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.