Reading Response #13

Summary and Synthesis:

     In "The Sticky Embrace of Beauty," Anne Frances Wysocki discusses the visual forms in texts and how they effect readers and draw attention in certain ways. She mentions a specific advertisement and layout and how it pleasures her yet makes her angry. The social notions of beauty are also largely related to these topics in this article. It looks at what is considered to be beautiful, and what is not.
     Wysocki says, "...the principles and guidelines that I've discussed for analyzing and giving visual form to texts are not neutral or universal.... They too arise out of and then in turn help shape our senses of who we are and what we are capable of doing (or not) in the world."
     The separations as well as relations of form and content are brought up in the text. Wysocki also discusses how Kant believes that "the beautiful is that which pleases universally."

     Wysocki's article relates to past articles we have read because in a few places, she talks about teaching skills and the ways that visual forms and content in texts should be taught. Many of the articles we have read have at least had an underlying, if not straightforward, motive to teach students something new and helpful about writing. Both of our textbooks, in fact, were written for the benefit of college students. Even though Wysocki's article may not be solely focused on teaching practices, it still has something to say about it and has some kind of teaching purpose.



Pre-reading:

• demi-lovato-cosmopolitan_0x440.jpg

         This is a magazine cover which advertises many different things within the issue, mostly dealing with sex. Personally, I look up to Demi Lovato and I am a big fan of her and her music. I like the fact that the magazine has a story about her, which is clearly meant to be inspiring because it shares the story of everything she went through. What makes me angry, however, is that this cover is associating her with all of the sexual topics as well, and even though she is just the cover girl, she is not meant to be part of those stories. As the cover girl, the headline for her story should be much bigger, but they made it so that the sexual topics' headings are the largest ones on the page. They are the first thing people see besides the image of Demi, and therefore most people will typically be more drawn to those topics and want to buy the magazine solely for those reasons.

Questions for Discussion and Journaling:

2. Wysocki has a very interesting way of setting up and formatting her text. She highlights a few different areas of the text, adds a few images to present specific examples, and has different headings and font structures. These all make the text quite visual and present it in a different way than many writers. Bernhardt would not explain it as a low-visual text because it is quite informative and has many visual aspects that may not be perfectly apparent at first.

3. I can see what Wysocki means when she discusses the Peek ad. When she referenced the shapes and the lightest area of the ad and how it draws attention to those who look at it, I understood exactly what she was saying. My eyes were drawn to the lightest shape, which is also centralized in the ad. Personally, though, it doesn't do much for me. It doesn't exactly capture my interest. While looking at it, your eyes are drawn to certain things, but I would not want to purchase the book nor learn more about it. People do a good job of capturing readers' attention through advertisements, but if a person were not specifically interested in what the ad had to show, it would not necessarily affect them very much.


Applying and Exploring Ideas:

2. I definitely think that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. There are some ways that I can understand what Kant is saying, but I mostly disagree with those ideas. I agree with Wysocki on the subject. Society plays a huge role in what is considered beautiful. We are usually told what is beautiful and what isn't. Many people follow these "rules," but many people do not. Everyone thinks differently of what is beautiful. We all have our own personal notions of beauty and are visually pleased in different ways. What is beautiful to one person may be "ugly" to another. There are some things that the majority of people find beautiful or pleasing, but there will always be a handful of people who see a completely opposite side to it and have no interest. Society, and our own personal views, are the basics to what is considered beautiful and what isn't. Yes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.



Meta Moment:

This statement applies to Wysocki's article because it is basically saying there are different ways that visual texts affect readers, and each person is entranced by a visual in their own way by certain aspects of it. This also applies to other visual art forms. Writers and artists usually know exactly how to pull in their readers/viewers and focus on certain areas of their work. However, some things may not work for everyone; some things affect people in separate ways.



My thoughts:

     I thought the topic of this article was interesting, but at times confusing. It was especially confusing when she delved more into the work of Kant. All of the structure diagrams and the whole concept itself didn't completely click with me as to how it related to the rest of the article. It was also kind of difficult to understand right away exactly what point Wysocki was trying to make. However, it made more sense toward the end and it was a refreshing article, even though it was quite long. It was slightly different than a lot of the articles we usually read.
     It's interesting because I just did an assignment on the social notions of beauty, so this is a topic that has recently peaked my interest and has been in the back of my mind. It was also interesting to me how Kant believes that beauty is universal and we all think of the same things as beautiful. I disagree with this because everyone has different ideas of what is beautiful and what isn't.

Reading Response #12

Summary and Synthesis:

     In "From Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literacy Technologies" by Dennis Baron, the relevance between literacy and technology and the importance of the two in the writing world is discussed. Baron believes that all writing is technological; it is "a way of engineering materials in order to accomplish an end." His point begins with the development of the pencil. He explains how even though a pencil is more simple than a computer, it is still a complicated piece of technology. After discussing the advancements of the pencil, Baron adds that "the first writing technology was writing itself."Baron also discusses the history of technology and writing utensils--i.e. the pencil--and its purposes in the past. They were first used to record, instead of for communication.

     The topic of originality and fraud is discussed in Baron's essay, making it easy to compare to other articles we have read. Past articles have discussed plagiarism and originality within a text, and how it is easy to copy someone else's ideas. Baron furthers these topics and explains how the computer and other aspects of writing technologies make it hard to prove credibility and authentication.



Pre-reading:

     Technology, by my definition, are kinds of advanced tools used to make a task easier and to serve a helpful purpose to those who use them. For example, we have cell phones, computers, televisions, and digital cameras. Technology is always being improved and people are always trying to find new ways to make it more efficient for people.



Questions for Discussion and Journaling:

2. I do not think that Baron is trying to give this message in his essay. Baron explains the way writing technologies have changed and how they have affected the way people read and write. I think that he carries this throughout his essay. It seems to be implied that, even though he himself is uncertain, the nature of writing will forever be developing and changing over time with the advancements of technologies.



My thoughts:

     I really enjoyed Baron's essay. It caused me to really think about technology. It was a completely different take on writing and in turn was refreshing to read. Although it was a longer piece, I liked how Baron broke each topic down into subheadings. It was easier to read than past articles we have read, and Baron made a lot of sense. It was pretty simple and easy to understand.

Reading Response #11

Summary:

     In Deborah Brandt's article, "Sponsors of Literacy," she discusses how a person's literacy is shaped by circumstances and institutions that "sponsor" literacy, and that people do not just become literate. Brandt talks about sponsors in terms of typically older, more knowledgeable people who help others become literate, while gaining something themselves. She claims that literacy would not happen without sponsors. Brandt even uses the actual experiences of a few individuals to express how an individual's surroundings affects their literate potential.
     Brandt also traces the history of literacy and how its demands and standards have become much higher throughout time. People are more dependent on it these days and are expected to do a lot more with their writing and reading.
     Brandt's article reminded me of Stuart Greene's "Argument as Conversation." Brandt's article is basically explaining a never-ending chain; a domino effect. Literacy would not occur if it weren't for something else, and so on. Greene argued that arguments are like conversations between people; every argument is brought up by another argument or idea. It is an essentially similar idea, where there is a never-ending cause and effect.




Pre-reading:

The U.S. and my community has always encouraged reading and stressed it as something very important. We have always been told that the more we read, the better writers we will become and the larger our vocabulary will be. It has also always been stressed that good grammar and writing skills are crucial, and that reading will also help us with this. There have been book sales and fairs--basically anything to encourage students and younger children to pick up some books and read. This is even relative to adults, too. Adults can always acquire more knowledge from reading, as well as enjoyment. They can also always improve on their reading and writing skills.



Applying and Exploring Ideas:

1. My own literacy history was much different than the history of Branch and Lopez. My sponsors came form my school, my parents, siblings and other family members, church, and the media as well. All of these things surrounded my life and had a huge impact as they still do today. Much of what we learn comes from what we are taught and what we see and experience. We are not simply born and grow to be literate, we have to become it and learn from our sponsors, as Brandt says. I had a lot of support from my parents, as well as a lot of access to books and computers. All of these things have helped me with my literacy.




My thoughts:

     Although I thought the topic of the article was interesting, I thought it was much too long. It was also at times confusing. It was kind of difficult to follow along and understand exactly what point Brandt was trying to make. She added politics into her writing quite a lot, which I did not understand. I realize that it had something to do with the literacy of the individuals she discussed, but it seemed a bit too dissimilar to me. Her idea of sponsorship ended up getting kind of lost, and I didn't really see how it fit into her examples. It doesn't make a lot of sense until it gets to the end of her article, where she explains more clearly what she was trying to say.

Reading Response #10 (Bryson)

Summary:

     In the article "Good English and Bad" by Bill Bryson, the English language/usage and its complexities are explored, and discussed in regards to its Latin background. Bryson also gives much information about the history of the English language and explains how many people made proposals due to the desire to regulate English.
     Bryson argues that there really is no "basis" for the English language and that, as a free language, the "rules" are not exactly 100% set in stone because no one has exactly made them. He claims that the "rules" are just opinions and beliefs of people from the past, which can then be in a way overlooked. Bryson's article explains the disagreements and arguments that people had and still have about usage in the English language. It is a very broad spectrum and everyone expresses different views and opinions about what is right and what is wrong.


Pre-reading:

1. When I think of bad English, I typically think about incorrect grammar. So many people have issues with grammar, and errors are seen everywhere. My mindset that it's "bad English" is because throughout school, I have been taught that incorrect grammar is "wrong" and "not okay." Teachers have always focused much on grammar and less on content. Their main goal always seemed to be to help students stray from a path of "bad" writing, as if the only way a student could be a "good" writer would be to have excellent spelling and punctuation. The reality, though, is that grammar has little to do with exceptional writing. However, I have been taught the opposite for years and am just learning that grammar should not be nearly as important as it has been sought out to be.



Questions for Discussion and Journaling:

3.     prescriptive - of or relating to the imposition or enforcement of a rule or method
        descriptive - assigning a quality rather than restricting the application of the expression modified

     In the past, the only grammar instruction I ever really received had to do with spelling, punctuation, or definitions of terms. The usage and distinction between words as Bryson explains them was never taught to me or given much thought. I always just studied "correct" grammar and made sure I knew what certain words meant by their definitions in the dictionary. The only other usage I was taught was how to use certain words correctly in a sentence.
   


Applying and Exploring Ideas:

2. When Bryson says that English is fluid and democratic, he means that it can change any time and is a reflection of the way the society is speaking and communicating. Each person has a different say, a different opinion on what is grammatically correct or incorrect. People can basically decide these things on their own and do not necessarily always have to follow a set of rules, because no specific rules have been set. Things are the way they are simply because of the ways they have been used and communicated by others. Personally, I have seen many different styles of writing and learned that everyone uses terms in different ways. There is no one specific way of writing or English usage.



Meta Moment:

     Parts of speech:

• verbs
• nouns
• pronouns
• adjectives
• adverbs 
• prepositions
• conjunctions
• interjections 

     I usually do not think about the parts of speech while I write; I simply write and make sure I have used the words correctly in my sentences. These parts of speech were taught to myself and my peers in school, but I found that as I got older, they were not so important as were the grammatical parts of the language and the correct usage. I do think that knowing the parts of speech and grammatical terms can help people write better because it provides for a better sense of meaning and knowing how to use certain terms in a sentence. Even though there are no set, exact "rules," certain things are just common sense because they have been communicated and used the same way in the English language and society for a very long period of time.

My thoughts:

     I thought this article was very interesting. I enjoyed the beginning; it made me think twice about the English language and how terms we use every day are more than we think. However, I think that Bryson piled too much information in the article too quickly. It started off well, and then suddenly he threw a bunch of information out. It was at times hard to keep up with. I enjoyed the length though, and thought that--even with the excessive amount of information in such a short article--it was written well and given a bit more simplicity (instead of being dragged on and on).
     This article compares to past articles we have read because it explores the English language and is a good example of conversation in writing, which has been a very important topic throughout the class so far.

Project 1 Intro/Conversation

     For long periods of time, any kind of personal writing within an academic text has been looked down upon. Teachers have been teaching their students to avoid the use of words such as I, me, you, we, us, they, they’re, their, and other terms that show possession. These possessive terms suggest a much more personal form of writing and one that is much more opinionated as well. However, many rhetorical texts feed off of these personal opinions and ideas. They are just written in a way that seem less opinion-oriented and are not as obvious to readers. Rhetorical research papers are not limited to simply looking up information and putting it into the paper as “evidence.” Many articles have been written as arguments and conversations between the writer and the audience. These arguments require the writer to look into different perspectives and sides of a topic. The writer’s purpose is to argue their point, and also discuss and detail other thoughts and ideas about the same topic. They can show their own point of view without being nailed down to something specific. Writers can even give both ideas a “winning” chance by representing every idea in a positive way. They don’t argue that one idea is “right” over another; they research opposing ideas to discover the argument in a construct. The argument comes from past ideas and conversations. People come up with ideas and viewpoints based on these past conversations and arguments over a topic. Every argument is brought up by another argument.

     The reality is that writers cannot avoid at least some kind of personal writing within a text. Even if it is a research paper, research that is found has most likely somehow been formed because of a past construct or idea of the same or a similar matter. Writing, even in an academic setting, has personal attributes and reflects certain values, virtues, and emotions. These types of researched writings and argumentative texts tend to have some kind of effect on its readers, whether it be emotional, logical, social, or even economical. Overall, these effects are quite personal and any type of research has the ability to create further arguments and conversation, which is what these texts are within themselves.

     Stuart Greene’s article, “Argument as Conversation: The Role of Inquiry in Writing a Research Assignment,” explains some of these concepts according to this particular writing construct. Greene’s focus lies on arguments and writing in terms of conversations. He claims that “…you need to demonstrate to readers that you understand the conversation: what others have said in the past, what the context is, and what you anticipate is the direction this conversation might take” (19).

     In other words, context is everything.  For example, in sociology, context is very important and is viewed on very personal levels. Every person sees some kind of behavioral or societal concept in a different way based on their own personal experiences and their own culture in the society. This is similar in writing. The difference being that the contexts are taken and formed into language to be put into words, all for an audience to read, interpret, analyze, and think about themselves. It is all very much provoked by thought and emotion. Context is important in writing because for a successful conversation, a writer must take on opposing views and try to understand the conflict at hand. The point is not to know immediately what to research or to only research one aspect. Truthfully, a writer or researcher finds out much new information during the research process, learning more about the topic itself and discovering completely new arguments that can cause even more debate and controversy. This all has some kind of personal basis.
     Donald Murray also discusses the concept of personality in writing with his article, “All Writing Is Autobiography.” He claims that, “…the texts we create in our own minds while we read—or just after we read—become part of the life we believe we lived.” Murray thinks that person experience plays a large role in reading and writing. People read and write what interests them or about things that they can relate to. A person would not read or write something they did not enjoy unless they were required to. People’s own lives typically revolve around what they choose to read and write during their time.

     Voice is another term that can be used with this writing construct. Peter Elbow writes about voice in his article, “Voice in Writing Again: Embracing Contraries.” Voice is a clear expression of who we are in our writing. With the person elements through voice, Elbow also discusses the importance of “embracing contraries” and thinking about both sides to something. Two opposing views can have a very personal basis and reasoning, which can be connected with our own voices in writing. 

Reading Response #9

Summary:

     In "Seeing the Text" by Stephen Bernhardt, text as far as in the visual form is discussed. Bernhardt talks about parts of a text such as margins, spacing, white spaces, font, headings, etc. and how they affect a reader and how they see/read a text. He explains the importance of knowing who the audience is and making sure to write in a way that appeals to them.
     This reading compares specifically to McCloud's article because of McCloud's argument toward the importance of symbols and images to make an effective argument. Bernhardt is making a very similar argument, only in a more textual sense.



Pre-reading:

     Look at text heavy advertisement. Analyze how the text is working in conjunction with the image. Where are you most drawn? Does the image emphasize the text, or does the text emphasize the image? Write out your thoughts.

     In a text heavy advertisement, the text emphasizes the image. Your eyes are drawn to the text, and then the image. The point of the text is to advertise the image and make a statement.



Questions for Discussion and Journaling:

4. I believe that I am supposed to write an essay that follows a specific format because throughout school, that is what I have been taught. Whether it be a research paper or some other kind of writing assignment, teachers have each wanted specific formats and ways to organize each writing. It was very repetitive, and also nonnegotiable. No one could really argue against formatting, because we each had to do what we were told as far as the format of what we wrote.


Applying and Exploring Ideas:

1. In high school, there were occasional presentations. In these presentations, we could present our writing and our findings through images and other visual representations. We could make large headings and format things the way we wanted, in order to capture the audience. These were definitely different than the typical essay and research paper formats. In the future, I can consider headings, spacing, and other visual aspects to make my writing more appealing to an audience.



After You Read:

     Scott McCloud would have represented Bernhardt's argument by using his own icons or images as symbols and a way of conversation with readers. McCloud understands the effectiveness of images in order to present an argument, and would be able to better represent Bernhardt's argument through the use of such imagery.



Meta Moment:

     I think that is extremely important to think about the visual aspects of a text when writing research papers. Whatever format that the paper must be in--such as MLA, for example--the writer must consider the criteria for the format and exactly how the paper must be set up. The spacing, font type, font size, headings, etc. are all very important parts of a research paper. Slight errors in formatting can be a big problem to someone who is reading/grading a research paper. I think that the first paper in this course calls for a lot of thinking about the presentation. Not only because it needs to be correctly formatted, but also because each of our constructs must be deeply considered as far as how each side sees it. We must think of perspectives and see what others see according to the topic. We are exploring every side to the argument, which requires us to interpret more visually, and to make sure we present our constructs in our paper in an effective manner.



My thoughts:

     When I read the framing of the reading, I thought the reading would be very interesting and talk about communication and reading through images, etc. However, it mostly seemed to talk about margins and the way sentences and paragraphs were organized on a page. When I noticed this, I quickly lost interest in the reading. Also, I understood Bernhardt's reason for talking about The Great Lakes Notebook in detail, but at the same time, I feel like there was a lot of unnecessary information about it and he discussed it too much.

Reading Response #8

Summary:

     In the article "Intertextuality and the Discourse Community" by James Porter, the concepts of plagiarism and originality are given a deeper outlook and challenged by Porter's own thoughts and beliefs. Porter uses the Declaration of Independence to shape his ideas. He argues about how Jefferson is considered the author of the Declaration and that it is thought of as completely original, when truthfully, Jefferson retrieved ideas from other theorists and people of his time in order to create the Declaration. Also, Congress made many changes to the Declaration and revised it. Porter also discusses discourse communities, which by his definition is "a group of individuals bound by a common interest who communicate through approved channels and whose discourse is regulated" (91).  He claims how only certain things are appropriate and acceptable within these communities when it comes to a text.
   
      Porter's article is similar to past articles we have read because it outlines common conceptions and misconceptions in writing and talks about constructs, which has been a large part of this class. Plagiarism is a construct we have talked about before, and is one of the main topics of Porter's article.



Pre-reading:

• Write a paragraph on what, in your mind, the difference between an author and a writer is. When would you choose the first term to describe the person/people behind a text, and when would you choose the second?

           In my mind, an author is someone who tells some kind of story, and a writer is someone who uses the written language and words to construct some type of meaning in a text. To describe the person/people behind a text, I would choose author in situations where the person writing is trying to make some kind of argument or tell a story. I would choose writer in mostly all situations. An author is also a writer. No matter what the text, whoever constructed the words is the writer.

Questions for Discussion and Journaling:

4. Prior to reading Porter's article, I assumed that writing should be evaluated through more of an opinionated stance. Also, considering how my writing has been evaluated in the past, I assumed that it should be looked at for grammatical correctness.

5. Porter's own work reflects his ideas pretty well. He uses others' ideas and cites examples from other works to portray the message he is trying to get across to readers. Porter is still using his own words, but he is also gathering information from others to form his writing into a new context and make a slightly different meaning of it.



Applying and Exploring Ideas:

2. If I were to rewrite the plagiarism policy, I would make it so that students would be allowed to use others' ideas to form their own ideas, as long as they give credit to those who's sources they use and cite specific sources. This is similar to the current plagiarism policies, but the policy I have written would allow more freedom and breathing room.



Meta Moment:

     Anyone can become a true "writer." Porter's study has not really changed the way I have always seen writers and writing. I consider myself a writer, and as a writer I know that there are many different angles and processes to it. It has a lot of meanings. It isn't necessarily someone who just sits down to get ideas into print. It is much deeper than that.



My thoughts:

     I really enjoyed the subject of this article. I liked Porter's discussion on the Declaration of Independence and the research he did. He did a good job of providing examples to support his argument. I personally agreed with what he had to say. I think that at least some plagiarism is unavoidable. The English language is used very widely. It is impossible to not use the same words as someone else in something at some point in time. Our own personal thoughts and ideas throughout our lives have arisen because of a past thought or idea. I believe that as long as someone still uses their own words and doesn't copy a text completely and make it look like their own writing, as well as provide citations and credit, it should not be considered plagiarism. It should be okay for someone to use past ideas and texts to construct their own thoughts. If we agree on something someone has said and it provokes something in us, of course we are going to use it as a means of explaining why we agree with it and believe the same thing. It is simply not possible to construct 100% original ideas and words, because they have without a doubt been used at some point in time before us.
     On another note, I got a little bit confused when he began to talk about discourse communities and his section titled, "The Pedagogy of Intertextuality." I didn't exactly understand what he was trying to say or how it associated with his ideas about plagiarism and originality within a text.