Dis be blog 7

In his article “God Don’t Never Change”: Black English From a Black Perspective, Geneva Smitherman attempts to explain the difference between “Black English” and “White English”. He argues that teachers should not necessarily grade black students on their grammar, but rather on their content. He is trying to say that black students may be writing with “bad grammar”, but it is part of their history and where they come from. The African American people have imitated the English language to the best of their ability with the little education that they received. He also argues that the White American people say that it is incorrect to write in a way of Black English, yet we as White Americans have no problem understanding and reading it; and when in reality we have a hard time understanding the “admired” British language instead.

 

I believe I could compare this article to the Dawkins article about correct punctuation because I believe they have the same concept. Dawkins explained that there is technically no correct way to use any type of punctuation mark. There is a broad spectrum of uses for each mark, and we can use them all in different ways to get our point across. Geneva explains that there are many different ways to interpret English and that no one way should be the right way. He believes if a person who uses Black English has a really great concept, then there is really nothing wrong with his/her English speak because that’s a part of their background. These two articles are explaining that the English language is never set in stone, and all the “rules” have exceptions.

 

Geneva explains that “sloppy, irresponsible writing” is a type of writing that is grammatically correct, but repeats itself in sentence structure and has no supporting details. He explains that this type of writing is often just a generalization and writing styles are repeated. There is no combination of sentences and ideas, but rather short thoughts with no facts. On the other hand, he says “sloppy, correct writing” is a type of writing that may not be grammatically correct, but the writing may have complex ideas with supporting facts. Geneva does not think teachers and professors should be wasting their time worry and correcting such minor misuses of words. They should be looking for content! He wants the teachers to engage their students in the complexity of the communication process and not pay so much attention to minor details.

 

My opinion of this article was that I could agree with Geneva at some level, but disagree on another. I agree with him because I do think the complexity and content of a piece of writing should be held at a higher standard then grammar. I think many African American students are used to hearing this type of language in their home environment; therefore they are inclined to talk and write in the same way. I do not think if a student has poor grammar and speech patterns that their paper should be handed back to them right away. The teacher should at least take a peak at the ideas the student has written down. I disagree because I think everyone should write and speak in the same “language”. Everyone should follow the same rules to make writing less complex. I found it harder to read a sentence that be talkin like dis. It be hard to undastand cuz we used to correct phrases. I found myself having to re-read a few sentences to make sure I was reading them correctly.

Bibliography

Wyse, Dominic. "Grammar for Writing? A Critical Review of Empirical Evidence." British Journal of 

            Educational Studies 49.2 (2001).



Lindbolm, Kenneth. Dunn, Patricia. "Analyzing Grammar Rants: An Alternative to Traditional

           Grammar Instruction." The English Journal 95.5 (2006).



Hausser, Roland. "Left-Associative Grammar: An Informal Outline." Computers and Translation 3.1

           (1988).

Week 6

mcCloud Summary:

In his article Vocabulary of Comics, Scott McCloud attempts to explain the difference in reading visual text and regular text. He argues that it is more interesting and easier to read visual texts because we, as humans, are able to relate ourselves to the pictures. No matter what the picture is actually of, we tend to visualize the picture as ourselves. This is because want everything to be about us. McCloud says this is because we are selfish creatures.

 

OPINIONS:

I found this article very interesting because I find this true of myself. This article was easy for me to read because I was engaged in the pictures and I found myself enjoying the article more. I also found myself to read this article more quickly because I was interested in what mcCloud was explaining.

 

Bernhardt Summary:

In his article Seeing the Text, Stephen Bernhardt attempts to explain the importance of allowing students to use visually appealing texts. He argues that this could increase their understanding and writing ability because it increases the readers’ interest. He also states that the design of the text can give the reading more depth and understanding in the classroom. Students would be able to relate the text to other things outside of the classroom more easily.

QUESTION:

I would say I do struggle with this type of writing because I find it “boring” to read. If the content in the text is not something to my interest, I struggle to keep my focus on the reading. In the first article, the comic helped to get the point of the reading across to me. This article however was the opposite. I found it more towards the uninteresting end of the writing spectrum. The pictures helped to illustrate the main points of what the writer was trying to say.

 

OPINIONS:

I enjoyed this article because I thought I was kind of the only person who found reading articles with interesting text or pictures easier to read than standard printed texts. This article made me realize that it is a problem everyone struggles with.

Proposal

The writing construct I chose was "Learning correct grammar, spelling, and mechanics is the most effective way to learn how to write well". I chose this construct because everyone has been taught early in their writing career that grammar and spelling is important. While I also think this is an important subject to keep in mind while writing, I find it interesting on why that would make a paper a well written paper. I do not think grammar is the only thing you should think about while writing.

Week 5

In his article Intertextuality and the Discourse Community, James Porter attempts to explain that every text that we read is technically “plagiarism”. He argues that writers have done this for decades it is not their fault. Most of the time writers can often not be themselves because they are in a discourse community. This means that the writer has a set of rules or regulations they must follow in their writings. He explains that students need to understand this concept before they are able to write an acceptable piece.

 

This is different from what I assumed because I was unaware that writers had a discourse community to adhere to. I would have thought writing should be evaluated by the content and writing style, while also considering the validity of the information. Porter explains that this is not the case, or at least not the number one way writings are evaluated. In the past, my writing has been evaluated, or graded, on different things depending on the teachers’ requirements. This could range anywhere from just simple spelling and grammar to citations and making sure not to plagiarize.

 

I have recently seen a Dodge Ram commercial and in the commercial they talk about the typical farmer. This idea has been used over and over again in many different types of media including commercials, movies, television shows, and books. This is intertextuality because the idea of “the farmer” has been used before. The commercial even uses the tone a viewer would expect to hear from a farmer’s mouth. This is also cultural because farming and the American Farmer is a big part of our history and shows how far we have come.

 

I thought this article was very interesting because I thought there was only one typical definition of plagiarism. I learned this was not the case and many authors and media writers use it in their everyday writing. I also thought it was unexpected that Thomas Jefferson “plagiarized” the Declaration of Independence. By using a style of writing or certain requirement for our writing over and over again, Porter says this is generally a type of plagiarism.

Week 4

Malcolm X

In his article Learning to Read, Malcolm X attempts to explain that just because you didn’t go to school to get an education doesn’t mean that you can’t learn and become successful. He argues if you have to right tools, meaning books to read from, you can accomplish quite a bit through a little dedication. He explains his story on how he became able to read and understand a text just by being in prison.

 

I am able to make a connection between this article and the Brandt article because both authors speak about learning how to read and write. Brandt explained the term literacy sponsor which is a person, or thing in Malcolm X’s case, that teaches you a specific kind of language. Malcolm X did not have a strong vocabulary nor could he write very well. He found that he could make use of his time in prison to learn the proper English language instead of slang words. He became interested in the topic of his history, African American history. Malcolm’s literacy sponsor was the books he read over that period of time which taught him general language as well as more sophisticated terms. The books and dictionaries and articles were Malcolm X’s literacy sponsors.

 

 I thought this article was very interesting. I wasn’t very familiar with Malcolm X and how he became who he was. This article showed me that you do not have to come from a wealthy or sophisticated white family to be successful. Rather, you can come from any background if you have the proper tools and an immense amount of dedication and interest. I think this is an eye opening article, at least for me, because I think it is amazing to be able to teach yourself to read and write from a dictionary.

 

Alexie

In his article The Joy of Reading and Writing, Sherman Alexie attempts to explain that just because you are labeled as something in society doesn’t mean you should follow along with that label for the rest of your life. He argues that it was hard for him growing up because he was an Indian child and no one expected anything of Indian children. His teachers and classmates didn’t like the way he read and answered questions all the time. He learned to read by admiring his father and he says that no one should take that away from you.

 

I am able to connect this article to the Malcolm X article because both authors talk about how their love of reading and writing developed, although very different stories. Malcolm X had developed his reading and writing skills by copying a dictionary and practicing the words he learned by reading books in prison. He was African American therefore he didn’t have the same education as whites did. In Alexie’s article he explains the difficulty of being an Indian child and how his father loved reading therefore he wanted to love reading as well. Alexie was not expected to do well in school and the other non-Indian people did not like his achievements. Both stories explain the difficulty of being from a minority and the struggle they went through to get where they are today.

 

I believe you have to have an extreme amount of determination to get through the kind of things Alexie and Malcolm went through. It is possible, I believe, to become a leader of your minority if you can read and write because it is a great strength to be able to give speeches to the public. People tend to pay attention to things that aren’t normal in society. Therefore when an individual is believed to be uneducated, society is “amazed” that they can put together a well written speech. This causes people to think differently about that particular minority and maybe change their opinions. Deborah Brandt is helpful in this particular question because Malcolm X and Alexie both had to have at least one literacy sponsor to be successful. The point is that you can’t become successful on your own, you learn from other sources which make you into the person you become.

 

This article was interesting in my opinion because I didn’t realize that Indian children were not “allowed” to be as smart as non-Indian people. This amazed me that when Alexie raised his hand in class to answer a question, he was looked down upon by the other children and the teacher. I also found it interesting that he was considered an oddity not a prodigy just because he was Indian, whereas if he were not Indian he would be a prodigy.