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Sam Harris
Dr. Walls
ENC 1102H
19 April 2014
Navigating New Situations Using Literacy
The purpose of this annotated bibliography was to unite ideas from many
renowned rhetorical theorists, and by doing this establish ways that literacy could be
used to manipulate people, and form power relationships over them. This manipulation
would enable you to be successful in the business sense, by climbing your way up in a
company, and be successful socially, by easily making friends. As I did further research
my purpose took a different twist, and I no longer liked the idea of “manipulation”. I
decided the real purpose was to create a theory that acknowledged literacy as a tool to
more comfortably navigate new situations. Throughout my research I found that my
articles best supported literacy as a tool in “new situations” being new business
situations, and new social situations (also expanded in to digital social, such as
Facebook). For future reference within this annotated bibliography I defined “literacy”
as: A social, and digital tool that can be expressed through language, text, or self
expression through mastering a discourse. I came to this definition by pulling from
accomplished literary theorists Brian Street, James Paul Gee, Barbara Jones-Kavalier,
Suzanne Flannigan, and Eli Pariser.
I believe the research I have done would be considerably helpful to “the new
guy”. What I mean by this is someone who is just starting off in a new social or business
situation. This is people who feel marginalized or insecure. An example would be
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someone who is in the first week of their new job or volunteer position, or someone who
is new to a school and hasn’t made friends yet, and they feel like they don’t belong.
Specifically who this paper was written for, and who I think would find it the most
interesting and helpful, is my peers who are freshman in the Burnett Honors College at
UCF, even more specifically people who are in Pre-Med majors. I believe this because
this is the perspective I wrote from and researched from. The situations that I used my
research in personally was making new friends in the Honors College, and during my
interviews for my new positions at a Neurologist office in Maitland, and at the Walt
Disney Pavilion in the Florida Hospital. I believe my pre-med peers in the Honors
College will be able to pull from my experience and use my research in navigating
similar situations.
My research question when doing my research was, what previously existing
aspects of literacy theory could be utilized in successfully integrating in to a new
situation. I then expanded “situation” in to including social and business situations. Upon
further research I realized that in our age of expanding technology that social and
business situations both expand in to using digital media as a tool, so I included this as
well. My final question was how can literacy be used as a tool to navigate social,
business, and digital situations, particularly where you are a new member of the group.
When choosing articles for my research I looked for writing containing
approachable language, because my main audience was other members of the Honors
College, I did not want the information to get lost in translation of complex language.
Also, I wanted the authors of the papers to be credible in the field of literacy, so that my
research did not go to waste for the reader by lack of ethos. Lastly, the articles I
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selected had to be relatable to situations involving social, digital, or business
interactions. Otherwise they would not be pertinent to my research question.
I evaluated each article first by reading it and rereading it until I completely
grasped the concepts it contained well enough that I could convey them more concisely
and simply to an audience that may not be interested in the extraneous information not
pertinent to navigating new situations. Then I broke the articles down to analyze what
was related to my question and what was not. I then refined this information keeping
only what was the most pertinent to my topic. Lastly, I synthesized my own ideas and
opinions and added them to the research I had gathered in order to create a series of
ideas on how to use literacy as a tool in new situations. The articles I chose for research
go in order from core ideas to more specific.
Works Examined and Annotations
Losh, Elizabeth M., Jonathan Alexander, Kevin Cannon, and Zander Cannon.
"Issue 1." Understanding Rhetoric: A Graphic Guide to Writing. Boston: Bedford/
St. Martin's, 2014. 36. Print.
In Issue 1 of Understanding Rhetoric, rhetoric is defined and explained from a
rhetorician’s point of view using examples from when it originated in Greece, and then
explained simply for the average reader with little previous knowledge of the subject. It
explains the concepts of “ethos, pathos, logos, and kairos” (43). As basic as it can be
explained, ethos is credibility of an author or speaker, pathos is emotional appeal, logos
is logical appeal, and kairos is appropriately timing a statement. In combination these
four principles of rhetoric can be used to appropriately communicate a wide array of
points.
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This simple and comprehensive assessment of rhetoric formed the building block
for which my research is based on. Rhetoric is a facet of literacy, and these different
aspects of rhetoric can be applied to real world situations in which you are a new
member of a group, and find yourself feeling uncomfortable and do not know how to act
or speak. Properly utilizing credibility, emotional appeal, logical appeal, and timing, can
help anyone navigate a new situation with poise. I think it is very important that in this
chapter it gives relatable examples for using rhetoric to communicate in situations that
one within my audience would encounter on a regular basis; Examples of these are
online chats, sending emails to professors, creating posters for social events, and social
networking. This combination of relatable examples and easy to understand language
creates a dynamic that makes the proper usage of ethos, pathos, logos, and kairos
incredibly simple to understand and apply to life situations. The examples given in the
issue, such as emailing a professor, can be immediately taken and used by someone
feeling uncomfortable in the setting of a classroom or work place when communicating
with a superior. The only off putting aspect of this issue is that it focuses a lot of the
explanation of rhetoric around giving speeches and debates, which could confuse a
reader who is attempting to utilize rhetoric to feel more comfortable in a new situation.
Gee, James Paul. “What is Literacy?” Becoming Political: Readings and Writings
on the Politics of Literacy Education (2001): 1-9. Print.
James Paul Gee in What is Literacy?, bridges the gap between actions in daily
life, and language and learning. He states that literacy is the ability to adapt to daily life
through manipulating a discourse (socially meaningful group). This discourse is able to
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be manipulated through mastering the use of language in the particular discourse. He
explains the primary discourse (our household) and secondary discourses (stores,
school, businesses, etc.). Taking the learned language and actions from your primary
discourse and using them to adapt and master these secondary discourses is the
application of literacy. He states that we absorb these discourses in two ways;
acquisition (subconsciously adapting to a situation by being immersed in it) and learning
(consciously being taught something).
The most pertinent distinction Gee makes in regards to this paper is when he
describes a discourse as, “an “identity kit” which comes complete with the appropriate
costume and instructions on how to act and talk so as to take on a particular role that
others will recognize” (1). This phrase “talk and act” combined with “identity kit” relates
actions to social literacy. This “identity kit” is the exact ability to interpret a new situation
and act accordingly. Due to the fact that secondary discourse can be found in every
facet of life, mastering the words and actions to form the identity kit to master the
secondary discourse can apply to a wide array of situations. This mastery of language
of a discourse relates back to Issue 1 of Understanding Rhetoric. The proper usage of
ethos, pathos, logos, and kairos within any secondary discourse is what it means by
“mastering the language” of that discourse. To the person in a new situation trying to
adapt to the particularly secondary discourse, Gee says, ”We are better at what we
acquire, but we consciously know more about what we have learned.” (4). What this
means is that just by being surrounded by a secondary discourse for an extended
period of time you will naturally acquire how to behave in it. So even though it is
uncomfortable to be in a new situation, we naturally adapt to the secondary discourse of
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it by being in it, and will eventually master the “identity kit” of this discourse. To the
average person with no previous knowledge of literacy studies, Gee’s essay is quite
wordy, and would be hard to understand, which is why I have extracted the key points of
primary discourse, secondary discourse, learning, and acquisition, and simplified them.
Losh, Elizabeth M., Jonathan Alexander, Kevin Cannon, and Zander Cannon.
"Issue 3." Understanding Rhetoric: A Graphic Guide to Writing. Boston: Bedford/
St. Martin's, 2014. 115. Print.
Issue 3 of Understanding Rhetoric, expands on what was said in issue 1 but
applies the concepts learned in issue 1 to appealing to a specific audience. It explains
how moves such as tone and voice, and certain outfits, can be used to give a
performance of a particularly identity that most appropriately appeals to the specific
audience at hand (132). This style of “effective communication” applies to situations with
writing, or speech (117).
Issue 3 of Understanding Rhetoric essentially takes what Gee stated in What is
Literacy about secondary discourses and the “identity kit”, and expands upon it by
giving relatable examples and specifics on how to master these secondary discourses
through communicating to a particular audience. Also keeping in mind that this “effective
communication” utilizes the usage of ethos, pathos, logos, and kairos mentioned in
Issue 1 of Understanding Rhetoric. The first important thing it mentions when attempting
to master a new discourse is clothing can be used as a powerful tool for “rhetorical
statements” (119). It explains that what you wear is central to communicating what you
want your role in that discourse to be, using professional clothing, graphic t-shirts,
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exercise clothes, and church dresses as examples. Another important aspect of Issue 3
is utilizing “tone and voice”, these combined with the “outfit”, are combined to create the
“performance” of your “identity” (132). Something pertinent to people who are new
members of a community is it says,” if your performance of one identity doesn’t go
perfectly, you can still take advantage of the learning experience it offers.” (134). In
application that means every moment you spend immersed in your new secondary
discourse that makes you feel less comfortable and adjusted, use as an experience of
growth to lead to forming your “identity kit”. A weakness of Issue 3 of Understanding
Rhetoric in application to my topic is that it deals mostly in the discussion of tone and
voice in regards to appealing to an audience or arguing a point. Although, this
application of tone and voice and can expand far past these two examples in to normal
everyday conversation, particularly with new friends, or coworkers.
Jones-Kavalier, Barbara, and Suzanne Flannigan. “Connecting the Digital Dots:
Literacy of the 21st Century.” Educate Quarterly 2 (2006): 8-10. Print.
Jones-Kavalier and Flannigan’s Connecting the Digital Dots: Literacy of the 21st
Century, conveys that previously it may have been possible to get by with having a
knowledge of literacy that involved exclusively letters and numbers, but now a different
form of literacy is required. One that is more broad to include all forms of multimedia
and digital interface. Literacy in this sense including, reading and interpreting text,
sound, and images, reproduction of data and images, digital manipulation, evaluation
and application of knowledge gained from digital environments (Page 9). This new form
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of literacy is being able to utilize and understand all aspects of the digital world, and
being able to connect them as an ultimate tool of rhetoric and resource.
Connecting the Digital Dots: Literacy of the 21st Century takes the discussion of
using literacy to adapt to a new environment to another dimension. In this ever evolving
technological world that we live in, many new discourses that we find ourselves in such
as a new school, or workplace, also have digital components to them. In order to fully
master these secondary discourse and feel comfortable we not only need to understand
the rhetoric of face to face interactions but also the rhetoric of the digital world. JonesKavalier and Flannigan conveyed this concept when they said,” Competency begins
with understanding. Each medium represents a unique environment,..” (Page 9). These
mediums include things such as email, Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc. When one
learns the literacy of the digital, they can “reproduce data and images through digital
manipulation” in order to feel comfortable socially or in a business. This theory relates to
Gee’ concept of literacy being discourses.