Who was empowered to speak, where, and how? Whose voices were and were not heard? What kinds of practices might foreclose or open up the possibility of inclusive dialogue
These are necessary questions to ask as when brainstorming what promotes a good community literacy environment. When considering a community, it is important to create the most diverse and inclusive group so then the most people can speak their minds and ensure their voices are heard.
creating a “local public”
Specifically a local group is important because too far of an outreach can go beyond issues that can truly be resolved. The closer you are in proximity, the easier it is to make a change locally.
A rhetorically grounded community literacy opens up a unique space where intercultural partners can inquire into and deliberate about problems, working toward both personal and public change.
Spaces like this a needed as not only can it be fulfilling personally, it can be necessary to form new ideas to cause a change within the community. These conversations can help bring about the change as individually we may recognize it, but together we can change it.
Thus, we were not describing an existing community but aspiring to construct community around this distinct rhetorical agenda, to call into being what Linda Flower has more recently described as “vernacular local publics” (
I think this want for a group that focuses on a specific rhetorical agenda is a very good idea to be able to discuss and build upon each others ideas. It is important because having a place to discuss these thoughts is necessary to share new information and gain unfiltered perspective.
Edit your paper slowly, sentence by sentence.
I have never thought to do this but I think it would be helpful to be able to focus in on the specific information you are trying to edit. Otherwise, it can get scrambled together.
Taking a break from your essay for at least a day or two improves your ability to edit it effectively, so be sure to leave yourself enough time to complete this important step of the writing process.
This is super helpful advice because the longer time you give your writing before you revisit it helps give you a fresh set of eyes to reread and see things you may have missed. When I don't give myself enough time, I am still in the same head space, but time helps to point out issues and places for improvement.
Ask someone you trust for feedback and constructive criticism.
I think this is specifically important for a peer review because when someone you trust to give you criticism, they can be honest and give necessary feedback without any hurt feelings as you know it is only to better your work. It is extremely helpful getting second opinions.
Coherence
Sometimes especially for me when writing, I can forget about the coherence of it. As I write so many research papers, there is a lack of coherence needed as it is strictly informational, but it is important to make sure it reads smoothly and the information flows well.
My decision to give my attention to my women characters is a political statement, challenging the predominant culture that has caused them to only exist as personality-less plot devices instead of fully fleshed out entities for hundreds of years.
I appreciate how the writer explains her choices to challenge the norms because this is how you write something new, with new ideas and stories that occur but aren't commonly discussed. It seems refreshing.
But almost without fail, these women were punished. They either gave up their independence and personalities to become wives or became long-suffering mothers, lovers, or whores. Or they died, usually by suicide. The plot lines of the movies couldn’t sustain their personalities.
I think this is super interesting as most movies I can think of, the happy ending a woman is given is to become a wife and mother and the other ending is usually death. I think it says a lot as a society that across cultures and over the years, this is still the only choice.
If you mean “people”, say “people”. If you mean “community”, say which community you mean, and say why those identity-forming narratives are important to what you’re trying to do.
I agree that words can be thrown around to persuade the population. When it comes to politics especially, these politicians are so far removed from our communities, that the word choice should be people as we are not one in the same.
It’s not just about where you live, or where you work: it is possible to live and work in Newcastle without doing these things, without becoming part of this community.
I can agree that just because you exist in a place, does not mean you feel or are apart of that community. It is something that you have to be an active member of to be apart of.
It must be able to account for the fact that people can be part of different communities simultaneously.
When thinking of community, I can relate myself to being in multiple communities. I belong to a community in which my sorority exists. I also have a community in my family as they are a group of people that I belong to.
It must be able to account for the positive feelings that people have about “community” (e.g. the sense of togetherness) but without saying that “community” is necessarily good (after all, one of the best examples of a community is the Mafia, and even with the kindest reading of their activities, you’d struggle to argue that, on balance, they are a force for good in the world).
I have never thought about how community can be used for the term of a negative group as we typically use the words "group" or "organization" rather than community. I think those words hold less positivity and comfort in them, which allows them to be used in a negative connotation.
You will never hear someone in this context say that “community” is a thing that can be ignored or should be feared.
I agree that community is a positive term. When we talk about a community, we think of belonging and a group of others that are similar to us, which we find comfort in. One would not fear their community as we do not consider those we don't like as our personal community.
I must say that before I went to the U.S., I didn't consciously identify as African. But in the U.S., whenever Africa came up, people turned to me.
It is so interesting how we tie our identities to what we are told to. I do not identify as a white, American woman naturally because it's not something people point out to me as an important aspect of myself. These are just social identities that are seen due to stereotypes and things that we are told are "important' when these don't actually tell us a large amount about the person.
Their poverty was my single story of them.
I think this is such a powerful statement because this is how I felt as a kid, and might even now. Ignorance like this is so incredibly common and our ideas of people are limited by our thoughts. That's why I think it is so important to branch out and educate ourselves and one another to expand our minds.
What this demonstrates, I think, is how impressionable and vulnerable we are in the face of a story, particularly as children. Because all I had read were books in which characters were foreign, I had become convinced that books by their very nature had to have foreigners in them and had to be about things with which I could not personally identify.
It is understandable that she only wrote about things that others write about. It is easy to mimic what we read when we haven't seen much of anything different than the basic, ordinary stories easily accessible.
ll my characters were white and blue-eyed, they played in the snow, they ate apples, 00:55(Laughter) 00:57and they talked a lot about the weather, how lovely it was that the sun had come out.
It's interesting how the stories she would write only involved what she had read or learned about because that was seemingly all she know. We typically write about what we know and understand, not what is hard to grasp or imagine.
As the title indicates, the dominant perspective of community engagement highlights benefits the community members receive, and the dominant value of charity celebrates college students “helping” local youth. A common expectation might therefore be that the secondary students would express gratefulness at the opportunity to participate in Wildcat Writers—yet many also expressed the outlaw emotion fear.
I can easily understand the fear in this program as it can be hard working with college students that are deemed to be at a higher level when really there is not much that separates us other than possibly more experience. Though, I do feel there is more good to come out of the program after moving past the fear.
For example, Desert View High School, the birthplace of Wildcat Writers, is 91 percent Latinx, African American, and Native American, and 74 percent eligible for free and reduced lunch. I worked extensively with Wildcat Writers high schools for six years as coordinator of the program, and I was continually impressed by the creativity, warmth, and commitment of their students and staff.
Working with lower income American schools is a great way to influence their students to pursue higher education through this work. High quality writing skills can allow for so many opportunities, and can be such a great strength for entering universities and getting jobs.
The program is one of several similar school-university writing collaboration initiatives—including programs that cur-rently run or have run at Chapman University, Emerson College, Indiana University East, North Carolina Central University, Oregon State University,
It is good to see these programs within multiple colleges as there is an immense literacy and writing crisis within the United States within the past decade, and allowing for college students with a passion for writing to influence the youth may help with this crisis.
The secondary students interviewed in this study worked with college stu-dents through a program called Wildcat Writers, a collaboration between the University of Arizona Writing Program and high schools that connects secondary and college classes for writing exchanges, joint class sessions, and field trips.
I think that this is a great idea due to the way that it allows for upper-level thinking in high school students. I think this would have been incredibly beneficial for me in high school as I feel that I did not become a thoughtful writer until I started college as much of high school work is write and submit for a good grade, without much critical thinking involved.
“Because you’re so goddamned educated, doc, I knew you couldn’t be very smart.”
I can attest to the fact that just because you are highly educated, does not equal what we call "street smarts". Intelligence really can be up to interpretation as some may qualify education as intelligence while others may believe it is life experience. I choose to believe it is a combination of both.
Who’s the smartest person you know? Is he or she academically gifted or smart in some way that would not be readily recog-nized as a form of intelligence?
This is an interesting question to ask myself as I don't much think of all people who are "smart" as "academically gifted". I actually think that the most intelligent people I know don't necessarily have a high IQ, they just have a large amount of wisdom.
From the title, you often discover the writer’s position on an issue or attitude toward the topic.
I know that sometimes a title can give an author's stance on a topic, but sometimes it can be incredibly vague. It can give you an introduction to the topic at hand, but many titles can be up to interpretation before reading the piece.
After reading an essay, most people feel more confident talking about the content of the piece than about the writer’s style.
I can agree with this note as I never truly have to analyze writing styles specifically as in my academic career, a majority of the readings I have are scientific with a lack of style. I think being able to analyze the style of writing can help me to improve as an active reader and writer.
Each major assignment will be accompanied by an approximately 250-wordauthor’s note. The author’s note allows you to reflect on your wri5ng process. It also allows you to direct the type of feedback you’d most like to receive from me and your peers.
I have never had to write an author's note before but I think that it can be beneficial when reflecting on the writing specifically. I have always had to write for projects, but I have never truly had to analyze why I was writing it how I was.
Subject: [The topic you are writing aboutYOURNAME ENGL###: SECTION#]Body:Instructor John,[What you’re writing about.If it is an assignment, include the assignment name. If you are requesting an extension, propose a date for completion. If it is about anabsence, include the specific numerical date.][Best, Sincerely, or anothersign off],Your Name
I appreciate the email example to send as many people unfortunately do not know proper email etiquette. This would have been greatly helpful when I was in my first year of college to learn professionalism in communication with professors and teaching assistants.
This is meant to ease the worry over grading for you! As long as you sincerely aMempt the assignment you will get at least a B and may likely get an A depending on your work.
I greatly appreciate that work will at least receive a B as writing is not a strong suit for everyone. English is largely up to interpretation other than grammar, spelling, and paper organization.
Weargue that generative AI severs the production of language from the production of knowledge,disruptsthe imaginativereasoning process, and reducesopportunitiesfor authenticlearning.
I can agree that AI causes many issues when it comes to the writing world due to the lack of creativity allowed when AI is used. Writing is an art and with generative AI as assistance in writing without though is harmful