Bria Jones

Moodle Posts 1. Discuss your favorite chapter (or chapters) that you read for this week (this means 5, 6, and 7). Use any pertinent quotes or ideas that stand out to you and discuss how you will use this advice in your literacy narrative or in other class assignments. Also, I'd like for everyone to write an introduction to their literacy narrative using one of the techniques Bohannon mentions (quote, definition, creativity, use personal experience, etc.). You do not necessarily have to use this in your actual draft, but I want you to have different introductory options to choose from. a. I really liked all of the chapters we had to read this week. They all deal with the things I struggle most with while writing papers. In chapter five, Bohannon said You need to explore your topic before trying to organize your ideas into a paper. Sometimes when Im assigned an assignment it takes a while for me to think of ideas, and most of the time theyre irrelevant to the topic. I like the way she provided strategies to help get your ideas flowing and help decipher the main idea. Im used to the web and that helps sometimes. Ill probably give the free writing strategy a try and see how that works for me. Chapter six really caught my attention because she was talking about thesis statements. That was always a concept that was somewhat difficult for me to grasp, but she helped me understand it. Also, she helped me understand you dont always have to start new paragraphs with transition words, but you can use transition sentences instead because Ive always done the repetitive and clich transition words. In chapter eight, I loved how she basically told us we have free reign as to how we open up our paper. I was always used to finding a quote and putting your thesis at the end. It helped me understand that as long as I intrigue the reader, I can do whatever I want for my intro. b. There are over 200 million illiterate women in India. This low literacy negatively impacts not just their lives but also their families and the countrys economic development. A girls lack of education also has a negative impact on the health and well-being of her children. Sachin Tendulkar. This quote directly reflects gender as a social force that impacts literacy. Knowing these odds are against them, makes it that much harder for the women in developing countries to be literate. Also, in America women are held to a certain standard as far as being literate. If they dont reach that standard, theyre then looked down on. 2. Based on your readings, respond to one of the following questions (250-500 words) as well as one of your peers (50 words): Though race seems to play a large part in both of their literacy narratives, Hughes and X approach the narrative, itself, very differently. Discuss some of these differences (as well as some similarities) and explain which one you think is more effective.

Bria Jones

In both pieces several social forces impact Hughes and X. Discuss some of these social forces, and how you believe that they impacted the author(s) literate, communicative, written lives. OPEN TOPIC. Discuss one (or both) pieces in detail. What particularly struck you? How did these works make you think about your own literacy narrative differently? a. Reading the piece by Malcolm X was very interesting to me. We all know of him as being a very important person in African American History, but I never expected much of this. The fact that he was able to teach himself to read is very remarkable. I really like the way he had a desire to learn to write and be able to read. In the piece by Langston Hughes, it seemed like he didnt really want to write and that he felt it was somewhat difficult. He had to do it because he was in a class and that was the writing assignment. In the piece by Hughes he made race more of an issue. He talked about race a lot and basically stated how things were in America with whites and blacks. X didnt do that as much, it was more of his story being in Prison school. Both of these pieces were similar in the fact that they were both talking about overcoming a certain issue. For example, Malcolm X always wanted to be able to write and slowly but surely he taught himself through hard work and dedication. As far as Hughes, just being in school and getting an education is pretty much a breakthrough for him and the black community. In my opinion I think the piece by Malcolm X is more effective. Just the way he goes into detail about his process in learning how to write and learning his words leaves me in awe. I couldnt imagine doing that myself. Al so, in the end, when he talked about how he just wanted to read. The way he would read in the library or on his bunk shows his dedication to learn and achieve more goals. 3. This week I'd like you to take an especially close look at The Lorax. As Marshall points out, the book can be read as both a children's book and an environmental piece. I'd like you to make two lists-- one of the rhetorical choices that Seuss makes in writing a children's book, and one of the rhetorical choices that Seuss makes in writing an environmental piece. I'd like you to look at the language, the characters, illustrations, etc. If you can't see the pictures clearly enough, you should be able to Google some of them. We will use these lists for part of our next class, so I suggest that you write your lists down on notebook paper as well as post them to moodle.

a.

When I first listened to the e-book of The Lorax, I just thought of it of the typical Dr. Seuss story with rhymes and funny characters. It wasnt until I read The Lorax and the Ecopolice that I actually saw two sides of the story. The childrens book side, and the more subliminal environmental side. The fact that Dr. Seuss packed an important global issue into a nursery rhyme or childrens book to where those silly words and rhymes get stuck in your head was very clever.

Childrens Book:

Bria Jones

Typical villain: The Onceler because hes chopping down all of the trees and making all of the animlas move away Typical hero: The Lorax because hes the one advocating for The Onceler to stop chopping down the trees and putting smoke in the air from his factory Exaggeration of the Truffula Trees: How colorful and curvy they are compared to normal trees Close look at the habitat of the Swomee Swans, Bar-ba-loots, and Humming-Fish The rhymes throughout the book All of the many pictures with a few words at a time The interesting product thneed everyone needs one

Environmental:

Directly targets timber industries The Lorax is an environmentalist The antipollution and anti-greed theme The past tense talk on how the grass and land used to look Theres always protesters telling industries that cut down trees to stop, but they dont listen The fact that these companies can be selfish All of the pollution and smoke in the air causes animals to leave their habitat Cutting down trees cause animals to leave their habitat 4. This week's post will contain many parts, because I think this article is an important stepping stone to understanding why genres are sometimes broken. So . . . 1. First address all the different genres you can find throughout the piece. I found at least four, but if any of you see more I'm definitely interested to learn from you. 2. Address why you think Anzaldua made the choice to use so many different types of genre. What does it do for the piece? What does it do for the reader? 3. Find quotes that back up your argument for point two. HINT: Make sure the quotes are from Anzaldua, and not from another person whose quote she inserted. 4. Tell me your opinion about the piece. Did it throw you off? Did you love it? Why? You may also want to write the answers to these questions down on a sheet of paper since most of our next class will revolve around them. a. The different types of genre I saw in this piece were non-fiction narrative, autobiography, humor, and somewhat of an informational/textbook piece. b. I think she used multiple genres to introduce a new perspective to the reader. Most people are used to having to read one genre in a text, but because this has multiple, it can help with keeping the attention of the reader and making them enjoy it more. It makes the piece entertaining, but also kind of hard to grasp the point that the author is trying to get across. c. The way the piece goes from a humorous nonfiction My mouth is a motherlode and forms the question How to Tame a Wild Tongue? to saying

Bria Jones

Chicano Spanish sprang out of the Chicanos need to identify ourselves as distinct people. There changed the perspective to informational and gave facts about her life because she was constantly using the word We. d. I thought the piece was kind of interesting. It was hard to keep up with and kind of confusing because she is literally all over the place. But I think the piece is very informational and I like the informational aspect of the piece more than anything else. 5. As you can (hopefully) tell from the two pieces combined, Oprah and James Frey/ his editor are ultimately having a conversation about breaking genre. Oprah claims that the book would have worked as a novel, but because it was published as a memoir all the readers who bought the book have been "duped." James' editor fires back that memoir is based off how someone remembers an experience, and that's the way that James remembers his. In this response, argue for whether you agree with Oprah or not. Should James Frey have published his book as a novel? Does the story (and I'm speaking to the portion that you read) lose its potency after you found out some of it was exaggerated? After reading this what have you learned about the consequences of breaking genre? Do genres need to be so strictly categorized? a. I agree with Oprah all the way. Memoirs are supposed to be written from memory, and true facts. Granted, every author fabricates their writing, which is the beauty of being a writer, but it should be at the appropriate time. The way he wrote his memoir full of lies isnt the appropriate time. I think his editor shouldve reviewed it thoroughly before it was published to check and make sure there were legitimate facts and not just a bunch of made up stuff. Especially since he claimed to have kept up with journals and such. I think it does lose a lot of potency when the reader finds out that a lot of the stuff was exaggerated or changed. I feel like the author fooled me and he did it on purpose. I can understand how he changed certain details to protect the confidentiality of people in his story, like Lilly for example. I definitely did see negative consequences of breaking genre in this assignment. As a reader it makes you feel betrayed, and as an author it makes you look like an idiot when it comes out that everything in the memoir was extremely exaggerated. That also will make the authors fan base turn against them, because they couldve used the book as motivation. I dont think genres need to be strictly categorized, but I do feel like authors should follow the general rules of the genre. For example, a memoir is a sub-genre of non-fiction and if the author fabricates it so much it crosses over to a fictional novel more than a memoir.