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Hope Roweth
Mrs. Litle
ENG 121.001
27 March 2017
Bazermans Article
As I go throughout my daily life I notice that every task I do has some type of structure,

organization and a system. It could be anything from going to class or doing tasks at home.

Charles Bazerman noticed these things also and even wrote an article about them. Bazerman

talks about how writing and the structure of it. He says When we look inside the courses where

the required writing is actually done, we see even more typified structures in which writing takes

place. In each course, we have identifiable cycles of texts and activities, shaped by a syllabus,

plans, assigned textbooks and readings, and assignment sheets which structure expectations and

consequences. (Bazerman367) Everywhere I go now I think of the how Bazerman discusses

how we use social acts, genres, and activity systems. Like I said before we use them constantly

without even knowing.

The first thing Bazerman goes into detail about is social facts. Social facts consist of

meaningful social actions being accomplished being accomplished through language, or speech

acts. (Bazerman 367-368) He talks about how they have genres, which are what patterns are

carried out by textual forms. These things can structure the way we think about something. For

example, in a classroom there are things that your teacher gives you. Lets take this class for

example. At the beginning, we were given a syllabus that had everything planned out on it and

what to expect over the next couple of weeks. We also use social creativity in this class when it

comes to the things we talk about. When we all wrote about the TV ads we were bringing social

activity into our discussions. Some of the choices of the word choices they use in the ads make

can influence the readers ideas and thoughts about the topic. Since we all had different topics we

got to see how each other respond and think about the ads. Bazerman says By introducing these
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different topics, you are introducing different activities, interactional patterns, attitudes, and

relationships. (Bazerman 368)

The ad I chose was about animal abuse. When I was looking through the ads I noticed

that there were many of them that were not true. However, since I was on the internet I assumed

they were automatically true. I was mad at this company for the way they tested their products on

animals but the ad was made up by some other company. The other company made it up to

hopefully get their competitors company to see this and not want to buy their products. This was

an example of social fact. I believed that it was true and how I defined the situation was to not

buy their products. In the article Bazerman explains Very often social facts bear on the words of

people speak or write and on the force the utterance carries. (Bazzerman 369) What I got out of

this was that if someone with authority says something then it will be believe easier. The

example Bazerman wrote about was how students looked at a syllabus and saw that there was a

upcoming due date that they will need to do it on that date. But if the teacher said that the due

date will be extended they will act on it and maybe turn the paper in a different day. Then he

goes on to talk about how the professor may or may not share this social belief about what he

said.
A philosopher John Austin wrote a book called How to Do things with Words. Bazerman

goes into detail about how this author explains how words not only mean things, but they do

things. (Bazerman 370) Some example would be like marriage. Not just anyone could marry off

people it has to be a proper person. The statement itself does something but the preacher declares

these words. He also talks about how it not only has to be the right person but it has to be the

right situation as well.

As they continue throughout the article I get into my favorite part of Bazerman. This is

where he begins to talk about how the speech acts operate on the three levels. The levels are the

locutionary act, proposition act, and illocutionary effect. For example, if I were sitting by my
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friend and I said Im hungry, this would be the locutionary act because this is the thing that

was literally said because I am telling my friend what Im feeling. The act I may be trying to

accomplish is for my friend to want to get up and go get some food. The act Im trying to get my

friend to hear is the illocutionary effect. How people take up the acts and determine the

consequences of that act for the future interaction is called the perlocutionary act. (Bazerman

371) These effects are my favorite because I am able to see how the apply most in my daily life.
The things I talked about were in my eyes the most important things you need to know

about Bazermans article. I related to them a lot and was able to see how these were applied to

my life most. Words arent just things you read but things that affect us and do actions. They

persuade our thoughts and even decisions. Before reading this article, I did not understand how

much words our lives and actions. Bazerman however opened my eyes to that.

Bazerman, Charles. Speech Acts, Genres, and Activity Systems: How Texts Organize Activity

and People. What Writing Does and How It Does It: An Introduction to Analyzing Texts and

Textual Practices. Ed. Charles Bazerman and Paul London: Routledge, 2004. 309-39. Print.