Brandt Reading Response

Before You Read

U.S. culture has encouraged reading by advertising books everywhere. My community has encouraged reading because we used to have a bookmobile. A good reason to be good at these things is to be successful and go to college. Adults and authoritative leaders come up with these reasons.

Summary

In Brandt's article "Sponsors of Literacy" she explains sponsorship in literature. She explains that everyone that learns literature has sponsors. These sponsors teach people how to be literate. She gives examples from the past and how it is now in the present. She tells us the positives and negatives of these sponsorships for the present learner.

Synthesis

Brandt's "Sponsors of Literacy" relates to Allen and Porter. Allen talks about how readers "copy" the authors they are reading; this is how they learn to write. This relates to Brandt's idea of sponsorship. Porter talks about discourse communities. He explains that people in certain discourse communities know what they know because the belong and learn things from that community. This relates to the sponsors because everyone has different ones. 

Thoughts

I relate to this article because I have sponsors that taught me how to read, write, etc. I agree that almost everyone has different sponsors. These sponsors could be anyone from their parents to the authors they read. I also agree that sponsorship has changed over time. I think sponsorship is good because people learn in their comfort zone, but it is bad because people can be taught different things.

MM

This article is relevant to all of the rules. It helped me understand how literacy came about and how people still learn it today.

Dialectical Notebook

Response	Quotation
She is saying being literate is needed in the 20th century. You have the upper hand if you are literate.	“Literacy looms as one of the great engines of profit and competitive advantage in the 20th century” (333).
She is saying that the different sponsors a different person has explains the relations of the world.	“The concepts of sponsors helps to explain, then, a range of human relationships and ideological pressures that turn up at the scenes of literacy learning” (335).
Your relationships between both learning and opportunity overlap.	“A focus on sponsorship can force a more explicit and substantive link between literacy learning and systems of opportunity and access” (336).
Different places/people will teach you different forms of literacy.	“This section examines more closely how forms of literacy are created out of competitions between institutions” (339).
The bad things about sponsors is that they only want to teach and enforce new types of literacy and requirements and not the ones from the past.	“Sponsors enable and hinder literacy activity, often forcing the formation of new literacy requirements while decertifying older ones” (344).

Project #1 in progress report

     I am writing my report about the importance of putting your personality in your writing. I believe this is very important because it connects you with your reader(s). I have done a lot of research. I have gathered eight authors to compare and contrast. I have done this in my synthesis, but will further comparing and contrasting as my paper continues. I will further my research if the opportunity comes while writing. If I find more authors I will be sure to include them in my synthesis. I am currently finished with my introduction and synthesis and I have started my body along with my argument. I have my main points from each author planed out for the rest of the body. I plan on extending my body by first telling the benefits and reasons you should include your personality in your writing, second telling the disadvantages and reasons not to include your personality in your writing, third comparing and contrasting, and lastly adding my impute to the argument. I plan to end the paper with a conclusion that does not summarize, but concludes the argument. I then plan to read, revise, reread, peer revise, and so on. I was not able to make it to class on Friday, so I was not able to attend the workshop.

Project #1 in progress report

     I am writing my report about the importance of putting your personality in your writing. I believe this is very important because it connects you with your reader(s). I have done a lot of research. I have gathered eight authors to compare and contrast. I have done this in my synthesis, but will further comparing and contrasting as my paper continues. I will further my research if the opportunity comes while writing. If I find more authors I will be sure to include them in my synthesis. I am currently finished with my introduction and synthesis and I have started my body along with my argument. I have my main points from each author planed out for the rest of the body. I plan on extending my body by first telling the benefits and reasons you should include your personality in your writing, second telling the disadvantages and reasons not to include your personality in your writing, third comparing and contrasting, and lastly adding my impute to the argument. I plan to end the paper with a conclusion that does not summarize, but concludes the argument. I then plan to read, revise, reread, peer revise, and so on. I was not able to make it to class on Friday, so I was not able to attend the workshop.

Bryson Reading Response

Before You Read

1. I think good English is well written, understandable, relatable, writing with good grammar. I think bad English is dry writing with bad grammar. I think this because of the way I was taught how to write in my English classes throughout school.

Summary

In his article "Good English and Bad" he explains good English and bad English. He also explains that we follow some rules in English. These rules are not necessarily real, but we have always known them so we go along with them. These rules have changed from past to present, along with the English language in general. He is explaining these rules of English to students and teachers so they have a better understanding of it.

Synthesis

Bryson's article "Good English and Bad" relates to Dawkins' "Teaching Punctuation as a Rhetorical Tool" and Berger's "Ways of Seeing". It is related to Dawkins' article because he explains the "rules" of punctuation and Bryson explains the "rules" of the English language. It is related to Berger's article because Berger compares the way women and men see women in the past and how they see women now. He explains how the judgment has changed over time. Bryson explains how English has changed over time, how it was then and now.

Thoughts

I thought this article was very relatable. It is relatable because almost everything has changed over time. I liked how Bryson explained that English, and everything in it, can be confusing. I relate to this because I am confused about just about everything in English. He successfully explained how the language has developed.

Dialectical Notebook

Response	Quotation
It’s exactly what it says. I never thought about it, but it’s so true.	“We seldom stop to think about it, but some of the most basic concepts in English are naggingly difficult to define” (61).
He is asking the reader to think about where the English “rules” came from. He explains that they just came about, no one actually made the about.	“..who sets down all those rules that we all know about from childhood..” (64).
He is explaining that the meaning depends on where you’re at, who your with, what time period it is, etc.	“Considerations of what makes for good English or bad English are to an uncomfortably large extent matters of prejudice and conditioning” (65).
He is saying that “we” must all agree on things for them to be commonly known.	“Even the most liberal descriptivist would accept that there must be some conversations of usage” (67).

Dawkins Reading Response

Before You Read

#1 Made of wood scraps and cardboard, my sisters treehouse is a great place to play with her friends.
#2 My sisters treehouse, made of wood scraps and cardboard, is a great place to play with her friends.
#3 My sisters treehouse is a great place to play with her friends, even though its made of wood scraps and cardboard.

Summary

His article “Teaching punctuation as Rhetorical Tool” explains punctuation and all of its meanings. He is telling writers how to use punctuation. He uses examples telling the reader the differences that the placement of punctuation can make. Dawkins also tells the reader that not only where you put the punctuation matters, but the type of punctuation also has an impact. What it comes down to is that punctuation determines the meaning the reader gets from the text.

Synthesis

Dawkins' article “Teaching punctuation as Rhetorical Tool” relates to both Bernhardt and Elbow. In Bernhardt's "Seeing The Text" he explains the importance of diagrams, graphs, etc. This relates to Dawkins' article because he used tables to explain and sort different types of punctuation. In Elbow's article "Voice in Writing Again: Embracing Contraries" he explains when to use voice and when not to use it. He explains that voice determines the way the reader interprets the text. This relates to Dawkins because he explains how punctuation determines how the reader interprets the text.  

Thoughts

I thought this article was very helpful because I thought that punctuation was common sense, but I learned things from this article. I agree with him that punctuation can be interchangeable. Some of the different types of punctuation he used would confuse readers that didn't know all the rules of punctuation.

Questions

5. I learned that punctuation is a tool. You can use it to emphasize things and to separate things. This article explained all types of usage for punctuation. 

MM. I think my teacher wanted me to read this article so I have a better understanding of punctuation. This could also help me while writing my essay and help my classmates that are writing about punctuation usage. I gained a better understanding of when and why to use certain types of punctuation from the examples in the text. 

Dialectical Notebook

Response	Quotation
Writers should always punctuate according to their intended meaning for the phase. They punctuate to make the readers read the text as they intend it to be read.	“Conventional punctuation is grammar based-marks are prescribed in terms of grammatical structure-but what ‘good writers’ do, writers like Orwell, is punctuate according to their intended meaning, their intended emphasis” (141).
It is important to have emphasis on certain things. You can use types of punctuation to draw emphasis.	“Raising, obviously, calls attention to itself, and thus gains emphasis” (145).
Lowering is used to not draw emphasis. I also noticed that Dawkins used a dash (a raising tool) to put emphasis in the sentence.	“Notice, finally, that lowering-the opposite of raising- is also a natural consequence of understanding the hierarchical system” (146).
By lowering and raising we will be able to “clarify the meaning of sentences and to gain intended emphasis” (153).	“..we will be encouraging students to clarify the meaning of sentences and to gain intended emphasis” (153).