5 Quotes from Anne Frances Wysocki's Article
1.) When I look at the open landscape before me, my self reaches out to the horizon, which separates the lake from the sky. Turning around I see at a shorter distance the woods and the house, and even more close by the ground beneath my feet. All these sights are experiences as being seen from the seat of my self, and they group themselves around it in all directions.
- Rudolph Arnheim
My thoughts on this quote is the separation of everything. Anne uses this quote from Arnheim, because it explains the two different sides of looking at things. Just like separating the two articles on the first page, he talks about separating different things. The sky and lake are farther distance away, showing the huge difference. He says the woods and the house are a closer distance, this could show closer similarities in comparing with her ideas.
2.) Since the middle position is the place of greatest importance, the viewer attributes weight to whatever he finds in that position.
-Rudolph Arnheim
In Anne's article she explains how the women's middle section, (her butt and stomach) are the main things we focus on. People look to that first, because it shows the curves of the human body, and we relate more to spherical shapes, than pointed shapes. Since the women's midsection is the middle, more features are added to it. In the article she explains how there is more of a clear light in the midsection, making this the first thing someone would focus on. It could either be the start of someone looking or the finish, because they can't turn away from what they are seeing.
3.) We easily see that, in saying it is beautiful, and in showing that I have taste, I am concerned, not with that in which I depend on the existence of the object, but with that which I make out of the representation in myself. Everyone must admit that a judgement about beauty, in which the least interest mingles, is very partial, and is not a pure judgement taste.
-Kant
I think what he is trying to say is that we make an image we see into the likeness of ourselves. He makes out his own representation of what he sees. This might mean he is relating the object to himself. He is making a point to show that when people look at something that is articulately classified as beautiful, that we might not all see the actual beauty in the object that it is truly supposed to represent.
4.) Is this "beauty" real beauty? Of what use is it? [...T] hin, grizzled hair, toothless, wrinkles, tainted breath; even long before the end all becomes ugly and repellant; visible paint, sweat, foulness, hideousness. Where then is the god of my idolatry? Where is beauty?
-Leo Tolstory
He questions what real beauty is, and explain that in time everything turns ugly. Beauty lasts for only so long, and then it disappears just like everything else. I think he is asking where the true god of his idea of beauty is. He wants to know where true beauty hides.
5.) ...art exists that one may recover a sensation of life; it exists to make one feel things, to make the stone stony. [...] the technique of art is to make objects "unfamiliar [...] art removes objects from the automatism of perception.
-Victor Shklovsky
Art has been made to make people feel the realness of things. I think he is trying to say when we would look at a painting for example, possibly a painting of a house he wants us to feel what it is really like to be there; the air around, the grass, trees, the house itself. He is trying to explain that everything has meaning, the meaning of life. When he talks about unfamiliar art, he might mean when we see things that are unfamiliar to us it could possibly give us a different understanding or even confuse us to think we are seeing something else or that we are looking at something different.
I enjoyed this reading and found it interesting, because it made me think of the reading from blackboard talking about the women's body and how women self-survey themselves. The pictures on the first page of Anne's article are basically getting surveyed by everyone reading the article. It shows what people really focus on when they see advertisements. I really thought it was interesting when the naked women in the article with her thigh high shoes was compared to the mother feature, because of her midsection.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Thursday, October 4, 2012
BEFORE YOU READ
I believe technology is anything that can keep growing into something even better than what it started out as. As an example, a computer started out with only being able to do a few works, such as paint, playing card games, and looking up a few documents on the internet. Now the computer can do much more than that like finding maps, ordering items, doing research papers, even as simple as ordering and paying for pizza, and having it delivered to your front door.
In Dennis Baron's article, "From Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literacy Technologies he wants to prove writing as a technology. He wants to show the good side of computers, and how they have come so far in the last fifteen years. The concept of writing can be so tiresome, and slow that your hand may start to hurt after writing so much. This is where the computer comes into play. It is much easier to type a one page paper than it is to write. This could also be helpful, because for most people type faster than they write. Writing is slow, and ideas are quick. So, what if you forget the ideas you had, because you could not write them down quick enough before they slipped away? Baron starts to talk about how pencils were not made for writing in earlier years, and how they came farther into the picture. They are now used for writing, and looked at as being an old fashioned form. The phone was also not made for what it is used for today. The phone was made to transfer writings and readings. It clearly does so much more than that today. Computers have so many different features than they did when they were first made that we can not begin to imagine the things they will have ten years from now. As the years go down, prices also drop drastically in the making and buying of these products. This makes it accessible to be in almost every middle class home. Baron's main point is that as old technologies seem automatic to us, we look forward and focus more on the new than the old.
COMPARE
Baron's article could go in conversation with James Porter's article, "Intertextuality and the Discourse Community," because they both show how things can progress. While Porter is explaining how newer writings can contain traces of older writings, Baron shows that new technologies can contain traces of older technologies. In both article they are showing how things progress from old to new, but yet keep some part of the original on which they were based upon.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
5) Baron focuses so much on fraud and authenticity, because research is so much more accessible now and easy to copy. If I needed to figure out something to write a paper on, I could type it up on google and get thousands of websites. Some people might just copy the text they see on the screen, and be done with it. He basically is pointing out that fraud is very easy to participate in now, especially considering the fact that fake money has been printed, and used. Nobody even realized until it became an issue that there was counterfeit money.
META MOMENT
I have always thought of writing as a technology, even before reading this article. I have thought of it this way, because I look at technology as anything that can progress. Writing clearly progresses everyday of our lives.
I found this article to be very informative on certain technologies that have progressed over they years. I never knew that the telephone was not made for what it is used for today, or that the pencil was not used to write in the beginning of it being made. He states the obvious in explaining how much computer have progressed over the years. That is clear to anyone who has ever used a computer as a child to now. The graphics, speed, etc are so much better on computers than they were even just a few years ago. Every couple of months there are new computers made and sold on the market. This just goes to show the fast growing process of computer technology.
I believe technology is anything that can keep growing into something even better than what it started out as. As an example, a computer started out with only being able to do a few works, such as paint, playing card games, and looking up a few documents on the internet. Now the computer can do much more than that like finding maps, ordering items, doing research papers, even as simple as ordering and paying for pizza, and having it delivered to your front door.
In Dennis Baron's article, "From Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literacy Technologies he wants to prove writing as a technology. He wants to show the good side of computers, and how they have come so far in the last fifteen years. The concept of writing can be so tiresome, and slow that your hand may start to hurt after writing so much. This is where the computer comes into play. It is much easier to type a one page paper than it is to write. This could also be helpful, because for most people type faster than they write. Writing is slow, and ideas are quick. So, what if you forget the ideas you had, because you could not write them down quick enough before they slipped away? Baron starts to talk about how pencils were not made for writing in earlier years, and how they came farther into the picture. They are now used for writing, and looked at as being an old fashioned form. The phone was also not made for what it is used for today. The phone was made to transfer writings and readings. It clearly does so much more than that today. Computers have so many different features than they did when they were first made that we can not begin to imagine the things they will have ten years from now. As the years go down, prices also drop drastically in the making and buying of these products. This makes it accessible to be in almost every middle class home. Baron's main point is that as old technologies seem automatic to us, we look forward and focus more on the new than the old.
COMPARE
Baron's article could go in conversation with James Porter's article, "Intertextuality and the Discourse Community," because they both show how things can progress. While Porter is explaining how newer writings can contain traces of older writings, Baron shows that new technologies can contain traces of older technologies. In both article they are showing how things progress from old to new, but yet keep some part of the original on which they were based upon.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
5) Baron focuses so much on fraud and authenticity, because research is so much more accessible now and easy to copy. If I needed to figure out something to write a paper on, I could type it up on google and get thousands of websites. Some people might just copy the text they see on the screen, and be done with it. He basically is pointing out that fraud is very easy to participate in now, especially considering the fact that fake money has been printed, and used. Nobody even realized until it became an issue that there was counterfeit money.
META MOMENT
I have always thought of writing as a technology, even before reading this article. I have thought of it this way, because I look at technology as anything that can progress. Writing clearly progresses everyday of our lives.
I found this article to be very informative on certain technologies that have progressed over they years. I never knew that the telephone was not made for what it is used for today, or that the pencil was not used to write in the beginning of it being made. He states the obvious in explaining how much computer have progressed over the years. That is clear to anyone who has ever used a computer as a child to now. The graphics, speed, etc are so much better on computers than they were even just a few years ago. Every couple of months there are new computers made and sold on the market. This just goes to show the fast growing process of computer technology.
Monday, October 1, 2012
BEFORE YOU READ
Before starting to read this article, I had never known who Malcolm X was, or what he did. Now I know, he was a black male who dropped out of school his eighth grade year, because he was told by a teacher that he could not read, and would not ever be able to become the lawyer he ended up becoming. He replaced his last name with an "X" symbolizing slaves and how he was called, "Little" by the slave master. He shares many of the same ideas as Deborah Brandt, and this shows through his writing. He was assassinated in about 1965.
In Malcolm X's article, "Learning to Read," he talks about his own personal experience when he was in prison. He is always reading, and loves to read any chance he gets. He talks about the British and English, and how they came to have the "opium war." He speaks on how the Chinese were killed with their own gunpowder, and taken control over at one of their weaker times in history. He says that no matter who it was, they would never be able to steer him away from a book. He would even read at night when all he has was a small light that shone in his cell at night.
The part I most liked about this article was when Malcolm X talks about how he wrote the whole dictionary down in his time at prison. That takes a lot of time, and shows how dedicated he was as a reader. It shows how much he wanted to learn, and what he gained from his experience. I strongly agree with his point that college has too much distractions, and makes it harder for students to read and understand. There are so many parties, frats, sororities, and socialites that just take too much time away from the actual study in the college life of a student.
BEFORE YOU READ
When I learned to read, I was about four years old, almost five. My dad was the first to teach me how to read a book, and my mom was the parent that helped me learn my spelling. If it was not for my mom teaching me how to spell, and put words together, I would have never been able to pick up so quickly on how to read and write. If my parents did not teach me how to read small words and sentences at such a young age, I probably would not enjoy reading and writing as much as I do now.
In Sherman Alexie's article, "The Joy of Reading: Superman and Me," he explains that a superman comic was the first thing he ever learned to read. He does not remember which one it was, who did what, but he remembers that is what he read. He talks about the construct of paragraphs being like a fence for different sentences. He compares this to his family, being seven paragraphs since there are seven people in his family. It is stated two times in the article that if he was not an Indian child from the reservation he would have probably been considered a prodigy, not an oddity.
What I mostly enjoyed about this article was that he explains that he was saving himself learning to read. He loves the fact that he is a smart indian boy, even if his classmates will not own up to it. He is not afraid to show how smart he is, and will not put on a front just because other do this.
COMPARE
In both Malcolm's and Alexie's article I have noticed they both come from a very poor family. Neither of them are expected to go anywhere in life within the reading and writing construct. They both share similarities to Brandt's article. They prove that they, unlike the others can make it possible to become smarter and to learn more than expected. They taught themselves how to read and write, given the conditions in which they lived.
In Bell Hook's article, "Writing Autobiography," she talks about moments that happened in her past as a small child. At the start of her autobiography she wants to 'kill the Gloria of her childhood,' but does not know if she can. She has been struggling for years to write down the events of her childhood. She thinks it has taken her so long, because she can not emotionally let the happenings go. She talks about the black man she had an affair with, and the two memories with him that made her go back to her childhood days. The first is when she talks about him being a smoker, and she was not and did not like to be around the smoke. This made her think of her Uncle Pete. She had never really met him, but she remembered him as a smoker, and a tight embrace that she also shared with the man she was with. In the end of her article, Bell explains that she no longer wants to kill the childhood of 'Gloria,' but has not rescued her, and can live a peaceful life knowing she has come to terms with things that had happened in her past.
COMPARE
In all three article, I have come to the conclusion that they had all come from poor families, with little to show. None of them are white Americans. Malcolm X was a black male who converted to Islam, Alexie was an Indian boy from a reservation, and Hook was a black female. They all had either had trouble reading in the beginning, or were put down and not expected to have been able to go anywhere with reading or writing. They all proved this wrong, and learned to read and write, and produce their own short stories, novels, autobiographies, or poems.
Overall, I enjoyed each article. My favorite was the first article with Malcolm X. I found this the most interesting mainly, because I have heard about him, but never knew exactly who he was, what he did, or why he did it. This article has helped me to better understand who he is, and what he stood for as a person. I have a lot of respect for him for going to prison, and instead of just sitting around, he betters himself as a person, and proves everyone wrong. He makes himself a better person than half of the people in America as my personal opinion.
Before starting to read this article, I had never known who Malcolm X was, or what he did. Now I know, he was a black male who dropped out of school his eighth grade year, because he was told by a teacher that he could not read, and would not ever be able to become the lawyer he ended up becoming. He replaced his last name with an "X" symbolizing slaves and how he was called, "Little" by the slave master. He shares many of the same ideas as Deborah Brandt, and this shows through his writing. He was assassinated in about 1965.
In Malcolm X's article, "Learning to Read," he talks about his own personal experience when he was in prison. He is always reading, and loves to read any chance he gets. He talks about the British and English, and how they came to have the "opium war." He speaks on how the Chinese were killed with their own gunpowder, and taken control over at one of their weaker times in history. He says that no matter who it was, they would never be able to steer him away from a book. He would even read at night when all he has was a small light that shone in his cell at night.
The part I most liked about this article was when Malcolm X talks about how he wrote the whole dictionary down in his time at prison. That takes a lot of time, and shows how dedicated he was as a reader. It shows how much he wanted to learn, and what he gained from his experience. I strongly agree with his point that college has too much distractions, and makes it harder for students to read and understand. There are so many parties, frats, sororities, and socialites that just take too much time away from the actual study in the college life of a student.
BEFORE YOU READ
When I learned to read, I was about four years old, almost five. My dad was the first to teach me how to read a book, and my mom was the parent that helped me learn my spelling. If it was not for my mom teaching me how to spell, and put words together, I would have never been able to pick up so quickly on how to read and write. If my parents did not teach me how to read small words and sentences at such a young age, I probably would not enjoy reading and writing as much as I do now.
In Sherman Alexie's article, "The Joy of Reading: Superman and Me," he explains that a superman comic was the first thing he ever learned to read. He does not remember which one it was, who did what, but he remembers that is what he read. He talks about the construct of paragraphs being like a fence for different sentences. He compares this to his family, being seven paragraphs since there are seven people in his family. It is stated two times in the article that if he was not an Indian child from the reservation he would have probably been considered a prodigy, not an oddity.
What I mostly enjoyed about this article was that he explains that he was saving himself learning to read. He loves the fact that he is a smart indian boy, even if his classmates will not own up to it. He is not afraid to show how smart he is, and will not put on a front just because other do this.
COMPARE
In both Malcolm's and Alexie's article I have noticed they both come from a very poor family. Neither of them are expected to go anywhere in life within the reading and writing construct. They both share similarities to Brandt's article. They prove that they, unlike the others can make it possible to become smarter and to learn more than expected. They taught themselves how to read and write, given the conditions in which they lived.
In Bell Hook's article, "Writing Autobiography," she talks about moments that happened in her past as a small child. At the start of her autobiography she wants to 'kill the Gloria of her childhood,' but does not know if she can. She has been struggling for years to write down the events of her childhood. She thinks it has taken her so long, because she can not emotionally let the happenings go. She talks about the black man she had an affair with, and the two memories with him that made her go back to her childhood days. The first is when she talks about him being a smoker, and she was not and did not like to be around the smoke. This made her think of her Uncle Pete. She had never really met him, but she remembered him as a smoker, and a tight embrace that she also shared with the man she was with. In the end of her article, Bell explains that she no longer wants to kill the childhood of 'Gloria,' but has not rescued her, and can live a peaceful life knowing she has come to terms with things that had happened in her past.
COMPARE
In all three article, I have come to the conclusion that they had all come from poor families, with little to show. None of them are white Americans. Malcolm X was a black male who converted to Islam, Alexie was an Indian boy from a reservation, and Hook was a black female. They all had either had trouble reading in the beginning, or were put down and not expected to have been able to go anywhere with reading or writing. They all proved this wrong, and learned to read and write, and produce their own short stories, novels, autobiographies, or poems.
Overall, I enjoyed each article. My favorite was the first article with Malcolm X. I found this the most interesting mainly, because I have heard about him, but never knew exactly who he was, what he did, or why he did it. This article has helped me to better understand who he is, and what he stood for as a person. I have a lot of respect for him for going to prison, and instead of just sitting around, he betters himself as a person, and proves everyone wrong. He makes himself a better person than half of the people in America as my personal opinion.
Sunday, September 30, 2012
BEFORE YOU READ
Some sponsors of literacy throughout the U.S. are all schooling systems. They clearly want children to learn how to read, and promote this. Libraries are also one of the biggest promoters of reading and writing. They make this possible and more helpful for children by having "book night," or having different educational reading or writing programs for children. Mostly all libraries have some kind of open club that any child could join and be welcome into, so they can learn to better read and write.
In Deborah Brandt's article, "Sponsors of Literacy," she attempts to explain the change between literacy, and how the standards have changed dramatically. She also explains how teachers or sponsors could teach reading and writing skills. There is a lot of competition between various literary sponsors. Many different groups are trying to make it easier for people to learn to read and write with a better knowledge of understanding. She uses two different people to compare, Dora Lopez, and Raymond Branch. Dora comes from an immigrant family, and Raymond is a more wealthy white male. They both live in the same area, yet they both have a different understanding to the basic of reading and writing. Race, gender, and class could play a major role in this in certain areas.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1.) She describes literacy sponsors as people who have more knowledge within literacy terms. She explains some of these sponsors could be known as teachers, priests, military officers, editors, influential authors, and usually more rich. The characteristic of a literacy sponsor are knowing more about reading and writing than the average person, and being able to teach and explain it, so that people will be able to understand.
APPLYING & EXPLORING
2.) I had a teacher who tried to with-hold literacy from me in a sense. I was reading the book, "A Child Called It," at a very young age. I started reading chapter books at a very young age, and enjoyed them. I was not sure what the book was about, but she said the book was too mature for me. Besides that, I ended up taking it home, and just did not read it in class. I have been forced to read certain books I did not care for in school that were on the school list for the year. I did not enjoy the book, "Island of the Blue Dolphin" so much, but it was required to have been read by my fifth grade year in elementary school. If i ever needed to find a good literacy sponsor when I was younger, I always went to the school library, and talked to the librarian. She was an older nun, and always referred me to books that probably would have been expected to be read by a more mature age, but she knew how much I loved to read.
SUMMARY
Brandt's article could fall into comparing with Michael Klein's article about teaching students to write like researchers. Both authors are trying to teach you something new, and push you more towards how you should learn to do this. Brandt is explaining to the reader how literacy sponsors can help to promote the way you read and write. Klein has been the author in the night library and probably would understand how literacy sponsors work, and how they can influence students to spend much time in the night library, just like he had caught himself doing.
I personally found an interest in this reading, because I had never really thought about how literacy sponsors have such an impact on certain people. I understand that gender and class can play a major role in the reading and writing of two separate individuals. It is always talked about, especially when elders are telling children they should be thankful they know how to read and write, because there are still many people who do not know how to do this. I especially liked that she used military officers and priests as literacy sponsors. I personally never made this connection, until reading her article. She opened up my eyes to a few new ideas I never thought of before.
Some sponsors of literacy throughout the U.S. are all schooling systems. They clearly want children to learn how to read, and promote this. Libraries are also one of the biggest promoters of reading and writing. They make this possible and more helpful for children by having "book night," or having different educational reading or writing programs for children. Mostly all libraries have some kind of open club that any child could join and be welcome into, so they can learn to better read and write.
In Deborah Brandt's article, "Sponsors of Literacy," she attempts to explain the change between literacy, and how the standards have changed dramatically. She also explains how teachers or sponsors could teach reading and writing skills. There is a lot of competition between various literary sponsors. Many different groups are trying to make it easier for people to learn to read and write with a better knowledge of understanding. She uses two different people to compare, Dora Lopez, and Raymond Branch. Dora comes from an immigrant family, and Raymond is a more wealthy white male. They both live in the same area, yet they both have a different understanding to the basic of reading and writing. Race, gender, and class could play a major role in this in certain areas.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1.) She describes literacy sponsors as people who have more knowledge within literacy terms. She explains some of these sponsors could be known as teachers, priests, military officers, editors, influential authors, and usually more rich. The characteristic of a literacy sponsor are knowing more about reading and writing than the average person, and being able to teach and explain it, so that people will be able to understand.
APPLYING & EXPLORING
2.) I had a teacher who tried to with-hold literacy from me in a sense. I was reading the book, "A Child Called It," at a very young age. I started reading chapter books at a very young age, and enjoyed them. I was not sure what the book was about, but she said the book was too mature for me. Besides that, I ended up taking it home, and just did not read it in class. I have been forced to read certain books I did not care for in school that were on the school list for the year. I did not enjoy the book, "Island of the Blue Dolphin" so much, but it was required to have been read by my fifth grade year in elementary school. If i ever needed to find a good literacy sponsor when I was younger, I always went to the school library, and talked to the librarian. She was an older nun, and always referred me to books that probably would have been expected to be read by a more mature age, but she knew how much I loved to read.
SUMMARY
Brandt's article could fall into comparing with Michael Klein's article about teaching students to write like researchers. Both authors are trying to teach you something new, and push you more towards how you should learn to do this. Brandt is explaining to the reader how literacy sponsors can help to promote the way you read and write. Klein has been the author in the night library and probably would understand how literacy sponsors work, and how they can influence students to spend much time in the night library, just like he had caught himself doing.
I personally found an interest in this reading, because I had never really thought about how literacy sponsors have such an impact on certain people. I understand that gender and class can play a major role in the reading and writing of two separate individuals. It is always talked about, especially when elders are telling children they should be thankful they know how to read and write, because there are still many people who do not know how to do this. I especially liked that she used military officers and priests as literacy sponsors. I personally never made this connection, until reading her article. She opened up my eyes to a few new ideas I never thought of before.
Sunday, September 23, 2012
BEFORE YOU READ
When writing the two sentences in different forms, I realized I used different punctuation. I switched words around to make it all in one sentence. I used commas to help organize my ideas. Sentence two seems like it could just be added into sentence one. When I added them together, it looked like too long of a sentence, but reading it aloud made sense.
In John Dawkin's article, "Teaching Punctuation as a Rhetorical Tool," he gives solutions on ways people construct rules through grammar and punctuation. His audience are teachers and student writers. Punctuation marks can be used in all different ways. It helps to learn to connect or separate ideas. He give sixty-nine examples through his article. Students should not be worried about making errors, but by creating and personalizing ideas. Punctuation is rhetorical and can be chosen to use. Even good writers sometimes ignore punctuation to better their ideas for their readers.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
I think about punctuation a lot of the time when I write. I do worry about this, because in earlier years teachers would take off numerous amounts of points if we did not have the correct grammar or punctuation in our papers. My point of view on punctuation has stayed the same even after his article, but that is probably because we share many similar points in our idea on the subject.
In Bill Bryson's article, "Good English and Bad," he explains the idea that every word can have so many different meaning. He talks about ellipsis, and explains it with an example. My example would be if an individual had just told their friend they went out and bought a new car. They might answer with the questions, "Why?," "When?," "How?," etc. With these words they created three different sentences. Even though the only word spoken was 'why' we know they mean, "Why did you buy a new car?" or "When did you buy your new car?" or "How did you buy your new car?" or "Where did you buy your new car?" We automatically know that by making the sentences into one word it still has the same meaning. His audience are basically to everyone, because not just one single person does this, it is the English language as a whole.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Prescriptive is forcing rules on correct usage on someone. Descriptive is to explain or describe something through writing. I have encountered many different grammar instructions on how to write in the past. I have been told to use commas, sentences, and explain my readings while restating the question I have been asked. I have had many teachers show their prescriptive side by telling me how I should write, and what I should write, whether they believed it was right or wrong. When in the long-run it is my paper in the end, and if I feel like my writing is correct then it should be, because they are my ideas, and should not be changed because someone does not agree with them.
COMPARE
Dawkins and Bryson's articles are very much the same. They both have the same idea that teachers or peers are pushing students at times to feel like their writings have to use correct words and phrases and nothing should be shortened. They both explain that even famous writers have bent the rules to help better their points and ideas to make readings easier. Sometimes writing the way we speak is better. It makes the flow or writing AND reading much easier. Making words capitalized when they don't need to be explains to the reader how serious the matter at hand could be.
I found both of these articles very interesting. I agree with many different points in both. I really made a connection with Dawkin's article and how he makes a point to explain most students are so worried about making errors that all their ideas do not ever even get to make it to the actual paper itself. Yes, I think it is important to teach students to use correct grammar and the correct usage of words, but I also do not think they should be penalized for not doing so. This can be very discouraging and make a student feel like they can not personally express and explain in vivid detail the thoughts and ideas they have in their writings.
When writing the two sentences in different forms, I realized I used different punctuation. I switched words around to make it all in one sentence. I used commas to help organize my ideas. Sentence two seems like it could just be added into sentence one. When I added them together, it looked like too long of a sentence, but reading it aloud made sense.
In John Dawkin's article, "Teaching Punctuation as a Rhetorical Tool," he gives solutions on ways people construct rules through grammar and punctuation. His audience are teachers and student writers. Punctuation marks can be used in all different ways. It helps to learn to connect or separate ideas. He give sixty-nine examples through his article. Students should not be worried about making errors, but by creating and personalizing ideas. Punctuation is rhetorical and can be chosen to use. Even good writers sometimes ignore punctuation to better their ideas for their readers.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
I think about punctuation a lot of the time when I write. I do worry about this, because in earlier years teachers would take off numerous amounts of points if we did not have the correct grammar or punctuation in our papers. My point of view on punctuation has stayed the same even after his article, but that is probably because we share many similar points in our idea on the subject.
In Bill Bryson's article, "Good English and Bad," he explains the idea that every word can have so many different meaning. He talks about ellipsis, and explains it with an example. My example would be if an individual had just told their friend they went out and bought a new car. They might answer with the questions, "Why?," "When?," "How?," etc. With these words they created three different sentences. Even though the only word spoken was 'why' we know they mean, "Why did you buy a new car?" or "When did you buy your new car?" or "How did you buy your new car?" or "Where did you buy your new car?" We automatically know that by making the sentences into one word it still has the same meaning. His audience are basically to everyone, because not just one single person does this, it is the English language as a whole.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Prescriptive is forcing rules on correct usage on someone. Descriptive is to explain or describe something through writing. I have encountered many different grammar instructions on how to write in the past. I have been told to use commas, sentences, and explain my readings while restating the question I have been asked. I have had many teachers show their prescriptive side by telling me how I should write, and what I should write, whether they believed it was right or wrong. When in the long-run it is my paper in the end, and if I feel like my writing is correct then it should be, because they are my ideas, and should not be changed because someone does not agree with them.
COMPARE
Dawkins and Bryson's articles are very much the same. They both have the same idea that teachers or peers are pushing students at times to feel like their writings have to use correct words and phrases and nothing should be shortened. They both explain that even famous writers have bent the rules to help better their points and ideas to make readings easier. Sometimes writing the way we speak is better. It makes the flow or writing AND reading much easier. Making words capitalized when they don't need to be explains to the reader how serious the matter at hand could be.
I found both of these articles very interesting. I agree with many different points in both. I really made a connection with Dawkin's article and how he makes a point to explain most students are so worried about making errors that all their ideas do not ever even get to make it to the actual paper itself. Yes, I think it is important to teach students to use correct grammar and the correct usage of words, but I also do not think they should be penalized for not doing so. This can be very discouraging and make a student feel like they can not personally express and explain in vivid detail the thoughts and ideas they have in their writings.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
The video, 'Beyond the Red Ink: Teacher's Comments Through' is about the comments teacher's make on student's papers through the year. Students take things to heart and want to be appreciated for the time they have taken to finish their work. Some students might feel like all the red markings on their paper are embaressing. This could be a huge let down for students, and not make them want to try any harder. Sometimes students take so long to try and figure out what the teacher's comments actually mean it could be like a whole class in itself. Most students have the right to chose if they want to go into college or not, meaning if they are there they want to learn. Wonderful comments from teachers are like gifts, and make a student want to keep going through the semester. There always needs to be an equal balance thought, just to steer the student in the right direction. This means leading off with a good comment and 'suggesting' to make some changes to help the paper become a stronger reading. Suggesting gives the students some kind of control of their paper, so they don't feel like the whole paper was changed right before them.
(^Points made from the speakers in the video)
I strongly agree with the whole concept of this video. Students take teacher's comments to heart more than they probably should sometimes. They should not worry so much, because most of the time the student does not know the exact way a teacher's comment should be taken into context anyways. I would recommend this video to any student on campus. It might help students to relax more and realize they might just be over-analyzing things at times.
(^Points made from the speakers in the video)
I strongly agree with the whole concept of this video. Students take teacher's comments to heart more than they probably should sometimes. They should not worry so much, because most of the time the student does not know the exact way a teacher's comment should be taken into context anyways. I would recommend this video to any student on campus. It might help students to relax more and realize they might just be over-analyzing things at times.
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
In Stephen A. Bernhardt's article, "Seeing the Text," his audience are teachers, which leads to their student writers. This article helps them teach the different texts of writings. This varies from symbols, numbers, illustrations, patterns, punctuation, etc. Stephen wants people to understand the meaning and diversity of the text even thought it may be written in other forms. He talks about what makes the texts appealing to the reader. Bernhardt explains how different margins and axis divide the page to make things more explanatory to a reader and better to understand and follow. He discusses how spacing displays structure and similarity expresses the color, shape, size, or directions. Stephen tells you the rhetorical controls, (Visual Gestalt, Development, Partitioning, Emphasis, Subordinate Relations, Coordinate Relations, Linking/Transitional Relations, and Sentence Patters) and how they are visually informative and non-visually informative.
COMPARE
Scott McCloud and Stephen Bernhardt's articles seem very similar. McCloud uses a cartoon comic to explain and prove his article. He uses certain symbols and icons to express his writings and make them easier to understand. His writing is easier to read, because he does this and it also makes the reading more interesting. Bernhardt uses examples of charts comparing non-visual and visual informatives. This makes his writings easier to read. He uses lines to divide the thoughts he has from one another to make his point stronger. He uses different headings and subheadings like he talks about in his article. They both show that while not only writing their article, but also proving their point and giving an example in their own writings.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1) An advantage of the way a paper is set up helps not only the writer, but also the reader. Setting up a paper with different headings could make it easier to read if it is put into a certain format. Dividing the information among the paper can help to be better understandable to see which points go with one another. This makes it easy on the writer, because it can help them keep their thoughts together in an organized manner.
2) Sometimes, I feel like I am writing the same paper over and over again, because I do not know how to properly place my thoughts and ideas in the writing. I can stop the repetition by adding visual cues to help place all my ideas into certain categories so my writings flows together. Bernhardt might tell me to make the paper into different sections, add subheadings, check the grammar to make sure if reading the paper aloud that it would make sense to someone who is listening. He might tell me to develop my paper in a manner that even a child could understand, because it is so well organized.
I believe, the reading was very helpful to someone who does not know how to properly organize a paper or read the text the way it is given in the article. It helps people to understand how numbers and symbols can help to put everything into place where it should be so that everything makes sense. I like how Bernhardt named all the rhetorical controls and put them into a chart and explain the visual informative and the non-visual informative. He is making an example of what his article is about. I felt like his article was easy to read with his examples, and charts. That is exactly what he is expressing in his writing that things are easier when they are grouped together and in an organized fashion.
COMPARE
Scott McCloud and Stephen Bernhardt's articles seem very similar. McCloud uses a cartoon comic to explain and prove his article. He uses certain symbols and icons to express his writings and make them easier to understand. His writing is easier to read, because he does this and it also makes the reading more interesting. Bernhardt uses examples of charts comparing non-visual and visual informatives. This makes his writings easier to read. He uses lines to divide the thoughts he has from one another to make his point stronger. He uses different headings and subheadings like he talks about in his article. They both show that while not only writing their article, but also proving their point and giving an example in their own writings.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1) An advantage of the way a paper is set up helps not only the writer, but also the reader. Setting up a paper with different headings could make it easier to read if it is put into a certain format. Dividing the information among the paper can help to be better understandable to see which points go with one another. This makes it easy on the writer, because it can help them keep their thoughts together in an organized manner.
2) Sometimes, I feel like I am writing the same paper over and over again, because I do not know how to properly place my thoughts and ideas in the writing. I can stop the repetition by adding visual cues to help place all my ideas into certain categories so my writings flows together. Bernhardt might tell me to make the paper into different sections, add subheadings, check the grammar to make sure if reading the paper aloud that it would make sense to someone who is listening. He might tell me to develop my paper in a manner that even a child could understand, because it is so well organized.
I believe, the reading was very helpful to someone who does not know how to properly organize a paper or read the text the way it is given in the article. It helps people to understand how numbers and symbols can help to put everything into place where it should be so that everything makes sense. I like how Bernhardt named all the rhetorical controls and put them into a chart and explain the visual informative and the non-visual informative. He is making an example of what his article is about. I felt like his article was easy to read with his examples, and charts. That is exactly what he is expressing in his writing that things are easier when they are grouped together and in an organized fashion.
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