Sophie England

“Writer Designer: What Are Multimodal Projects?” Chapter 1 describes how to make a piece effective. Multimodal is the combination of different elements of communicating. The five modes of communication are visual, aural, gestural, spatial and linguistic. Visual refers to the images the reader sees and includes color, layout, style, size and perspective. Aural refers to sound such as music and sound effects. Linguistic is the use of language such as word choice or delivery of the text. Spatial refers to the physical arrangement of the text. Gestural is the movement such as body language, hand gestures or facial expressions. Taking all of these elements into consideration when creating a project is important in order for that project to be effective. Just simply typing something out does not mean it is going to make the point come across in the best way possible. Sometimes using an image would display an emotion better than the text. There are some things that just cannot be put into words and so facial expressions, images or videos could be the better choice. Chapter 2 discusses the elements of emphasis, contrast, organization, alignment and proximity. Contrast is the difference between two things, causing one to stand out from the other. Emphasis stresses a word or group of words in order to make it stand out. Alignment is how things line up and how the readers eyes go across the page. Organization is how things are grouped together and what goes best with each section. Proximity is the closeness of elements arranged on the page. Two things with a close relationship may be placed closed together to emphasize this closeness.

Response & Reflection

Both of these texts are helpful for college students and new writers. Since we have been used to only doing the basic 5 paragraph essays, incorporating images, videos, gestures, considering placement and sound are elements that are foreign to students that are relatively new to college level writing. It will be interesting to see the impact that adding these elements will have on what would have been a basic assignment or essay. Sometimes it is hard to get the point across through words and so using one of the five modes of communication will make it easier. This text is similar but also very different from previous texts. For example, Navigating Genres by Kerry Dirk was more informal and less textbook like, but informative. This text is formal, straight from a textbook but still informative about elements of literature.

Summary – ‘That’s not Writing:’ Exploring the Intersection of Digital Writing, Community Literacy, and Social Justice” by Kristen Hawley Turner and Troy Hicks discusses the importance of incorporating technology into learning. Higher education institutions have said that students are not well prepared for college level writing. Schools these days are too focused on test scores and less focused on teaching things that will benefit students in their futures. Incorporating digital writing into school systems is important to the success of students as the technological tools they will use can be used in both professional and social settings outside of school. Digital writing has created new, creative ways to express ideas and though. To achieve a better understanding of digital technology, teachers need to be on board with the idea and have to be well educated in the field of technology. Younger generations are technology savvy since that is what they grew up with. Teachers need to be able to keep up with the times since they are the ones preparing students for the real world. Teachers who got their teaching degree 30 years ago may be experts in their fields, but that does not mean that they know how to teach students in 2017.

Response – I agree that students are not as well prepared for college level writing as they should be. I feel that a lot of the things we read and wrote about in high school does not relate to much of what we do in college. To this day, I still do not know how to write a résumé or how to properly write a letter. High school was so focused on 5-paragraph essays and analyzing novels. Learning things that will benefit our future should be incorporated into academia and most of those things require technology. All things business require using a computer. When I was in high school, teachers made such a big deal out of MCAS and test scores and focused less on teaching things to last. School systems are so concerned with the government thinking they are doing well that they lose sight of what is really important – leaving a lasting impression on its students. When are students going to need to write a 5-paragraph essay in MLA format after college? Most likely rarely.

Reflect  – This text relates well to “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” as it shows how much of an impact technology has had on our everyday life. Every single day we are exposed to technology. What used to be posters on bulletin boards are now ads on TV screens. If you sit on any form of public transportation and look around, almost everyone is on their phones. Both of these articles show how technology is taking over everything even down to education. Since it is the future, school systems need to incorporate more technology and teachers need a better understanding of how technology works and why it is important. This article makes me want to know even more about digital writing than I already do as this article highlights the importance of being tech savvy.

Summary – Nicholas Carr’s Is Google Making Us Stupid? discusses how much of an impact the advancement in technology has on the way we function. He discusses how research used to consist of hours in a library, trolling through books, and now its just typing a few words into Google and finding what we were looking for within seconds. Carr discusses how even he can no longer become deeply interested in an article if it’s over a certain length, and even still he finds himself skimming it for key points. He compares what life was like before the internet. The internet has taken over everything, and we understand this when Carr writes, “It’s becoming our map and our clock, our printing press and our type writer, our calculator and our telephone, and our radio and our TV”. Everything from ads to newspaper articles are being shortened to be keep the attention of the reader since we no longer have the attention span we once did. His main point is that our intelligence has turned into “artificial intelligence” and is no longer our own. It is based solely on the internet.

Response – One quote I found interesting was “Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski”. Comparing the way he used to read to diving into a sea of words as opposed to reading now, zipping along the surface is effective for explaining how reading has changed. Before moving to technology, Carr could read passage after passage from a book and stay completely focused and became immersed in what he was reading. Now, after adapting to technology, he finds himself skimming through passages online, looking for key points without having to go into depth. When i was younger, before being introduced to the World Wide Web, I could sit and read for hours on end. I could become completely immersed in whatever i was reading and could use my imagination to think about what the characters and setting would look like. Now, everything is based in the internet. Textbooks and readings for school are posted on the internet, articles are on the internet. When I read things for school I tend to skim through, highlight key points and do not read the text as a whole, or become deeply interested in what I am reading.

Reflection – This text has made me realize how much the internet and technology has changed the way we function. We rely on google for everything and do not make ourselves think enough. As a writer, I think it is important to become submerged in a text if you want to be able to write effectively about it. If I spent a huge chunk of my life writing a book just to find out that people skimmed through it or searched for the sparknotes version, it would feel like I wasted my time writing it because no one appreciated it. If we want to be effective writers, we also have to be effective readers.

For the Rhetorical device essay, I plan to revise my conclusion, analysis, summary and organization. My conclusions tend to be very repetitive in essays and I am still not clear on what makes a good conclusion. I plan to add more analysis to my quotes and claims. I have a lot more summary of the texts and not as much analysis of the parts of the text I chose to analyze. I need to add more of a connection between the rhetorical devices used by the authors and how these devices contribute to effective writing. For organization I am thinking of splitting my two body paragraphs into four. Two paragraphs will be Bunn and his use of audience and ethos, pathos and logos and the other two will be Boyd and her use of audience and ethos, pathos and logos. By splitting these paragraphs, I think it will be easier for the reader to follow along with the essay as opposed to discussing two rhetorical devices in one paragraph.

Summary: Gloria Anzaldua’s How to Tame a Wild Tongue surrounds the topic of the many languages she speaks and their importance to her. She refers to 8 different languages she speaks, “1. Standard English 2. Working class and slang English 3. Standard Spanish 4. Standard Mexican Spanish 5. North Mexican Spanish Dialect 6. Chicano Spanish (Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California have regional variations) 7. Tex-Mex 8. Pachuco (called caló)” the language she speaks depends on the person she is talking to. She informs us of which language she uses when talking to a certain person. She goes through each of her languages, describing and giving examples of each one. Chicano Spanish seems to be the most important to Anzaldua of the languages she speaks. This language was looked down on by others, and was referred to as a “poor language”. Anzaldua fights this stereotype by teaching with works by Chicano’s in secret and fought with her advisor in graduate school to make Chicano literature an area of focus.
Response: The part of How to Tame a Wild Tongue that i found most inspiring is when she includes how hard she fought to make Chicano literature an area of focus. To others, it was looked down on and others felt embarrassed to speak it and so Anzaldua decided she wanted to change the way Chicano Spanish was viewed. Anzaldua embraces her languages and where she comes from and feels anyone can do the same. She tries to defeat the stereotypes that come with her languages. This text relates well to John Swales The Concept of a Discourse Community as it references how different communities use different forms of communicate. Although Swales defines a discourse community as a community brought together by a common goal and Anzaldua does not refer to any goals, both texts discuss the importance of having a specific language or form of communicating that brings a community together.I feel that although it was helpful adding words and translations, there was a lot of translations that did not seem necessary and i ended up skipping a couple of sections.
Reflection: Since this texts includes a lot of anecdotes and introduces you to the life of the writer, i plan to use a similar approach so that the reader can relate more to my point. When I read a text and it is all fact, it’s hard to really get into what I’m reading and take away from it, but when the writer includes examples or stories to explain what they’re trying to say, it makes it easier to stay interested.

Summary: Janet Boyd’s “Murder! Rhetorically Speaking” explains to students what writing with rhetoric is. Boyd makes her piece interactive to help students understand that writing is not just about what you have to say, it is about you say it. A writer has to think about who, what, when, where and how. You have to know what words to include and what to omit. Boyd makes her text seem like she is having a conversation with the reader and uses informal language with a casual tone to really relate to her audience, students. By making the text interactive, Boyd engages with the reader, giving them a task to help explain her main point, which is how to write rhetorically.

Response: Boyd takes a different approach to explain to her students how to write rhetorically. Rather than making a list of points that have to be incorporated, or a guide on how to write with rhetoric, she makes her explanation interactive. When a text ask questions or gives you a task, it helps the reader to interact with the writer. Incorporating the responses from her own students helps the reader relate to the students by displaying similar thoughts and responses to ones the reader may have.

This text connects well to John Swales “The Concept of a Discourse Community” when Boyd discusses jargon. Lexicon, or word choice, is one of Swales six defining characteristics of a discourse community. He discusses how each community has their own lexicon that they use to communicate a common goal. This is similar to how Boyd illustrates the importance of jargon for doctors, lawyers, etc. in communicating their goal.

Boyd relates well to her students when she adds in the reason why students know the basics of how to write like a detective. For the most parts, students learn through crime investigations shows like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation or The First 48. If I were to write like a detective, my jargon would come from watching CSI, but as a student, I have thoughts like “am i the only one using words like this?” “how do other people know what to say?” so by Boyd adding this point about crime shows, it is comforting to know that you are not the only one with these thoughts.

Reflection: Boyd’s text has not only taught me what rhetoric is, but also how to use it. She shows awareness of who her audience is, and by speaking to them informally and casually, it keeps the attention of students. Had this been similar to an instruction manual of how to write rhetorically, most likely, students would lose interest and when reaching the end of the text, would still have no clue how to write rhetorically. When writing an essay, usually it comes out very formal, with proper language and very little emotion. However after reading this, I now have more insight into when certain language is appropriate.

Summary:

Some main points:

“That language use in a group is a form of social behavior, that discourse is a means of maintaining and extending the group’s knowledge and of imitating new members into the group, and that discourse is epistemic or constitutive of the group’s knowledge.”(468) Swales defines discourse community.

“At the outset, a speech community was seen as being composed of those who share similar linguistic rules.”(470) Swales highlights the differences between a speech community, and a discourse community.

A discourse community has a specific set of characteristics which help define it. In order to have a specific way of communicating, the main characteristic which defines each member of a specific community is that each member has to share a common goal, as well as sharing a specific set of values or beliefs.

“A discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback.”(472) Each member uses specific mechanisms to communicate information and feedback to one another.

“These may involve appropriacy of topics, the forms, function and positioning of discoursal elements, and the roles texts play in the operation of the discourse community.”(472)

“…community-specific abbreviations and acronyms.”(473) Each community has its own abbreviations of words and phrases that only they as a community can understand.

“A discourse community has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise.”(473) In order to be a member of the discourse community, one must have a decent amount of relevant information to share and must have a certain level of expertise.

Response:Overall the text was often confusing. It takes a while to understand the point of the text, which seemed to be that each discourse community has a set of rules and objectives that a person must follow in order to be a part of that community. Swales outlines the difference between a speech community and a discourse community. The main difference appears to be that a speech community is a much broader community that “share linguistic rules”(470) and a discourse community is one that has a set of goals they want to achieve which assist in the development of characteristics required to be a part of any discourse community.

Reflection: As I was reading through the text, I found myself trying to relate by thinking about what discourse community I am a part of. By adding anecdotes of my own personal discourse community could make an essay more relatable to the person reading it provokes thoughts about what each persons discourse community is. Swales incorporates a lot of examples into his text, which is the main reason I began to understand what I was reading. Before the examples, I was confused by broad definitions and comparisons, but once I read the quote “New York City is a single speech community, and not a collection of speakers living side by side, borrowing occasionally from each other’s dialects'(Labov, 1966:7).”(470), the point Swales was trying to make was becoming more apparent.

Hi!! My name is Sophie England and I am a freshman at UMass Boston. I am a business management major with a concentration on marketing. After graduating from UMass Boston, I hope to go to graduate school while taking part in the MIT program at the retail store where I currently work. After completing both the MIT program and graduate school, I hope to work my way up through the company. I don’t have much free time since I work so much, so I dont get to read or write as much as I would like to. I like the idea of keeping a journal, and most likely when I am older I will start writing one so that I can read back on old memories. However during the summer I always bring a good book to the beach, but during the school year it is hard to read for fun since there is a lot of school work going on. Although I would complain about having to write an essay, I find myself getting into it and actually enjoy writing they essay if I have an interest in the topic.