Brandt Writing

Brandt Writing

Questions for Discussion and Journaling:

1.       Brandt defines a literary sponsor as the people who expose us to writing and the people that when we think about how we learned to read and write, we think of those people. There is an endless possibility of who can be a literary sponsor, he lists a bunch and really none of them have much in common. The thing they do have in common is that they are powerful figures, people that we look up to, they are usually older and smarter than who they are sponsoring. They give their knowledge to other people but also get credit for their knowledge.

2.       Sponsors are in no way shape or form the most educated people or the smartest people we have ever met. Brandt tells us that even though Sponsors love to share their knowledge and information with the world, they also want credit for their thoughts and ideas. Sponsors do not know everything and there is always more ways to learn. So, just as we are learning from sponsors they are also learning right beside us. There is always more information to be thought about and always more things to learn. Even a teacher in English could know everything there is to know about a book but a student might look at it in a different way. The student could have noticed something in the reading that the teacher did not and therefore the teacher gains more knowledge.

4) Brandt is trying to show us that sponsors are almost like gardeners. They have to plant a seed in your mind of an idea that they want to educate you on. Then after the seed is placed, there are specific layers that need to go on top of it for the plant to grow. It is just the same with literacy. Sponsors seek out information they want you to know, they give you an idea and put layers on it, or stratify the ideas to you in order for you to fully understand and have all the education opportunities you can. She also uses the word “stakes”, learning is then kind of turned into a competition or race. People are pulling for more education in order to gain knowledge and power in this world. So the stakes are high in the furthering education.

Applying and Exploring Ideas:

1.       I would say my primary literary sponsors are my parents, my kindergarten teacher, basically any teacher I’ve ever had, my creative writing teacher, my priest, my aunt, my brother and my friends. School was definitely the biggest institution where I got my literary from, my clubs like 4-H and girl scouts also had an effect. My church was huge in my life growing up so that also had an effect. I think these are probably normal and extremely adequate literary sponsors. I think this could be the answer to most people but I have been exposed to different things through clubs that I’ve joined and summer camps that I have gone to that other people haven’t. I’m sure there are thousands of literary sponsors that I haven’t explored. Things that I’m not interested in like history or science are areas that I tend to avoid so I don’t have a lot of experience in those fields.

2.       I think I have definitely had literary sponsors who have withheld certain types of literary. The example the book has it true, my school blocked certain book so you could absolutely not read them or if you had a choice to read any book you want, there were still restrictions on your choices. You could never read a magazine or Facebook post as a choice for a paper or project. Although these are outcast ideas, they are still writing. Also in a Catholic church like mine, there is only one book you read and that’s the bible so there are definitely huge restrictions there. In church you cannot really get past that so you don’t have a choice and there wasn’t anything I could really do about that. In school there are ways to manipulate the system and go around it but it is not very easy.

Meta Moment:

Brandt answers the first chapter goal which is “To understand the concepts of literacy and multiple literacies”. She shows us what literacy is and how we are exposed to it. She teaches us how we gain are knowledge and has us reflect on where our past and experiences have brought us to where we are now. I think this is reflective of everyday life because I am exposed to new and different literacy every day of my life. It always surrounds me and helps me think of my future. So it is a way I’ve never thought about before but it is something I can apply to my everyday learning.

Dawkins&Bryson

Dawkins Reading

This reading was definitely difficult to get through for me. Like it states in the book, in high school you get so used to teachers grading so hard on grammatical errors that it almost makes you afraid to approach them. Since the day you learn how to write, all the proper ways to use punctuation are forced down your throats until you cannot stand to hear another rule. So to me, I found it hard to even understand what Dawkins was saying because I find myself forgetting all the rules for dashes and semi colons because I’ve barely used them.

Questions for Discussion and Journaling:

1.       Dawkins is challenging the writing constructs with the use of punctuation and the strict rules that seem to come with them. Like he says in the beginning teachers only seem to tell us what not to do and how not to do it when they should be telling us what do to and how to do it. When you force rules onto students, at least for me, it seems you only scare them away. Dawkins is then challenging what teachers are teaching their students basically. He is questioning the strict rules of punctuation and showing his readers all the ways the rules can be bent and broken apart into sentences that are still completely correct. When there is a one-rule strict approach to punctuation and only brings negativity to the writer and reading. Rules are meant to be tested and stretched.

5. Before reading this, I know I was kind of clueless about all punctuation rules. I don’t think there is one person on the earth that knows every single rule and is completely perfect in their writing. I didn’t even know what dashes were used for but now I know they can be used like commas or parenthesis (I think!). I have never used a dash or semi colon in writings that I can remember but I think it is just because I’ve been scared to use them in fear of getting points taken off from a paper. It’s hard for me to identify when I can use them or the difference between fragments and independent sentences. So hopefully this reading can help me become more adventurous in using punctuation.

Applying and Exploring Ideas:

4.

Dear Mrs. Grow:

        You are my English teacher and my creative writing teacher so you should know all about writing and creativeness in theory, right? Wrong. Not only did you make me feel as if I can never make a mistake grammatically but I lost a lot of my creativeness in formal writing. The biggest rule that sticks out to me that I had to follow in your class is the use of “I”.  Although “I” is the biggest way to express creativity, you took that all away from me. This rule is very unnecessary to me, even if the paper is formal; it is my own writing and my own opinions. I am speaking from personal experience and research in all of my papers therefore I should be allowed to use “I”. It is MY paper and MY writing. If you lose your sense of “I”, you began to lose the content of your paper. I begin to focus so hard on using substitute words for “I” like “one” and I have to change all my sentences around so the word “one” sounds grammatically correct in my writing. That is where I go crazy because I am focusing so hard on getting “I”’s changed into different words that my content is lost and I tend to stick with my first draft because I am so exhausted from writing when I’m done. Writing is all about creativity and I believe when you force students to take “I” out of their papers, you lose the worth of the paper.

Bryson Writing

Before You Read:

3) Technology has not only affected the way we speak to each other but it has completely changed it dramatically. There is now text messaging, Facetime, skyping, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and a thousand different types of internet websites and phone apps that have completely revolutionized the way we communicate. Communication has become easier, quicker and less expensive. Why send a letter when you can send someone a text message or email? Some of the ways we communicate on these are grammatically correct but others are not very acceptable. In my being younger, I definitely believe it is more efficient and it is easier to understand people in these new technological ways but for others it does not have the same effect. New words that I can think of would be “tweet” in the sense of your writing something not birds chirping. Also words like “ttyl” and “LOL” are not really words but I kind of see them as words.

Discussion and Journaling:

1.       Bryson is basically challenging the English language. He is challenging who controls it and who is saying what we can and cannot do. For so many words there are so many different meanings and tenses, he is challenging who the people are that tell us we have to follow those and why we have to follow them in the first place. He is questioning certain words, the true meaning of them but also the way we use them and what makes a way correct or not correct. For example the words imply and infer, forego and forgo, fortuitous and fortunate, uninterested and disinterested, he continuously brings them up to show his point. He also questions the split initiative and why the English language has to follow so many Latin rules.

3) Prescriptive is the way we impose the rules onto our language. Descriptive is how we describe those rules. The way we have to complete our sentences with a certain structure for example, with a verb and a noun in each, that is prescriptive. It gives us exact guidelines onto what should be in our sentence, what it can start with and also what it can end with. I think descriptive can be a little bit more difficult but it is how we describe those words and how we are shown we should use them. Just like the words “What?” and “How?” are sentences but we have to know why. Descriptivist’s are open to change understand that there are some things that we all agree on but we don’t really know why we all agree on them.

Applying and Exploring Ideas:

1.       The English language has hugely changed, from the times we’re we used to use circumflex’s on our words to now we used words like “LOL”. A lot of the strict Latin rules that we started out using have been changed and simplified. We only have up to 6 different tenses of the world when Latin can have up to 120. The language has changed to be more sufficient and to better our verbs and nouns and our understanding of our sentences. I think Bryson would accept the change but might not agree with some of it. Words like “bromance”, “chillax”, “crunk”, “droolworthy” and “grrrl” have now been added to the dictionary. This brings a huge step into modern English that would never be referring to as proper or of Latin descent in my opinion.

Bernhardt

1.      “Introduction/body/conclusion partitioning is frequently in evidence, with each section performing predictable functions. Topics are introduced and broken down in the initial section; the sequence for the following paragraphs is anticipated by statements that preview the full text or announce a plan of organization”. (36)

2.      “Figures which are more strongly defined against their field will tend to appear more important than other figures which share the same ground”. (40)

3.      “A text is progressive if its structure leads the reader onwards, projects him forward from one segment of text to a succeeding one. Textual surface structure may be said to be localizing when it operates to hold up the reader’s attention at a specific place in the total syntagm” (40).

4.      “Our results show that lines may be short or they may be long, a page may have neat margins or ragged margins. No matter. What is critical is whether the lines represent meaningful groups of information. It is this matching of visual design to the constraints of cognitive processing that makes for efficiency.” (42)

5.      “Classroom practice which ignores the increasing visual, localized qualities of information exchange can only become increasingly irrelevant. Influenced especially by the growth of electronic media, strategies of rhetorical organization will move increasingly toward visual patterns presented on screens and interpreted through visual as well as verbal syntax.” (44)

1.      I personally chose this quote because it has to do with my topic for my writing construct so I was automatically attracted to it. It shows how much we try to control our writing and how we think it has a distinct dynamic but writing does not have to be anything certain. Like Bernhardt proves, it can even be about the way you present your writing or the structure of it.

2.      This quote is something that I believe is very important in almost every aspect of writing. No matter if you are writing a long essay or making a pamphlet. If you have a strong point to prove or something you are really interested in that, your audience can tell that. It sets itself about the rest of your writing.

3.      I think this quote is something very important in writing. You could base this off every single type and style of writing. A text needs to hold the readers audience, therefore it needs to lead. Writing should be enjoyable and not stressful therefore it should hold your audience’s attentions.

      4.This quote describes the basic definition of writing in my opinion. It states that writing can really be anything you want it to be. That doesn’t mean it can’t have any meaning behind it but it gives you the freedom to write about anything you could possibly think of and design how you want it to be presented in any way you want. The best way you write is your most efficient and helps you really portray what you want to your audience.

5. Since I am definitely a kinesthetic learner, someone that likes to learn by doing the psychical things and looking at pictures, this quote is awesome. It is very true, technology and media is such a part of everyday life that it is hard to avoid it in the classroom and I don’t think we should either. If you put a hard subject into pictures or simpler examples or more relative examples for the age group I guarantee it will be much more effective than reading out of a book every day. Visual patters and progressive ideas will only benefit students.

Porter Reading

Poter Reading

This was definitly a reading that made you think and caught my attention. I do not agree at all with what Porter states but I understand where he is coming from and if you really think about such works as the Decleration of Independance it really does make you question if any writing is original. People have new thoughts and ideas every single second of every day somebody is thinking of something new. How is it fair to say that nothing is original. It offends me and offends the writing community as a whole in my opinion. Plagarism is taken to an extreme here and I don't beleive that you can make it this strict. Writing would be pointless if you lost your feelings to write becuase you feel so much pressure of the Discourse Community around you.

Questions for Discussion and Journaling

4. The fact that Porter argues that your writing is accepted only by the community around you is completely astonishing to me. It seems as if your already setting up someone for failure when you read their writing and it's constantly compared to someone else's work. I would never want to feel that pressure before starting a writing piece and I never would want anyone to evaluate my writing like that. There is a difference between a good writer and someone' that struggles but to put an every day person in the same boat as Shakespeare for example is a little extreme and ridiculous. I don't think I have ever been evaluated like this but at the same time I don't know for sure I haven't. Writing should not be about competition but about your thoughts being written on paper. So when you throw a young freshman into a world where there about to be judged by the writing community is a little crazy.

5. I think that Porter's writing completely represents his article and his thoughts. The answer to that is in the section "Notes", everything that is cited was taken from somebody else. If he argues that nothing is "original" than his definitely is not the exception. To me, he is doing exactly what he claims Jefferson to be doing. He not saying anything that hasn't been stated or thought about, he is taking a bunch of little information and putting into a bigger scheme. He is trying to prove a point to his audience and he does it by what he says but I also see it through how the paper is wrote and truly how he has many sources.

Applying and Exploring Ideas:

2. Plagiarism: All writing must be yours. It must be original and never borrowed. All thoughts and ideas must come from your own and you can't claim another's work as your own. All writing should be independent work. Always cite when using another person's work and give complete credit to their findings and thoughts.

Meta Moment:

I do not plagiarize but I do think Porter's thoughts about the subject and intertextual writing is a little extreme. It seems as if the idea is so strict that no writing is new or original. If that was the sense of writing what would be the point? I don't think that this reading has really changed my view of writers and writing because I know most people don't approach writing in this sense. I write what is on my mind with my research and personal thoughts put together. That is not illegal. I have to pull information from other writings to ensure I have proff and knowledge of my subject. I'm not stealing someones words or thoughts. You take ideas and bend them and form them into something of your own. If I did adapt to his theories, it might effect my writing a lot but I don't think I will. Something about his thoughts just sound a little too extreme for me.

Elbow Reading

Before You Read:

1.       Facebook is made to be a design of you. A profile that is only you, a way to connect with friends, share pictures and meet new people. You can add pictures, where you went to school, things you like, sports you’ve played and endless possibilities. The difference of who you are on Facebook and who you are at home can really be two completely different people. If you are a shy person sitting behind a computer at home, Facebook is an opportunity to be anyone you want to be. You could be a singer, actor, even a superhero! Your identity could actually be two completely different people.

2.       Throughout high school, I was faced with this construct in almost every single paper. I never understood or questioned the outlaw of the use of “I”. It was just something I thought I was supposed to do. Not until I got to college I realized how important “I” really was. It truly is the only way to put yourself into a paper, to fully grasp and make your paper your own. “I” is how you state what you want your audience to know, an direct view into your thought process. If you constantly worrying about going around the word you begin to focus more on the structure than the content.

Questions for Discussion and Journaling:

1. I define voice as basically your own personal "I". To write a paper you have to put creativity into it and put your own opinions into it to make the paper yours. Voice is your thoughts, ideas, memories, opinions, emotions and reasons all spilled out onto a paper. It is individual, it is so important. I also think every person's definition of voice is different because it is something that only belongs to you. In my opinion, Elbow's definition is slightly different than mine. He says it is more about how a person sounds and the ability to make the writing feel audible to  your audience.

Applying and Exploring:

1. Sincerity is a soft way in approaching writing in which you show caring and thoughtfulness. Resonance is a piece of writing, piratically small that adds a change or special thought to a piece. I have never even heard of these two types of writing styles so it's hard to tell if I fully understand them, which I'm pretty sure I don't. I do struggle with the grip of them, therefore I can say I don't think I have used them unless it was by accident. Although as Elbow explains that resonant can be a hole or crack in writing, it could be a good thing I don't know what these are because I've never been confronted for them.

Connecting to Other Readings:

1. Kliene says that he did approach his writing at one point as a scientific approach, he did the research, he got the results and realized the implications. He also argues that when you approach writing through this scientific voice your in a gathering mood, constantly learning as you gather new information and creatively research. When Elbow says that voice is inherently rhetorical and that we use it to make specific arguments, he's saying that we use our own voice to guide us through our writing. It helps your learn about yourself and enjoy your writing so you can write a paper that truly gives your own voice.

Allen Questions

Applying and Exploring Ideas:

1. I can't really pin point a time when I have used the method of imitation, I've never even heard it be put like that but I am sure at many points in my life I have used this imitation. Writing is all about being inspired so when you read something you really enjoy, you might like how the reader puts his or her paragraphs together and the tone of the text. I think that's what really affects me. I think this can always be an appropriate approach to your riding as long as you never let it take over your writing. It is a way of helping you get started writing but it is never an idea that should make you feel controled or boxed in. I am sure I have used this method a lot in my writing.

Questions for Discussion and Journaling:

1. Allen believes the inspired writer is a writer who everything comes easy. The ability to fluently write an entire paper with no revision. This affects students because we believe if the writing doesn't come easily we are bad writers and if the writing does come easy we turn the paper in with no revision. It seems as if we know what were talking about so we hope for the best. The reality of the inspired writer is just a minor portion of actual writers. Not one person can sit down in one sitting and write a flawless peice of writing. Everyone has to make notes, revise and revise again. Every writer has some sort of pressure on them from all of the great writers before them! But somehow we can never get that inspired writer off our shoulders.

Meta Moment:

I think I have definitely been negatively affected the the idea of the inspired writer, it is very intimidating idea. Sometimes you want to give a paper all you can give but you just can't find a connection with it and you can't get inspired. In high school, when you're forced to read a book you don't like, lets say for me The Great Gatsby. If you didn't enjoy the entire book, you are surely not going to enjoy writing a paper on it. I did the best I could on the paper but I don't think I did overcome the inspired writer theory, it was extremely difficult for me. I have never thought of this idea like that but this article will help me. It makes me see that though the inspired writer seems to exist, I can push it away if I want to and focus on what I need to do to be successful with my paper. I don't have to feel like I have to be better than every writer before me, only be the best I can be.

Pgs. 216-235

This article was an eye opener and a different way of peeking into the writing process and writing revision. Berkenkotter and Murray have a great relationship and we, the audience, can sense that and it makes the reading so much interesting and closer to what really goes through the mind of a professional writer. A lot of what they had said has contradicted what I believed a writer of that level prepares, writes and edits their writings. I was surprised the amount of time that was taking in planning and area's I wouldn't have guessed. I definitely took a lot from this article.

Discussion and Journaling:

1. My impression of Murray's writing processes were that they are very back and forth, almost jumpy and sporadic. I was also surprised at the percent of time he spent with the planning. It seems like he spends more time planning and editing the paper more than he does writing. This is very different from my writing process. It seems I don't do as much planning as I probably should but that is definitely something I could adapt to. I spend most of my time writing the actual paper and a few revising. How important the revising process is hasn't come to my full attention until this class.

3. This study changed the way Berkenkotter's understand of writing processes with planning and revision a lot. She saw how much time Murray focused on these two which no one had ever been really able to study before do to time constraints. She saw how important the sub-processes are almost just, if not more important than the actual writing of the piece. Berkenkotter was able to find out and see inside the world of a writer and how important the small decisions and revising really can complete a work of writing. The small steps all come together and circulate through each other to create the process.

Applying and Exploring Ideas:

1. If I look back at my writing habits, first of all, I have not written a paper for an entire year so it is an all new adjustment for me again. In high school, I most likely did minimal research for the paper, wrote it the night before it was due and got a marginal grade for it. I agree, this all needs to change. I wouldn't say I am an experienced writer but I have wrote difficult papers that have challenged me more than others and forced me to sit outside the box. I think because I've never been properly taught the freedom that writing can have and the correct way to research that it is part of why I write the papers how I do. In high school it seemed you had to find two sources and put it into an introduction, 3 paragraph, conclusion paper and that was the only outline and what was expected to get a decent grade. I definitely need to challenge that.

Meta Moment:

One thing I learned from the Berkenkotter and Murray readings is the amount of time I should spend planning. Now I don't think it will be anywhere close to how much Murray's percentages worked out to be but it is definitely a aspect I can better myself in my writing. Planning can be many different things, whether it is an outline, notes, thoughts, research, or ideas. If you have the correct planning before you start out a paper, I think it could be so beneficial to writing the paper you really want to write.

Mccloud and Berger Reading

Mccloud Reading

Before You Read:

                My favorite cartoon is definitely “Scooby Doo: Where Are You?”. This has been my favorite since I was a child and I think will always be.  The character I relate to the most I believe would be Scooby Doo himself. He is such a fun character, he’s silly, always looking for food, can be fearful at times but always has his mystery ink friends close to him! He is so relatable to kids and I think that’s why I fell so in love with him and he was genuinely a figure that kids could look up to.

 

                Mccloud’s demonstration of showing us his ideas rather than telling us was awesome. I can so much easier connect with that reading that sitting there reading 60 pages of constant writing. Mccloud has an awesome point to prove and I think he completely proved in such an effective way. We’re surrounded by cartoons our whole entire life and I have never thought of them in such a way that he frames them to be, let alone in an education way. It is so much easier to react to a visual representation of information than a simple writing or stating of information.

 

Discussion and Journaling:

1.       Cartoons are a part of your life from the moment you are old enough to sit up on the couch in between pillows, always surrounded by young people in your life or simply through advertisement, cartoons can be anywhere. If you had an adult a 600 page book to read, it is such a huge undertaking but if it is a 600 page book of cartoons it becomes fun. I think you can never be too old for cartoons or a little silliness in your life. I’m 19 years old and I still love to watch Spongebob Squarepants and so does my mom, who is 53! I think Mccloud would definitely appreciate that and would not criticize. Cartoons and drawings can be a learning experience that maybe sitting reading a book could never give you.

2.       In my opinion, when I opened up the book to see the cartoons I was excited, it is a change of pace from the normal English homework and it is something more creative. It gets the audience excited to read before they have read the first sentence, it is a way of drawing your audience in and getting them interested. The actual core of what he is trying to prove is extremely confusing and a huge idea to grasp your head around. When you add pictures and give the ideas life, it is so much easier to have an idea in your mind and you physically can see what he is trying to get his audience to understand. Without that, his ideas definitely would have suffered.

 

Applying and Exploring Ideas:

1.       I see myself as a hands on learner than a sit down read 60 pages and try to put it all together in my mind learner. This change of pace helped me stay on the edge of my seat, so to speak, and keep me  actually interested in what I was reading.  In my opinion, I think every teacher should include visual imagery in their lectures, writings, speeches and notes. It is a way of taking a huge topic and breaking it down into easier and smaller ideas with an image already in your mind. Images can be put into any lesson, math, science, history, art, English, writing, there is endless possibilities.

2.       The brain has a special power, to turn anything that could possibly look like a face into a face. A special part of our brain that’s job is to simply recognize faces. If I showed any other person in the world my face no one could relate to it. I don’t look like anyone else and nobody looks like me. When you begin to simplify faces that’s when similarities come into the picture. He says that when you look at a cartoon you begin to see yourself. When I look at a photograph or realistic portrait of a person the only thing I identify to is the emotion. I can’t see myself in another face, the only thing that registers is the emotion of the picture.

 

Berger Reading:

Before You Read:

                 I know I pretty much suck a drawing but if I was going to draw a picture of a woman I think she would be facing forwards. It’s a simple way of showing empowerment, control and independence. She would be in front of a simple scene but the only real object in the picture so all of the attention automatically goes to her. She doesn’t need to be fancy or the most beautiful girl you’ve ever seen but she is dressed classy. She doesn’t need to be nude or have anything degrading put on her, she’s simple and independent.

                If I look at two pictures of celebrities, let’s take Channing Tatum and Angelina Jolie. Channing Tatum is depicted as a sexy, muscular, athletic piece of meat basically. While Angelina Jolie looks like a different type of sexy, an independent, strong, role model woman. Channing Tatum is a figure that millions of women look at only for his body and dance moves. Angelina Jolie is looked at for her amazing heroin roles in movies and the great work she has done in other countries. Not every celebrity female and male is made to look out like this but it is a strong depiction in Hollywood in my age.

 

Discussion and Journaling:

1.       In this day and time, I think artists knew what they were creating and the purpose but at the same time I think they did not understand what affect these arts would have on the future of nudity and woman in art. Every picture drawn had a purpose and specific audiences it was addressed to, sometimes they weren’t addressed to anyone except the person who was drawing the picture or the person it was being drawn for. Artists new what they were going for and what they were creating and I think Berger would agree with that.

2.       You can’t walk anywhere and not see an image of women in advertising. It is everywhere you go, buildings, signs, posters, magazines, music, television, movies, online, billboards, woman are plastered in modern day advertising. These images are completely different from the images discussed by Berger in a sense but at the same time they are almost the exact same portrayal and idea behind them. Clothing, hairstyles, back grounds have all changed but the sexual purpose behind the images has not changed a bit. The vision is more modern but the sexual tension and release behind the images is always there. Women are portrayed to be sexy and are portrayed to be looked at by a certain audience. Women who want to be her and man who want to be with her.

Applying and Exploring Ideas:

1.       If I think of modern artwork of men I think of posters or pictures in magazines, men in movies or men in music. Men have come a huge way from the view of Berger. Men are still images of strength, muscle and control but there is now a different twist. Women can now look at men in a sexual way and express their feelings in a sexual manner. When men look at women as what they would do to them, women can now look at men in the same way. Women are now aloud to express their sexuality to men and men can now show theirs off. The generation gab causes a whole new view to the way women now look at artwork of men.

 

3) I definitely see a similar determining factor in modern images of women and it all has to do with different levels of sexuality and strength. It seems if a woman is dressed nicely in a forward pose with her chin raised, we see a sexual independence and strength; she seems to stand on her own no matter what is in the background. When a woman is slightly turned to the side or even more to one side, the image becomes more sexual than classy. If the image is completely from the back side, the focus than switches to completely sexual image for a specific audience. Position sets the whole picture, painting, drawing up for a specific idea and an audience.

Sources

Three sources I found:

1. www.ceball.com/classes/239/fall08/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/poa.pdf
2. www.jstor.org/stable/20456911?seg=7
3. http://books.google.com/books?id=DdBHcbjlbvIC&pg=PA693&lpg=PA693&dq=“Form,+Text+Organization,+Genre,+Coherence,+and+Cohesion.”&source=bl&ots=c19uelt-wA&sig=Jmu8HygGu2K4TXaOIwp4IzB3xMk&hl=en#v=onepage&q=“Form%2C%20Text%20Organization%2C%20Genre%2C%20Coherence%2C%20and%20Cohesion.”&f=false


To find my sources, I only used the Rebecca Moore Howard, Writing Matters database. I was frustrated at first because it seemed all the articles were old and out dated. As i continued my search, I slowly but surely found the three websites above. There is still much research to be done but the information I did find seems like it could be very beneficial in proving by point of research. They are all very different but I also think that is very beneficial to opening up my paper to my creative views of my topic. I found the Rebecca Moore Howard database very helpful.

Construct Topic

Writing Construct

9/5/12

Kelly Stafford

 

                For my writing construct I decided to go along with something that was in the “Writing about Writing” but put a different twist on it. I will take the writing construct that writing is all about correct grammar, simple and basic rules and the basic introduction, 3 paragraph, conclusion type of paper. I want to focus on how when you have this mindset that this is how a paper should be set up you lose all creativity and your own voice. You know what the bottom line you have to do and you stop there, giving no personal opinion and sticking to strict “rules” about how the paper should be written. I will argue against this.

Reading 67-85

Reading 67-85

Kelly Stafford

 

Discussion and Journaling:

1)      Kantz writes what she believes young adults and his students think of the words fact, opinion and argument. Almost like we have one mind set about all these words and I totally agree with what she has to say, it’s easy to keep those definitions in the way she states them.  She argues they are much more complex. Facts are things that are only seen to be facts but are actually opinions. The opinions are for us to decide whether we believe they are facts after evidence is provided. Facts, opinions and arguments are simply statements which all need further back up support to the audience in which it is presented to become a fact.

2)      Kantz believes that students don’t understand how to write a new text from other researched texts, students don’t know how to properly research, how to make an original argument, how to understand facts as claims, how to reach outside of the box on the typical intro, 3 paragraph, ending research, how to research first before making an outline, and how to fill in gaps. I think that every idea she includes is absolutely true, I have struggled with almost every one of them. Kantz has definitely brought all of these to my attention, I am not sure if now understand all of the ideas but I can now see what I need to work on.

Applying and Exploring Ideas:

2. Honestly, prior to this class I have not looked at or studied the relationship between research and creativity. When I had to write a paper, I would make an outline and decide what I bottom line needed, find that research and put together my paper in one or maybe two drafts. What Kantz has to say about what students don’t understand about research and creativity is exactly how I feel about the situation, I don’t quite grasp it. I think what she is trying to teach makes perfect sense though. I feel it would help me so much if I could first research a topic and then put together my ideas for a paper. I want to push myself out of the box I found myself in high school to be more creative and try to understand what she is trying to portray to us students. I think this process would help me a lot but it is something I need to understand first so I don’t get too overwhelmed with the process like Shirley began to.

Meta Moment:

The main construct Kantz Is trying to analyze is that fact that students are usually taught to do the underlining work. Pick a subject to write on, write an outline and find the minimal amount of information to get you by doing the paper. She wants to show us the creative side to research and how to come about it from all different sides and to analyze every piece. This is so useful to help give your paper what it really needs and show your professor your creative side and how your paper is different from a normal, just getting by paper.