About the author
During this class I had
struggled with reading with
the grain. I struggled with
this due to the texts we read
about male and white
privilege. I struggled with
this because I came from a
non-privileged background
with many problems in my
family and economic
troubles that forced us to
lose our house. This history
of mine had made me see
that I am not privileged and
led me to question the texts
we read about privilege
because I grew up not
knowing privilege. The area
I was from in San Diego
was a predominantly
minority led area where
everyone had the same
agency and respect for one
another even though we all
were or had experienced
economic hardships. Thus I
could not agree with such
assertions that males or
whites had more privilege
than minorities.
During my time this past quarter, I have learned many
new concepts about how to write and what I should include in essays.
This can be exemplified with my sequence two essay. For my sequence
two essay, I wrote about how covering is harmful to our self-image and
can lead to stress and anxiety. I noticed that this essay was very difficult
to write because not only did I have to narrow the subject down from
where it used to be, I also had to make it into a 6 page paper that used
inductive and deductive reasoning that linked to the sources we read in
this sequence. I also noticed that my paragraphs had a sort of disconnect
to each other where many paragraphs just seemed to do nothing for the
paper. I also had used many generalizations that I needed to specify
more and sources that I needed to utilize. Overall I did not like this
paper. The way I needed to link things to this paper made
for a challenge and one that I did not want to accept.
Compared to the first paper we had to do, I would say that
this last paper was worse. It was worse due to the fact that
the topic, to me, was too broad and the choice of topics to
choose from was very limited. Yet overall I had learned many new things besides this. I learned
about many new rhetorical terms that I had never known before, I learned that “I” can be used in
papers and the properties of the authoritative “I”.
NEW THEORY OF
WRITING
Writing is used to express
thoughts, knowledge and to
get your voice out to other
academics who can
contribute to your work or
vice versa. Writing allows
for you to express thoughts
without actually being there
or giving a speech or
lecture.
Original theory of
writing
Writing is used to do
assignments and to convey
knowledge to other
generations. It is also used to
preserve intelligence and
knowledge throughout the
years. Without it many
important lessons would be
forgotten.
At first when I enrolled in this class, I
thought that this would be another
English class not unlike high school English with a huge research paper
due at the end. I was wrong; instead I learned that this class examines
more social problems such as covering and male privilege which were nary
talked about in high school. This class was very informative and taught me a
lot about rhetoric. During this class I had a lot of trouble with having ideas come to me while
writing to better my paper but through the course of this class I have been able to find ways to
stimulate the writing process and make ideas come easier.
The coursework in this course taught me that to make a successful
essay; it must be carefully constructed with rhetoric and evidence. Each part of the essay must
build on a successful foundation, i.e. the thesis and claims, and must construct
each paragraph with evidence made of steel to fortify it from objections.
These must in turn support the thesis and allow for further building or
elaboration. I also learned many new important key terms like Citation
Sandwiches, Reading against the grain and Known new contract.
Citation Sandwiches:
A method used to cite sources in quotes. This includes an introduction, which has a warrant for
the quote, the quote itself which explains an idea about the warrant, and an explanation of the
quote at the end that offers details as to why this is quote is important or of relevance to the
paper.
Reading against the grain:
This form of reading is used to find flaws in the authors writing and argument. This is used
instead of reading with the grain to analyze papers. This means of reading is not good for
understanding and identifying with the writers ideas. This doesn’t create much sympathy for the
writer.
Known New Contract:
This is the use of what is known and adding and extending on it. This is useful and effective
when a paper is trying to borrow and extend off of others ideas with citations. This gives credibly
to your paper and can create authority.
“There will be plenty of
time to sleep once you
are dead”
-Benjamin Franklin