Heilker and Yergeau

Summary

This article starts by talking about how recently autism has become a frequently talked about topic in our society and that it is now approaching "critical mass". In just the past few years, many movies, television shows, and even Autism Awareness Day has been created to bring autism into light in our society. The problem that the writers of this article have about making autism such an important topic is that we really do not know anything about it. It then goes on to say that autism is rhetorical because we put so much effort into bringing autism into light in the community, however we don't know anything about it. This article talks about how people with autism can become obsessed with certain things which is why people with autism usually know a great amount about one topic that they enjoy.

 

Connections

The only other article I can connect this to is Gee's article because he too talks about rhetoric and discourses just like this article by Heilker and Yergeau. Gee talks about how rhetoric is a way of being. This is similar to Heilker and Yergeau because they consider autism as a rhetoric, and autism is also a way of being.

 

 

 

I believe it is obvious that the dominant perception of autism is that it is a disability. These authors are arguing that autism is not a disability, but in fact almost a rhetoric or discourse community themselves. They function in their own certain way that is so different that to outsiders it looks like a disability. So, in fact, people who have autism belong to their own special discourse community.

 

Opinions

I found this article interesting. They brought up an interesting idea and made us look at autism in a different way. I liked the part when they talked about how when people with autism really like a topic they know everything about it and talk about it all the time because there were some kids with autism in my high school and they knew everything about science, so I agree with that statement.

Villanueva and hooks

Summaries

The Villanueva article is a huge collection of various poems and short stories. The common theme between all of these poems and short stories is minorities having trouble fitting in in the communities where they reside. They felt alone because of people making fun of them, both the way they looked and because they were struggling to learn a new language. The topics in these poems and stories range from spending time in jail to being called names and not being able to fit in.

 

The main topic in bell hooks article is the trouble that she encountered when trying to write her autobiography. She said she interpreted the struggles as an indication that she was not ready to let go of her past and be fully in the present. She said that every day that went by while she was attempting to write her biography her memories became more and more faded. She ends by saying that when she finally finished writing her biography she was glad she did because writing a biography puts your life into a new perspective.

 

Connections

When i finished reading the Villanueva article, I realized it had a lot of similarities to the Alexie article. Alexie struggled, much like all of the people in the poems and short stories, to conform and fit into their new society.

 

Opinions

The Villanueva article was interesting because it was just a collection of other peoples works that have a common theme. It brought to light the first hand experience that "foreigners" for lack of a better word, have conforming into their society and dealing with the struggles of fitting in to said society. I didn't mind the bell hooks article, and it kind of makes me want to try and write my own biography and see if I can remember what I did in the past.



Devitt and Company

 

Summary

 

This article was a actually a combination of three different articles by three different authors all discussing the similar topics of genre and ethnography. Devitt talks about how genres affect our daily lives. She also talks about how some genres are created specifically for people outside of that community. She goes on to talk about how genres affect our everyday lives such as ballots and the judicial system. She talks about genre analysis, and how some words may have a different meaning depending on what community you are a part of. Devitt uses an example of a court case where the word might means two different things to the lawyer and the jury because they are part of different communities. Bawarshi says that genres are ways of classifying texts, and uses an example of the medical community to show how the same word can mean different things in different communities. Lastly, Reiff talks about how genres and ethnography can help students inside the classroom, as well as take the things they learn in the classroom and relate them to the real world.

 

Connections

All three authors give their opinions on how genres are depicted, and how many different definitions of genre there actually are. They all use different definitions to describe how genres affect our everyday lives. They also have some similar opinions as Gee did.

 

Definitions

 

Bawarshi says genres gives us specific access to the sites of language use that make up communities, in all their complexity. Swales says that only the people in the community can read and understand their texts. This is where they differ. Bawarshi thinks an outsider can study the language of the community and learn the genre of the community without being a part of it, unlike Swales. I agree more with Bawarshi, and I think that would be the better definition to use in our class.

 

Opinions

 

I enjoyed reading this article because it showed the viewpoints of three different people and how they feel about genres and their communities. Also, I found interesting the amount of different possible definitions of genre, and that none of them could pick just one

 



Smitherman

Summary

The main topic of Smitherman's article is Black English. She talks about whether Blacks should have to learn how to use proper white english or if they should know both dialects. Also, she talks about how today we consider Black english to be grammatically incorrect, but in fact there was a time when it was correct. When white english came along, they changed the language and said that their language was correct and Black english was incorrect. This can be looked at as pretty racist, but what Smitherman is trying to show is how often language gets changed by events and society.

You can connect this article to many readings we have done because they all discuss changing the language. The language needs to change and evolve as the people that speak it change and evolve as well. There can be many different versions of the same language. I know from personal experience that reading a Shakespeare play is almost like reading a different language, even though it is considered English and I speak English.

Sloppy incorrect grammer, according to the author, is when the writer has bad sentence structure and no details or support. Sloppy correct grammar is when the writer uses correct sentence structure and has details to support it, but it may not seem right in the eyes of the teacher or grader. 

I found this article interesting to read. The first thing I like about it is how Smitherman added paragraphs, almost like anecdotes, in smaller font that broke up the article and made easier to read in addition to holding on to my attention. Also, I think she brings up some interesting topics about how language is changing everyday, almost like technology, and there may be more than one correct way to speak or write a certain language.

Bibliography

Learning to Teach the Five-Paragraph Theme

Tara Star Johnson, Leigh Thompson, Peter Smagorinsky and Pamela G. Fry

Research in the Teaching of English 
Vol. 38, No. 2 (Nov., 2003), pp. 136-176

Published by: National Council of Teachers of English

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40171635

Title:	Moving High School Juniors Beyond the Five-Paragraph Essay Through Teacher-Modeling
Author:	Burks, Brooke

http://etd.auburn.edu/etd/handle/10415/2398

Two New Heuristics in Response to Formulaic Writing: What Lies beyond Oversimplified Composition Instruction

James T. Davis II, Georgia State University

http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/english_diss/73/

McCloud

 

In this article, McCloud talks a lot about images and pictures that we see everyday, but puts them in a different light. He talks about cartoons, especially their faces, and relates to humans being self-centered. He believes that we see ourselves everywhere, even in inanimate objects, and we give things identities and characterisitcs that don''t need them. Lastly, he says that our face is a mask like any other, we have just worn it since we were born. Also, how one sees their face is different from how others see it and vice versa.

 

 

Bernhardt

 

Bernhardt's whole article is about how different characteristics and ways of writing appeal to different readers. Depending on what type of paper it is or who it is for should change what the paper looks like so it will appeal to the reader. It is almost like how they say we eat with our eyes first. If a reader looks down at an article and it is just one long paragraph with no indents, titles, etc., the reader will lose interest very quickly. The way you display your work is just as important as the words in it. I know that for myself I hat reading really long paragraphs. If the article has short paragraphs with titles, indents and the like, I find it easier to read. The more white space the better.

 

 

Opinions

 

I didnt't find McCloud's article to contain anything of great importance. He calls humans selfish because we see ourselves in everything else, but that's because we are a part of everything else. Most things are designed so we can relate to them, like cars. I felt like he was just trying to confuse us to make himself sound smarter than us but he really didn't have an interesting idea.

 

On the other hand, I did like Bernhardt's article, and I agree with what he says. Like I said earlier, if a person looks down at an article that is just pages and pages long with no spaces or titles, they will lose track and get bored quickly. I agree that the way a text is organized is very important if you want your words and ideas to appeal to the reader.

Project 2 Topic

Five Paragraphs

 

One topic of the writing construct that really stood out to me when we were talking in class was that of having to use 5 Paragraphs when writing a paper. The main reason I question this is because what happens if you either have more or less than 3 main points in your paper. You either have to stretch to find another main point and then you have a weak paragraph, or you have to shrink two or more main points into one and then you would have a super paragraph and it may be confusing to read. Also, I feel like dividing your paper into may paragraphs makes it easier to read. If you have to write a 10 page paper and you can only use 5 paragraphs, that means the paragraphs are going to be two pages a piece. For me, reading for that long without a break in the words can get confusing, but if you break it up into sub paragraphs, it will look less intimidating and be easier to read.

Porter

Summary

 

The main point that Porter talks about throughout the entire article is intertextuality. This is the idea that all texts ever written have taken traces of previous texts or ideas throughout them. There is no text that is completely original. He even goes as far as saying that the Declaration of Independance, written by Thomas Jefferson, used intertextuality. We think of this wriiten work as an original piece that used new ideas to assert our independence, but Porter says that even Jefferson took words and ideas from other papers or people, and used them in the writing of the Declaration. Lastly, he talks about the discourse community, which is a group of people who communicate and regulate around a common interest.

 

 

 

QD #4

 

In the past my writing has been evaluated on whether it was correct grammar and punctuation and all that jazz, and also if it was an original idea and didn't just summarize other peoples ideas and say it was my own. Porter thinks that it is okay to have other peoples ideas in your paper because every paper ever written has traces of other peoples ideas or thoughts. What really matters is if your points gets across and is accepted by the reader. I agree with this.

 

 

AEI#1

 

This is not really a recent commercia, but it was one that was on during the Superbowl back when I was a kid, and I still remember it pretty well because I liked it. It was a commercial for McDonald's. In this commercial, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan are in the gym shooting basketball. Now for any sports fan, you know that these are two of the top icons in basketball. They proceed to play a game of horse, where the first one to miss has to watch the other eat the Big Mac. I believe this has intertextuality because it utilizes two people that everyone knows and looks up to, and portrays that they like McDonalds so much that they are willing to use their skills to play for it and win the Big Mac. This commercial is directed at the kids who look up to these two players and hope they will say if Michael Jordan and Larry Bird eat Macdonalds, then so should I.

 

Opinion

 

I agree with Porter's views on plagiarism. I find it interesting how he came up with a word for using other people's words or ideas and using them as your own, but not calling it plagiarism, because plagiarism has a negative connotation to it. By calling it intertextuality, it almost allows us to use other peoples ideas to support our ideas. I always hated the idea of plagiarism because every idea that I would have for a paper came from somewhere, whether it was an article I read or something a previous teacher told, and I fel like using these ideas should not be considered plagiarism. I agree with Porter that there is a difference between plagiarism and unconsciously using someone else's ideas in our papers, because everybody does it. 

Kleine Article

                                                        Summary

Michael Kleine's article begins with a very interesting story about a night when he was at the library. As he looked around, he noticed students writing research papers. He said he could tell they were writing research papers because they weren't really working, they were just copying or paraphrasing from books, article, etc. He then says that he is worried because he himself is there to write a research paper, only on a much higher level. He then gives two different types of writers, the hunters who go on a mission and find what they are looking for, and the gatherers, who simply discover or come across things that may be helpful. Next, he decided to test this hunter/gatherer theory by gathering colleagues from different subjects and asking them questions about a recent research paper the wrote. What Kleine discovered is that more educated people, like professors, do their research in hopes of learning something new and being able to inform others about. Students, on the other hand, just want to get the paper over with. Kleine expresses that he hopes one day students will change and start caring about their research and their papers.

                                                    Connections

Right of the bat, i noticed a similarity between Kleine and Rosenberg's article because they both start with a story involving he or she and how they came upon the idea for this article. I also believe these two articles are similar in the aspect that they both try to help students organize and get more enthralled into writing a paper. However, in my opinion, by looking at the titles of the article, it seems that Rosenberg;s article was directed at the students to read, Kleine's article was more directed at the teachers to read.

QDJ#3

 

Research plays an important role in the professionals that Kleine interviews, however it plays a different role than in my papers. For the professionals, they do research to confirm the ideas and thoughts that they are going to write about, but they don't actually take any of their ideas. For students like me, we do research to add substance and words to our papers, and sometimes take words that aren't ours but use them because they relate to our topic and help us reach our page or length requirement.

                                                      Opinion

The first half of the Kleine article had my attention because of the story of the high school kids writing their reserch papers and just paraphrasing sections of books and articles. I remember when i had to write my research paper in high school, and I was definitely guilty of writing my paper similar to the high schoolers that Kleine described. The only thing that I didn't like about this article was that I though his findings section was a little wordy and I found myself having trouble finding what the results actually were.

Methods Paragraph

It took me until I was in about tenth grade to figure out a writing strategy that works for me. I start by writing an outline or a journal of some sort to get all of the ideas that I am planning on using in my paper in one place. Then I would wait until the deadline of the paper is closer because I tend to write better and create better ideas when I am writing under pressure. If I leave too much time to write the paper, I usually get distracted by other things. So, I applied this method to this paper and sat down by my computer with my notes. I wrote until I hit the dreaded writer's block that everyone encounters. When that happened I took a break and listened to some music to clear my head. I got many writer's blocks while writing this paper, and I stopped and listened to music after most of them. While I was listening to music, I looked over my notes to make sure I didn't forget anything and that I included everything in my paper. With using these methods, before I knew it, I had a completed paper.

Rosenberg Reading

                                                       Summary
   Rosenberg starts this article by describing her early years in college and how she had trouble staying focused on her reading assignments, like many people do. But somewhere down the road, she figured out how to make those reading assignments enjoyable so she could stay focused, and she shares her thoughts of how to make reading interesting in hopes of helping other people find reading enjoyable too. She starts by stating to think of the audience because once you know who the paper is for ou can get your state of mind together to make the paper easier to understand. The best way to find out who the paper is intended for is to look at the source or the title. She also says to look at the abstract which is a paragraph befor the introduction. It usually uses big words, but if you can understand the abstract, it will give you insight into what the paper is about. Also, she says that you shouldn't always read the paper in order. Starting with the introduction and then reading the conclusion can also give you a better idea of what the paper is about. Scanning over the section headings will also help. Putting this all together will change your viewpoint on reading assignments and will hopefully help you understand them better.

                                                      Discussion
       1.  Two strategies that i know that I have used in the past are reading the introduction, and reading the section headings. I feel that both of these strategies worked well in helping me understand the paper i was reading. I would reccomend my friends use these strategies because the introduction and section headings give good insight into what the paper was about. I will use these the next time i read a paper.

     2.  I feel like the author Rosenberg that when reading an article, you should imagine yourself having a conversation with the author of that paper. This way you will be looking fo the answers to the questions you are asking, and may make the paper more intriguing.

                                                     Opinion

      1.   I found this reading interesting. What i found interesting were the ways she described that could help one understand what they are reading. I am excited to try these strategies the next time I am assigned a difficult reading.

First Assignment

Summary

 

      The most important idea in the Brandt reading is that people don't become literate on their own. Instead, literacy is sponsored by people and institutions that make it possible for a person to become literate. The sponsored are often oblivious to the exposure of literacy. Literacy is becoming more and more important nowadays because people are expected to be better at reading and writing. Being good at reading and writing will help you be successful in this competitive world. Sponsorship shows us how people from different walks of life have different literacy practices, which then leads them to different paths in life.

 

 

 

Questions for Discussion and Journaling

      Branch and Lopez had two different paths to literacy. Branch was gifted, and because of where he grew up literacy was mandatory and was taught to him at a young age. On the other hand, Lopez was born to a poorer, blue collar family where literacy was not mandatory. Because of this, she had to teach herself to read and write in Spanish. because nobody would teach her.

 

Applying and Exploring Ideas

         My literacy history would be more comparable to that of Branch. I was exposed to literacy at a young age much like Branch. My primary literacy sponsor was my school system, but I also would consider my church a minor literacy sponsor. These two sponors taught me both academic and religious literacies. I would consider these sponors adequate in teaching literacies.

 

Opinion

   I had a mild interest in this article. It raised some interesting points and gave some good insights into how many different factors there are in the world that affect literacy and how your literacies affect the outcome of your life.