Blog 11 - - Genres

From all of the writing that I have done in my days, this class has taught me the most about reading into all the little details of genre. Since I'll be going into Math I'll probably be somewhat limited in the type of genres I'll be seeing from here on out - not to mention the type of writing that I'll be producing. I'm really glad I was able to experience this class and get all those different types of writing out of my system and practice using them. I can take a lot from each genre we delved into, but I would have to say that my most most best favorite one was hands down 

THE OP-ED

It was so much fun to read the different Op-Eds out there and even more fun to write about. 

The thing I like about Op-Eds is that they are more in line with what happens in the real world and how two people would have discussions or arguments. There's something about them that makes you want to listen to them, even if they're completely in contrast to what you think. 

The best article I've ever read in any class..ever...was the Op-Ed "Liberals are the Sort of People Who...", and you know what? I know that'll remain the best thing I'll ever read in class because it stands out against everything I've ever been taught about writing; 

• don't offend people, try to communicate your argument without being insensitive
• back up everything with facts
• never use an opinion
• do not generalize
• have a clear beginning, middle, and end
• prove your point

And guess what? That article took those rules, threw them on the ground, had a herd of elephants stampede over them, and then threw them out the window. Never have I come across something of that sort being "appropriate and acceptable" but now that I have I'm really glad it's out there in a world and that there is a genre where publishing things like that is okay.

Op-Eds are a great way to stay current on the conflicts that are happening while still having the option of stepping back to view the strong opinions of people who felt passionate enough about the topic to put pen to paper. You don't have to agree with them. You don't have to even have prior knowledge on what they are talking about. If it sparks an idea in your head or gives you something to think about that you normally wouldn't, then an Op-Ed has done its job. 

Blog #10 - The Discourse Community of e3 High in the Math Department

So it's safe to say that a great deal of people have a problem with math problems. Math in itself is a whole other language and what learning really boils down to is the experiences you had when you were taught math. 

Teachers....GOOD teachers...are far and few in between, so you better hope you get lucky in one of your high school math classes and gets someone who 

1. Knows what they're doing

2. Can explain what they're doing in plain English

3. Makes you feel like you know what you're doing

The discourse community I am choosing to follow and write about is the Math Department at a school I work at tutoring. There are about 5-6 teachers in this department, 4 tutors, and countless students. 

The school they work at is a charter school smack dab in the middle of Downtown San Diego. I know very little about charter schools. I tried watching a video on them but it just served to confuse me even more - maybe because they have relatively few rules and aren't governed by the state. This part of my project is crucial to understand so I, and my audience, can better understand what pressures charter school teachers face and how their jobs differ from the typical high school teacher. 

What is intriguing to me about this school, though, is that they are trying to implement heavy reliance on technology in the classroom and they are actively working to transition into a new wave of schooling that is project-based and student-to-student interaction- focused.

I plan on interviewing 2 Math teachers, 

one is the head of the Math department, has years of experience at this school and others,and  teaches various math classes. Let's call him teacher A.

The other is a freshly anointed teacher, straight out of grad school. This is his first "real" teaching job and he teaches only one class. He'll be teacher B.

I plan on examining the differences in their teaching styles and learning how teacher B is accumulating this knowledge and how he is making it work for his students and his classroom. 

I'll also be looking at how teacher A had to adapt his previous knowledge from his teaching experience and how he is building the culture within the Math Department that he leads now. 

For this project, I'll also be observing each in their natural habitats - the classroom. 

Throughout these interviews, observations, and research, I plan to learn a lot more about what it means to eat, breath, sleep Math and how teaching Math in a charter school molds people. 

Blog #9 - Industries with their own "literacy" gauge

So after our discussion in class about how different jobs have different criteria when it comes to being "literate" in the field I began thinking of certain areas in my life where my "literacy" has grown in over the past year. It's not that my level of reading, per se, has grown, but rather my level of comprehension on certain subjects. 

The thing I never really acknowledged about literacy before was that understanding what is said is basically 90% of the problem. I have no idea about car parts or engine problems; I suck at computer malfunctions - usually I just turn mine off and on again until the problem resolves itself...whoops; and stock market talk is just a bunch of mumbo-jumbo to me. 

BUT

I realized I have been growing more and more literate in another part of my life. I've taken up a hobby of sewing since this summer. 

And when I say "taken up" what I really mean is I bought a sewing machine and I just watch a bunch of youtube videos on sewing.

I've learned a lot, though, from what I've watched and I can clearly see myself making progress from the very first time I started watching people make clothes to now. They'd be talking about how to remember seam allowance, straight stitch, zig-zag stitch, change out a needle foot for one with a zipper attachment...crazy talk like that. 

I had no clue what the heck they were saying.

Over time I began assimilating into the lingo and making sense of it all. 

Now I know you have to start with pattern cut from paper and then trace it onto the fabric. 

You have to always be aware of what side of the material you're using is going to be on the outside when you wear it (that way you don't make nasty seams and knots where all the world can see!).

I've learned what it means to seam-rip, which is where you take apart old stitches (like from clothes you already have or something you really REALLY destroyed while sewing).

I know you sew right-sides-together so the seam stays on the inside and wrong-sides-together when you want to go for that frayed and weathered look.

I know what types of material are "slippery" to sew with - like satin or silk so when you sew two pieces together you have to hold them very carefully so they don't go moving all over the place and mess up the seam...

 which ones fray... which ones stretch so you don't have to sew in a zipper but instead you can just pull it over your head and voila...I know how faux suede doesn't need to be sewn after cutting because the thread won't unravel in it. 

But most importantly I've learned that there will always be problems when you're a beginner...

We are literate in a lot more areas than we realize and we are always expanding our knowledge. So even if you're a waiter, a mechanic, a doctor, whatever, you ARE intelligent and you have skills that others don't and won't ever comprehend. 

Blog #8 Learning to Serve Blog

The customer is always right, right? Wrong. Sometimes the customer is so wrong. Maybe it's the way they order something that isn't even on the menu, how they try to combine two items that are on completely polar opposite spectrums of the menu, how they want to personalize their meal and "just pay extra" so we can make it work, or simply in their behavior to service workers. Yes, as hard as it is to believe - customers are sometimes the ones at fault when things do not go smoothly at a restaurant.

I chose to read Mirabelli's book excerpt "Learning to Serve" and found that I agreed with so much of what she was explaining in her introduction about service industry jobs. I used to work at a smoothie place that also sold food and it was quite ridiculous to me how often customers simply didn't understand the concept of ordering food from a menu RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM. They would repeatedly try to order items from other similar fast food branches and then, upon being informed that we do not carry or make those items, try to question us as to why we don't or even go so far as to claim "you used to carry it" or "you used to make it for me". Sorry sunny, hate to break it to you but you're getting us confused with someone else.

I've had customers try to break up parts of food or drink combos and create their own personalized version of an item. The thing is, this isn't their kitchen with ingredients on disposal - all menu items are priced a certain way and it's not up to you to just mix and match.

The worst problem, by far, was how they would react in all of these certain types of situations. Situations that they themselves created. Typical.

Times when their order would be messed up, however, and they had a right to (politely) complain was due 95% to that of inexperienced workers. And that should be expected! This industry has so many methods and procedures and shortcuts all going on at once that it gets very overwhelming for someone new to the job, let alone new to serving. You have to be quick on your feet ALL THE TIME, EVERY DAY and on top of that be in a chipper, darling mood even when you're being yelled at. It's a tough life.

Where I worked my coworkers were all very bright and educated. That wasn't the problem. The problem was that there were so many new people coming in and they needed time to learn the ropes. I feel like that's how it is for a lot of places in the service industry - there are a lot of inexperienced workers handling your orders. It's not that they're dumb, it's that they need more time to get things right and they also need to learn the lingo in order to get your food from paper, to production, to your pretty little mouth.

You try. You fail. You try again.

The way in which orders are communicated is very important in the service industry and it takes a while to "learn to read again", so to speak. Fluency comes with practice and is often the difference between a right and wrong order. Mirabelli writes that "literacy extend beyond individual experiences of reading and writing". It is very crucial to understand not only how a coworker will write down the specific item ordered, or how one will read the printed item, but also how the customer is going to order the item. You have to be able to have the knowledge to manipulate the POS screen (when orders are taken on an electronic screen) so that all of their specifications for their "personal appetites" are satisfied while giving them the right discounts/price increases so that neither the restaurant nor the customer is unfairly charged.

Communication is an integral part in serving food quickly, efficiently, and correctly and I am so glad Mirabelli wrote this article to explain to others (and not to mention confirm the beliefs of service workers everywhere) how hard it actually is to work at a food place and how difficult the language is to an outsider.


-Meghann

Blog 4 - JSTOR vs Op-Ed

I really like all of the memes people are choosing to illustrate their blogs, but it's getting late and my desire to be witty is decaying as we speak, so here's the first one I found and liked after typing "opinion meme" into Google. It's a pun and it's an elephant. Uh, does it get any better than that? I think not.

So the articles I chose were arbitrarily picked based on their titles, as is the case for many things I do in life. Nothing political because then it gets too messy - and that made it easy because that narrowed down a lot of options. 

So, with that in mind I'll jump right into the article explaining this phenomena; JSTOR's "How Does the Language of Headlines Work?". In this article, the author followed the evolution of headlines. Employing research dating back to 1625, the timeline of this article spans almost 400 years as the author compares one of the very first headlines in London to the common tactic of "clickbaiting" many web users are familiar with today. Some interesting points made by the author was (1) that newspaper articles began using present verb tenses in their headlines which created a sense of urgency to read the article because it made readers feel like the action was still in effect, and (2) clickbait tactics make use of pronouns without former reference to a proper noun, creating mystery and intrigue among viewers, reeling them into clicking on an online article.

The next article, titled "Why Facts Don't Unify Us", relayed the results of a recent experiment done regarding how people view climate change and whether they would be swayed if they received new information. The end result was that people who had viewed Global Warming in a negative light from the get-go easily pictured a darker future when given more alarming statistics but weren't swayed much from their original viewpoint when given a more promising outlook. The opposite held true for individuals who felt like Global Warming would affect them much less negatively in the future. The point of this article was to show the trend in polarization that occurs among society even when given the same facts. The statistics that these test subjects were given only drove a deeper wedge between the two viewpoints. 

In another JSTOR article regarding "The Politics of Kindness in 2016", the author illuminated how the generosity shown today is strewn all over the posts of facebook and in the media. He mentions that a trend is forming where good deeds are displayed on social media or in access for others to see, which turns being kind into a twisted way to draw sympathy and regard from other people. He argues that doing so takes away the base foundation of what it means to be "kind" because the motives are changing if people openly try to advertise their kindness. 

The 3rd JSTOR article I read dealt with "Where American Public Schools Came From" and it outlined the history of how schools formed and dealt with the philosophical question of how much is society's responsibility to educating the young. Surprisingly, the piece reports that people don't really disagree with this and are willing and wanting to offer good schools to students through taxes. 

I really enjoyed reading "Liberals are the Sort of People Who..." which was a whirlwind of contradictions assigned to "liberals" which served to point out the flaws in Liberalistic American thinking based on views and (I'm guessing) a few examples of real-life liberals. Some were very humorous while others I had to think about ..."[Liberals are the sort of people who] demand that men be allowed to use the women's restroom even as they claim conservatives are engaged in a war on women". While it was a very entertaining read, it was not in the least bit backed by any facts or proof and seemed to lump the characteristics of different types of liberals into the same groups, which is why the material presented is skewed and makes liberals appear ludicrous.

On a more serious topic, the last topic I read about what an Op-Ed titled "Criminal Rape Cases Should Not be a Ticking Clock". This article dealt with the Cosby rape/assault cases and served to shed light on how, in California and many other states, there is a time limit on reporting crimes - called the statute of limitations. This article's opinion centered around the fact that rape-related cases should be exempt from that rule due to the nature of the crime because many victims will not report these incidents until years later. This article mentions the Justice for Victims Act and indirectly urges readers to support this bill, even mentioning how the Governor has this bill on his desk. 

Overall, I enjoy the Op-Eds more than the JSTOR articles because of their nature of being extremely one-sided. The one's I have read were a very entertaining read and gave me many things to think about. While they weren't all backed by facts, they still held some undeniably strong opinions which, with research, could certainly lead to factual evidence backing up those opinions. The JSTORS, I found, were much drier in nature and were not too far from academic writing and I think this type of style developed within this genre because they stem from an academic setting of condensing current research and findings. Op-Eds on the other hand seem to be as free and biased as they come and are granted the liberty to say many ridiculous things if it lies in accordance of the author's opinion. 

Blog Two - Genres

In-class essays were never fun in high school. You knew as soon as you got into class you'd have a mere 50 minute time limit to cram an elegantly addressed, perfectly articulated, and transitionally smooth essay. It didn't even matter if you were good at writing or not - those five-paragraph essays sucked.

Looking back at that, it's hard to imagine why anyone would want to become a writer. But what I didn't see is that writing is about so much more than school-type expository or persuasive essays. Being a writer isn't limited to just novels or scientific research findings. There's a whole other world of writing that we come across everyday which lives worlds apart from the mundane genre of the five-paragraph essay. 

In Devitt's article she brings up many points of why there's fear in teaching students different genres of writing. From the viewpoint of a teacher, a five-paragraph essay is the cleanest, most traditional form of writing that enables you to gauge how effective a student's argument is. Points are clearly laid out in each paragraph and the thesis can easily be spotted. There are so many more avenues to take, however, when trying to get information across. Pamphlets, brochures, blogs, articles, infographics. 

Like Professor Flewelling said on the first day of class - the day we graduate will most likely mark the last time we will ever be tied to the requirement of five-paragraph essays. That day, however, doesn't mark the last chance we have at written communication. We have to start learning how to navigate these other routes of written word. We have to learn how to effectively get our opinions out there, whether it be through meme, private journaling, public letters to the editor, ANYTHING. Just so long as we continue the conversation that makes up our life. 

In learning the ropes of new genres people can start to take on a persona of the ideaologies backing that genre (like how it was mentioned a Mozart composer would probably behave differently than a Heavy Metalist). I wonder if that is not for the fact that there are certain expectations of a genre. Certain characteristics, you could say, that draw the audience in. In trying to build a successful "meme" or "article" or whatever your genre may be you have to adopt those characteristics in your writing to please the audience. We morph into that personality so that the success of our work gets the point across. 

That isn't always such a good thing, though, according to Devitt's article. She stresses that we need to start criticizing how genres are molded. The genres "represent particular viewpoints that shape our existence on the world" (Devitt 348) and sometimes it's too hard to see who is influencing who. It's like the age old questions of whether or not media creates violence or simply acts as a mirror, displaying it to viewers. We are politically and socially swayed by genres and in order to remain always questioning the right and wrong it is important to learn about genres so that we can pick out the biases among them.

Learning about the genres of blogs, and actually experiencing it, has given me some time to reflect on my first impressions of this new type of written communication.

The vibe of a blog offers somewhat of a false sense of security. It is almost like writing a diary. The words flow from mind to keyboard and there isn't any pressure to plan everything out. I'm in the comfort of my own home and that makes me feel safe - yet I know that this is going to be published on the internet and others are going to read it. I know not everything I say if going to be backed by proof or even taken positively by viewers. But this is still a great source of communication. Following someone's blog is like having an internet pen-pal friend. You can see what they are up to and their blog usually has a theme. You can pick when to subscribe and unsubscribe and there is no obligation to read every post. That is my take on blogging so far. I don't follow any blogs as of yet, but I do enjoy a good vlog - which isn't so far off. It is all very personal and thank you for taking the time to read this. As I continue blogging for class I am sure I will find my "blog voice" and my writing style will change to fit the genre. Opening up to new ideas isn't only important for classroom learning it's also a big part of personal growth. The more we know about the world, the more we find out about ourselves.

Here We Go

A Little Bit About Me in 30 Bullet Points or Less

Background:

• I'm from Florida, born and raised
• My graduating class was only 54 students, and no it wasn't a charter/private school
• My mother is French and I speak a bit
• I am a middle sister
• I work at Tapioca Express but still cannot grasp why California has a fascination with boba
• Math is where I am seeking my degree
• I play the Trumpet (or at least try to)
• I formerly was a part of the UF Quidditch Team and even competed
• My roommate is a Hedgehog. The deal is that I give her food and shelter in return for her pricking me.
• I have 5 less piercings on me than I'd prefer
• I was named after a literary character
• I can never seem to grow out my hair very long. I always end up chopping it off

Interests:

• I am trying to learn to skate
• Camping is my kind of party
• (Same goes for hiking or being outdoors)
• I have a collection of coasters and growlers from various breweries
• On that same note, I've made batches of beer. Some are edible. 
• I've volunteered at Comic-Con for the past 3 years
• I just bought myself a sewing machine - influenced by all the DIY projects I see on YouTube. We will see how that goes...
• I floss religiously

What the Future Holds: 

• I am en route to graduate next Winter (and am terrified!)
• I dream of learning to ride motorcycles
• One day I am going to run a Marathon
• I've had a pet Husky before and am positive I will again
• I don't plan on leaving California anytime soon, I love it here