Thlog #4: Google Doc'athon

     This past week was a strange one huh? The classes in the computer lab on Monday and Wednesday were a little out of the comfort zone compared to our normal class in S2-11. But nonetheless I enjoyed it, except the little extra walk we had to make to the the CBI building on the far-end of the campus. It was also weird because although we were interacting as a class, it was all done anonymously on the computer. I thought the "Doc'athon" is great if you happen to be an introvert. But it could have been nice to answer everyone's question face to face with them. Maybe if it were done that way, it would be easier to understand what their problem may be and how I could help fix it, but it works either way.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         To be honest, I didn't get to everyone's question, (my own fault) but nonetheless some questions were easier to answer than others. I enjoyed answering the easy questions because well........ they didn't require much hard thinking than others. It felt to me that some questions required first-order thinking to answer, and some required more planned out, second-order thinking. That's a good thing though. It forces you to think critically and give a more thought out response, and/or additional feedback/questions. But that gives for more helpful feedback that the questioner can benefit from. For all of those who's questions I commented on, I hope I helped out, not that you know which number I was, but regardless, I hope I helped.                                                                                                                                                                                                               I'd like to think I helped everyone who I gave feedback too, but I felt that maybe some of my answers were too short. Honestly I didn't have the answer(Sway) but I also didn't wanna give a bullshit answer, so I just said very little, or nothing at all to some of the questions. But now that our computer lab sessions are over, I can put all of my focus into my Portfolio and Finals.

Thlog #3 : WP2 Reflect

    I'll admit that this past writing project and its build was a much smoother sail. I felt like WP1 was very difficult trying to find two different types of genres within the same topic, then trying to figure out all the different ways they can be read. WP2 was so much more simple. We simply had to choose whichever topic we wanted and look at two opposite arguments from two people from different disciplinary perspectives. The PB's leading up to WP2 were fairly easier as well. PB2A asked the class to simply spot "moves" of different writers, whether looking at course readings, news articles, scholarly articles, etc. Using the handout "They Say, I Say," that task was very easy. Using that template it made finding moves like, "Capturing Authorial Action," "Introducing Quotes," and "Explaining Quotations" so much easier to spot out in writing.                                                                                                                                                                                 As for the actual paper itself, it certainly has its flaws like most other papers I've written, but I personally feel that it was a complete success and I'm satisfied with the high grade it recieved, which was higher than my WP1 grade. I felt that I made a strong argument about the arguments I was analyzing. I was able to spot moves from Anne Atkins and Arline Kaplan, from the Social and Hard/Natural Sciences respectively. I felt that I could have structured the paper better. I had misplaced key elements in my argument, which made it seem that my thoughts were bouncing around. Overall I was confident that I had a strong argument, and for the most part followed that argument all the way through, leading to a strong Writing Project, and apparently Z(along with some strong criticism) thought so as well.

PB1B: 4 Different Ways to Read

          The genre that I am analyzing is something much related to what we discussed in class, an Eagles v. Vikings preview article. In class, we took several articles pertaining to the Eagles loss to the Redskins last week. But this genre is completely different because instead of looking back on a previous game, this genre focuses on future and upcoming games.  I am going to look at how 4 different people could read this article in four separate ways. I analyze how someone could skim this, how someone could read it rhetorically, how someone could scan the article, and finally how they can use visual literacy.                                                                                                                        Scanning                                                    The reader can scan this by reading the first sentence of each paragraph. The reader would do this to quickly get an idea of what’s to come for Sunday’s game without having to read everything word for word. For instance, if you need an idea of the Vikings defense will perform against Carson Wentz and the Eagles, you can just read "The Vikings defense is holding opponents to a league-low 3.5 yards per play on first downs"(Vikings PR). If you wanted to know some personal connections between the two teams, you can scan the text and find, "Vikings LB Eric Kendricks' older brother, Mychal Kendricks, has been a full-time starter for the Eagles since being drafted in 2012"(Vikings PR).                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Skimming                                                          Instead of just scanning the text for one particular thing, the reader can also quickly skim through the entire writing to get a general idea of what the purpose of the article is. So if the reader were to skim this particular writing, they would know that the Eagles play the Vikings at 1:00 Sunday on Fox, Sam Bradford is returning to Philadelphia for the first time since being traded and the Kendricks brothers will face each other.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Reading Rhetorically                  The writer is trying to persuade us the reader through logos. There is little to nothing that shows pathos, or emotion in this writing.  There also isn't much ethos either, there's no proof of the author using credibility in his writing. There are however, plenty and plenty of logos. The article, and many articles like it are littered with player and team stats. An example of a team stat  could be:"Against the pass, the Eagles have been much better, allowing only 207.4 passing yards per game." There's also plenty of player stats including, "In the Eagles' last home game against Pittsburgh, had six catches for 128 yards." With these stats, the author can persuade the reader through logos to be more excited to watch the game.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Visual Literacy                                             There is not a whole lot of visual literacy, but the one example of it is a picture of Vikings Quarterback Sam Bradford, and Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz. Both players are shown head to head with all of their stats from this season. The reader can read through visual literacy that the big story of the game is Sam Bradfrord returning to Philadelphia and he will match up against the Eagles rookie quarterback.  

PB2A: Examining Moves

 I’ll be examining moves in “How to Read Like a Writer” by Mike Bunn, assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh. The first move from “They Say, I Say” that I spotted in Bunn’s writing was “Capturing Authorial Action”. Bunn states, “In 1940, famous poet and critic named Allen Tate discussed two different ways of reading……..”. He uses this move to back up or set up his point/ argument with a well-known writer to give his paper a level of ethos. I feel as a reader that the move is very effective because it gives me the sense that Bunn knows what he is talking about. The second move from “They Say, I Say” spotted in “How to Read Like a Writer” was “Introducing  Quotes.” An example of this would be, “Author David Jauss makes a similar comparison when he writes that. Bunn made this move to avoid having “free-floating” quotes in his writing. Free- floating quotes can cause confusion to the reader as they don’t know where the quote is coming from. As a reader, that move is very effective to me because I know who said the quote so I could refer to it if necessary. A third and final move from the reading would be “Explaining Quotations.” An example of this move is, “As Walker suggests…….” That followed a quote from Nancy Walker in Bunn’s article. The writer would make this move to follow up on the previous quote to try to make it easier for the reader to understand the whole point of the quote. This move can be effective, but not as much as the other moves because the quote could be self-explanatory, and the extra analysis could be unnecessary. One move I’ve come up with in Bunn’s writing, is the “Relatable Hook In.” This move is the entire first page of Bunn’s article as he describes his time of working in a London Theatre and how it related to the main argument of his article. He makes this move to make himself seem like a normal person, finding a part-time job after recently graduating college, in hopes to relate to his audience. This is very effective, as it sets a casual tone for the entire paper and allows me, the reader to relate to Bunn. Another move I’ve examined was the “Sub-Title Questioning” move. In this move, Bunn starts every paragraph with a question. This move allows for him to tell the reader what the point of the paragraph is through a question. As a reader I appreciate this move and find it very effective because I know what the point of the paragraph is and I won’t have to ask myself so many questions as to what is the argument he is trying to make. And the final move I evaluated was the “Bullet Point Analysis” where Bunn follows each of his paragraphs with bulleted questions. He does this in hopes that his audience would be able to dissect and decipher his argument and summarize his words. This could go either way as effective or ineffective because his questions can help the reader summarize his writing through their answers, but the reader may already know what he is trying to explain and the questions could be unnecessary.

Thlog # 2: Shelley's Quick Guide/ Close Reading

On Monday, we received to readings to take home: Shelly’s Quick Guides for Writing Teachers and How to do a Close Reading. In Shelley’s Quick Guides, the article listed a number of mini assignments that students may complete in order to be more well prepared in discussion of what they are reading. The reading and writing techniques listed are: Predict and Annotate, Opinionnaire, Freewrite, SQ3R, KWL, Two-Column Log, Concept Map, among others. The only ones that I were familiar with from earlier years of education were KWL and Predict and Annotate. There are so many techniques listed in the article that are new to me, and it was really helpful to sit back and analyze each, one by one. Now in future readings, I can practice these techniques, and better prepare myself for discussions of readings and making a written analysis of such. In the other article, How to do a Close Reading, I learned how to “develop a deep understanding and a precise interpretation of a literary passage that is based first and foremost on the words themselves” (Kneece, 1). What the author means is that, you must re-read the passage, define key vocab words, spot rhetorical devices, figure out the tone, know the theme and construct a thesis, among other things. Doing this will allow to take small parts of information, and move it into larger groupings to get a thorough understanding of the reading. Along with the tips from SQGWTHCW, I can closely dissect a reading for its theme and purpose and not take it for what it is on paper.

Thlog #1: Advancements in the Class

           When we began three weeks ago, I thought I knew what genre was. I thought a genre was as vague as music, sports, comedy, science fiction, horror, etc. But Zach (as he likes to be called) showed me and the whole class is much more specific. Instead of just music, the genre could be album reviews. Or instead of sports, the genre would be Eagles v Redskins game analysis.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                     In class, Zach taught us how to get from point A to B in looking for a written genre by using the nesting dolls technique. This technique allows you to take a broad and vague topic like music, and boil it down to a specific writing genre. You start at music, and then you look for types of music, so you go to Hip Hop. Then you even get more specific and use Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly album. You’re close, but that’s still a little too broad so you boil it all the way down to To Pimp a Butterfly Reviews, and there’s your genre.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Without the nesting dolls technique, I wouldn’t have been able to find a specific written genre, and all of my genre would’ve been too vague, and all of my future papers would be incorrect.                                                                           

PB1A - Satire

                 The genre I chose for this first project builder is Satire. Satire is a genre of literature that uses sharp humor for the purpose of mocking social issues and society in general. There are a few different classifications of satire: Horatian, Juvenalian, and Menippean. Horatian satire mocked human error instead of evils so the reader can understand what's being criticized and can laugh at themselves. Juvenalian satire uses strong irony and sarcasm to aim at people in power (public officials, governmental organizations). Menippean satire usually aims at bigots, braggers, etc.                                                                                                                                                        

Satire has plenty of different conventions. The form of comedy mostly aims at groups of people other specific people. Its humor is ironic, witty and extremely exaggerated.  It is also implicit and assumes the reader is aware of the situation being criticized. Satire is aimed towards those who can understand the topic being criticized. Knowing of those events or people will allow the reader to appreciate the humor more.  The purpose of satire is mainly to criticize foolishness and corruptness, whether it is of a society/group, or an individual.                                                                                                                                                                                                    One source of satire is excerpted from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a novel by Mark Twain based in post-slavery America. This story mocks America’s justice system at the time of its publishing. "The judge and the widow went to law to get the court to take me away from him and let one of them be my guardian; but it was a new judge that had just come, and he didn't know the old man; so he said courts mustn't interfere and separate families if they could help it; said he druther not take a child away from its father. Although the townsfolk know of Pap's drunkenness, abuse, lack of education, and overall poor character, the court gives him custody because he's the biological father”( Twain, 16). Another Example is from The Onion, the well-known news satire organization that publishes articles on the international, national, and local news.  One of its articles was titles was titled “Trump Vomits Immediately After Seeing Everyday Americans Up Close.” The false articles spoke on how Donald Trump is sick to his stomach at the sight of normal citizens, implying he only spend his time around highly-wealthy, people in power, which is not entirely true.  

                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Possibly the greatest source of written satire is the script/ screen wright of Saturday Night Live. SNL is one of America’s longest running television shows that are comprised mostly of comedy sketches.  Saturday Night Live has taken comedic shots at any American President, Presidential Candidate, governor or mayor of the last 40 years.  In the very first season of the show, Chevy Chase brilliantly portrayed President Gerald Ford as a bumbling idiot. In 2008, during the Presidential race, Sarah Palin (VP Nominee) and Hillary Clinton (Pres. Candidate) where portrayed by Amy Poehler and Tina Fey. Sarah Palin was portrayed goofy and clueless by Fey, exaggerating how the female politician acts in real life.  

                Sources:                                                                                                                                                                                     The Onion                                                                                                                                                                                  Huckleberry Finn                                                                                                                                                                      Satire Conventions