Heilker and Yergeau

SUMMARY

This article describes autism and how it is rhetorical. The authors discuss the changes in awareness but no the changes in how autism is viewed. Someone with autism can get locked into a certain part of their own invention and not able to focus on other tasks. This explains why people with autism have focuses on which they enjoy talking or know a lot of knowledge about. The authors describe autism as more of  a "valued invention" rather than an impairment. Understanding autism as  rhetoric helps the awareness spread more effectively.

CONNECTIONS
I connect this reading with Gee's article about rhetoric and Discourses. He also describes rhetoric as a way of being in the world. This goes along with Heilker and Yergeau because they describe autism as a way of being and this rhetoric is not an impairment. I also connected this reading with the Smitherman article. All of these authors believe that teachers should be more understanding of who their students are and focus more on teaching rather than making them follow a certain curriculum.

The dominant perception of autism is that it is a disability. I believe that these authors are trying to show that it is so much more than that. People with autism have their own special rhetoric. When someone with autism is thinking, they are in their own type of invention and will function and process in a certain way. Because autism is such a medical mystery, it is usually just passed off as a disability. When in reality it is a special rhetoric, just as a would belong to a certain discourse community.

OPINIONS
I really enjoyed reading this article. It was more than just informative, it was also interesting. The authors do a good job of describing autism. I also got a bit confused in certain spots as to what the authors were trying to describe. But in the end it all tied together.

Villanueva/hooks

SUMMARIES
Villanueva
In this article Villanueva uses memories as well as, poems to describe his feelings about being latina and american. He is sort of in the middle of discourse communities, and feels that he does not belong. As much as he wants to belong to an american discourse, others label him as an outsider even though he is techically an american citizen. Then as he tries to belong to his Puerto Rican roots, he finds that he cannot remember a discourse that he was surrounded by growing up.

hooks
In bell hooks article, she describes trying to write an autobiography on herself to release the memory of her childhood. She describes not being able to belong but yet, not wanting to let go of herself. This article is another example of an internal conflict. When hooks was finally able to accept these memories she realized that she didn't want to erase the hold she had on these memories but to rescue her childhood self.

CONNECTIONS
Being that these two readings were right after one another they obviously connect. Both of these authors are feeling conflicted inside with themselves but also conflicted about their childhood. It's as if they both cannot coexist. This sparks the feeling of not belonging in a discourse. If you don't know yourself then how can you exist within a discourse community. I also connected this reading with the three we discussed Wednesday. You cannot just learn a discourse you have to experience it to be fully involved.

OPINIONS
I enjoyed reading both of these readings because of the personal experiences written. They make me feel almost sad that they are struggling to belong. It makes me think about where I belong in discourse communities and reflect on that.

Intro and Synthesis

Kaylee Lang

Megan Pugh

Kyle Buehrer

Ethnography: Student Senate

                  Discourse communities are a very important part of our society.  It allows for people of similar scholarly interests to pursue common goals and share their findings with each other. They are a way for these scholars to communicate and get objectives completed. Out of the many discourse communities available at Ohio University, Student Senate is one of the most exciting and important.  Student senate is responsible for representing the student body of Ohio University in political matters at the school.  As such, it seems to attract people who are interested in possibly having a political career in the future.  When asked if he was interested in politics in an interview, Residence Life Commissioner Nicholas Southall said, “I've always been interested in politics.  I chose to major in Education for a reason though.  I plan to teach High School for a while, but if the opportunity to run for an elected position in the future presents itself, I would not be opposed”. Student Senate accomplishes many things throughout the year, and is constantly fighting for student rights. Nick Southall said “Right now Student Senate is fighting to have their voice heard in the guaranteed tuition debate”.  This discourse community is unique in the fact that it fights for the rights of all students of Ohio University, so it works for the interests of another discourse community.  This discourse community also has its own internal competition, in the form of election campaigning.  The members of student senate form different parties that attempt to elect their members to different offices in Student Senate.  This discourse community is truly a unique one, with lots of features that make it stand out from other discourse communities.  Even though they fight for the student body, many people are not aware of what they do to help Ohio University.

                  In this ethnography, observations and studies on student senate are comparable to the authors Swales, Gee, Porter, and Devitt et al. When comparing these writings to the physical observations we made while studying this discourse community many similarities are found. As previously mentioned, those who are involved in student senate are extremely compassionate about the work they are doing.  Each meeting has important topics as well as conversations that could be considered genres as described by Devitt et al. Not only do the members of student senate communicate through meetings but also through email, phone, and text messaging. These communications may not be understood by those who are not in student senate and thus is strictly for that community. Also, new members of student senate may not know how to contribute correctly in this discourse community. They must observe and learn from older members to fully grasp the community’s concept just as Gee describes. Members of senate may be part of this Discourse and not even know it. However, in Swales definition of discourse community is similar to Gee’s in the fact that student senate is working together for the main purpose of representing Ohio University’s students in a just way. These members get together to work on problems as well as possibly prepare themselves for a political future. Although, the members of student senate are working together they also feed off of one another in meetings to produce something great. As campaign season begins, leaders arise and just as Porter describes with his example of Thomas Jefferson’s intertexuality, a good leader can be guilty of this also. Many speeches and sayings are borrowed from the speeches of other great leaders. Although discourse community has many definitions and descriptions, these all come together and successfully define student senate and what this community stands for. 

Devitt

SUMMARY
In this article these three authors dive into the discourse community topic and define in their own opinions what and how genres are used. Devitt goes in to describe the topic of discourse communities and how the definition is always changing. Also she discusses how in court you are given instructions that are only understood by those in the court system. Words may have different meanings in this discourse community than how the rest of the world understands them. Author Bawarshi discusses these languages and texts that are used for us to understand the discourse community and it's purpose. Also, Bawarshi breaks these genres into different pieces and how genre can be conflicting towards each other. Then author Reiff describes genres as "keys" that teach us how to participate in these communities. Her definition of genre is more of a map that guides you through these communities.

CONNECTIONS
I connected this article with Swales article. Although, we have read many articles about discourse communities. Swales article describes the steps that one would have to go through to become part of a discourse community like the authors in this article they break this down even more and mainly focus on genres and what they mean to the discourse community.

DEFINITION
Bawarshi describes genre as the language used in the discourse community and how one learns this language. While Swales never really goes into defining genre since he believes his readers should already understand it. I think both authors agree that genres are mainly used for communication between the discourse community. However, Bawarshi describes how genres can often contradict each other and can be different things. Genres are not set in stone, they change based on the discourse community itself. I personally think that Bawarshi's definition is more suitable for a classroom setting since language is always changing and the way we communicate in the classroom will always alter.

OPINIONS
I liked reading this article since it was broken into three different articles by three different authors. It gave different points of view as well as different opinions on this subject. They also gave different examples that I could imagine personally.

Gee

SUMMARY
In this article author James Paul Gee describes what he calls "Discourses" and how we contribute to them in everyday life. Discourses are all around us and used everyday. Gee then goes in to describe different types of Discourses such as, primary, secondary, dominate, and non-dominate. Each subtext describes different types of Discourses that are in society today. These Discourses can be researched and studied in different ways. However, you are either in a Discourse, or you are not. Just because one can study a Discourse does not mean they can become part of the Discourse.

CONNECTIONS
I connected this article with the article we were assigned for wednesday (Swales) because they both involve discourses. However, Gee's definition of Discourses is quite different. Swales describes a discourse community as a list of criteria and having one purpose. When Gee, describes Discourses as being a way of life as well as actions. I also connected this article to Geneva Smitherman's article we read a few weeks back. Like Gee, she describes that language and grammar are two different category's and should be treated as such. As well as the section of the article where two welfare employees were interviewed and one was considered right when the other was wrong.

QD #3
Gee describes the difference between discourses and Discourse as discourses being a part of Discourse. A Discourse involves not only language but action and many other factors when a discourse is primarily language itself. Discourse has a much more broad meaning with different factors than just discourses.

QD #13
I think belonging to a Discourse would be quite difficult. It isn't about learning knowledge or language it's about learning a way of life. You have to connect with what you're observing rather than just memorizing actions or language. If I were to be an apprentice it would feel as though I am pretending. It would feel I am more of a child pretending to be an adult. It takes desire to become a part of a Discourse.

OPINIONS
I really enjoyed reading this article. It allowed me to see another side to Discourses rather than just view them as this high society club as i have imagined them before. It makes me think about if i'm involved in some Discourses already and if so what are they?

Ethnography Proposal

Kaylee Lang, Megan Pugh, Kyle Buehrer

For our upcoming research report we will be studying Student Senate at Ohio University. We plan on interviewing senate members as well as conducting a survey to see how others perceive student senate. Also we would like to find some articles about what past senates achieved at Ohio University, as well as, discover what the current student senate is accomplishing. We will be displaying this research on a web page/ blog. We hope to learn the inter-workings of student senate and their achievements on the Ohio University campus.

Driscoll

Kaylee Lang, Megan Pugh, and Kyle Buehrer
Summary
This article is primarily about researching and how to research correctly. In first year writing courses there are three topics in research that Dricoll focuses on; observations, interviews and surveys. The author breaks down each piece and describes the incorrect and correct way to write each part. Dricoll also writes about two college students researching different topics. She also breaks down the interview process and how to successfully interview someone of your research topic. 

#2. Driscoll explains briefly ethical guidelines to follow when conducting any type of research. The three points she made were “voluntary participation, confidentiality and anonymity, and researcher bias”. These three items are strong basic starting points but you could also take into consideration the interviewee’s feelings. You may embarrass them in your project or portray them in a way they would not like to be seen. Or perhaps you could reveal personal information about them such as what they look like, where they live, or who they associate themselves with. In our own research, we could particularly use the confidentiality and anonymity suggestion. When we interview, we would not want to give anyone’s name away if they did not give their consent; which goes along with the first main point, voluntary participation, because the participant should know what they are participating in.

#3. There are many issues that could be researched on campus using primary research.  One of these is the sleeping habits of students.  In college, many students do not have good sleeping habits.  Because of this it would be interesting to have students fill out a survey asking them how often they sleep and for how long they do.  Another question that could be asked to students in an interview is if they think that the armed robbery near campus was handled correctly.  This issue could be studied by interviewing several students to get their opinions on the situation.

Opinions
After we all read this article we all agreed that this article will be very helpful to our upcoming discourse community project. It's basically a step by step instruction manual to successfully create the perfect research project. We also liked that she gave examples of what not to do as well so that we do not make that same mistake. It's important to portray this community without being offensive and we believe this article will help us stray from making that mistake.