Blog #12 Flynn

IWA #12

True Story:

Although majority of my life has been sitting in a classroom; I still have learned much more outside of the classroom. In school they teach you material that will help you graduate high school and college but life is way beyond that. I think I learned who I was outside of the class by the life experiences I have been through so far. Although learning who I was is a very broad learning experience it is something very essential. I still will learn more about myself as life goes on but the ones below are a few that I really am proud of in the last four years.

Starting my freshmen year I really became interested into the groups at my school such as student council and the Zanta Club. I really like the idea of making a difference in the school and to become a leader. Although I was new to the programs when I was a freshmen but became very involved throughout the four years I was in high school. By my senior year I was president of Student Council and a group leader of Z-Club. Those groups became more than just group they have taught me that I wanted to be a leader and help others in a positive way through my leadership skills. With the leadership skills I gained I realized that nursing would be a perfect career for me because I can use my leaderships every day in my job. Also with leadership comes independency and I was able trust myself in situations without the help of others.

Being a girl means having a lot of friends right? Well wrong, I probably have been ditched by so many girls people would think I am a bully or something. In high school I was left by my best friend, she was literally like a sister to me. She found a guy and left me in the dirt on the side of the road. Even though I lost a friend I gained a lesson and a piece of myself. I have learned that friends do not define me and friend will come in and out of my life but I will always be there for myself and so will my family. High school was a bumpy journey for me I have had the best of times and the worst of times but I would not trade the experience for anything. Life can suck sometimes and make you wonder, “why me?” But in the end you find yourself and that is what matter most. No teacher can teach you to be you, YOU have to! J

Blog #11 Delpit

IWA #11:

Summary:

Delpit really brings an argument to the discourse, “talk” we have had going on in class. For the first time in our readings we actually have an actually article that is about contradicting another author. Gee in his article about discourse communities struck something in Delpit that she did not agree with. Gee in his article says that we cannot understand the lingo or rules of a community if you are not in them. Delpit goes against that by giving great examples of how you can. Also Gee thinks that you cannot be taught a primary discourse which is also something that Delpit proves wrong in her article. She gives a prime example proving that you can be taught literature with the story about, “Margie” a student who was taught more and made a statement about it at an institution. Delpit took the idea of learning literacy to a new question asking if some should actually attempt to learn? She explains more that some people do not want to learn so trying to would take away from you. Delpit goes deeper into her mind on how she feels about the idea of teaching literacy in discourse community terms.

Connections:

After reading this article the first thing I thought of was Deborah Brandt. Brandt has that article about literacy sponsors that is who you can give credit to teaching you or others literacy in your life, or anything you have gained knowledge on. Brandt idea goes hand in hand with Delpit because she agrees that you can teach literacy to anyone and they would obviously be the sponsors if they were teaching the literacy. Going by the example that Delpit gives about Margie the student, her sponsor was Susan who helped her get to her achievement.

Questions:

Delpit going against the ideas of Gee were very persuading and they worked for me. Although I did have the same opinions before reading her article, after I was done I was very much persuaded by her ways. She gives great example that back up her ideas and back them so much more urging. I think we use her, “techniques” on persuading on a persuasive essay because of the backup information that we put into our work to really justify why we feel the way we do.

Opinions:

Delpit’s article was a perfect way to describe how I actually felt about Gee’s article. Although I though he made some very valid facts about discourse communities, I had the same opinions that Delpit had in the article and I think she did a great job backing up her opinions that made them very believable to almost be facts. Great read for a good debate!!

Blog #10 Devitt et all

Summary:

Three authors, Devitt, Bawarshi, and Reiff, use their essays together to help us go deeper into the depth of discourse communities.  Their theme of the essays is using genre to help and assist studying the communities and how it affect the aspect of them. Devitt in her article talks about how genre in a community can be confusing and create problematic or contradicting settings. She used many examples about jury scenarios. Bawarshi in his article talks a lot about language and how it is a behavior socially and language is essential to learning the norms of the group. His prime examples were mainly medical based ideas and stories. Lastly Reiff in her section talks about genre is a way to study and get the legist of how a group interacts with other members. All the authors really take genre and put it into context with discourse communities and ethnography. 

Connections:

After reading this I have noticed language popping out to me the most. I thought of Smitherman’s article on the Black English in our society. That article really pointed out on how language can be so essential with a certain group or even a culture. In this article as well they agree that language is so important to find a common purpose and come to when the group interacts.

Questions:

Barwarshi talks a lot about language in his article and how essential it is within a group. Also he talks about genre analysis will help you understand more on the ethnography studies of the group and the language they use. Swales talks about the genres of the speech and discourse communities and how they are completely different because of their “genres’ per say. I think both authors would agree to say that language is a key factor in getting to know the group and their purpose. But I think Swales thinks that there are way other more important factors that a group needs to be considered a discourse community. When it comes to a classroom I believe that Barwarshis ideas would be more suitable because of the language based idea. Classrooms have many personals that have their own ideas but all come together with a specific language to share a common purpose/ideas.

Opinions:

We have done a lot of readings about discourse communities so all of them, including this one, helps  me understand them so much more the more I read. I really like how the authors have a similar topic of genre to help explain discourse communities. What I really like about this article was how great the examples were. Whenever I was confused about what the authors were saying the examples really helped me understand more about what they were trying to portray in their writing. All in all great read and is helping me more with the project we are doing and creating some ideas.

Blog #9 Swale

Summary:

John Swales in his article really get into depth about discourse communities. He talks a lot about the topics speech communities and discourse communities and how they are not them same. He gives great explanation of how they are different with definitions and strictly purpose but also dives deeper into comparing them as sociolinguistic and socialhetorical. Many people question what exactly a discourse community is because, at times, we may think they are broad; Swales tells us about the six characteristics that are sufficient for identifying groups as discourse communities or not. His article is a great tool for learning more about a discourse community and breaking it down to help readers understand more.

Connections:

The first thing that came to my mind after reading this article was Dana Lynn Driscol article because of the project that we are doing. We are studying communities in their own environment and the ways that Dana explains are perfect way of getting information on the communities. Also primary research would be a prime ideal way of receiving the information we would need for the project rather than reading about in the book. Researching different communities are different then researching a certain topic you cannot just go to the books for. Discourse communities need a special kind of research and Dana’s article is a perfect source for them.

QD#3:

It is really hard to put education in general discourse communities because it is so broad and is a temporary thing. I would think that a first year college class would not be considered one because usually the classes you are taking are not dealing with the degree you wish to pursue. As a graduate you are taking classes that you need to graduate and for your occupation and there are other students who are sharing the same purpose. For example I am taking English and there are some students who are in my class that actually are pursuing a degree with writing and English. As for me I am a nursing student so English is just a class I need to take but there is nothing beyond that.

QD#5:

A group I am involved in that could be considered a discourse community would be the Student Advisory Council. We are all there to help the College of Health Professions and Science but also gain our leadership skills. We have some genres as a group that no one else has some including our purpose and activities we lead and are involved in. Because we are all medical majors we do have lexis in the fact we know certain language with the medical field. Obviously school is not for life, unless your maybe a doctor, we cannot be in the SAC forever so when we graduate would be the time to have to move on from the group.

Opinions:

Although the article was not the most entertaining topic we have talked about, I thought it was very helpful. I really honesty had never heard of discourse community before taking English 1510 so it was a greet read to get me educated on the topic more. Also after diving deeper with speech communities I was starting to question more about what they were and Swales really did a good job explaining them. I started to think that speech communities could also be a type of discourse community but after reading more I found what it takes to be a discourse community and the differences with the two.

Blog #7 Smitherman

Summary:
Smitherman talks in his article about the black English we see in our world today. Throughout history and even today we have seen English as being the dominant language but we also see varies variations of it. African American has showed over the years as having some slight differentiations in language and it almost is similar to slang. But it is now used all the time like instead of saying. "It is" we now say, "It's." We have over time gotten very lazy with our language and changed ways of spelling words. In his article he really explain more on the Black English.


Connections:
It was very hard to think of connections that were similar to the topic or point in Smitherman's article. After reading the article the first thing that came to my mind was Mclouds article about symbols. Overtime we all have changes language and it so century to century. Just like the pictures we still get the word even if it is not in full form. For example if we read, "do not" we would still read it the same even if it said,"don't." Just like the pictures that Mcloud describes we do not care how much detail is shown we still will get the idea with less-detailed work.


Teachers Assignment:
Smitherman talks about a teacher assignment talking about the Vietnam War and students were to write about there opinions. The student obvious had bad grammar, but more importantly the structure and the sentences in general were not thought out at all. Instead of the teacher telling the student to fix the whole thing he or she only said "fix your grammar." He uses sloppy as being correct and usually we do not correlate sloppy with something positive. But because writing has advances we have been able to have sloppy correct ways of writing where we use correct grammar but out thoughts are not backed up by sources and we do not have to have supporting details behind our thoughts. Although sloppy can be correct it can also be on the line of just plain sloppy. Which is like the sample he gave from the student.

Opinions:
I really likes the article because it is something I always really wondered. I always was so curious about slang and other cultures slang. The article gives a clear topic about African American. I thought the topic was really well thought out and the author did a great job on talking about it. I did get confused at some points about what he was talking about but all in all a great short read.

Mcloud and Bernhardt

 Summary:

Mcloud's article was very interesting and different from the others. His main point

on the article was to prove the point that what we see usually is what guild us and 

that we use symbols and pictures to spark our imagination. He uses an example

such as a face and whether we put a great amount of detail or just dot eyes and a line

mouth, we recognize it as a face. Also we make faces out of anything, One example was

 a car and how the headlights are the eyes and the grill was the mouth. We have use our

eyes majority of the time to give meaning to a picture or word. The layout of the article

was a comic book layout which was ironic because of the point he was giving through out

his article.

Berhnardt also talks more on the visual aspect of reading. He has a hard time reading, in his words

the, "low visual identity" looking paragraphs. We all usually are writing the typical essay with five parapraphs

that have perfect structure and look very "formal."  Bernhardt talks about how companies and writers use

techniques to catch the eye of the readers, even if it is changing the colors of the paper and font. We all read

with our eyes so by making  it more appealing we will all want to read the article or story more. He gives many examples of how the passage was changed to catch the attention of the reader so they would receive more views, not just by the academic perspective.

 

Relating to the Article:

I do struggle with reading long, texts that are in paragraph form.

Now in days that is all you see and I want to call myself "lazy."

As much as I would love to read the article or passage I am

sometimes just simply too lazy to. When the text is in a different

way I am always more interested in reading it because it appeals 

to my eyes. I would say reading is like food. You eat with your eyes 

first because if the food does not look good you probably will not

eat it. This goes along with reading for me, if the text looks long and

in tons of paragraphs , I most likely will not read it.

Opinions:

I really liked the article that Mcloud wrote not only because the comic book style

made it way more interesting but because of the point he was giving. He talked about

something that is so true and it really made me think more about how we see things and the

meaning we give to an image just from what we see. I really liked how the articles were not about

how to write or read, but it was about the visual aspect of reading. I really liked reading both articles.

They both had great point being made about the visual concept of reading and writing.

Blog #5 Porter

Summary: 
In his article Porter talks a lot about how the community perceives writing and "plagiarism." He describes in his article about originality in writings and how readers are expecting writers to be original and not use anyone else words or ideas. He also breaks down plagiarism and tells us his idea of how we all do not get our ideas from ourselves. Although we may be writing a paper about our ideas, we have received our ideas because of others. Porter makes plagiarism rules sound too "harsh." He even explains how Thomas Jefferson was not original. He also talks about intertextual that is a text that has his ideas that are from other texts. It is sort of like "borrowing" others work and putting it in your own. Porter really breaks down his idea on how texts are perceived by the readers and what techniques authors use to create a feeling or a mindset for the readers.

QD#4:
This is a hard question to answer because I am, in no means, a good writer or evaluate. When I look at a writing I usually look for the obvious grammar mistakes and if the paper is laid out in a good manner. I also look at how the point is giving in the paper and if he or she has hit all the key spots that they were supposed to. I think evaluating with acceptability in mind is very different from how I have done before and also how others have. I think it is taking evaluating to a whole different level, but in a positive way.

AE#1:
I cannot think of other commercial or advertisements that use intertextual ways. Songs now and days are HUGE on "borrowing" old or used songs in their own tract. The song by Pitbull, "Back in Time," is one example I am thinking of where he uses the tract from the movie Dirty Dancing. In his song he is trying to bring in history an a classic old movie to portray his point, "Bringing back time."

Opinions:
I at first had no idea what Porter was talking about. It all was like spanish to me. I started to sort of get the idea when he was talking about intertextual ways authors use to make something seem more dramatic or perceived in a different way. I did like this article because, for some reason, I was relating to my sociology class and the way we perceive things just by how they are placed or put. Although I am still confused by some things he said so I am hoping tomorrows class will help me understand more.

Topic for Project 2

The topic I would like to talk about for project two is five paragraph essays. I have always wondered why? Why do we always have to write five paragraphs? What is so good about them? The questions are always running through my head what it is about them. I am hoping to find out about what other authors and other writers have to say about five paragraphs essay and where they originally came from. Also I am curious to know if it is changing today in education. There is so much I want to know about the five paragraph length and I think it is a perfect topic with my passion for knowledge on it.

Blog #4 Macolm X Alexie

Summaries:
I just read the article about Malcolm X and it was very good. Malcolm had a hard time growing up and he did not have the best life. He was sent to prison and while he was there he completely re-wrote the whole dictionary in order to learn how to read and write. He talked about how he did not know how to read or write but eventually was thinking about the words and saying them perfect because of re-writing all those words. Also he talked about discrimination and he read books on books about slavery and discrimination of all races and cultures. He really became familiar on what discrimination was and could read it out of a book so quickly. Malcolm really made reading and writing a positive task in his life

Sherman Alexie also made the best of reading and writing. Alexie was also discriminated by his Indian race and was not given the opportunity to read and write like other kids when he was younger. Before he even knew what to do with a book he started to look at pictures and just imagined on what the words were saying and eventually, through reading all his comic books, he realized how to read and write. Now Alexie is an inspiration to his Indian faith and he is so proud he is a writer when everyone was against him. He now visit schools and tells his story about his childhood and how he got to where he is today.

Making Connections:
This article is very hard to relate to previous article that we have read because Malcolm and Alexie talk more about how reading and writing has effected them to a more positive life. I would say Malcolm and Rosenburg have similar stories on reading something more abstract. Malcolm read the history books in a different way and to see who was the main author and what race was dominant in the piece. They both have their different ways of reading a story not in a normal way that we were taught. They both caught things that we would not of when we read the same thing.

 
AEI #1:
I really think that reading and writing could help you overcome anything. If you can learn how to read and write that is such an accomplishment.I think reading other stories about others overcoming poverty in their life could also be a great inspiration to those who are struggling. If you have others in your life that want to help you be accomplished it could relate to Deborah Brandt's idea on literacy sponsorships. You can have sponsors in your life that want to help you gain the skills and characteristics to overcome poverty and discrimination along with teaching you to read or write. Both go hand in hand when it comes to overcoming poverty or discrimination and sponsors helping you.

Opinions:
I really liked these readings because they were not about experiments or how to write. They were way more personable. Both of them were about reading and writing and how it truly affected them. Malcom X's story on how he copies the dictionary was just so crazy to read about because I cannot even image copying such a book and that is how he spent most of his time in prison. I really, really liked these articles because I love reading about others lives.