Category: Reading Responses (Page 1 of 7)

Read:  “You Mean I Can Just Say It That Way?: Academic Writing Doesn’t Mean Setting Aside Your Own Voice” by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein and write a response to the questions below! 

1. What do you think of this article? What did you like or dislike about it? Do you agree or disagree with their argument? explain!
2. The authors say, “The goal of this chapter is to counteract this common misconception: that relying in college on the straightforward, down-to-earth language you use every day will make you sound stupid; that to impress your teachers you need to set aside your everyday voice and write in a way that nobody can understand” ( Graff and Birkenstein 118). What does this mean? How do they want you to change your thinking?
3. According to the author’s what does it mean to “master academic writing”? How should students go about it?
4. On page 125, the authors write, “On the contrary, writing is more often a means of discovery in which we use the writing process to figure out what our idea is. This is why writers are often surprised to find that what they end up with on the page is quite different from what they thought it would be when they started. What we are trying to say here is that everydayspeak is often crucial for this discovery process, that translating your ideas into more common, simpler terms can help you figure out what your ideas really are, as opposed to what you initially imagined they were.” What are the authors trying to say? Do you agree or disagree? Have you ever had a similar experience?
5. In the Code-Meshing section, the author’s discuss using slang, dialect and other components of “everydayspeak” in writing. What do you think? Do you agree or disagree with their position? Explain!
6. Look over your writing from this semester and maybe from other classes, do you incorporate aspects of “everydayspeak” in your writing? Think about how or why you made the choices you did.

 

 

Please read “I’m Not Black, I’m Kanye” Ta-Nehisi Coates and write a response to the questions below. I prefer it if you respond to this post directly, but if you choose you may create a new post.

Link to Reading: “I’m Not Black, I’m Kanye”

DUE March, 16th

Questions:

• What did you think of the piece? Be honest! Did you find any parts interesting? Did you learn something new?
• Who do you think is the intended audience of the piece? Who is meant to read this text?
• What do you think is the purpose of this text? Why do you think the author wrote it?
• Can you figure out the specific genre of article of this piece (opinion, scientific, feature, news, etc)?
• What did you notice about how the author wrote this piece? Maybe the tone (formal, informal, humorous, casual, etc), or the use of ethos (statistics and facts) or the use of pathos (emotion) or the use of logos (logic)?
• What stands out to you– what do you like/ dislike about this writer’s style?  What are you confused by? What do you want to know more about? Pay special attention to how this author uses research (outside facts, statistics, history, news, interviews) etc in their writing.
• What did you learn from reading this article? How did this author use research? How do they use personal experience?

Then, write a response to another classmate’s post!