Thursday, July 21, 2011
Constructs--Looking Ahead to Project 1
One of Downs' and Wardle's goals for Ch 1 is "considering constructs or conceptions about writing that don't survive close scrutiny" (85). In Project 1, I'm going to ask you to choose one of these constructs or conceptions about writing to explore further, so I'd like you to get used to looking at our readings through that lens. What constructs or conceptions is Kantz trying to analyze? Why would it be useful for you to understand her findings and claims? What are other important concepts and constructions that have come up in our reading so far this semester? [Due: end of day Thursday]
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The concept that Kantz explains is that of the problems that students face when writing a rhetorical paper. She states that often students don't use their research the way that they ought to and under write their papers. This article is important to understand because it can help us as students avoid the mistakes that she describes. Another important concept is that of the rhetorical situation. This one was important because it defined exactly what we are doing with our papers.
ReplyDeleteThe concept Kantz is trying to address is the use of research by student writers. She explains the various ways students misunderstand and misuse research in her article. It is important for us as students to understand her findings and claims because we might be making the same mistakes the students she writes about did.
ReplyDeleteAgreeing with Andrea I also think that one of the major concepts that the both authors analyze from chapter one is how a rhetorical paper works and what it is. Because it also explains what it is and tells us what steps or questions to ask when started with. I think it would be useful for me because it helps to understand the different kind of paper although it can be difficult to understand in the beginning.
ReplyDeleteThe concepts that Kantz are stating are clear, she clearly lists the 3 misunderstandings of majority students. I would be considered one of those students. I've enjoyed learning about "rhetoric reading" and "rhetoric situations."
ReplyDeleteThe three concepts that she noted is to help the teacher and reader be aware of these misunderstandings. It helps that i've read this because now I am aware that: not everything i read is true, not to read everything as a story, and it's ok to consider facts and opinions as claims.
It's important to understand all of the claims and findings that Kantz has found, because they seem to be useful when writing a research paper. They are good points that may help for future writings.
Kantz is trying to construct the ideas of students to a whole different point of view. Students struggle with writing and she wants to be able to give students a perspective in which they can change the way they write. Important concepts that will help throughout our reading this semester is being able to correct our mistakes by learning what we will learn in this course. This information was useful to me because Kantz explained the mistakes we do when we write and what we should be doing. I now know that not all information is true and I can state my own ideas when I research articles and write my essays.
ReplyDeleteKantz is trying to analyze the common mistakes sutdents make when doing research. She is trying to give instruction on how to better students research and how they can really be aware of what they read as well, in terms of what is opinion and what is fact. It is useful to us so that we can correct mistakes we make in researching and we can be thorough when we are writing as well. Another important claim that has come up so far in this semester would be that of rhetorical situation. Also the first article by Greene about understanding and fully analyzing a reading.
ReplyDeleteThe concepts that Kantz was trying to address were the problems that us students face when doing research. She is trying to help us understand that not everything we read is true, that facts and opinions can be claims and that we shouldn’t read everything as if it were a story. These findings and claims would help us make become better writers and readers the same way that Gran-Davie wants us to become when dealing with rhetorical situations.
ReplyDeleteKantz is advising us not to make the basic mistakes most of us students make, which are: don’t read the sources as stories, not everything we read is true, and facts can be considered claims. She is pointing out that a research paper is not extracting text from an existing text in order to create new text. She wants for us to create our own sophisticated goals such inventing original purpose, and deeply evaluating the sources, create arguments, and express our own ideas/opinions. Other important concepts and constructions that have come up in our reading so far are learning about rhetorical situations, about discourses, rhetors, audience, exigence, and constraints. We also learned that when working on a research paper one can be considered a “hunter” or a “gatherer”. Keeping all these concepts and constructions in mind should help us be better readers and writers.
ReplyDeleteThe concept that Knatz is explaining through this article is the way students research and the mistakes they make while researching which damages the written paper later on. Kantz article gives students the opportunity to see the mistakes done while researching but also the solution to it. Another concept that is also important is rhetorical situation because it shows us the way we can use it and how to use it in writing papers.
ReplyDeleteKantz's goal is to get us to look at how we read and react to readings, and intends for us to take them in differently than we are used to. Rhetorical situations and the concepts associated to it are not something students really think about, and Kantz seeks to address this so that we as students can analyze and understand readings at a deeper level.
ReplyDeleteShe is trying to analyze the common mistakes student make when writing a paper. I feel it is important because it will allow us to see these mistakes through another perspective. We can then correct these behaviors making us a better writer. Other concepts that have come up are "hunting" and "gathering", rhetorical situation, exigence, etc.
ReplyDeleteWhat Kantz is trying to explain to us is the obvious mistakes she sees students make daily when researching and writing a paper for the research and to have us learn from her writing. It is important because she is trying to help us become better writers as students by becoming better readers, by reporting her research done on a student just like us. Another concept that I think is important is like almost everyone else stated is rhetorical situation, because using it gives us a better understanding of the topic at hand.
ReplyDelete[Friday Assignment]
ReplyDeleteKants wants the student to evaluate mistakes students make when researching and writing. There are key points; that not every claim we read is inherently true, but rather a general consensus, or accepted truth.
There have been other concepts and constructs that have been presented of rhetorical situations, like the concept of discourses and the corresponding ideas tied to it. The idea is for us to reach a higher level of writing.. yet despite this, everything seems to remain in a mechanical form. Sure, we are definitely thinking at much more depth about our writing, and critically analyzing the text, but there remains an absence, and that is the human aspect. We carry emotions and feeling, experiences and dreams. Murray seeks to bring that out within our writing, to get in touch with this and embrace it. To include this in our writing to not only better ourselves, but our writing.
Murray is saying that all writing is an autobiography. He is refereeing to the autobiographical nature of texts, since he states that every writing contains traces of their creators.
ReplyDeleteThe misconceptions he is trying to address are those of other readers that are objecting his argument since they misunderstand his use of the term autobiography, assuming he’s referring to all writing as books in which people tell the stories of their lives.
Murray is advising us to see our writing as autobiography. Kantz is advising us not to do the basic mistakes most of us students make, which are: don’t read the sources as stories, not everything we read is true, and facts can be considered claims. She is pointing out that a research paper is not extracting text from an existing text in order to create new text. She wants for us to create our own sophisticated goals such inventing original purpose, and deeply evaluating the sources, create arguments, and express our own ideas/opinions. Other important concepts and constructions that have come up in our reading so far are learning about rhetorical situations, about discourses, rhetors, audience, exigence, and constraints. Kleine wrote about being a “hunter” or a “gatherer” when writing research papers. Flower talked about good reading/writing and rhetorical reading. Keeping all these concepts and constructions in mind should help us be better readers and writers especially now that Murray made us think that writing reflects how we are, what we are.
FRIDAYS ASSIGNMENT
ReplyDeleteWhat Murray is asking for us to consider is that all the writing we write is an autobiography. (Wardle pg. 56) “Rather, Murray is referring to the autobiographical nature of texts, all of which necessarily contain traces of their creators.” Wardle believes whenever you write about anything it includes yourself as a writer that makes all the writing that a writer does an autobiography. Misconceptions Murray informs about construct is convincing readers the type of autobiography he is trying to mention in his article. Readers don’t fully understand what Murray is trying to address to them when he describes autobiography. Readers think you have to write about personal information, which isn’t the case here.
From all the readings that we were assigned to read, each of the authors have wrote articles to help change the ways we thing about reading and writing. Greene and Kleine helped with discovering what type of readers we are whether we are hunters or gatherers. They taught us how to think about the information that is given to us in our research papers and having an argument towards it. Haas and Flower changed the way we look at reading and not just information but being able to construct meaning. Being able to read rhetorically is a step to becoming a good reader. Grant-Davie helped construct what a rhetorical situation is. It’s informative because it’s what we use in our daily lives and what we can use with are writing. These constructs will be able to improve my reading and writing skills for the future.
ASSIGNMENT FOR FRIDAY
ReplyDeleteMurray's thought on writing is that all writing is autobiography (always personal). Which it may be because we each put our own person thought and feeling into the writing.
Kantz wants us (students) to stay away from the three common misunderstandings: 1) we read what we as stories 2) Expect what we read to be true 3) We're not aware that facts are claims
If we apply our personal feeling as we read it'll help rhetorical situations arise. We will bring our own arguments against what we are reading, and allow us to quesiton it.
Being a hunter and/or gatherer i'm sure we all tend to believe everything that we read. We take them all as facts, rather then that they are "claiming" to be true. With that being said, we probably dont question it, because it all seems so true. When really it's every authors own person view of the subject.
Friday Assignment:
ReplyDeleteMurray brings up the idea of considering that everything that is written is in the form of an autobiography. He states that writing always had some source or part of the author attached to it. Some misconceptions the Murray tries to address is the kind of autobiography he is referring to. When he says autobiography he is not talking about a story or information about a certain persons life, but rather the fact that people views seep through their writing and become apparent to the readers.
So far from all the readings i have found that they each pose a new way of looking at writing. The different kinds of research that students do, and how rhetorical situation plays into an article.
The constructs or conception Kantz is trying to analyze is that majority of student are taught to repeat the work others have created or pursue an argument others have already argued. Instead, she is telling us that we should be creative and create our own arguments. It is useful because we haven’t really seen these actions because nobody has ever told us that we are because in high school it’s the norm, therefore we constantly repeat our actions. Other concept and constructions are as follows:
ReplyDeleteIn Murray’s “All Writing is Autobiography”, it tells us that all of the work we do contains something about us. The misconception he is trying to address is that some people feel he is referring to books in which people are telling stories about themselves.
In Grant-Davie’s “Rhetorical Situations and Their Constituents” it inform us “how writing and speech are shaped by the context in which they take place and the context(s) to which they respond” (Grant-Davie, 101).
In Hass/Flower the constructs or conception is that each person gets their own outlook from everything they read.
FRIDAY’S Assignment:
ReplyDeleteMurray’s concept is that all writing is autobiographical; he believes that all writing could be traced back to its creators. Some misconceptions Murray informs us about are convincing readers about the type of autobiography he is referring to in his article. Some people might believe that he is trying to convince people to actually write “personal” information about them, which is not the case.
Each author, from previous readings, have informed us about different things we should do when being a reader or being a writer. Haas and Flower focused on readers being able to look at writing differently by constructing meaning, being able to read rhetorically. Green and Kleine focused on helping us discover if we were hunters or gatherers. This was very important because it helped us learn how we do research and what way is better for certain situations. Grant-Davie helped us construct what a “rhetorical situation” really is and how it is shaped by the context in which it takes place. Kantz was trying to address the problems that we face when doing research and that not everything we read is evidently “true.” He shows us that claims can be both, facts and opinions, and that we shouldn’t read everything as if it were a story.
I believe that all these concepts and constructs will make us better readers and writers in the future.
Kantz speaks of revising our thinking for the sake of understanding how to support claims vs. robotic information transmission. However, to support claims a writer must come to terms with a sound argument and opinions that are commonly agreed upon with the public
ReplyDeleteThursday: Kantz is trying to help students and teachers understand what most students do wrong while researching such as not being thorough enough and taking every source for complete truth. It is, of course, useful for us as students to realize these points and try to correct them to better our own research. Another great construct and concept, I think is the rhetorical situation. It is such a big idea to grasp, but it comes in handy so much after studying it.
ReplyDeleteFriday: Murray is trying to get us to see that "all writing is autobiography." A misconception about this is that he does not mean that every single piece of writing should be personalized, but through every piece of writing, the author's viewpoints and style will come through and to the reader.
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