Thlog Week 5

Talking about moves this week honestly confused me a bit. Initially, on the first day we started talking about moves, I had the perception that a person’s move was unique to that person. The example I thought of was Michael Jackson’s lean-forward-dance-move-thing. Whenever one thinks of that move, Michael Jackson is what comes to mind. However, after the project builder this week I realized that a move can really be anything, and authors across the board can share these moves. Something as simple as parallelism can be a move. But if everything can be a move, then what is not a move then? Where do you draw the line between what makes a move a move and what is not qualified as a move? How nitpicky and detailed can you get?

One writing tip I really found interesting was the idea of changing the font of the text in order to try to trigger new ideas. I am a visual learner, and this writing tip is definitely something I want to try out. It stood out to me that something so simple could actually be helpful to a writer.

Brainstorming for WP2 ideas was also really interesting and helpful. It was interesting to see everyone else’s opinions and how they view certain disciplines. Everyone’s topic of interests vary, and some people are so creative. It’s cool to see how everyone in the class thinks differently and can come up with such great ideas.

The last thing I want to point out is that I realized how amazing and smart it is that Zack uses Google docs to teach this course. I love having the lesson plans there during class, and I love it even more that we can view the lesson plan even after the class is over. This accessibility is what reminds us about what we learned, so that we won’t forget it. It is such a great resource to refer back to. I realized that this week when looking back to previous weeks lesson plans to trigger some ideas for WP2.

Movin'

                Each work of writing has its own unique “moves” that the author intentionally utilizes for various reasons. Examining the course reader makes it apparent that each author’s moves were implemented in hopes of making the audience more conscious readers and writers. From the book They Say, I Say by Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein, and Russel Durst, the index of templates provides many examples of common moves. While the same types of moves may be used by multiple authors, it is not uncommon if each author has his or her own take on the execution of the move. “Introducing what “they say”” is a move that is discussed in They Say, I Say. This move makes a good introduction because it essentially leads into a topic by generalizing something that other people believe—making it more relatable. For example, an author can introduce something by saying “A number of _____ have recently suggested that ___” (Graff 681). By mentioning how others are in agreement with the idea, the credibility of the topic at hand is immediately more reliable. In Alex Reid’s “Why Blog? Searching for Writing on the Web” essay, Reid utilizes this move when he says “Of course, most students aren’t interested in becoming expert writers” (Reid 303). Talking about most students adds the element of relatability, which can capture the readers’ attention. Another move discussed in They Say, I Say is “Making what “they say” something you say.” An example of this move is evident in Reid’s essay when he says “The specifics of my experience starting out as a blogger…” (Reid 309). This is a move where the author puts in his or her own beliefs, often making use of the first person. The impact this type of move has on the readers is that it prompts them to compare their own experience, opinions, or beliefs to that of the author. Something as simple as introducing quotations can also be known as a move. In Janet Boyd’s essay “Muder! (Rhetorically Speaking),” Boyd uses quotes from outside sources to back up her thoughts. For instance, she introduces a quote by saying “perhaps these words came easy for Kirstin Flynn who writes…” (Boyd 94). Providing context before a quote is always vital in ensuring that readers understand the flow and sequence of the content. Adding metacommentary is another common move that authors incorporate in order shed light on what is more significant. In Kerry Dirk’s “Navigating Genres,” he demonstrates this metacommentary when he says “But above all, …” (Dirk 250) to effectively redirect the reader’s attention to what the focus is.

There are also many other moves that authors implement to better portray their message across to the audience. Alex Reid demonstrates the use of charts and tables to show the types of course-assigned blogs and their characteristics. These charts are to help clearly separate the types and characteristics by making it more visually obvious that there’s a difference. It also prompts the audience to compare the types, ultimately effectively attracting more attention towards the content. In “So What? Who Cares?,” the author uses the move that I call “The Author is Talking to You.” The author uses words such as “let’s” to make the readers feel more interactive in order to maintain the attentiveness of the audience by lowering the level of formality. Saying “let’s” makes the reader feel as though the author is a friend wanting to do something fun together with the audience. This move is an effective way to make the essay feel more personalized, as the purpose of the piece is not for a formal setting but rather a guidance for the readers. Anne Lamott demonstrates her own unique move that I call “But.” She starts sentences with conjunctions to effectively decrease the formal tone. For instance, Lamott says “But this is just the fantasy of the uninitiated” and “But this is a very hostile and aggressive position.” By making these clauses its own stand-alone sentence, there is a pause in the reader’s voice when reading the sentences. “But” is a good substitute for “however” because “but” is at a lower register than is “however” in terms of formality. Since the overall tone of Lamott’s essay “Shitty First Drafts” is clearly not a formal one, the use of “but” successfully engages the readers in a casual manner. Janet Boyd’s essay “Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking)” uses italics pretty often. Italicizing words such as, “jargon, slang, au courant, diction, tone, colloquial, dysphemisms,” emphasizes the key terms of the essay and points out the focus of the essay. While the italics does hone in the audience’s attention, there may be too many words that are italicized, which can cause the italics to lose its effect. Another common move is the use of questions. Rhetorical questions used in Dirk’s “Navigating Genres” also helps capture the reader’s attention. Asking the reader “So why was I talking about country songs?” makes the essay feel more like a conversation, and therefore attracting the reader’s attention. The moves that these authors make are all intended to improve the quality and effectiveness of the essays or articles.

Thlog Week 4

I loved the freedom we were given in this week’s PB. When I first learned that the PB would still be about genres and conventions, I was a bit hesitant because I was unsure about how much more we could write about. We had already approached the topic of genres and conventions from so many different angles, I did not know if there would be another approach. But, behold! There was. I chose a research article on the effects of MDMA on social behaviors. While examining the conventions of this scholarly article and comparing it to SCIgen was the purpose for this writing class, I was also able to kill two birds with one stone and learn about the research/experiment itself. I also loved reading other students’ PBs, as it gave me insight on what each student is interested in.

The class activity we did on the five facts about a murder was really interesting. I liked how each approach was given to two groups of students in the class because we were able to compare the differences in approaches within a genre. The genre I found most interesting was the Facebook post. It was interesting to see one group take the role of the parent of the deceased and another group assume the role of a casual friend of the person who passed away. I did not previously realized there could be such a difference in tone within the same genre.

The free-write about defining what “move” meant was a bit difficult at first. I knew what it meant but I realized I didn’t know how to word it. I found it difficult to elaborate on the word, but I guess that’s what the journals are for! The journal is definitely something that is going to be helpful in the long-run. 

PB2A - Rollin'

Margaret Wardle and Matthew Kirkpatrick’s scholarly piece “‘Ecstasy’ as a social drug: MDMA preferentially affects responses to emotional stimuli with social content” contains many factors that are important for the audience’s understanding of the work. One of the first conventions demonstrated in the article is the hypothesis that is weaved into the introduction. Their hypothesis that “MDMA would dose-dependently increase reactivity to positive emotional stimuli and dampen reactivity to negative stimuli, and that these effects would be most pronounced for pictures with people in them” is intended to peak the audience’s curiosity. The brief explanation of the experimenters’ hypothesis filters out the uninterested audience. Throughout the paper, the authors also incorporate many facts from other sources. The citations add credibility, or ethos, by showing that the idea is not just one person’s opinion. Other citations are just basic facts and definitions that help establish the foundation and basis of the paper. These references to other works are also important because it can set the formal tone of the situation. For instance, the jargon in this sentence, “brain imaging reveals similar modifications in neural responses to emotional expressions, with MDMA (1.5 mg/kg) increasing ventral striatum response to happy facial expressions and decreasing amygdala response to angry facial expressions (Bedi et al., 2009)” informs the reader about the background information of the paper. Similar to references from other sources, many statistics and concrete numbers are included in this scholarly article. The solid numbers are what makes the experiment an experiment, as it provides evidence and results. The charts and visuals that accompany the statistics is also another important convention that validates the research. Another aspect that is significant in this work is how the procedure is written in paragraph form instead of a numbered list. It is also important to note that the procedure is written in past tense. The reason is that this experiment is not a simple experiment that anyone can repeat, as it poses health risks on the participants. The past-tense paragraph form makes the procedure seem more like a fluid explanation of the series of events that occurred in the experiment, rather than a recipe that one could follow. Towards the end, the discussion section of the article also proves to be important. With minimal jargon, this section relates the research to real-world experiences by making comparisons to previous experiments. The discussion also mentions limitations within the experiment to ensure the audience does not feel as though the experimenters believe their conclusions and results are indefinitely accurate. These limitations act as a disclaimer. All of the aspects within these types of scholarly articles are intentionally placed and utilized to assist with the reader’s comprehension of the work.

When comparing legitimate articles such as Wardle and Kirkpatrick’s piece on the effect of ecstasy on human responses to meaningless articles generated on SCIgen, it becomes evident that there are certain features that are common throughout most scholarly works. The most obvious similarities are the subheadings—introduction, methods, results, conclusion, references, etc. Since there is typically a significant amount of length in the paper, the breakdown of all the content is vital for the sake of clarity and ease. The evidence in these papers are almost always backed up with visuals, graphs, or charts. These types of representation for the results can make an illegitimate article, such as the ones on SCIgen, seem authentic. One feature that articles from the SCIgen website do not contain is the relationship of the experiment to real-world examples. Since relating the research to something that is applicable in everyday life can be extensive and broad, it is more difficult for the SCIgen website to create default phrases that is relatable to the outside world. Comparing the research to reality can be considered to be analysis, and analysis is very unique and varies from topic to topic. In other words, it is difficult for computerized systems to provide relatable analysis, hence the lack of such analysis in SCIgen articles.

Thlog Week 3

One thing that we learned this week that stood out to me was performing the arguability test on the thesis statement. I had never questioned my thesis statement in such a way to ensure it worked. I found it really helpful, especially after testing it on my WP1 draft, because I was able to improve upon my thesis statement in the draft. I also found the reverse outline to be helpful, as it pointed out what I was missing in my essay after I completed writing it. I noticed in my essay I was still wrestling with being able to word my analysis in a way that was clear and concise. I tend to exceed the word count and have trouble reducing the amount of words because I am not concise enough. Something we talked about in class that related to my own real world experience is the writing tip of spelling people's name correctly. Having a not-so-common name, I have always been more cognizant of making sure I heard the person's name correctly and spell it accurately. People often think I say "Laura" instead of "Flora" so I often have to spell my name out when someone asks my name. Overall, this week's focus on WP1 reminded me about my weaknesses when it comes to writing because I was didn't too feel confident about my essay. 

Thlog Week 2

My favorite thing we did this week was PB1B. It was not easy, as it was slightly time consuming, but it forced me to take the time to truly observe how to break down a genre into its conventions. I also previously did not know about the SCIgen website, so it was pretty interesting to know that a genre generator like that exists to amuse people. I tried to incorporate what I learned from the reading “So What Who Cares?” into my PB1B by being more explicit and stating that breaking down the conventions is vital in understanding how people interpret and respond to different types of language. When WP1 was first introduced, I was pretty confused about how to differentiate between what was considered a topic and what was considered a genre. I needed to pick a genre broad enough that would have at least three media sources, yet I also needed to be specific in my choice. When Zack gave us examples, I thought I understood how to differentiate between a topic, genre, and its sources. However, when it came time to thinking for one by myself, I got confused again. I knew how to choose a genre and its sources, but I was unsure what the topic would be. For example, a genre could be the homepage of websites and its sources could be different websites, such as BBC.com. But what would the topic be? After Wednesday’s class, I had a clearer idea of what a topic could be after asking Zack to clarify. The example he gave was for the genre of restaurant menus. The sources were menus from specific locations in IV, and the topic was aimed towards marketing and how the restaurant captured the attention of its customers. Hopefully my WP1 topic is unique and can branch into a genre with multiple sources.

PB1B - Genre Generatin'

              Many types of genre generators exist online that serve different purposes, whether it is a name generator to help people spark their imagination or a restaurant generator to help indecisive people choose what to eat for dinner. One specific example of a genre generator is a website called SCIgen. This website is programmed to generate computer science research papers that are not necessarily coherent. With many flowery words and a strict structure, each of these generated research papers share similarities despite having different content. Beginning with a short title that introduces a topic and the authors, the research papers all have an abstract. The abstracts are programmed to first present a general statement that was once true and then proceed to explain how the research paper will disprove the initial argument. The abstracts in these generated research papers typically start by saying something similar to “many people agree about…” and continue to talk about how things change as a result of time. In turn, the authors of these research papers are able to expand and supplement preexisting ideas with new discoveries. The few sentences in the abstract essentially point out the focus of the paper. 

Following the abstract is typically the introduction, which lays the stepping stones for the rest of the article. They often describe how the paper will be organized by saying something along the lines of “the rest of this paper is organized as follows.” The paper also contains a section that describes the method, design, and model of the experiment. This section is usually accompanied with visuals, such as graphs or diagrams. Next is the implementation section, which sets the framework of the research and explains how optimally the project is carried out. The research papers end with conclusions, which explains validations and the large-scale impact, and references to give others credit. Breaking down this website into the conventions that make up these research papers allows one to see how much each random generation has in common. The content of each paper may differ, but in order for this SCIgen generator to function, it must be programmed to have a certain skeleton. The root of foundation is the same, but each generated paper has the ability to branch out in different ways.

Another genre generator that exists is Pandyland, or a random comic generator. This website generates a small comic strip with three images that share similar conventions such as dialogue with exaggerated emotions. Many of these comic strips also demonstrate an escalation in tone. The images progress to become more graphic. Each image is pretty random, causing the comic strip to be illogical. However, many of the images contain content that is relatable to society. For example, there are references to technology such as iPads, social media sites such as Twitter and Instagram, and miscellaneous activities such as being intoxicated. The incoherence of these comic strips can actually aid one’s understanding of genre because the viewers can still agree that each random generation can be categorized as a comic. Despite the lack of fluidity from one image to the next, as long as the strip has the common features of having multiple cartoon images, dialogue, and exaggerated expressions, the strip can be categorized as a comic. In other words, as long as something encompasses a majority of the conventions of a genre, it can be considered to be a branch of said genre.

The third genre generator is a meme generator. With the intention of evoking laughter from its audience, the caption in memes are often accompanied by images that are allusions to popular movies. There are countless images that are used for memes, but each image typically has its own format for the captions. For example, this image from Game of Thrones has captions that always fit this structure: “Brace yourselves. ____ is coming.”    

Additionally, the convention of this crying female meme is that the captions are typically “#FirstWorldProblems,” or trivial problems that would only be of concern in a developed country. 

If one used the Game of Thrones image along with a “First World Problem” caption, the meme would not make sense, as it would be breaking the conventions of the Game of Thrones meme. The fixed pattern across these memes’ captions is what constitutes each image to be categorized as part of its own genre.

           One website that I have used before is http://wtfsigte.com/. The acronym stands for “Where the f- should I go to eat?” This website generates random restaurants near one’s location as suggestions for where to go for lunch or dinner.

Each time the page is refreshed, the website provides the name and address of a restaurant. The audience has the option to change the settings to display a drink or coffee shop instead of a restaurant as well. The fixed pattern that exists is mainly the suggestion of a restaurant that is in the chosen location.

            It is important to understand that one can observe the similar conventions that exist under a specific genre, but the conventions are just the basis—there is a lot of flexible room for variations. Understanding the conventions of a genre is important to everyone because it guides the way people interpret language and their response to it. Even if something is nonsensical, as long as it follows specific conventions, it can still prompt a normal response from the audience. 

PB1A - Tweetin'

What makes a tweet a tweet?

While the word “tweet” can mean the chirping sound from a bird, a “tweet” is also a post made on the popular social media website Twitter. With a 140 character word limit, tweets are often short and concise. It often contains abbreviated slang and chat acronyms due to its informal nature and word count restraint. Regardless of the content of the tweet, many tweets contain hashtags and emojis. Hashtags allow for easy identification of tweets that are under a specific topic, and emojis are an alternative way to express the emotions the Twitter user feels regarding the tweet he or she posted. When breaking it down even further, one can see that the content of the tweet comes in many forms, depending upon the “tweet-er.” Tweets range from jokes to opinions to quotes and much more. Posts can be about what is happening in the tweet-er’s life or can even be an angry subtweet, which is a post directed towards a particular person in mind without mentioning said person’s name. Subtweets are often critical, or in layman’s terms, subtweets throw shade. One of many popular examples of celebrity subtweets is this one from Lindsay Lohan, directed towards Amanda Bynes.  

On the opposite end of the spectrum, many tweets are directed towards another user. One can “@” a user to tag the other person in a post, notifying that other person of the tweet. Conversations can be held, as a result, over Twitter. Often, tweet-ers will @ a celebrity and in some lucky cases, will get a response back. Tweets are also likely to contain popular phrases or Internet slang. Using these types of phrases, such as “YOLO” or a trending hashtag, Twitter users hope to evoke a response from the audience by being relatable. The pathos of tweets and the generation of responses from followers can sometimes lead to a popular trend. For instance, the hashtag #dontjudgechallenge was recently a popular Twitter trend that prompted users to make a video where they would put makeup on themselves in a messy way, cover the screen, and then show how their normal faces. Here are some before and after pictures. 

This trend was a popular Twitter trend instead of a Facebook or Tumblr trend because of the nature of the tweet. Twitter makes it easy to embed multimedia, including videos. It also allows followers or other Twitter users to retweet and favorite the tweets. Retweeting a tweet, or reposting the tweet onto one’s own account, is an effective and fast way of sharing a post. This ease of sharing tweets allows for posts to become viral rather quickly. In addition to videos, many tweets contain photos. Often, these photos assist a caption to create humor. Many times, tweets have the goal of gaining attention in the form of retweets, favorites, and replies, and the addition of a photo can help appeal to the audiences’ pathos. The popularity of the tweet can depend on the ethos, or the credibility, of the author. If the tweet-er has a well-known reputation, then the tweet is more likely to gain more fame. Tweets can also be more serious and be responses to political happenings or current events. Evidently, tweets can have both an informal and formal style, depending on the user’s purpose. The audience, or followers, can choose whom to follow, depending on what type of content they would like to see. For instance, if one is a fan of a particular celebrity, he or she may follow the celebrity to stay updated on the celebrity’s life. Since people are not limited on what they tweet about, tweets have a wide range of content but still share the features that come with posting a 140 character blurb on social media.

Thlog Week 1

This first week, the overarching topic is that convention and rules are not the same. Different genres contain different conventions, but not every convention needs to be followed in order for something to be characterized under the branch of a certain genre. As someone who does not listen to country music, I found it difficult at first to describe what makes a country song a country song. I soon learned there were many, many, arguably endless, conventions that can describe country music. In fact, not only does something not need to follow all the conventions to be considered part of the genre, it can even break a few conventions. From Dirk’s reading about genres, I found it interesting when Dirk mentioned that the creation of a new genre stems when someone bases his or her response on a previous response. It was a new perspective that I had not previously thought of before. Genres do not simply form out of thin air but rather comes from repeating rhetorical situations, and as each audience’s response to the genre changes, the conventions within the genres change as well. The reading about first and second order thinking was also very interesting, as I had not previously thought about the different types of thinking. The most memorable idea that the author mentioned was that “thinking carefully means trying to examine your thinking while using it too—trying to think about thinking while also thinking about something else—which often leads people to foolishness” (Elbow 56). The key word that caught my attention in particular was “foolishness.” It made me reread the sentence a few times, and perhaps after thinking too carefully and examining my thinking while still thinking, I wondered if I had been led to foolishness…