post 13

In order to get data for the interview questions, I interviewed a number of different people in my sorority.  With questions such as “what did you have to give up to join this community, and which community do you view as your primary one” I thought it was best that I ask different people.  I think these questions are more important to simply asking ones I can answer myself.  I hoped by getting these answers I could look at the idea about having conflicted discourse communities.  I believe that you can have more than one, but only one can be most important.  I realized that many girls do value the sorority as being their primary discourse community, but it wasn’t always that way.  Most girls said that it became more important to them as they grew older, and became almost their identity.  Other girls who are in other organizations said that they take feedback from all of their discourse communities but they use it to contribute to their primary discourses.

Another interesting fact I found when doing my interviews was the different lexis’s girl’s use in the sorority.  Yes, we all have secret codes and sayings but they touched on the different ways they speak to their friends in the sorority as opposed to ones outside.  They also pointed out the interesting language used during recruitment that new girls have to learn.  

Post 12

Ann Johns’ article “Discourse Communities and Communities of Practice” is an extension of the articles we read by Gee and Swales.  She published her article later than both, Swales and Gee, so she had the time to think through some of the issues presented.  She recaps Swales texts and reiterates his main point.  Swales defines discourse community and points out that in order to participate in a discourse community, you didn’t necessarily have to join it.  Johns points out that Swales fails to pursue the idea of conflict any further.  Gee, on the other hand, argues that people from non-dominant Discourse can only join a dominant Discourse through “musfake.” 

Johns focuses primarily on academic discourses.  She talks about expected conventions and sources of contention that we see in an academic discourse.  She also points out authority.  Johns focuses on the problems of authority and the possible control over acceptable community discourse that could lead to rebellion again discourse community conventions. 

In the second article “Identity, Authority and Learning to Write in New Workplaces,” Wardle talks about the three ways in which newcomers choose levels and types of engagements, which is essentially their mode of belonging.  The three concepts include: engagement, imagination and alignment. 

Engagement is the effort to pursue and develop “interpersonal relationships” with the old-timers in that community.  Imagination is broadening your mind to new possibilities and finding ways to imagine your own work in the realm of the new community.  Lastly, alignment is about finding a common ground and finding boundaries.  This reacquires the creation and adoption of different ideas and activities in a different community. 

My discourse community is my sorority.  Applying these three concepts as a newcomer can be very important and beneficial.  Engagement is probably the most important because without a connection to one of the older girls you might feel alone or an outcast.  People don’t join for the title; they join because of the bonds they have made with people.  Second, imagination plays a key role, because there are many positions that can be taken, and as a newcomer you should be thinking about how you can see yourself in that position or even in the world of Greek life.  Not only does it take imagining the organization in your world, but also bringing some of your world to the organization.  Lastly, alignment could relate to how you manage your time or following the rules of the sorority.  

Post 11

In James Gees’ “Literacy, Discourse and Linguistics,” he talks about how tension or conflict is present between two people in discourse communities.  We test people in a certain community, for example a softball organization that I once played for, perhaps in order to show our dominance.  This group can communicate in a distinct way, which will weed out people who discourse communities can deem “non-natives.”

Swales’ identifies six different characteristics for a discourse community.  Using an example familiar to me, I would choose my softball team/softball community.  I was constantly surrounded by the people I was playing with and the atmosphere it provided.  The first characteristic is: the community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals.  Everyone shared the same goal and did similar things to achieve the goal of winning.  Although we wore different color and team names, all in all everyone was doing the same thing. 

            The second characteristic is using its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback.  Being a softball tournament allowed parents and team members of my team to bond and get to know someone they might not have normally talked to.  With this interpersonal communication, everyone has able to improve and provide suggestions on how to be a better team.  This feedback is what forms the board that strives to make the organization better.

            The fourth characteristic is a community that utilizes and possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims.  The softball organization I played for consisted of hundreds of different teams.  All of theses teams are their own genre, but together we all worked to better the organization and to make a good name for ourselves.

            The softball community has its own specific lexis.  This includes terms that would not be heard on a soccer field or perhaps a football field.  Typically there are things such as “RBI” or batting average, but specifically within a team, you could have different plays that need to be called that have special names.

            Lastly the sixth characteristic is a community has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discourse expertise.  The softball organization I played for only extended up to the age of twenty-three.  Every year there were girls leaving the organization in order to go to college or focus on their career.  Some left for other reasons, but many girls continued to also enter every year, which ensured the organization would continue.    

Post 10

It is almost impossible to go an entire day without coming into contact with some type of electronic device. The world is immersed in the ever-changing world of technology, and this is just the beginning.  Unfortunately older techniques have fallen to the waste-side and to be innovative, you must be using technology.  Smart phones and ipods have taken over every day life, and this is shaped how I write.  With the amount of technology we have at our disposal, it would be hard not to change the way we write.  There is a high demand for internet based projects, and visual aids as opposed to simply a well written story.   Since the invention of word processing programs like Microsoft Word, there is much less emphasis on the quality of writing, and more emphasis on the visual aspects that accompany a piece.
In the "Future of Literacy", the author points out that importance of composing pieces that are not strictly words.  Today, there is an added pressure to compose videos and sounds, to enhance a publishers message.  For school, I am constantly composing projects with visual aids and creative videos because that is what people are interested in.  Technology is taking over, and I think people are much less interested in the written language.  It is unfortunate because writing with simply words can sometimes tell a better story than a visual aid.

Post 9

As defined by Heath, literacy events are tools used when examining a particular community of modern soceitys' relationship between written and spoken language, along with the actual forms and functions of oral and literature traditions.  A literacy event can include individuals and activities that surround print.  In Trackton, Heath points out literacy events that focused mainly on the interaction between adults and children.  She explains that adults and children did not interact very much, and the schools lacked written material produced primarily for children.  Children, would however go to school knowing many types of information available in their environment.  Although parents were not aware they were tutoring their children in reading and writing, they were helping them by making them aware to literacy models during their everyday life.  Children came to school with a knowledge of things such as brand names and models of cars.  Lastly she says that these children differed greatly from mainstream children.  Among Trackton children, solitary reading without "oral explanation" was seen as unacceptable.
Sherman Alexie's narrative talks about how he learned to read with a superman comic book.  He did not have the vocabulary to understand what a "paragraph" was.  This frustrated him when he was trying to read because the words in his fathers books seemed foreign to him.  He is similar to the kids in Trackton because he used the pictures of the comic book to eventually understand what the words were trying to tell him.  He could not read the words to begin with, but used the symbols to unravel what the story was about.

Beauty isn’t Everything: A Rhetorical Analysis of a Visual Argument

“Smoking Kills.”  This is the common phrase we see on every billboard walking down the street.  It was only twenty years ago that people were smoking a pack of cigarettes a day, thinking they had no consequences.  Times have changed, and so has peoples’ state of mind when it comes to smoking.  After discovering it is linked to many health problems such as cancer, many advertisements are aimed specifically at the end of cigarette smoking.  This ad is one that combines the physical consequences and severity of what could happen to a cigarette smoker. 

This advertisement makes a compelling argument that smoking has adverse affects on our physical well-being.  It plays on our importance of beauty in our society today.  In the article “Backpacks vs. Briefcases” Carroll explains that when dissecting the rhetorical analysis of a message, the first place to start is “the context.” 

The exigence in this advertisement is the severity of negative consequences contributed with smoking.  Keith Grant-Davie in the “Rhetorical Situations and Their Constituents” explains exigence as a question; “ why is the message needed?”  This condition, that is so prevalent today, invites a response; to quit smoking.  Many times a rhetorical message is responding to some kind of problem in society.  Not only is this message urging people to stop smoking, but it also plays on the importance of beauty in society, which can possibly make the message even more important.  

These concepts of exigence are directly connected to the audience this message is trying to reach.  At first glance it targets women, because no woman wants to have a hole in their mouth of the toxins in a cigarette.  Going further, it can also be reaching men as well.   Many men would be deterred from dating a woman that smokes and could eventually end up with ugly marks due to cigarettes.  With these two ideas combined, it hits home even more for women because women want to be desired by men, so this might deter them from smoking as well.  In addition to the heterosexual community, this add pertains to the homosexual community as well.  No matter what or whom you are attracted to, having a hole in your lips from smoking is in no way attractive.  Since the smoking age is 18, it would be assumed that this message would only be reaching an audience of adults that are allowed to smoke.  Unfortunately many young teenagers are smoking, and this advertisement could still relate to them, especially because during high school is when kids are so reliant on their appearance. 

With any message, constraints are inevitable.  A simply advertisement cannot force people to care about the negative consequences, so it is limited in that aspect.  Another major constraint of this ad is that it has no credibility.  This also applies when talking about the rhetor behind this argument.  Since we have no proof of where it came from, it automatically lacks credibility. There are no words on the ad, and no company linked to the message.  Many people look at who is sponsoring the ad to know if they can trust that company.  Without having a company name on the ad, people may not even take the time to consider the message. 

The creator of the ad can be making two different arguments.  One is more favorable than the other, but it can be misconstrued into another message.  The first message is that smoking is bad for your health and your appearance.  They are saying if you keep smoking, then this is what will happen to you.  The second argument is that the creator is pointing out that beauty plays too big of a role in our society.  Women are held to a high standard of beauty and feel pressure to be a certain way.  Some people might take offense to the fact that this ad does completely play on our physical appearance.  This could be another constraint.  Many women may think this ad is ridiculous because they don’t put as much importance into their looks as this ad is conveying.  By thinking that they are completely missing the point of the argument.  Some other women may think after a quick glance that it is another sexist ad targeted at the appearance of women, and their pressure to look perfect. 

Logos, ethos and pathos are three aspects of an advertisement aimed at optimizing the message.  Creators use these to make a more significant impact by playing on people’s logic, credibility and emotions.  This ad in particular uses logos and pathos.  It uses logos by appealing to the audience’s logic.  They are aiming to persuade their audience on their reasoning, and showing that smoking is linked to health problems.  The use of pathos accompanies the logic in this message.  Since society is so concerned with appearances, this plays on our concerns that we might end up with a hole in our mouth, and impregnates the lingering thought about what else could happen to our appearance if we continue to smoke. 

After viewing many other non-smoking ads I think this one is effective, but in a different way than most.  Most non-smoking advertisements play strictly on your emotions by showing you children that possibly die earlier due to their parents addiction to smoking.  These ads may be cliché, but they do “pack a lot of punch” when it comes to conveying an important message to its viewers.  This advertisement does a good job of using logos, and appealing to the logical side of society, but could possibly attract more sympathy if it were a little more emotional. 

The biggest problem I see with this ad is its lack of credibility.  Especially when talking about health issues, people are attracting to things that they feel are credible because they want to trust that what they are saying is true.  Unfortunately this ad has no sponsor or creator associated with it, so many people will skim over it.  Since health care has become such an important issue in the last couple decades. Many people are not willing to consider any one else’s opinion unless they have the best credibility.  In response to the lack of credibility on this ad, people might assume that this “could never happen” because a doctor or heath care company was not associated with the making of this advertisement.  

Rhetorical Analysis Rough Draft

“Smoking Kills.”  This is the common phrase we see on every billboard walking down the street.  It was only twenty years ago that people were smoking a pack of cigarettes a day, thinking they had no consequences.  Times have changed, and so has peoples’ state of mind when it comes to smoking.  After discovering it is linked to many health problems such as cancer, many advertisements are aimed specifically at the end of cigarette smoking.  This ad is one that combines the physical consequences and severity of what could happen to a cigarette smoker. 

This advertisement makes a compelling argument that smoking has adverse affects on our physical well-being.  It plays on our importance of beauty in our society today.  In the article “Backpacks vs. Briefcases” Carroll explains that when dissecting the rhetorical analysis of a message, the first place to start is “the context.” 

The exigence in this advertisement is the severity of negative consequences contributed with smoking.  Keith Grant-Davie in the “Rhetorical Situations and Their Constituents” explains exigence as a question; “ why is the message needed?”  This condition, that is so prevalent today, invites a response; to quit smoking.  Many times a rhetorical message is responding to some kind of problem in society.  Not only is this message urging people to stop smoking, but it also plays on the importance of beauty in society, which can possibly make the message even more important.  

These concepts of exigence are directly connected to the audience this message is trying to reach.  At first glance it targets women, because no woman wants to have a hole in their mouth of the toxins in a cigarette.  Going further, it can also be reaching men as well.   Many men would be deterred from dating a woman that smokes and could eventually end up with ugly marks due to cigarettes.  With these two ideas combined, it hits home even more for women because women want to be desired by men, so this might deter them from smoking as well.  In addition to the heterosexual community, this add pertains to the homosexual community as well.  No matter what or whom you are attracted to, having a hole in your lips from smoking is in no way attractive.  Since the smoking age is 18, it would be assumed that this message would only be reaching an audience of adults that are allowed to smoke.  Unfortunately many young teenagers are smoking, and this advertisement could still relate to them, especially because during high school is when kids are so reliant on their appearance. 

With any message, constraints are inevitable.  A simply advertisement cannot force people to care about the negative consequences, so it is limited in that aspect.  Another major constraint of this ad is that it has no credibility.  There are no words on the ad, and no company linked to the message.  Many people look at who is sponsoring the ad to know if they can trust that company.  Without having a company name on the ad, people may not even take the time to consider the message. 

The creator of the ad can be making two different arguments.  One is more favorable than the other, but it can be misconstrued into another message.  The first message is that smoking is bad for your health and your appearance.  They are saying if you keep smoking, then this is what will happen to you.  The second argument is that the creator is pointing out that beauty plays too big of a role in our society.  Women are held to a high standard of beauty and feel pressure to be a certain way.  Some people might take offense to the fact that this ad does completely play on our physical appearance.  This could be another constraint.  Many women may think this ad is ridiculous because they don’t put as much importance into their looks as this ad is conveying.  By thinking that they are completely missing the point of the argument.  Some other women may think after a quick glance that it is another sexist ad targeted at the appearance of women, and their pressure to look perfect. 

Logos, ethos and pathos are three aspects of an advertisement aimed at optimizing the message.  Creators use these to make a more significant impact by playing on people’s logic, credibility and emotions.  This ad in particular uses logos and pathos.  It uses logos by appealing to the audience’s logic.  They are aiming to persuade their audience on their reasoning, and showing that smoking is linked to health problems.  The use of pathos accompanies the logic in this message.  Since society is so concerned with appearances, this plays on our concerns that we might end up with a hole in our mouth, and impregnates the lingering thought about what else could happen to our appearance if we continue to smoke. 

After viewing many other non-smoking ads I think this one is effective, but in a different way than most.  Most non-smoking advertisements play strictly on your emotions by showing you children that possibly die earlier due to their parents addiction to smoking.  These ads may be cliché, but they do “pack a lot of punch” when it comes to conveying an important message to its viewers.  This advertisement does a good job of using logos, and appealing to the logical side of society, but could possibly attract more sympathy if it were a little more emotional. 

The biggest problem I see with this ad is its lack of credibility.  Especially when talking about health issues, people are attracting to things that they feel are credible because they want to trust that what they are saying is true.  Unfortunately this ad has no sponsor or creator associated with it, so many people will skim over it.  Since health care has become such an important issue in the last couple decades. Many people are not willing to consider any one else’s opinion unless they have the best credibility.  In response to the lack of credibility on this ad, people might assume that this “could never happen” because a doctor or heath care company was not associated with the making of this advertisement.  

Rhetorical Analysis

Post 4

In James Porters' “Intertextuality and the Discourse Community” he challenges the common belief that all of our writing is completely individual.  He says the idea of intertextuality is the idea that all texts contain traces from other texts or ideas.  On top of borrowing ideas that we have already read, we let our social communities shape the way we think and perceive things, therefore affecting our writing. 

             Porter identifies discourse communities, which is a group of individuals bound by a common interest.  With this idea in mind, he further explains that intertextuality constrains writing.  It shifts the importance of a piece of writing away from the author’s intention, and more to the social context.  He presents two serious problems with typical writings: “limited range” and “unclear text.” 

            By imagining text to be “individual” we are only hurting ourselves.  We have to realize the social context in which people will understand our writing.  Porter says “all texts are interdependent: We understand a text only insofar as we understand its precursors.”  He suggests ways to overcome this idea by choosing a topic that should be acceptable to your discourse community.  He suggests choosing the “right” topic, by applying the appropriate critical methodology and adopting the views of the communities’ values.  By doing so, this is the best way to get your point across in the way in which you want it to be read. 

            Simply assuming that what you mean will be conveyed to your readers is a problem when you consider text to be “individual.”  All text contains other ideas, and people will pull from their experiences and values to perceive what you are trying to say.  By accepting the idea that most, if not all, writings are just a “web of ideas,” we can better prepare our stories to be more successful. 

Post 3

Greene and Klein have two different views on the types of research conducive to learning.  Greene suggests a “conversation model of argument.”  He says that every argument you make is connected to other arguments and therefore we need to use the information we have to enable us to enter into conversations.  On page 12 of Writing and Writing, he specifically points out his view by saying, “We are not just educated by concepts and facts that we learn in school.  We are educated by the people around us and the environments we live in every day.”

            On the other hand, Klein proposes a different point of view for learning.  He suggests a hunting and gathering method.  Klein believes the process is segmented into four stages; collect data, sift the data rhetorically, seek patterns in the data and translate their findings into research.  He encourages writing two and for your peers and promotes genuine reading in classrooms that provides research that maybe a library cannot provide.  He thinks this will not only help with learning, but also “extend the range of academic writing.”  Klein specifically says, “research is writing.”

            I think the audiences are somewhat the same, and somewhat different.  Greene is talking to college age students, or generally anyone is an academic setting.  Klein is addressing professors and people at a high academic level than students.  He gives suggestions to them about what to change in the classroom, as opposed to the students themselves.  The content changes because of the way it is found.  I think Greene’s approach is more idealistic because we learn from others around us, and conversing with one another ensures we reach a broad range of ideas for each subject.  With Kleins’ approach there are less of a range or variety of information, I think, because there is much more information out there besides what is written in books.

Post 2

Before reading the article on Wikipedia I never thought the website would be helpful.  Throughout high school and college all I hear my professors saying is "don't use Wikipedia as a resource."  It always seemed like everyone was against the website, so i just assumed i needed to be against it as well. 

After reading the article on how Wikipedia can be helpful I think it can be used as a successful source.  Even if I don't directly quote the site, it can start as a basis to finding other sources that may be more helpful to my research and me.  I think it can be most helpful when I am researching something I know nothing bout.  It seems to have a clear outline of the most important parts of a subject.  

I can understand where professors are coming from when they say "don't use this website as a source."  I realize now that in a way they may be right, but Wikipedia can be much more helpful in the research aspect of a project. 

In Purdy's section on reviewing, conversing, revising and sharing I learned that information on Wikipedia is useful because it has been compared.  No article is absolute; all good information is compared to other resources in order to obtain the best information.  I think this also helps the authors stay on point with what they are talking about.  It gives them a chance to compare what topics are most important and what interests the type of people that are going to be looking at their article. 

Post 1

My name is Deanna Kelly.  I am a junior, majoring in Journalism/Public Relations with a minor in Psychology and a specialization in Sociology.  I'm from Pittsburgh, PA.  I am really interested in sports, so when I graduate I would like to be a PR specialist in the sports industry.  I have an older brother and a younger sister.  My brother Ian is a senior at Auburn University majoring in Zoology and my younger sister Maura is a sophomore in high school.  I transferred here my freshman year from University of South Carolina, so I didn't take Eng 151, but took a similar class in South Carolina.

In my english class we wrote a lot of papers, which I enjoyed.  My professor allowed us to write about things that interested us which was refreshing.  My favorite assignment was when we wrote about a fairytale and the various hidden meanings behind them, then reworking it into a modern day story, while still conveying the same hidden meanings.  Being a journalism student I write a lot of papers, and in the past I have had professors who have given me bad grades because my writing style differed from theirs.  This is probably the only bad thing I have to say about previous classes.

I have never maintained a blog or worked with Wikipedia so both of these assignments are very new to me.  I think I will enjoy it because I feel as a Public Relations major I should know as much about the interest as possible because it is the biggest medium used today.  The only part of the class I am apprehensive about is using Wikipedia, but hopefully it isn't that confusing.  I am always striving to be a better writer and to learn more about different types of writings.  I am hoping this class strengthens my skills as a writer and also expands how I think about different subjects/writings.