843 Matching Annotations
  1. Sep 2017
    1. allows the audience and griot to keep their place in the story, but also emphasizes the emotions the storyteller is trying to evok

      Yes, both important features of oral delivery.

    2. cultures are “agonistically toned” in that they are steeped in themes of physical prowess and violence, as well as effusive praise, which creates a “highly polarized, agonistic, oral world of good and evil, virtue and vice, villains and heroes” (45).

      This is impressive writing and analysis. You clearly and identify the distinctive characteristics Ong argues are part of oral composition. You do this with precision and elegance. This paragraph also sets up your analysis of Sundiata very nicely.

  2. tylerchalmers.wordpress.com tylerchalmers.wordpress.com
    1. very immaculate

      not sure I follow

    2. This is very true when there are larger audiences, Ong states that not everyone understands every single word that a speaker is saying but it does not stop them from moving towards the next thing said. Copia is an idea that rhetoricians use to explain that when you’re speaking it is better to move on or repeat what you said previously instead of stopping, this is done to keep the listener(s) captivated. Another aspect that was brought up by Ong was the idea that when you are reading something your mind is open to a different type of speculation of how something may have happened. In the oral culture, there is much less speculation because every story is unique and is told certain ways to insinuate and certain happening at the time. This could be done many ways but can be done the way they articulate the story and the emotions the speaker may have. These can all influence how you may view and hear a story.

      Good points - better still if you can connect to the Sundiata text.

    3. With more repetition comes a more accurate representation of the oral story told to the next person.

      Partly true - Ong talks about "homeostasis" in Oral tales, the "drift" that takes place, the adaptation to a new context, and the fact that things just get deleted if they are no longer relevant, since remembering is hard. But repetition does help in the creation and delivery of texts, and through practice tales take shape, which is perhaps what you are getting at here.

    4. “Sundiata.” At the end of most of the lines, there are chimes that create a receptive element to the story.

      Yes, this is easily the most characteristic stylistic element. It's great you mention this.

    5. learn info much quicker and m

      This is rather vague and imprecise (homework assignments should be a bit more formal - a general response if fine for reading responses).

    6. Rhythm is one thing that Ong discusses as a very important part of learning something orally. Repetition, patterns, breathing processes and gestures are all things that make it easier for people to learn something orally.

      Good - these are key points Ong makes, and directly relevant to the composition of the Sundiata text.

      Remember to support your analysis with textual evidence and textual examples.

    7. He compares it to picture and video saying that sound could never be stopped like a movie could into pictures.

      Yes, that is one of his most compelling analogies. We can imagine doing a "freeze frame" on video, and analyzing the composition, and visual texts more broadly make possible stasis. But (until recently) oral texts exist momentarily and can't be frozen, and thus dissected and manipulated and arrayed in space.

    1. writing for an audience,” not only encourages people to write more

      Yes, central to his argument.

    2. Thompson claims that in today’s age, there are a lot more writers than before, he adds that the usage of Internet and social media platforms have modified the way that writers carry themselves

      Excellent - this is indeed one of Thompson's key points. (Perhaps "carry themselves" could be a bit more precise).

    3. Overall, I really enjoyed both of these texts since they both brought a lot of information to light.

      Great post - enjoyed reading it.

    4. rely risen at all. More astonishly, that today’s freshman-comp essays are over six times longer than they were back then, and generally more complex.” (67) This is an important claim because it is coming from someone who has actually digested and studied student’s writing over the years, which includes before and during the rise of social media platforms. This type of research specifically, is something I would be interested in looking into.

      Great observation - bravo.

    5. rebuttles

      rebuttals

    6. or she may be one of many. I would’ve liked to see him provide more evidence behind that claim.

      I agree that Thompson's evidence for this claim seems fishy. I believe his larger point is on solid ground, but he exaggerates and his reasoning seems sloppy, which undermines his ethos.

    7. Thompson emphasizes the idea that “Literacy in North America has historically been focused mainly on reading, not writing; consumption, not production.” (50)

      I really like that you have selected this quotation since it is often glossed over in readings of Thompson's work but is very important, particularly for scholars of the history of literacy. In some respects this is the most radical dimension of new media. It could signal a shift in the nature of mass literacy.

  3. annette511blog.wordpress.com annette511blog.wordpress.com
    1. our very first post. Click the Edit link to modify o

      great point

    1. ral-a large following may end up being needlessly frustrating and hard to control. It would be fascinating to see if any studies have been done on what number of followers is most manageable.

      Great discussion and analysis of Thompson. Keep it up! This is thoughtful, comprehensive, and smart.

    2. claiming “conversation works best when it’s smaller” and “conversation doesn’t scale” (80). He specifically cites YouTube and Newspapers as having so many people contributing to their comments sections that they easily

      Great analysis of Thompson's argument!

    3. Thompson states, but writing digitally puts our thinking in order even more successfully due to the “audience effect” (5

      Nicely put.

    4. f Thompson had explained how exactly he had come to that 36 million book estimate, however, his ethos would be strengthened and his claim more persuasive. H

      Agree entirely. This seemed sloppy and a little fishy.

    5. Lunsford is a professor at a well-respected college a

      Yes, it doesn't get more prestigious than Stanford.

    6. more “writing” and “production” instead of just “reading” and “consumption”

      Yes, this is central to Thompson's argument, and key to changes in mass literacy.

    7. This response will include a summary and evaluation of and some reflection on Thompson’s main claims and rebuttals in his “Public Thinking” piece. It will also contain a brief discussion of certain intriguing parts of Herrick’s “An Overview of Rhetoric.”

      Nice metadiscourse section

    1. by taking a stand against the fragmentation of Americans, there’s an assumption that there is one, true ur-American to be fragmented

      Not sure this necessarily follows. I suspect Herrick would share some of your concerns. Whether fragmentation or cohesive community are accorded a positive or negative value seems in large part a matter of context.

    2. I can’t help but think that some things may slip through the cracks if New Media Studies were to simply be a part of rhetoric

      I agree. Herrick is proposing what is sometimes called "big rhetoric." I'm not really on board. Rhetoric needs to be interdisciplinary, but it should not make too large a "land grab" in establishing its relevance. I'm not sure the field has the theoretical firepower to make such a claim, and in suggesting everything is rhetorical there is a danger of collapsing levels of analysis.

    3. here contributors discussed their inputs. From here he discussed digital marginalia (82), which is something that already exists, to a point, for readers on a Kindle who use the X-Ray function. It will be fascinating to see how marginalia will be remediated into a digital culture.

      This is a smart, thoughtful, expansive analysis of Thompson. I really enjoyed reading it. You have set a high bar for your (and others') reading responses!

    4. eate audiences, make connections” (78). Ultimately, access to the internet has provided users with a platform to express themselves in a thoughtful manner (whether or not they actually do so) and way for like minds to achieve goals.

      This paragraph captures his central claims precisely and eloquently.

    5. Thompson further claimed that the increase in society’s reading and writing is changing our behavior. He wrote that, historically, North American literacy focused on the ability to read, not write (50). Pre-internet, not a lot of people “wrote anything at all for pleasure or intellectual satisfaction after graduation from high school or college”

      Yes, this is an absolutely crucial point, one with potentially radical implications for mass literacy.

    6. Smarter Than You Think (2013), in which Thompson argues the internet is “changing our minds for the better” – the book’s tagline. In this chapter, Thompson laid forth the claim that the internet has exponentially increased the amount of writing done regularly, and that the increase in both reading and writing facilitated by the internet is changing our behavior. To strengthen his claims, he used studies published by university professors, anecdotal evidence, and historical evidence.

      Beautiful opening paragraph - captures the rhetorical situation elegantly.

  4. Jul 2017
    1. Because teens grew up in a world in which the internet has always existed, many adults assume that youth automatically understand new technologies.

      test

  5. Dec 2016
    1. "Michael — the police called pizza gate a fictitious conspiracy theory tonight," Tapper wrote. "Does someone have to die before you take this s--- seriously. Spreading this nonsense is dangerous." "I want it to be false," Flynn Jr. responded. "It is not the site of a satanic pedophilia cult," Tapper shot back. "It is a f------ pizzeria. Show me what you're talking about that proves a satanic pedophilia cult. Your tweet is wildly irresponsible. Listen to me. You are going to get someone killed. Maybe an innocent child. For what??????"

      Feels like I'm in an alternate universe. A port-truth universe. Thanks social media (;-)

    1. The barriers to entry for media outlets, including the bogus ones that spread the Pizzagate story, are extremely low, while traditional outlets can no longer maintain any sort of oligopoly on distributing news, so that the emergence of fake news stories is unstoppable. The press can debunk them, of course, and in fact it has done an admirable job—as Silverman’s piece and another in the Times did. But this makes little difference. The audiences that are receptive to those debunkers are the ones who would have missed the original fake story anyway, and the ones who believe the fake story are inclined to dismiss mainstream reports out of hand, so the debunkers won’t influence them either.

      Alarming example of the danger of filter bubbles and the collapse of traditional journalism/gatekeepers

  6. Sep 2016
    1. It’s time for us to join the future and support all forms of 21st century litera-cies, inside school and outside school.

      Being told I must "join the future" makes me nervous. Wasn't Mulder's battle cry in one of the X-files movies "fight the future"? What if Facebook is not in fact the shiny new commons where democracy will flourish, but instead a creepy digital playground being surveilled by the Smoking Man?

    2. This is a call to action, a call to re-search and articulate new composition, a call to help our students com-pose often, compose well, and through these composings, become the citizen writers of our country, the citizen writers of our world, and the writers of our future.

      One of the most important sentences in the text.It captures key elements of this call to action.

    3. A Call to Support 21st Century Writing

      The heading clearly announces the text's purpose - it is a call to action, one that is repeated throughout the text.

  7. Aug 2016
    1. e people may think, a lot of learning nowadays starts with our modern technology and the Internet. It is true; we are becoming smarter and more intelligent because of modern technology rather than becoming dumber. For example, an interview done for the Pew Internet in 2010, “The Future of the Internet IV,” involving 900 experts were asked for their views on how the

      alexis, i rally like this introductin. it gabsthere

    1. HAL pleads with the implacable astronaut Dave Bowman

      This is an inaccurate representation os the movie. HAL is a psychpathic killing maching, and Dave is trrified.

    1. contend that

      Although an op-ed, the text bears many of the hallmarks of academic writing (Mullainathan is professor of economics at Harvard). Note the way he begins with a "They Say" move, prefacing his contribution by locating it in terms of a prior conversation.

    1. there’s a story about how Twitter was more popular with black people than white people, years ahead of most mainstream coverage of the platform’s influential role in public discourse on race.

      interesting information about twitter

  8. Jul 2016
    1. I became very disciplined," she tells me. "Knowing I had these people reading me, I was very self-conscious to build my arguments, back up what I wanted to say. It was very interesting; I got this sense of obligation.

      Nice illustration of one of his main claims - that public writing leads people to be more careful, reflective and disciplined. Having a real audience makes a significant difference.

    2. In 2003, Kenyan-born Ory Okolloh was a young law stud~nt who was studying in the United States but still obsessed with Kenyan politics.

      Thompson drops the reader right into a dramatic story to gain the reader's attention.