Reflective Cover Letter for Final Portfolio

            I have included three articles in my portfolio that I believe really grasp my writing abilities at this time. Through these articles, I show how I have learned to write rhetorically for a discourse community or audience that will be read my article.  As learning to write rhetorically and understanding discourse communities are major concepts that you wanted us to take from this course, I believe that my effort and improvement in understanding these concepts,  should bring about the raising of my grade from a B to an A.

In my fourth paper, "The Importance of Grammar", I argue that there is a specific time of when to teach grammar and a certain way that it should be taught. I argue that there has not been much change since the importance of grammar was first really questioned in the 60’s. I supported my claims with 8 great articles about how grammar should be used or taught. I think that there is a diversity of conversation and argument. I believe I used my sources well to keep the conversation going. Using your comments and Alex’s, I re-edited my paper and fixed both little things and big.  I didn’t see fit to re arrange my entire paper into a different pattern. If I had been able to meet with you to see how to better do that, I definitely would have.  I tried to put better transitions in between my major points so that the article flowed better. I saw that as one of the main points that you brought up into my fourth paper. I think that was a big thing that needed work, but I tried to bring about a more gradual flow.

I think that this paper showed my ability to write for a particular discourse community.  I think I improved on writing as a conversation which was something completely new for me that I have been trying to improve on throughout the course. The link to the paper is below.

            For my Major re write, I chose my first paper, “Who Says We Need Grammar”. I chose this article because I felt that I had a better understanding of the conversation of grammar after writing my fourth paper.  In this paper, I feel I showed my ability to write more informally to the average citizen who doesn’t really know what’s going on in the conversation of grammar, and explain it in a way that they can understand. I feel that I persuade the people to see that grammar shouldn’t be taught until the later years of schooling because they cant grasp the concept of it.

Many people can relate to my feelings toward grammar because they too experienced them. 

            I have changed this paper by adding in Warner to talk more about how students may not have any chance of understanding grammar.  I think that this brings a great point to add to my argument that students shouldn’t be taught grammar until later years. I also think this is a cool point because it is research that many people don’t know about.   I explained a few concepts better to help smoothen the paper. The link is below.

I also added paper two because I think that it showed my ability to write casually and persuasively.  In "I just can't focus", I was trying to make the point that it is very important to write in a place where you are able to write efficiently. My main claim was my example of how I couldn't write efficiently when in my room and in my dorm but could write well in a place where I was comfortable and focused.  This is persuasive because I think many people, especially college students can think of how often they write in their dorms but don't think of how much more they would get done if they went somewhere else. It is possible that some people may be able to write better in their dorm compared to the library but the main point is just finding that place and it is different for everyone. I think that the parts that went well are the conversation between me and the reader went well.

            I think that from your comments, that I did well writing this paper, although sometimes my wording was off.  I think that I need to learn how to make my sentences sound less choppy. But, in all, I think that the content and style of this paper was good.

The last thing that I wanted to add to the portfolio to show that my writing is sufficient enough to receive an A, is a song that I wrote this quarter after attending stations of the Cross. In this song, I had to think rhetorically about who would be hearing it while putting my own emotions and truth from scripture into it.  I had to think of the discourse community that I was writing to. Sometimes in my music, it is difficult because there are a couple types of discourses that I want to reach. All of my music is Christian music although I usually am not writing for true Christians to hear it.  This song, I was writing for both.  I wanted to write about the suffering of Jesus because I think that many times we see him as a friend or a distant God, or someone who condemns or judges. We see this perfect man who we think because he is divine, didn’t experience the suffering that the cross endures. We have so many false views of who Jesus is, and because of it, we turn to the world to satisfy us.  If we really knew who Jesus was and is, and what He sacrificed to save us from eternal death, then we would be compelled by his love to follow Him.  In this song I write about the Suffering of Jesus, so that we cannot forget that it was because of His perfect, adoring love for us, that He came, and paid the debt that should have been ours. This truth is for all Christians, and also all who do not believe or follow Jesus. He came for all. That is who I am writing to, and why I am writing. The song is listed below.

           

I think that my work in and out of the class is sufficient to raise my grade. I always did the readings which I think showed in my papers and my responses in class. I gave my answers a lot of thought when responding to the questions on the blog. I tried my best to grasp the concepts that you wanted us to understand. I think that I participated In class often which showed my interest and desire to do well and improve in my writing.  I learned to write rhetorically and have a much better understanding of intertext, framing, the conversation, claims, discourse communities and such.  I think that I took advantage of the homework by really trying to understand how to reach my audience for future writing outside of this class.  I think for the most part, I came to class with a good attitude, paid attention, and abstained from my computer.  I wanted to succeed in my papers and write to my best ability using the readings that we had been taught. I think that my effort and desire to succeed in this class, which dramatically improved my writing, should raise my grade from a B to an A.

I really enjoyed this class. I think that sometimes I was overwhelmed by the readings because I read really slow and many times they were long and complicated, but they were very useful and I couldn’t have improved my writing with out having read the articles.  I really liked getting to learn about writing instead of just writing about a book or something we wanted to research. I Liked staying in the discourse community of writing. I enjoyed the class so I am not sure of what things I think could have been better except for maybe having more discussion time with our peers in class so that people would be more encouraged to speak up when you are leading a discussion.  Other than that, I really learned a lot in your class and believe that I will take what I have learned to help me in more ways than just in writing through out college and my career. THANK YOU!

Paper 1- http://www.scribd.com/doc/85974796/Who-Says-Grammar-Final-Portfolio

Paper 4- http://www.scribd.com/doc/85974457/Paper-4-Final-Portfolio

Paper 2- http://www.scribd.com/doc/81111324/i-Just-Cant-Focus

Song - http://www.scribd.com/doc/85992331/I-Wanna-Know-My-Jesus

Paper 4 for Mr. Whicker

In my paper "The Importance of Grammar", I argue that there is a specific time of when to teach grammar and a certain way that it should be taught. I wanted to argue that there has not been much change since the conversation that has been ongoing since about the 60's about how grammar is taught and not retained by the majority of students. I supported my claims with 8 great articles about how grammar should be used or taught. i think that there is a diversity of conversation and argument. I think that there are more things that i could have added in such as teachers could start teaching through grammar rants and such. That is what i would have done if i had had more time. I feel as though i explained my arguments pretty well but also could have given more of a gap on certain topics throughout the paper. I tried to elaborate more on certain parts of the article as Alex stated and fixed some grammatical errors in the paper.  I always have trouble making the paper flow and would really appreciate advice on how to make it flow better. THANK YOU!

http://www.scribd.com/doc/85263374/Paper-4

Academic article

http://www.scribd.com/doc/83878262/Paper-4

In this paper i was trying to argue that the conversation revolving grammar is not weather we should teach it or not, it is when, where, and how we use and teach grammar.  I used my sources to help provide me with evidence and room to argue my point. I need to use more of my sources. I used my sources as argument and counterargument. I think that my organization is working well but i may need to break it up a little bit more. I need to incorporate more of my sources but there was just not enough time to find places to fill and argue which i will be working on this week.  I want my peer editor to see what's choppy in my sentence and paragraph structure and obviously anything that doesn't make sense. I would appreciate feedback on organization and the ordering of my topics if there is a better way to set up my arguments. If given more time, i would understand the conversation better to find a more in depth gap

Paper 4 introduction

     Grammar has been created by the ancient Greeks where it has evolved into latin and then into English.  This prestigious way to eliminate error has had a high value of importance throughout past years. Students have been taught to follow the "holy" grammar handbook to prevent them from creating error.  This theory was never questioned until the 1980's when B.. said...."..".  Here we have the first argument relating to the importance of grammar and the way that it is being taught. So where do we go from here? Is grammar really that important and do we need it to be seen as intellegent individuals? If so, should we learn it through the use of handbooks or is there a more efficient way? If we should teach it, what age is appropriate?  These questions have been apart of this ongoing conversation about Grammar.

annotative bib for paper 4

http://www.scribd.com/doc/83443522/Annotative-Bibliography

February 27

Summary:

In Penrose and geisler’s article, reading and writing without authority, they argue that there are differences in authority within the academic sphere. They compare the writing of an academic article by a first year student and a doctoral student. They find that The doctoral student writes with a much better sense of authority because a variety of reasons that they describe in this article.

3. Janet’s method seems to forget the intertext and all of the conversation going on previously before she started talking about the topic. Its called that because she is literally just reading information and regurgitating it whereas Roger knows the conversation and tries to find his place to write, the gap.

4. I think that because she didn’t trust herself because she didn’t know the conversation or the intertext well and couldn’t find a gap, so all she did was repeat what was already said.  She said conflicting things because she needed to in some way be credible and that is how most high-schoolers, first year students write; unconfident, and not trusting in their work.

5.  I think that in highschool I wrote like Janet because I didn’t have confidence and wasn’t taught to find a gap in my writing. All I could do was read text and copy it into my paper.  Now that I have learned to find the conversation and make an argument through my first year English class, I am starting to write more like Roger.

MM: I think that the next time I write I will try to sound more confidant and know my subject well. I will sound more confidant by sounding like I know the conversation that is at play.

Response: I think this article was encouraging because a first year student isn’t supposed to write like a phd student, which I clearly don’t. Becoming a writer with authority comes with time and experience.

Jan 24

Summary:  In her article “identity, authority and learning to write in the new workplace”, Wardle argues that many people have talked about different aspects of discourse communities but haven’t talked about authority, rebellion of language, and identity in the workplace. She describes the challenges that come into play with these aspects through and an employee, Alan, and his failure in his new discourse community.

3. Alan could have been a help to his community but because he was stubborn and unwilling to bend in anyway, the other people were stubborn as well, so there was no compromise or room for the department to grow.

4. I think that allen was writing about what he thought and his thoughts resisted the department.  I think it depends on the situation because sometimes people will use the writing to call out or resist something but sometimes people can write controversially to what others think without the intention of being resistant. I think if we are writing rhetorically, we have to somewhat be conscious.

5. I agree with Gee because your Discourse is your true identity and at Alans age and experience, I think he is pretty set in his Discourse.  His beliefs that have been instituted in him for some time would be hard to get rid of and adopt something else.

6. In this article I see Alan as a tool because he is used for examples of what her claims are. I see the issues he had so I think that people may not see him as a community member.

7. I can remember a teacher and a coach who didn’t act appropriately in the class room with her language as well as the coach and were both reprimanded.

AE: I think that to have authority over texts means to speak with confidance, know the situation and conversation you are entering as well as the intertext. I think that my own authority with softball has grown because of my years of ongoing experience.   I know that I have gained authority because I was a pitcher and called pitches and plays for my team.  My coaches gave me the authority to do so because of my experience in the game.

Response: I think that this reading was cool and addressed another point that I hadn’t thought about.  Her thoughts on identity and authority were cool and gave me good insight. 

In our website, Literacies in Schools, we tried to persuade our readers that the school you come from has an effect on how you feel about yourself as a reader, writer, or as an academic person because schools portray literacy in different ways. We We  interviewed 7 people from different schools including public, private, and boarding school to compare the different types of literacies found in each. We found things such as the structure of the school, the teaching staffs, classes offered, and money in the district that all effect the literacy of the students. We argue that all schools have the same literacy and all students are taught in the same way just by going to school. People tend to believe that just from going to high school, all students are offered the same opportunities. We fixed certain things in our layout to better portray what things should be seen first. I think that our conclusion or the way we brought everything together may need more work. I would like to be given advice on anything that is confusing in our paper or how to better pull everything together in the conclusion.  if given more time, i think we would find more research about each of the other schools and see what research has been done.


http://members.webs.com/s/sitebuilder/pages/260075166/

february 22

Summary: in John’s “Discourse Communities and Communities of Practic”, she argues that there is conflict when joining a discourse community. She Fills in the gap that is left after reading Gee’s and Swale’s articles as she talks about the problems that one is faced with when joining an academic discourse community such as rebellion against conventions, problems with authority, and issues with identity.

1.     1.There is always going to be a cost to joining a discourse community because you have to make sacrafices in order to give up time to be apart of the community. By being apart of that community, they often have to drop things from other discourse communities. This means many cultural and linguistic tradeoffs ( para 53).  There are also authoritive utterances” that set the tone that the people have to listen to and be aware of. She talks about how to gain authority and who has the authority.

2.     2. Because we all have our own thoughts, when people joining a discourse community come in, they haven’t been trained to think in the way of the comm. So they have some different thoughts that may change the community. One thing I think of is when Martin Luther Separated from the Church.  I also think of Hitler and other world leaders who have been apart of a discourse and changed the view of the people

3.    3.  I have been apart of sporting teams where the coaches make it seem as though your life revolves around the sport and that it is the most important thing in your life which I completely disagree with but other than that, nothing has really effected me.  The only other one is conflicts dealing with religion in different churches.

4.     4 I think this is true because you can only identify yourself in so many ways. If you are pouring yourself into one discourse, it is hard to keep the ideas from the other.. that’s why she says tradeoffs

5.     5. I have about as much freedom as  I had in highschool.  All authority is placed over me because I do not have a choice to write.. I have to but sometimes I do get to express myself freely.

6.     6. Rule breaking is a minefield because it always blows up our papers. I have been punished many times for rulebreaking and have just been asked to fix it or my grade reflected it.

MMI think that this article helps one understand what the benefits and risks are of joining a discourse community. I think that it shows what you have to give up and who and what you have to deal with when choosing to be apart of one. 

Reflection: I thought this was really long but had good points and filled in a good gap that hadn’t been talked about before.

february 20th post

In John Swales “the concept of discourse community”, he argues that discourse communities are not defined as clearly as it is needed which is why he gives in detail six qualifications that make up a discourse community. He explains this because discourse communities lack things that discourse communities should have and there for are not discourse communities or need to work on ways to make them better. 

1.

1.     The community has a set of common goals among them. This is similar to sports teams that we have a certain goal of doing in a tournament or executing a play.

2.     Having certain communication between members: In a softball team, you have certain drills, that everyone participates and helps each other with. We also have plays that the team members all need to know as well as the signs the batter receives from the 3^rd base coach.

3.     The third rule means that the community has some way of receiving and giving back information.  In softball, we would know if a softball game was canceled because we would get a text from our coach and it would be announced over the PA at school.  If we needed to meet with our coach, we would text or email her.

4.     The fourth rule has a way of communicating that would be hard for other discourse communities to copy like a blog in an English class.

5.     Discourse communities form their own language. In softball, we have certain plays that only we know what they mean. Also, we have inside jokes and things that our team acquires that only we know.

6.     The people in the community must be on somewhat of the same level and contribute to the community. In softball we had all played summer ball for about 6 years so we all knew the community well.

3.  A first year college class has the begginnings for a discourse community. They have the certain things surrounding them to be part of the community but they do not have the knowledge and haven’t been apart of that community long enough for it really to form.  A graduating class has been working together for at least four years and has had the time to aquire knowledge together.  All of the things that swales lists that make up a discourse community takes time and by the end of 4 years, the community will probably be formed.

5.  A discourse community that I am apart of is my Christian group Young life. We have a set of goals to reach high school kids and tell them about the Gospel through our friend ship with them.  We work on teams where a team is assigned to one highschool, and all together, younglife is national and becoming international.  There are camps and clubs and bible studies. There are websites, bible studies, weekly meetings that the regional and area directors communicate.  There are leader weekends where the leaders get together and talk about the ministry and what is going on and the camps is where they go with their high-schools.  There is “younglife lingo” and certain things that go on during our clubs, bible studies and camps that simply cannot be understood by people who have never been.  Leaders must go through first year and be trained in the ministry before they become a leader and interact with the kids in that school

MM: I think that this article didn’t really help my writing but it made a lot of sense in understanding discourse communities; especially with church and missions. A side note thought that I had was that so often, people marry inside of their discourse community and it makes so much sense because they both have the 6 things that take part in a community together. It makes sense because to be part of a community you have to take part in those six things. It has given me better understanding.

Response: I think this article was cool since we already learned about discourse communities. This makes it more clear and makes it more distinct.

Gee

Summary:  In Gee’s “ Literacy, Discourse, and linguistics”, he argues that there is a difference between Discourse (capital D) and discourse communities. He explains what the difference is between the two.  He also talks about metaknowledge, the application of knowledge translated into your own terms,  and mushfake, which is using something less when the real thing is not available. He describes that in the Discourse, you are either in or out. Discourse is who you are and what you believe while the community is what group you are apart of. 

3. Discourse with a capital D is the combination of saying, doing, believing, and being valued.  It is more distinct that just a discourse community. He explains it as an identity kit where the Discourse is much more separate than the discourse which is more broad. The discourse almost fits into the Discourse. The Discourse is who you are and the discourse is the community that you come into.

4. Primary discourse is the Discourse that we are when we are young in our home. This Discourse is our foundation.  Secondary Discourses are our home community such as our church, schools, sports teams.  Nondominant Discourses bring us into a certain community and the Dominant Discourse bring money, status, etc. such as the senate, or the president.

5.  Because the definition of Discourse is so specific and is basically who you are, it is very much your identity, so you either are that Discourse or your not.

6.  Identity is who you are, what you believe and value so it is taught by the people around because you are influenced by the literacy sponsors around you that either influence or teach you. In some ways you may be taught, in others, you are just effected by what is around you.

7.  As stated before, if your identity is in a Discourse, you should be able to speak the way that the Discourse speaks because it is apart of who you are so it is such an easy way to call out what is not right.

8.I think the tests happen so that they can keep the Discourse to the people who really believe in the values of it.  This keeps the people working on what is going on in the community instead of becoming fossilized.

11. Metaknowledge is when you learn something and translate it into your own language. This is helpful because this helps to see the Discourses you are already apart of and become part of another one.

12. I know that I am apart of the Christian Discourse because it is all of my thoughts values and beliefs and the communities I am apart of reflect my Discourse.

AE

2. the family discourse I was born into was my family. Everything in my family revolves around our Family Discourse which is the Christain Discourse which we do value, believe, and which our identity is put into.  Acedemic Discourse is different and doesn’t apply as much to my family discourse. The way people talk and act in school was similar and different to my family.  The discourse in the church, the way we talked and valued things was very much similar.

4.  In my life, my family discourse may have different values and beliefs than a discourse that I would want to be apart of. Because, my Discourse is revolved around the church as is my families, we don’t have as much conflict between communities since we are apart of similar discourses.

Response: I think that this reading was great and also added to my understanding of discourse communities.

cover letter for website

In our website, Literacies in Schools, we tried to persuade our readers that the school you come from has an effect on how you feel about yourself as a reader, writer, or as an academic person because schools portray literacy in different ways. We  interviewed 7 people from different schools including public, private, and boarding school to compare the different types of literacies found in each. we argue that all schools have the same literacy and all students are taught in the same way just by going to school. i think that our layout was working. my story needs work and i would like advice on organization. i would like to be given advice on anything that is confusing in our paper.  if given more time, i think we would find more research about each of the other schools and see what research has been done.


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

January 15th post

Summary:
In Motivation in literacy Development by Cecchini and Perez, the authors explain how motivation plays a huge part in literacy and isnt always looked at. They show through various examples of the 8 honors students from the University of Central Florida, that curiosity and freedom, the effects of family, reading for fun, and technology increase literacy. This article shows that its not always the literacy sponsor, but our desire to learn, which comes in different forms, that increases our literacy.

1. The authors do not put their own histories into the article which i think is good because if they did, then it could seem bias. i think it worked that they used 8 honors students. they didint really need to put themselves into it.

2. I think it is ok to refer to ourselves in 1st person because it makes it more personal and seem like you are involved in what you are writing.  If it is multiple people, i would refer to 3rd person.

Reflection:I liked this article. I think it is a very important gap because if people dont desire to learn what is around them, it doesnt matter what the literacy sponsor is.

final paper topic

For paper four, I will be examining the construct of grammar and if it should be taught strictly to the handbook

Paper 2

http://www.scribd.com/doc/81111324/i-Just-Cant-Focus

In the paper "I just can't focus", I was trying to make the point that it is very important to write in a place where you are able to write efficiently. My main claim was my example of how I couldn't write efficiently when in my room and in my dorm but could write well in a place where I was comfortable and focused.  This is persuasive because I think many people, especially college students can think of how often they write in their dorms but don't think of how much more they would get done if they went somewhere else. It is possible that some people may be able to write better in their dorm compared to the library but the main point is just finding that place and it is different for everyone. I think that the parts that went well are the conversation between me and the reader went well. I feel like the paper could be related to many college students as well as other people. I feel like sometimes I have a hard time transitioning into different phases of my paper. If I had more time, I would relate better to outside sources. There were a couple confusing statements throughout my paper that I changed, but other than that, there wasn't much more that he said to change. I think that I still need help understanding how to make my paper flow better.

feb 8th

Summary:

In the excerpt piece from “the Autobiography of Malcolm X”, Malcolm describes his life in prison and how he learned to read by copying all the words from the dictionary to later reading from the Parkhurst library which contains a lot of historical and religious books. Because of the books he read, he became very determined to work on the side of colored people to help to give them rights and motivate them

1.I think that Malcolm X could have had a couple audiences. He could have been inspiring colored people because that is basically what his life revolved around; equality and pointing out how colored people have always suffered, but not whites. Also he could have intended it for a story of inspiration of non educated people, who are told that they will never be able to reach their goals.  It could be for educated people who are wasting much of their time at college when they could be spending a ton of time becoming educated like he did fifteen hours a day.

2. I think that he defines literacy as being able to read and UNDERSTAND (para 14).  He says this because he kind of states that in college, we read to read or get grades as I think of it, but he read to be able to acquire knowledge. School based literacy is seen as just being able to read and write.

3. He had many many sponsors.  First, he had Bimbi, who he envied because of his knowledge.  Then he had the library, which was filled with Pankhurst’s collection of books about history and religion. This brought about his desire to speak and understand the history of collared people and learn about Muhammad, who was another huge literacy sponsor. He had many of the books he read on page 357 about history and religion. Also Nat turner.  Muhammed was the biggest because he spoke about the “sin and the blood on the white man’s hands.” Par 26. Frederick olmstead and fannie Kimball were big because they opened his eyes to the horrors of slavery.  Then Uncle Tom’s Cabin was huge because he said it was the only novel he had ever read since he started reading. Par 26.

4.  I think that Paragraph 7 with the dictionary was not meant for him to read since black people were discriminated against. I think that par. 27 was absolutely for him since it was about the discrimination against black people. This paragraph probably gave him inspiration. Especially because it said nat turner put the fear of God into the whites. This made their actions seem just.

6. I read the bible every day because I have been inspired by Jesus Christ and have dedicated my life to him because I have found in him what I have not found anywhere else in this world. Because of this, if I am going to give my life to someone, I better know who he is so that I know what I am living for.  I have  a desire to understand who God is, so through this, I can look at Jesus and see the promise that I have been given and I have LIFE because I have purpose.  This is similar to how he said he felt when he started reading.

AE1: I think that literacy is different now because people expect to be literate in technology and the web and research and all of that.  United states literacy is very technical compared to other countries and when Malcolm and Deborah wrote.

This article was awesome. It was really great and inspiring and an easy read. It helped connect the idea of literacy.

Summary:  In the Joy of Reading and Writing by Alexie Sherman, he tells his story of how he started to read at the age of three and overcame discrimination against Indian kids who were intelligent. He speaks about this because his story is encouraging and motivational.

QD 1. In public schools, we are expected to succeed by doing our homework, and studying and participating in class. My parents expectations play a huge part. Sometimes when we are given expectations, it can become a burden to us .  He was expected to fail so he decided to get motivated about that and prove them wrong.  Sometimes I think kids want to do what parents tell them not to do and so they don’t go to school because they want to learn, its because their parents want them too .  At the same time, parents have to be somewhat strict with their kids.

AE 1. I think that Malcolm and Sherman both had very motivational sponsors who they looked up to and had great causes.  Malcolm was influenced by history and religion which he was very interested in, and Sherman loved his dad. It depends who or what the literacy sponsor is to determine if that would help overcome poverty and discrimination.  Reading and writing are words from other people and other ideas that can be super motivational.  If they had both read things about how they should have no hope, then they wouldn’t be where they are now. If malcolms books were all about dance, then he probably wouldn’t have been as inspired.

Reflection: nice short read. I enjoyed it.

Summary: In Dennis Baron’s article, “From pncils to pixels”, he talks about the change of communication through technology over time and how it has effected us Because he wants us to see the change through history and how even the pencil was technology.  The technology of writing is often overlooked and he wants to show how it is important.

2. I think that this could be one of his messages. He talks about how because we now have computers, even though Thoreau wouldn’t have wanted to use anything but a pencil, he would have to use a computer to get by in this world.

4. I think of phone booths as old technology like the pencil.  They are sometimes used still but now we have lap tops and cell phones. Something better and more efficient was created.

6. I understand the images as writing because they portray meaning and understanding as a type of literacy. They contribute to the fact of old technology and paint that picture in our heads

Response: I thought this article was interesting because I hadn’t really thought of this before. it was a bit lengthy and sometimes repetitive but it was cool.

February 6 post

 Summary:
 In Sponsors of Literacy, by Deborah Brandt, she explains the concept of Literacy sponsor as being the agents that support, teach and model literacy.  She explains that we learn to write in certain ways by the way that literacy is advertised and by whom. The people who advertise a certain literacy gain some advantage by this.

1.  A literacy sponsor is an "any agents, local or distant, concrete or abstract, who enable, support, teach, model, as well as recruit, regulate, suppress, or withhold literacy- and gain advantage by it in some way. Pg 334

3. The sponsors sometimes missaproperiate literacy lessons because they do not consider the racial groups. Because of this sometimes only the high class groups can understand what they are trying to convey.

4. I am not completely sure but i think she means the strategy in which to reach the audience but it could be risky because they want to reach the right people and that raises the stakes.

A&E 1

I think that much of my aquired literacy comes from the Church and Christian ministry that I am involved in because it is what my life and activities are revolved around so I absorb much of the literacy there.  A lot comes from growing up in my school and in my household with my parents.

Reflection: i thought this article was cool and it was interesting.  It was a topic i hadnt really thought about before

Cameron's paper

http://www.scribd.com/doc/80608225/paper-2-by-Cameron

Cameron, I thought that you did a good job on your paper.  I like the way that you were conversational with the audience and explained your experiences. I think that the paper meets the criteria for what is required.  I think that you focused on a few different aspects and im not sure if it is supposed to be one or can be multiple. You used sources well and picked good things to put into the paper but you may want to introduce them a little better. The introduction may be more productive if switched around as I noted in the revised paper. I think that sometimes your thoughts were a little jumpy.  For each of your main topics, you may want to make a clear frame and stick to it. You may want to write more about the inner critic and the one draft writer more because it is small compared to talking about where you work and i cant tell if it is related or not. you may want to ask professor because I am not sure if is something he is looking for or not. All in all Cam, i think that you did a great job explaining and being conversational with the audience by putting your personal experiences into the paper. Good Job!

Cover letter for paper 2

http://www.scribd.com/doc/80344848/Finding-That-Place

The main point of my article "I just can't focus", is that everyone needs a place where they can efficiently write. I did this by sharing my experience of how I wrote basically my whole paper in my dorm, but when I analyzed my data in baker, I was much more efficient. My evidence is persuasive because everyone can relate to distraction and it made sense to be in a place where the atmosphere best fits them.  My counterarguments need work. I think the relational aspect of my paper is well but i think that it needs to flow better and not be as much about my experience and more informational. I need to put sources into it but I had written half a paper about something else and realized at the last moment that this was the biggest point that i wanted to make so i need to spend more time putting in evidence. If you could please help my choppy sentences, and cut out things that you see as not important, it would be great help!

February 1 post

In Shitty First Drafts, Anne Lamott describes that as writers, we need to start somewhere and that is usually by making a really crappy first draft that is long and boring. We should not be discouraged by this first draft and should ignore the voices that tell us we are not good writers according to this first draft because we need to go through two, three or maybe many more to get to the really great writing.

In what Writing is, Stephen King talks about getting the ideas onto the page and writing well because everyone thinks differently and perceives things differently and your point needs to be clear. He says to approach writing seriously and not lightly so that you can write well.

Allegra Goodman, in her article, "Calming the inner critic and getting to work", talks about comparing yourself to writers long past. She says that it is important to forget the past and focus on loving your work because in that, you will forget about all the voices telling you that you will never be as good as the writers before.

In "To see your story clearly, start by pulling the wool over your own eyes", Kent Haruf believes that everyone has there own nitch where they write and that it should bring them to a place of motivation. He also states that he thinks that the three most important things in writing novels are spontaneity, simplicity, and clarity because you need to have a fresh and vivid mind when writing.

In "Directions: Write, read rewrite. repeat steps 2 and 3 as needed, Susan Sontag talks about how writing is an act of reading which then is an act of writing. She says that after you write, you get to go back and re read and re write but that it is the best because you already have something to work with. She also displays that reading and writing are compatible

In "Becoming a writer" by Junot Diaz, he describes his 5 years of failure and his desire to go on while he came to the conclusion; "in my view a writer is a writer because even when there is no hope, even when nothing you do shows any sign of promise, you keep writing away."

Using these essays: I think that all of the writers have had writers blocks, demotivation from critics and previous material already written, and fear of failure. Each writer has their own place or own way of writing drafts and revising and editing, they all have their own systems.

Meta Moment:
1. I have learned not to worry about what everyone else is going to say about my writing, to be more consumed in what i want to say than being vain and wanting to be known for what i am saying, and to not give up on writing even when it is hard to write.
2. My conceptions of good writing and writers was that you were born to write and that there is something different about writers than everyone else. now i see that it is having a desire to write and be heard and never giving up.  First drafts are sometimes really shitty and discouraging but sometimes you just need to get it out.

Reflection: i thought it was cool to read about these writers and see how, where and what they are thinking about when they write. It took a while but it was interesting and more entertaining to read.

January 27th post

Harris Summary- Harris believes in his article, Composing behaviors of one- and multi-draft writers, that one-draft and multi- draft writers are different and each have their own styles and revisions and are both needed in certain citations.

I think that I am a one- draft writer because I write my whole paper and go back and add and delete things, revise, and edit.  I also plan and try to organize and make outlines before i start writing. when he says on page 180 that they cannot start until they are organized and focused, it connects with me. because i am a one draft writer,  I may miss out on information and also I become very unorganized because all of my thoughts are in one place.

Reflection: This article took 6 pages to get into his main point and talk about one and multi draft writers and explain differences.  I thought it was interesting and related but it took way too long.


Summary: In How do I write by Ransom, she describes her own writing process by  giving herself one hour to do her normal journal assignment before class and writes down what she is thinking every five minutes. She finds that because she is under a time restraint, she spends more time editing and her thoughts are sometimes unorganized. 


Some other questions to consider:
Time constraint makes thoughts come fast and sometimes unorganized, analyzing your own writing allows you to figure out how you write best, it is hard to write when feeling rushed. By doing my own study, i want to see how much time i spend in writers block and distracted. I would like to know how i came up with certain ways that i write and why i write what i do based off of experiences.


Sometimes i think that when you just keep writing, your brain keeps moving and thinking. this is better than sitting and letting yourself get into a writers block. iF your doing soduko , you cant just expect the numbers to fill in, you have to keep trying until you work your way around the problem.


Response: I liked reading this because it helped me figure out how i want to write this next paper

January 27th post

1.  Summary: In Barbra Tomlinson's "Tuning, Tying, and Training Texts: Metaphors for revision, she is stating that we should not trust only metaphors that we are given in writing because they are not always the whole picture if what is true or possible. She gives 8 specific examples of metaphors that highlight certain revision strategies while also leaving out certain information or unintentionally highlighting other unimportant information. She shows that all these strategies put together could make one full revision process, showing that they are only part of the process when left isolated.

   

 2.  1. She  is saying that the metaphors don’t always resemble the complicated structure that writing entitles

     2.If we just look at a metaphor, we don’t get the whole picture of what writing actually is.  In one metaphor, is one or two ways that a writer may write, but there are many ways that are left out when describing a process.  The problem also is that we also are looking at things in the metaphors that are unlike the process (262). He is saying that we gain certain information and ideas from a metaphor but we also gain wrong or incorrect views as well. To fix the problem, revision of the stories needs to take place. We also need to look at many sides of the story.

1.     3.The refining ore is interesting and I think portrays Dawkins in a way that there are many drafts made.  I think if I had more time I would write like this.  I also like casting and recasting because I think it portrays that you sometimes have to fix things over and over and nothing is set until you turn in that final paper.  Also the sculpting made sense to me and is most how I write. I don’t like to revise anything until I have laid out the paper.  Chisel after the gross work.

2.     4. It is possible that the different stratagies that the metaphors portray could come into play at different times that you are revising because they all are ways to revise. Arguing against, people do not all revise in the same way and may not use these ways at all. They may have their own process.

      5. As I stated in number three, I think that most of the revising teqniqus, I use at some point or another during my editing process but I relate most to the sculpting.

   reflection: I thought that this article was good, showing that we cant always take metaphors too literally because they aren't complex enough to give the whole picture. It wasn't too hard of a read.

January 25 Carol Berkenkotter

Summary:
In Decisions and Revisions, Carol Berkenkotter studies Donald Murray over a period of 62 days to better understand and pay attention to " the setting in which the writer composes the kind of task the writer confronts, and what the writer can tell us of his own process"(Page 218).  Carol does just this through giving different examples and explaining what Dawkins does on a daily basis during his writing, revising and editing process.

1 Murray' writing process was very complicated.  I think any thoughts about writers having sudden inspiration was really proved wrong in this study because Murray's puts so much thought and effort into his writing, especially the planning process. It is interesting that Murray writes in a daybook and journal all day.  Murray is much more organized that I am in his process but that is also because I don't write as an occupation.  I think that I plan a lot but i do not spend the time i should editing and revising

2 I am confused myself with his relationship with the audience. He states in paragraph 19 that a second kind of planning activity was the stating of rhetorical goals... planning how to reach an audience. He takes responses from colleges and summarizes them  and puts it into his first draft. He revises and goes over their responces numerous times.  I do not think that i put this much effort into what my audience thinks.

3. She realized that the planning and revising process are linked together and basically the same thing because you re-conceive meaning you are always planning and revising.

AE

1. I spend my time writing in various increments, my writing experience consists of writing papers for english classes including research, poems, and all the types of high school requirements. my writing experience doesn't give me time to really go through the writing process thoroughly.

Meta Moment

I learned that i should make numerous drafts and sometimes start over to get the important things across my mind. this will help me stay more organized so that all my thoughts dont just go into one document. Also, keeping a notebook with all my thoughts about a paper so that i am not trying to write all at once

Michael Kleine

Summary:

In “What is it we do when we write articles like this one- and how can we get students to join us?”, Klein describes a situation at the night library where all the students, high school and college, sit and have conversation about other things while doing “research” for a paper which they merely report.  He explains that research is more than just collecting existing information.  It is about answering real questions  (klein 22). He describes the hunting and gathering process in which we find what we are looking for and discover what might be of use (Klein 23). He shows this process through the research of 8 professors from different departments and dissects what they do during research. He writes this article in hope that students will learn to effectively and rhetorically learn how to hunt and gather research.

WAW

1.     My experiences are much like the night study where I report what I read but because of our class now, I feel like I understand the process of rhetorical reading and writing and the hunting and gathering better. I still struggle with researching how he explains in the process of sifting and seeking that he describes

3.     Research plays a role that the professors collect research first, then pull what they want out of it, seek patterns in data to draw conclusions and translate what they have found.  They use research to make and establish their own data and findings. My research usually is to just regurgitate a certain point that I am trying to make. This is also something I have struggled with in our past paper.

4.     I would research much more so that I would have enough data to draw conclusions from. I would follow his four step process more clearly.  I would not use research to just support a point, but to use the web of intertext to collaborate and see the collaboration of data.

Response:

I think this was a good article. I think it really restates the rhetorical reading, writing, framing, intertext, discourse communities concepts that we have already read.  I did like some of the examples from the professors but was confused by what he meant on some of them.  I did like the 4 step process and I feel like hunting and gathering was a good metaphor when he said that the gatherer discovers what might be of use.  

January 18th assignment

Allen

I believe that my experiences between the inspired and real writer are similar to Allen’s.  She describes, on page 36, that to the inspired writer, writing comes easily. When we read great articles or novels or any piece of writing that inspires us, we think that the writer is a good writer who was inspired instead of thinking of how hard they had to work to put together this great piece of writing. She says the inspired writer is really “the transcendent distortion of real-life writers”. We need to realize that they had writers block and many of the things we struggle with, they were just ‘inspired’ to work through it with extra time and effort.  I feel like I relate to Allen on page 39 when she says that when she experiences these writers blocks she feels like a fraud, has no business writing, and isn’t good at it. I often do this in my writing. This is encouraging because now I see that it is not about letting things come easy to you but good writing comes with a lot of hard work that is expected.

-       Response- I liked this article.  I thought it was a little long but I enjoyed it.  It motivates me to work harder because I know that I can still be a decent writer even if it takes me twice as long. I just need to put in more effort.

Murray

GRR-  I have been taught to put my opinions into my work and other than poems, I have not been encouraged to write freely like in a journal.

Summary:  In “ All Writing Is Autobiography” by Donald M. Murray, he talks about putting our own personal experiences into our writing.  Writing is creative and comes from many of our personal experiences or imaginary ideas that we put into writing. He explains the importance of writing Autobiographically and how it brings meaning into our lives.

1. Murray is asking us to reconsider the poor writing description that writing is not autobiographical. He describes it is because we put our own past experiences into it.

3.         Murray’s article is much different than the other articles in this chapter.  He provokes the thought that all writing and at the end he states that even reading is all autobiographical.  Unlike the other authors, he states that “we should not move away from personal or reflective narrative in composition courses, but closer to it”(page 64), instead of looking from the point of intertext. He says that we use our own experiences to write. He also is talking from more of a poem, fiction, nonfiction, novel type writing rather than argumentative research.

            I believe that Murray’s life experiences allow him to use writing as a type of therapy and he enjoys writing autobiographically.  He states on page 61 that “writing autobiography is my way of making meaning of the life I have led and am leading and may lead.”

4. I believe that this article relates to the scholar world on page 64 when he states that “Creativity requires a continuity of concern, an intense awareness of one’s active inner life combined with sensitivity to the external world.”  This makes me think that my personal experiences will bring about creativity in understanding the external world. That I may have a different input because of what I have already experienced.

            I don’t see a whole list of things. I just see that he sees the world in a different way because of his experiences that allow him to add to the external world.  This is what scholarly writing is very much about.

5.  His writing just encourages me to put forth more of my own experience into my writing and this is unlike the other articles we have read

MM- Understanding Murray’s claims will help me have a better attitude when writing, help me express myself better, and really look into my personal experiences to help me understand the world around me.

Response: I really liked this article. It was much more about creativity and expressing and made me feel like I can have a say in my writing

Dawkins

GRR-

1. The treehouse, made of wood scraps and cardboard, made a great place to play for my sister and her friends

2. My sister’s tree house, made of wood scraps and cardboard, made a great place to play with her friends.

3. my sisters tree house made a great place to play with her friends made of wood scraps and cardboard?

I really am not sure. I joined two clauses in each. The first sentence I used an applause.

Summary:  In the article “Teaching Punctuation as a Rhetorical Tool”, Dawkins explains that the punctuation handbook enables the writers to write rhetorically.  The ablity to influence the writer has a lot to do with how the writer puts emphasis into the text.  He teaches how the principal “Rising and Lowering” help to bring back emphasis into the writing by ignoring the previous rules that aren’t always necessary.

2. Dawkins says that handbooks get Fragments and comma rules, clause rules, elliptical coordinate clause rules for commas and inconsistencies in the use of the comma with introductory word, phrase and clause.   The book provides no instruction for many situations.  He says the manuals enable writers to achieve rhetorical effects. ( Page 140 and 141)

3. The principle of “raising and lowering” is a principle in which semi-colons, commas and dashes are used to draw or take away emphasis in a certain sentence.  If you want to emphasize an idea or statement, you will want to use a dash or a semicolon because it draws more attention and is read more dramatically.  If you do not want to draw attention then you use a comma or nothing if possible.

5. I feel like I didn’t learn as much because I have been taught so much about punctuation.  What I have learned is that punctuation has to do with the writer and the reader. Punctuation depends on the writer and how they want their writing to be expressed.  The handbook tells us rules that aren’t always necessary or don’t really apply to the way that we want our writing to be portrayed.  I

6.  I worry about my grammar depending on who is reading it.  I write the way I want and don’t care how grammatically correct it is.  I place commas and semicolons where I feel they are necessary and help the reader.  I don’t look at the handbook and memorize it so my grammar can be perfect unless my professor demands it.  He has reemphasized my original thinking about grammar.

MM-  I think that we are supposed to think rhetorically always in our writing and this article gives good examples of that.  I have gained that I should write according to the emphasis that I want to put on certain things portrayed in my writing.  If I write according to the rules instead using the principal rising and lowering, I will leave out quality to my writing for following the “rules”.

Response:  I thought this article was okay.  It made sense but only will work or be accepted according to the professor grading it.  It will be helpful for future writing. A little boring to read because of all the examples but it was still good.

January 13, Stedman Reading

Summary:
In the article, Annoying ways people use sources, Stedman talks about numerous ways that sources are incorrectly used and how to fix the problem so that as writers, we can better cite and use our sources.  He explains many ways in which we use these sources incorrectly such as pulling quotes out of no where without introducing them, inappropriately ending paragraphs with quotes, using quotes to sound authoritative and a few others. After, he shows how to fix the problems so that we can cite usefully.

Questions:

1. His advice adds on to the advice from Greene, Kantz and porter because they talked about how to use sources as arguments in our ideas and framing of our papers and now we are being taught how to know when to use them in the actual context of the paper.

2. I have been taught to put sources wherever in a paper that I feel like I should.  I have used them to back up arguments and not as bringing up an original argument but i have definatly used them in the context that readers would be annoyed as he was stated.  Also,  I used MLA format.

3. I am not sure that my views have changed from this particular reading, but I think I am more aware and will refer to this article when writing so that I do not use them incorrectly.

Response:
I enjoyed this reading and think that it is necessary. It gave me great guidelines about how to cite appropriately  and in a non annoying way. It really added to what we have already learned about framing and intertext from our other readings and this put it together a little more.

January 11 response

GRR
I get ideas, advice, feedback and assistance in my writing from other Colleges, professors, my Dad, other articles or pieces of information, songs and quotes.

Summary: In Porter's Article, Intertextuality and the Discourse Community, He explains that all texts contain traces of other texts and that no work is completely original through the concept of intertextuality. He provides examples such as Thomas Jefferson who wrote the Declaration based off of the ideas of many people and that documents should be accepted by a discourse community.

QD

2. I partially agree with Porter that intertext makes individual writers less important because their writing is a collaboration of others ideas and information making the thoughts borrowed.  I believe because there are so many thoughts and ideas on a topic it is nearly impossible to write an article with all original thoughts and statements. But, there is so much information that sometimes it needs to be explained in a more clear fashion or like Jefferson, the ideas all need put together in an orderly way wether they are the direct ideas of the author or not.

3. According to Dictionary.com, autonomous is self governing, independent, and subject to its own laws only. On page 88 paragraph 4, Porter describes the romantic image of a writer as free, uninhibited spirit, independent and a creative genius.  Therefor, an autonomous writer could be described as romantic.

4. I understand the importance of having acceptability within the reader's community because many of the readers have similar ideas or contributing information and knowledge.  My papers have been evaluated by pier evaluating, my dad and my teachers.  I thought my writing should be evaluated by a grade or how a teacher responds. I think that my papers need to be accepted by those interested in the topic and not by a grade or a certain way a teacher wants me to write.

5. I believe that Porter is right about intertextuality because the idea of intertextuality and all the terms that he talks about have been thought and written about by other authors and writers. At the same time, someone has to be the first to talk and think about something, but it is possible that at the same time, someone else could be thinking about the same thing. In his text, Porter is displaying the idea of intertextuality because he isn't talking about anything that hasn't been thought of before.  He may explain examples differently, but the examples have also come from someone else.

6.  There is much harm in imagining writing as individual, heroic and isolated because it most likely isn't. For students, it is impossible to create a paper and information without having some past knowledge. Also, Porter says it is important for students to know that documents like the Declaration of independence was the result of a large group of people rather than just one person. I completely agree.

MM- My idea has changed about writers being people who work to get their ideas on print because now I realize that all information is borrowed. I think that readers have different styles and ways of comprehending information so the writers help the readers understand by the way they collaborate information. I see writers as not completely original but "effective borrowers of traces" as Porter describes Jefferson in paragraph 8.  Now i am challenged to better collaborate information (much more information) in a way that makes sense to argue my point.

REFLECTION

I thought this article was really long to explain the point of intertextuality and discourse communities.  I am still a little confused on discourse communities but I liked the examples such as the Declaration that helped to explain intertextuality. My views have changed on writing by the concept of intertextuality and it has motivated me to bring many sources into my writing so that I can develop good collaborating skills.

January 9

I believe that rhetoric/ rhetorical is a strategy in which the reader pays attention to the position that the writer has and to the claims the writer makes in order to make an argument.

Rhetoric has much to do with reading academic articles because not every piece of information in an academic article is fact. much is claim and the reader needs to have rhetorical skills to see the rhetorical situation so that they can make their own opinions instead of assuming certain things to be facts.

Kantz states that facts, opinions, and arguments actually are claims.  Alice describes the difference between the facts and options are really how they are received by an audience.

In paragraph 17, Kantz states that students misunderstand because they read sources as stories, they expect the research to be truthful, and they do not understand that facets are a kind of claim.
    - I defiantly expected everything in my books and research to be truth. I never really questioned anything. I now think about what was written by whom and what they wanted the audience to get out of it.  Of course an article written by hershey will tell me that a bar of chocolate each day is good for me while leaving out facts about how this is also bad for me. If I understood that Hershey just wanted my business, then I would not really take this claim as a fact.  This comes from reading rhetorically.

This article has taught me that every article written has some bias. Like Kantz says, there is always a rhetorical situation;  a writer, audience, and a topic.  The writer wants to portray a certain topic to an audience in a certain way, presenting information to support and leaving out details that argue the topic. We have to identify their position and reasoning so that we can question their support and details.

I feel like I will now be able to be much more aware of the background of the author I am reading. I will collect many different sources so that I can gather an argument that presents many sides. I will question many facts and now look at them as claims instead of truth.

I believe that Kantz is trying to show that claims are constructs because they are not completely fact, but are opinions based on the concepts already formed.  It would be useful because she is showing us different sides to reading and writing that I have not been introduced to. This makes writing much more meaningful instead of just presenting facts, we get to see the loop holes and form our own argument. This will help us to be able to write better papers but also understand and carefully read in everyday life.

I really liked this article because I was introduced to a completely new way of reading and writing that is so much more efficient and meaningful than previously. Now I am aware of the rhetorical situation and will be paying much closer attention to points of view and claims made.

First response

1. We need to be able to understand how to gather information, make conclusions and opinions in reading so that we can write well in any format. Whether that is persuasive, informative, or a research paper, we have to be able to understand the reading well to be able to write well.


2. I believe that Burke is explaining that writing is an ongoing process of ideas, arguments, opinions, and information. The Process never ends. I believe Greene restates the quote because it is a great way to explain the process of writing as discussions with many different argumentative sides. This quote presents writing as a piece which many opinions and arguments are formed off of to challenge certain writing.


3. Framing is a strategy that helps you think of the opposing argument so that you are prepared with information to defend your own. The metaphor explaining framing is a photographer who draws attention to what he wants people to see while blurring out what he doesn’t see as important. This is how writers portray their information.
It is important because it helps you to be organized. You establish your position, define and describe your position, allow others to respond to your argument after clarifying it, and through all of this, you are able to organize how the argument will work. Framing allows the writer to make certain concepts and ideas known while hiding others.

(21) Greene’s article represents a conversation because he brings different sides into his argument but makes his argument known and clear. He is speaking to anyone who wants to write effectively. He is framing his argument because he established his position, described and clarified it and then taught how to effectively use it. I believe he believes what he preaches as in “argument as a conversation” because he is defending his side well with many examples and is ready to defend other arguments and explains that arguments make writings better.

What is writing to me?

Writing is a way of portraying emotions, stories, events and creativity among many other things. Writing can be about anything one wants it to be about.  Stories and traditions from generations and cultures can be passed down, a world of fiction can be created be imagination, advice can be given, rules can be made and kept, documents can be made and contracts can be signed. There are thousands of reasons why we write. I write in a journal so that i can remember what i read that day, what I was thinking during a certain time, or recall a certain event in my life.