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I agree that the pun in the title was very clever! Also I agree that this piece of writing definitely spoke to most of us – we all want to know why we have to do the assignments we do and how they will affect us in the future. I know I have heard many people say how liberal arts schools make you take classes that do not pertain to your future career – I believe that First Year Writing courses are very important to our future major because they help you gain experience as a writer.
I also was very enlightened by the argument in the article. The writing we do does prepare us for future writing and assignments.
Overall, this article has a good purpose and addresses a question we all ask ourselves one point or another: why am I doing this? It’s for the skills behind the assignment; we learn to research, we learn to critical think, we learn the writing process. The writing we do in college matters and helps us in the long run.
I agree that it is a fast read and I like the style of comics too! They are easy to read for the audience and convey a lot of important information. I really liked when they were talking about different kinds of bias and had a little chart to show it on page 63 with the chart and boat leaning towards socialism. The different biases were interesting – I already was aware of some of the biases but I liked Gladstone’s depth on them. I agree that most biases fall under narrative and visual. Most people do not question a story or notice how open-ended it is and people tend not to question what they can see with their own eyes. With news stories, I never question why there is seldom closure with it reported. The news just wants to do just that – stay “new”. I think this article appealed to English classes as an audience and I definitely fell into that audience. I liked it because overall it was an easy and understandable read.
I agree that this article was very different yet intriguing. It started off with a personal story and linked to the topic. It created a bigger picture of science writing through the author’s personal story. It taught us through an antidote and was not too lengthy, keeping the reader engaged.
I liked how in science writing, Nijhuis says how science makes us human. Dr. Watson from Sherlock Holmes says how we keep asking questions and the world intrigues us. Her story shows how she keeps being elated and intrigued by the world, just as science and the writing of science envelopes scientists.
I think her audience was for those interested in English and science writers. It was for people who write and those who want to write various genres. Those interested in science also would enjoy this piece because they can relate to it.
Overall I liked the length and narration of this article. It got to the point in an interesting way and drew the reader in.
I also had no idea what an ethnography was until I read this article. Now I realize that I have written this type of work before! In my Intro to Social Work class, we had to observe a setting where social workers would work and gather information. Then, we had to synthesize our work and journal about it, connecting our observations to concepts from class. I basically followed the outline of ethnographic writing that Kahn provides: pre-write, introduce, field notes, journal, and draft/revise (Kahn, p. 177). I would like to learn more about ethnography because the one I did was very basic and sort of informal compared to the more extensive ones performed.
I agree that the tone was informal and relatable. The author talked about their own experiences to relate to the audience. The potential audience was definitely students who do not know about ethnography, which includes myself. The purpose was to convey what an ethnography is and interest others in that form of writing. Ethnography helps us observe other humans and relationships, which also helps us gain experience and learn more about the world.
That is very interesting about your sister! It’s so cool that she gets to travel and learn about others. Journalism is a good way to get into ethnography because you get to do fieldwork and then take your experiences and observations and convey them to others.
I agree that when I first saw the article, I would learn new terminology. The article’s title even had the word Discourse in it, which was an unfamiliar term! To me, discourse comes off as how we communicate effectively and the idea of kairos – the appropriate time and space to say certain phrases. Verbal and nonverbal communication plays a huge role in discourse because it impacts the response you will get from whoever you are communicating towards. Discourse is something we learn throughout experience more so than in a classroom setting; we learn how we should act within certain boundaries and effective communication.
I could not find a more reliable definition for “mush fake”; Urban Dictionary had a definition that I definitely did not deem reliable.
When Gee mentioned primary and secondary discourse, it made me stop and think for a moment but now I understand it. Primary discourse is our natural way of acting and our discourse when we are comfortable. Secondary discourse is what we learn through situations and not our natural discourse, or way to present ourselves. For example, I am laid back at home and informal, but at a job interview I would act more professional and formal so that the interviewer will take me seriously.
Overall, this reading was boring and I was not a fan of it. I kept getting distracted. I did learn more about discourse and I understand what Gee was conveying. The pages were just long and the text was too small. It was hard to concentrate on the reading for some of the sections.
Hey Alyssa! I like how you mention that this composition and is informal and easy to read – I agree! The genre he chose definitely matched his goal to reach us as readers. Dirk clearly knew his audience and followed the “writing rules” while still connecting to his audience in a non-formulaic way.
I really liked the ransom note part Dirk uses to give his audience an example of genre. He used a grammatically-challenged piece, a short, concise letter, and a long letter. The concise letter resonates more with the audience and gets his point across, making it the proper genre for the situation.
Overall, Dirk provided an essay that was able to communicate well with his audience and explain genre to our age group!
