SQR4

Marco A Portillo
Eng. 1301.28
Trang Phan
9/20/2010

Rhetorical Reading Strategies and the Construction of Meaning

                In this article they go on talking about these different processes and how writers and readers have their own aspects and mind sets that sets experienced and inexperienced apart. They go on talking about Rhetorical reading and how experienced  writers use their past and emotional experience to make a topic come to life and how the inexperienced writers like students we were taught different to use strategies that will get us a start on what the topic was about to help make the paper meet certain standards but not ones that we wish to surpass and make a paper meets those of a well experienced writer. This article also goes on to talk about “multiple-representation thesis” which explains a certain change and the process of constructing. This was shown when they experimented on three students to see how they think when they read to see if they understood what they read . In function/feature strategie talks about readers can pin point the important parts  like words or sentences “ This is the main Point”, “This must be an example”, “I think this is the introduction” while in content strategies explains what the text was saying but in function/feature were used to name what the text was doing “ here he is contrasting” “ this part seems to be explaining” this is how the reader is relating to the text itself being able to ask and question the text.

Question: What is “Good Reading”?

Response: What is good reading didn’t even know there was such a thing but according to the text its how we understand it and how we read critically. Like how now a day we students use bigger vocab words read faster and recalling what we read but that’s not what good reading is all about but to comprehend the writing in multiple levels to help us understand the writers intention of the writing and the point he or she is trying to make.

SQR4

Lisa Marie Lopez
English 1301
Ms. Phan
September 18, 2010
SQR4
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
Summary:
This article talks about how different strategies are used to construct and create written essays. One strategy introduced to us at the beginning is called “rhetorical reading” which is a strategy that is mostly used by the more experienced writers, is a type of tool that helps writers and readers understand the meaning of what they are reading. The article talks about how imagination is helpful when it comes to reading and writing. Emotional connection, simple association, or subordination, stated by the author in the article, is the cognitive process of reading and writing. The article explains how “multiple-representation thesis” helps explain transformations and the process of constructing. An experiment is done on three students testing to see how they think when they read, if they understand what they have read, and how fast they have read. “Content strategies” is explained in the article as a strategy that helps the reader better understand what they are reading. The article differentiates the differences between experienced readers and writers, and student reader/writers. It also talks about how rhetorical reading is being taught to students.
Question:
What do you think is good reading? How would you define rhetorical reading?
To me, good reading is when a person can comprehend what they have read. A good reader is someone who actually takes mental notes, or takes actual notes of something they read to better understand it. I am the type of reader that needs to jot down notes and reread what I have read so that I could not only understand what I am reading but also so I could imagine it. A good reader is someone who could analyze what they have read and criticize. They ask themselves questions and imagine in their minds what they have read. Rhetorical reading is a strategy used to help the reader criticize, identify, and analyze in their own words and ways. I often use this tool whenever I read because it really helps me to create imagery and helps me to foresee what is to come, or what I didn’t understand. Rhetorical reading is not really used by students; it is mainly used by those who are experienced. It is recommended that students use rhetorical reading because it helps the reader and writer with structure in their reading skills. When I had to do summer reading for high school, I couldn’t really comprehend what I was reading so then and there I used rhetorical reading. I got out my pencil and jotted down notes and characteristics on all the characters in the book. It really helped me understand who the character were and what their purpose was.

SQR4

Alyssa Vasquez

Ashley Favata

ENG 1301.28

Instructor: Trang Phan

9/20/10

SQR#4: Rhetorical Reading Strategies and the Construction of Meaning

Haas, Christina., and Linda Flower. “Rhetorical Reading Strategies and the Construction of

Meaning.” College Compostition and Communication, Vol. 39, No. 2 (May, 1988), pp. 167-183

Summary:

The article Rhetorical Reading Strategies and the Construction of Meaning by Christina Haas and Linda Flower in my opinion shows how these strategies are ones built over time. No one wakes up and becomes a great reader much less writer. Actually dissecting a reading and relating the article to real world experiences, understanding the author’s purpose and his effect toward the reader are all aspects needed to fully create an understanding of the reading. “Rhetorical strategies take a step beyond the text itself… In rhetorical reading strategies readers use cues in text, and their own knowledge of discourse situations, to recreate or infer rhetorical situation of the text they are reading” (176). Students mainly just paraphrase, but experienced readers does that and more. A rhetorical view of reading is a great way to open up to the topic and see it and understand it in different perspective, using this strategy helps evaluate the reading by asking questions in order to construct meaning for the text. As students, unlike experienced readers, we are taught to rely on text-based strategies to construct meanings, so we don’t have same full sense of reading as the experienced readers. “To interpret any sophisticated text seems to require not only careful reading and prior knowledge, but the ability to read the text on several levels…”

Question: What does rhetorical reading do for students?

Response: “To interpet any sophisticated text seems to require not only careful reading and prior knowledge, but the ability to read the text on several levels, to build multi-faceted representations. 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). The problem here is that students are reading only for information. I agree with the article in that rhetorical reading seems to be a strategy above average students use and the average does not. I feel in my reading experiences I have only come to try and understand what the author is stating and only after completing the reading I am able to ask myself questions which go beyond the actual readings context. Although I have I have found English to be my better subject, I have never been an above average reader. In elementary our school’s method of teaching reading comprehension was a colored system of short stories organized by length and complexity. At the end of each reading were a series of questions to test the reader. These were the primary methods our school system used to test a readers understanding. I think that from this point students such as me are shaped and molded to only grasp an understanding, and as the article discusses choose “nodes” of information that are in a reading. This article never fully discuses what rhetorical reading analysis is, so the reader is left to decide for themselves what the actual definition is. So with these rhetorical strategies helps us build a better view of what we are reading to have a better understanding of what we are reading.

SQR3

"Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers"

The article basically explains the differences between the methods of revision used by student, and adult writers. A case study was taken on twenty students from Boston University, and the University of Oklahoma with "SAT verbal scores ranging from 450-600."(pg.380 2nd paragraph) The twenty experienced writers were adult journalists, editors, and academics, form Boston and Oklahoma, the main difference was the level of experience between the two groups. "Four revision operations were identified: deletion, substitution, addition, and recording, and four levels of changes were identified: word, phrase, sentence, and theme."(pg.380 4th pg.) Once the study was done they found that student writers are not comfortable using terms such as revision or rewriting, but instead the phrases scratch out and do over again. This is somewhat the same concept as revision just with minimal differences. This case study shows that most of the student writers were still a bit unsure of their full potential as young composers. Adult writers however, have grown from these amateur habits and "describe their primary objective when revising as finding the form or shape of their argument"(pg.384 pg. 2) In the conclusion of the article it states that students need to rely on their own internalized sense of good writing in order to fully understand the concept of revision, and once this is achieved their skills should increase, so on an ending note to student writers, "try taking a look at your writing through your "own"(pg.387 pg.2) eyes for a change"

Q: "How can Student writers gain the necessary skills to become classified as "experienced writes?"

R: Perhaps students lack confidence levels that experienced writers have gained over the time they've spent as authors. Lack of intellect may not necessarily come into play, but possibly lack of knowledge in specific areas. "It is a sense of writing as discovery-a repeated process of beginning over again, starting out new-that the students fail to have"(pg.387 pg.2) This can almost answer my question completely, but i feel that students writers just need the right motivation, or inspiration to lead them to composing as proper as an experienced writer does. "Students need to seek dissonance of discovery, utilizing in their writing, as the experienced writers do."

ATTENTION!!!

Everyone,

I have put the date for each group in the GROUP DISCUSSION part. Please check out your group and start working towards your presentation schedules.

Also, please bring your SQR3 to class tomorrow to do peer revision.

See you all tomorrow

TP

SQR2

Rachel Reyna

English 1301.28

Trang Phan

Sept. 13, 2010

Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers

Summary:

Nancy Sommers states in the article that “current models of the writing process directed attention away from revision”. Sommers‘ article describes the different contrasts between student and experienced writers. She uses a variety of resources to help understand more of the revision process and how it affects students and writers. the absence of research on revision, then, is a function of a theory of writing which makes revision both superfluous and redundant, a theory which does not distinguish between writing and speech. Although, the author took theories from other writers, one can also learn about revision.

Revision can be considered as a rewording activity. Different students in the article are used to

give their strategies on how they use revision in their writings. One student stated about his strategy “Reviewing means just using better words and eliminating words that are not needed. I go over and change words around.” Experienced writers also defined their revision process in Sommers’ article. “My first draft is usually very scattered. In rewriting, I find the line of argument. After the argument is resolved, I am much more interested in word choice and phrasing” is the point of view of an experienced writer.

Question:

How important do you think it is to revise a paper with detail? How and with what methods would you want a peer to revise your paper?

Response:

I personally feel that some students should not give only one statement when it comes to revising a paper. I feel that revision statements that are clear, honest and precise will be the most useful to a writer, especially when they are a student writer. When revising a paper, one should be able to point out the writers mishaps and explain their thinking. If one is not honest or precise, then how is that going to help the writer become a better one? I would want someone to revise my paper with cruelty and honesty. Some might feel honesty can be cruelty, but in my perspective I think it is those two factors that makes someone a better writer. I would want to know everything from about my grammer mistakes to my sentences flowing. I understand why Sommers felt compelled to write an article about revision. It is a useful tool to create a good piece of literature.

Works Cited:
Sommers, Nancy. “ Revision Strategies of Students Writers and Experienced Adult Writers” College Compositions and Communication Dec 1890: pgs 378-388

"Peer Response: Teaching Specific Suggestions"

Jason Pena

Eng, 1301.28

Instructor: Trang Phan

9/13/2010

“Peer Response: Teaching Specific Revision Suggestions”

The article discusses responses pertaining to “teaching specific revision suggestions”

In middle school students, using the PQP, “Praise-Question-Polish, method.” This technique helps students gain confidence in their writing and also allows the students to focus on the task at hand. An example of “praise” would be; “The details you used to explain the situation on the fire were very graphic and believable, they allowed me to paint a mental picture of what I was reading.” Once that’s out of the way, ask a question, maybe there was a particular part of the story that you didn’t understand. Then lastly “Polish” it of, this means to make a specific suggestion for improvement so that the writer can fix any mistakes that had been made. The article states that different writers had different responses to PQP, depending on the different activities set up on the observation; some may have had more of an affect than others. “Total class, Small group, Individual work, and follow up,” are all ways that PQP can be used, so different writers will benefit individually from these activities. The ending results allowed observers to make the accusations that they did in the article, PQP is a fantastic method of teaching proper revision suggestions.

Q: If this technique works well for middle school students, can it be useful for helping other students in higher grade levels as well?

R: The method PQP has very useful strategies that I believe can in fact help any writer, skilled or unskilled.
Another survey should be done so that it can become a proven fact that PQP is a successful revision method. I myself as a young writer would like to use PQP because I know it will greatly improve my SQR’s and compositions, as well as anything else I can compose. This article was very informative and having learned about the PQP technique I feel confident that my skills as a writer will only get better, and I hope my fellow classmates benefit from PQP as I have.