Blog Post 5

1. I can state truthfully that my writing style holds up to the gender standards set before me. I always end up talking about accomplishments and triumphs more than relationships and connections between people. Whether I want to or not, I always fit the typical male role. In my first paper for this class I briefly mentioned any relationships at all. However, I spent most of my time discussing my own accomplishments in reading and writing. I talked about how I was able to memorize a book and would learn words by trying to read along to the book. This was an accomplishment I praised myself for, and this exemplifies perfectly how I fit into a male role of writing. In real life I see myself as more breaking the stereotypes, because I am able to feel more compassion than most men are able to. Contrarily I don’t ever see myself breaking this stereotype in writing, because I am just not able to write in such a way naturally.

2. Six pages was needed for Magee to reach her research and results. This is important, because she helped set up her research in a manner that ensured the reader was able to fully comprehend and relate to her own statements. She did so by describing in great detail the gender specific roles in stating that men are more concerned about accomplishments while women are more worried about human connections and relations. She also stated that men are more realistic thinkers in a way that they are more intellectual in fields of math and science, and woman are more conceptual and are more focused on connections. I would say that this is true for the most part, strictly because both men and women are only trying to fit into their role in society as most people do. Magee also uses two girl’s college essays to describe them as breaking the gender stereotype in writing. These were important, because they help set up her research description and interesting results.

Blog Post 4

1. Facts, opinions, and arguments are all parts of a paper. All three are incredibly different but still important. Each has different characteristics and purposes which will be discussed. Facts are what are expected to be by their name. They are simply stated information which can be about anything. Facts are given as the truth but they all should never be believed to be the truth. There are many reasons why they shouldn't be believed, but there are certain facts which should be agreed upon which are truthful. These facts should be the ones introduced into papers, because they help bring needed information to support other statements previously stated. Opinions are the reason why you should be weary of all facts. In textbooks and other sources, different sources tell the same story differently. Like the old saying goes, the winner always writes history. This has been true for most of history. Opinions are based off of one individuals outlook on a situation. They can be either talking about facts or about the individual trying to sway the reader to believe a certain way. Arguments are different than opinions, because they don’t only state facts and beliefs but they try to contest  some other perspective or fact. Arguments try to create immediate action by making the reader desire change.

Meta Moment: Kantz is trying to help writers learn to not just copy facts from sources and put them into their essays or papers. Instead, Kantz wants to explain to the reader how to analyze the information and be able to ask analytical questions regarding the sources and their statements. This will be incredibly beneficial for young college writers and others aspiring to increase their writing abilities. This style of writing explained by Kantz will help because the methods will help point out facts and also explain them more efficiently. This will also help the writer find possible problems or faults in the sources if this style of analyzing is used which would also help writing abilities.

Blog Post 3

 The genre that I decided to write about is a football playbook. These are very common in my life, and I have been around them for many years. A playbook is written in a language that is only understood if you put in work and effort to understand it. Most people think that they are only just X's and O's but a playbook in this day and age is compiled of both diagrams and descriptions of each formation or specific play. On average 4 pages are used to describe each play. I compare football to a separate class, like chemistry or calculus. The playbook is the text book and games are tests. You need to learn each chapter, or play, completely or else you won't do well on the test, game. There will also be many pictures of the team on and in the playbook in order to create a sense of team pride. Playbooks are also very universal in their layout and purpose. Each one must explain the plays in order to run the perfectly, however each team will not own the same playbook, so each team must use their own playbooks.  

Blog Post 2

1. I have never thought of this idea before, but it makes sense. While I have thought of the author attempting to convince the reader to take their opinion or take action through persuasion. I would say the difference between talking and negotiating is that talking is more casual and friendly while negotiating is more about finding a solution to a problem that is common between at least two individuals. Talking is writing about a story or facts that are presented by scientific means or other similar fields. The facts are important because they don't bring in opinion and only presents the truth, or what is thought to be the truth. I think what you are writing about or for would determine which style you should write in. In a children's book you should write as if you are talking, and if you are writing a discussion or a rebuttal to someone else's statement or opinion you would want to write in a negotiating voice. You can do this by being very convincing and always have the audiences interests in mind as you try to share your point of view.

4. Simply put, constraints are means to prevent the rhetor from getting their points across to the audience. However it is stated that the authors should use the constraints to their benefit by constraining the audience and better persuading them with the authors idea. Examples of such constraints could be family or cultural traditions, books, common knowledge and facts, an other such ideas. They can be used to convince the audience of an argument quicker if they are reminded or taught these so called constraints. There is also the problem for authors of what to do when they are presented with constraints. There are positive constraints, which can be used to help persuade the audience, and there are negative constraints which can hurt the authors basis of argument.

7. First the discourse is needed, because it was preempted by an event or situation which needs to be discussed and presented to the audience. An example of this is when a football coach must address the team about an event like a big loss to their rival. He must explain what happened and what they must do to move on and get better. This leads into what is the discourse trying to accomplish? In this example the coach is trying to fix mistakes and not let moral of the team and the players individually get low so they collapse and won't overcome this obstacle. The discourse is trying to explain the rhetors objective and present the ideas that he feels important.

Literacy Paper

Wade Webster

Zuzu Feder

Writing 101

9-15-2014

My History of Everything Literacy

Writing has always been a big part of my life. Since I was a kid to now, I have always had a desire to read and learn new information. This information could be in the form of science books or just stories, such as fictional novels. My first memories of books were of my mom reading me a book titled The Digging-est Dog by Al Perkins. This book was my favorite for close to two years, and I would need to have to read to me every night before I went to bed. I had gotten to the point where I had memorized the entire book, and I was able to tell the whole story without even being able to read yet. This was also how I first started to learn my first words. I had been able to talk at a young age but I was also able write and read at a young age, and I credit this all to The Digging-est Dog.

Like I stated earlier, my mom was always a big sponsor for my reading skills and enjoyment of books. Up until 3rd grade we would always read close to an hour every night before bed. We read everything from kids books, such as The Great Fuzz Frenzy, and Ten Little Mummies, to adventure books such as many Gary Paulsen books, which were my favorite. She always tried to make me love reading, and she did just that. She was also a big sponsor in my writing abilities. Whenever I had to write a paper during middle school she would always help me look over the paper and check for grammar and other writing mistakes. While most times we would get in arguments over the paper, we always got it done correctly. This help was very beneficial for me, because it helped me correct my papers on my own. My introduction to writing was similar to learning how to ride a bicycle, and my mom is like the training wheels. She helped teach me how to ride the bicycle, or write, before she let me write on my own. I owe a lot of where I am today with my reading and writing abilities to my mom helping and being patient with me during my learning stages of literacy.

Also during fourth grade, I had a huge love for reading that outweighed everything else. My parents would yell at me for locking myself in my room all day, and told me I needed to go outside and do something active. I was hooked onto the Warrior series by Erin Hunter, which is about a tribe of feral cats that fought other tribes for territory and food. While most people would be ashamed for reading such a book, I am very thankful for reading these books for two reasons; it got me to love reading with a passion I had never experienced before, and it also helped me learn new vocabulary. Reading and vocabulary go hand in hand. If while I were reading a book and I didn't understand a word that popped up, I would go find out what that word meant. Reading was always one of my huge passions as a kid, and sadly it has dwindled over the years due to stress from school and sports and an inadequate amount of time to engulf myself in books and novels. I didn't just love to read short books, I loved to read long novels that intrigued me. Some of these were Firebringer, The DiVinci Code, Watership Down, The Lighthouse Trilogy, and the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series. I also went through a period of reading a lot of war stories such as Unbroken and No Easy Day. This was during a period about two years ago when I had changed my life dramatically, and I wanted nothing more than to be as tough as these individuals. I had no aspiration to join the military in anyway, but I envied their toughness greatly. Allowing myself very little time to relax and forcing myself to go 100% in everything I did, I had made myself into a mock warrior, at least I thought so. I changed my life due to books and these authors heroic stories of their adventure and sacrifice to our country. Having a book or a genre of books change your life is extremely invigorating, especially in this day and age, when most people are changed by either drugs, sex, or money; it is great to have changed due to a very honorable source. While books have changed my life in many ways, there's still one person outside of my family that has influenced my reading and writing dramatically.

This person was my 11th and 12th grade English teacher, Mrs. Montgomery. Through grammar class and AP English, she taught me not just how to read and write properly, but she also taught me how to enjoy reading again. She helped teach me that reading shouldn't be a required portion of homework but an escape from reality. It was a time to let my imagination run wild and postulate opinions and possible answers to questions I had come up with while reading. It helped me finally understand what I was reading in a shorter amount of time, which was very nice noting that I was involved with extracurricular activities and had very little time or energy at nights to complete my homework. I also learned how to write like I do today. For years beforehand, I had always been taught to write papers in a five paragraph essay form and to use the pyramid technique for the intro and conclusion, but Mrs. Montgomery taught my class that it didn't matter what the format was as long as it makes sense, and you are able to get your point across. I loved this more than anyone would expect, because I had always compared writing papers to a machine. You would enter information where it was supposed to fit like an assembly line. Now with this new type of writing style I was free to make whatever choices i wanted to make about how my papers would look. I remember specifically my first paper in this style was an in class essay over The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I had about 50 minutes to write the essay, and it only took me about 40 minutes to write more than I had ever written before. I felt so free and capable of writing anything that came to my head. Transitioning from a feeling of having very little control and ability to put forth your own imagination into your own paper to having total control and desired imagination and voice was very smooth. It was like I had been freed from the chains of the writing style I had been taught for over four years.

My reading and writing over the period of my life have increased quite dramatically. While most peoples do also, I feel that I had an accelerated learning due to all of my sponsors such as my mom, my individual reading and my high school english teacher. I had always had so much assistance when it came to reading and writing that I rarely had to struggle through much of my developmental stages of language in school. I also had such a huge drive to read that I never once dreaded reading at school or at home. It helped me to learn new words and write my own stories. I am looking forward to learning even more in my writing class this semester and adding onto my knowledge of writing now. I wish I could see what my progress will be at the end of the semester now.

Writing Blog Post 1- Murray

2- Murray states that everything you write is an autobiography, because you always put your voice in your writing. You gain a sense of voice or attitude as a teenager or young adult and by the time you're twenty, you don't enhance your voice anymore, you simply flow with your own voice that you currently have. He also states that your writing is based off all of your previous memories, and these are portrayed through your words. Everything you write comes from your life, whether they were happy or sad memories, they all influence your writing. Categorizing these all are difficult because they change between person to person, but they can be roughly catogorized by your past memories, your attitude, and your perception of the world around you.

5- Considering his arguments and seemingly flawless logic, yes, I will change my writing habits by trying to realize my own voice, and instead of thinking about what I will compose onto paper, I will hopefully just let it all flow out of my imaginative and memory filled brain. I have happy and sad memories just like everyone else, but I have never thought to let those show in my writing. Knowing those are available, I will not consciencely write this way, but I will be able to notice these more easliy. It is nice to be able to recognize this idea, because it helps to give yourself a sort of writing individualism. It makes you stand out from the crowd, and I have, since I was a little kid, wanted to stand out and not fit in to the social norms or the so called crowd. I wanted to be noticed but also know that I had done something significant or worth being recognized for. Murray's essay helped me realize that in writing I am able to do just this.

6- Now knowing this idea and being able to recognize that most papers or books are autobiographies, besides science papers usually. I can reflect on my own writings and say with confidence that my last few essays were in fact autobiographies. This can be justified by my voice being present in all of these papers. I unconsciencely do this and it helps me think quicker and in turn write quicker as well. I am also adding my voice into this assignment as I type making this assignment an autobiography. Murray was very correct in this theory of his, but you must buy into it to reap any benefits from this viewpoint.