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Vanessa Magdaleno, Mario A. Garcia

ENG. 1301.28

Instructor: Trang Phan

9/20/10

SUMMARY:

“Rhetorical Reading Strategies and the Construction of Meaning”

Christina Haas and Linda Flower. “Rhetorical Reading Strategies and the Construction of Meaning”. College Composition and Communication, Vol. 39, No. 2 (May,1988), pp. 167-183

In this article, it was observed, and clearly seen that readers can gain different interpretations of the same text. Readers were given a college level text, and were studied to understand the constructive process while reading being played out, and to see if readers are in control of their discourse when reading.
Haas and Flower explain what a “good reader” is. Good readers are more than just having a large vocabulary, recall content well, and read quickly. They should be able to analyze rather that paraphrase and be able to go more into depth as to what is written on the text. Another characteristic is to be able to read and see different perspectives.
A study was done to readers to see how readers come up with meaning. Experienced writers were observed making sense of their reading, while student writers tried to understand the text by simply using text based strategies, such as just seeing the clear meaning of what is written, not challenging it, or questioning it. The subjects thought about their own perspectives when reading the text, and analyzed the issue. This would help them to understand the text. Flower and Haas saw that more experienced writers gained more on the rhetorical situation to break down the text, and sometimes come up with hypothesis’ about what was read, and tried to understand the author’s purpose. However, the less experienced writers based their focus on the specific text. Rhetorical processes play a huge part in critical reading, which is desired for students to learn.

QUESTION:
What can a student get out of reading critically and rhetorically? Why do you believe it's important to use constructive view?

RESPONSE:
Being able to read rhetorically can help gain a better understanding of a text. It can help absorb all the facts and be able to construct and understand the meaning, by recalling on past images, emotions, and experiences. Just as in the study done by Flower and Haas, if a student reads rhetorically, he/she should be able to come up with a hypothesis about a text. In doing so, students will be able to trigger questions and want to know more about a subject read.
In addition, reading critically and rhetorically can help a reader go to the next level and try to understand the author’s purpose. “A text is understood not only as content and information, but also as the result of someone’s intentions, as part of a larger discourse world, and as having real effects on real readers” (170). It is important to try and grasp the author’s feelings about a topic, why he/she wrote it, and their intended audience.
The way readers record information absorbed has a huge role in rhetorical reading. Beliefs, images, and emotions all play into how a student constructs meaning of a text. The way a person interprets a text helps to analyze and explore not only the meaning, but the content, why it was written, the author’s beliefs, and how it was organized.
We believe that it is extremely important to go further that the text, and look deeper into what is being said. Just like many of our peers, we often read what is expected and not analyze what we're reading. We realized that we can gain a whole different perspective if we read critically. It is challenging, and at times confusing, but in the end, we'll know we'll have a better understanding than someone who just read to just get a basic understanding of the content.

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Mario A. Garcia
Eng. 1301
Trang Phan
9/7/2010
SQR 3: Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers
SUMMARY: This article focuses on how revising your work can greatly improve the point you are trying to get across. Gordon Rohman believed in the process of prewriting to writing to rewriting. In these three levels you could make all the changes you thought were necessary. James Britton had a model that had a series of stages described in metaphors of linear growth. They are conception, incubation, and then production. Rohman’s theory is one where a writer puts his own experiences down from words in his own mind. Britton on the other hand is more linear following a “first, then, finally” approach which does not let revision come into account. When revision is not used, teacher’s can tell who the experienced writer is because of the experiences they have had with papers written by both experienced and inexperienced people. A linear model is offer to students to be the guideline for their writing because according to Roland Barthes “there is a fundamental tie between teaching and speech.” Students rarely use revision because they hear the word mostly from the teacher that does it for them. For an experienced writer revision strategies are very important. When revising, an experienced writer uses this to find the shape and form of the argument. After the form is found they concern themselves for their readership in order to have abstracted the standards of the reader. These revision strategies are used to find meaning in the work that is being done.
QUESTION: Whose theory do you prefer? Rohman’s or Britton’s? Explain.
RESPONSE: When I write a paper my mind goes into thought like Gordon Rohman. I start by brainstorming a technique that I was taught in middle school. From there I gather all the ideas I threw out and write the best essay I think that I can. I reread my essay and then I figure out what I need to explain more, what I put too much detail in, and what I can do to make it more understandable for those who are going to be reading my work. Rohman's idea of prewriting to writing and then rewriting has always been my method, even when I didn’t know I was following it. It just seems easier to follow his theory because it lets you put in your own experiences with your writing which really helps the reader depict the message that you are trying to convey. With Britton this is not possible because his theory is really straight forward. In his theory there is a “first, then, and finally” with no revision what so ever. Revision is one of the most important things a writer can do because it is what separates an experienced writer from an inexperienced one. How can someone tell? A teacher has had much work reading papers and they can easily notice who the better writer from two papers is. In all seriousness I would recommend that everyone use Rohman’s theory for writing a paper unless you have to get something done quickly then it would be safe to use Britton’s theory as long as you are sure that you will not make any mistakes. But if you want to deliver a paper that you want to get the best grade that you possibly can, Rhoman’s theory is definitely the way to go. With his theory you have the opportunity to make as many changes as you need to, to keep improving your paper so that you can have a better paper than others.

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Mario A. Garcia
Eng. 1301
Trang Phan
9/7/2010
SQR 2: Peer Response: Teaching Specific Revision Suggestions
SUMMARY: This article immediately reminded me about my junior year in high school. While getting prepared for our TAKS test we would practice by writing short answer questions and writing essays about certain topics. There was only one way that we were going to get better at doing this and the only way was to be critiqued by our fellow students. This article talks about how helpful another student’s response can be to someone, when they provide the correct feedback and don’t hold back with what you really want to hear. There are many techniques that can be used to make something better. There is PQP, which stands for praise, question and polish. With PQP you can gather group members and read aloud while others follow along. The oral reading can help you individually, because you can find changes that you will want to make while you are reading along. Student’s responses fall into three categories; Vague, General, but Useful, and Specific. The highest percentage for these categories was given to, General, but Useful, because the idea to help is there but it is not fully captured by the person to whom it is being said. There is a system to help improve a peer response and it involves total class activities, small-group activities, individual work, and follow ups that help improve what you are trying to get across to someone else. When this system is being performed it makes it easier for, the person being told what to improve on, to make their changes because they are more understandable. Statistically speaking when this is done the percentages of the categories general, but useful and specific were the highest while vague responses decreased dramatically.
QUESTION: What are the three levels of categorization which student’s response’s fall into? How can the statistics that conform to each level be improved for the highest level, and decreased for the lowest?
RESPONSE: There are three levels of categorization for student’s responses are vague, general, but useful, and specific. Vague comments are “full of generalities, providing little or no specific direction for revision or transfer through praise.” General, but useful comments are “still too general but provide some direction for revision.” Specific comments “provide the writer specific direction for revision.” From these three levels, vague comments are the least useful and specific comments are the most useful responses when a student is going to critique a paper. This may be so but the level that is used most in students is general, but useful. It is statistically proven, in a consensus, that fifty three percent of comments were general, but useful. Even though this may be a high statistic for comments that can give some help to others, it would be better to have a higher percentage than twenty eight for specific comments. In order to increase the percentages for specific comments there were many activities that can take place to make the comments more useful to those who are getting them. There are total class activities in which the class decides which comment is more useful from four options that have been given to them. Small group activities are performed after a class activity. Groups are made of three or four people and they “explain why each response was ‘effective’ or ‘not effective’ in the light of generalizations derived from the [total] class activity.” Students then work individually to make “three ineffective responses from the group activity sheet and to compose a specific response that would make each comment useful to the writer.” When another consensus was made three weeks later with the same students the statistics dropped from nineteen percent to fourteen percent for vague, from fifty three percent to forty four percent for general, but useful, and rose from twenty eight percent to forty two percent for specific. Therefore if you want to increase your way of commenting on others people’s papers in order to help people out as much as possible.

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Mario A. Garcia
ENG 1301.28
Trang Phan
8/31/2010

Understanding Composition

SUMMARY: This article focuses on three major points of writing. The first major point of this article is recursiveness in writing that we see many people doing today. There are many questions to be asked about recursive writing. People strategize as to what people go back and think about instead of moving ahead in their work. Like any other thing sometimes recursive writing is easy for the eye to catch, while in other instances it is not, depending on what the topic of discussion is. Recursiveness in writing is simply going back to what you have written over a period of time. It can be after a page, paragraph, or even after every sentence into which you have set thought into. Some writers refer to their topic and use it as a guide to make sure that what they have written so far is on course and has not been off topic.
There is a notion that writers get when they are given a new topic. This notion is called, felt sense. Felt sense can bring out emotions and expressions into your writing that you have never before let out. Felt sense comes from our life experiences that no one else has shared, and when these experiences are shared it gives our writing more creativity because the reader knows that our voice is present.
The composing process also includes projective structuring. Projective structuring can come as stiff writing. The writer wants to state facts and opinions of others while holding back his own voice in the writing. There is no association between the writer and the topic what-so-ever and the writer seems to follow ground rules as to what he is going to be writing and limiting himself as to what can be said. These writers can also use projective structuring to ask themselves whether what they are writing is correct, and if it follows what they have learned. For projective structuring to be used to its full potential the writer must become the reader and know that what he is writing is what someone else would like to be reading.

QUESTION: From what you read in this article what does felt sense mean to you? Have you ever experienced felt sense? What do you feel when this act comes upon you?

RESPONSE: This article dropped a topic upon my mind that I had never heard of. I had never heard of it but as I learned more about what it was I realized that I had been using it as one of my strategies for writing essays since I was in elementary school as a kid. Felt sense seemed awkward to me at first. I knew it was something that triggered the mind into thinking of new and fresh ideas about the topic being written but I could not tie it in with what I was reading at the moment. As I progressed with the reading I found out that felt sense is what creates the link between the writer and the topic being written. When something is written the writer wants to convey images and emotions in their writing in order for the reader to become interested and not be bored of the normal boring writing that has no voice to it. When I do my writing it is usually very hard to get started if the topic is something that I am not very familiar with. When this occurs I take time to relate the topic to something that I do know about and express my emotions and thoughts towards that, hence being able to talk about the topic at hand. When I make the connection felt sense I start becoming more comfortable with the topic at hand.
I have experienced felt sense many times in my writing. Since felt sense means bringing newness and freshness into the writing I always think about what people see the least in this world. Because we live in a city we do not always have time to do many outdoor activities unless on special occasions. For me, outdoor activities occur every weekend at my ranch. I come across experiences that many people will never encounter and I know that if I share these experiences in my writing I know that I can portray enough emotion and detail to intrigue the reader into what I am writing and keep them attached to my work until there is nothing left to read.
When felt sense comes to me I feel as if a light bulb has come off in my head or if a simple switch has been turned on. Usually it come with a giggle afterwards and I say to myself, “why didn’t I think of this earlier” and when that switch turns on the pen starts writing and as each phrase is being written it keeps gaining momentum from the one before it making the work have coordination as to what the topic is. But the only thing that can from felt sense is going off track and not staying on topic therefore your thinking has to be compact in a way that you do not steer of the topic that was given.