The things that I treasure from this class is the different thoughts and rhetorics that I learned from. The most inspiring pieces that I read was Elbow/Bartholomae readings. They really made me think and to consider different things in my writing.

   Dr. A, did a good job presenting lesssons and I give her total kuddos for everything that she did! (thanks dr.A)  As an overall view of my growth, I really think that I grew more as a person rather than an academic (which might come bite me the butt later) and with out this class I really dont think I could have done it!

OTHER PEOPLE'S BLOGS FINAL COMMENTS:

Meagan-

Wow your paper is really good. It made me remember the fun things that I did when I went to Outdoor Ed. Thanks for the flashback--but your paper was well organized, many details which made it easy for me to read. The part that I liked about your paper was the vivid imagine of the girls crying. Over all I really liked the memoir. Your over all blog was really good I liked the organization you had. If I were to give you a grade on the total aspect of the blog it would be an "A!' Great job Meagan!!

Katie Brand

Audra-

As I have seen you change things through your paper to make it even more brilliant the one thing that I really liked that you didn’t change was the tone in your voice and your voice all together. It makes me remember the wonderful memories that I had with my grandpa. Thank you for that..sometimes we need to remember the good things and not the bad. The paper as a whole was terrific! Great word choice and great ideas and thoughts and your voice was amazing!

Your blog as a whole was great! It is easy to navigated and I was able to find things in a jiffy!

Great job!

Katie Brand

Caitlin-

As I saw your paper in the first form and now in its last..it is a great paper as a whole. I liked the emotion and the details that you put in and your voice is amazing! I was able to cnnect with your and your memory. The paper as a whole is well orgainized and well thought out! Great Job!

Your blog was great and I was able to find things very easily! Great Job!

Katie Brand

Steven-

Your paper is really good! I really wish I could write like you do. Your paper really brings out the emotions that I have about racism and more importantly the emotion that I have as a future teacher getting ready to impact childrens lives with the history of our so called "wonderful" world. Your paper is inspiring and very well thought out... LOVE IT!!

Your blog is good. I like each aspect of it and it was easy to get to things!

Great Job!

Katie Brand

English 319

Dr. Allen

November 21, 2008

WC: 1093

The Night I Saw Santa’s Twin in my Grandma’s Bedroom

            This memory that I have of seeing Santa in my Grandma’s bedroom changed my point of view on a lot of things. First as one could imagine what Santa represents in the eyes of a child. Now knowing Santa is not real many more problems arise, the biggest one who do I write my Christmas list to?

            I remember when I found out that Santa wasn’t real, he really didn’t make special trips to my Grandma’s house, I started to question, well if Santa isn’t real is the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy real? Who was I suppose to write my Christmas wish-list to? Or even who was giving me quarters every time I lost a tooth?

            My first instinct was to go tell my mom what I just saw, well as any older sister would so I also told my sister who was three years younger than I was. Many questions arose for my sister as well, just like any other child would have. Not only did I question who was I suppose to write a wish-list? But if all those years that I wrote my letter to Santa, and if Santa isn’t real then who was receiving my letters and who the heck was writing me back all those years. Realizing my letters were pointless put me down. I wanted my voice to be herd, I wanted to know, and to have that feeling inside me that someone was really reading my letter, and they did care. That was a turning point in my writing life once I figured out that Santa wasn’t real, it didn’t matter who I wrote to, I was still getting a letter back, and that’s all that mattered to me when I was six.

            Some how my parents got my sister to believe that I was making things up and for the next 5 years she still believed in the fat, jolly man in the red suit. But every year she wrote to Santa and just like the year before “Santa” never failed to write back. In the thought of my sister I still wrote a letter too. Was it because I didn’t want to believe that he was made up or that someone who I never knew was writing me back. So many emotions went through me as I sat down with my sister to write a letter to this so called Santa guy. I wanted to scream, but I knew my sister would have freaked out and told on me, and I would have spent the rest of the day in my room.

            This memory opened up a whole new world to me, in the things I believed in, and in the things I created myself. I knew for a fact I had to prove myself wrong, Santa is real, Santa is real! I just created this image in my own mind, Santa was real, he did make a special trip to Grandma’s every year to give us kids our own presents just like in all the movies, and stories that I read. The thing that my mom said surprised me the most, she told me that the real Santa was really here, but in our hearts the Santa that you saw was Santa’s twin. Who knew Santa had a twin, I didn’t and I don’t remember hearing about him in stories or in the movies that I saw.

            Thinking back to the day that I was told that Santa had a twin was really weird, only because I had to tell my sister that the Santa that  I saw was his twin (try explaining that one to a three year old) which was really impossible for me, a six year old, to explain. So as I sat there, and waited for (this new found) Santa to hand us our gifts, I thought about the letters that I wrote to “Santa.” I really wanted to know if the for-real Santa had his twin write all the little boys, and girls back, kind of like how I had my sister help clean my room, and her reward was to play with one of my Barbie’s (how lame was that, if I was her I would have bargained for something a little better than a stupid Barbie).

            Of course my little sister didn’t believe that Santa had a twin (I don’t even think she knew what a twin was at the time) and she still believed in the real Santa. She wrote or in what I saw, scribbled a wish-list down, and colored many crazy shapes, and figures with the crayons that my mom gave her. I would have to sit down with her and write one to just so she wouldn’t get any crazy ideas that Santa wasn’t real? I remember writing something that went along these lines.

            Dear Santa,

I have been a really good girl this year, (who doesn’t say that in a letter to Santa, seriously I think everyone has to say that just so we feel better about ourselves) I have done everything that my Mommy and Daddy tell me, I am nice to my sister all the time, I even let her play with my Barbie’s when she wants to. (That’s a total lie) So I think for Christmas I should get most of the stuff on my list, what do you think?

          MY LIST:

-      A doll that really pee’s when you feed her the bottle

-      A drawing set that has all the colors in the rainbow

-      The Ariel movie

-      A swing set with the teeter-tater in it

(The list went on and on about the silly things that a six year old could ever want)

As you could tell Santa I have been a good girl. But I need to ask you a question, If you are too lazy to write me back I understand, I would have my twin do it too, if I had one. I also need to know how come your twin isn’t in any movies or T.V. shows that I watch?

          Love,

      Katie Brand

          Writing a letter to Santa around Christmas time seemed to always excite me. At the time I wasn’t sure if it was the actually writing part that got me so ecstatic about the letter or the part where I got to tell Santa what a good girl I was and making the list of toys that seemed to never end. It came time my sister found out that Santa wasn’t real and neither was his twin. As Christmas cam around each year I still felt like I needed to write a letter to Santa. Every day that the mail man came I would ask my mom did Santa write me back, and it seemed like the answer would always be no. As the days drug on it was past Christmas and it became my birthday, and I was still waiting for a letter from Santa. It seemed like I have waited for ages (well I actually have). For five years after that I would send a letter to Santa asking the same thing, and I still am waiting to this day to hear back from him. As a young adult reliving a childhood memory brings back emotions and hope. Hope that this is all a dream and Santa really does fly around in a sleigh with nine reindeer, delivering presents to every good girl and boy.

English 319

Dr. Allen

December 5, 2008

WC: 1282

The Night I Saw Santa’s Twin in my Grandma’s Bedroom

            This memory that I have of seeing Santa in my Grandma’s bedroom changed my point of view on a lot of things. First as one could imagine what Santa represents in the eyes of a child. Now knowing Santa is not real many more problems arise, the biggest one who do I write my Christmas list to?

            I remember when I found out that Santa wasn’t real, he really didn’t make special trips to my Grandma’s house, I started to question, well if Santa isn’t real is the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy real? Who was I suppose to write my Christmas wish-list to? Or even who was giving me quarters every time I lost a tooth?

            My first instinct was to go tell my mom what I just saw, after I told my mom I did want ever other older sibling would do, I told my sister. Many questions arose for my sister as well, just like any other child would have. Not only did I question who was I suppose to write a wish-list? But if all those years that I wrote my letter to Santa, and if Santa isn’t real then who was receiving my letters and who the heck was writing me back all those years. Realizing my letters were pointless and all they did was put me down. I wanted my voice to be herd, I wanted to know, and to have that feeling inside me that someone was really reading my letter, and they did care. That was a turning point in my writing life, once I figured out that Santa wasn’t real, it didn’t matter who I wrote to, I was still getting a letter back, and that’s all that mattered to me when I was six. So I guess my voice was really heard.

            Some how my parents got my sister to believe that I was making things up and for the next five years she still believed in the fat, jolly man in the red suit. But every year she wrote to Santa and just like the year before “Santa” never failed to write back. As my sister sat down to write a letter to Santa, I sat next to her and wrote a letter too. Was it because I didn’t want to believe that he was made up or that someone who I never knew was writing me back. So many emotions went through me as I sat down with my sister to write a letter to this so called Santa guy. I wanted to scream, but I knew my sister would have freaked out and told on me, and I would have spent the rest of the day in my room.

            This memory opened up a whole new world to me, things I believed in, and the things I created myself. I knew for a fact I had to prove myself wrong, Santa is real, Santa is real! I just created this image in my own mind, Santa was real, he did make a special trip to Grandma’s every year to give us kids our own presents just like in all the movies, and stories that I read. The thing that my mom said surprised me the most, she told me that the real Santa was really here, but in our hearts the Santa that you saw was Santa’s twin. Who knew Santa had a twin? I didn’t and I don’t remember hearing about him in stories or in the movies that I saw.

            Thinking back to the day that I was told that Santa had a twin was really weird, only because I had to tell my sister that the Santa that  I saw was his twin (try explaining that one to a three year old) which was really impossible for me, a six year old, to explain. So as I sat there, and waited for (this new found) Santa to hand us our gifts, I thought about the letters that I wrote to “Santa.” I really wanted to know if the for-real Santa had his twin write all the little boys, and girls back, kind of like how I had my sister help clean my room, and her reward was to play with one of my Barbie’s (how lame was that, if I was her I would have bargained for something a little better than a stupid Barbie).

            Of course my little sister didn’t believe that Santa had a twin (I don’t even think she knew what a twin was at the time) and she still believed in the real Santa. She wrote or in what I saw, scribbled a wish-list down, and colored many crazy shapes, and figures with the crayons that my mom gave her. I would have to sit down with her and write one to just so she wouldn’t get any crazy ideas that Santa wasn’t real? I remember writing something that went along these lines.

            Dear Santa,

I have been a really good girl this year, (who doesn’t say that in a letter to Santa, seriously I think everyone has to say that just so we feel better about ourselves) I have done everything that my Mommy and Daddy tell me, I am nice to my sister all the time, I even let her play with my Barbie’s when she wants to. (That’s a total lie) So I think for Christmas I should get most of the stuff on my list, what do you think?

          MY LIST:

-      A doll that really pee’s when you feed her the bottle

-      A drawing set that has all the colors in the rainbow

-      The Ariel movie

-      A swing set with the teeter-tater in it

(The list went on and on about the silly things that a six year old could ever want)

As you could tell Santa I have been a good girl. But I need to ask you a question, If you are too lazy to write me back I understand, I would have my twin do it too, if I had one. I also need to know how come your twin isn’t in any movies or T.V. shows that I watch?

          Love,

      Katie Brand

          Writing a letter to Santa around Christmas time seemed to always excite me. At the time I wasn’t sure if it was the actually writing part that got me so ecstatic about the letter or the part where I got to tell Santa what a good girl I was and making the list of toys that seemed to never end. It came time my sister found out that Santa wasn’t real and neither was his twin. As Christmas came around each year I still felt like I needed to write a letter to Santa. Every day that the mail man came I would ask my mom did Santa write me back, and it seemed like the answer would always be no. As the days drug on it was past Christmas and it became my birthday, and I was still waiting for a letter from Santa. It seemed like I have waited for ages (well I actually have). For five years after that I would send a letter to Santa asking the same thing, and I still am waiting to this day to hear back from him. As a young adult reliving a childhood memory brings back emotions and hope. Hope that this is all a dream and Santa really does fly around in a sleigh with nine reindeer, delivering presents to every good girl and boy.

Dr. Sarah Allen

Oct. 29, 2008

Brodkey Reading Response

Bias

            Brodkey says that when writing on bias, her mother was always concerned about her because at the age of four her daughter was asking complete strangers, when are they going to die? Her mother started to get concerned because most four years old did not think that way. And they as four year olds were too young to comprehend death. Her mother started to analyze her and her ability to comprehend and question very complex theories.

Dr. Sarah Allen

Nov. 30, 2008

Miller and Frankfurt on Truth

What is truth?

            Frankfurt discusses truth as being able to be selflessness, this means by leaving what others have told you and not putting your own spin in things. To view things the way they are, with nothing added and nothing taken away, just as a child might look at something with innocence.         

            Miller reveals truth as, understanding, understanding something the way that one was told. It might have things added and things taken away but non-the-less it’s the truth. If a writer wants to tell their readers a lie, let them do so, but know that the reading public might cause controversy.

Essay 2

WC: 824

            If I was to look up *voice* in the Oxford English Dictionary, it wouldn’t give me the definition that I needed. What I need is in my own head and is created with what I know and how my words are said through my voice and with my style. I think that when someone is writing they try to put their own spin on things (their style, their way they understood something) and then tell someone else in this particular style. If one wrote an imitation on a piece of writing and wrote it in the same voice that the author used, to me it would be very monotone, the way it would be if the imitator were to paint a black and white picture. But I ask, why not be the odd man out and add a little color? If you are arguing a certain side, wouldn’t you want your readers/reviewers to connect to it? Add some personal style; let your own voice be heard. When a teacher is reading your paper, wouldn’t you rather get a report back saying that they laughed or that they were able to connect with what you were trying to get across? Voice is style, but more importantly your voice is your style.

            If you (yes! I am talking to you) have ever felt certain sensations of tingling that cause happiness and joyfulness throughout your body, and when you recognize that this tingling sensation is caused by something or someone. Spinoza believes this tingling feeling is called love. He understands that love is the reactions that we express our feelings towards these objects that causes these tingling sensation. Therefore not just people but other living things are able to experience and be more fully themselves once they know what love is and how it effects them on and not just on the mushy-mushy level but also on the intellectual level.

            I believe that this is true (what Spinoza explains) and not only because I have experienced but I have seen it with my own eyes. Someone who can not only know but feel what love is (reminds me of a song, but I won’t break out in song—so don’t worry, your ear drums are safe).. So with doing what Spinoza states about love, he also mentions that if this person or object honest to God knows what love is he/she/it tries to keep love in their present life and preserve it for all of time. (Doesn’t this sound like bull shit…it’s really mushy-mushy, lovey-dovey kind of stuff) Don’t get me wrong I would love a candlelight dinner with Louis Armstrong playing in the back ground, but seriously who is Spinoza trying to impress here?

            Is having the ability to love or the ability to experience love makes the unique difference. If you loved someone/something and you kept it close to you love (the verb) would be the ability to love (the noun). On the other hand if you were to love someone and have that type of relationship with them, it is then the ability to experience love. Either way you love someone/something, and you don’t want to let it go no matter what you have to give up. Love is something that all people should experience.

            I never would have thought that this so called love feeling would actually bring a strong voice out in me. Frankfurt’s excerpt on love is really compelling and really strong willed. I mean this as in he really believes what he writes though his own voice, which made me question every person’s own writing, are we just writing to what the readers want, but I can honestly say who gives a shit what they think. Yeah we do peer editing, and we take in what others say, and yes we will correct it to what they want. Really, is this what today’s so called future writers are about, I am not just saying this for college composition classes, but I am also saying this for all grade levels. I think that if we writers wanted to change what we said, then fine change it, but do it so it pleases you, the writer. Let you be the writer not the reader.

            Doing this imitation from Frankfurt’s piece on someone’s joy and his ability to love, allowed me to express what I believe voice is. As I said before voice is style and I still believe that. Imitation is a great way to use your own voice and to express our style, still allowing the main idea of the original author to exist.

            As I was writing my imitation paragraph I was able to really show the readers what my voice and style were. Although this was not an easy imitation for me to do, it opened many doors for my style and voice to wander through. I still believe that voice is style.

            Muckelbauer first mentions what Richard Mckeon take on imitation is using a quote from what he has said, “Vague, inadequate, primitive, and its use involves a play on words when it does not lead to self-contradiction.” What both Muckelbauer and Mckeon are saying is that imitation is different in different times of history. Imitation back in the day is different from the imitation that we today. Later on in the reading Muckelbauer says that students are taught to examine all different type of writers and to imitate all of them, so they (students) are not just stuck on one type of imitation.

            Teachers and scholars that focus on “Stylistic, moral or process imitations are uninterested in invention and novelty.” I think that this is very true, teachers who allow their students to just imitate one author is like only allowing a child to one type of food. They are not able to explore what other type of styles (tastes) are out there and if that is done they are unable to make the connection between two different scholars (food).

            Rhetoric’s on imitation; is a very important topic. Not only because many teachers want to see what their students can do when they imitate but it also bring up many focus point s for class discussions. Students are exposed to many types of models and what their (the student’s) job is to take that piece of writing and imitate it to the way that they would understand what is being said/discussed. Muckelbauer uses many examples of scholars and what they have to say about imitation and how students can value from imitating different scholars.

            Autoenthographics (is part of the contact zones) is describes as “people undertake to describe themselves in way that engage with representation others have made of them” (pg. 35). So what does this mean, it means that when people are to explain what their culture is, they take in the other influences from other cultures and they are not giving the true definition. An example of the is taken from the reading on page 35, “The concept might help explain why some of the earliest published writing  by Chicanas took the form of folkloric manners  and customs sketches written in English and published in English-language newspapers or folklore magazines.”

            Transculturation is describes as “…processes whereby members of subordinated or marginal groups select and invent from material transmitted by a subordinate or metropolitan culture” (pg. 36).  An example of this is by a Cuban sociologist Fernando Ortiz in 1940’s wanted to replace concepts of “acculturation and assimilation used by characterized culture under conquest” (pg. 36). To put into terms that we can understand it means that even culture leaders tried to change the different characters that the culture possessed, with adding different culture characters to their own culture, changing the meaning of the original definition.

Dr. Allen

English 319

15 September 2008

WC: 1199

A teacher’s role inside a classroom

            The discussion about the teacher’s role in a classroom has been brought up by two very important scholars in the education field, Peter Elbow and David Bartholomae. Peter Elbow’s view on the teacher’s role in the class is that students can be taught something without a teacher or teacher figure. Bartholomae’s argument against Elbow’s is that students (people) are influenced by other people (such as teachers), events and social and political experiences. Not only do these two scholars write about teachers in the classroom they argue about the actual role that the teachers plays and how they(the teachers) influence or not influence the students, in writing and in reading.

            Starting with Peter Elbow’s take on the debate over what the teacher’s role in the classroom is, his focus is about voice and how students (the public) can use theirs to be taught by themselves. He mentions that a successful way to express your own voice is to do free write every day. Elbow’s rules about free writing are you can never stop writing, not to edit or not to wonder how to spell a word. (Writing without Teachers pg. 3) If you stop writing during your free write “your voice is damped out by al the interruptions, changes and hesitations between consciousness and the page” (Writing without Teachers pg. 6). Which means your so called voice really isn’t your voice, it’s the edited voice that you want people (the readers) to hear.  Elbow also writes that if you use just your voice it “…is the forces that will make a reader listen to you, the energy that drives the meanings through his thick skull” (Writing without Teachers pg. 6). Elbow also describes voice as what is “sifted through his entire self” (Writing without Teachers pg. 8) without the influences of others and the society communities. When expressing your own voice in your papers, the teacher’s role starts to fade away especially if the students (writers) follow Elbow’s arrangement of what voice and free write should really be.

            Teachers should be looked at as “not as frontier guides but as managers, people who manage substations in cultural network…” (Writing with Teachers pg. 66). Bartholomae’s view is that teachers should be looked at as managers and when he says that he means that teachers should be there to correct, to influence, to be able to focus students- the public- on what the guided writing should be. Bartholomae also says that “hid[ing] the teacher is hid[ing] the traces of power, tradition and authority present at the scene of writing….” (Writing with Teachers pg. 63). Since the majority of society has followed what Elbow has created, Bartholomae is afraid that they (educators) will keep the knowledge of writing but most importantly academic writing from our students. Bartholomae wants the future teacher to become …”one that becomes a subject in the classroom where we ask young writers to think about, or better yet, confront their situatedness” (Writing with Teachers pg. 64). This statement is a direct hit against Elbow’s theory of teachers should not be in the classroom but they should be a part of the student body. Again Elbow’s theory is to have free write in the classroom-this involves not actual teaching but does involve the students to write what they feel. In Bartholomae’s argument  he shoves Elbow’s theory back in his face by saying, “In my department, this other form of narrative is often called “creative nonfiction” or “literacy non-fiction”-it is a way to celebrate individual vision, the detail of particular worlds” (Writing with Teachers pg. 68) Both scholars have unique points and have distinctive support for their work.

            Not only does Elbow and Bartholomae discuss what the role of the teacher is in the classroom, but what types of writing the teacher should develop in the classroom, a writer who freely writes about what he/she wants to or an academic writer, more focused on a topic and to meet the criteria of a teacher’s expectations. In order to write you must learn how to read. Peter Elbow focuses on many questions about reading and how it is tied together with writing. Starting with the question, ‘What we should read in the first year writing course…” and to follow there are many more questions another one is “How to read these text…”, and “How much to read…”, and one of the last ones, “What my attitude should be toward these readings when reading them and teaching them to the class” (Being a Writer vs. Being an Academic pg. 73, 74, 78). Having a teacher in the classroom makes the students write and read what the teacher wants to hear, therefore students are not allowed to write and read what they want to hear and what they want to feel when they are writing. On the other hand having a teacherless classroom it gives the students the pleasure that they are able to red at their pace and to write to their understanding. When a student is able to write to their own pleasure they are able to call their writing their own writing, but visa-versa as well when a student writes for someone else’s pleasure, this could bring pleasure to themselves just knowing that they might have caused an up roar over something that they wrote.

            Bartholomae’s writing career has “[made] my life difficult enough that I sometimes wonder why I went into this business in the first place” (Against the Grain pg. 20). He writes, “How I write is against the grain” (Against the Grain pg. 19). I ask what does he mean against the grain. As Elbow says never to revise when you write, Bartholomae says he writes and revises all the time and he works efficiently knowing that he is able to revise so he can get his point across without repeating himself. Bartholomae also writes, “Without imitation and, therefore, tradition….kind of textual conversation/confrontation with people whose work matters to me and whose work, then, makes my own possible” (Against the Grain pg. 21). He is talking about Elbow’s work, without his views there would not be the argument what him and Bartholomae have created. This proves Bartholomae’s points as no one can write without influences. Bartholomae tries to teach his students to write against the grain, such as he did/does, so they can be challenged and analyzed in new ways. “…to teach students to work against fluency, the “natural” flow of language as it comes to a writer who has a grasp of a subject” (Against the Grain pg. 23).

            These two scholars have opened new doors for students to explore and for students to establish their own critique on the teacher’s role in the classroom. If it’s the teacher needs to be an influence and help the students or guide them in on a new writing path or if they need to be transparent in the classroom and allow the students to learn from themselves. Either way the argument(s) of both sides are exclusive. “Learning to write means learning this and learning to handle it” (Against the Grain pg. 27).