Post 9

Literacy has advanced a great deal since the early Sumerian’s. The Sumerians wrote using symbols. Over time the use of words replaced symbols. With time writing does progress. “The spread of electric power, the invention of radio, and later television, all promised similar bio-cultural progress” (427). With new technologies the form of writing changes. The pencil for instance was seen as a new technology at the time. “Teacher preferred pencils without erasers, arguing that students would do better, more premeditated work if they didn’t have the option of revising” (438). With time pencil writing with erasers become the norm. The added eraser helped students improve writing because they could revise and fix errors in their text. The same concept rings very true for computers. “When we began to use computers in university writing classes, instructors didn’t tell students about the spell check programs on their word processors, fearing the students would forget how to spell” (438). Today the spell check function only aids students in learning how to spell. Teachers today encourage spell check. The shape of writing has changed over time with the new technologies being introduced to the public. Pencil writing was once an advanced form of writing. Today the computer has replaced pencil writing. More than likely the future will bring about a new form of writing.

Post: 8

Similar to Danielle online gaming was a big part of my life when I was growing up. I gained technical literacy skills by being online during my free time. Other functions of the internet such as instant massager, email, MySpace, Facebook contributed to my learning. When in a school environment I was involved in typing classes at a young age. In elementary school we had computer class, where we learned the basic functions of the computer. A popular program “type to learn” was used to aid in our typing ability. This helped tremendously with my typing. Danielle mentions how in college she had to created ads with text on them. Throughout high school I was involved in graphic design classes, where we had to perform very similar tasks. In college I took visual communication. The classes centered around web based texts and images

Post: 7

Brandt talks about the impact sponsors have had on our society. Sponsors have improved literacy standards over time. “It is actually this large gap in sponsoring forms that we call the rising standard of literacy. The pace of change and the place of literacy in economic competition have both intensified enormously in the last half of the 20th century” (344). To make profit literacy is constantly changing and improving. Competition changes the standard for literacy, because sponsors are always trying to out due their competition. Brandt believes sponsors always have something to gain from sponsorship. The gain can be economic or non-economic. Sponsors can influence people politically. Having people take their side on political issues serves as a gain. Sponsors can also gain by having people adopt a certain religion. “Through the sponsorship of Baptist and Methodist ministries, African Americans in slavery taught each other to understand the Bible in subversively liberatory ways” (355). Groups and people use sponsors so that they can do certain things. A sports group gets money from sponsors in order to fund their program. “Little leaguers who wear the logo of a local insurance agency on their uniforms, not out of concern for enhancing the agency’s image but as a means for getting to play ball, people throughout history have acquired literacy pragmatically under the banner of others causes” (335). My high school wrestling team had sponsors for each of the 14 weight classes. Companies/Businesses would pay to have a banner hung up in the gym. Therefore at any sporting event their banner was seen by many.

Reflection Essay

Throughout my life I have always thought of Wikipedia as a worthless website. I had been told by my teachers all through high school that any information from Wikipedia was not credible. However, I always find myself going to Wikipedia to look up information. Not that I used the information to cite sources in my research, I avoided Wikipedia for academic papers. I used Wikipedia in my free time to look up things of personal interest. I had always been aware that anyone could add information to Wikipedia, and questioned the authenticity of anything I read. I never had a real understanding of what Wikipedia was all about. The whole function of Wikipedia was unknown to me, until I learned more about it in English 308. My task was to edit an existing Wikipedia page. The first step was creating a Wikipedia account; this took only a few minutes. A Wikipedia account is needed to make edits to articles. I then added my user name to the course page on Wikipedia.

I then began looking for articles to edit. Many topics are already covered in great detail, making finding an article the most difficult part of the project. I thought for days about what I wanted to work on. I was going through start class articles, which are smaller articles related to a larger subject. An example of this would be sharks, and how a start class article would a specific type of shark. I have always had a strong interest in film. I typed my favorite movies into Wikipedia to see what information was available on them. Most of them had an ample amount of text already written. I then looked up the movie Fighting Back and saw only one sentence written about the movie. Being one of my favorite movies, I began my editing process and enjoyed it quite a bit. The research and writing was the easiest part of the edit. This was only true because I had been doing research papers all my life, making it routine. The difficult part was understanding the basic functions of Wikipedia. The sandbox was of great help in learning how to properly create links. To make edits on Wikipedia certain codes must be entered. The only real trouble I ran into was entering the references and cite pages. I had to watch some tutorial videos to understand more thoroughly how to do so. Wikipedia does a great job at explaining how to use its website.

Leading up to the due date for the edit we had read many passages from “Writing about Writing.” Many of which tie into Wikipedia. James E. Porter’s concept of intertextuality is very relevant to Wikipedia. Defined by Porter as “the idea that all texts contain traces of other texts and that there can be no text that does not draw on some ideas from some other texts” (86). In Wikipedia a large majority of the text comes from other sources. A great deal of research goes into writing the articles, which is shown by the references and cite pages listed at the bottom of the articles. Other people also add their own text to articles that have already been written. The process by which others can add and take away information from others articles makes Wikipedia a unique feature composed various portions of others work. “Examining texts intertextually means looking for traces, the bits and pieces of text which writing or speakers borrow and sew together to create new discourse” (88). Various sources are used to bring information together on a single page, for a single article. Sub links in articles allow users to link themselves to other articles just by clicking the highlighted term. Each article on Wikipedia should contain some sub links, making the single article link and relate to many articles. Wikipedia would not be possible if done by a single person, it takes many contributions to make Wikipedia an effective tool. After several edits on a Wikipedia article traces of the original article will still remain. Porter uses the Declaration of Independence as an example. The original Declaration of Independence underwent many changes “actually the Declaration arose out of a cultural and rhetorical milieu, was composed of traces and was, in effect, team written” (90). The way Congress made edits to Jefferson original draft, relates to how people make edits to others original Wikipedia articles.

Articles written on Wikipedia are subject to review by discourse communities. “Some discourse communities are firmly established, such as the scientific community, medical profession, and the justice system” (92). If one were to write about a medical concept an editor knowledgeable in the medical field may review that article. The article may be deleted or edited if fails to meet their standards or lacks truthful information. Every article on Wikipedia may undergo an edit at any time, by any user. Whether the edit stays is up to the editors on Wikipedia.

Wikipedia is a great search engine. Although not a credible source in an academic sense, Wikipedia can lead to credible information. The references and cite pages link the user to other pages on the topic. These links may lead to credible sources that can be used for academic papers. Once a person understands the function of Wikipedia it can be a very effective starting point for research papers. In the future I plan to use Wikipedia as a basic starting point for my research.

Post 6: Rhetorical Situations and Their Constituents

Grant Devine writes about four important terms, rhetor, audience, exigence, and constraints. Rhetor refers the people who communicate a message. The communicator's goal is to make others perform a specific function. Rhetors use language to persuade others to do a certain task. An example would be a friend telling another friend he hasn’t eaten all day. The friend hearing this will then offer food. The friend did not directly ask for food, but used his communication skills to get what he wanted.

The people who are intended to hear the communication are the audience. Advertisements can sometimes target a specific audience who they want to sell their products to. An advertisement about barbies will appeal to little girls, making young girls the audience.

Exigence can be looked at as ones desires. At a car dealership the car salesman has a desire to sell the car while the customer has a desire to buy the car.

Constraints are problems that hinder ones needs. A person may desire something but certain factors prevent them from achieving their desires. A boy may want to ask a girl out but fear of rejection prevents him from doing so.

Post 5: Shitty first drafts

Anne Lamott tells us that even the best writers lack confidence and direction when sitting down to write. “I know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully, and have made a great deal of money, and not one of them sits down routinely feeling wildly enthusiastic and confident” (301). Lamott wants us to realize good writing takes practice and time. Writing a paper is a process, and should be done in several steps. These steps include a first, second, and third draft. The first draft is supposed to be horrible and the whole point of the firs draft is to simply write something down, anything down. A writer can then build from that first draft. “Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something anything down on paper” (303). To produce quality writing one most have patience, and one must not expect to write a great paper their very first try.
In wikipedia anyone can edit and add information. However, this information is reviewed by others and kept or taken down at their discretion. The very best information will stay. In a way this relates to Lamott’s argument. When writing on wikipedia for your very first time one should not expect to have great information. Writing on wikipedia takes practice, and may take several efforts to get your information on wikipedia as a source. What a writer can do is revise and resubmit information. The first submission may be turned down, but if one keeps editing and revising, the next may be accepted.

Post 4: "All Writing is Autobiography"

Donald M. Murray views all writing as being autobiographical. He questions the fact that many consider academic writing to be non-personal. The writing we create has parts of ourselves embedded in it. Murray believes our writing is shaped by past childhood experiences. Our past experiences shape how we write, and our text is autobiographical because it has been written by us. “The poem that was for a few seconds imaginary has become autobiographical by being written” (61). Murray’s poem is autobiographical because it was created and written by him, and shaped by his own mind. Murray states “I Have my own peculiar way of looking at the world and my own way of using language to communicate what I see"(58). How we see the world based on memories and experiences shapes the way we write. Writing we create in turn becomes autobiographical because we wrote it ourselves based on our view of the world.

Post 3:Intertextuality and the Discourse Community

Porter talks about intertextuality, the idea that writing contains text that are related to other texts. Writers get ideas from other pieces of work. Porter even mentions how Thomas Jefferson used text from other writers in writing the Declaration of Independence. When writing it's important to write in relation to a certain audience, and use ideas that are related to a certain discourse community. A writer must write in relation to some discourse community. Porter defines discourse communities as forums where everyone writes within certain rules and uses the same style of thinking. The harm in imagining writing as individual and isolated is that it’s not individual. When writing, text is borrowed from other text that we have read in the past. When thinking of writing as being heroic, one must understand writing needs to be within some social context for others to read and understand its meaning. Porter believes writing is part of a larger process that extends beyond anything individual. Writing relates to a certain discourse community and the content of writing lies within the community. Writers will use phrases to influence the audiences reaction. Porter gives the example of the Kent State article using “two women shot” instead of two men. When the author mentions how two people killed were women, the readers will feel more emotion. In our American society the majority of people view killing women to be more shocking as Porter puts it, than killing men. Even the most skilled writers write within a certain social context. When writing its important to have an audience you hope to influence with your work.