Final Portfolio

      This portfolio contains four major parts. One of which is one of the peer reviews I did on a classmates paper. I chose to include this because I think this was the best peer review I gave. The corrections I made in her paper were explained thoroughly and I even gave some suggestions and advice in the comment under her cover letter. Although there are not many corrections that I made to this paper I do not think it has any weak points. Just because there are not many things marked does not mean that it was not edited thoroughly. The next work I included was the major rewrite to one of my previous papers. The revised cover letter for this paper is as follows:

        The main point that I was trying to convey in this paper was that there was not one universal way to go about your writing. There is not a dominant and correct method for someones writing process. I wanted to show that everyone has their own process that works best for them through analyzing myself as a writer and comparing myself to other writers. One of the favorite parts of this paper are the metaphors. I think they did a great job of showing my point. If provided more time I would try to incorporate more sources and counter arguments because I know its important to show all sides of an argument. I think this revised version is better than the original because the original main topic of my paper was that the writing process is what is important and not what was written which seems a bit too broad. So I expanded on what I previously had and cut certain things out to help direct this paper to the new topic it has now. 

The next work I included was paper 4 and the revised cover is as follows:

         The issue I was trying to address in this paper was the idea that teaching writing forms to students may hurt the creativity of their writing. I wanted to show that emphasizing writing forms such as the five paragraph essay or research paper can hurt students because they may become dependent on these forms and ultimately be unable to come up with any original work. The support I gave for these claims where done via examples and cited sources from research I did on this topic. I also addressed the counter argument of writing forms actually possibly helping students because it gives them a good foundation as they first being to write. I think the strong points of this paper are the sources I used because they provide  strong support for my claims. A weak part I think this paper has is that I am not sure if it addresses the right discourse community or audience the assignment requires. I struggled a lot with this paper and if given more time I would have tried to help direct my paper toward the right audience and cite more sources. 

        The final work I added to this portfolio was a small story I wrote about my father this year. It was just something I did for myself when I was bored one day but I think it is a pretty interesting story and I thought it would be a good thing to include because not only does it show a little bit about my background but also because it is another example of writing; and this was done outside of the classroom so it has a bit of a different feel to it in my opinion. 

        I think that my work is of enough quality to raise my grade because I have a very good grasp of the language. If you look back on anything that I have ever written it has always been very clear and has flown very well from topic to topic. I make good use of the information I have and although I may have had a tardy assignment or two from just not being prepared at the time, I also got my work done and finished everything this class required. Even though sometimes I did not write about exactly what you were looking for the level of my writing has always been respectable and easy to follow. And if the quality of writing itself is the determinant for raising my grade then I think it should be done because you have commented on my writing in a positive way for everything I have done. I hope the fact that I have learned from this class constitutes for something because I honestly can say that my writing has improved form taking this course. There have no been any dramatic changed to how I write but I do see a small difference in how I express myself in my writing and how I set my papers up. 

        Although I am not a very big fan of english I actually really enjoyed this class. One of the main reasons (and I hope this does not make it seem like I am trying to be an ass kisser) was the teacher. Dr. Whicker has been one of the best professors I have had and I know that is not saying much since I have not had many professors but I don't think there will be many in the future that will be up to parr with him. He was always very wiling to help whether it being giving feedback on our papers, helping us find sources on difficult topics, or being very quick to respond to his emails when a student needs assistance. He was not a boring speaker and I love the idea of his grading contract. It makes complete sense because some people just struggle with writing and it would be unfair to them if they got points marked off for this. So this grading contract ensures that diligent students can at least get a B if they get all their work done despite not being the strongest of writers. The things I did not like about the class were just things that are a part of english: reading, writing, analyzing work. It just so happens that I do not like english as a subject of study and not because of anything specific against these things we did in class. As stated above I really think my writing improved and one big thing I took from this is knowing the important of rhetoric and the audience I am writing to. Before I would just write to myself and everything I wrote was done in the same format with not much regard to who would be reading it. I now manipulate my use of language depending on who I know will be the primary audience of my paper. There really is not much that I wish I would have learned. I always thought I was a strong writer and this class has enforced and built upon that belief even more. The one thing I can say that I wish I saw more of was group assignments and activities. This is mainly because group work does a great job of incorporating everyone in the class. Not only does it help everyone get involved but it may also give some of the quieter students a little more courage to speak up and answer questions in class. I think one of the main reasons for many of the students withholding themselves from group discussion is that they did not want to be wrong or say anything incorrect in front of the class. Working in groups beforehand however may give them a chance to run their ideas past their fellow classmates to see what they think first. Thank you for being so helpful this quarter Professor Whicker and I hope I have been able to persuade you to give me that A!

Peer edit: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kvFByjPYgwQW0S-Y9I3wP3t1p3S4G0lMeisATztoD3g/edit (The comment on her post of her paper is also included at the end)

Major Rewrite of Paper #2: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Oq9EnuUXVvhFXkhGD-RsUGgh2BbDkXfiNxcixVpk5gs/edit

Paper 4: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZCK4M9nhirtQ45WtGgR7a-Twh2-Nz3aChCtsmiKjzFA/edit

From Rags to Riches: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16Kvis45WEBYpr2JjiYU0uTRMoqvXOUYliJIT_x6ylTs/edit

Revised Cover letter and Paper 4

I tried to shift the point of my paper a little more toward the debate on whether or not creativity should be emphasized in writing or whether academic ability should be with writing from whether or not writing forms hurt creativity. I had a hard time making this shift with my paper and although there where not many more than a handful of extra sentences added I think that the point came across pretty well. Overall this last paper has been very challenging for me.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B5S5pBZARSGSVkg2eFVDbWZUOUdJNTVRZ2dXdVVFUQ

Paper #4 and Cover Letter

Paper link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1P3cgEhi9wEyP2LSaBUMBmAabeo2rO8xxj3cHy5w_Wj0/edit

     The main point that I was trying to get across with this paper is that teaching writing forms hurts a student's creativity as a writer. I used examples of actual writing forms and provided the effect they had on student's writing. I provided a little bit of the counter argument also but tried to stayed focus on my point. I think the parts that included the five paragraph essay went well mostly I think because I could find the most source on that particular form. Please note anything you see wrong with the flow or the structure of the paper. There are a lot of different things I bring up in the paper so its important I make sure that it is very easy to follow and understand.

Introduction

      Although school is centered around making students realize their full potential and help them prepare for the next level of education ahead, some things implemented in school may actually hurt students for both of these things. One major field in which schools have a negative effect on their students with the methods they incorporate is writing. Teachers often offer a form or a way students should write and label that way as the right way. One example being the five paragraph essay. The major focus here is to determine whether requiring students to follow a set format hurts them or helps them.

Annotative Bibliography

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TxsXpNf1ZtKMSnHZQK_ip8dhp9p73bcj3fq6qTRGXLo/edit

Feb 27 Blog Post

Summary: In the article Reading and Writing Without Authority, Penrose and Geisler argue that the presence or absence of knowledge is not the sole factor that determines authority in writing. They try and prove this point through analyzing a first year freshman in college, and a doctorate student. Both of these students wrote about the same topic and after both of their works were analyzed, the conclusion that these two authors came to was that authority in writing does not just come from the amount of knowledge you have, but also your experience with writing and the confidence you portray when you write. 

QD:

3.) The Information Transfer Model pertains to Janet because since she is only a first year student, she does not have enough information on her own to write an entire paper. It is information transfer because Janet has to do research to do her writing and take information she has found form her sources and transfer it to her paper. Roger’s model on the other hand is a bit different since Roger, being a doctorate student, has a much larger database of knowledge and requires a lot less research to to find appropriate material for his paper. 

4.) I think Janet’s lack of confidence is the case for why she gives so much of the credit to her sources and the authors she reads dominate how she wants to write since she does not believe in herself without any outside sources. 

5.) It heavily depends on what topic I am writing about to determine whether or not I write with Janet’s model or Rodger’s model. If it is a topic that interests me and I am passionate about I will probably end up writing like Rodger since I have confidence in my writing and I would have a lot to say. If the topic was not on something that interests me however, I will write with Janet’s model since I wont have enough information on the topic just form my own knowledge and I will need some outside sources to help me write. 

MM: One way reading this article has helped me with my future research paper is that I will now try and obtain a good amount of knowledge on the subject so I can write confidently about it instead of just pulling random bits of information from the web and throwing them into my paper. Another way this article will help me write my next research paper is that I will rely more on my writing ability than my sources to help improve my writing as time goes on.

Reflection: I liked this article because it helped show what was important in writing; not your information as much as how you present it. Confidence in your writing is key and this article was an easy read so I did not have a difficult time understanding their points. The example they used with Rodger and Janet helped portray their conclusions effectively. 

Feb 24 Blog Post

       In her article, Identity, Authority, and Learning to Write in New Workplaces Elizabeth Wardle argues what the role of identity and authority is in our writing and how these element influence the discourse community we affiliate ourselves with. Wardle helps present this idea through following a young man, Alan, and his struggle with joining a discourse community.
QD:
3.)  I believe that Alan did not yield positive results because he was not willing to conform. Granted conforming to fit into a discourse community is not always a good thing but showing a little flexibility would have increased his chances of making it into this discourse community. This flexibility is what would have granted him positive outcomes .
4.) I definitely believe that a lot of language is spoken unconsciously. You never think of the entire sentence you are going to say before you say it (at least most of the time this is not the case).
5.) I agree with Gee because according to Gee your Discourse makes up who you are and Alan refused to change his Discourse to join the discourse community because he wanted I believe he was trying to maintain his identity and did not want to change.
6.) The way he is portrayed in this article, Alan seems to be a tool because he is simply used as evidence and an example even though he really was not part of the community.
7.) I never had an authority figure in an academic setting lose their authority. My coach however has been thrown out of games before because he was not able to control his temper and the ref suspended him from the game.
AE: 1
     To assert your authority over texts you have to write with confidence and seem like a credible source for people to believe your writing. Most discourse communities involving anything academic or sport related I have not been the authority figure because those are both areas that I have a lot to learn in. When it comes to discourse communities with my groups of friends there is never one clear cut authority figure but sometimes I make decisions for the group since my personality sometimes may dominate some of my other friends'. Not being the authority figure is not always a bad thing especially if there is still room for learning so that some authority figures can act as tutors or teachers.
       Summary:  In addition to further expanding on our understanding of Discourses and discourse communities, Wardle also did a great job of making her article easy to follow. This article was an easy read which made me more willing to pay attention to what she was saying because it was not an effort to understand her points like it has been in some of these past articles we have read. This article was interesting, beneficial toward me, and I believe it is one of the few article regarding this topic of Discourse that I will be able to take something from.

Potential Topic for Paper 4

    I want to explore why not all punctuation is taught together in school. Commas and periods are taught first but you do not learn how to efficiently use semi colons or hyphens till much later in your academic career. I want to know why the teaching is split up like this and if it is hurting us in the long run.

Feb 22 Blog Post

        In her article, "Discourse Communities and Communities of Practice" Ann M. Johns discusses how communities of practice and discourse communities tie in together. She goes through the experiences of being a part of an academic community and a professional community. Johns directs special focus to the usage of language of members within the same community and the conflicts that can arise from differing communities.
QD:
1.) Some problems that arise when trying to become part of a discourse community include the cost, just simply some people cannot afford to be part of this group and might have to make some sacrifices in order to have to money to join the group. Another complication is the potential power struggle that might rise within the group as members argue over who should be the figure of authority. A final example of a complication of joining a discourse community is disagreements made between community members which might right originate from usage of dialogue or lack of for new members.
2.) Discourse communities can change as its members grow older and their morals change or their education changes. It all depends on the views of its members. An example of this might be discourse community of the government in post world war one Germany, which was changed radically by Adolf Hitler into the Nazis upon his rise to power.
3.) Learning the language of a new discourse community has never interfered with my own beliefs. I am very stubborn when it comes to my views because I have a very scientific mind so anything that I have formed an opinion on I have done so through reading countless articles on the subject and acquiring as much support as possible.
4.) I do not think Johns's view of learning the languages of other discourse communities interfering with your own beliefs because it takes a lot to shift someones faith. No matter what no new or opposing information you learn, you still retain what you believe is true over anything else.
5.) The authority I get over my writing in college is definitely more than that in high school. 100% authority over my writing would not be good either though because there is still some structure or general topic that should be followed to help students stay on track. But overall there is a good amount of freedom or elbow room when it comes to what to write in college.
6.) It is considered a minefield because you will never know how those broken rules will affect your grade until the end. I personally have been blessed with very anal teachers who followed their assignments like the bible and took points off for anything that was off about the format or topic.
MM:  Learning form Johns article can help you realize how joining a discourse community can be both beneficial and harmful. Joining a discourse community may help enhance and support your own goals and beliefs but they may try and make you conform to all of their ideas, some of which you may not agree with. All in all, discourse communities seem to be a good thing as long as you can maintain who you are as an individual while you are a part of them because they can help back anything that you believe and support.
Summary:
       It was good that this article built off the ideas of Swales and Gee but the article in and of itself was kind of boring. I had a hard time understanding what made this article to different and special next to the two we just previously read. Johns's ideas seem very closely related to Swales's.

Feb. 20 Blog Make-Up

In his article, “Concept of Discourse Community” John Swales talks about the the different criteria that make up discourse communities. This criteria which he mentions contains six main points when trying to qualify a group as a discourse community which he defines as any group of people with a the same ideologies or goals. Swales tries to argue how there are many different discourse communities some not as easily identifiable than the next and how it would be beneficial if all discourse communities were distinct from each other. 

QD:

1.) a. All discourse communities share a common goal amongst themselves much like other interest groups or for me, the soccer team I played on throughout high school.

1. Discourse communities all have a way of communicating between each other. There is a set tone or use of language in discourse communities that may be different in other discourse communities. I guess in a way me and my family are a discourse community since no one around us can understand what we are talking about since we speak in farsi to each other.
2. Discourse exchange and distribute information between themselves in an effort to gain a better understand of whatever their focus is on much like how my friends and I share information with each other when we study in an effort to learn as much as the material as possible
3. Discourse communities have a way of excluding other discourse communities from either their goals or knowledge. This is either done by a specific use of language or code much like how me and my parents speak in a different language if we don’t want other people to understand what we are saying. 
4. Many discourse communities focus on one specific genre and emphasizes specific aspects of things. 
5. Discourse communities are dynamic and its member are interchangeable. If a members views or opinions change then he/she might fall under the focus of another discourse community. 

3.) A first year college class would start to form a discourse community but not quite yet. Everyones goals and opinions are still a little too different in a first year college class. In a graduate school class however, where everyone is learning the same material for the same degree, ideologies and goals might be a little more different to the point where that group could be labeled as a discourse community. 

5.) A discourse community I could say I belonged to was my high school soccer team. My teammates and I all had the same goal-to win. We also used a lot of code-names for plays so that the other team would not understand what we were doing. Members of the team left and new ones joined as the years went on and players got older and better. 

MM: This article did not help me much with my writing specifically, but it did help better my understanding of discourse communities which in tern will help me be more aware of the importance of knowing who the primary audience of my writing will be so I can format my text in ways that would suit them the best.

Response:

Although this article was not very interesting, I did like it for the main reason that it helped clear up what discourse communities were. We used this term a lot and reading this article has given me a better grasp on the concept of a discourse community. 

Gee Summary:  In his article, “Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics” James Paul Gee tries to explain the difference between Discourse with the capital ‘D’ and discourse communities. Gee brings up two important terms in his article one being metaknowledge which he defines as incorporating new information into old information and mushfake which he explained as taking things and giving them more importance. Based on Gee depictions of Discourse and discourse communities it seems as though Discourses are the things that describe you. Your goals, ideas, moral, opinions, these are all your Discourses which ultimately determine which discourse community you fall under. 

QD:  3.) Discourse with a Capital D is specific to each person which is involves specific qualities of an individual while the discourse community involves a group of people with similar discourses. 

4.) Primary discourses are discourses you learn growing up as a child and they are discourses that are the basics in life. Secondary discourses are broken down into dominant and non dominant discourses and are learned as we are out in the environments around us like, school, work, public events. Dominant discourse are the source of ambition and can help achieve wealth while non dominant discourses just help classify you under a specific discourse community.

5.) This statement is basically describing how your identity pretty much makes up your Discourses since your discourse is pretty much composed of many of your different traits. 

6.) Your Discourse is your identity so if another discourse community tries to teach you reading and writing it may shape your discourses into theirs which would be taking your identity away from you.

7.) Gee is trying to show how you can differentiate between member and non member of a discourse community because each discourse community has their own tongue that they use which cannot be easily mimicked or interpreted by non members.

8.) I believe that the test are necessary to maintain a group of people who all have similar values in the discourse community and weed out anyone who may not fit in as well as some other people in the discourse community. 

11.) Metaknowledge is applying newly acquired knowledge to old knowledge like learning a new language might give you hints of grammar usage in your own language. 

12.) I would say that me and my close friends would all fall into the same discourse community together since we all share similar ideas and opinions. Not to mention we have our own use of language among each other whether they branch from inside jokes or just from habit of being around each other. 

AE: 2:)  I would say my primary discourse has just been from my parents which includes all the values and morals that I have been taught as I was raised. An academic Discourse I have a feel like I share with a lot of people is that I always try to use correct grammar not only when I write but also when I speak. Being confident in my grammar usage leads me to believe that I can speak with more confidence and therefore be more articulate when I speak.

4.) When I go back home to Iran to visit my family there is a big difference Discourses especially with religion since they were raised in such a different environment than I was. I navigate between my discourse community with my peers and theirs by not conforming but simply respecting their discourses and having an open mind. That does not mean however, that I have to agree with what they say. With some thing especially their religion, they agree with and follow some very ludicrous concepts. 

Gee Reflection: I found Gee’s article pretty interesting. The main parts that captured my attention were the ones that dealt with classifying the different kinds of Discourses and how you obtained them. It helped show me which events and groups in my life have ben the most influential. Gee does however make is seem that you will belong to one discourse group base on how you are raised but I think that your discourse community affiliation can change whenever your views shift. 

Paper Rough Draft

 http://www.scribd.com/doc/78857205/Shawyawn-Sekhavat-Paper1-Peer

Cover Letter for Peer

As I was writing this paper I had in mind all of the rules that were preached to us throughout school about the five paragraph essay. I was trying to show with this paper that we need to rethink about how the five paragraph essay should be incorporated in our english curriculums. I tried providing all sides of the argument including those who advocate teaching the five paragraph essay, those who are against it, and those who are on the fence about it depending on how it is taught. I do not think the organization of my paragraphs were done very well. It was good that there was so much material on scholars against the five paragraph essay. But on the other hand that left the other side of the argument lacking even though my main point was against the usage of this format, or at least against how it is used. I tried providing a couple of examples that would help prove my point and also some basic logic about the pros and cons of following a set format like the one found in the five paragraph essay. If I had more time I would try and see if I could build up the opposing arguments since they seem a bit week in my paper. 

Jan 18th Blog

Allen

In her article “The Inspired Writer vs. The Real Writer,” Sarah Allen tries to clear up misconceptions about good writing and good writers to help keep students who are trying to write form being discouraged. Allen tries to explain how the idea of the “good writer” just being someone who can easily write without frustration is wrong and that even good writers have to go through many drafts and make many mistakes before they  write something they want to keep. A good method Allen describes to use when you’re having trouble is to read other scholarly articles and try and incorporate some of the format and organization the authors used in your own work. 

  Very similar to Allen, I also found myself at time where I had a hard time writing and saw myself as a bad writer as a result. However Allen makes a good point when she states that even the best of the best in her field still have trouble when it comes to writing. Being a good writer does not always mean being able to come up with material without too much effort.     This article seemed to be the least informative out of the rest of the articles we have read for class. That is not a bad thing this article just was set up more like a story compared to the other works we read. The author in this article seemed to mostly focus on trying to express an opinion rather than try and teach concepts of writing. I enjoyed the dialect the author used, it kept the article interesting and addressed relatable instances. 

Murray

In his article “All Writing is Autobiography,” Donald Murray tries to show how writing in any case is a form of autobiography. He goes on to state that not autobiography in the sense of writing about past events and history of oneself but autobiography in the sense that all writing we do is somehow linked to us and who we are based on how it as written. Anything we have have ever read or heard helps shape who we are and we express ourselves when we write. Murray uses past poems and novels he has written as examples of how he uses his autobiography in his writing. 

GRR: We were always taught in school, very similarly to what Murray states, that all writing for research papers and essays should focus on the objective of the paper and not it’s opinion. Therefore, the usage of pronouns such as I, me, or us was not recommended and was even sometimes marked as wrong because our writing in most cases was not supposed to be viewed as personal. QD: 1.) Murray is asking us to consider the construct of whether or not it is acceptable to make an objective essay or paper personal. 3.) Murray most likely wanted to break away form the typical rules of writing scholarly articles because he wanted the tone of the paper to sound more relatable to students and not so professional. An example of this are the rhetorical questions he asks on the top of page 63 regarding the passage of the novel he incorporated previously. The author also talks about how he failed out of school maybe to set himself aside from his well educated colleges. Murray was writing about something he was passionate about and wanted his voice alone to be heard and not his voice with a twist of professional format and scholarly vocabulary. 4.) Similarly to the scholarly articles that we have read so far, Murray’s incorporates examples from other texts to help prove his point and cites other scholarly sources in his work. He also questions a construct of writing which has been a pattern in the topics of the scholarly works we have read so far. 5.) If what Murray says is true then I would use words such as I and me more often and not be as hesitant to express my own opinion in my writing. MM: One way that understanding Murray’s claims has positively impacted me is that I now realize the importance of expressing my opinion in writing. Murray’s claims have also impacted me in the fact that I now believe that all your writing should be written how you would want it be and not how some strict regulations believe it should be. 

I agree with this article more than most of the other articles we have read because I strongly believe that it should be fine to express your opinion in your writing. Another statement that i strongly agree with is that students should not be told to write about many different things, but a few things that the student is deeply interested in. A student who is writing about something they are very interested and passionate about will be able to come up with much more interesting, genuine, and convincing text than a student who is writing about a topic that does not pertain to them simply for a grade. 

Dawkins

In his article “Teaching Punctuation as a Rhetorical Tool” John Dawkins describes the different ways writers use punctuation and why they use them. Dawkins argues that the usage of punctuation in writing can help authors emphasis what they want, and that the tone of a sentence can be changed simply by changing its punctuation leaving the words the same. Dawkins uses multiple examples of different sentence structures and also how punctuation usage can change the way they are read. 

All the responses I got from my friends were very similar. They all agreed on some basic rules of punctuation. The one thing that seemed unanimous throughout everyone was that these rules could never be broken or the sentence would be incorrect. QD: 2.) Dawkin states that "Handbook rules provide no instructions for use of the comma." He also states that the punctuation rules in the handbooks are not always things that good writers agree on and that most of punctuation is dependent on what the author wants to emphasize. 3.) The principle of raising and lowering entails that raising is when the author uses punctation to put emphasis in a sentence and lowering is when the author refrains from using too much punctuation to keep the sentence less important than the ones previous. 5.) I did not know that the hyphen and semicolon can be used almost interchangeably. I always thought that each had a distinct and unique purpose. 6.) I typically do not pay too much attention to punctuation partly because, admittedly, I am not too good at. I refrain from using punctation I do not need I might throw in a comma here or there but I never used something I am not sure about. MM: I believe my teacher wants me to read this article because this idea of rhetorical punctuation might better absorbed by a student if it came from a second source. A source, that not only provides numerous examples, but also presents evidence. 

Honestly I did not like this article at all. It was a boring read and I did not get much out of it. The dialect used in this text was a little harder to follow than the ones previous. Everything we read cannot be interesting but I found the articles on concepts of writing much more intriguing then one on just a mechanic of writing such as punctuation. 

Steadman

      In the article "Annoying Ways People Use Sources," Kyle Stedman attempts to provide insight on the best ways to incorporate citations and quotes when writing. The article contains multiple issues that Stedman tries to shed light on including quote usage, how sources are cited, and how quotes are introduced then followed by an example of each as he explains how it can be fixed. The author also uses multiple metaphors to help get his/her point across including dating spiderman, running over an animal, and being at the movie theatre. The authors main audience could potentially be anyone since anyone might have to use citations in their writing but the majority of his audience are most likely college students since they are the ones that probably have to use citations in writing the most.
      Stedman's tips differ from those of Greene, Kantz, and Porter because their advice mainly had to do with constructs and concepts of writing. Stedman's however, deals much more with the mechanics or writing as he tries to show efficient ways of incorporating quotes and citing sources. The way I was taught to use sources in the past is very similar to how Stedman describes we should use sources. My views about using sources have not changed but I have learned better methods of using quotations in my writing based on Stedman's advice and examples.
        This article was one not only an easy read but also very intriguing. The author kept the text interesting especially with the kind of dialogue he/she used when describing instances such as being stuck behind someone on the highway and running over an Armadillo. Although I thought that some of Stedman's advice on using quotes was mere common sense, like building up to a quote beforehand instead of just using it randomly. Other tips Stedman expressed however where very helpful including the point Stedman made about analyzing a quote after it has been used.

WAW: Porter

      In the text "Intertextuality and the Discourse Community" the author, James Porter, tries to reshape the way we think about plagiarism and creativity. Porter almost tries to decriminalize plagiarism in writing community because he does not view it as bluntly as just simply stealing someone else's ideas for your own. He makes a great example when bringing up Thomas Jeffersons writing of the Declaration of Independence and how even though he is thought of as the author, many of the things he wrote in there came from the ideas of many other people. Is Jefferson a plagiarist? Or was Jefferson creative in how he strung together different works into one. There are the questions Porter asks and how every writer is just part of a community that all contribute their works and not one single person can have %100 claim everything they have said sometimes it is the way someone has used other peoples words that might make then creative.

       GRR: I interviewed my mother about writing and she expressed that most authors have contributed somewhat to her writing not because she has used what they have said but rather that they showed her a new way of writing. Every author has their own style and format they write and my mom said she took buts and pieces of these works to help her with her own writing. Her writing is always on her own even if she is using some else's words because she is using them in a different context and in different ways. QD: 2.)  I agree with Porter's statement that intertext takes away the thought of writers as individuals because it does not award the credit for creative writing rather just state that they created their work as a compilation of other writers. 3.) Porter refers to anonymous writers as "romantic" because they are original and come up with their own material.  4.) Porter's criteria on evaluation writing is much different then the criteria that I grew up with. What I was taught that writing should always be original and in your own words. Porter however, believes that, sometimes, it is the way that you use others words that makes you creative. 5.) His article does not fail to express his principles, it does however in a way contradict itself int that you could also view his text as not originally written by him but a combination of different peoples ideas. Regardless if the article is original or not, the message that Porter wants to get across still in my opinion, reaches its audience. 6.) According to Porter, the harm in viewing writing as individual is that it takes the credit away from anyone who might have contributed or even inspired the person to write. %100 of the persons text cannot not always be all of theirs. There definitely other writers in the community that helped shape this particular persons writing style whether he/she may know it or not. MM: Porter changed how I view writers and writing only a small amount. I still disagree with his "intertext" because it takes individuality away from writers. Creative and original thoughts can still be put on paper without having to give credit to someone else for it.
    I definitely thought that this was one of the better and more interesting articles we read even though sadly that is not saying much. It was interesting to see a scholars different view on plagiarism because all throughout school plagiarism was viewed as one of the worst thing writers could do and was normally severly punished for doing so. Here is someone, most likely a college professor, however, stating that it is all not that bad depending on how you incorporate their words.

WAW: Kantz

     The article "Helping Students use Textual sources Persuasively" written by Margaret Kantz aimed on helping students know what it is required to write well and write originally. Kantz focuses on informing the reader that it is a very good idea when writing a paper to make it into an original argument and not just try and regurgitate facts onto a page. A good way Kantz tries to show this is through an example of a past student working on a paper, if you conflicting bits of information are found, do not try and find which one is correct, whether why there was confusion on the topic in the first place.
    QD: 1.) Kantz tries to illustrate that the three are actually more closely related and each can be used in an academic environment and help teach a point because not all solutions to problems have a single defined, straight-forward answer. 2.) Kantz is somewhat correct on some of the things that student misunderstand for example how she talks about how many students think that textbooks are written only to present certain facts. Kantz also talks about how students view writing papers as just doing enough research to state facts on an essay. 3.) Kantz showed a new way to write essays which seems to prove a better point because it is a method that does more than just state information.  6.) Yes, I think Kantz may have influenced how I will write and do research. Kantz's method of looking for the information while researching and presenting it on paper seems to be more effective since it offers more than one way to interpret it. MM: The main construct that Kantz was trying to challenge was that essays should be done so in that they just try and present information on a topic rather than presenting an argument with different sides on the issue. It is important to understand her claims because her method offers an alternative way of looking at information and may help students write more persuasive essays.
       The article has some interesting parts in it. I believe that this article has helped me somewhat with how I will write my next essay. This article shows a new way to write an essay which I believe is much better and more thorough. Writing an essay as an argument with information from both sides rather than stating information from one point of view seems to get the overall message across to the reader much more efficiently.

Reading Games

         The Article "Reading Games" by Karen Rosenberg started with a brief background on the author  mainly throughout her college years but then focused on strategies to use while reading.  The author goes through different elements that should be focused on in writing for example the introduction, conclusion, and titles. Rosenberg tries to help college student with this article by trying to point out how some things should be read and what we should have in mind while we are reading.
         A construct of reading I would like to challenge is if using the standard 3 main ideas followed by 2 supports each is the most effective way of writing a paper. Rhetoric to me means how someone interprets someone else's text. Rhetoric is important when it comes to reading academic articles because it has to do with how you will take the information presented in the reading.
       I somewhat enjoyed the reading. The author was a good writer so throughout most of the reading I was interested. Some of the points she made made sense like how a good conclusion should be read but some other things seemed a little obvious like pointing out that it was important to read the titles. All in all however it was a good article and I learned from it.

       

WAW

In the reader "Writing about Writing" the authors, Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs try to explain in their intro how their book takes a different approach when it comes to teaching writing. They suggest that instead of being taught how to write, we be taughtaboutwriting. By providing steps for making a good introduction to a paper through the "CARS" model and providing examples of each step, the authors show how we will be taught about writing. In his article, "Argument as Conversation" Stuart Greene tries to explain how arguing can be a very good thing in an academic setting because it provides multiple ways of looking at an issue from different people's opinions. He many tries to articulate that it is important to develop a good question that accurately addresses the problem and does require one concrete answer. He helps show his point through using the term framing as a way to take someone else's work and using it to help express your own ideas which he provides an example of by showing something a student wrote with this method. Both passages are directed to college students.

GRR: I would define the word argument as an exchange of opposing ideas between two or more people in which one party tries to convince others that their view on the topic is correct. Using the word argument in everyday language mostly has a negative label to it. Certainly no one is pleased when they find out that some of his friends got into an "argument." Arguing in an academic setting however can be beneficial for learning since you get different points of view and can compile everything you've heard in order to come to a conclusion that makes the most sense to you. QD: 1.) According to Greene, not only does reading serve as a way to obtain information for a paper but it also models what good writing should look like. If you read a paper written by an excellent writer you not only obtain information from the text, but always a template as to how you should write your own papers. 2.) The passage is quoted again because it is the part that emphasizes Greene's idea of framing the most. Burk's metaphor helps connect an event that happened in the Dominican to a normal part of American culture. The metaphor helps show how the event affected the writer. 3.) Framing is using someone else's text to help express your own ideas and thoughts. Framing can be used as a tool to help the writer articulate what they are trying to say by using past works he/she has read. The framing concept of transculturation was shown through the metaphor of the Dominican children running after the man with the ice cream much like American kids do with an ice cream truck. AEI: 2.) Greene's article was set up almost like a conversation between himself and the reader. He shows what he is teaching in his writing when he offers more than one way to look at a topic or by providing different sides of an argument over the same issue. He helps show how arguments cannot be one dimensional and can branch out to other topics through examples from other texts.

The reading was remotely helpful. It did provide some examples of good ways to set up an introductory paragraph and the different texts help portray his ideas a little bit better. It is interesting to see that this book claims to have a very different approach when it comes to teaching students how to write.

My Relationship to Writing

     Throughout high school I was always pretty good at writing. The majority of the time I did very well on my essays and papers. I'd like to think I'm pretty creative when it comes to presenting the information necessary. Despite liking writing, I always hated english class as a whole mostly likely because reading is not one of my fortes. Especially when it is on something that I am not interested in which is the case for the majority of the time when it comes to things we have to read in english. Writing papers were and are my ace in the hole in english because thats one thing I know I'm really good at when it comes to english class.