Anzaldua

pre-reading

Ethnocentrism is the tendsmcy to view alien groups or cultures from the perspective of ones own superior ethnic group or culture. No I have never heard of this term before. However I think you could say that it was Hitler's objective.

Questions for Discussion and Journaling

1) By not cluing us in, she is not allowing us to become part of that community. Therefore you cannot get a clear understanding of the community due to her vagueness. She is somewhat leaving us in the dark so to speak.

3) Yes, people need to have confidence in their writing to express emotion about what they are writing about. If one is not confident in their writing that can be felt by the audience.It can make what one is writing about very dry and not interesting.

Sure, because having confidence in myself and what I am writing allows me to express a deeper involvement in what I am writing therefore making it  more interesting to those who are reading it. If i am confident and interested in what I am writing others will be while reading it.

Applying and Exploring

2) No, In my opinion this writing was interesting to me because it kept my attention. I feel that if it was in the traditional format it would have been boring and harder to follow and understand.

3) Yes I agree, I think it takes us back to the  Mcloud reading about images, as it would make a lot of things easier for some people to understand.

An example I can think of is of the civil war, when you just read something about it. You get an idea of what happened, but when you see pictures with the text it really hits home about what they went through.

Yes, I think if you are working with kids is a time when you would do this.

Alexander

Q and D

6   I think that its restrictive because men and women do write differently. For example if a man writes about hunting that to most is acceptable but if a woman would do the sme writing most men would think that she didnt know what she was talking about.  Now let say that a woman did write it but with a male surname then it would be accepted as agood article by men.

7  Take the story the turnabout men are usually the ones that screw up then they feel guilty even if there are no feelings there i think he was trying to do the deed with as less hurtfulness as possible and after the bitchin that he got come to find out she did the same thing so how can she bitch about it if she does it too.  so for me it is very stereotypical to assume that guys are always wrong when girls can be just as wrong

 A and E

3  Well i feel that everyone can learn something from trans gender writings because if they were to use a surname of a different gender then most would be none the wiser after reading it .  so then its not what u look like but it is more about the language you use when writing

Delpit and Smitherman

DELPIT

Discussion and Journaling

1) Yes I feel that identifying her race would allow readers to see the passion in her writing and show a personal relationship between Delpit and what she is writing about. Identifying her race would show readers that she is not just writing about a topic in general to her. It would show that she is part of the discourse that she is writing about. I feel that her race identity does matter in context with the article. The message really doesn't change I don't think,knowing she is African American. Her message is still the same but identifying herself with the discourse that she is writing about would show readers that she really knows what she is talking about. Perhaps if she would put personal experiences good or bad this would also I think help to get her message across.

3)I do agree with what Delpit is arguing but I don;t necessarily agree with her views entirely with reference to Gee's writings. She defines 2 problems with Gee's writings when it comes to teaching literacy in the classroom. One being born into a particular social class and the other being values of one discourse conflicting with another discourse. However in his writing he also gives examples of how these problems can be over come. I feel he refers to them as problems that in fact do need changed, not that he feels this is and should be the norm. He gives in which students can over come this and even how sometimes those that have to work a little harder end up being better off in the the end. I do agree with Delpit however that teachers can and should have a big influence on students and they should be able to have resources available to them to achieve this.

applying and exploring

3)Yes I do see generalizations in Delpit's text.She says that just about any African American or disenfranchised person who has become successful has done it by acquiring a discourse other then the one they were born into.I feel this applies to anyone. We all have our primary discourse, family and heritage. In order to become successful we all have to acquire a secondary discourse, which then allows us to gain goods or money, or status from obtaining this discourse. Which you cannot do within a primary discourse.I feel that she is too vague in her explanation of this. She generalizes what Gee writes and should go into some greater detail on how things can be overcome as he states and not just skip over it. 

SMITHERMAN

pre-reading

Yes I would say that we all have. For the most part I think you can tell a lot about a person from there speech .Stereotypically people with poor speech are from poor neighborhoods.They speak differently then most people. When I was in the military,people often ask where I was from because of my Appalachian accent. People from Chicago talk really fast. People from New England say words differently.They accent the A's.

Questions for Discussion

2) I think that she is just trying to show everyone that would read this article that just because you speak differently you are not necessarily different. I think that when this article was wrote that it was in the 70's, at a time when white people and African American people didn't see each other as equals. and she is just trying to get this point across.

Applying and Exploring

5) I feel that she is trying to say that no matter who you are, that God is God. There are people who are Catholic and Muslim. They have  the same beliefs but they call God by different names. Therefore God does not ever change.   

Flynn

Questions for Discussion and Journaling

2) The time in which a piece of work is written is a big influence on how it is perceived I think. A lot depends on society at the time a piece  of work is written. At the same time I feel that a piece of work can also stand on it's own to a certain degree and that ability can make it popular for many generations. Also through the years I think it is possible for a piece of work to gain a different perspective that may in fact make it a greater work then when it was originally written.

3) I feel this means that men have become the model for which all writers are judged. Therefore women have had to adapt to this and not be able to think outside the box so to speak. This universalizes us instead of making us unique.

5) I believe for the time period it was for the most part accurate for the time period however not necessarily the norm. It  was convincing in the fact that I  could see the differences that were trying to be pointed out. However I believe that at the same time it was a little too far fetched so to speak.

applying and exploring

4) Yes the limitations are the fact that feminine study and composition have not really been thought of as coinciding.Feminine topics are not frequently a topic of composition. The models already in place for composition have left little room for intervention from the feminine point of view.Feminine research defines a difference between male and female developmental processes and the way they interact with others.A feminine approach would concentrate on the differences in male and female composition and why for example.

5) Male writing tends to be about oneself and woman's tend to be about relationships and connections with others.Male gender  also talks a lot about achievements or shortcomings and breaking away from community. Female tends to depend on  others and not individualize themselves.

Villanueva

3) The author is trying to make you feel sorry for him. By using a memory you are personalizing the article. Making it seem like you should read more. By using that memory, he caught your attention and made you want  to read more. Made it less institutional and more a story.

4) The poems were mainly about trying to fit in in my opinion. The passages were mainly about race. So I guess they contribute well since the article was mainly about race and fitting in.

8) That our forefathers were assholes. That it doesn't matter who writes about racism,it always falls on the white man. This may be too, but that was over a 100 years ago. Not all white people are racist.I feel that them writing about it is racist.

2) I feel that it pays a big role. I mean there are a few different stories and poems from different authors. He was able to find poems to go along with his text. I would say yes I think we do or write about has a little from the past experiences. If it didn't were would the enthusiasm come from. I think you have to have good and bad memories to come up with new and existing material.

notebook

1.  Each of us is a rhetorical creation. Out of an inventive world (a past a set of capacities, a way of thinking) we are always creating structures of meaning and generating a style, a way of being in the world. pg 262

2.   The kind of work we are suggesting involves what Krista Ratcliffe calls rhetorical listening, a practice that urges us to fundamentally alter how we hear and respond to the discourse of others.  pg 265

3.  let us consider, for instance, echolalia, a characteristic kind of language use among autistics, in which they repeat stock words and phrases verbatim that they have heard other speakers use. pg 265

4.  If we can come to see our autistic students through the lens of rhetoric more than through a stock and overdetermined lens of autism, we might come to better appreciate what they have to offer instead of fixating on what they do not.  pg269


1.  This to me is saying that we all have a distinct voice, our own way of speech or writing. That all people are different in the way we interpret what others say or do.

2.  Krista Ratcliffe, in my opinion, is trying to get people to take time and actually hear what someone is saying not only in actual words but in body language as well. Maybe this would help us to better understand more than what we have been taught from a young age.

3.  This passage kinda reminds me of the movie Rainman when (tom cruise) gets Raymond (Dustin Hoffman) to say that K-Mart sucks.  I also think that this is the way we have been taught to think of autistic people.

4.  This to me means that you shouldn't judge the book by its cover. That just because you are autistic doesn't mean you cant function in society. There are cases, so Ive come to realize, that some people with autism are very much a big part of society.

project 3 intro

Ethnography of Aviation Pilots

     For my ethnographic study I have chosen to study the discourse community of aviation pilots. This is of great interest to me due to the fact that I am currently in the Aviation program at Ohio University to become a pilot and one day be  part of this Discourse community. The focus of this research is to bring a better understanding of what it means to be an aviation pilot as part of this Discourse community. I will achieve this by conducting an interview with my cousin who is a pilot, along with observing one of my instructors at Ohio University. I will also research genres that are used by me and my instructors. I will also bring to light a particular conflict within the community that deals with the concern of their being a shortage of pilots within this community within the next few years.

     I will start by giving a brief description of what is required by a pilot within their Discourse community and how they meet the 6 criteria of John Swales, that he feels all communities need to meet to be considered a Discourse community. Pilots all have one common goal, and that is to transport passengers and cargo safely from one place to another. They need to have strong communication skills, depth perception, quick reaction time, and problem solving skills just to name a few. They have a method of communication, whether it is by in-person conversations with other pilots or by radio communication with air traffic control. They also communicate  whether it be by phone, text message or email with members of the community or outside of the community. They have participatory mechanisms in place to ensure that they are in good physical and mental health to be able to carry out their duties safely. This mechanism is the FAA ( Federal Aviation Administration). It is the national aviation authority of the United States of America. The FAA has the authority to regulate and oversee all aspects of civil aviation in the United States. It has the ability to issue, revoke, and suspend all pilot certificates. They require periodic health exams to ensure that Pilots and student pilots are able to carry out their duties safely. Pilots have many genres that they put to use such as flight plans, pre-flight check list, and the instruments in the plane that they monitor during flight. They also use a specific lexis or language to communicate. For example terms like “down wind” and “base” are used when landing an airplane. Lastly they have a threshold of members. The minimum age to obtain a private pilot’s license is 16 and the minimum age to fly commercial is 18.You have to have 40 hours of flight time to obtain a private pilot’s license and 250 hours to be commercial pilot rated. However to work for an airline you need 1500 hours of flight time. The retirement age for pilots is 65 years of age.

     A discourse community is not something you can just partially be a member of. You have to be part of the community 100%. It is an identity and if you are not able to display that identity, then to the community you are seen as being fake. In some instances you can be in the process of becoming part of the discourse, like an apprentice or schooling. As a pilot you cannot be seen as being part of the community until you have studied and worked hard to earn your pilots license. Even after you have received your license you still have a lot of training to do to prove that you are able to be a part of the community. Sometimes when people work to be part of a discourse community, they become “fossilized” in the attempt to do so. As an aviation student if you attempt to earn your license and even obtain it but do not work to get the number of flight hours needed to be part of the pilot community, you are still considered to be an outsider because you have not proved that you can be an asset to the community.

     Aviation pilots would be considered an acquired dominant secondary Discourse community, due to as members they acquire money from being part of this Discourse. This varies from a Primary discourse community which would include family and friends. People become part of a secondary  discourse most of the time as a way to support their family. However it can also be a non-dominant in that people can obtain a private pilot’s license and fly airplanes as a hobby and not to profit from it.

     There at times can be conflict between someone’s Primary discourse and their dominant secondary discourse. This is most often temporary, but if not resolved a few different things can happen according to James Paul Gee in his writings in literary discourse and Linguistics. He says that many times people will fall back on their primary discourse, for example family. Being a pilot can sometimes put strain on a family. For example training to become a pilot can put a lot of financial stress on a family and changes may have to be made with in this primary discourse to adjust. As a pilot just out of school you may not get a job right away, or may get a job that does not pay a great deal of money. The job a pilot gets may not be close to home and may cause the pilot to be away from his family for long periods of time. However most likely with some adjustment overtime this conflict will resolve or the primary discourse can adapt to the secondary discourse. In some cases a person may have to use a related secondary discourse temporarily. For example a pilot just out of school may not get a job right away or may not make a lot of money at first. In my own experience being currently in flight school, I had to quit my previous secondary discourse as a union carpenter that I had been part of for many years. Once I have completed flight school, being a pilot will become my dominant secondary discourse. However I have union carpentry to fall back on if need be.

     When working toward becoming a part of a particular discourse it seems at times there are those that do not have to work as hard and things just seem to come easy for them. There is a process known as filtering that takes place, this is when parts of one’s secondary discourse are filtered into the primary discourse.  As child is still acquiring their knowledge of their primary discourse, they are learning aspects of their secondary. As a child my father had is private pilot’s license and owned his own plane. So from a young age I was exposed to aviation. My cousin, whom I will be interviewing for this project also had his private pilot’s license. I was familiar with the basics of how airplanes worked and the genres and lexis of the pilot discourse community. Due to the exposure to the pilot community and the interest I have in becoming a pilot I feel that in some ways this gives me an advantage of someone who may not have had the exposure to aviation that I have had.