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I agree with Nathalie Singh-Corcoran that a lot of college freshman do feel like FYC are not as helpful to them that classes that are related to their major. Personally I agree I don’t think I’m going to use a lot of what I learned in my FYC especially as an equine student, like Alyssa said in our major it’s a lot of the writing that’s done are advertisements for lesson or horses for sale not a lot of true writing or research. I understand the point of FYC is to make sure everyone knows how to write at the college level and prepare them for the types of writing they may see in the future. FYC’s are important and it’s a good baseline for everyone even if not all the assignments are not useful for every student. Its important for everyone who is eventually going to become a professional in their industry to know how to write properly and do some basic math. We all wonder why we have to take FYC’s and most of the time are not the biggest fan of them but I do think that even though they may no be the most fun classes they do provide us with a variety of different tools that can help up in the future. Therefore I would never consider them a waste of time, they are important whether they are fun or not I still benefit from the class.
I agree with everyone about the Gladstone’s style of writing, I like the comic style of writing because it’s a quick read and easy to understand. I also liked how Gladstone laid out each of the different styles of biased and explained them. But sometimes I find the comics kind of busy and somewhat distracting like Evonne said. I also agree with Alyssa sometimes Gladstone throws in some uncommon phrases or words and it gets a little confused but I usually understand the main point if what she’s saying. Overall though I really like reading Gladstone’s work and in going to miss the simplicity of reading comics for class.
Before this reading I didn’t really know a lot about the media other than its how we get a lot of our information, I never really thought that large portions of our media and news could be biased. I think most people don’t take that into consideration when they watch the news or read the newspaper, I feel like most people assume that the information is factual because its being broadcasted to the public. I don’t think that most average Americans take the time to look into there news to make sure its not biased they just choose the media broadcasting company they prefer for whatever reason and automatically assume its right because they like it.
Overall I think the media, news and bias are all tricky topics and need to remain in balance so that crazy things don’t start occurring and honestly that’s a black hole I don’t really want to explore. But in the end I really liked this piece I thought it was interesting to think about and something I’ll try and consider next time I read something.
I thought Michelle Nijhuis did an excellent job with her article “ The Science and Art of Science Writing”. I overall really enjoyed reading this article it was interesting and kept my attention, the way she used a story and used it to explain what scientific writing is was very helpful. In my opinion without the story aspect really helped support what Nijhuis was saying and without I think the article wouldn’t be as interesting or easy to understand.
It’s interesting the way she explained who science writers really are, by saying that they are “seldom experts in the fields they write about” which kind of makes us all in some way a science writer as students. We are all learning new things and often times have to apply them in writing. We all are constantly making observation and have curiosity even in the smallest ways.
Overall this article was very interesting and a nice read coming back from break. Nijhuis really opened my mind to science writing, which has not been a large aspect in my life especially because my major is not science related.
Overall I enjoy reading Gladstone’s work it’s a nice break from traditional text and I like the illustration and dialogue which is more effective in keeping my attention and is more entertaining. “canis Journalisticus” was an interesting piece which I feel gave a very negative view on journalism by using example of events in the past which mad journalists look bad. I’m not the kind of person that believes everything I hear on the new but I don’t feel like the news and journalist are completely terrible people which is somewhat how this piece made them sound.
The reading is informing us about how we cant always trust the new and supporting with examples from the past, I don’t think that this is as big of a topic as it once was because we have some many outlets due to social media for people to express there opinions and this makes it easier for people to be aware of both sides of the story and everyone interpretation of things.
In the end I’m much happier that I live in a country that allows freedom of speech and press than one that doesn’t. The news does a lot to keep its viewers informed about what’s happening nationally and globally and I couldn’t imagine living completely in the dark like others countries are.
I really enjoyed reading “Putting Ethnographic Writing in Context” by Seth Kahn because it was a nice simple read, easy to understand. I liked how Kahn easily explain what an ethnographic is because I honestly have never heard of one, the comparison to anthropologist and how they “generate, collect, analyze, and synthesize materials” as Kahn explained. This explanation was very helpful in visualizing what an ethnographic is. I also like how Kahn made his explanations simple and easy to understand, he’s to the point and I enjoy that because it helps my understanding a lot. I also like how he uses a step-by-step list of how to write an ethnographic.
I do agree with everyone else when I say that I find ethnography’s an interesting topic because I think lots of people including myself find it interesting to learn about places and really get to know there culture and beliefs which is more than just going on vacation somewhere it actually learning about cultures and history of other places. Another thing I found interesting is that we’ve been talking a lot in class and its discussed in this reading is how we speak in different scenarios and how peoples dialects or discourses have a lot to do with where people come from and their cultures. I never knew Comp and rhetoric had so much to do with culture. I’m used to being thought that the rules of writing are set in stone and there’s no other ways of doing things but concepts like these make me thing otherwise.
Overall enjoyed this reading, it was a nice relaxed read and it was interesting. Its cool to think about.
I felt the reading “ Picture texts“ was rather boring compared to some of our other reads I do agree with what Danielle said about it being a more formal style of writing compared to our other reading and that’s why it felt more boring. It was very much textbook style of writing which is why I had a hard time keeping my attention on the reading.
One thing I was not a huge fan of in this text is it was very repetitive and it kept going on and on about the same things. I felt as though what was being said could have easily been summed up in a few pages. Even though it was repetitive I do feel that it really drilled the concept into my mind and I’ll probably never forget it.
Even though it was boring I do feel that the text did its purpose in informing me on the purpose of visuals and where they would be necessary. I though that some of the examples were useful in explaining when imagery would be helpful, like on page 48 where they compare diagram to explain how altitude is effected by air pressure and elevation verses the paragraph above it; without the diagram I would have no idea what the paragraph meant. I feel that diagrams and other forms of visuals really enhance learning while they also aid in keeping the readers attention. It also makes the reading less intimidating, I know when I see pages and pages of just text I’m less likely to read the whole thing or retain as much information.
I also agree that text plays a major role in how people see thing, pictures without caption are left open for interpretation and captions can really morph how we see things. An example I see a lot on social media especially in the equine world is people taking pictures from others where it can look like they are training the horse incorrectly or abusing the horse; these pictures are put online and the person in the picture never gets a chance to explain what’s going on in the picture and it just end up being under interpretation of the viewers
While reading Navigating Genres by Kerry Dirk I noticed his informal style of writing which helped keep my attention and so did his witty examples – like Alyssa said. I also enjoyed how he used relatable examples to aid in the readers understanding of how genre is used in writing, if Dirk didn’t use the examples he did many including myself would have trouble grasping what he is trying to say. I found the ransom note a great example of what he was explaining because it made it very obvious that the first note was the best and he even preceded to explain why which was also very helpful. Another thing Dirk discussed which I found very interesting is how he acknowledge that there are teachers out there that try and give us the ”perfect paper formula” and how those formulas don’t result in a perfect paper in the long run, throughout college and taking a few courses which require a large amount of writing I’ve learned that professor much prefer your actual writing than a formula which makes everyone sound like robots. Its actually a really nice feeling when a professor gives you a higher grade on a piece of work that was formulated on my own instead of something that a teacher pretty much told you how to write.
The essay was interesting to read because as I read I could easily relate what he was describing to the styles of writing that I use but I was never aware I was using. For example as I was reading his explanation of genre I quickly noticed that this blog is a good example of a genre Dirk said “when something new happens that requires a response, someone must create that first response. Then when the situation happens again, another person uses the first as a basis for the second, and eventually everyone who encounters this situations is basing his/her response off of the previous one resulting in the creation of a new genre.” This explanation of how genres are formed sounds quite similar to this blog, first there’s the initial entry and then the rest of the class is supposed to respond and build on to what the original post said therefore the responders are looking for guidance form the original post so they can relate to things, get a better understanding of the essay, and complete the blog.
