Ann. Bib. Pt. 1

Nutriwayne.” Nutriwayne. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2014.

This blog post was the first one published for the Nutriwayne organization. It held promise for a better, healthier future for nutrition. The blogger, Christina, is going into the same career I am so i found this blog as a way to keep up with all the events and opportunities to help that Nutriwayne is hosting. Also, as a person who has been struggling with her weight for  a long time, the “try at home” option is something anyone can click and find many ways to bake their favorite pastries in a healthy, low-fat way. This organization encourages bake sales, as long as the goods being baked have a healthy recipe and are more good than bad for you. The 5 second video on the page is just telling you to “PUT DOWN THAT COOKIE,”(Arnold) and choose a healthier journey through life.

In their first post, they let the reader know that they are not there to deprive you of all the foods that you love to eat, au contraire, they are encouraging you to choose to eat all the foods you love in a healthier way and with a healthier recipe. featured on the side of the blog are links to healthy recipes and anything that pertains to eating disorders and how they are trying to help the community lessen the effect of bad eating habits.

Speech-y

In this chapter, Swales talks about discourse and speech communities. he describes each of them and shows how they are connected. A discourse community is a cluster of people and their ideas coming together in order to use the knowledge with whomever it is possible to share it with. A speech community is a group of people who share the same knowledge of a specific language and all the rules and patterns that go along with it. The way these two go together is, if a discourse community wanted to share an idea with the speech community, they would have to learn their language and find the best way to approach them with their ideas using their rules for said language.
This concept is very familiar to me because I speak a different language. i came from Lebanon when i was 10 years old, but i still didn’t know a whole lot of English even though they taught it at school there. there were still many rules and words i was not/still not familiar with. An instance where i made a complete fool out of myself: i went to school in Dearborn when i first arrived to the U.S. and oddly enough there was a bathroom inside the classroom. We were just doing a worksheet and the teacher wasn’t lecturing and had to use the bathroom, so i went. When i came back the teacher asked me where i was (did she not hear the flush?) and i said-get this- “i was in the toilet”…..
then all the teacher did was stare at me light i grew and extra head and the girl that sat beside me said, “you were IN the toilet?” Mind you i was so confused because in French toilet means bathroom, and that was what i was used to saying. I was so embarrassed when i found out what i had said, my face was lobster red.
So, that is why it is mega-important for discourse communities to know the language and rules of the speech communities in order to share their ideas without difficulty and/or embarrassment.

My question is: how do discourse communities vary amongst speech communities?

Familiarity is Key

Writing doesn’t always come easily to me no matter how much I want it to. i love to write, depending on what i’m writing about. the unfamiliar genre was particularly hard because silent scripts were something i have never experimented with. which was basically the point of the project. my favorite writing assignments so far in the class are the blog posts. literally, anything can go into them because it is writing our own thoughts about whatever reading we did or our experiences in the class up to that point in time. when i write, i could go on forever depending on the topic. I’m not really sure which habit of mind is expressed most in my writing. It’s really hard to decide and find examples because everything I’ve written is in my journal, essays for school that are long lost, and random posts on social media sites. Although, i know that i really would like to work on persistence. it is not my strong suit at all. here’s an example: i can’t watch a long show for long periods of time without switching gears. i had started watching LOST a while back, i got till season 4 or 5, i can’t remember, but the show was SO LOOONG! i had to stop; it got boring, the same crap happening over and over to the same group of people. Ok, this was a pretty bad example, but it gets the point across. I hope.

“A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” ― Thomas Mann

I think that the main point of this reading is to show writers that making mistakes is a part of the writing process and that it helps to look back on what you wrote and see it from another point of view. I second the notion that it helps to take a second look or get another opinion on what I wrote because it helps me see my piece in a new light. For example, I had about 3 shitty drafts before I wrote the right shitty fist draft for my DIY. I had an idea of what to write for the first draft of my silent film script, but I didn’t like it that much, so I took what I did like and put it into a new script, but then it turned out really boring. So, that time when we were locked out of class, I decided to vaguely present my problem to you and my classmates, who helped me come up with yet another idea that had nothing to do with my original story and that made me happy because I hated my first…two ideas. This is a little of what Giles was saying, about re-seeing your work.
The reading wasn’t hard, it was something I could relate to as a writer so it helped more than anything. It gave a better way to approach revising my script. I could break it down and see what I want my readers to experience and feel when they read the script. I could go back and make sure I have all the right lingo for silent film script writing (which is probably the hardest thing to do regarding this genre). Trust me it’s no walk in the park, hence the title of this post.

A Shitty Post. Enjoy.

I very much enjoyed the reading, it made me giggle.
I can relate very much to it too because that is what i did with the previous post. it was originally super long and gross. I hope no one ever has to endure it. Not just this one either, had such horrible writers’ block when i was writing the familiar genre analysis. I was about ready to kill anything that moved, but instead i harnessed that energy at the gym, came back home, and go to typing with a clear head and flowing ideas. It was awesome. I think that this reading helped get the point out that even great writers have a hard time knowing what to write, hence the “Shitty First Drafts”. I think it would be kind of cool to get a hold of some big shot writer’s first draft. See which ideas were used, which were disregarded.
This reading made me feel as if i was talking to one of my quirky friends. It’s entertaining which made it easier to read without falling asleep on my laptop.
…
I wonder if the mice trick actually works?
…

*INSERT CLEVER TITLE HERE*

The knowledge I had about texting and informative writing went into creating my familiar genre analysis. It helped a lot that i already knew about texting first hand and what makes up a conversation. i even provided samples from my own interactions to explain the point that texting is a simple form of socializing anywhere at any time.

After gathering all of the samples and examples i had to break down all the information about this genre.  presented my genre, explained how it works, and showed my understanding of it with the samples from my personal life. Writing all the things that needed to be written down in paragraph form was a very easy task considering we’ve been taught this process from a young age. Since i wrote in first person, it was not a very formal paper, though it was still pretty professional for the most part and i believe it explained everything accurately.

The unfamiliar writing genre analysis will be a trickier task considering that the whole point is to analyse a genre that i have no experience with. the process that  will probably go about doing this is to get as much information about it as i can and put that all together. The DIY will definitely help me to understand the genre better because i will be able to see it done myself and use everything I’ve learned and apply it hands-on. Obviously i’m going to use what i know about how to write a proper essay with an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” ― Ernest Hemingway

 To be completely honest, I haven’t seen any improvements in myself in  any of the course learning outcomes. My writing is still good, which probably might not reflect in the recent essay I’ve writen because I know I can do much better. I read all the time and I haven’t seen any new strategies manifest themselves in my mind in regards to that. I’ve never been an awesome researcher and, alas, it hasn’t gotten ant better (sigh). My reflective writing has gotten better, actually. I used to always forget to put in why a relatable point or idea has anything to do with me and my experiences. Recently, though, it has gotten better. Mostly because the essay we had to write was all about my text messages and my experiences in writing and reading them. 

Thought Post 2

Being repetitive in writing is really annoying because sometimes there aren’t any other words you can use to replace a specific word like Instagram or texting or Facebook. Also, it isn’t just about repeating a word, it’s about repeating a phrase or an idea over and over again. It gets over used which would make it look a little unprofessional. The thesaurus always helps with finding different words, but the problem is, not all words have a different meaning. So, i guess imagination must be used to trying to find a different meaning to a word. An example would be instead of using Facebook over again, you could say “social media site.” 

on another note, it could be good to be repetitive because that means there is an important point you need to get across, so if you repeat it, it would register in the reader’s mind that this is something important, i shouldn’t ignore it.

I can explain this to you; i can’t comprehend it for you.

The way people communicate depends on the type of scene they are participating in. It matters greatly if it is a business scene as opposed to a family scene because the way the exchange is written would be different; if it was a business scene the words spoken would be formal in manner, while if it was just a conversation between family, it would be more laid back and relaxed. The text basically explains that in a lengthier way with lots of examples and details.
All of this is such tacit knowledge; people don’t tend to think, “oh, i’m with my family i can talk naturally,” or, “this is a business meeting so i must speak formally.” It happens everyday so it becomes routine and a part of life. that is how writers know what to write and when, how, why, and where to write it.
Taking notes helped with this reading considering the information is needed for the genre project that is assigned. Rereading some stuff helped as well because daydreaming is inevitable while doing homework. Overall, though, it wasn’t a difficult reading because most of the information is common sense and taught while growing up. The text just puts it all in perspective.

A Thought Post

When i was in my math class i was texting my two friends about how utterly boring it was. My best friend said she gets out around the same time i do and was thinking we should meet somewhere to sit and eat. I asked her what building she was in and it turns out she was in the same one i was in, so, we met at the elevators at the end of class. We each had brought a lunch so we went to the student center to sit but it was full so we walked to subway and sat until it was time for me to go.