About This Class

Going into this class, English 214 with instructor Caitlin Fielder I am not going to lie I was kind of skeptical. For two reasons mainly: 1) I struggled in English 114 and 2) I didn’t like the idea of self-grading. I figured we were in school to be evaluated and constructively criticized by a teacher and not my fellow class mates that know as much as much as me.

            But I am happy to admit that I was wrong about both concerns. I’m not saying this class is easier on the contrary, the topics and very complex and abstract. But I was wrong because although still difficult the class call for writing in different discourses. A concept I had not realized existed until this class, it is refreshing to be writing in ways that call for new forms of thought and structures.

Secondly, I wouldn’t yet consider myself a fan of peer grading but I have definitely seen and learned that it has benefits. I think Peer grading is good especially good for a class like this, one with abstract topics because by grading my class mates I am able to see how they have interpreted the readings and it helps develop my insight with the different perspectives.

Different perspectives are also good because you are able to compare the level that you are writing compared to your peers in the same class as you. That aspect I unquestionably appreciate because it helps me see where I am personally in retrospect of the course. I am able to see where my grade is coming from versus just being told.

As I mentioned before the topics we touch in class are incredibly complex because they are abstract and extremely controversial. One person could agree while one completely cannot even fathom the idea yet most of the time the majority of the class is somewhere in between. I feel that this is the case because they ideas that are being presented to us in the reading have been ideas that we have never really known or been opened our eyes too.

We have looked at invisible narratives, metaphors and reading about what our rights should be in our English classes.

My favorite has been invisible narratives! I have really enjoyed the lectures by the professor due to her enthusiasm and passion evident in her lectures, makes the idea of invisible narratives that much more captivating while she has you leaving the room pondering everything she just said.

Learning about invisible narratives I feel has opened my eyes to a certain degree because although they might explain things I already saw like, a man catcalling a woman as disrespectful, but now I can see the back story to it. How we as a society have accepted it and now almost even expect it. WHY this is so, the stereotypes and sexism behind a simple catcall. How woman are satisfying a mans needs and he is telling her he approves. How we have margined an idea of beauty in such a superficial way that men as well as society have come to thinks as acceptable. Or how a woman being comfortable in her own skin is portrayed instantly as a sex object.

This small glimpse of just one simple action has so many layers to it which is what makes it complex. It is not straightforward. And people could easily agree or disagree. This makes the discussion in class fun to follow.

All in all, I have enjoyed the experience of this class. If I had to boil it down to one reason it would be because it has been different to any other English class I have taken. It has made me think about things in our daily lives in a way I have never had to and because I feel that, that is what college is all about; new perspectives.

The Legacy of Kobe Bryant

                     Legacy of Kobe Bryant 

              

                   By 

               

                    Nicholas Brown 

    How will the world remember the 5 time NBA champion, 2-time Finals MVP,  fourth on the all-

time scoring list, and a long list of there accomplishment Kobe Bryant. Will he be acknowledged for 

being arguably the greatest competitor, shooting guard, and all around scorer of all time? Or will he 

be remembered for the distractions he might have been off the court, and the effect he has had on the 

Lakers requirement of top talent players? Unfortunately, we will find out soon enough, Kobe Bryant 

this season is entering his first of his last two seasons for the Los Angeles Lakers. He is currently at 

the age of 36, is still averaging 25 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 assists. However, negative allegations 

have been made upon Kobe Bryant on and off the court to question his reputation as the greatest 

Laker of all time. 

  Kobe Bryant started his career 18 years ago in 1996, he came in the NBA as one of the youngest 

basketball players ever at the age of 18. Through his 18 years, Kobe has transformed the game of 

basketball in the NBA and internationally. Basketball players from all over the world have 

recognized kobe as a pioneer for the game of basketball oversees, winning 2 Gold medals for the 

USA in 2008 and 2012. However, approaching his last season as a basketball player kobe has been 

under much criticism.  In a recent ESPN article by Henry Abbott, details of Kobe Bryant has labeled 

him a "tyrant" of the Laker organization, keeping them from gaining other superstars in the league.

The article stated, "I've had a lot of clients in the last five years, good players, who didn't want to play   

with Kobe," says an agent who has had numerous NBA stars. "They see that his teammates become 

the chronic public whipping boys. Anyone who could possibly challenge Kobe for the spotlight ends 

up becoming a pincushion for the media. Even Shaq." Allegations like these have been rumored to 

be true throughout Bryant's professional career. In fact, just two seasons ago the Los Angeles Lakers 

had landed the most dominant big man in the NBA statistically, Dwight Howard. After one season 

with the Lakers, Howard decided to take his talents to the  Houston Rockets. Not only were there 

reports that Howard was frustrated with kobe during the season and let the lakers due to Kobes 

behavior, the two were seen in an altercation in the first game of the 2104-2015 season.  

Through all the confrontation that Kobe 

supposedly has had with his teammates, no one 

has asked him his side of the story. After scoring 

27 points during the Lakers’ 114-108 overtime 

loss to the Phoenix Suns at Honda Center in 

Anaheim, Bryant addressed the story that ran on 

Monday. He stated according to the LA TIMES  

“It’s not the first one, it’s not going to be the last 

one,” Bryant said. “The one thing I’ve come to 

understand over the years is that you’ll have a 

bad story that comes out on a Monday and it 

seems like it’s the end of the world. It seems like   

everybody is taking shots at you.

“But time goes by, and then you look back and it’s just a Monday. Right? Then have another great

story that comes out maybe a month later or something like that and it’s a fantastic story. And then

there’s a bad story that comes out a month after that.“It’s a cycle. And things are never as good or as

bad as they seem at the moment in time. So you stay focused on the big picture. Things are never

really as bleak as they seem at the time. I just kind of roll with it.” Overall, Kobe Bryant is one of the

all time greatest players the NBA will ever see, and will be a first ballot Hall of Flamer. Through all

the reports and allegations not one player has put there name behind any of the comments made

toward Bryant. Also, through all the problems between Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard that have

been reported, according to Howard Kobe was not the reason he left the Lakers.  Howard stated "I

didn’t leave LA because I was afraid of Kobe Bryant,” Howard said. “I went to a good situation for

myself. I can’t change people’s opinions, but I did what I had to do for myself.”

   Overall Kobe Bryant should not be defined by the players he has and has not played with.

However, he should be defined by his success and the success of his teammates around him. If all

these reports about Kobe are true, then how could he be a 5 time champion. This is the NBA, no one

basketball player can win a championship by himself, nor could they have even been in that position

if they were not in unison.   Kobe Bryant if he retired today, should not be defined by the opinions of

others.

Invisible Narratives and Discourses

Over these past days we have done a lot of talking about invisible narratives and different discourses that surround us. I was never really exposed to these issue before I started college, and even so in my last English class we didn't talk about none of these issues. My teacher taught in a very academic form and focused on really getting every sentence in our essays grammatically correct and making sure that our thesis statement connected with the entire essay. So when I started English 214, it was a very different environment that I was not used to.

In previous classes I had been exposed to a lot of injustices people of color have to suffer from, but it was never about invisible narratives, and especially different discourses we surround ourselves with. We talked about how even without noticing we do it, we tend to surround ourselves with people that think, look, and act the same as we do. Rather than surrounding ourselves with different people that have different perspectives that allow us to be more open minded about things.

We talked about different discourses in different majors. Which at first I had no idea there was such thing. But once we started to talk about it, it seems kind of normal for them to do so. Since they have to have a specific language to communicate with other colleges. But the problem is that people outside the discourse will not be able to understand much of what is being talked. Which brings the topic we talked about, if writers should simplify their writing with words that are more common to people outside the discourse to allow them to understand what is being talked? Which in my opinion they shouldn't have to, since the people who are reading the article are usually people who are interested in the major and therefore have some background knowledge to understand what they are reading.

Going back to invisible narratives, in class when we were talking about how the media plays a huge role in how they portray white and people of color. The media portrays people of color as always being the evil or bad ones in the story and white people as being the victims. Which is really bad because then we start to believe it ourselves and we fall into the invisible narrative society has created. Its amazing how society with the help of the media, have presented us and made us believe that only rich white males can be successful in life. We were raised with this picture in out mind just because its all we saw.

Its crazy how we dehumanize ourselves without even noticing we are. Our society has brought us upon this and made us believe it is normal when its no where near normal. We need to stop oppressing others and ourselves if we want to start seeing a different society.

Should We believe in Zorn Argument...

So for our class we had 3 readings. The one I really enjoy was this because Zorn was talking about that we should write our own language and it should be our first primary language. When he said "“Students’ Right to Their Own Language”(Is the second article we read). Si yo estaba hablando en mi idioma principal en las personas de clase no me entendería. Creo que la gente debería ser capaz de hacer eso, pero cuando es necesario. For example that my primary language and some might understand and so might not, but that what I like about is his reading that he wants us to be ourself and find different dialect. Is crazy how we have different dialect but they only wants us to use one. Like here in american if you don't speak english people judge why because we don't speak there language but the sad part is that some people don't even know how to speak and we don't judged them. For example, if a African American went to Mexico there primary language in Mexico is Spanish and his primary language is English  but he wanted to go there and live there he have to learn because if don't they could rip him off. This is sad even the picture tells you how bad it is that our primary language is always going to be english because is the easy way to understand without them getting confused. Each year and add up that english is always going to be the primary language  and that we are never going to be us because where always get tell what to do. I like when he was talking about "Middle-class Americans may or may not have a higher education and may or may nor use standard English regularly". Is true why because people well have different ways too talk to people for example so people would speak slang and than when there at school they speak there standard English.

Shoulda Wrote Freely?

Recently we read a couple of reading that discussed students being able to write in their own dialect. We read three different articles, a primary source and two secondary sources. The primary source is “New SRTOL” which discusses how students be free to write in their own comfortable dialect. Jeff Zorn’s counter argument to “New SRTOL” is a secondary source and he states that students should not be able to write in their own language. VershawnAshanti Young’s article, “Should Writers use They Own English?” is also a secondary source. From these three readings I got to see many different opinions and thoughts about the controversial idea of allowing students to write in their own language. I had a hard time deciding how I felt about the topic.

After reading “New SRTOL”, I thought it was a great idea for students to learn and write in their own language. I thought, “Why not? If we wrote how we talked, it would be so much easier.” A quote from the reading I found powerful is, “We need to ask ourselves whetherour rejection of students who do not adopt the dialect most familiar to us is basedon any real merit in our dialect or whether we are actually rejecting the studentsthemselves, rejecting them because of their racial, social, and culturalorigins.” I found this interesting because the author connected a student’s ability to write in the universal language with rejection because of a student’s race. A person can immediately be associated with a certain race base off of just talking. Writing in their language will allow readers to immediately identify the writer’s race. This is where I am a little unsure about the point “New SRTOL” is trying to make.

Zorn disagrees with “New SRTOL”, and believes that students should only learn academic writing. English is the universal language and writing in English academically would make it easier to get a point across for everyone to be able to understand. Zorn also says that allowing students to write in their own language will put poor, nonwhite, and culturally marginalized students at a disadvantage. Although writing in surfer language, Ebonics, computer geek language, etc. would be very cool and fun, I do not think it is a great idea. Zorn’s argument wavered my agreement to “New SRTOL.” I feel like I agree with Zorn more than with “New SRTOL.” If students were allowed to write in their own language, only a certain group of people who also understand the language can understand. For example, I would not understand much of the computer geek language as much as I would understand academic writing. Writing in one’s natural and comfortable language may help one identify their identity, but it will prevent some students from progressing in their writing. I believe that if students write how they speak, they will never improve their writing skills because no one can correct them. If they were corrected, they would simply ignore it because, it is how they, themselves talk. Zorn also states that if students were suggested to write in their own language, they are less likely to get jobs or succeed in the future. White students, in which English is their first language, will be more likely to succeed than for example a Black student who writes in Ebonics. My more strongly agreed to Zorn’s argument after reading Young’s article.

Reading Young’s article I found it really weird to read. He wrote his article by the way he speaks. I felt that he over exaggerated and tried too hard trying to write in a certain language. If all writing were to be like Young’s article, I think it would be hard for every single person to understand the point the author is trying to get across.

I shoulda tried to write like how I talk, but that woulda been weird and totally go against what I wrote just now. I totally agree with Zorn and think that students should learn how to write like how we are being taught in schools to write now. If I write like I talk, you can understand me, but it doesn’t sound like a smart person. 

  

Ashanti Is An Influence

The Famous Vershawn Ashanti Young

Vershawn Ashanti Young’s article “ Should Writer’s Use they Own English”, has made me become more open-minded in my writing. Young’s article is different, then many written articles that are published. It also differs than most academic articles as well.

From my opinion I think he is talking about how people are able to mix different dialects together to make it their own discourse. I also think he is talking about the idea of changing your discourse when it comes to academics. He then talks  But, Young is speaking in some type of slang and explains his idea in his own discourse, which makes this article so interesting and hardcore.

about how writing in our own discourse in academics or in society can leave us vulnerable to racism. For example, if someone is writing something with an accent, or is talking differently, such as slang, than that individual would be called, “Talking black or talking Asian”. He then says that its people’s attitudes that would think writing is written in a non correct manner.

After, reading his article and figuring out his idea, has made me more enjoyable in my writing. He basically announces that it is okay to be able to write in your own discourse. I feel like I would be more comfortable writing in my own discourse rather, an academic way. I know my whole life as I was in school, I had to write in a specific way for a really long time, but now as I see it, I feel more free. I know I would still have to follow the rules of English writing, but Young makes it so hard to do that now. I now know someone who is against it but they can still incorporate it in their work, which I think is fantastic. 

I would always want to incorporate many ideas to my academic writing, but there is always something that holds me back from doing so. Like, I would say that the structure, or the format of how the essay should be, stops me. I have ran into many obstacles and roadblocks as I write essays, because of the rules on how it should be done. I feel like at times I am not able to get my point across fully. I may incorporate some of my ideas but sometimes they wont sound right if I try to transform it into academic language.

I know many people who has also had this issue before. It doesn’t make us dumb, it really is just that we would prefer to be able to understand and write things in our own discourse. But, I know how society is and how things run in this world. So, as a student I will continue on and write in English writing, even though it may not excite me or keep me satisfied, I will still do it. But, Young’s point has exceeded my knowledge on how this world works and how incorporating our own discourse writing can affect many people.

With that being said, I find Young’s article, relatable and should be attainable for many students who agree with the topic.  Who knows what this article can do for students or it may even spark the mind of student to elaborate more on the topic. But, as for now I want to reach my goal and graduate quicker, so if writing in English writing or academic writing will get me there faster, than I will do so. However, I will still try to continue on using all dialects that I know and try to incorporate it in my work whenever I get a chance. 

SRTOL Blog

Blog # 2 Group 3 

     

Picture from Barnes and Noble

  After reading the SRTOL, Zorn's Counter-Argument, and Ashanti "Should Writers Use They Own English" made me see different perspectives on whether students should actually have a right to their own language in the classroom. Now with the Ashanti's argument that is for the SRTOL, and Zorn's argument against it, my standpoint is with SRTOL to an certain extent because the one of the reasons why I don't agree with SRTOL is how you talk at work. Basically about being professional and how you represent your workplace. 

By reading STROL, I learned that this letter protects and stands by the rights of students dialect from which is their primary discourse. Some points that stood out to me was when they stated that as we live in America where it is diverse, we should respect that and be able imply dialects of different individuals into their writings. 

By reading Zorn's Counter-argument I learned that with his argument of showing no consistent view on iimportanceof dialect and disagreeing with the students rights of writing from STROL showed me some reasonable points on why he actually felt this way about STROL. The only thing that stood out to me in this paper was how ones individual's dialect can effect ones job in a workplace. Now from actually experiencing working for a company, I definitely want to be on my best behavior and talk professionally. I know right away that if I talk my own discourse or dialect I would set a bad representation for my company. This would lead me to lose my job.

While reading Ashanti's paper, I felt that it was really interesting to read because of she actually wrote in her own dialect and discourse. Although I thought this was a pretty cool and interesting way to read it, I thought it was pretty confusing to read because of how she wrote it. I felt that it was just a little weird on what she was talking about and how she was saying it. I just could not take it serious enough.

STROL was very interesting to me and just by Ashanti's paper I felt that this was a perfect example of using your own discourse or dialect. This provided an accurate example of what papers could actually look like if STROL was happening in our classes. To conclude, I would only disagree with STROL because I feel that while talking a certain way may not be professional. However, I think that everyone should have a right to be themselves because everyone is different and should be able to talk their own discourse or dialect out side of school and in. 

What Invisible Narratives Taught Me

What Invisible Narratives Taught Me

Throughout the last month in English 214 I have managed to learn about invisible narratives. This English term has managed to make me understand the real “truth” behind every story that I am reading. For me invisible narrative means the truth and assumptions behind the readings and headings being represented. Moreover, I have learned how to find the invisible narrative of every story. To find the invisible narrative you need to put yourself in someone else’s shoe and listen the stories of others without judgment.

    One of the articles that I read in class and has helped me understand invisible narrative was Gladwell’s, “The 10,000 Hour Rule”. The article was basically talking about how your inner talent can help you become a successful and famous person. Everything that you do by yourself, even if you don’t finish school, will help you have “success” in America just like Bill Gates. That’s what the text is trying to tell us, but if you try to go further then you can find the real meaning behind the story. The invisible narratives of the reading are that in America success means money, you have to be a very talented person if you want to succeed. Shockingly, Bill Gates dropped out of school but since he had rich parents and a enormous talent using computer programming he ended up creating his own company. It shocked me to know that nowadays if you drop out of school and don’t have enough money and an specific talent is going to be harder for you to succeed and do 10,000 hours of work to pursue the objective you are trying to reach. As well, it surprised me to know that in America you need to have at least some good talent if you want to succeed in the country.

    Another interesting article that we have read in class was McMurtry's, “Kill ‘em, Crush ‘em, Eat ‘em Raw”. The article was talking about the football game as how the coach gives the player instructions and strategies of how to play. Moreover that you are playing to win and show the other team that you are better than them. But it surprised me to see the that the invisible narrative behind the story was trying to tell us that a real man is a fighter because of his strength and toughness. Shockingly, finding out that the main quest for victory of football players is to think that the enemy is not human and that the quest of the game is to gain power over the enemy. Basically, by playing the sport of football you are trying to hurt the other players just to show that you have more strength and that you can be aggressive towards people that you don’t consider humans. I can connect this invisible narrative to the UFC and boxing fights as well. In those sports, men are trying to show their masculinity and that the whole “game” doesn’t end until the opponent is either very hurt or bleeding. These sports grab the audience’s attention but men are the ones that are more engaged to the fights because it represents their masculinity.

       I have really enjoyed learning about invisible narrative and how just one simple word or sentence can change your view towards a text. As well, it has helped me understand that every reading has a secret “purpose” behind it. Invisible narrative has helped me notice how Americans see the people of color. Specially when it comes to news, they always show that the white people are nice and always helping out people in need. On the other hand, when it comes to killing and stealing, guess who are the ones to blame? Yes, the people of color! In America we are seen as the bad influences of the country, the people that we are more likely to end up using drugs or any dangerous substance. I thank invisible narratives for helping me open my eyes to see how mean white people are towards us the people of color.   

Invisible Narratives Through Words (Blog 2)

In this class I have learnt so much about the concept of words and how it can be used to manipulate how we see the world and people around us. The one discussion that we have in class that particularly really opened my eyes was Martin`s "The Egg and The Sperm". During the discussion I was surprised that the "key" and the "lock" had such a huge significant meaning about the roles of what a man and a woman is supposed to act like in society. I never knew that an object can carry such a huge symbolic meaning of how we see each other in this world.

I also never knew that through words we are able to create an hierarchy of who is more stronger and who is more weaker. In class we discussed how in Martin`s "The Egg and The Sperm" showed that the males sperm is more powerful than the female even though the females role in reproduction is just as powerful, however it is described in a passive role and seems to be seen as lesser compared to males. This really shocked me as I always believed everything that a textbook from school would be telling the truth and would not screw with the facts. But now that I know that even a single word can change our whole perception of how the reproduction system works in the human body and that it causes us to have different perceptions of what males and females are supposed to be like in society, I am now beginning to doubt everything that I have ever read in my life and am wondering whether or not I have been brainwashed by words my whole life.

I also never knew that the words used to describe the reproduction system can have an invisible narrative of showing males as being more active (useful) and females as being non-active (useless). I did not think that reading scientific articles can enforce such a strong message to us.  After reading Martin`s “The Egg and The Sperm” I did not even notice that the words were describing males and females this way until we discussed it in class. I knew that females are usually portrayed as useless in media but never through words and this really shocked me.

Martin`s “The Egg and The Sperm” really shocked me and gave me a new insight of the world that I currently live in today. All the discussions about this article in class has changed my ideas completely and of all the values and beliefs that I once thought of as true.      

Another interesting article that we have read and discussed in class is about the word free by Ariely. I have always thought that free always meant we were getting something good because it was free but this article and discussion in class really changed my perspective of free stuff. The math that Ariely did when he was connecting it with the word free and zero truly made me think hard about free things and has kind of changed my mind in ever getting free things ever again.

In this class I really loved how we talked about how words can be the invisible narrative of something more than just words but also how words can symbolize a wide range of ideas that we hear, see or do every day. The idea of invisible narratives has taught me so much and has enabled me to open my eyes in everything I watch, see or do. I am really grateful that we discussed about invisible narratives as a lot of the messages that we unraveled through words relate to how we act in this world.

Words are very important
Source: New America Foundation

Fable/Story to understand how The Concept of Grading Works

There was once up in a time where the a teacher didn’t know how to explain himself to his students so he decided to brake down his way of teaching and make it easier and even more efficient by creating a contract. This contract was known as the golden contract. This contract would help student experience the power of grading for it will let the students themselves grades each other without hesitation making them more mature of their own writing and the different writing they see. They also will experience the power of decision-making whether it is by deciding which piece of work is bad and which one is good or what part is missing and what part is particularly extra.

This experience will definitely help the student grow as a writer. The golden contract that the teacher made will have an impact on these young students and soon they would be able to rule the world with this knowledge. Hopefully students don’t get carried away and start controlling the world.

This golden contract is so strong and very powerful. It is clear that nobody has to know only for the students that go thru this respectful, intelligent, and interesting teacher. This creation of the teacher is the only creation that the teacher has, but it was well thought through because it is so powerful and feeds the students with so much experience that it should be renamed something that matches a secret knowledge weapon like itself for example “megaknowledge 300”. The students seem to be okay with this contract and how it is developing.

           

This teacher is very lucky he didn’t have a crazy student in that class because no man should have that much power if it is used bad. The power of words that is. This entire golden contract consists on the power of words.  Words are so powerful that if they are arranged correctly, they can make the biggest guy cry. They can make the meanest guy sad. They can make the saddest kid laugh. And it can also do a lot of stuff that we can’t do.