Malinowitz

Malinowitz

ROW p.110

Before you Read

To define the word "queer" I would say it would mean weird, kind of strange.

Summary

For the article "Queer Texts, Queer Contexts" by Harriot Malinowitz, she talks mostly about discourse communities.  She focuses on the gay and lesbian discourse community.  She goes on about talking about sexuality identity.  She also talks about essentialism and generalization. 

Synthesis

Malinowitz's article can relate to many articles that we have already read.  It can relate to any article talking about discourse communities.  Such as Porter, Glenn, Gee, Wardle, and Swales. All of these articles go over what discourse communities are and give examples to help to explain the concept.

Responses	Quotes
I liked this quote because it just shows how accepting our generation is and not all generations are like us.	“It’s not that students have suddenly and universally become emphatic and comfortable with lesbian and gay existence; but they do seem to regard the issue itself with much less suspicion or surprise than they used to.” (110)
I never really actually thought of teachers to be afraid to come out to their collages and students. I am sure that is very hard for teachers to do.	“Yet I am a lesbian teacher who, until four years ago, hesitated to come our to my students and to many of my colleagues – except in protected parts of the “ivory closet”, such as women's studies programs.” (113)
Just the same as teachers, students are afraid to come out to their fellow classmates and teachers.  Afraid of what others might think.	“I can hypothesize that the closeted gay students in my classes remain silent our of some of the same fears” (113).
This quotes just shows how diverse our society is becoming.  More and more people have grown to except others how they are.	“The focus of multicultural curricula has evolved in recent decades not as an abstract need to make education itself more diverse, but rather in the context of political developments and liberation movements in the nation and the world." (114)
I liked this quote because it is saying that women can do things on their own and we do not need to be handled like we are fragile.	“We believe women aren't so fragile that we need to be helped into carriages and lifted over ditches; in a better world you would see that we are competent enough to vote”(121)

QUOTE: “The contempory term ‘queer,’ used mostly by younger activists and artists, conveys in popular jargon the basic idea of a broad category embracing a spectrum of those who deviate from the heterosexual norm.” (126)

 

RESPONSE:  I liked that she kind of explained what the term means to people today.  Makes me understand what this whole article is about.

 

AE 2

For my discourse community that I was involved in, cheerleading, we had our own launage that only my team and other cheerleaders would understand.  If I would not have been involved in that discourse I would not understand many of the things that they talk about.

 

Thoughts

For this article, I thought it was very interesting and informative.  Made me understand how diverse our society is today.  It also made me understand a little more about the gay and lesbian community and how they feel about society and societies acceptance of them and how they are.   

Devitt et al.

Devitt ROW p. 98

Before you Read

Types of communication I use on a daily basis:

-Texting

-Phone (Calling people)

-Writing

-Facetime

-Twitter

-Facebook

-Instagram

Summary

In Amy J. Devitt's article in Readings on Writings, "Materiality and Genre in the Study of Discourse Communities", she talks about her take about Discourse communities and communities in general.  In the article she also has two other authors that are involved in her writing that give their take on Discourses.  All of the authors talk about the importance of specialized vocabulary in a discourse and the different genres. 

Sythesis

 In this article by Amy J. Devitt, I think it closely relates to many authors that we have previously read about.  It can relate to Porter because of discourse community.  It can also relate to discourse through Wardle.  Devitt is also related to Swales through Genres. 

Responses	Quotes
In other discourse communities, people might have a hard time understanding what people in other discourses are saying because all discourses have their own vocabulary and genre.	“While their purposes seem to be inclusive, to give nonmembers access to the community’s knowledge, genre analysis strongly suggests that the specialist and nonspecialist users have different beliefs, interests, and purposes as well as levels of knowledge.” (99)
This quote goes to show that you need to be in a certain discourse to understand vocabulary from a certain discourse.  If you are not in that specific discourse you will most likely not understand that discourses jargon.	“Tax forms are designed by the IRS, but they are supposedly meant to be used by people who may know little of tax regulations.  The fact that so many people hire specialists to complete their tax forms merely confirms the difficulty of the task of translating specialists’ knowledge into laypersons’ actions.” (99)
This quote is a little confusing to me.  I think this is supposed to explain what a genre is.	“Genres are not just forms.  Genres are forms of life, ways of being.” (104)
This quote is stating just how important ethnographic methodology is in understanding discourse communities.	“If ethnographies are understood as studies of communities and their social actions, and genres taken to be rhetorical manifestations or maps of community's actions, then genre analysis is an especially helpful path in ethnographic methodology.” (107)
I like this quote because it is explaining that when we research about a certain discourse it is saying that by observing that discourse we kind of become a part of that community.	"When students carry out ethnographies, they become researchers who are also active social figures participating in and observing how people integrate their language genres with their wider collective purposes." (109)

 MM

I think the best way to learn about a discourse community is through research.  Research is not easy to gain quickly, it will take time to learn about the discourse completely.

Thoughts

For this article, I thought that is really helped me explain genre and what discourse are about.  It explained conflicting genres and the difference between specialized and non specialized.  I liked that it explained ethnography, because that will help me to better complete project 3.

 

Project #3 Proposal

Project #3 Proposal

For my project three, I will be studying the Discourse community of cheerleading.   I cheered from the time I was four years only up until my senior year of high school.  I have been in several different squads during my years as a cheerleader and I have noticed that all of the squads are generally the same.  I have learned so much through cheerleading about so much about its Discourse community.  Cheerleading is actually a very difficult sport and through my research and this project, I hope to give people and inside look at what the cheerleading Discourse is all about. 

Wardle

Identify, Authority, and learning to Write in New Workplaces
Elizabeth Wardle Pg. 520

Before You Read
-exams used to be test
-semester used to be quarters
-going to class used to be going to school

Summary
In Wardle's article, "Identify, Authority, and learning to Write in New Workplaces", she is very interested with how people learn to write.  She talks about differebt discourse communities and how adults moving through different discourses learn.  She talks about he struggle with finding register or lexis for her writing and how others have a hard time fitting into new discourses.  This article was a result of a study so there are many examples in the article.

Synthesis
This article talks so much about discourse communities and finding your own discourse.  I think this article relates to Gee, Glenn, Swales, and Allen.  It relates to all of those articles because of how much it talks about being in a discourse and the struggles behind finding your own discourse community.

Responses	Quotes
This quote was in the very last paragraph of the article and I liked it because it showed what Alan had learned.	"Alan's example illustrates that learning to write in new communities entails more then learning discrete sets of skills or improving cognitive abilities." (533)
Shows that many discourses could have afforded Allan.	"A number of discourse conventions existed in the department that could have afforded Alan further authority." (529)
Shows where Allan was in the discourse because he had authority.	"Allan's sense of his level of authority was evident in the way he talked about the faculty members in the department." (528)
He left what his previous position was because it didn't allow him enough responsibility.	"Alan's sense of what it meant to fill a support staff position was very different from the faculty's sense." (528)
I like this quote because it kind of tells us how we should understand writing and how we view learning.	"If we understand writing as one tool among many through which knowledge, identity, and authority and continually negotiated, then we must view learning to write in new ways as a complex and often messy network of tool-mediated human relationships best explored in terms of the social and cultural practices that people bring to their shared uses of tools." (526)

Thoughts
I really liked this article.  It was very much liked everything we have been reading lately.  Talks mostly about discourses.  I found it to be very informative.

Compare and contrast

Swales and Gee Compare and Contrast 

 

Compare

Swales and Gee are similar in many ways.  To make a discourse, they both have tension and acceptance.  They both talk about what a discourse is and how there are many different discourses.  They explain what kinds of characteristics a discourse has.  Both know that one needs to have discourse literacy to be apart of one. They both talk about sponsorship and apprenticeship.  Each talk about the certain communications to be apart of a discourse community.

Contrast

Swales and Gee are also very different from each other.  Swales talks more about the discourse community where Gee talks about Discourse with a capital "D".  In Gee's article he talks about primary and secondary discourses, but in Swales he only really mentions primary discourses.  Swales in more about Intertextuality and conceptualization where Gee is about learning from someone already in the discourse and learning from the community.

Swales and Gee

Swales & Gee

Before You Read

There are many times that I have felt out of place, but one time that I can specifically remember is when I decided to join a sports medicine club in high school.  I decided to join this club because all of my close friends were joining and I thought if they liked it, I would like it too.  Not the case.  I ended up hating it and i felt so out of place because all the my friends and all of the other members of the club loved what they were doing.

Summary

In Swales article, "The Concept of Discourse Community", he talks a lot about genre and genre analysis.  he talks about the discourse communities and how they are different from a speech community.  He tells us how the definition of discourse communities need clarification and what framing material is.

Synthesis

 Swales article closely relates to Porter and Allen's articles.  They all talk about the discourse community and different kinds of discourse communities.  They all give examples of discourse communities. 

QD 5 and 6
5.  I cant really think of a discourse communities that I am involved with now, but in high school I was involved in cheerleading and I think that should be considered a discourse community.  Our common goal would be to strive to be a better team and make sure we all know what we are doing.  We all knew how to communicate with each other and understand what everyone had to say.  Giving each other feedback was a big part of being a team.  We all knew specialized terminology for things that only we would understand.

6.  I was forced to join the the debate team in high school.  My friends all really wanted to do it together.  I was totally against it because i thought it was going to take up way too much time and I didnt want to have one more organization to worry about, but I joined and ended up loving it.

Thoughts
This article was a very long, dense article.  It took a lot out of me to get through it.  After reading it, I have a better understanding of a discourse community and all of its characteristics.  It also showed me many examples of discourse communities.

Gee

Before You Read
When I search the term "mushfake" on google, it says the definition is like "faking it".

Summary
In Gee's article, "Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics", he talks about the main idea of discourses and how he thinks that Discourses should be capitalized.  He talks about dominating discourse and how you are either in or out.  He also talks about how one must find their own discourse.

Synthesis
I think that Gee's article is can closely relate to pretty much the same articles that Swales article is related to.  This is because they stay on the same subject of discourses and what discourses are.  His article is reltated to Porter's, Allen's, and Swales.

Response	Quotation
I liked this quote because it made me think about myself and my own personal discourse communities.	“Finally, and yet more importantly, we can always ask about how much tension or conflict is present between any two of a person’s Discourses.” (485)
I like this quote because it shows that you need to have discourse literacy.	“I believe that a socially useful definition of ‘literacy’ must be couched in terms of the notion of Discourse.” (486)
This the first line of the article, and I like it because it sets up the article so you know what you’re going to be reading right from the beginning.	“What I propose in the following papers, in the main, is a way of talking about literacy and linguistics.” (482)
This makes me think of many discourses that don’t involve reading or writing and how they work.	“Not all Discourses involve writing or reading, though many do.” (488)
This quote stuck out to me because he is made really understand filtering and how secondary discourses are filtered into primary discourses.	“ “Filtering” is a process whereby aspects of the language, attitude, values, and other elements of certain types of secondary Discourses are filtered into primary Discourse.” (492)

 
Meta Moment
I could use the knowledge i gained from reading Gee in many Discourse communities because now I have a better understanding of them and their different aspects.

Thoughts
This article was also very long and dense. To be honest I think I liked Swales better than I liked this one.  Both are very similar, but very different at the same time.  If I had to choose though, I would choose Swales over Gee's.

 

Glenn and Pollan

Glenn & Pollan

Before you Read

When I picture a farm with with farm animals, I don't picture a very pleasant scene between the farmer and the farm animals.  The farmer probably doesn't treat the animals very nice.  I feel that all the farmer really cares about is the animals being slaughtered and him getting the money for it. 

Summary
In Glenn's article, "Constructing Consumables and Consent:  A Critical Analysis of Factory Farm Industry Discourse", she attempts to explain how animals are really treated on a farm and how their living conditions are terrible.  She uses examples and stories to help explain.  She talks about factory fram discourse and discourse communities.  

Synthesis

Glenn's article relates to only a few authors.  It slightly relates to Pollan's article because in Pollan's he talks about how farmers want to keep their processes cheap and Glenn is worried about livestock's living conditions and the way they are treated.  Glenn's article can also relate to Baron's because he talks about technology and it can relate to Glenn's because farmers are always trying to find a cheaper, easier way to have livestock and take care of their livestock.  

 

Response	Quotation
Through this quote, I feel that Glenn is trying to explain what this article is going to be about and I like that she try’s to set up the article for us.	“Discourse, for the purposes of this article, denotes the production of knowledge and power through language, and discursive practices are those institutional formations(or epistemes) within which meanings of and between contradictory discourses are constructed” (144)
Again, at the beginning of the article trying to set up what she is going to be talking about through out the whole article.	“In this article I am concerned with how that construction is accomplished and how it contributes to the way USAmericans think about nonhuman animals confined on factory farms.” (144)
Trying to make us get emotional about the Hens so we are emotionally reading the article to become more involved in the article.	“Hens also suffer immensely so that farmers can extract from them as many eggs as possible.” (148)
Just like in any other business the bottom line is profit, but farmers should care more for their animals.	“For the factory farm, as in other corporations, the bottom line is profit.” (149)
We are in an age of technology and that anything can change because of technology.	“Fox reminds us that we are in an age of cloning and of technology that can radically change the way we relate to the environment and other animals.” (151)

QD 1

The environment is also a product of our social institutions.  They are making livestock living conditions look ok when they are really not.  They are making it look as if farmers treat their animals with respect and make sure they are treated well.  Society is buying into something that is not really there.

Thoughts

I liked this article because it was about something that we haven't read about yet.  It was talking about real issues. It mostly related to Baron's article about technology.  I really enjoyed Barons article and I think that's why i liked this one so much.  It was really a great article and she made some great points.

 Pollan

Summary
In Pollan's article, "Farmer in Chief", he writes a letter to the President.  In the letter he talks about the the American food system.  He talks about how things need to change and he talks about how it effects everyone.  He also gives examples how how to fix the problem.

Synthesis
Pollan's article strongly relates to Glenn's article in the sense that he is talking about the food system and that Glenn's is talking about livestock and the food we get out of our livestock.  This could also relate to Baron's in talking about technology and how things need to change and they will always be changing.  

Response	Quotation
I like this quote because it just shows how bad Americans health really is and how something needs to change.	“You cannot expect to reform the health care system, much less expand coverage, without confronting the public health catastrophe that is the modern-American diet.”
I found this quote to be very interesting.  I never really thought about how much fuel we use to make food.	"After cars, the food system uses more fossil fuel than any other sector of the economy - 19 percent."
This is so true, we need to make American consume healthier things because this is about all that America is eating right now.	“The era of cheap oil-based food is drawing to a close.”
We need to start with the younger generation so that when they get to be old enough they can also help to make the change.	"Changing the food culture must begin with our children, and it must begin in the schools."
This quote just shows that reforming the food industry is not going to be an easy thing to do.	“Reforming the food system is not inherently a right-or-left issue.”

Thoughts
I really liked this article.  I like that Pollan decided to write to Obama.  I agree completely with Pollan.  I think a change does need to be made in America. 

  

Wysocki

Wysocki

 

I like this ad because i think that shoe is cute and its bright and makes me want to look at it, but I don't like that it is promoting alcohol. 

Summary
In Wysocki's article, she attempts to argue different views on beauty and art.  She thinks that social norms can be harmful.  She uses many examples of art and advertisement to show how people view images.

Synthesis
I think Wysocki's article is similar to McCloud's in the sense that they are both talking about images and how people view them.  This article is also similar to Berger's because of he fact that they both talk about women and how women are looked at in art.  This also is similar to King in many ways. 

Response	Quotation
From a picture you can’t determine how the person really is, only what they are portraying in the picture.	“This is a body without culture, race, class, gender, or age.” (85)
The images we see go together and match up with past experiences.	"...the pleasures of seeing...are the pleasures of seeing one's apparently most essential self and experiences made visible." (85)
I like this quote because it explains why we look where we look when we look at a picture	"It is because of this contrast: this is the lightest thing in the design and the only large rounded shape." (80)
I agree with Wysocki.  Flat shapes make me think of calm images.	"Smooth flat horizontal shapes give us a sense of stability and calm." (84)
In advertising and pictures of women, we don’t care who they are, but only what they look like.  This has been going on forever just like Berger explains in his article.	“We are not encouraged to ask about the woman in the ad as a woman, only as a shape” (83).

AE 1

I definitely think artwork is up for interpretation.  Art can be viewed so many different ways it just depends on who is looking at it.

Thoughts

This was a very long, dense, hard to understand article.  I don't think I enjoyed it very much while reading it, but after I was done I learned a lot and understand a little bit more about how art is looked at.  

Baron

Dennis Baron, "From Pencils to Pixels:  The Stages of Literacy Technologies" WAW (p. 422)

Before you Read

1.  To me, technology is things invented or developed to better the world.  Examples of technology would be an iPod or a computer.  Something that is not technology would be a piece of paper and a pen.  But in a way a piece of paper and a pen are technology because someone had to invent a pen and figure out that you could make paper and write things on it.  So I think that anything could be considered technology really.   

Summary

In Dennis Baron's article, "From Pencils to Pixels" he attempts to explain how all forms of writing are technology.  Some people don't agree with computers ans all of the new technology.  They would rather just use paper and pencil.  He goes over the stages of literacy technologies.  He explains how humanists are always considered out of the technology loop.  He also explains why things came about, such as actual writing and the telephone.  Lately, he explains the computer and the pattern of literacy technology.   

Synthesis

I would compare this article to be similar to Berger's article.  I believe this because in Berger's article he goes back and talks about how people feel about the topics and peoples different opinions about it just like Baron did. They both also talked about the history of their topics and where they came from.  Berger's article is the only one I can really compare Baron's to.

Response	Quotation
No matter how we write, whether it be on a sheet of paper or on a computer, writing is writing.  It will always be technology.	“When we write with cutting-edge tools, it is easy to forget that whether it consists of energized particles on a screen or ink embedded in paper or lines gouged into clay tablets, writing itself is always first and foremost a technology, a way of engineering materials in order to accomplish an end.” (424)
What this quote means is, that people are concerned about the authenticity of computers and new technology. All technology could be potential fraud.	“Moreover, in a kind of backward wave, the new technology begins to affect older technologies as well.” (424)
Not all people are for technology.  Some people think we should stick to our old ways.  I personally think technology is too great to stick to old ways.  It makes everything so much easier.	“Henderson, who is a director of the Lead Pencil Club, a group opposed to computers and convinced that the old ways are better, further boasts the Thoreau wrote his anti-technology remarks with a pencil that he made himself.” (425)
I think this quotation is just so cool to think about.  Someone had to come up with the pencil.  Someone had to invent it, which makes it technology.	“The pencil may seem a simple device in contrast to the computer, but although it has fewer parts, it too is an advanced technology.” (426)
Writing allows us to communicate in ways that speech does not.  It allows is to record things that were in conversation.	“As literacy technology like writing begins to become established, it also goes beyond the previous technology in innovation, often compelling ways.” (428)

Questions for Discussion

1.  I am not exactly sure who the unabomber was.  I know that he attacked society's grwoing dependence on communication technology and that he excluded humanists from his list of sinister technocrats.  

Thoughts

I really enjoyed reading this article.  I found it interesting to think about that everything is really technology.  It made me start to think about other things other than writing that I didn't before consider as technology, but now do.    

Literacy Narrative

Literacy Narrative

         

          When I first started to learn how to read, I was in Miss Lazar’s first grade class.  Learning how to read was a big struggle for me.  I can remember sitting on my couch in my living room reading little sentences off of a paper I had gotten in class.  My mom sat next to me and helped me sound out each word and taking me though each slowly, but it was very difficult for me and I would get very frustrated every time I couldn’t figure out a word.  For all of my friends, reading came so easily to them.  I didn’t understand why I was the only one having trouble with it.  Looking back, I now realize I was probably not the only one having a hard time, but as a seven year old, I felt like I was. 

          I ended up having to take special reading sessions with the reading tutor.  I would leave the class room for an hour each day to go with the tutor.  We would go over words and sentences slowly so I could understand better.  In the classroom the pace was just to fast for me to be able to comprehend what I needed to be able to read like a normal first grader.  She helped me to figure out how to read and encouraged me to get better.  At the end of the first grade I was at the reading level that all the other students were at.  My parents were also a big help and influenced me tremendously to keep trying and to never give up when I got frustrated.  They always sat down with me to read and would always read to me before bed.  Overall, reading was a real struggle for me, but I got through it thanks to my great teachers and parents. 

 

Hooks

Hooks

Before you Read

An autobiography is a book about a persons life, written by that person.  Important information to have in an autobiography would be details about that person.  First person views on all of the critical events that went on in their life.

Summary

In Bell Hooks article, "Writing Autobiography", she explains her life and all the experiences she has had.  She tells us how her memories were not always correct and uses he writing process to help show examples of her life.  Her audience is anyone that wants to learn about writing an autobiography.

Response	Quotation
This is explaining how she wanted to kill the self in the writing.  Once it was gone she could become more of herself.	“To me, telling the story of my growing-up years was intimately connected with the longing to kill the self I was without really having to die.” (177)
She tried year after year and only wrote a few pages.  It was a more difficult process that she had hoped.	“Until I began to try and write an autobiography, I thought that it would be a simple task, this telling of one’s story.” (177)
In those two incidents she explains how there was specific occasions when it was very evident that the experience of being in his company was the catalyst of remembering.	“Two specific incidents come to mind.” (178)
Explaining how the elders told their autobiographies through stories.	“Within the world of my childhood, we held on to the legacy of a distinct black culture by listening to the elders tell their stories.” (179)

AE #5 

5. When writing my own autobiography, I would set my discourse community by talking about events from when I was a child and past experiences.  I would use specific examples to set the tone.  By doing so, I can better understand my own life and experiences.

Thoughts

I really enjoyed reading Bell's article.  It really helped me understand more about how to write an autobiography and what exactly it is.  I like that she told us that even for her it was hard to start and finish her life story and even sometimes she couldn't recall her own experiences.