Heilker and Yergeau Reading Response

Summary

In their article, "Autism and Rhetoric," Heilker and Yergeau talk about knowing and listening to things as if they were rhetoric. They also discuss autism and knowing it as a rhetoric. This would help us learn and better understand autism and people that have it. They use personal examples to make an emotional attachment with the reader. They are writing to those wanting to learn about both autism and rhetorical listening. 

Synthesis

This article relates with Malinowitz, Wardle, and Glenn. I think this article closely relates to Malinowitz because they both talk about personal discourse communities. Being gay and having autism is something you are born with, a discourse community that you will be in your entire life. This also relates to Wardle because Wardle talks about belonging, acceptance, and identity dealing with discourse communities. I think that being autistic is your identity and you may have trouble being accepted and belonging in other discourse communities besides the autism one. Lastly I think this article relates to Glenn because Heilker and Yergeau talk about advertising autism. 

Dialectical Notebook

 

Response	Quotation
I feel like this is the main point. And is kinda about advertising.	“Public awareness and public discourse about autism are approaching critical mass” (261).
I love this! I have never thought about the subject of autism this way. It makes me think if even professionals can communicate about it.	“We could go on, but what, we wonder, despite this amazing increase in public discourse about autism, can we really communicate about it?” (261).
Does that mean it is a rhetoric in general?	“Given the definitional confluence of autism and rhetoric in communication and social interaction, it is simple to assert that autism is a rhetorical phenomenon” (262).
I like this because it puts me in his shoes and I visualize them being at the dinner table and Eli switching the conversation.	“Understanding autism as a rhetoric helps me understand Eli’s longstanding habit of radically shifting the topic of conversation without warning and without transition, without signaling the shift” (264).
I think any subject should be looked at, at different view points. In this case it is in a rhetorical view.	“But a rhetorical perspective offers us new, different, and more useful ways of thinking about at least some autistics’ silences” (266).
Love!! This is great, it’s like a slap in the face. I like that they use the : to bring attention to the fabulous point. This should be in bold!	“But if we in the academy can learn another from popular autism discourse, it’s this: there are people speaking about autistics, and then there are autistics speaking” (269).

Thoughts

I thought this was a great article for awareness on autism. It puts a different look, a rhetoric look, on autism. I do not have any personal connection with autism, but I know it is very serious and affects many peoples lives. I agree that better understanding would bring awareness and funding to autism because then more people would care. This article was also a good example, using autism, to better understand rhetoric.