Chapter 5 Harris

                In chapter 5, I like how Harris says “My hope is that doing so will allow me to offer a view of revising that, on one hand, doesn’t reduce it to a mere fiddling with sentences, to editing for style and correctness, but…” (Harris, 99). He then goes on to say that he would rather give a set of questions for you to consider when revising, which are:

1)      What’s your project?

2)      What works?

3)      What else might be said?

4)      What’s next?

                All of these are his first four chapters. This makes editing a little easier when you are able to ask yourself these questions in order to make your paper stronger, make more sense, and add what’s needed. I think these tools could be helpful to revising. He also says that these are not easy questions that you ask yourself, and that people who publish books go through hours, days, and even months of revising their papers. It isn’t as easy as you think when you read a book, but you never see their first draft.

Extra Credit Project Fair

                At the project fair, I found a girl (forgot her name) who was double majoring in some sort of science and French. For her project, they went to Mali and were able to help the people there to learn how to work computers and show them everything. They taught the Mali people in a remote village how to use the computers so that they could get connected with the technology world. One step closer to becoming a first world country. They were originally going to go to Morocco to do this, but there had been some terrorism so they were advised not to go. Instead, they were able to type up a computer Manual in French and give them to the Moroccan people so they learn how to use the computer.

                They also worked with MMAMA (Malian Mothers Against Malaria in Africa) where this group of mothers will sew and make goods, and people here at Montana State will sell them and all the money goes straight to the women to help fight against Malaria in their village. They make goods and use the money they make to buy bed nets and medicine that will help their children survive malaria.

                I was interested in this project because I have always loved international relations in a way. I have always wanted to travel and help poor villages out, and I felt like this was a really good project and a great way to help people out with your major and stuff.  I almost got to go to India to help with a humanitarian project in May, but unfortunately money was too tight. I hope someday I get to do a project like this and have an affect one peoples lives.

Harris, Chapter 4

                “By noting what others have had to say on a subject, defining where their thinking ends and yours begins, you can make your own stance as a writer all the more clear.” I agree with this quote from page 73 in the chapter Taking an Approach. It is good to take other peoples opinions about the subject you’re writing on to help yours come across more clearly. If you have other people that have somewhat the same idea as you, then it can make your paper come a long way. On page 86 Harris says that some writers are urged to try and not be bias about what they pick to write about, but as Harris says, this basically takes away the reason that you wanted to write about it in the first place. I agree with this statement. No one wants to write a paper on something that isn’t necessarily in line with their views or something they believe or are interested in.

Harris, Chapter 3

                I think the part is interesting on page 55 when Harris says that his professor asked him why he wrote is whole paper discussing the work of somebody be didn’t think was very bright. From this, I take it that it is better to not just argue for a whole paper, but try and take something out of what the person has written. A paper looks better if you can say that yes this point is right, but I disagree with this and this, and this is why. He says that he tries to set aside the temptation to argue. “Countering looks at other views and texts not as wrong but as partial—in the sense of being both interested and incomplete,” (Harris, 56). I like this part because he is saying that instead of proving the writer wrong, you should point out what they are missing.

Rewriting, Chapter 2

            I thought the analogy on page at the beginning on page 35 was interesting when he compared an academic writing paper to a person who shows up late in a conversation, voices their opinion, argues, listens, and then has to leave while the argument still goes on. When you are writing an academic paper based on an argument that is already present in the world, the argument still won’t be done. You must come up with a conclusion, but that is your own personal conclusion. You are voicing your opinion, but the argument will never be over. I liked this part, and it kind of shows that no matter what you can't win. You have to take facts that are written from books, or other sources, put them in your own words, and write about them. The argument never ends, but your paper does.

Rhetoric Analysis -- Understanding Comics

                I am doing my paper on chapter 9 of Understanding Comics.

                The chapter was written to show why you should try and understand comics, why we don’t, and how we can. He writes about the “wall of ignorance,” and how people are not trying to open their minds to comics and such, and how they can if they break the wall. He is a professional comic writer and doesn’t like that people these days view comics as something just for little kids. He thinks they are being underestimated and that they can tell a very good story using picture and word.

                Intended Audience: Anyone who wants to buy a book called Understanding Comics.

                What helps us understand the chapter: He was the most straightforward in this chapter, and it helped me to understand all of the other chapters we had read.

                Argument by author: He argues that people aren’t opening their minds to comics and because of that they get a bad reputation.

                Authors motivation: He is a professional comic writer, and he wants to stand up to other kinds of media (TV, movies, etc.) some day.

Thesis: Scott McCloud in chapter nine tries to help the reader better understand comics and how to break down the wall of ignorance that is keeping us from understanding comics and that they aren’t just for little kids.

Understanding Comics Chapter Nine

           I would have to say, this was my favorite chapter of all. It made me understand all the other chapters more, and what McCould meant by all of it. I liked all the illistrations he used to show how Comics are a medium. They involve word, and image, and still allow for space for the reader to put themselves in it. He says "Creator and reader are partners in the invisible creating something out of nothing, time and time again." By this I think he means that not all parts of a comic are laid out for you on the paper, you have to use your own imagination to help tell the story that the creator has already started. You create a story out of the invisible, and make it into something to tell. He also says that comics have harnessed the power of cartoons to command viewer involvement and identification. Using simple characters allows the person to put themselves in the story.
         I liked pretty much all of this chapter, and he made it easy to understand and summarized the whole book very well. He makes me understand comics ;)
        I think writers could use this to show that comics are a way for readers to insert themselves into the story. Also, that comics have come a long way. When images and letters seperated, comics were lost. Then, they made a comeback and we see them all the time now.
     

       Discussion Question: McCloud said that "all that's needed is the desire to be heard, the will to learn, and the ability to see." Is he implying that all human beings cannot do all of these? And, if we could, would we all enjoy comics more?

Understanding Comics Chapter 6

                In chapter 6 of McClouds Understanding Comics, I like how he opened the chapter with showing how as little kids we used a combination of words and images (or showing) to get our point across. Eventually, we grow out of that. Combination of words and images is like comics, but, we’re supposed to “grow out” of that. I also liked how he explained that pictures and words went totally opposite sides of the spectrum for a while and they were never used together. They then started to migrate towards each other again. I guess you could consider an advertisement a comic in a way because there are few words and a picture to describe what it is. When he explained the different kinds of categories of comics more of this chapter made sense. There is word specific comics where the words are the ones that mostly describe what’s happening while the picture is not very detailed. There is also picture specific where there are few words but you can tell by the detail of the picture exactly what is happening. Then there is a mix of both called duo-specific where the words and picture are both detailed and saying the same story.

                There wasn’t much I disliked about this chapter. I am just not a huge fan of comics in general, but McCloud does a good job of making this book pretty interesting and not boring or too weird.

                This chapter can help people understand how texts work because he basically showed the evolution of text and pictures together and how they relate and don’t relate.

                Discussion Question: McCloud says “as long as we view comics as a genre of writing or a style of graphic art this attitude may never disappear,” talking about how comic artists are never able to match the achievements of other media. Why do you think this is?

Understading Comics - Chapter 3

In chapter three I liked when he explained closure. I had never really thought of that word that way. By the way he explained it, I see it as something that you perceive to be true, although you cannot see or prove it. He explained it as “observing the parts but perceiving the whole.” Like the earth; most have us have not seen it from a rocket ship, but we know it to be round. It made it easier to understand how when we watch TV or a movie, it is closure. We are watching this stuff happening, and although its just through a TV screen, we know it to be true and happening. You could also think of it in the sense of religion. Knowing that a god exists is closure, because you cannot see the god, but you know its there. Closure almost always includes faith in what you see to be true. We have the bible, so that’s observing the parts, but perceiving the whole is knowing that God and his prophets wrote it.

                I don’t understand how he thinks that no matter what all pictures are related in some way, like in the Non-Sequitur type of cartoons. On page 72 there is a picture of a random space thing that says ep! Beep! Then the other picture is farmer Joe. I don’t see in any way how those could be related. He says that he thinks with every picture there is some sort of alchemy at work in the space in between the comics. I don’t really agree with that.

                I think this chapter was useful in studying how texts work because all texts I feel create some sort of closure. You’re reading these words on a page, and you are imagining them happening in your head. Closure in books is especially true in non-fiction. Its real life, but you don’t see it personally so you have to make your own perception and believe it.

                Discussion Question: How are non-sequitur comics related to one another?

Chapter Two - Understanding Comics

                What I liked in Chapter 2 is the point he makes about how when you look at a picture of something, it’s not the actual item. He uses the example of a picture of a pipe, and how its not a pipe, it’s a “printed copy of a drawing of a painting of a pipe.” I also like how he explained how human nature is to see you in everything. If someone draws a circle with two dots and a line, we automatically see it as a person. We insert ourselves into it. He explained how if he had made a more detailed picture of himself in the book, we would likely not listen.

                He gets a bit complicated whenever he writes, and I think some of the stuff is unnecessary. I think he does well for the most part, but he seems to go way out of the way to prove his point. He got into a whole rant about what you see in a comic and about how some comics make theirs more complicated, or less complicated, but you must always have room to see yourself in it.

                I think the point he was trying to get across in this chapter was that humans like to be able to insert themselves in whatever they see in order to understand best. Comics often are very simple, and it is so you can see yourself and create your own life for it.

                Discussion Question: What would happen if all comics were detailed?

McCloud Chapter One

                    “JUXTAPOSED PICTORIAL AND OTHER IMAGES IN DELIBERATE SEQUENCE” is the definition  Scott McCloud came up with for Comics. By this, he means it is side-by-side pictures put in a sequence to make sense of the pictures. McCloud wanted to prove that Comics aren’t just superhero stories and such, but many things are comics. Comics came from far before our time, and have progressed over the years. Egyptians even used comics. I think he was rather successful in showing what “comics” really are, and that they are used in everyday life; like car manuals, instructions, planes, etc.

                I liked how McCloud used many different examples in order to show is point that comics have a bad reputation, but many things are not recognized as comics, that should be. When I think “comic book,” I think a series of pictures (containing few or no words) that are put in order so you can see what is happening. This usually involves men in tight pants saving the day from the evil man. I read the books Captain Underpants which was a comic about a baby superhero that wore underpants around all the time. What I didn’t like was how he was downgrading what we think as comics in order to show his side. Those are still comics, and perhaps, the most common type.

                I think he does a good job showing what a comic is and what it isn’t by definition. I don’t feel like comics are very common, but then when he shows examples, you realize they are. They are in the instruction booklets on planes for how to put on your oxygen mask, and how to assemble furniture.

                Discussion Question: How did the word ‘comics’ get the reputation of superheros with tight pants?

Rhetorical Situation

Rhetorical Situation

             In Grant-Davies article, he quotes Bitzer in saying a rhetorical situation “a complex of persons, events, objects, and relations presenting an actual or potential exigence which can be completely or partially removed if discourse, introduced into the situation, can so constrain human decision or action as to bring about the significant modification of the exigence.”

                From this article, I think a rhetorical situation is one in which when a written or verbal communication is used to prevent a potentially bad/dangerous situation. For example, if a school board fires a principal for a stupid reason, a group of parents get really mad. One of the situations, or an exigence, that could come out of it is the parents form an angry mob and damages the school building. Instead, a parent writes a letter to the school board expressing their concern and anger that resulted from them firing the teacher. The letter “constrained human decision or action”

                The discourse is basically removing the potential exigence that would have existed if there no communication was used. Instead of reacting with communication, you react with action. Say the same situation above, no one bothered to call or write the school board about their concern or anger, they just got torches and lit the building on fire, then the discourse would be removed and the exigence is used.

                “A rhetorical situation is a situation where a speaker or writer sees a need to change reality and sees that the change may be effected through rhetorical discourse.” If a mom is upset with how a babysitter is treating her kids, instead of getting in a physical fight, she might talk to her in person with her concerns. The mother is trying to change reality and the situation, and understands that the best way for this to happen is through communication. A rhetorical discourse is a form of communication where no response is really wanted or needed. The babysitter could not argue that she needs to change, when the mother is her boss and could fire her if she wanted. If the mom says she is concerned, the babysitter could not say “no you aren’t.” It’s not something you can argue with.

Discourse Community Paper Outline

Who I am interviewing: Alli C. She runs cross country and I used to run cross country with her. She has won districts and placed top 10 in state.

Members of Discourse Community: Typically althletic. Love to run. Team spirit. Some geeky people.
Things they say: PR (Personal Record), team chant, distrits, state, talk crap about other teams.
"in" and "out": Usually varsity is the most popular and "in" group.
What they read: Newpaper articles on recent meets. Results for races. Peoples PR's.

Shared goal of community: To win State/districts/PR.
Specialized Language: "PR," "Intervals," "Steady pace," "Burpees."

Difficulties among community: Slow runners get embarrased.
Authority: Cross Country Coaches, and advanced runners.

Discourse

Cross Country Runner (in High School)

Discourse Community in the Restaurant Business

Studying a Discourse/discourse community would be very important for many reasons. If you are going to try and write to a specific audience, you need to understand the discourse community in order to reach them. If you want to write a book to veterans of the United States military, you would have to do research on it and try and understand their discourse community. You couldn’t just assume they all signed up to kill, or that they were all violent. You might research, or do studies, and understand that many of them are doing it out of love for their country.  You also can not write about a discourse community and just assume everything. Understanding some ones Discourse/discourse community is crucial when trying to reach that person.

I could personally relate to this article about the waiter/waitresses. I worked as a waitress for just about a year at an upper class retirement home which had a restaurant in it. Although, my interactions were a little different with the customers, considering I saw the same people every time I worked, it was still all fairly accurate. Learning about the restaurant, what special orders they take, what they don’t take, what they always serve that isn’t on the menu, and many other things, is definitely a lot harder than you think. At my job, we also had to try and memorize most of the residents last names so we could write their names on the ticket saying they had come down to eat that night. My customers, some of which being snotty rich old men/women, were sometimes very hard to deal with. Some of them would get upset very quickly if something was done wrong, and others were very forgiving and loved all of us servers. I feel the discourse community was correct that they had described in this article. In times of trouble, waiters/waitresses must always keep their heads up and smiling. You can’t let any of it get personal. I actually liked this article seeing as I could relate to it pretty well.

Public Displays of Connection pg 45 Invent

            Ellen Degeneres is a famous TV host, and I would also call her a comedian. She has a show most days of the week, on which she has guests to come and talk or perform. On her Facebook she presents herself as a funny, independent, strong woman. She posts a lot of funny clips from her show, and all of her status updates are funny (unless she posts about gay rights). She posts funny pictures that her audience will send her. On her Facebook she does not show a lot about her personal life. Sometimes she will talk a little about her wife, Portia, but mostly keeps it to herself. She mostly keeps the Facebook strictly business. From her pictures, you can tell she loves to dance and entertain people. She is always laughing, joking, and having a good time. I’m sure she fights a lot of criticism for being lesbian, but on her Facebook she does not publically talk about any of her problems.

Technology Autobiography ROUGH DRAFT

Technology Autobiography

            Growing up, technology has definitely had a huge impact on my childhood, and thus far through my young adult life. I feel most young adults and kids these day don’t realize how big of an impact technology has had on them but there’s been a significant change in lives that has come through these new technologies. Though some of these technologies may seem very insignificant in our lives, they were not around decades ago and have majorly shaped our modern world. Who would I be without a cell phone and the internet? We may never know. But, one thing I do know, I would not be the same person.

            In first grade I got a Nintendo 64. Man, it was the coolest game a kid could own back then. I would invite friends over to play Mario Kart, and Donkey Kong. This game gave me my first insight on the world of videogames. I vividly remember sitting down with my best friend, my sister, and her best friend. We would have two versus two battles in Mario Party, getting quite upset when we lost. The point of the game was to collect the most stars, having mini battle games along the way that could hurt or help you. The videogame world advanced very quickly. It seemed like as soon as you bought the coolest thing, a new one came out that you had to buy. I went through Nintendo, PS2, and finally the Xbox. It has shaped the world of entertainment, and now some kids prefer videogames over the outdoors.

            I remember our first internet access was dial up AOL. You used to have to sign into your account, and listen to the dial-up sounds as it connected to the internet. It would have the little AOL man running across the screen indicating how close it was to being signed in. From there you could browse the internet, check emails, and play games. Next came my first mode of communication besides our wall phone; AOL Instant Messaging. I specifically remember my IM name being “jujubeexoxo.” I would get on after school and as often as I could. I would sit online waiting for my friends to Instant Message me, and as soon as one of their usernames would pop up on my screen, I would IM them. This lasted for hours of the day. I was also very flattered when a cute boy would instant message me. Before texting, this was how I communicated with my middle school boyfriends. Of course, we were too afraid to talk in person, but instant messaging was our scapegoat.

            Later, as the internet advanced, our dialup disappeared. Internet Explorer was the new big thing, and to this day I use it. I soon learned about the world of games on the internet.

TO BE CONTINUED.................

Born Digital

                                In “Born Digital,” I feel that the audience for this piece is more aimed towards the older generation that might not understand the digital world quite yet. It is aimed for people who have grown up sending hand-written letters, calling home phones to get in touch, and not reading blogs or using Facebook. There are some key parts that show their intended audience. “Or maybe your daughter never comes down for dinner on time because she’s always busy online, chatting with her friends. And when she does come down to dinner, she won’t stop texting those same friends under the table,” (Born Digital, page 8).  I feel this is a solid example showing who he is aiming the text toward. Another example is when he writes, “Indeed, many aspects of the way in which Digital Natives lead their lives are cause for concern,” (Born Digital, page 12). He also has several examples about college aged students and younger.

                I do not feel that I am part of the intended audience for this piece of writing, because the author seems quite upset about the new Digital Era, and the way kids are acting with it, but, for us it’s normal. I am one of those kids that grew up when the internet started getting big, that used to chat on AOL to friends, and played Neopets. I do not feel the digital world is bad, as long as we don’t let it affect our face-to-face social skills too much. His writing felt angry towards people of our generation, so it made me skeptical while reading it and what he was going to say next.

Sponsors Of Literacy

                After reading Brandts’ writing, I could think of many “sponsors” of my literacy that have led me to where I am today. Literacy has become a key component of becoming successful in America, and other countries around the world. Without it we would have pretty much nothing we do today. Literacy has always been looked at with respect, and it has been very important for centuries.

                Some sponsors of my literacy have been, first off, my parents. Before I even attended Kindergarten they would read books to me, and read a word off the page and have me repeat it while I was looking at the word. Next it was my Kindergarten teacher, Mrs.Bonica. There we learned to write and read even better. She would have a name tag at our desk with our name on it, and every day we would look at the name tag and learn to copy it and write our name. We got assigned books to read, with different levels to get to. As the years progressed, my other elementary school teachers taught us even more, including cursive, which is not used very often anymore.

                Reading and writing are essential in everyday life. The people, institutions, and even electronics are key in teaching people literacy. Without it, who knows where we’d be today.

(E)DENTITY -- Dawn of the Digital Natives Activity

Dear NEA Director,

                The NEA argues that students now are reading significantly less than they were years ago, and that their literacy skills are decreasing. Although, this may be true for a small portion of students, I feel the majority is still reading a lot, but through the internet more so than books. The NEA fails to recognize Online and computer reading in their statistics. During my first semester of college, I had an e-book (book on the internet), and I read through the whole entire text book in order to take my tests for the class. It was a lot of reading, but in your studies it would not count. I have had a total of about 5 text books for my classes thus far, and this is only my second semester of college. Every night I have about 2 hours of reading to do for my classes, and I just recently finished a booked called The Lone Survivor for fun. As college students I feel we encounter a lot of reading, and that you should look over your stats again and include internet and computer reading.

Sincerely,

Julia

About Me

My name is Julia Kennedy. I am from Portland, Oregon and I came to Montana to study Nursing and live near the beautiful mountains. Some of my interests include snowboarding, wakeboarding, basketball, hiking, photography and basically all things active! I have one sister named Camille, and she is a junior in college at Oregon State University. Yeah, thats about all there is to know about me :)