MeWrite

[urwritematt-blog]

Civic Literacy Assignment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u62OtM_vt5k

[urwritematt-blog]

Writing as a public power

I believe that civic writing is one of the most powerful tools we have to help the world change.  Presidential speeches, speeches from public leaders such as MLK, writing from Ghandi.  All of these people started out as just regular citizens and used their writing abilities to make a difference in the world.  I believe that civic writing can be a powerful tool but it has to come with some kind of leverage.  I believe that writing to your senator or just some political figure is somewhat pointless.  It seems like these letters asking for change rarely see the desk of the person you are trying to reach.  They get read by somebody and then thrown away.  The only way it seems that civic writing can change anything is if it get publicized on an extremely hot topic.  I agree with Gabor strongly in the fact that high school and college students have no idea to engage in civic writing.  We were never taught how to compose a document having to do with civic writing.  We were never taught how to send a letter to our Senator or what types of things to say if you wanted to write them.  I had never even heard the term civic literacy before I read Gabor’s writing.  I also agree with her in the fact that even if we knew how to write in a civic manor, there still would not be a place for it.  Such small voices cannot be heard without some type of platform.  You see more people getting famous off of youtube for creating an irrelevant video rather than people gaining fame for the ideas they are presenting to our government.  Overall, I feel that we should learn more about civic literacy so that we might be able to make a difference in the future.       

[urwritematt-blog]

Discourse Communities

I had some trouble understanding the reading for this week.  I felt as if I got the gist of what Swales was talking about but the amount of complex words made reading a little difficult.  It is almost mind-blowing to think about the amount of discourse communities in the world.  We are all in some form of discourse community.  Whether it be a community of Café owners or a community of students in UWRT, we all participate in some kind of group that is a community.  We all have to communicate with people in our communities in different ways.  Swales mentions how discourse communities “utilize and posses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims.”  I didn’t realize until I thought about it that we really do communicate with different groups of people in different ways.  The way I communicate with the UWRT community is much different than the way I communicate with my Com Studies Learning Community.  Blogging on tumblr to communicate a message to this community is different than having real life conversations with the Com Studies Community.  I also found the notion of an ever changing discourse community interesting.  If you think about it, communities are always changing.  People come in and out for different reasons.  They bring new ideas and keep the community in a constant discussion.  However, I agree with Swales about the fact that the survival of a discourse community depends on whether the people in it are novices or experts.  To keep a discourse community alive, there has to be people who are serious about it and people who understand the discussions.   

[kburtonh]

While growing up in high school, I believe everyone was taught a five paragraph method when writing for academic purposes. However when you enter into college, some professor require a different format when writing papers. Around the college campus, each professor has a different perspective when...

[uwrt-rebecca]

[urwritematt-blog]

We should not take lightly the choice of which genres we ask our students to write in. Nor should we keep thosechoices invisible to students, as though all writing required the same stances, commitments, and goals; as thoughall texts shared pretty much the same forms and features; as though all...

[theodu13-blog]

Fiona Glade begins her text with a quote, which I agreed with a lot. The quote says that students should be free to choose what genre to write in because each genre takes different skills, but uphold identical goals. Fiona then describes her struggles throughout college with writing in different...

[urwritematt-blog]

Writing Across the University

I can honestly say that I really relate to the reading we have been assigned this week.  During high school, I didn't feel like my writing mattered in any of my english classes.  I felt that I was doing an assignment because I had to.  I felt that I wasn't getting graded on the actual content in my writing but rather I was being graded on whether it followed the rubric or not.  Of course there needs to be a rubric for any writing assignment but it seems like before college, most english teachers just see if it meets the length requirement and if it talks about the subject you're been assigned.  From my perspective, there wasn't much creativity in high school writing.  I didn't feel like my writing could change or add anything to the community.  However, in college it is a different story.  Here we look at all types of genres of writing and we explore what they are.  Collegiate level writing seems to have more purpose and it focuses more on your content.  In this setting, it seems like my writing actually matters.  Writing at the college level seems to have more influence than writing at a high school level.  It is easier to create discourse in the community here.  Since people pay to be here, they actually care about what they are writing.  I agree with the reading in stating that no discourse community can exist without it's members.  If we do not participate in the writing community, there would be no writing community.  The high school writing community seems forced and uncomfortable because everybody has to be there and graduate.  Nobody has to be in college and people pay to go there.  Most of the others who didn't care about writing and never got engaged in the conversation are gone.  The only people left at the collegiate level are the ones who want to be engaged and want to make a difference in the writing community.  Here, it is important to stay engaged due to the constant changes in genre.  At the high school level, the genre of writing really didn't change that much.  That is one of the reasons why it is easy to just breeze through without any effort.  It is great to be in a setting where everyone is happy and willing to be apart of the conversation.  

[urwritematt-blog]

Revision

My Letter to Sean

Dear Sean,    

          I want to write a letter to you because I want to tell you how big of a part you have played in my life. I can still remember the day you were killed.  It was one of the most terrifying days of my life.  I felt so sad for you and your family.  Words could not express the feelings of dread I felt when they said you were killed because you were gay.  I couldn’t believe that this horrible crime happened in my hometown, within walking distance from my house.  After you died, I didn’t leave my house for days on end because of the paranoia I felt.  I thought someone might come after me like they did you.  Your death put me extremely far into the closet because I didn’t want to die for being who I was.  After living in the closet for years on end, I decided I needed to come out. I always thought back to you when deciding if I wanted to come out or not.  I came out because I needed to be myself.  I did it for me as well as for you.  I feel that your death helped me come out because I didn’t want to see this happen to anybody else.  If there are more gay people visible in the community, then ignorance that led to your death can be stopped.  That is one of the reasons why I decided to come out.  Your life/death will always mean something to me and countless others in the Upstate’s gay community.  You will forever inspire me to be a more courageous individual.  We all love and respect you, rest easy Sean.

                                 -Matt

[urwritematt-blog]

Shitty First Drafts

I felt a strong connection with this reading.  I have been told by many of my english teachers that I am a good writer.  They would say that it is one of my strong points and that I should take advantage of my "talent".  However, I have never felt that I am a good writer.  When I first sit down to start a writing, I feel that I will never be able to do it.  I feel that I don't have enough knowledge on the subject and that people will think what I am saying is dumb.  Much like Lemott, I feel a sense of fear when I begin to write.  Writing is an intimidating subject for me even though I am supposedly good at it.  Even though I think writing is somewhat scary, shitty first drafts can take the edge off whilst beginning to write.  I can write what I want and how I feel.  There is no pressure since it is not being turned in for a grade or being read by other peers.  I have been able to get some of my best ideas from just writing without a filter.  I of course will go back and revise but shitty first drafts are an integral part of the writing process.  Even after taking the edge off by writing a really shitty first draft, there is still some anxiety ever present.  After revising and editing, I have some of the feelings that Lemott has expressed in this writing.  As I look at my finished product, I imagine my peers and teachers reading it.  For some reason, I can only imagine dirty looks on their faces and a bad grade coming for me.  To me, it seems that all writers have these feelings to some degree.  You are letting others read something that you put large amounts of thought and hard work into.  It's almost like they are feeling what you felt whilst you read your shitty first drafts but instead it's your final product.  I feel that all writers have some form of this anxiety and that shitty first drafts can really help diminish those feelings.   

[urwritematt-blog]

Malcolm X

I did not know much about Malcolm X before I started reading this piece.  I of course knew that he was a civil rights activist but I did not know the amount of effort it took for him to educate himself.  I found it amazing that when he went to prison, he had the desire to educate himself rather than just idly serve his time.  He took the worst of a bad situation and turned it around for the better.  I can relate to him on some level.  I have never been to prison but I have had to endure bad situations and learn from them.  When I transferred schools in high school, I thought it was going to be one of the worst things to ever happen to me.  I had no friends and it was one of the worst times in my life.  Like Malcolm X, I had to take the worst of a bad situation and turn it into positivity.  I eventually made friends and put my head in the books.  I learned more at this small charter school than any other school I had ever been to.  My struggle was no where near the struggle of Malcolm X.  However, I feel that in a way, the small charter school I transferred to was my prison.  It was not in the sense that I was trapped. It was in the sense that I was in a place where there was nothing to do but force myself to become educated.  I feel that Malcolm X defied social norms and achieved more than most people in his situation.  Malcolm X became literate through his own perseverance rather than the aid of higher education.  He showed that your social class and ethnicity do not define how literate you can become.  This reading makes me feel that I should rethink the opinions I felt in our last reading.  I felt that your social class and social standing directly correlated with your level of literacy.  I now feel this statement to be wrong since Malcolm X accomplished so much with the tools or lack of for that matter in which he had at hand.  He copied from the dictionary and checked out books that were available to him.  He used his resources wisely and became one of the most celebrated leaders in the civil rights movement.  Malcolm X shows us that no matter our race, social class, or religion, we can become literate and successful. 

[urwritematt-blog]

Sponsors of Literacy

This reading has really opened my eyes to the fact that more than just schooling effects someone's level of literacy.  I agree with this reading in the fact that people of a lower socio economic group are not exposed to the same amounts of opportunities to improve their literacy.  Take for example Raymond Branch and Dora Lopez.  Raymond was a privilaged European American from California who had more access to computers as a child than most adults did.  He was the son of an intellectual which made his town an information and resource rich place for him to pursue his literary development.  For Dora Lopez, however, the same town in which her and Raymond both lived in did not provide the same learning environment.  This town provided a poor research and information learning environment for her.  She was the daughter of a poor ethnic minority which caused her to not have the same opportunities as Raymond.  While Raymond pursued learning computers and information technology, Dora pursued learning the skill of being bilingual.  Both skills are very important, however, Dora didn't have the opportunity to pursue IT because of her socioeconomic status.  Both of them have different literacy rates in different aspects of life.  However, if Dora had had a higher socioeconomic status growing up, she could have gone on to be literate in a career that pays a great deal more.  Both of their jobs serve great purposes but I believe that someone's socioeconomic status plays a role in the literacy opportunities that a person is given in life.    

[urwritematt-blog]

Literacy In Three Metaphors

I feel that this writing definitely opened my eyes to the complexity of literacy and how it has changed over time.  It can be seen in this writing that literacy has a different meaning to some than others.  Some believe that you are fully literate if you can write your name and have minimal grammar skills.  Others believe that in order to be fully literate, you need to be able to have excellent spelling, grammar and sentence structure.  I have always thought of literacy as just a black and white definition.  I used to feel that either you are or you aren't literate.  However, now I see that there are varying degrees of literacy.  Literacy has changed and evolved over the years.  In this writing, it can be seen that the number of years of education in which the minimal literacy threshold could be achieved has increased over time.  It has gone up from a fourth grade education, to fifth grade, to sixth grade, and so on.  It is a constantly evolving subject due to our increases in technology and evolution of social standards.  People will need to have more education and will have to be increasingly more literate due to our constantly changing world.  I feel that the metaphor "literacy as adaptation" is crucial to a person's academic standing in our modern world.  We will have to constantly adapt and change the way we read/write different pieces of literature.  It can also be seen that literacy leads to power.  In our modern world, if you are literate enough to write a blog post, you can have power.  If your blog/social media has millions of followers, you can become a huge influence on other people without leaving the comfort of your own home.  It can be seen from this writing that literacy is an important factor in gaining power.  For example, if Martin Luther King Jr. had not been literate, he could never have wrote his powerful "I have a dream" speech.  He would never have shown us the injustice that existed in the world through his writing.  His literacy helped strengthen the civil rights movement which helped end segregation.  Literacy is a constantly evolving and powerful tool for everyone to use.  This writing has helped me see the significance and think deeper about what it means to be literate.

[urwritematt-blog]

We are all writers

One idea that struck me was the idea that we are reading and writing now more than ever. She explains that before the internet really took off, writing was in a way going extinct. People 10 or 15 years ago would rather watch T.V. than read or write about something. It struck me because I feel that it is a very true statement. With the advent of social media, I definitely read and write more than I ever did as a kid. Kids nowadays have their own twitters, tumblrs, instagrams etc... They are writing more about things/events that interest them rather than just watching them on T.V..