Thlog Week 8

This week we focused our attention on transformation and translation, or what I seen it as perspective. We started off the on Monday by watching several videos of artists painting. What stuck out to me from all the videos were the painting of the trees. It was interesting to see one of the psychological aspects I learned about actually panning out. Although all the different artists were viewing the exact same tree with all of the same features, each one differed and was unique in their own individual way. Some focused on the trunk, others the leaves, and others even just the background. Zack did a great job tying this into writing by having us do the lens activity. Although every student was looking at the same classroom, when we focused ourselves with our "lenses" we all saw different things. Similarly, with writing and genres, authors could be writing about the same topic and even the same aspect of topic, however the content will differ depending on your own individual viewpoint. The "Everybody Poops" segment in class also further emphasized this topic.

In Wednesdays class, we put those subjects to use by further discussing our WP3. As I wrote in my PB3a, this WP reminded me of my volunteer work that I did during high school in which I pretty much practiced every week without really knowing what I was doing so. As I continued to think back on other projects and things I've done, I realized that writing and the things we're learning in this class from day one is essential to not only college assignments but for life in general.

PB3A: Transformations

As soon as we began talking about WP3, I related it immediately to one of the programs I ran in high school. As a Volunteer with a within 4-H called Youth Experience in Science (YES) my entire position was to take weekly ideas proposed by the 4-H committee and transform it from a paper with directions meant for volunteers to read, to both a presentation to teachers for their approval as well as a lesson plan to implement to 1^st-3^rd graders. Similarly, it seems like this assignment is nearly the same thing in terms of creating something for both a younger and older audience but having still to present the same ideas.

The article I chose to work with was “Disciplines and Discourses: Social Interactions in the Construction of Knowledge” by Ken Hyland. The article discusses the aspect of how the interaction between the writer and reader can change reader’s perception of the topic and how any simple change can affect the entire piece. For an older audience genre, I am thinking about creating some sort of consent form that would contain the implications and acknowledgements of how writers can influence readers and the responsibility of sharing knowledge with readers. I plan on tailoring the form so it seems like required paperwork to submit before publishing an opinion article in a magazine or newspaper. From the academic article, I plan on transforming the information presented in order to create a new piece with conventions of consent forms. A few conventions that first come to mind is of course a signature line at the bottom along with a line to write the date as well as possibly a witness signature line. As for the actual content of the consent form I have not though of any specifics, however I know it should contain information about the risks of writing towards the beginning and a statement of acknowledgement stating that they have read and understood everything to the best of their ability and understand their requirements and obligations as writers.

For a younger audience, I am thinking of transforming “Disciplines and Discourses: Social Interactions in the Construction of Knowledge” into the genre of a motivational/educational poster that are often hung in classrooms from pre-school till usually the end of high-school. Since this is an academic subject, a poster in the classroom will still contain the academic writing aspect as well as still seeming logical. Because many of the aspects discussed in the article wouldn’t make sense in younger school age children, I plan on making it targeted toward particularly high-school age students. Transforming a 20-page article to a poster, I will have to keep the content of it somewhat short and only focus on the main aspects of the article, which understandably may cause the subject to lose some meaning and context. Also, as a poster meant for younger audiences, the diction of the poster is going to be drastically different from the original article. Instead of using large academic English, I plan on using smaller simpler words in order to make the targeted audience have an easier time relating to it. Lastly, seeing as posters are meant to engage the audience, I would plan on inserting some type of visual stimuli to grab the reader’s attention, most likely something colorful yet not too distracting to take away from the primary message. 

THLOG

 Week 6
 The focus of this weeks classes was style and stylistic moves. These two classes felt somewhat more engaging because we co vered a lot of tips that will help me in writing anything from resumes to these blog posts. One of the most shocking things that I found actually helped a lot was changing the font to help with the style of writing you are choosing to use. I don’t necessarily know why it helps but just seeing a more relaxed and flow-y type of font helps get that type of style out on the screen. Another thing we covered was using the thesaurus to find more fitting words to place into writing. The example we used was says but this tool can be used with pretty much any word. This tool really helped me when writing my scholarship essays back in high school because when I couldn’t think of the perfect word I just used a colloquial term to get my point across then went back to fix it. The most important topic. I believe, we learned this past week however was the use of hedged language. This aspect of writing is particularly important because it makes the writer more credible in situations that can potentially be very ambiguous. I try to practice the use of hedged language as much as I can when I am not sure of things but still have an opinion on them. 

PB2B

The moves highlighted in green are those from the “They Say I Say” appendix, and those highlights in blue are ones that I noticed and named.

•  Signaling who’s saying what  

  "Devitt points out, ‘Different grocery stores make for different grocery lists…’” (Dirk)

-          In this relatively easy move, Dirk, in Navigating Genres, simply writes out the name of the person he is about to quote. Instead of quoting then writing the name afterwards, Dirk gives credit to Devitt first which is very effective in clarifying and confusion of plagiarizing.

• ENTERTAINING OBJECTIONS

“You might also argue that intuitive thinking is better enhanced by silent musing; or going for a walk or sleeping on it or any of a host of other ways to push a question away from focal attention back to the preconscious…” (Elbow)    

-          By entertaining objections, Elbow makes his thesis and argument stronger. By explaining why his argument is correct, you simply get your point across, however when using potential counter arguments, it proves that you are knowledgeable and can defend your thoughts and ideas.

• Establishing why Your Claims Matter

“Because media rhetoric surrounds us, it is important to understand how rhetoric works.” (Carrol)

-          This simple yet necessary move is essential to anything written. Often overlooked because many writers think its easily implied, stating why your writing matters to the reader is one of the first steps to grabbing their attention and getting them interested. As simple and unnecessary as it may seem, this one short sentence can your audiences entire understanding of what you write.

• EMBEDDING VOICE MAKERS  

“Here I offer my definition: Rhetoric is what allows you to write (and speak) appropriately for a given situation, one that is determined by the expectations of your audience, Implied or acknowledged, whether you are texting, writing a love letter, or bleeding a term paper.” (Boyd)

-          Through the use of this move, a writers own thoughts and feelings are resonated in their writing. A lot of times your own voice gets lost in translation when trying be a professional writer and using ‘Academic English’ so this move is particularly important. This example specifically, Boyd gives a personal definition of the word rhetoric which sharply contrasts with the ‘academic definition’.

• MAKING WHAT THEY SAY SOMETHING YOU SAY

“While I don’t know anything about Corinthian columns…Allen Tate’s metaphor of reading as if you were an architect is a great way to think about RLW.” (Bunn) 

-          This move, used by Bunn, is essential to making the entire paper seemingly academic. By using other sources to support your own ideas, it somewhat implies that what is being said must be true. This is seen by the popular quote “great minds think alike”. Even though Bunn honestly states that Allen Tate’s metaphor is totally foreign, the simple comparison still adds credibility to the piece of work.

• Recappin

“Taking what Devitt says into account, think back to the previous discussion of the research paper.” (Dirk)

-          Dirk used a move I call “Recappin” throughout navigating genres. Dirk always goes back to previous examples once introducing new information in order to provide new outlooks and viewpoints.

• Thats truuuue

“I will admit that the word genre used to have a bad reputation and may still make some people cringe.” (Dirk)

-          Dirk also uses something I called “That’s truuuue” in the article as well. By using a sentence that relates to the readers saying something that a student will understand. Personally, when I read the sentence, I laughed and agreed. Dirk uses this to relate to the readers and hook their attention.

• YOU CAN DO IT

“You are already an author, and that means you have a built-in advantage when reading like a writer.” (Bunn) 

-          Bunn uses a move I named “You Can Do it” in most of the article. Throughout the entire piece of work, Bunn provides positive input to readers to heighten their motivation and self-esteem to say the lease. By building their confidence, Bunn is trying to emphasize that anyone can be good writers and most people already are, they just need the extra push. This move is the most effective in my opinion.

• Look, I know what I’m talkin bout

“For example, research has shown that only 2% of women consider themselves beautiful.” (Carrol) 

-          Carrol used a move I named “Look, I know what I’m talking about” in the piece of work. By using a statistic, Carrol used ethos, or credibility, to interest readers. By using a stat by researchers, the professionalism and the educational purpose really shows and makes the whole piece look better.

•  PAY ATTENTION 

 “How many times have you had reason to ask these questions?” (Graff) 

-          The last move that I found throughout the readings is something I call “Pay Attention”. Gaff uses this move I order to keep the reader’s attention. Many times students will read but not retain anything, but having questions posed in the readings keeps the readers minds focused and thinking on what’s going on. This particular is also very useful in writing because you don’t want your writing to not be retained.

Thlog 5

The quarter is officially HALFWAY over! Although during classes it feels like it drags on forever, looking back at the past 5 weeks it has really flew by. The main focus of this weeks classes was definitely ‘MOVES’. Although it was really confusing in the beginning, I feel like I am starting to finally understand it a little bit more. What really helped me understand moves was watching the video of The Rocks ‘Peoples Elbow”. It helped me see that the move is not only the body slamming but also everything leading up to it as well, such as the running back and for the and taunting. Like all moves, the peoples elbow itself is made up from many parts that come together.

In preparation for writing project 2 we also did an activity on academic disciplines that related back to genres. Everyone in class got a topic and 2 disciplines of their choice and wrote a basic thesis that someone studying that discipline would research about. While doing this activity it reminded me of the Mark Smith murder activity about genres we did a few classes back. These two activities both framed a certain topic to get its purpose across. They both also reminded me of a type of bias I learned last year in social psychology called confirmation bias. By only looking for information in your area of study, or only one specific news station, you may only get part of the information.

This week’s reading was Mike Bunn’s “Reading like a Writer”, and although his concept was hard as hell for me to grasp at first, I casually started doing it at the most random times and with the most random things. For instance, I went to “Chick-fil-A” with Edwin this past week and when I disgustingly took a bite of a pickle, I started asking why the hell the creator would decide to add pickles of all things to chicken. I then began telling Edwin everything else he could have and should have added instead and how he probably chose pickles because it would be the cheapest and add the most flavor with the smallest amount. Edwin then replied that instead of reading like a writer, I was eating like a Chef! 

PB2a

 http://web.b.ebscohost.com.proxy.library.ucsb.edu:2048/ehost/detail/detail?sid=6c14383f-9d2a-4573-950b-7264e1d02b69%40sessionmgr113&vid=5&hid=116&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=111561584&db=a9h

When looking into this assignment, I first thought that it was going to be difficult to find a publication that would interest me. However, after only my second search, I found “Managing Anger in Adolescents”, an article by Mary Lowth published in “Practice Nurse” Vol. 45, Issue 12 in December of 2015. I took interest in this particular article for two simple reasons. The first, anger is a fascinating concept in psychology and it is interesting to see how various people define anger and operationalize the very abstract concept. The second reason I found interest in this article is because it deals with the area of life which I hope to one day work with and help, adolescents.

Being a scholarly article, one would definitely expect this article to have conventions that are specific to the scientific and academic genres. One of the most prevailing conventions that caught my eye right from the start was that every time the word ‘anger’ came up, it was bolded. Since the entire purpose of the article was managing anger, it would make sense to call attention to every time the word comes up. Another convention that I found while reading through the paper is the capitalization and use of different color writing when switching main talking points. This provides a clear understanding to the reader that the focus of the upcoming section is switching and lets them know what the new section is going to consist of.

Since this is published on a webpage, there were also many conventions that are specific to online sources only. One of the more interesting conventions I found was links on the left hand of the page that were able to take you to specific parts of article. This convention is useful in many ways, but primarily I found that it was helpful for when I have already read it, and wanted to go back to a specific part, so instead of scrolling through to find it, I just clicked the main section title. Another set of links that made online reading more convenient was the ‘tags’ section at the end of the page. This convention not only made it useful when finding the article in the first place, but it provided a list of clickable words for reading more if interested. Next to the tags, there was also ‘further reading’, a section that provided links to more article in relation to anger and adolescents. Lastly, at the top of the webpage, there was a button that you could click in order to have the entire page read to you. This convention made comprehending the article much more convenient since the font size was really small and zooming in caused the need to scroll back and forth.

Being an article about mental health, there were many questions posed throughout the entire piece of work. The main purpose of these questions were to provide background specific to this area of study. “Is teenage anger a medical problem?” set up the topic for the entire article. More questions included “What is the problem with anger?”, and more generally “What is anger?”. The third question posed set up the section which was used to operationalize the concept of anger. According to Lowth in this article anger is “a defense mechanism, a coping mechanism, a means of displacing other difficult emotions, and a reasonable response in some circumstances.”  (Lowth) The operationalization of anger according to the writer is very vague, understandably so, because anger is hard to define. The most important aspect of the piece that struck me was the statement that anger and other mental health issues are normal. This seemed as the most important based simply on repetition. Furthermore, there were various sections that provided resources, links, and advice for those who suffer from anger and other mental health issues.