Archive for year: 2015

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Ph_nM8N9q4h5POadvG-1CWy2ipmhBmJueD3_QPkANj8/edit#slide=id.gbe0b9ae02_0_0

Reading chapter 4 was quite controversial. Chapter 4 basically talked about whether technology is making us dumber? at the beginning of the chapter I didn’t necessarily agree with the statement, but I did think of ways how social media, television, and the use of technology can take away from our learning. However, I began to think about it deeper, and if technology only has a negative effect on teens and children. What really stood out for me were the results of some research studies on teens and television use. There didn’t seem to be a strong correlation between television viewing and educational displacement. Middle and lower class teens appeared to have better grade point averages than the higher class teens whom watched less television then them. Also, I was shocked to learn about the IQ scores improvement compared to the 1970s. These studies made me think a lot about what really other than technology really affects student achievement and success?

BRIEF SUMMARY:

Williams’ essay tells the story of three different writing mindsets: the journalist, the writer, and the teacher, and how Williams knows about all three firsthand. Williams’ journalist self stems from his desire to get into journalism when he was very young. He was always taught “Accuracy, accuracy, accuracy,” yet he wanted to tell his story. He believed that a journalist had the ability to skew the story in a way that reflected them as a writer, as a storyteller. Williams’ voice as a writer was much more liberal; nevertheless, like his role in journalism, he capitalizes upon the importance of the truth. The example he uses is when he writes a story based on real people in his life. Like, with his journalism, he tells a story, his story. The last voice is his voice as an instructor. He tells his students that truth is a social construct and isn’t necessarily objective, jumping off his previous points that it is a writer’s duty to tell his story, going back to both journalism and writing.

All three points touch upon one common idea: that a writer does not just present a story, they tell the story in their own way, even if it means it is not entirely true. The idea of truth is not an objective one; everyone has their truth to tell, and the writer tells his or hers. Both journalists and writers are storytellers; however, it is their differing prerogatives that separate them by title.

This cartoon is a good example from the journalist side of this story, yet it does hold the main idea of the article. Journalists and the media have been known to be synonymous with one another. Their job is to inform the masses, yet nowadays, it is not common to be delivered purely unbiased news. Each journalist, each newspaper, each news station has their own bias and isn’t afraid to complement their story with their own agenda and beliefs. In fact, reporters from the three biggest cable news networks (MSNBC, Fox News, and CNN) have been accused multiple times of pushing their own bias. Williams backs this idea up when he states: “It’s not that people are trying to lie…it is simply that we all construct our perceptions and memories based on our experiences, our desires, and our cultural expectations” (298). Truth is subjective, contrary to popular belief and everyone tells their own, true or not.

 

This image sums up the idea of Williams’ essay very nicely. It is not known who originally said this quote. The quote emphasizes the idea that not everybody will hold the same truth. Each one of us holds our own perspective and sees the world through our own eyes.

MY OWN BELIEFS

In my life, like Williams, I have been taught under the rule that one should always tell the truth. I have grown up believing that there was only one truth. Reading this article put a lot into perspective for me. I never thought of viewing the truth as a social construct, as being subjective, as being a viewpoint. However, I have to say I agree with Williams upon thinking of the media, telling the same story yet a different one. This idea is especially relevant today, being just a year away from electing our forty-fifth president. Many presidential candidates will be telling their truths, and they definitely will not coincide with those of their opponents.

This idea has been important in my writing, personally. When I was in high school, I was not as good of a writer as I was today. My sophomore English teacher was able to hit on the head what I was doing wrong. She pointed out to me that I use too much summary in my papers; I just reiterate ideas. She wanted to see my personal touch in my writings, through my own words and beliefs. In subsequent papers, I offered more analysis and commentary, putting my own skewed view on my assignments. I noticed that I got much better grades than I have before. I have utilized this method in my college papers and have seen my GPA increase more and more. In this case, I was telling my truth, my story. The subject is irrelevant; I have utilized this method in essays about Ronald Reagan and short stories for subsequent English classes, and I have still seen the same positive feedback.

I feel that this subject ties well in our discussion on fiction and that the placement of this article in the semester was apropos. While not always “truth,” fiction is all about telling stories to inform and entertain the masses. This objective is exactly how the journalist, the writer, and the teacher are described by Williams. They offer their wisdom to the world; they tell their stories. Williams’ uses truth in his fictitious story; he bases it on his own experiences, and it is quite obvious to the people who read it. We are storytellers, on both paper and in person, and our truth is our own.

 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. In terms of writing, is there truly such a thing as “unbiased?” Why or why not?
2. Can “truth” exist in fiction? Why or why not?

 

WORKS CITED

Hirschfield, Neal. “Teaching Cops to See.” Smithsonian Magazine. October 2009. Web. 4 Oct 2015.

Williams, Bronwyn. “Never Let the Truth Stand in the Way of a Good Story: A Work for Three Voices.” College English (Jan., 2003) 290-304. Web.

 

Discourse communities usually have six criteria in which need to be met according to John Swales in “The Concept of Discourse Community,” in which make up the whole of that discourse community. In whole, discourse communities need a goal, communication between the group, written communication, a genre, a vocabulary that fits the discourse, and expertise within the community. These are defined pretty stringently and are not too terribly difficult to be met if it is actually a discourse community with all of the above elements not so loosely met.

A common public goal as Swale puts it, are usually written or are sometimes implicit. In college sports such as Antelope Valley women’s Soccer the common goal is to compete against other colleges within the same division in a collegiate soccer match. The goal is to collaborate, practice, and increase athleticism in order to sufficiently out-compete other colleges. This definition would fit that “A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals,” (1). Typically college sports universally look to advance in fitness and learn to collaborate as a team and hopefully win matches with a lot of practice and discipline.

The intercommunication that exists within this discourse community in which are written are text messages, E-mails, Facebook, Flyers, Media Guides, and Twitter. In this way information about team meetings, schedules, and other important communication can be dispersed and replied to depending on which type of media it is. Text messaging usually disseminates the scheduling, as well as flyer, and E-mail. While the media guide gives a general depiction of team members and the data after the season is over. Twitter and Facebook serve more as a general media to communicate by which still content-dense but is a little more socially fit.

Participation and inter-communication from one another is another crucial piece involved. “A discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback,” (1). As Swales defines, the engagement and intercommunication are part of the major functions of it.

Particularly in women’s soccer for Antelope Valley College, the mechanisms in which to do this are from attending practice, weight training, and lecture. Most of the common goal is directed towards increasing ones fitness however other important aspects are a common goal as well such as team work and commitment. Being on a collegiate sports team increases collaboration, dedication, and high work ethic.

One learns that it truly takes the entire unit to collaborate and dedicate with a high intrinsic motivation to evolve a team. The level of involvement often stems from the coach in which information is drawn out “plays” before a team and during practice; in which the entire unit begins to learn subconsciously organized and as a team in order to execute the entire function. One cannot stress the importance, of connectedness and collaboration it takes to create a winning entity.

The genre “These may involve appropriateness of topics, the form, function and positioning of discourse elements, and the roles texts play in the operation of the discourse community,” (1). The genre is narrowed down further and further beginning with a college, then the type of college, then the sport or club within the college, and then what the type of sport is. The genre in a sense is a narrowed down category of what the discourse community is. In this case it is pretty straight forward as to what the genre is as opposed to some other types of discourse communities.

The identified lexis is in this case Kinesiology based, mostly communicated by the soccer coach but also inter-exchanged between team members. The coach is the expert in which teaches the main functions whether by quotes, through experts in the field, basic terminologies, or other relative and or creative feats that communicate the goal for the team. “Repetition leads to retention,” was a quote I oftentimes heard back in 2008 for AVC Women’s soccer. But other important terms were emphasized such as learning the different anatomy, training techniques, specific play strategies, and even learning geographically where other locations existed because games are traveled at other colleges.

A lot of discipline and technique were non-verbal and physical as well but one can identify these with the lexis. A funny term used for torture (not literally) was the term “Burpie” because it always implied that the team would be implementing even more exertion on top of aerobic training, core training, and then those on top of it. One of the interesting parts of being a part of women’s soccer was learning how the statistics are calculated which is the goals, assists, and goals assist average. One can look at the NCAA website to see how these are organized and calculated.

The expertise within the community is usually based in a background in soccer in which experience is based on past experience with a club team or experience playing in High School. It is not impossible to get in without the background but it is definitely very difficult without it. Another words, usually participants with experience are included in this type of discourse community. However there are other ways to get involved without actually playing the sport such as applying to be an assistant or other type of role which usually also require their own separate type of expertise. But not always, there are even team members that participate that are whole-heartedly dedicated that never get to play although they are few.

 

Sources

1. Swales, John. “The Concept of Discourse Community.” Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1990. https://csuci.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/pid-1078759-dt-content-rid-2035541_1/courses/2158_ENGL_107_01_1410/Swales%20Discourse%20Community.pdf

There where many points in these articles in which I related day to day experiences society has with the news and media in general. In the article Poverty’s Poor Show in the Media there where three particular statements that jumped out at me. For one when the article spoke about” journalist interviewing people who are like us” concluding they are generally middle class and white. This article also spoke about how it’s boring to report about poor people and the news stations don’t pressure reporters to cover such topics. People get bored easily and don’t like to hear about negative things going on around them, which is why reports and understanding of poor people is a difficult task. People need be able to understand and look at both the good and the bad around the world to be able to understand it. An informed citizen can make all the difference down the road. The other article that really stood out to me was the Four Problems With the Way the Media Depicts People specifically the quote “accurate and diverse media representation is essential.” Hearing something doesn’t always make it accurate most stories people even tell their friends are skewed in some way to make it sound more dramatic than it actually was. This article also talked about how it is not only boring to report about poor people but when they do it usually involves just facts and numbers instead of an interview that isn’t just handed to them.  How something is represented makes all the difference whether or not somebody will pay any attention to it. People also generally show a blind eye to issues if it doesn’t directly effect them.