PB3A

Casandra Phillips

02/29/2016

PB3A

PB3A was definitely a project I had to think about. The way that we spoke about it made it seem like I had to go easy on the younger audience genre but I had to be much more intense with the adult genre so I was a little conflicted with this at first but ones I choose what exact genre I wanted to work for each age audience it all became a lot easier. I am very excited to see what I can come up with, with so much freedom in a writing piece.

Article: Textual Silences by Huckin

I decided to focus my project on “On Textual Silences Large and Small” by Thomas Huckin. This article focus on how the missing pieces of a writing piece actually has a meaning behind it and serves a purpose. Thomas Huckin categorizes these textual silence moves into 6 types from least to most transparent type of silence to show the importance in each and how they are presented.

I will roughly be doing the same kind of thing with both audiences but I will focus on the tone of the information, how much information I put into it, word choice, and the overall idea I want the students to get from it to point out the differences in age group.

I will definitely be pointing out the same main ideas in both genres like:

1)      The 4 steps to identify textual silence

2)      The 6 types of textual silence and their conventions

~giving examples of all 6

3)      The difference between covert and collaborative silence

Children Genre:

For the younger audience I can either do a 1) short script so that it seems like a short video that we watched before going into the actual lesson plan so the students can get a rough idea about what we will be learning and then I can ask them for a summary/ write-up of the main idea they got from it OR 2) I can write a short reading attached with a quiz to make sure students got the full understanding of the reading.

On top of these two ideas I also thought about doing a chart with examples for each textual silence with examples to put up on the classroom. I think I can do this idea regardless of the route I decide to take with the main write up because I can very easily break up the points to simpler ideas overall. I know this part of the project can work with any route I take because I used to do these posters in class all the time when I took AP Literature in high school.

I definitely think that regardless of how easy I make the vocab or how much information I take out or put in, this specific topic is just impossible to teach to a very young audience so I will be focusing on high school students, particularly students in AP Literature/ English.

Adult Genre:

For the older audience I decided to write a post on a university page where professor’s need to post their lesson plans before lecture so students can access it. It is like posting their lecture slides on gauchospace right before class so students can follow along in lecture and add their notes onto it. This specific project will be focused on graduate students who are trying to pursue a Writing/ English career and are taking some of their final graduate classes before getting their doctorate.

This genre is pretty straight forward so I think that this one will be a bit easier to work with than the younger audience, especially because I do not have to change much, if any of the reading. If anything I would have to make this writing a bit more difficult than it is now. 

Thlog #8

This week's "painting trees" project was very interesting. I really enjoyed it because it played on a lot of moves we really would not have noticed but were very obvious. I really enjoyed how all artist in the Disney video were all painting one tree, the same tree for all of them, yet the outcome of each individual drawing/ painting was so different and unique to their own touch.
It all began with each artist looking at the painting through their own individual lens. While one artist looked at it in an emotional way, another one looked at it spiritually, and another one looked at it very structurally as a scientist. They also all used different techniques to paint the actual picture. While one artist, painted the tree by using a knife brush to create the tree an other artist used charcoal and the other one used water paint. Another move that I focused on was how they each individually choose what to focus on drawing. While one artist focused on the tree trunk, the other artist focused on the branches, and the other artist focused on the surroundings, etc. At the end of it, this was an interesting project because the same exact tree looked so different in all of their paintings because they each painted it how they depicted it individually.
I also liked how we kind of worked on WP3 by listing out different genres for each age range. I literally looked at the instructions for WP3 and was already frustrated because I did not understand the project. Now that we have a whole list I am more at ease because I know I have a lot to choose from. I also liked how we spent a lot of time actually going over our WP3 because I know I had a lot of questions to be answered and they really were. Now I feel more at ease writing this project and I am sure I will do fine with it.

Thlogg #7

So this week was a bit difficult because I had a hard time getting through it. I was not feeling my best and it was a struggle to do everything but I got it done!.
I went ahead and looked over what we did in class since I was unable to attend and I want to answer my freewrite here.
I think that one thing I have improved on since WP1 has been my thesis statement. I think that WP1 was difficult in the sense that I did not feel completely comfortable on what I was focusing on so it made my topic a bit difficult to write on. I mean I think I did great overall on my entire paper but the thesis was hard to pick out because I had a lot going on at once BUT this time around that was not the case. I actually was able to write my thesis fairly quickly right after doing my entire essay. I knew exactly what I wanted to focus on and how I wanted it to do it and I made it very clear. Another thing I think I improved on was the structure of my paper. For my first WP1 I had a lot of good ideas but did not know how to put it all together to make it flow easily but this time around I knew exactly what point I wanted to hit and how to hit it perfectly.
I also went over the tips which are usually very helpful but I did not know exactly what the "attack the page" tip meant. Is it like just write what you are thinking? I am kind of confused on that but I would like to maybe learn about it from one of my peers if possible. I would of also liked to do the socrative. I think that would have been a very helpful tool for me. But I did look at two other of my classmates papers once all their edits were done from class and I kind of got a feel for it so I touched mine up a bit.
I did do what we did last time with breaking up the sentences one by one and highlighting so I am pretty positive about this WP2, I think I did good on my own.

Thloggg #6

The first tip we got for the week was very interesting, I was not expecting fonts to make a difference in anything. It is just fonts, but they did. While writing my WP2 I got stuck often and did not know what to write so I decided to do the whole font thing. This did not necessarily help me think but it did allow me to break up my thoughts better.
The second tip was writing notes to self and I really related to it because I already do this so it was not a big change to my usual writing necessities.
I really appreciated getting new ways to say "the author says...." when introducing a quote or statement. I try to stray away from using the basic starter for every quote but sometimes it is difficult to think outside the box.
One thing that I really learned this week was the hedged language. I never realized the difference that a few words could make but this is definitely something that I will continue to use in the future. Parallelism is something I also never really payed attention too in my writing but it is a lot more commonly used than I realized. Especially in order to make our writings flow fluently.

PB2B

Casandra Phillips

02/08/2016

WP2B

5 Moves from the Index:

1) Kerry Dirk in his writing “Navigating Genres” utilizes the (Capturing Authorial Action) move in his writing. He uses phrases like; “I further acknowledged”(251), “I will admit”(251), “I would surmise”(255), and “I think”(256) to demonstrate what he is doing or thinking. He makes sure that the reader knows that the following writing is all his opinion or findings and he is given full credit for it. I think this move is effective because he is given full acknowledgement for what will be coming up next.

2) In Laura Bolin Carroll’s article, “Backpacks vs. Briefcase: Steps towards Rhetorical Analysis”, the author Laura uses the (Introducing Standard Views) move in her writing. She uses statements like, “you likely began analyzing her”(45), “it is likely that you” (45), “you likely didn’t walk”(46), “you decided how”(47), “since you want to”(50), and “what you really want to understand”(52). All these statements imply that she knows what we are or will be thinking, and doing, or what we did not think, and do.

3) Janet Boyd, in her article “Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking)” utilize (Introducing Objections Informally) as one of her moves. She asks questions like, “Did you notice all of the things that these reports do similarly?”(90), “So how does your report read”(92), “So what did you include in your eulogy”(95), and “why is it funny”(96).

4) In the paper “How to Read Like a Writer” by Mike Bunn, Bunn uses the (Introducing quotations) rule in his writing. He uses phrases like “author and professor Wendy Bishop explains”(73), “a famous poet and critic named Allen Tate discussed”(74), “Charles Moran, a professor….urges us to read”(75), and “another former student, Mike, comments”(77). All of these phrases are to introduce another author’s work, argument or quote into his paper and to make sure they get full recognition for it.

5) Another move Bunn uses in his writing is (Introducing Objections Informally). He uses questions like, “what is it about the way this text is written that makes you feel and respond the way you do”(72), “what are the advantages and disadvantages of starting with a quote”(73), and “what would the impact be on your potential readers”(78).  

5      Moves I Found:

1) In Kerry Dirk’s article “Navigating Genres” I realized that he uses a repetitive subject changer move. He states, “In other words, Bitzer is saying that when…..Someone must create that first response”(252), “In other words, knowing what a genre is used for….writing an effective personal statement”(253), and “In other words, Miller is saying….everyday lives”(254). This shows us that “in other words” is something he repetitively uses to change the subject of what he is talking about. He has chosen to use this phrase as his breaking point or subject changer yet a way for us to see how the following paragraph will follow the previous one so the entire article can flow correctly. He is not just going from one thing to another, he is tying them together somehow but also making sure we know he is moving on to the next point. I think this is a very effective move because it keeps the reader attentive on when there is a new subject coming up.

2) In “Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps toward Rhetorical Analysis by Laura Bolin Carroll, Laura Carroll uses a lot of subtitles. This moves is utilized to break a long article into pieces so the readers can follow more precisely. She breaks it up into parts by using titles like; “Implications of Rhetorical Analysis”(46), “The Rhetorical Situation, Or Discerning Context”(48), “The Heart of the Matter- The Argument”(52), and “Beginning to Analyze”(55). This move is effective because she makes it easier for readers to follow along easier, and for them to use the subtitles as a guide for future reference. A reader might find something that interest them for a future project and they probably forgot to mark it at the moment so instead of reading the entire article again they can just read the subtitles and look under the title that looks like the information would be under.

3) In Laura Bolin Carroll, “Backpack vs Briefcases: Steps Toward Rhetorical Analysis” Carroll also uses a generalization move that I will call (WEing). She uses statements like; “we use language”(46), “we are creating”(47), and “we don’t realize”(48), to pin point actions on us but also to not make her feel like she is pin pointing at us she includes herself.

4) In the article, “Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking)” by Janet Boyd, Boyd uses italicizing as one of her moves. She italicizes words like, “how”(87), and “already”(88) to emphasize the following action as something we commonly due or know how to do already yet further explains it with a different meaning or more in depth to what we think it is about. She also italicizes words like, “Jargon”(89), “audience”(90), “diction and tone”(91), and “euphemism” to emphasize what the main idea of the following writing will be about and what she wants us to take away from it. This is an effective move because it allows the readers to pay close attention to these certain words and what is following right after them.

5) In Mike Bunn’s “How to Read Like a Writer”, he utilizes a move I will call (questionnaire) to guide his writing. He presents the reader with various questions throughout the paper to allow the reader to stay on track with what they are reading and to answer any questions the reader might have. This is definitely an effective move because the reader knows what the following part is about and if they have any similar questions they know where the answer will be. 

Thlogging #5!!!

OMG it is here! Midterms are here and I am half way to my death bed. No not really, I just finished 2 midterms so I am pretty exhausted but I am kind of, sort of, excited for this weeks PB2B.
Before that though, I think this week was pretty interesting. We put more simple things more into depth and searched for the real meaning behind it. On Monday we worked on italics. We spoke about why we use them, where to use them in, and when to use them. I never really payed attention to why people used italics, I just never used them unless I was citing an article because that is the only way I knew how to use them, but today we learned otherwise. Italics is used to emphasize a word or phrase and make sure it stands out of the entire paper. So this means we should NOT use it in every other word. I like the how butterfly quote about italics. This is literally such a beautiful quote, " Think of italics as butterflies that might swoop across the page, allow them to flit about, land here and there, softly; gently; don't treat them as a blanket that must spread itself across the entire page. The butterfly approach will bring a dash of color; the blanket approach will darken everything" (William Noble). I think I might be reading too much into it but this quote was very helpful.
Then we focused on MOVES! It sounds funny to say because it is something so simple but after going into it more in depth I realized we all have certain "moves" in our style of writing. We looked into The Rocks wrestling moves, Surfer AJ's friends moves, Michael Jordans moves, etc. and it was just really interesting to realize that we literally have a move for everything. People do, say, act certain ways because that is their special move, it is like their signature.

PB2A

02/01/2016

Working on a scholarly article is definitely a lot more complex than working on a non-academic article or free writing. There is so much more to look at but it is also very structured in a way that you will not always understand what exactly is going on unless you have some background knowledge of the subject because many of the times articles can be very dull. Articles are usually written by scholars who have done plenty of background research, studies, test, etc. about this particular subject and are very reliable and fluent on what they will present or write about. Sometimes, articles are written by bigger agencies and companies that study this certain subject and dissect it very carefully to continue to write more research on their findings as they go. I decide to look into an article called, “Why the Alcohol and Drug Community Should Support Gay Marriage” by a company called Drug and Alcohol Review. I decided to look into this article in particular because they bring up subjects that I am very interested on which allows me to read the article a lot better. I will look into rhetorical features and conventions like; tone, audience, structure, and color to describe how I viewed the article.

I believe that the tone of the article is very much what drives it and the reader to be interesting or dull. This article in particular had a very close-minded tone to it which could drive two different audiences in at once. Audience is very much driven by the subject of the article but most definitely the tone as well. This article in particular was completely dissing they gay and lesbian community by saying that they are the reason for the drug and alcohol community growing. This argument in particular you would think would have a close-minded, republican, older generation audience to it but I think it can go both ways. It will definitely have a huge attraction to that audience but it can also appeal to people who are huge activist, the queer community, open-minded people that are trying to get as much information on this subject to know how to fight back and learn where exactly all this information is coming from.

The structure of articles are very similar for the most part. They have a bold, black title right in the middle and occasionally a subtitle right below it. This happens when the article is fairly long and it is trying to break it up into main topic sections so the reader can follow through fluently. Articles also are almost always divided into two columns so a person reads down a page then back up the page on the left. I think this is done so the reader feels like the readings are much shorter and they can jump around the pages if they do not need to read all the way through. This is where the subtitles come in for the most part. I also notice that articles seem to have a lot of evidence and citations throughout the readings so that as readers we can know where this information is coming from and we can check the validity of it if we would like to. Besides the citations most articles if not all always have a reference section where they go back to all the evidence they provided and cite it all over again with full information.

Another quick convention that I noticed was that articles have a lot of dates, statics, findings, and data in the readings. In this paper in specific they focused a lot on statics they found from people in hospitals and prisons in which they tested positive for alcohol and / or drugs. They had statics on how gay and lesbians have a higher chance of being addicted to drugs, living in poverty, or being alcoholics all from findings they did on their own in hospitals and prisons.

Usually articles have a few questions that lead the writer into bigger discussion in the article but in this particular article there was only one and it was; “why is it more likely for gay and lesbian people to develop problems with drugs or alcohol?” This is basically what led the entire article into discussion and conclusion so it still had the certain question and response structure but it was just fairly quickly.

Some specific aspects of this scholarly piece that strike me as important are definitely the question posed and the response given, the tone of the article, the column structure, and most importantly all the evidence provided. 

Article reference: <http://web.b.ebscohost.com.proxy.library.ucsb.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=d021f1d8-dcb2-4b8c-b666-725eac0d188c%40sessionmgr114&vid=5&hid=115>.