We are One

Part One:

Ida B. Wells-Barnett states in the first sentence of "Lynch Law in America:" "OUR country's national crime is lynching." I felt as if this one sentence, which sets the tone for the entire article written by Wells-Barnett, easily fits in with Enoch's article "Becoming Symbol-Wise: Kennth Burke's Pedagogy of Critical Reflection." I really feel as if this fits into this category due to the fact that during the time this article was written, hate crimes and discrimination against blacks were on high, even forty years after the civil war. How she states "our" makes it known they are one country and this is everyone who lives in it's problem. As according to how Enoch describes symblolism, Wells-Barnett is symbolizing her entire work with the first word, she is symbolizing this is on the national scale and this is everyone's issue, not just the people who live in Jonesville.
The next point that I thought fit into symbolism here is Wells-Barnett's use of "unwritten law" in scare quotes. I feel she did this for the very purpose of scaring people. The symbolism from this writting technique I feel made people feel as if this is something serious that is happening, which it there was, people were being killed from petty things based on race. But what she is doing by this is showing that if this is happening now with no repercussions, then what is going to happen and be allowed next.

Part 2:

The one thing I always have a huge issue with is coming up and finding topics for projects, this one is no exception. Though I am not an education major, both of my parents and my sister are educators, so this is something I have taken to heart and have heard issues dealing with throughout my entire life. A project that I did for a class last spring semester dealt with school buildings and conditions, why are some schools comparable to resorts while the school down the road is being held up on cinder blocks. I am now feeling as if I am wanting to look into schools and what kind of funding they recieve and why they recieve what they do. Why are schools funded based on the wealth of the surrounding community. If these children are the future, why are they being held back due to the fact they live in a poor community. The best genre that I feel would be effective for this type of discourse would be a study based on the conditions these children are put in front of compared to a study basing on a school funded to have everything. I really feel the audience I would persue are leaders who over-see the education system or those who really see education as a very important asset to our future generations. Any suggestions? I'm putting this out there.

Rhetoric and Adolescent Pregnancy

Part 1

In Winterowd's "The Rhetoric of Beneficence, Authority, Ethical Commitment, and the Negative" he explains to the reader that there are many different objects that appear in discourse or forms of writing that make sentences much more than simply words that have been uttered or written. His main point is that sentences do not and cannot stand alone and carry any real meaning. He explains that word placement and context are crucial to understanding what a sentence it doing and what meaning it carries. Without knowing the intention and without knowing the meanings that certain performative verbs carry, the reader would not properly be able to determine what the writer or speaker was trying to convey.

Part 2

I was thinking that for my historical-causal analysis I would examine teen and young unmarried adult pregnancy. This is a really big issue in our society today and I think that there are many causes and many solutions, but a lot of people are oblivious to these so this is continuing to be a problem. I would gear this project towards adolescents as well as parents. I think this issue is something that everyone needs to be educated about and everyone needs to try to solve. The main points I will most likely examine will be methods of prevention, not just birth control methods, but education methods for young people and for parents. I would also probably examine the problems with abortion and how it condones teen pregnancy, while still supporting that abortion is better being legal. It's a complicated issue. Lastly I would pose some new solutions for how this issue can be argued. I am not exactly sure that this is the issue I will choose, I have a few others that I was thinking about, but so far this is my top choice. 

Discrimination Used as Symbols

Part 1:

After reviewing the article written by Enoch, entitled “Becoming Symbol-Wise” I began to think about how Barack Obama used the idea of symbols in his speech, “’A More Perfect Union.’” Obama spoke of “discrimination” (Obama 2, 3) as a way to unite the ideals and values of all Americans. This tactic portrays “good” public discourse because it allows the audience to view discrimination in a completely different way. When thinking of this word, one would immediately think of African Americans and the struggle that they endured to overcome this obstacle; however, Obama used discrimination to relate to all Americans, whatever racial background they may have. He stated that “a similar anger exists within segments of the white community (par. 35). This helps the audience to visualize discrimination as an American problem, one that is not just limited to African Americans. Ultimately, this idea furthers Obama’s aim by uniting Americans on their ideals and values, things that we all care about, equality for us all. By using the word “anger” (par. 35) to describe the effects of discrimination, Americans can see that this issue is bad for us all because it pertains to us all. Obama also states that “to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns - this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding” (par. 37). “Legitimate concerns” lets us know that our anger, as Americans that are sometimes discriminated against, is justified; and that through the idea of “’a more perfect union’” (par. 1) we can eliminate this negative thing that holds us back from our day to day lives. Obama reinforces the idea that discrimination is a negative aspect of all our lives by using other symbols and other select words to portray this concept and lead us to think this way. This ultimately allows us to see how Obama is trying to unite us as Americans with the same ideals and values.

Part 2:

I’m not quite sure what question I would love to pursue for my historical-causal analysis, but I would love to explore the idea of childcare. Maybe my possible question could be “What are the effects of placing your son or daughter in childcare?” If I don’t explore this idea, I would love to use the idea of what causes women to be either pro-choice or pro-life. I realize that this concept would obviously be extremely controversial, but I think it would be interesting to see why women support one value over the other. It’s obviously a level 5 conflict value, so it will be extremely complex, and I’m not sure if I’m being overly ambitious about this project. The real forms will obviously be geared towards women, probably those who have children or are of childbearing age. Perhaps I could write an article for women explaining the benefits or costs of placing her child in childcare. On the other hand, if I were to use the idea of the causes of pro-choice or pro-life I would love to use a handful of ads to portray this concept. I would want to keep in mind, that parents, especially mothers, are very sensitive and defensive when it comes to their children and how they raise them. I would want to keep this in mind, and I would want to make sure that I keep my biased opinion out of the analysis. I would also want to express both the positives and negatives of each side to help further the argument that I am trying to make. This genre form would need to be able to appeal to all women in order for it to be effective. It will need to be able to let women see the other side of the issue, and why some women feel the way that they do about raising their children, and how this benefits or hinders their children. I would also need to appeal to the emotions of my audience because I feel that when it comes to raising a child, a mother uses her emotions more than anything to do what’s best for her offspring.

Last blog and Idea

In David Neeleman's apology letter to JetBlues Customers he uses the expressed transition (Winterowd 44) and. He uses it between talking about the movement of aircraft then to "more importantly" (Neeleman) the stranded pilots and crew members. This transition of "and, more importantly," sets up that the real problem was not that planes could not get around but that JetBlue's infrastructure to deal with large scale storms and delays was flawed.

My idea for the final project is looking at what's possibly going to happen to the car industry as stricter mpg averages and other emissions regulations are put on the books. This issue is important because the US auto industry is very important to the economy, especially here in the Midwest. I intend to look back at the last big transition in the auto industry which was safety. Car manufactures had to really rethink things to make the cars as light and as safe, in compliance with the governments new stricter regulations of the late 60's through the mid 90's. I will research more about what those regulations were about, what prompted them and how the car companies tried to deal with them. This will be my research form. My real form will possibly be a editorial in an automobile magazine such as Car and Driver It will look back fondly on how cars used to be, and then talk about how much improved they are today and that the car must continue to evolve and that car enthusiasts need to lead the way.
I'm not sure if this will be my real form or exactly the direction I want to go but something close to it. Any suggestions?

Last Blog Post!

I believe that Laurence Musgrove's article "The Real Reasons Students can't Write" is a piece of "good" public discourse partly due to its form. W. Ross Winterowd describes different types of form in his article "Dispositio", but Winterowd's concept of recurring images, symbols, and ideas as creating form is a concept that creates form in Musgrove's article. Throughout Musgrove's article, he is trying to persuade his audience that students cannot write for a specific reason without placing this problem completely on the students. He also places some blame on the teachers/professors , and then proposes a possible, yet midly sarcastic solution. However, throught this article, the idea that students writing habits are not up to par and need to be addressed for their benefit is a recurring theme or idea present in the "The Real Reasons Students can't Write", which creates a sense of form throughout.

For my historical-causal analysis, I wish to analyze how the No Child Left Behind Act has affected low-income schools, administrations and students, negatively. I think that my idea for a real form, would have been more effective before Barack Obama won the election, since I am from Illinois and would like to write a letter to a senator as to how this is an important issue that needs to be addressed at the national level because it is a national law. I believe that I will need to construct my article to show the inner-city schools effectively as to appeal to administrators and parents of these schools, as well as appeal to my main audience of middle-income/high-income, generally white parents and administrators of schools and districts that do not deal with the NCLB daily. I would like to introduce the schools and students who deal with NCLB with a sense of objectivity, before showing the negative effects of NLCB. This would help keep the main audience since many people who do not associate with NLCB believe that it is a positive and effective plan. This genre form will need to convince the Illinois senators that NLCB has not been effective on low-income schools, and has, in fact, hurt the schools, students, and administrations more than it has helped.

Revising Civility

When I looked at the Enoch article and especially the section on “revising the news”, I couldn’t help but think of Lung’s letter to Hu Jintao, and how she used language and symbols to unpack her ideas. Enoch suggests that readers first look at the language used by the writer to direct a reader’s attention. Lung uses many powerful words in her letter, words like “cut throat”, “great protest”, and “internet police”. Enoch’s article suggests students to pick apart pieces of discourse where they find directed language.
After reading Enoch’s article and again looking Lung’s letter, I found it hard to look past Lung’s suggestive language. Although she did use many loaded terms in her writing, I didn’t find that it discredited her as a writer, or even make me scrutinize her writing. This is why I think Lung’s letter a good piece of public discourse.



For my historical-casual analysis I would like to show how Title IX has hindered the male athlete in American high schools and Universities. Title IX is the amendment attached to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Since Title IX’s passing in 1972 men’s sports programs have suffered severely. Title IX was not originally intended to effect sports, and nowhere in the law are sports even mentioned. In my “real” form I like to raise the issue of people using the law as a sword to cut the legs out from under many capable male athletes, rather than protect against sexual discrimination in schools like the law was originally intended for.

Last Blog!

Mario Savio’s article “An End to History” is not an article that would be considered disorganized. According to Winterowd's article on "Dispositio" it’s logically structured, going from one thought to another in a chronological manner. These thoughts are connected through implied transitions, which are necessary to create logical flow for the reader. However, it could also be said to have form based upon the images, ideas, metaphors, and allusions within the text; his allusion to “A Brave New World, etc. Overall this article seems to have form in a variety of ways derived from its structure and recognition from the reader.

I was potentially thinking about basing my project around AIDS and why it is so important for accurate information to be distributed for teachers in sex education classrooms, because so much of the information given out in schools is flawed. I don’t exactly know a certain question that I’m looking to center around, or even if this is a feasible idea, but one possible “real” form I was thinking about is creating a lesson plan for a lesson on AIDS in a health class. I would have to keep in mind what grade level of children I would want this lesson to be for, as well as the administration and other teachers who would see it. The genre form would need to be able to demonstrate the importance of AIDS information to students, as well as provide accurate and useful information.

Musgrove's Form and Word Use

Laurence Musgrove displays an excellent use of form in his article, “The Real Reasons Students Cant Write.” He uses a very particular sentence structure that allows his piece to appear very conversational to a reader. He begins the majority of his sentences with a reference to himself, or one of his ideas and concludes the sentence with a general statement about the issue. Setting his work up like this allows the reader to feel a connection with him, as an educational authority, then be smoothly transitioned into agreement with his conclusions. It is an effective method of arguing to his particular audience of primarily educators and the educated. Musgrove also uses several terms such as “frustrated”, “significant”, and “substantially” to suggest that there is a good ways to go before the issue can be solved. He identifies these words with the progress that students and teachers together need to make before students will be able to display an acceptable level of writing.
To be honest I am not quite sure where I will go with the historical causal analysis. I would like to work on something along the lines of the faults in the medical industry, and the lack of compassion among many medical professionals. My mother just had four failed surgeries by multiple doctors, is provided insufficient health insurance by her employer, and now has to pay in full for all four surgeries, even though none of them have worked so far. I would like to be able to interview her, along with the multiple doctors who have preformed the surgeries. I would like to move beyond the issue of health care, and push it more towards doctor’s compassion for their patients. This idea may or may not be along the lines of what we are aiming to accomplish with these papers, please provide me feedback if you have any ideas of where I could go with this. (If I can go anywhere at all) For my real form I would like to do possibly an open letter to medical professionals reminding them of above all their need to take care of their patients, and not to take care of their wallets. Help me generate ideas PLEASE!!

Looking at Form

Part One:
Winterowd's "Dispositio" is a shorter text, but it is packed with more ideas than some of the longer texts that have been assigned for this course. The text focuses on the importance of breaking down the formation of statements in rhetoric. Winterowd goes over showing how intention works in sentences and using performative verbs. I had never thought about how intention really works and it makes sense that without that "act of doing" statement things can get confusing. Using performative verbs and showing intention leads to the idea of beneficence in rhetoric because it can demonstrate a positive or negative relationship easily. Winterowd argued his ideas effectively with his use of examples and the positive/negative chart. His ideas were advanced enough that he could not just state them, he had to show them. In thinking of that, he was "doing" what he was saying and showing the "intention" of his text; he was practicing the rhetorical style he suggested.

Part Two:
For my historical-casual analysis I would like to research Title IX and the effect it has had on sports that do not charge an entry-fee, such as swimming, tennis, wrestling, etc. I think Title IX has its advantages and disadvantages and I want to learn more about what it has worked to do and how much good it has caused. I think my intended audience will be future and current athletes and also coaches and sports administrators. I do not think that non-profit sports get as much consideration as football/basketball so I just want to know if anything can be done to make sure that talented male athletes still get recognition and scholarship opportunities.

Forming 'A More Perfect Union'

In W. Ross Winterowd’s article, “Dispositio: The Concept of Form in Discourse”, we learn that form goes beyond sentence structure, grammar and paragraphing. “There are other ‘semantic’ elements that contribute to the sense of form verses formlessness…” In Barack Obama’s speech, “A More Perfect Union,” Obama is able to use form to generate an appropriate and well constructed argument. In this speech Obama is addressing the accusations against his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and he is able to defend his position with his former pastor, using mostly repetition-an expressed transition that creates form. “I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.” Obama repeats disown 3 times to transition from the focus on Rev. Wright, to that of his grandmother. He then uses repetition by repeating woman to put emphasis on his grandmother being white, and raising him as a child. He is able to make a connection between people in his life, and what they have done for him, and his multicultural background. Throughout the speech, Obama is able to use implied transitions with the pauses in his voice that are marked with hyphens in the text. “This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign - to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America”. Here Obama is able to use the implied and expressed transitions with the pauses in sentences and the repetition of more. He also has an example of the question transition, which is also expressed. “The question transformation is classed as an expressed transition because questions can be recognized on the basis of their form. And, simply, a question normally calls for an answer.” “Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely - just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.” Obama uses these questions to create honest answers that America is looking for. Because of his use of form and transitions in his speech, he is able to argue his case, proving that he is a good candidate for President regardless of the actions that happen with the people around him, and now we are able to see that America agreed.

I have been wondering a lot lately about the effects of Black students attending HBCU’s (Historically Black Colleges and Universities). I wanted to stay away from comparing the benefits of an HBCU verses a predominately white university, and what the cons could be. Instead I want to focus on how HBCU’s prepare black students for the real world, what is done differently, and if student’s that attend these schools feel as if they have been placed in an unrealistic society(because when they are on these campuses they are the majority). To be honest I have not thought a lot about what type of real forms I could create. Most of my decisions will be based on the results of my research. I could possibly make a pamphlet that educates future black collegiate students on what an HBCU really is. I also thought about making ads that could be published in magazines promoting the awareness of these institutions, their benefits and goals. I do not want my real forms to function as ways to convince students to attend HBCU because that is not my goal. I rather have students really understand their purpose, how it is different from attending another university, to make sure that it is right for them. Many of my friends have attended HBCU’s, but have transferred back to an Indiana state school. I am interested in seeing why this happens, and what made them make their original choice of an HBCU in the beginning.

Beneficence

In Winterowds Beneficence article, he talks about “rhetorical force in rhetoric.” He explains that the way we use force in our sentences can extend into the arguments we make. He first talks about intention. He describes how we as writers and readers cannot completely understand a sentence until we are given an explanation as to what the sentence’s intention is. Winterowd also talks about performatives, which are used to show intention. In Laurence Musgrove’s article The Real Reasons Students Can’t Write, Musgrove makes the final statement “Here’s your badge.” The fact that Musgrove does not use a performative to suggest his intent, such as “I appoint you with your badge,” might suggest that Musgrove’s intent is not to give educators the task of helping students write himself, but instead is suggesting that the task of motivating students has existed all along.

 

For my historical-causal analysis I am thinking about an idea that deals with a rise in youth violence, and analyze the trend in school shootings such as Columbine and Virginia Tech to see how safe our schools are and what these events could mean for the future of Americas schools. For my real form I think a brochure to send to parents regarding signs of violence in their children, or a ad campaign might be best. The genre form will need to reach both students and parents as well as teachers. The ad campaign and brochure will need to be sensitive to the issue but direct enough to impact the audience.

Symbol-Using Awareness

I thought that the basic aim of Enoch's "Becoming Symbol-Wise" was to talk about another writers idea of teaching students how to be better consumers of discourse. What I mean is that it is teach students to become very aware of the type of language used in discourse, especially news media, and to be able to break that down, and get a real understanding of it. She says, "...an aim that asks students to adopt an attitude of patient reflection and to identify with one another as language users who are both symbol-wise and symbol-foolish." I thought that statement really helped me to sum up the article on a whole. I was thinking about my paper that we just handed in and I analyzed the letter to Hu Jintao. This is the article in which Lung, a Taiwanese writer, writes a letter to the leader of China reprimanding his leadership, and the strict control of the media. A part of Enoch's article is that she tells us how Burke uses a process of indexing and picking out key language terms to show how an argument is constructed in a way that is good or bad, or socially inferior or superior. Lung does this with her use of language, such as "Internet police" and "cutting the throat of China". This is in part to a reaction to the abrupt closure of the publication "Freezing Point" in China. Enoch's essay would encourage students to be patient and look carefully and closely at the type of language used. If students were looking at a general word like leadership there could be good connotations and bad ones associated with that, if you look at the point of view of Lang or Hu Jintao. The point was to make the students more "symbol wise".

I am thinking about an idea that has to do with the fact that there are too many children who do not have any understanding about homosexuality, and that this breeds ignorance, and that if we introduce this sexual orientation earlier on with the help of children's literature children would be less apt to be ignorant and hateful. I think the best "real" form would be either a informative TV commercial, or a magazine ad campaign. The genre form will need to mostly entice parents or educators. I believe that children should be present in the ads but obviously young children will not be the ones we have to persuade into action. The audience would be adults who have the same desire to educate our children, and to stop ignorance. I think that I do not create a genre that alienates anyone though. This is a slightly radical ideal for some, and it needs to be tasteful, understated, and direct. It must portray the reason or need for this, and the effects.

-AJ

"Real" Forms and Resources

Hi, everyone.

We'll spend the next five weeks imagining, drafting, analyzing, revising, and rethinking your Public Awareness Projects in two forms: the research form (or, the historical-causal analysis) and the "real" form (in a suitable genre of your choice).

I have been browsing different genre forms and thought I would post some here for your perusal. What follows are links to various white papers, technical reports, advocacy documents, informational web pages, and brochures that might help get some of the creative juices flowing for your own projects. Some of these represent print genres that have been linked online, as opposed to genres that were created specifically as online projects:

--An informational website built around a Sustainability Report recently distributed at Indiana University.

--Any section of the Sustainability report can be considered a "public awareness" project on its own.

--A related chain of documents for the National Resource Defense Council's "Call Off the Guns" campaign, surrounding a controversial bill allowing open hunting of protected gray wolves. It includes a webpage and message to members of the NRDC, a television advertisement that the NRDC created and aired on cable television in October 2007, an article, and an ENS news release on the outcome of the television advertisement.

Here are some other "real forms" on different topics:
--resource site and database on changing the culture of college drinking
--quality of life report (public document) on the Greenwood Village, Colorado with accompanying website
--informational brochure about "Discovery Academy," a program at Highline High School

Here are some resources I have discovered (including download sites for free, public-domain images):
--multimedia tools in the Information Commons
--digital equipment lending
--free public domain images
--Morguefile.com (another source of free public domain images)

Finally, our course resources page also has links to a number of "live" publications that in themselves provide examples of arguments in real form.

-Dr. Graban