level as far as expertise.

Reading Response 13

Before you Read

I am looking at an ad for McDonald's breakfast menu.  I don't like this ad because McDonald's food is disgusting and unhealthy.  The ad has a picture of a cup of coffee, a two burgers, a burrito, and a hash brown.

Summary

In her article "The Sticky Embrace of Beauty" Anne Frances Wysocki attempts to explain why certain images please or anger us.  She discusses an image from a copy of the New York Times of a lady in nothing but thigh high boots and elbow length gloves standing straight up with her side facing you, but she is looking at you.  She incorporates the four "design principles" illustrated by Robin Williams-contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity and how they make the image more attractive.  Rudolf Arnheim's book The Power of the Center explains this picture as having power because vertical and because the part that stands out the most, the woman's butt, is in the center.

Synthesis
This article relates to John Berger's article "Ways of Seeing" because both of them describe why pictures are beautiful.  Wysocki discusses a modern picture of a partially clothed lady and why she feels the way she feels about it while Berger discusses classic European paintings of women with little or no clothing and how they are supposed to be viewed.

Review
I found this article to be confusing and hard to get through.  Wysocki wrote about many concepts that I did not fully understand.

QD
2.  Wysocki set up the text to be very visual.  Not only does it contain multiple diagrams and pictures but it also has headings and highlighted words.  These guide the reader and make it visually attractive.

3.  The Peek ad grabs my attention and makes me read the rest of the ad, but it does not make me want to buy the product because I hardly every buy things that I don't need and I usually just get books from libraries or online.

AE
2.  I believe that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and therefore agree with Wysocki.  Different people find different things to be beautiful.  I think that trees and forests are beautiful while some people might like the look of cities more.

MM
This statement relates to the rest of Wysocki's article because it describes how, in order to have freedom and be beautiful, an image must have a new element to it.  In other parts of her article Wysocki discusses how images must seem new and striking.  This applies to other visual art because in order to be considered great artwork must be creative and unique. 

Reading Response 12

Getting Ready to Read
I use pencils, computers, pens, and paper to writer.

Summary
In his essay 'From Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literacy Technologies' Dennis Baron argues that everything that we use to write, including pencils, was at one point highly advance technology.  He begins with the pencil and how Henry Thoreau was the first American to develop pencils and a way of producing them that could compete with foreign markets.  Next is the telegraph, which Thoreau himself opposed.  When the telegraph was first blooming it was said to connect Main and Texas, to which Thoreau responded "Main and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate"(425).  Then came the telephone, which was doomed to fail, and finally the computer.  The computer is the most used literacy technology of today, but when it was first invented word processing was considered too trivial for it.  As Baron argues "The computer is simply the latest step in a long line of writing technologies"(425).

Synthesis
This article relates to James Porter's article "Intertextuality and the Discourse Community."  Both articles discuss the topic of plagiarism, although I doubt Porter and Baron would have the same stance on plagiarism.  Porter argued that plagiarism rules should be less strict than they are because all texts are related.  Baron fears that the use of computers will make it too easy for someone to steal someone else's work through the internet.

Review
I found this article more interesting than most of the articles that we have read.  To me it read more like a story than a dry article about writing or writing rules.  I learned a lot about the history of pencils, I never knew that Henry Thoreau invented a new way of making them.

QD
2.  I do not agree that this is one of his messages because of how he describes, throughout his entire article, how new technologies have fundamentally changed the shape and nature of writing.  For example, he describes on pages 438 and 439 how students can now use erasers on pencils so they have the ability to revise and polish their work.  Being able to revise is very important.  Also on page 439 he claims that "The computer has indeed changed the ways some of us do things with words."

Reading Response Hooks

Before you read
2.  I would begin an autobiography with a description of my family and hometown.  I would then move to my childhood and from there I would retell my life.  To write one you would need to talk to many people that knew you throughout your life such as teachers and friends.

Summary
In her article "Writing Autobiography" Bell Hooks argues that writing an autobiography can help you come to terms with your past and things that you have done and things that have happened to you that you are ashamed of or that hurt you.  She also explains how events or people in your life called catalysts can trigger previously forgotten memories from you past.

Synthesis
This article relates to "Learning to Read" by Malcolm X because they both deal with the author's past.  In his this chapter of his autobiography, Malcolm X describes how he educated himself while in jail and how being in jail let him change his ways and become highly literate.  In this article, Hooks describes how writing an autobiography let her come to terms with things that happened in her past.

Review
I found it interesting how personal the author gets in this article.  She tells you things about her past that I would not let anyone read about if I did them.  This proves that she is truly not ashamed of her past and has let go to what has happened.

QD
2.  Bio-mythography is a story from the past that the reader believes is true, but since it happened so long ago some of the details may be wrong or distorted.  Hooks' work is an example of bio-mythography because it may have some distorted details.

AE
2.  Identity can be changed through text because writers can either lie about events or they can only focus on certain details or events, changing what the writer things of them.

Reading Response 10 Bryson

Before You Read
3.  Technology has made communication much easier and quicker.  We can now instantly speak to someone anywhere, anytime.  People usually don't use proper grammar when texting or talking on the phone.  It usually does not affect my understanding of what the other person is trying to tell me because most of the people that I text text legibly.  There are many new words such as friend (verb), facebook, and tweet. 

Summary
In his article "Good English and Bad," Bill Bryson questions the rules of grammar in the English language.  He asks how many of the rules came to be and argues that they are based on the teachings of grammar scholars that may not have had the merit to make decisions for a language.  Many rules exist for no reason, they just are because they are.  Also some do not make sense.  In an example that Bryson uses, "I'm hurrying, are I not?" is incorrect but when you change "are I not" to aren't, a contraction that means the same thing, it is correct "I'm hurrying, aren't I?"

Synthesis
This article is similar to James Porter's article "Intertextuality and the Discourse Community" because both challenge a common construct.  Porter challenges the construct of plagiarism and argues how all texts are derived from other texts so plagiarism rules should not be as strict as they are.  In the article Bryson argues how grammar, like the rest of the English language, is fluid and changing so therefore we should accept not think as something being right or wrong.  It also relates to John Dawkins' article "Teaching Punctuation as a Rhetorical Tool" because it challenges the construct of punctuation and how it should be used more freely.

Review
I found this article more interesting than most of the articles that we have read so far because it was short so I did not have to pay attention as long and because it offered a new way to think about a subject.

QD
2.  Bryson says that English has such a complex grammar structure because the rules are based off of Latin rules but English and Latin have very little in common.  English also consists of words from many different languages and it even contains words that are derived from multiple different languages.

AE
2.  By Fluid Bryson means that the language is ever moving and changing.  By democratic he means that it changes as a result of how everyone uses it.  Rules of the language have changed just because people start talking in a new way.  I have seen fluidity in language in the some of my friends' papers in high school.  They may have used grammar that was technically incorrect, but it made sense in the context and therefor they were not penalized for it.

MM
Verb, noun, adjective, adverb, preposition, and article are some of the parts of speech.  I do not consciously think of them as I write or use them.  I learned them in school and had to memorize all of the parts of speech in middle school.  Knowing the parts of speech will make you better at using proper grammar but it will not heavily impact the content of your writing.

Project 1 intro

Could Texting be Destroying Your Grammar?

         Today, almost everyone in America texts.  The number of texts sent each day surpasses the population of the world.  IM, Email, and other forms of digital communication are also very prevalent.  Could it be possible that activities that are so common are hurting the grammar and spelling abilities of the people who do it?  If you are in school, that may be what your teacher is telling you, but do not believe it.  The idea that digital messaging will hurt you ability to do formal writing is a false construct. 

          Constructs, as described in Writing on Writing are "mental frameworks that people build in order to make sense of the world around them"(35).  In other words, they are misconceptions about writing that are often believed or even taught in schools.   
         Multiple studies have been carried out suggesting that there is no negative relationship between texting quality and formal writing quality in native English speakers.  In the article written by Latisha Asmaak Shafie, Norizul Azida, and Nazira Osman "SMS Language and College Writing: The Language of the College Texters", they describe a study at Universiti Teknologi Mara in Perlis, Malaysia.  They examined texts sent in English and how they correlate to spelling and grammar in formal writing.   264 texters participated in the study, 94 being male and 170 being female.  They were ages 18-22.  They conclude that "There was not significant differences in grammar and spelling which revealed that frequency of texting had no effect on their grammar and spelling.  Frequency of texting only had effects on grammar and spelling competencies on students whose language and communication skills at beginner level"(30).  The study, being undertaken in Malaysia, contained speakers native to English and those not native to English.  This conclusion supports that  people who already know the rules of a language will not forget those rules because of texting.
          In the article "The effect of text messaging on 9- and 10-year-old children's reading, spelling and phonological processing skills" the authors C. Wood, E. Jackson, L. Hart, B. Plester, and L. Wilde narrate a study conducted by Coventry University in which 9 and 10 year old students were give mobile phones with only texting service for 10 weeks, only to be used on weekends.  With periodic English exams, the children with the phones did not on average score any lower than the control group, children without mobile phones.  
          This study backs up Naomi S. Baron's article "Instant Messaging and the Future of Language" where she states that "Anecdotal evidence suggests that a number of their [students nine or 10] teachers, not wanting to be branded as troglodytes out of touch with contemporary culture, tolerate IM novelties in classroom written assignments"(31).  She continues to write that that means "No harm, but only if these same teachers ensure their students develop a solid grasp of traditional writing conventions as well"(31).
          On this second point I disagree with Baron.  Even at a young age students need to grasp the concept of discourse community (not necessarily knowing the word and its meaning but knowing who you are writing for and how they will judge your writing).  Discourse community, as defined by James Porter is "a group of individuals bound by a common interest who communicate through approved channels and whose discourse is regulated"(WAW 91).  In other words, whoever that will read, judge (grade), or discuss your document is the discourse community that you are writing for.  When texting (unless you are texting about a formal matter) your discourse community is whoever you are texting.  What students of all ages need to learn is to change how they write based on what discourse community they are writing for.  
          Teachers telling young children that it is alright to use digital messaging slang in school writing could lead to those students not learning the proper rules and spellings of words in the English language.  Getting in the habit of using improper spelling and grammar in formal writing at a young age could have severe negative affects on someone's writing ability in the future.  Using improper spelling and grammar in digital messaging will only not affect language abilities if you already have a firm grasp on the language and can draw the line when switching between discourse communities.  

Works Cited

Baron, Naomi S. "Instant Messaging And The Future Of Language." Communications Of The ACM 48.7 (2005): 29-31. Computers & Applied Sciences Complete. Web. 24 Sept. 2012.

L Wilde, et al. "The Effect Of Text Messaging On 9-And 10-Year-Old Children's Reading, Spelling And Phonological Processing Skills." Journal Of Computer Assisted Learning 27.1 (n.d.): 28-36. Social Sciences Citation Index. Web. 24 Sept. 2012.

Shafie, Latisha Asmaak, Norizul Azida, and Nazira Osman. "SMS Language And College Writing: The Languages Of The College Texters." International Journal Of Emerging Technologies In Learning 5.1 (2010): 26-31. Education Research Complete. Web. 24 Sept. 2012.

Wardle, Elizabeth and Downs, Doug, eds.  Writings about Writing. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2011. Print.

Reading Response 9

I am looking at an article titled "Cities that Smell" in a magazine.  The writing is presented as lists with different headings, each naming a city and what it smelled like at one point in time.  There is a picture of the statue of liberty.

Summary
In his article "Seeing the Text" Stephen Bernhardt argues for the importance of how a text visually appears.  Different techniques for organizing writing can have different effects of how the writing is interpreted.  Elements such as symmetry, contrast in colors between the text and background, and grouping similar looking sections together are all parts of the laws of gestalt.

Synthesis
This article relates to John Berger's article "Ways of Seeing" because they both discuss how something looks effects how it is interpreted.  John Berger argues that changes in the pose and expression of women without clothing in old European paintings determines whether they are nude (being revealed for the pleasure of the observer) or naked (showing themselves as a piece of art).  Bernhardt claims that how a piece of writing is organized and how other visual qualities effect its appearance.

Review
This article was difficult for me to follow.  It has a lot of useful information and advice but it was not presented in a way that was very easy to understand.

QD
4.  Specific formats help keep essays structured and on topic.  Specific formats also make essays easier to follow and review.  Not having a specific format would have its pros and cons.  It would enable extra creativity in formating your writing but it would also make the essay harder to organize if you are not good at thinking of your own organization pattern.

AE
4.  Facebook has many ways that it guides the user.  On the left hand side of your homepage it shows different pages you can view and you messages, events, and friend groups.  In the top right it shows different ways you can change your Facebook.  To make interactions easier on Facebook it should be updated so that you can choose what kind of post you want to see on your news feed (statuses, music, pictures).

After You Read
McCloud would have presented this article with pictures to give the reader a better understanding of his points.  Rather than write about how text should look, he would have presented multiple pictures as examples rather than just including one document.  I prefer McCloud's way of writing articles.

MM
Visually thinking about text is most appropriate in comics, newspapers, magazines, advertisements, and other places where images can be used to compliment text.  Project two will probably include the most visual thinking of text because it will include other elements than just text.

Reading Response 8

Getting Ready to Read
When I write I get help from my family if I am around them, my friends, and my teachers.  I also use the internet and books.  All of these people and sources give me help, ideas, advice, feedback, or assistance.

Summary
In his article "Intertextuality and the Discourse Community" James Porter argues for a theory called intertextuality; that all texts are connected and all writing is borrowed from other writing.  This redefines plagiarism because it calls every writer ever a plagiarist by the definition of plagiarism taught in high school.  Iterability and presupposition are the two different types of intertextuality.  Iterability is the borrowing anything from "explicit allusions, references and quotations" to "cliches, phrases in the air, and traditions"  (89).  Presuppositions are assumptions that you make about a text based on the text.  He also explains discourse communities, groups that circulate and review pieces of writing.  What discourse community you are writing for determines how you will write and what views you will have in your writing.

Synthesis

This article relates to Margaret Kantz's article "Helping Students Use Textual Sources Persuasively" and Michael Kleine's article because they all discuss how writers gather information from sources and use it to make one document.  These three articles are all for different audiences.

Review
I found the concept presented in this article, intertextuality, to be interesting but the article as a whole was dry and boring.  It is interesting t think that everything you write is a result of what you have read and what has been referenced to you.  Is intertextuality still relevant for young children who have not read much?

QD
4.  In the past I have thought that writing should be evaluated differently depending on what kind of writing it is but in general creativity, persuasiveness, grammar and spelling, and educational qualities.  In the past my writing has been evaluated mostly on grammar and spelling and how to follow directions.

5.  To write this article he must have gotten inspiration, facts, opinions, and arguments from other sources.  This supports his principles because it means that he in his discourse community he has gathered information to write this article.  It means that his article is the result of the synthesis of other articles, and that is intertextuality.

AE

2.  Plagiarism is claiming credit for someone else's work.  People are sometimes charged with plagiarism because they use the ideas of other authors.  Porter argues that all ideas are borrowed so that should not be a part of plagiarism.  Porter would write a plagiarism policy that allows students to borrow work from other authors as long as you are not directly taking their ideas.  The original policy is more stricter and would get more people accused of plagiarism.

Meta Moment

This article has less made me change the way I imagine writers and writing and more made me think about them in this way for the first time.  Adopting this idea would change the way I write because it would make me use other sources and other people's writing much more.  I would not think of myself as alone when writing papers, I would use other papers written by other people.





intertextuality the principle that all writing and speech arise from a single network. 88
iterability and presupposition two kinds of intertext 88
intertextuality examples 89 91

Reading Response 7

Getting ready to Read

1. I do not update my Facebook profile often, so what it says about me is often outdated.  I try to build an identity that represents me, but that is not easy because on Facebook you only write what you like and what you do, not how you do it.  My identity at home actually involves my attitude, not just interests.

2.  Using the first person makes writing much more personal because the reader interprets the writing as the thoughts of the writer, not just words on a page.

Summary

In his article "Voice in Writing Again: Embracing Contraries" Peter Elbow argues for and against the use of voice in writing.  He explains how the use of voice has many pros and cons.  A he puts it, "First, I'm trying to help us learn to adopt contrary stances toward voice-reading texts through the lens of voice and also reading them through the lens of "text" or not-voice.  We need the different and complementary insights we get from each kind of reading."

Synthesis

This article relates to John Berger's article "Ways of Seeing" because both of them discuss how one thing can have different meanings.  Reading a text twice, once taking voice into account and once not, can lead to two different interpretations of the text.

Review

I found this text to be informative because it was unbiased and presented two different sides of an argument. He represented each side equally and argued for the use of both.  I also found this article to be rather dry; very educational and very boring.

Questions for Discussion and Journaling

2.  Infographics can have a voice or be voiceless.  Some infographics, such as maps, are created purely to display facts.  Other may have a voice, such as infographics with a political agenda.  I disagree with his statement because in writing certain types of drafts, such as persuasive essays, one may want to develop their voice in their first draft.

4.  Yes, Elbow is playing his doubting and believing game because he is doubting each side of his own arguments and arguing against himself.  Giving full airing to each side of the debate allows it to remain open and for neither side to trump the other.  It is important to keep this up for debate because sometimes it is appropriate to use voice and sometimes it is not so people should know how to do each one.

Applying and Exploring Ideas

2.  When you listen to a passage the readers voice will change and that will make you interpret different parts of the passage differently.  It makes reading less complicated because you don't have to think as hard about how different phrases are supposed to be interpreted.  Ear training has made me think less about a passage in the past because I already have thoughts about it because I am hearing it.  I do not think that it should be used because it too strongly influences the reader/listener's thoughts.

3.  Sincerity is emotion that the author puts into text in order to connect with the reader.  Resonance is a small, lingering voice that the author puts into text in order to give it a slightly different feeling.  I struggled to come up with the sentence for resonance because it is a more abstract concept than sincerity.  I do not know how to use resonance effectively in my writing.

Meta Moment

Both methods need to coexist because they are useful at different times.  Do not mix them at one time, but use them at different times.  Do not use a weak voice as a compromise, rather mix a strong voice with no voice at all.

Reading Response 6

Getting Ready to Read

To write I need to be in a very quiet place.  I find any background conversation to be very distracting.  I also need to be well rested.  Other than these, I don't have any writing rituals.

Summary
In her article 'Decisions and Revisions' Carol Berkenhotter explains a detailed naturalistic study she did trying to figure out how scholars go about writing academic articles.  In this study she has Donald Murray record himself as he worked on three different academic articles in his own workplace.  She shows that in order to work some people must be in specific environments without time restrictions, which is why most studies about how scholars write are not effective.

Synthesis
This article relates to Sarah Allen's article 'The Inspired Writer vs. the Real Writer' because both articles address how people get ideas to write.  Allen calls herself and 'inspired writer' because writing comes naturally to her, but she has to struggle against herself to not just write what comes to her but to also revise and add to it.

Personal Response
I felt that this article was interesting on the grounds that Berkenkotter used a method to conduct research that interrupted Murray's writing process as little as possible.  The reading itself was dry and informative as are most of the articles that we have read.

Questions for Discussion and Journaling

1  Murray's writing processes are much more elaborate than mine.  In the past I have spent little time planning, I just write.  It has worked in the past but I will have to change it for college classes.  After I write I go back through my paper and revise it, correcting errors and tweaking sentences and paragraphs to sound better.  I do not write down what I think of my work and change it later as Murray does, I just change it.

2.  Berkenkotter concluded that Murray moves between planning, drafting, editing and revision.  She was surprised that he only spent between 0% and 3%  of his time on each article revising.  It seemed to her that revising would take more time than that.

Applying and Exploring Ideas

1.  I spend most of my time actually writing and thinking of what to say next.  I write in a linear path, starting at the beginning and thinking of the best thing to say next that will get me a good grade.  After I am done writing I go over the paper and correct any errors and edit my sentences to sound better.  I have a low level of writing experience, just high school English class.  This relates to how I spend my time writing because if I knew more about writing I might use a more sophisticated writing method.

Meta Moment

From these readings I have learned the importance of planning while writing.  Murray spend more time on the planning step than any other step.

Reading Response 5 (Berger)

Before You Read

On the cover of a Rolling Stone magazine, Taylor Swift is pictured with a guitar.  In this image the focus is on how attractive her face looks and the fact that she plays the guitar, two things that are essential to her career.  In Leonardo da Vinci's painting "The Mona Lisa" the focus is not of the beauty but the complexity of the woman and the artistic quality of the painting.

Robert Patterson and Jessica Simpson are both pictured on the cover of different issues of People magazine.  In his picture, Patterson is on shown from the top of his torso up, posing to look very serious and mysterious, as if there is more to him than meets the eye.  Simpson is pictured with sitting down and leaning forward with the majority of her body in the photograph.  She is looking directly at the camera and smiling widely, with the focus on her looks.  The photo is much simpler than the photo of Patterson.

Summary

In his article 'Ways of Seeing', John Berger attempts to convince the reader that there is a clear difference between naked and nude depictions of people, particularly women, in classic European art.  Nakedness in art is showing your own beauty for your own delight while nude artwork is revealing for the pleasure of the observer.  He argues that almost all classic European oil paintings that depicted women without clothing were of nude women and were painted for the delight of men.  This carries over into society today where men are the surveyors and women are the surveyed and in order to appear better women become surveyors of themselves from the point of view of men.

Synthesis

This relates to McCloud's 'Vocabulary of Comics' because both articles dive into how we view images.  McCloud focuses on low detailed drawings such as cartoons are recognizable as universal symbols while Berger writes about highly detailed classic European oil paintings.  This also relates to Greene's 'Argument as Conversation.'  The frame that most of the paintings Berger discusses were painted to be looked at through a frame of sexual desire for the woman in the painting.  These he describes as being nude, while naked paintings are to be looked at with the frame of admiring the woman for her beauty.

Personal Response

When this article was written in the 1970s it was more accurate with its statements about how women's representation in art carried on to how they are treated today.  It may still hold some truth but today women are thought of as equals of men.  It may be hard to tell how much truth his bit on the surveyor vs surveyed still holds because most people don't talk about how they view people.

Questions for Discussion and Journaling

1  I think that the artists who painted these paintings knew what they were doing because they are obviously very talented artists and have studied their subject intensely.  They would know how to paint a women to be appealing to a male onlooker (nude) or how to paint a women to show off her beauty (naked).

2  Most of the time that I see women posed in advertisements is in magazines or on television commercials.  They are often trying to sell an article of clothing or an accessory that they are wearing and they will strike a pose that shows off the product.  Women in advertisements look pretty to show that if you wear their product you will also look pretty.  This is different than the paintings discussed by Berger because in the paintings the women are the product.  They are what is meant to be looked at rather than what they are wearing.

Applying and Exploring Ideas

1  American Revolutionary war heroes, such as George Washington, have been depicted in many paintings such as "Washington Crossing the Delaware."  In these paintings they are always portrayed as being powerful.  It relates to what Berger writes on page 208 "A man's presence is dependent upon the promise of power which he embodies."  George Washington promises lots of moral, physical, and social power and so in the painting of his crossing of the Delaware river Washington has a very strong presence.  There is a gap between these paintings and the ones that Berger viewed because the images are supposed to be representations of how strong and brave the men were.

3  Positioning is an important factor of how an image should be viewed in modern images but is not the only one.  There are other factors, such as the facial expression of the woman and her background.  I see this on magazine covers, such as the ones I described in the pre-reading exercises.

Meta Moment

The difference between nude and naked is result of how the artist portrayed what he was painting.  This relates to the tone in writing, which is the attitude with which the author writes.  These are both examples of how an author or painter could write or paint the same subject twice, but with a completely different meaning.  Also the concept of the viewer is important in literature because the author will write with a tone that they think will satisfy their suspected audience, or viewers.

Reading Response 4 (McCloud)

Before You Read

My favorite comic is Calvin and Hobbes.  I feel that I relate to the character Calvin because he has a very active imagination; he imagines that his stuffed tiger is a real tiger and that they are best friends.  As a young child I also had a strong imagination and often daydreamed.

In the room that I am in there is a cup with a design on it that is a circle with a line of writing and underneath the writing there is a red semicircle containing a small picture of a drop of water.  This looks like a face, with the writing being the eyes, the semicircle being the mouth, and the water drop being the tongue.  There is also an electricity outlet that looks very much like a face.  I can look at the logo without seeing a face, but not the outlet because it obviously has the features of two eyes and a nose, while the logo takes more imagination to pick out a face.

Summary

In "Vocabulary on Comics" Scott McCloud argues that the reason that comics are more accepted than more detailed drawings or pictures is that what you take most of the details out of a picture people focus on the remaining ones.  For instance, in the example that McCloud uses the reason that we view a simple face of a man (a circle with dots for eyes and a line for a mouth) as more manlike than a detailed drawing of a man's face is that the eyes and mouth of a person are two of the most recognizable features of a face.  In the simple drawing we focus on those features.  When you try to picture your own face without a mirror it is easiest to picture those features.  Also the simple drawing represents more people than the detailed drawing. When you see a detailed drawing you think of the person that it is of, but when you see a circle with two dots and a line you think of any face.

This article relates to Stuart Greene's article "Argument as Conversation: The Role of Inquiry in Writing a Researched Argument" through the topic of framing.  McCloud discusses how we mentally frame everything we see with dots and lines to look like a face.  This comes from our obsession with ourselves.  The front of a car does not look anything like a human face, but we see two headlights and a bumper and think of ourselves.

I found this article incredibly more interesting than any of the other articles we have read so far.  The cartoon form made it more fun to read and the pictures were a nice break from words.  I also enjoyed the topic; I find pictures and symbols more entertaining than research methods.

Questions for Discussion and Journaling

1  Adults still like the simplicity of cartoons because it makes them easy to understand and relate too.  Watching cartoons and reading comics as a whole does not become inappropriate at any age because there are so many different types of cartoons and comics.  For example, nobody is too old to read this article and it is a comic.  I believe that McCloud would have a very similar opinion on the subject.

2  The comic book format is more pleasing to the eyes.  I will always find pictures and symbol more entertaining than paragraphs.  Also, with his subject being on cartoons it seems appropriate for him to write his article as a cartoon.  If only expressed through writing, his points would not have made as big of an impact on me because I would not have found them nearly as interesting so I would have not paid as much attention.  He would have also needed more words to make up for the loss of pictures.  For example he would have had to describe all of the faces that are depicted on page 9.

Applying and Exploring Ideas

1  Yes, it would be beneficial for teaching to include more visual imagery because it is more interesting than text and when something is interesting it is easier to pay attention to and remember.  Students would get more out of lessons that included pictures, particularly English and History.

3  Many adults say that they "grow out" of watching cartoons because most cartoons are directed for younger people.  The majority of cartoons (such as Spongebob and The Flintstones)are directed towards children.  Other cartoons such as Family Guy are directed towards teenagers and young adults.  In my opinion, after people grow out of those genres of cartoons they simply do not find cartoons that fit their sense of humor, even though such cartoons exist.

Research Tools: Summary

ArticlesPlus-Finding Scholarship

Scholarly articles make great sources for research papers.  To use the Ohio University database for these articles, first go to the Alden homepage and click on the ArticlesPlus tab.  Type in a word or phrase you want to find articles about and press search.  On the left side of your results screen you will find the "Refine your results" option.  Check any of the boxes to filter the articles shown.  Some articles can be viewed in PDF form, which allows you to print, save, email, or do even more things with it.  For the articles that cannot be found in PDF form click the Find it button and you may be able to find it in other Alden databases or through OhioLINK.

How to Find a Book

Although the massive stacks of books in Alden library may be intimidating and confusing at first, after you learn how it will be very easy to find a book.  To find a book in the library, first find it in the online catalog.  If you don't know what book you want, then you can type in keywords for your subject.  Separating keywords with the word and will make the search engine give you better results.  Once you select a book that you want, click on it and record the book's call number.  This page will also show you which floor the book is on.  Finally you can go to the floor of the library with your book and follow the signs to the section that has your books call number.  Around your book you will most likely find other books on similar topics as the one you were looking for.  All you have left to do is go to the desk on the second or fourth floor to check out your book using your student ID.

How to get a book from OhioLINK

If you ever need to check a book out that Alden library doesn't have or that is currently being used, OhioLINK is a way to get a copy of that book quickly.  It lets students request books from other libraries around Ohio.  To use it, first look up a book using Alden library's search engine.  If it is not available, click the Search OhioLINK button on the right.  You will be taken to a screen that shows copies of the book that are available in Ohio.  Click the request button and select your school (Ohio U) on the next page.  The final page asks you to login using your Ohio ID and password and to select a pickup location (Alden).  After about three business days of completing these steps you will receive an email telling you that your book has arrived.

Project 1 proposal

Why facts are just claims.
Most visible in textbooks, especially history books.
It influences how we think about text because we take statements that the text present as a fact to be completely true, when in reality it could be exaggerated or not true at all.
It directs us to write stating that things that may not be true are true.
It makes us think that history books are good writing when in reality they could be inaccurate or slanted.

facts, claims, angle, statement, persuasion, inaccurate.

idea 2
Texting is ruining our grammar and spelling.
This construct is most visible in English teachers who tell you that by texting improper grammar you will develop improper grammar.
It makes us think that grammar and spelling are not very important.
It directs us to write with improper grammar and spelling when not texting.
It may make us think that good writing does not need to include accurate grammar and spelling.

how texting is ruining grammar and spelling, why texting has not affect on grammar and spelling,  why people need to put accurate grammar and spelling into texts.

Reading Response 3

Getting Ready to Read
A fact is a statement that is know to be true and can be proven.
A claim is a statement that someone believes to be true and tells others is true.
An opinion is an explanation or statement that may be true or false.
An argument is a difference in opinions, ranging from a verbal fight to a scholarly debate or conversation

In her article "Helping Students Use Textual Sources Persuasively", Margaret Kantz attempts to teach students to not just tell a story or inform the reader with research papers but also make an argument and take a side, trying to convince the reader why your side of the argument is right.  She argues that even though this form of writing is more difficult, it is the only legitimate way to write a scholarly research paper.  Using a made up college student name Shirley she explains how college professors will not give good grades to students who retell the information from their sources because it is too simple of a method.  Kantz also explains how facts are often not facts at all but claims, claims trying to get one to think a certain way about an issue.  Part of researching is figuring out which of the claims are accurate and using those to make your paper more accurate and persuasive.  You should not start researching already knowing what your opinion will be, rather you should form it based on your sources.

This article relates strongly to Kleine's article "What Is It We Do When We Write Articles Like This One-and How Can We Get Students to Join Us?" because both articles are attempting to convince the reader to do more in depth research.  Kleine argues that research is not a linear process and students who just copy text are doing it wrong.  Kantz wants students to form an opinion out of their research and explain it in their paper.  That is also a topic in Stuart Greene's article "Argument as Conversation" as he states that you should frame an argument with your research.  Both authors state in their articles that in your paper you should make  points about your subject that have never been made before.

Questions for Discussion and Journaling
1 Kantz contends that facts, opinions, and arguments are much more closely related than one might have thought.  Facts, as she puts it, are just claims, as are opinions.  Since with some 'facts' (the number of people in a battle, the reason for a war, e.t.c.) are not actually known exactly people cannot report what is actually fact.  This is why different sources may have different facts.  Also, on events that involved two groups going against each other each group may have reported different facts about the event, making their side of the issue more justified.  These facts are merely opinions.  Because facts are just opinions, arguments are just debates about whose facts or opinions are accurate.  Kantz looks at argument in a similar was as Greene, as a way of sharing ideas.

2 Students think that textbooks tell the whole truth.  Students don't realize that you need to present an original argument in a research paper, not just tell about your topic. Many students read sources as stories.  Students do not understand that facts are closer to claims.  Kantz is correct about these statements, most students do not understand these parts of writing, partially because low level English instructors (high school teachers) do not teach these concepts.  From reading this article, I believe that I understand all of these concepts.

Applying and Exploring Ideas
2  Prior to this class, creativity and research have not been used together very much for me.  When doing research papers, my thesis usually requires creativity, but after I am able to come up with it little creativity is required in writing the rest of my paper.  I have written papers similar to Shirley's paper, telling the story of my topic but not arguing a point on it.  Kantz talks about using lots of creativity in papers, a better method than how I have been previously instructed.  You need creativity to be able to form a good argument.

Meta Moment
Kantz is mainly trying to analyze the construct that research papers to not need to be persuasive.  She writes about the construct that textbooks tell facts, while in reality they tell claims.  These are useful to understand because they will help me with writing in the future.

Reading Response 2

Getting Ready to Read
2  I have one class this semester that requires the writing of a research paper, this class.  I imagine doing the research for this paper by going through the library looking for books or articles on my topic.  I also plan on browsing the web for databases, papers, articles, or other documents on my topic.  I think that to accomplish my project i will need to spend lots of time researching as well as writing and revising multiple drafts.

In his article "What Is It We Do When We Write Articles Like This One-and How Can We Get Students to Join Us?", Michael Kleine sets out to discover how people conduct research.  He wanted to know how academics researched and why students didn't research like academics.  He developed his own model of research tactics, dividing the steps of collecting, rhetorical sifting, pattern seeking, and translating into two different methods, "hunting" and "gathering" after how ancient humans lived.  "Hunting" is searching out specific information while "gathering" is collecting all of the information around you.  After interviewing eight of his colleagues about how they went about doing research he found that they all wrote because they wanted to, not because they had been told to.  Their inspirations to write had come from interactions with peers.  After his interviews he came to the conclusion that the writing process was too complex to describe with a linear model.  One cannot characterize how to do every research paper, nor can one characterize every writer based on their field.

He concludes that like professors, students should not just write for their teachers but also their peers.  This would cause more teamwork and cooperation among students and inspire them to write better.  Students should also research in multiple different ways, including procedures relevant to them and "hunting" as well as "gathering."

This article relates to Stuart Greene's article "Argument as Conversation" because in both articles the author is trying to get the reader to change how they view a part of writing.  Greene stated that argument is more a debate or conversation about a scholarly topic and how it should be used in papers.  Kleine's argued in his article that educators need to get their students to change their research tactics from copying text to actually learning the information in their sources and incorporating it into their paper.


Questions for Discussion and Journaling
1.  In high school whenever my English class would go to our school's library most of what would happen would be students sitting at computers next to their friends, talking while searching through wikipedia and other webpages.  Rather than copying encyclopedias we would do the 21st century version and print off pages from the internet.  That is the way that i have researched in the past, but i hope to change that with this course.

3.  With the professionals Kleine interviews many sources are used in researching.  They read lots of sources, analyze it, and then sift through to find what they need.  They combine that with info from many other sources to write their document.  In my past efforts I have used fewer sources and used more information from each one.  I do not break down each source as much as a professional, I just use the somewhat crude form of information it gives me to write my paper.

4.  If i changed my research tactics to what Kleine talks about I would spend more time researching but it would end up being much more fruitful because it would result in me having more sources to use and more (and possibly better) information.  It would also make my papers sound more professional.

Reading Response 1

        In the introduction to Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs' Writing about Writing the author's make a convincing argument for why it is important to learn about writing, not just how to write.  When one learns about writing they learn to put their own style and/or opinion into their writing.  They also learn to think critically about the writings of other people.  When one has worked on their ability to think through writings they can more easily participate in scholarly inquiry.  Scholarly inquiry is when a group of researchers come together to converse about a problem or the meaning of a text and what is the best solution to the problem or the most accurate meaning to the text.
          Stuart Greene expands on different aspects of writing in his article "Argument as Conversation: The Role of Inquiry in Writing a Researched Argument."  He attempts to convince his readers that all scholarly papers should take a side in an argument that is much more complex than what they are writing because their topic has been debated for longer than they could be writing.  Greene wrote that writers should try to make points for their side that have not been made before.  Greene also teaches that the frame, which is how much of an issue the writer presents, can be used to better writings.  Framing lets the author write from their perspective and can make a paper much more persuasive but also less honest.  It also forces the writer to not only establish their position on an issue but also to write exactly what they think on the issue.

QD
2 Greene quotes Kenneth Burke's metaphor again because it is very accurate in describing most arguments.  Most people that are currently involved in an argument over a large issue were not around when the argument began so they don't know how it began and cannot argue for or against all points.  The extended metaphor is that by entering a parlor you are a student or researcher that has just became interested in a topic.  You read multiple papers over the topic.  Eventually you feel that you have enough information over the topic to write a paper yourself.  Nobody that is going to read your paper was around when your topic first came to be so none of you know exactly how it was started.  This metaphor presents writing with a sense of curiosity due to that nobody knows all about a topic so other point of views are still precious.

3  Framing is writing from your own point of view.  It does not mean not being truthful, just only or mostly including information that supports your side of an argument.  The metaphor of a camera lens accurately describes framing because a camera lens lets one focus on what part a scene they want to be blurry and what part they want to be clear.  This concept is important to Greene because it allows a writer to make their arguments much more persuasive.

AE
2  Greene's article represents a conversation with the reader about different aspects of writing.  He frames his argument to convince the reader that elements such as framing are important in writing arguments.  Greene practices what he preaches in "Argument as Conversation" because in his article he uses the techniques that he is teaching the reader about.