February 24th Homework

Wardle Summary:
In her article, Identity, Authority, and Learning to Write in New Workplaces, Elizabeth Wardle argues that it's important to know your identity and position in your workplace. She explains how our identities and authority effect our writing. She backs up this claim by explaining a man named Alan and how he struggled finding his identity.


QD 3-7:
3.) I think that there were not positive results because he didn't want to change the way he writes. He could have made it a positive outcome if he would have tried to change the way he writes.

4.) I agree that sometimes people use language unconsciously because I know that sometimes I talk without thinking about it. When we do use language consciously, we focus a lot more on what we will say before saying it.

5.) I would agree with Gee because Alan didn't get accepted into the new discourse community. He wasn't accepted because he wasn't willing to try to change the way he writes.

6.) I think that he is being used as a tool because he was going to be part of the community to help mend together the broken pieces within the discourse.

7.) I have had coaches from my teams that treated their players with disrespect and they were reported and fired.

AEI 1:
I think that this means that when you have authority over texts and within discourse communities, that the members will look to you for advice. I have had experiences regarding having authority within the community. I was a coach for a hockey team and whenever I thought one of my players could improve on something I would let them know what it was and tell them how they could fix it.

Reflection:
I thought that this article was an easy read over some of the other articles we have read. She explained all of her points very well and backed them up with good explanations which made it very interesting to read.

Feb 20th Response; Swales and Gee

Swales Summary

In his article The Concept of Discourse Community, John Swales focusses on specifically defining discourse communities.  He uses 6 key concepts as a structure to define discourse communities.  He discusses the structure as well as members of discourse communities. 

QD

1.      The first characteristic of discourse communities is that they all have common public goals; meaning they all have an agreed upon agenda throughout the group.  Next is that they have a way of communicating with one another within the community.  The third stresses the mechanics for which the discourse community uses to give feedback for ideas, and sharing inputs.  The Fourth talks about the genres within the group, these genres explain the operations.  Next refers to the lingo the group uses, which allows the community to communicate more efficiently, while separating nonmembers from members.  Finally the sixth characteristic says that a discourse community needs a reasonable ratio of novice and expert members.

3.      It would depend on the classroom because not every class presents information or allows for feedback that is required fir discourse communities.

5.      I am currently rushing a fraternity and it is very much a discourse community, we all have goals of brotherhood, specific terms and lingo, and ways of communicating and giving feedback to ideas.  We even have certain texts and mottos we follow that would be considered our genres.

MM

Understanding discourse communities is a very useful skill when considering research and navigating through useful (credible) citations.  This article will help in future things I write. 

Personal Response

I think it was a good idea to give discourse communities specific characteristics (criteria).  I feel that this article helped me especially with my 4^th paper which is going to discuss discourse communities, and this definition helped clarify things. 

Gee Summary

Within Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics James Gee focuses on the idea that literacy should not be about language or literacy but about social practices.  He explains discourses as “saying-doing-being-valuing-believing combinations” then, later going on into more specifics with discourses with a capital (D) and a lower case (d).  Gee also writes about dominant and nondominant discourses.

QD  

3.      Gee defines discourse with a capital (D) as “saying-doing-being-valuing-believing combinations”. He is saying that it is more a sense of identity than it is language or grammar for example; being American, Russian, Man, or Woman, etc. (484).  Gee also considers discourse with a lower case (d) as connecting stretches of language that make sense. It makes sense because these two connect how we interact with each other in everyday life.

4.      Primary Discourse is the one we first use to make sense of the world and interact with others, it represents our original sense of identity.  Secondary Discourse  is the one following the primary discourse, it includes, churches, schools, community groups, state and national businesses etc.  Dominant Discourses are secondary discourses, and they bring, social good. Nondominant Discourses are also secondary discourses but they bring solidarity with a particular social network. 

5.      “Discourses are connected with displays of identity” is explaining that identity is the main idea behind Discourses.  He uses this to help his definition of Discourses.

6.      He connects these two ideas with Discourse and identity saying you can’t be taught Discourse because it is you identity, and you aren’t taught your identity. 

7.      He is explaining the literacy tests that help distinguish between members and non-members, he says this test shows who was taught at the right time by the right people. This test focuses on specifics such as; the use of terminology as well as other things instead of main ideas.

8.      Dominant Discourses use these tests because it helps other members to see who is a credible person for the community.  It shows who isn’t faking it.  This is good for the Discourse because it keeps the respect level up within the group as well as keeping it efficient.

11.   Metaknowledge is the combination of what is learned and the subconscious, allowing to enhance your skill set.  Learning something understood to help understand what is learned. 

13.  I am trying to join a fraternity and in this Discourse it is difficult to break into because first you must learn the way things our and ideas the group holds closely.  There are many values to learn which can be overwhelming, sometimes I do feel like a pretender but in the pledging process you have to fake it till you make it.

A&EI

1.      The primary discourse I was born into, uses different lingo such as “pop” instead of “soda” or “channel-changer” instead of “remote”.   I was also born into a community that helped frame who I am.  My character and how I approach conflict comes from my primary Discourse.  Thus far in my academic career I have only been in private catholic schools, which wasn’t that much different from my primary Discourse because both my parents are Catholic.

3.       I am in several sometimes conflicting Discourses, that try to stunt the growth of each other because they have conflicting views, but staying open minded and understanding my primary Discourse helps me to not get caught up in it.

Personal Response

This reading was much easier to understand after discussing it in class, even though I still found it a little difficult to grasp fully.  It was still a good article that I took a lot away from and that I am going to use in my final paper.  

Cover Letter for Paper 3

    For this project we created a powerpoint that went through some different kinds of literacy sponsors. We wanted to explore different literacy sponsors in an effort to single out which sponsors is the most effective overall. We helped ourselves come to this conclusion through research, peer interviews, and our own experiences. I think the information and support we have for the "family" sponsor slides are the best so if given more time I would like to help build on the other sponsors that we touched on in the project. Please depict any weak points you see in our arguments when reading and also see if the supports for sports and school were strong enough.

:http://www.scribd.com/doc/81952537/Project-3

Cover Letter 3

In our website, Literacies in Schools we discuss the positive and negative effects of many different types of schools. Does the school that you attended affect your literacy levels. We supported this claim by interviewing a variety of people who attended public,private, & boarding schools and also told each of our own individual stories. Does the school you go to and the amount of money you have affect the way you learned within your school. The parts of our website that worked well together were the interviews with others and being able to tie them together with our own stories. We need to work more on tying together everything as a whole within our paper to keep our point flowing through our website. I would love the readers to give us as much feedback as possible so that we can make our website the best we can tell us anything and everything we could fix. If we were given more time we wanted to tie in some inter city students stories that were in the freedom writers diary also we talked about tying in sports. The types of sports you were offered at your school and the division your schools sports were in.

Link: http://mollytracyelyse.webs.com/

Cover Letter for Paper #3 Molly, Tracy, and Elyse

Link: http://mollytracyelyse.webs.com/

In our website, Literacies in Schools we are persuading our readers that there are many positive and negative effects on literacies within schools; many literacies are portrayed in different schools, effecting all students individually. We interviewed seven students from three types of schools (Public, Private, and Boarding) also including our own experiences through public school. We argue against people who say that there is only one good way of presenting literacy. I think that our display of the paper is working well along with how much evidence we have put into it. However, our main point is somewhat scattered and is not as clear cut as we would like it to appear. If we had more time we more than likely would have worked more on making our points more clear and bringing in our research into the writing instead of just giving all our research as examples. We would like for our peer reviewers to really comment on things that are unclear or disorganized because we have hit a mental road block. We will appreciate all advice very much so give lots of it (:

4th paper

For my four paper I think I am going to expand on my first paper about plagiarism

Feb 15 Blog

    In their article, Motivation in Literacy Development, Hugo Perez and Cecchini  interview 8 honor students at the University of Central Florida and see how they read and write. Perez explores what effect motivation has on learning literacy. They go through different major elements that they might view as major contributors to students' literacy based on what they learned from their interviews. Technology was a major element and so was motivation. They argue that it is not always the literacy sponsor that helps students learn. The literacy sponsors will have little to no affect if the student is not motivated to actually want to learn the material.
1.) The authors of this article did not include their own histories in the text; rather they used the histories of some students to help portray their ideas. Although most authors do include some of their own history to help support their ideas, it was probably a good idea in this instance for them to use the histories of current students rather than their own so the input they get is a little more contemporary.
2.) I refer to myself in 1st person because it makes my writing a little more personal. To me the usage of 3rd person to talk about myself seems a bit awkward and the reader may not know that I am talking about myself.
     The article was not very interesting  and although made some good points, did a bad job keeping my attention. The article was a bit lengthy but all in all it was okay. There were some sections of the reading that I did find a little intriguing like interviewing the successful students which makes their content a little more relatable to students. I am not saying that this article is not helpful or even informative, it just simply did not do a sufficient job of keeping my attention.

Final Paper #2

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LXYTJM_nlZDIUBRYJwJocOnGq4ogpAwGJEvHD4yTdL8/edit

13th Homework Response

Response to Cecchini and Perez

In their paper, Motivation in Literacy Development, Tyler Cecchini and Hugo Perez discussed the factors that drive people to read such as; family role models, reading or writing for pleasure, technology, special programs, and self-motivation. They interview a group of kids to find that these are the most contributing factors, and discussed how each of them fell into the categories.

Do the authors put their own histories into the papers?

In this paper the authors did not seem to bring up their history at all, they based most of their information off of the other students in which they interviewed. I think that they should have put themselves in there because it may have added to the proof that even they had the same motivation as the others.

Do you refer to yourself in 1^st or 3^rd person?

In this paper I would most likely refer to myself in first person because it would only emphasize my point more, but if you did choose to speak in third person it may add some interesting flavor and conversation to the text.

Reflection to Cecchini and Perez

I thought that this paper was very well written and actually brought back some memories of my own childhood that I ha forgotten about. Like Accelerated Reading, which I always did awful on, and Book It. It also brought up some interesting points such as dyslectics and how they are affected when it comes to learning to read and write.

Summaries

Everyone,

We need to work on summary. This is an important concept to master since we often have to quickly explain the gist of sources in writing. The gist, however, needs to get at the heart of what an author is trying to accomplish by writing what they write rather than just a least of what they talk about. In other words, we need to explain why the writer says what she/he does not just what she/he says. For example:

In his article "From Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literacy Technologies," Dennis Baron argues that writing should be understood as a technology because failure to do so leads to a situation in which established sophisticated technologies become invisible and natural and new technologies are met with either scorn or hyperbolic enthusiasm. Both of these situations inhibit our ability to understand how writing as a technology both changes and resists change, and how access to technologies, both old and new, work to maintain sociocultural inequalities. Baron argues that by understanding writing as technology and the stages of technological change, literacy scholars can better understand and promote literacy.

Feb. 8 Blog

Malcolm X Summary:
        In "Learning to Read," Malcolm X describes how he managed to learn how to read despite dropping out of school at and early age and being in prison. He wrote down the letters in the dictionary and read them whenever he had the opportunity. He wished to utilize his literacy to help support the black community during his time.
QD:
1.) Malcolm X intended audience seems to be those who struggle with reading. He tells a very inspirational story of how he learned to read by himself which shows that it can be done in even the hardest conditions.
2.) He defines literacy as the level of understanding you have of what you read while the school-based definition of literacy is being able to read and write.
3.) Muhammad, Bimbi, the prison, and books especially the dictionary where Malcolm X's main literacy sponsors. The dictionary was the most significant sponsor he had access to because it was the basis of what he learned most of what he knows about writing about.
4.) It seems the most probable way that Malcolm X could have misappropriated the intentions of his sponsors was simply not knowing what some of the text in the books he read said.
6.) It is easy to see how he could have read much more than the average college student. Malcolm X had developed a true passion for reading while most of the students were reading simply to get the work done. There never has been anything that truly influenced me about what to read or how much to read it. There are very few things that I have enough interest in to read about and if anything else does not fall into those categories then I will have a hard time reading it.
AE1: Literacy definitely has changed. Although we can access any article of information through technology and reading is done more often through text and email, there are still things that technology hinders for literacy for example with the extended use of spell check new generations are worse spellers because they never had to learn how to spell things it was always done for them.
Reflection:
This was definitely one of my favorite articles we have read mainly because Malcolm X tells a truly fascinating story about how he became literate. This is an inspirational story and can possibly help the more fortunate appreciate what they have.

Alexie Summary:
      In the article "The Joy of Reading and Writiing: Superman and Me," Sherman Alexie talks about the troubles he faced growing up with the discriminations of being indian.  He leads on to explain the origins of how he first learned to read which he says was at the age of three and later on to reading comic books.   His passion for reading led him to become an extraordinary reader and writer.
QD: 1.) Expectations that are negative can harm a child's self-esteem which might cause them to be unmotivated which hurts them in the long run. Expectations that are positive might put too much pressure and stress on a child who now has to obsess with meeting predetermined standards. I know I have high expectations from my parents because they both came to this country by themselves at a very young age without any money and barely being able to speak english but still managed to end up very successful. Although these expectations can put a lot of pressure on me and are stressful at times; they also challenge me to prove that I can be as good and motivated as they were.
AE1:) I do not think that everyone can overcome poverty simply from enough motivation to read and write.  There has to be some cut off point between people because not everyone has what it takes to break their lower class barrier and make something out of themselves. My father is an example of Malcolm X and Alexie who both found success in the face of hardships. However my father has also worked with people who grew up in much better conditions than he did but still did not manage to find success so it differs from person to person. Not everyone has that fire.
Reflection:
      I enjoyed reading this article it was interesting and somewhat inspirational. Alexie shows that even without all the resources of a wealthy family, you can still pull through and find success if you have enough determination.

Baron Summary:
        In his article, From Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literacy Technologies, Dennis Baron goes through what technology has done to our generations when it comes to writing. He explains his frustration with computers in particular and how they are hurting the way we write unlike more conventional methods such as with a pen or pencil.
QD: 2.) Yes it does seem that Baron's message is that technology is in a way holding us back in some aspects. I do not agree at all with this claim because technology has made communication so efficient that anyone can connect and exchange ideas in a matter of seconds no matter where they may be.
4.) Besides the pencil the only other outdated technology for writing is the typewriter. Basically anything besides the modern keyboard has become obsolete for writing.
6.) The images definitely helped focus his ideas in a different light which made his points easier to understand at times. I think seeing these images outside of the article and by themselves would not make them considered writing. But used with Baron's article it is easy to see how they can be considered writing.
Reflection:
        Of course I am going to say that I do not like this article. He is complaining about my generation in his writing. He seems to have a very old-fashioned mindset and cannot grasp the big picture that technology offers. He does not even acknowledge the fact that at least if anything, the use of technology has resulted in a decreased use of paper.

Feb. 6th Blog

    In her article "Sponsors of Literacy," Deborah Brandt discusses was people learn or obtain literacy. She does this through numerous research and interviews of the level of literacy of people of different ethnic backgrounds, age, and social status and then comparing her findings. She coins the term "Literacy Sponsor" which is the figure that seems to help individuals the most with their literacy.
QD: 1.) Brandt defines a literacy sponsor as "forces that shape our literacy learning and practices."  Some common characteristics of literacy sponsors include wealthy, knowledgeable, and maybe religious.
3.) They only take into consideration the middle and upper class that are more educated and do not normally include the lower class which ordinarily have limited access.
4.) Stratified seems to pertain to how each individual's status is identified or organized and the stakes are things that limit or stop someone.
AEI: 1:) A huge majority of my literacy sponsors were my teachers. The only other literacy sponsors I can think of that made a noticeable difference were my parents who taught me the basics. Most of the literacy I have been taught has been academic and I am in no means whatsoever a religious person so the church never played a role in my literacy. There are not any literacy's that I can think of that I wish I had more access to.
     This article was ok. There were some sections that I had some some trouble understanding but it did make some good points about how the lower class has limited access which is why their literacy is generally lacking compared to the middle and upper classes.

Paper 2 and Cover Letter

            I was trying to show what qualities makes someone a good writer through analyzing myself as a writer and what I do before I begin to write. I thought that the parts where I used myself as an example went well. I also think my metaphors went well in helping describe my points. Some parts I would like to change however is the amount of research information and cited material. I believe I need more if I want my paper to be as effective as possible. I tried supporting most of my points with examples and some where supported with researched facts or quotes from other authors.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/13BBDEHdn7lTBO8jt1RP41lNYFeU9ExHgZqUAR_mbE1E/edit

Feb. 1 Post

Lamott Summary: In her article, Shitty First Drafts, Lamott tries to describe with her own experiences that one should not be discouraged with thoughts of being a bad writer. Lamott tries to explain how everyone needs to write that one, or at least one, shitty draft that will help writers get all their ideas out and will hopefully will be able to come up with more material with the writing of this draft.

Response: I enjoyed this article not only because it was short and got to the other all message of the passage quickly, but also because the author kept the text interesting with her humor. It is an encouraging article to read because it tries to explain how we are not as bad as we think at writing. 

King Summary: In his article, What is Writing, Stephen King talks about how it is important to approach your writing seriously. He also offers the best methods of getting ones thoughts on the paper such as being in the right state of mind or the right environment. 

Response: The article as a whole was not that interesting even though it was exciting to read something written by Steven King. I do agree with his mentality of writing, which in his view the best way to go about it is to find your happy place so to speak and get serious about what you want to write. 

Goodman Summary: In her article, Calming the Inner Critic and Getting to Work, Allegra Goodman explains the importance of confidence in writing. Goodman’s article is very similar to Lamott’s through the fact that they both try to be uplifting to the inexperienced writer. Goodman tries to explain how we should not focus on the past and what has been done but focus on the task at hand and face our obstacles with a strong head. As long as we are confident with our writing it will come out as professional. 

Response: This is a good article to read because it is uplifting and help with the confidence of timid writers. I like how she expresses the importance of fighting the little voices inside your head even though this is not a problem that I myself face. Nevertheless, this is still a good article for students to read who struggle with their writing. 

Haruf Response: In his article, To See Your Story Clearly, Start by Pulling Wool Over Your Own Eyes, Kent Haruf describes how every writer has their own ritual or routine they go through when they write. He explains how good writers do “whatever it takes” to accurately get their ideas on paper. He even talks about how he may sometimes blindfold himself to keep himself from getting distracted by mechanical errors such as punctation and grammar and keep his thoughts with the actual idea of the paper. 

Response: I thoroughly enjoyed Haruf’s article not only because he preaches a main idea that we have had in this class, (that punctuation and grammar are not as important as the overall concept and structure of the paper) but also because it is obvious to see that he loves what he is doing and does a very good job of trying to get his point across. He is a great writer and seems to realize the more important things in writing. 

Susan Sontag: In her article, Directions: Write, Read, Rewrite. Repeat Steps 2 and 3 as Needed, Susan Sontag attempts to explain the importance of rereading your work. She branches off from the typical academic format to show how creativity can triumph over form sometimes. Sontag also expresses how if you can write a good paper the first time then you can definitely write one that is even better the next time. 

Response: I feel somewhat indifferent about this particular article. Although the author did find some creative ways of incorporating what she was trying to express it was things that I already knew very well and good like the importance of rereading. 

Junot Diaz: In his article, Becoming a Writer, Junot Diaz talk about his struggle and journey to become a writer. He goes through the obstacles he had to face such as writers block. He explains how being on the tip of his hardships and about to fall over was when he realized when he had to be a writer. 

Response: This was definitely an inspirational article especially because Diaz talks about how his hardships led to to do what he loves, (write). It is important to take away from this article the fact that just because we hit a low point does not mean we can’t bounce back and realize our potential. 

Using these Essay: There is definitely a consistency between the articles with articles not using “rules” that did not work for them. Almost none of the authors of these articles followed all of the known writing “rules.” I do think that writers such as Tony would benefit from reading this passages because not only would it help his confidence as a writer but also offer some advice as to where to turn or what to do when you find yourself stuck. Every writer, even the most skilled of ones such as Diaz, faces problems with their writing but it is important to look at what these authors have to say and realize it is completely normal to have trouble writing. 

Meta Moment: 1.) Major things that I took from these passages is that your setting might have a considerable influence on your writing (King), that every good writer goes through their troubles but it is important to be able to bounce back (Diaz), and that writing an initial “shitty” draft might help you organize your ideas when you’re stuck with your writing. (Lamott)

2.) Not much of my opinion on writing and good writers has changed after reading these articles. I can say however that I now see that many of these great writers face the some challenges that we do we is reassuring. Also when seeing a very well recognized piece of writing I can appreciate what had to go into that paper and it was not thought of overnight and took many revisions and mistakes to come out the way it did.