Response to "Identity, Authority, and Learning..."

            In her article “Identity, Authority, and Learning to Write in New Workplaces”, Elizabeth Wardle discusses the importance of individual’s identities and the concept of authority in the matter of learning to write in new workplaces. She argues that individuals have three modes of belonging that they need to follow in order to be able to learn to write in new places which are: Engagement, Imagination, and Alignment. She discusses a man named Alan, and his choices in a new workplace. She explained how he rebelled and used email in ‘inappropriate’ ways. Thus he created conflict by not adapting and was not accepted by co-workers. He should have adapted and should have been willing to consider other ways, but he did not.

            Her article is very similar to the article by Swales and Devitt et al. in that they both discuss discourse communities. Wardle adds a new element to her discussion though. She takes the conversation to a place that discusses how an individual should act within the community rather than discuss the community as a whole. This really helps one understand the inner workings of the communities and made me really think about Reddit (my project 3 topic) in a way that I had not previously.

Response to "Materiality and Genre..."

            In their article “Materiality and Genre in the Study of Discourse Communities”, Amy J. Devitt et. al. attempt to show readers that the use of genres in discourse communities really help play a role in the sorting of information within discourse communities. They argue that without genre analysis discourse communities would be a confusing place with a lot of unorganized information as well as a weaker bonded community.

            This article relates to Swales’ article in that they both talk about discourse communities although Swales focuses more on discourse communities as a whole where as Devitt et. al. focus on genre and genre analysis.
            I read this article after I submitted my proposal for project three but I think if I would have read it prior to my proposal it would have helped me more. Overall I am still a little confused about discourse communities but I think in time and with reading more articles that my understanding will improve. With this said the article was a little confusing but I think after class I will understand more.

Project 3 Proposal

Discourse Community: Reddit

            Reddit qualifies as a Discourse community according to Swales by matching all of Swales’ six characteristics:

1.) Broadly agreed set of common public goals:

Reddit is a website whose goals are that of spreading information, whether that information is funny pictures, music, answering question, and even scientific articles.

2/3.) Mechanisms of intercommunication among members/these methods used primarily for providing information and feedback:

Reddit has a message system where you can, if you are a member, send and receive messages from other redditors. Most messages are sent in order to let other members know something that they may have done wrong (not following rules etc.) or compliment them on a certain post. Per each post there is a comment section where users can provide feedback on specific posts that all members and even non-members can see.

4.) Utilizes and posses one or more genres:

Reddit has many “subreddits”, each possessing a main focus on a different genre. For example, there are subreddits such as r/funny, r/politics, r/science, r/audioengineering, and so forth. Each of these “subreddits” focuses on a separate genre, which are usually obvious based on the subreddits title (funny, politics, science, and audio engineering respectively).

5.) Acquired specific lexis:

Reddit has a few very specific things that most people wouldn’t understand if they were not members or lurkers. The word lurker for example is part of the lexis. There are also other words/grammatical styles used. A lurker is someone who never comments or votes on posts but still browses. When someone says “r/” then says a words such as “r/science” they are talking about that subreddit. This is because the URL for subreddits is www.reddit.com/r/science. That would be the URL for the subreddit science. People also post comments sometimes using what I would call a meme style. They use the constant text from a meme and post it in a way that makes sense in context mainly used as a joke. Redditors (people who partake in Reddit goodness), at least most, have acquired a knowledge of memes; those memes depend on what subreddits are browsed. One of the most important lexis would be Reddiquette. These are basically the rules of posting and each subreddit has a variation of Reddiquette that needs to be followed, and at the whole-site level (not specifically subreddits) there are a very general set of rules that ALL subreddits must follow.

6.) A threshold level of members with a degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise:

Reddit has millions of active members and each subreddit has a counter of ‘subscribed’ readers as well as a counter of online readers. Some subreddits die and therefore are no longer active, but for the most part subreddits get a lot of relevant content, and if it is too off topic the moderators of said subreddit can remove it. Although not all posts are on topic (the subreddit r/funny is notorious for having posts containing nothing to do with their goal), most subreddits do have very relevant content posted often.

          My interest in Reddit is mainly because I am on it far too often and waste away most of my life on it. I think it will be easiest for me to pick Reddit for the project. As for learning more about it I think maybe getting to know the creators more would be a good piece of knowledge and probably even interesting. I think if possible interviewing one of the creators, Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian. The set of texts I can analyze would be a couple subreddits, more specifically NOT r/funny.

Response to "The Concept of Discourse..."

            In his article, “The Concept of Discourse Community”, John Swales shows readers what a discourse community is and explains the rules they need to follow. He argues that a discourse community is different from a speech community and that they are defined by:

1.) Broadly agreed set of public rules
2.) Mechanisms of intercommunication between its members
3.) Mechanisms providing information and feedback
4.) Utilizes and posses one or more genres

5.) Acquired specific lexis
6.) A threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise
            This article is similar to Greene’s article “Argument as Conversation”. In Greene’s article he explains that each argument takes place in a certain discourse community and in Swales’ article he explains discourse community more thoroughly. It is nice to get a look deeper into what a discourse community actually is.
            I found this article to be very dry. The way Swales writes really bores me. I think it would have helped me to read this before I wrote my first essay because it seems after reading this that discourse communities are a very important piece in arguments. Although overall I did not enjoy this article due to the dryness.

Before You Read

            The last time I can remember that I felt out of place was when I went to a part with my brother and everyone there, besides me, was wearing metal-band t-shirts and metal was playing. I was not into metal music at the time but in the end it turned out to be pretty fun.

Questions for Discussion and Journaling

            A discourse community I belong to would be the discourse community Steven Wilson fans. The goals are basically to keep up to date on what he is recording with each of his different projects. The lexis would be the discographies of his projects and re-mixes (Porcupine Tree, Solo albums, Jethro Tull, King Crimson, etc.). The genres would be music (Progressive Rock, Metal, Ambient/Drone, and Jazz/Jazz Fusion), live performance videos, and behind the scenes work.

           
           

Response to "The Sticky Embrace..."

            In her article “The Sticky Embrace of Beauty”, Anne Francis Wysocki attempts to show readers the effectiveness of visual objects in readings and how they can portray objects certain ways (in this case beauty) depending on how they are used. She uses many different visual techniques to help explain this.

            This article is similar to Bernhardt’s article “Seeing the Text”. Both writers use a lot of images to help prove their point. In both articles they discuss the idea of beauty and how different people see beauty differently. The differences between the two articles are mainly the ages of the images used and everything that comes with this time difference (social ideas of beauty, social portrayal of women, etc.).

            Overall I enjoyed this article. The immense amount of visual techniques used were interesting, although at times it felt a little overwhelming. It was definitely a different kind of article and really got me thinking about how one could use visual techniques to alter the light an idea is put into. I think Wysocki did a great job using all those visuals though.

Before You Read

            The ad I found gives me contrary feelings due to the picture itself. While I like the message (don’t talk on the phone and drive), the particular image is kind of disturbing, and mildly graphic:

http://goo.gl/A6ick

Questions for Discussion and Journaling

2.)

            Wysocki sets up the text visually for me as a reader using very bold tactics. First thing I saw was the ad on page 79. Then I turned the page to see bold text, lines across the page, and another full picture. I think Wysocki sets up the text using a very in-your-face method, not really low-visual text. It seems as if Wysocki is going too far visually, but at the same time it still helps me as a reader understand what is going on and helps me understand her ideas.

3.)

            The Peek ad does work for me as a consumer. I do not necessarily want to buy the book because of it, but I do want to know more about it. I think this is mainly because, as a male, the basically naked woman is an obvious attracter of attention. And that image was the first thing I saw when I opened the book to this article.

Applying and Exploring Ideas

2.)

            Beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder. I do think some things are inherently beautiful but at the same time I do not think that “the beautiful is that which pleases universally”. I think that when it comes to finding beauty in other humans that it is all subjective. Yes, social forces do play a role, but how big of a role, if any, depends on the person and how susceptible they are to being influenced by outside sources. When it comes to things that I would say are inherently beautiful, I think that these things are all based on nature, such as Niagara Falls and national parks. I think these things are inherently beautiful because of the ‘awe-factor’ that they have.

Meta Moment

            This statement applies to Wysocki’s article because the reader does not expect all these visual objects being used in a typical article (pictures, highlighting, other graphics, etc.) therefore she pushes the conventions and expectations, but it also works to help her ideas. The charts/graphics used help convey her message in a logical manner and I think that this is what makes the visuals effective.

Response to "From Pencils to Pixels"

            In his article “From Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literacy Technologies”, Dennis Baron claims that we overlook things as being technology that are in fact technology, such as pencils, other writing tools, the computer, and the telephone. He argues that we are so used to the technology we use that we no longer consider it technology.

            This article relates to Scott McCloud’s article “Vocabulary of Comics” in that both authors are showing us something that we would not normally look at in a certain light. McCloud speaks of icons and Baron speaks of technology that is usually overlooked.

            Overall I found this article kind of interesting. It is strange to look at a pencil and think, “wow this was ‘space age’ technology at one point.” I cannot think of anyone who would immediately see a pencil and think of it as technology.

Before You Read

            Technology to me would be something that is used/manufactured to make things easier in life. Examples would be cell phones, computers, and cars. I think at one point everything (non-natural) was a considered new technology.

Question for Discussion and Journaling

2.)

            I can definitely see technology changing the shape/nature of writing. Look at texting or instant messaging. We have a whole generation of people who are now typing in shorthand because it’s faster. People do this so often that it becomes second hand. So I would definitely have to say that technology changes the shape/nature of writing and I think that Baron would agree.