New Media

My first year of college, I went to community college.  My English class was two sections, one section was in the classroom and the other was in the computer lab.  In the classroom we would talk about forms of writing and we were shown examples, in the computer lab, we wrote about what we had learned.  One class we were supposed to write about a serious topic that directly effected us.  This was an argument that meant a lot to me and so I had a lot to say.  I argued that, there are many different races, nationalities, and colors of people around the world.  Myself, being bi-racial, I feel strongly about this certain topic.  For me to "remediate" it this into a different media, I could do a picture theory.  It would be interesting to see the process of how racism is being a more less practice.  I would use a combination of both words and pictures to explain what is going on.  It was interesting to see what the book had said about picture theory and all the different types of rhetors, our society as a whole is transforming and to see this in our texts is really interesting.  

Ethos

To look at ethos, I looked at numerous articles on www.bbc.co.uk.  Many of these articles contain valuable and important information.  The authors have had to of done extensive research in order for them to get their message across on the particular subject.  Ethos, as defined in the book, deals with and person's character.  How well did these authors prove their intelligence? Well in order for their article to be believable, many had outside sources as well as statistical information.  To establish their good character, each author showed that they were well informed about the subject, relayed important information to the readers, and showed that they can tell inform their readers about any specific topic.  Each article showed good ethos and thought me, as the reader, new and interesting things I had not know until now.

Questions or Topics

1.  I understand that your clients meetings are confidential but, could you show and explain to me what exactly you do?  Maybe do a mock one on me.

2.  What all goes into your job, you do specific writing for each case but what else do you do?

3.  Why is your job such an important part of this intake process?

Logical Proof

I decided to look at TeenVouge for this particular activity.  I looked through the magazine and one ad popped out at me.  While this ad can be more than one of the ideas presented, I want to talk about the sign of this ad.  American Eagle did an ad in this magazine of two people, late at night on a motorcycle.  The ad clearly states "New 24-Hour Style", this statement and the timing of the picture (at night) shows us that apparently their clothing can be used at all times of the day and/or night.

Blog—Kairos

I went to the library to do this assignment and as I set there and looked through the newspapers, I came across an article about Bangladesh in The New York Times.  The other paper I grabbed was The Washington Post.  Both papers have the similar article about the border guards and a 2-day revolt. 

 

While both of these newspapers are relatively recent, The New York Times is more up to date.  Each article uses kairos, or a critical time.  It uses this by telling us when things happened and according to what chronological order.  The issue is pertinent because it deals with a serious issue and little needs to be addressed to establish the articles relevance.

 

Although both articles state different things, the articles seem to be consistent and do not need to use an opportune moment to “change the subject” and/or argue about a separate but related set of issues.

Rhetorical Activity 1

As I sat down, looked around and thought about what I wanted to write about, nothing really came to mind.  Than, I realized that yesterday afternoon, my roommate Chris, was just in an argument with his girlfriend, Jenn.  

Jenn was certain Chris had done something he hadn't.  She was trying to convince herself that Chris is a horrible boyfriend.  Although she thinks that, it really isn't the case.  Jenn was telling Chris all the things he does are bad.  She tried so hard convincing him that he started to think that maybe Jenn isn't the person I should be with.  

Jenn was out of line with this type of rhetoric, she made things up in her mind and tried convincing herself and Chris that she is always right.  If she had the real facts, she could argue this but, she was wrong and mistaken. 

Researching People Day 2

As I read what Austin had said, it made me happy to be able to share my thoughts and experiences with someone I call a good friend. I was able to learn more about myself and others through this process.

I learned that I am acutally a good interviewer, I am good at writing done words, concepts and ideas that the interviewee had perviously stated. It comes to no suprise to me that I would be good at this, I am a people person and out-going. I need no prep to begin myself in a situtation such as what we did in class. Even though I am well aware that I was good at interviewing Austin, I might run into some problems interviewing someone else.

Interviewing can be nerve racking when you do not know the person or any information about who he/she is or what they d0. I believe that if I had a different person, this process wouldn't come so easily. I would first have to get to know them and from there I would be able to to gather the information that I would need to be successful in this interview.

To become a better interviewer, I would first and formost, learn more about the person and their backgroud. I would be able to do this by researchinig and spending time looking at information on them. I am excited to be able to do this process in my ethnographic research project.

Researching People

As we were given this assignment, I knew right away what object I was going to discover.  Being that Austin is one of my good friends, we have time to talk about things.  One Sunday, we went to Panera, we sat and talked for a good hour.  During that time I learned things about him that I did not know before.  One thing we have in common is our liking of tattoos.  Right off the bat, I knew I wanted to find out more about his tattoo he was getting.

This tattoo is of a rose, in black ink next to his first one.  It is of medium size and looks as though the two tattoos were done together at the same time.  He picked his lower ribs, which is one place that hurts the most.  As I sat in class looking at the picture I took of his tattoo, many things came to my mind, many questions arouse and I became eager to learn more about it.

As I pondered about this piece of art, it came clear to me that it wasn't there just for the aesthetic sense, it had to of had meaning.  It made me think of my tattoos and even though there isn't much meaning, they mean something to me.  It also gave me more interest in getting another tattoo, seeing someone so happy about this, like Austin, makes it that much more interesting.  While I was connected to him in this sense, I needed to learn more.

As I interviewed Austin, I had a few questions I wanted to ask.  First off, he told me he got this tattoo in remembrance of his grandfather and his family in general, this shows he cares a lot about his background.  He picked this spot and specific color because he wanted to keep with the theme of his first tattoo, of the name "Thomas".  It also was to make it look as though it was connected instead of two entities.  He mentioned he got this tattoo at Wild Zero Studios, the same place as his first and it was done by the same guy, Eric Carlson.  If he were to get another tattoo, he would go back to him and the same place.  

He had a good experience with this place and artist.  It hurt less than his first time and took about an hour and five minutes.  He wasn't allowed to talk due to the placing of the tattoo but Eric talked to him and told jokes to lighten the mood.  Austin gave me specific details of what was going on, what the room looked like and the positioning of himself as well as Eric.  This tattoo was meaningful to Austin and brought memories back when I asked him to tell me about it.

Austin's grandfather had passed away, he knew he wanted this tattoo to be of a rose.  His earliest memories were of him and his grandfather in this garden working in the flower beds.  While gardening, his grandfather taught him very valuable lessons.  He gave him advice on what type of man he should be, things he should and should not do, advice and taught him morals.  

This experience of learning about Austin and his tattoo shows me that he is a sentimental, caring and family means a lot to him.  I was very interested in getting to interview him, learn more and become informed about why this tattoo and why a tattoo at all.  He was very welcoming and excited to tell me more, you could tell this was very important to him.  All in all, this process was a positive one and I learn a lot.

WWD Activity 1a

The features, functions, and student activity of a textbook for a single field is similar throughout textbooks.  For example, a Spanish textbook.  When you look at a Spanish textbook, you see many different features.  There are pictures to help explain what the activities and sayings mean.  There are pictures are here to help describe things, such as people and places. 

A specific function of this book are the words at the end of each chapter.  They are re-stated in the glossary at the end of the book.  There are highlighted words are in the book, on foot notes and where exercises are.  In the back of the book, there is also highlighted words to help you better learn how to conjugate verbs.

 Another feature in these textbooks are CD-ROMs.  They help you learn to speak the language properly.  Activities and exercises are in the book to help you better yourself with this language.  Along with the exercises in the book, a workbook comes along with it.  This workbook has activities in it for homework, classwork, and to help you practice what you have learned.  

All textbooks are different but are there for the same purpose, to help you better your understanding of a specific subject.  Throughout the reading of a textbook you see the many different things such as features, functions, and student activities.  All these help you and are in every student textbook.

Rhetorical Analysis-Question 3

For this blog assignment, I decided to use the Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Service for Loudoun County.  Loudoun County is where I'm from and its an organization that I am apart of.  Though this site is clearly understandable, there are links, drop boxes, and other sorts of information that can help a person better understand all they have to offer.  LCPR website shows a person what is going on now, such as programs from kids, teens, adults, and senior citizens.  There is many different things they offer and through this website, you can see how well the reader will be able to comprehend the many different aspects of LCPR that are offered. 

Intertextuality: How Texts Rely on Other Texts

As I read this article, I clearly thought of Jack Selzer's article about Nelson.  Selzer, as we learned observed and researched Nelson for a period of time.  We came to know about his thought processes, how he writes a texts, and in what way he does so.  Nelson is a technical writer, he uses his past writings to form new ideas, memos, and other writings.  

This article stated many types of intertextual representation.  Nelson uses direct and indirect quotation, mentioning of document, comment or evaluation on a text, uses recognizable phrasing, and uses languages and forms that echo types of documents (Page 89).  All these forms of intertextual representation show us how Nelson relies on other texts.

This article helps us as a reader show us how writers use previous texts they have written or other texts from another author and form new ideas, concepts, and forms.

Tracing Process: Blog 4

While reading How Texts Come Into Being, it became clear to me that writing starts from almost any action or thought us as w writer might have.  This packet we read was a little more simple to digest where and how it started.  This was an assignment, job proposal and all that it entails.  You can clearly see how this text came into being.

The author had to sit down and think of all the aspects of this field he is qualified for and why his abilities might be better than someone just like him.  While writing this Intern, you see that the author had more knowledge than the reader.  The reviewer saw flaw because its not something he was informed about.  While reading this, you see that the input of more than one person or "co-authorship" can help strengthen a piece of work.  With the help of a teacher and his/her classmate, the author began to take the knowledge of the reviewer and put it into action, acts of composing/inscription.  

Many of the different processes that were mentioned in this chapter, you can see in the packet we read.  By looking at this packet and the chapter together, you can begin to see where you as a writer may be able to strengthen your writing ability.  Though the eyes of another person, revision, tracing other texts, sources, brainstorming with and/or with someone else, notes and many other things.  All these ideas and concepts were brought up in this chapter tell and show us how a text comes into being and helps us as a reader better understand this packet along with many other readings.

The Composing Processes of an Engineer

Jack Selzer studied Kenneth E. Nelson.  With Selzer's findings, it is evident that he extensively and carefully observed his subject.  Throughout this reading I found a few interesting facts about Nelson's writing process.  "Nelson spends up to 80% of his time inventing and arranging!" (The Composing Process of an Engineer, pg. 180).  Through the study of Slezer's subject, he found that Nelson takes the time to know his readers, heavily involves himself in the research he does and re-uses other information from his previous writings.  When doing writings, Nelson doesn't have a typical outline, he uses concepts and ideas without numbers and spends little time drafting and even less time with revisions.  

Selzer, took the time to analyze his subject and shows how much time and effort he invested in this project.  In his conclusion and discussion Selzer states, "he invents content in detail, arranges material carefully, rarely arranges or draft before his inventing and global planning, rarely does he invent or revise while he writes, rarely does revision include anything but final editing" (The Composing... pg. 184-85).  This article carefully shows that Selzer carefully observed Nelson extensively.

Blog 1

There are many different types of job out there for writers or editors.  While many might argue that there are a select few, I read an article that pointed out many different positions.  The type of writing in jobs range from authors to technical writers.  Newspapers, periodicals, books, radio stations and even television broadcasting all have available jobs in the writing field.  It takes a lot of skills and knowledge to be able to be successful in a writing or editing position.  These jobs, require a college degree and you must know a bit about technology.  Clearly expressing ideas and concepts to the readers is a must; creativity, a broad range of knowledge and motivation are important aspects in the writing field. (www.bls.gov)

While a lot of writing interests me, the one that comes to mind is writing about events or ideas that have much importance to me.  I feel as though I'm not as successful in writing things I care little about and I have great ideas that should be heard.  It would be fun to learn about how I can better myself as a writer and learn more about becoming a professional writer or editor for a magazine or even learn about free lance.  Writing is a huge part of my life and it will continue to be.