Notes 2/27- monday

Diary Entry
- possibly 8th grade girl's perspective
- location: someone's whiteboard, bathroom door, in front of elevators
- very personal in nature, "if someone read this I would just die"
The purpose of this study is to explore the how people react to a traditionally private genre posted in a very public place

Standard English

1. Standard English means different things to different people, English is spoken by a diverse group of people and there is no universal definition. I think it is safe to say that most English- speakers would describe their idea of standard English as the language they use daily when writing and speaking.

2. The variety of English that an individual may define as standard is the form of English that they would be most familiar with. It is probably the English that they encounter most often and use to communicate with.

3. There are situations that students should use a different language than English in the classroom, for example Chinese students probably should not speak English in most classrooms settings, unless it is an English class of course. Students in classrooms of English speaking establishments should also consider not writing or speaking in their idea of standard English if their message can be expressed in a better form of English, whatever that may be.

4. I think that a good writer is someone who achieves what they want from their writing. For example, writing is most often used to convey a message and a good writer will be able to convey their message to those who read their writing and also take pride in the way they conveyed the message.

5. I think that a bad writer is someone who does not convey the message they had in mind or does so in a manner that dissatisfies the receiver.

6. Some people do not speak or write English in a way that I perceive to be standard, but that does not imply that their idea of standard English is incorrect.

7. I really have no authority to say what types of writing students should be doing in elementary and secondary school to prepare for college and the work force. I also have no idea how to respond, the only thing that I can say for certainty is that the writing they should be doing should prepare them for the writing they will be doing in the future. Specifically writing that will help them to convey their ideas in such a way that a reader can understand their thoughts.

 8. no

Feb 22 In Class Activity

Screen Print T Shirt

Language:short, easy to read, simple
Content: informal, personal, semi- appropriate
Other Design Elements: colors, graphics, logos, material
Location: your body
Audience: anywhere you go while wearing a t-shirt, large audience

Breaking Constraints: writing final essay on t shirt
Reaction: Possibly humorous or annoying, have to strip to turn essay in

End of Unit 1 Blog

I can’t get over how surprised I am about the rough drafts and peer revision in this class.  It’s actually very helpful and I feel like I actually get useful feedback.  I wish that I could always have this chance to get a peer’s thoughts on my work.  It would be very useful in ENG 110 and I may very well start looking for people to read over my papers before I turn them in. 

            We have been doing a lot of peer editing and revising in class and I don’t feel like I have learned much since my last blog post, because we have not worked on any new material.  I learned from peer revision that I use a somewhat complicated vocabulary when I write even when I do not mean to.  I think this is just a non- English major’s point of view though.

            It was interesting to look at the genre of newspaper articles though.  I have never read newspaper articles on a regular basis and thus I really didn’t know what they were like.  It was an interesting activity to do, because all the genres my English classes deal with classic examples of literary canon.  The difference is very significant and it is a lot simpler to deal with newspaper articles. Newspaper articles are so short and are straight to the point, the amount of content that needs to be criticaly thought about is very small. 

           

Learning Blog .5 Version 2

            I like how free form and student directed the course appears to be though.  Designing our own peer evaluations was a really interesting activity and goes along with teaching us how to approach setting up activities and assignments.  The peer evaluations themselves were surprisingly helpful.  I usually don’t get a lot out of peer evaluation, but it was very useful.  With no clear cut requirements, we are creating the requirements ourselves, hearing the opinions of my classmates helped me to get a better idea of what I should put on my rubric. The Grassroot's article we read on peer editing was actually very interesting. I realized that I am an awful peer editer and I with a little more effort could help people improve their work.  I never thought of it as important, but it is a really useful tool when done with care.

As for the genre we are currently on, news articles, I think I can see a lot of traits that will be present in most of the genres we will work with throughout the class.   Newspaper articles are usually short and entertaining or very interesting.  In a society that has the excess money and time for copious amounts of recreational activity, present day United States, most of the text genres we see will be about entertainment or at least be interesting to read.  Anything that does not entertain or preoccupy the reader will be quickly made unprofitable.  Which leads me to my second thought, most of the genres we encounter everyday are short and to the point.  Most people won’t read anything that will take more than a few minutes.  Even the text books we use for class are usually short editions, because no one actually wants to take the time to read the regular, longer edition. 

The idea of trajectory is also something that stands out so far in this first semester.  It was briefly introduced, but I am interested to discuss it more in class.  The potential trajectory that texts have now compared to only ten years ago is massive.  Social media and the widespread use of cell phones, especially texting and Facebook applications, have made it possible for messages to be transmitted so much faster.

            English 101 seems repetitive after English 100 and 102, but I am hoping that is not the case after unit one. Either way, I am sure that I will learn something and that’s what college is for. 

Rubric

-Informative title
-keep article as short as possible without taking away from message
-keep the tone friendly, casual, and interesting
-explain why Facebook went public
-how much Facebook is worth
-explain any business ideas or terms that may be confusing to readers
-make sure to relate to ISU student audience
-make sure article is unbiased
-tie in interviews, don't force them in
-put in picture(s)
-make sure information most pertinent to reader is in first paragraph/beginning

Milestone 0.5

I’m still trying to decide how I feel about English 101.  I was very surprised when I found out that it was still a requirement for English majors.  You would think that we could get excused from it since English majors are already required to take two introductory English courses their freshman year, but those four hours a week is must not be enough…  I’m guessing that the English major specific course, required for English education majors, but not English studies majors, is a lot more instructive for those in the pursuit of teaching English. 

            I do like how free form and student directed the course appears to be though.  Designing our own peer evaluations was a really interesting activity and goes along with teaching us how to approach setting up activities and assignments.  The peer evaluations themselves were surprisingly helpful.  I usually don’t get a lot of peer evaluation, but it was very useful and I feel like I have a much better idea of what my rubric should look like.

As for the genre we are currently on, news articles, I think I can see a lot of traits that will be present in most of the genres we will work with throughout the class.   Newspaper articles are usually short and entertaining or very interesting.  In a society that has the excess money and time for copious amounts of recreational activity, present day United States, most of the text genres we see will be about entertainment or at least be interesting to read.  Anything that does not entertain or preoccupy the reader will be quickly made unprofitable.  Which leads me to my second thought, most of the genres we encounter everyday are short and to the point.  Most people won’t read anything that will take more than a few minutes.  Even the text books we use for class are usually short editions, because no one actually wants to take the time to read the regular, long edition. 

            I have a pretty good feeling that this will not be true of everything we look at in this course, but I also have a good feeling that most of things we do look at will.  The idea of trajectory is also something that stands out so far in this first semester.  It was briefly introduced, but I am interested to discuss it more in class.  The potential trajectory that texts have now compared to only ten years ago is massive.  Social media and the widespread use of cell phones, especially texting and Facebook applications, have made it possible for messages to be transmitted so much faster.

            English 101 seems repetitive after English 100 and 102, but I am hoping that is not the case after unit one. Either way, I am sure that I will learn something and that’s what college is for.