Still Catching Up on Last Week's Readings

It's been a nice holiday weekend. Although I had hoped to get ahead, like most weekends, I am barely up to date, but it all seems to work out. I had lunch with my pregnant friend and she was having contractions. I always forget that there is more to life than getting a PhD. I am going to try to keep this in mind for a little while longer. At least until tomorrow before I start freaking out all over again.

Now, back to the reading.

On Rhetoric - Aristotle (translation by George Kennedy)

I have something to admit - I didn't read the whole thing. Maybe someday I will, maybe someday soon. But I really wanted to wrap my head around epeidictic rhetoric. Speech of praise or of a blame, but mostly praise is addressed. Present time is most important, because the speaker incites past moments AND looks towards the future. I enjoyed the list of terms an epeidictic speaker might employ to cover negative aspects, such as calling someone actually rash, "courageous." I do this even when I am not praising or blaming. I do this when I am trying to diplomatically describe someone. But I suppose this is what people do when someone dies or becomes involved in tragedy. Those who speak about them knew them best, but want to remember them in the best light.

Composition Studies in the New Millennium - Lynn Z. Bloom, Donald A. Daiker, Edward M. White (eds)

"Under the Radar of Composition Programs: Glimpsing the Future Through Case Studies of Literacy in Electronic Texts" - Danielle Nicole DeVoss, Joseph Johansen, Cynthia Selfe, John C. Williams

This chapter uses case studies, much like the Selfe piece I wrote about from yesterday. In this case there are three (all of which are cited as authors, which I find interesting research-wise, but that's another thought for another day). By looking at a young women raised in an upper-middle class environment, one young man raised religiously and one older man, also religious and their introductions and explorations with technology, the authors (or Selfe perhaps) convey that aspects of the composition process and varying literacies were at play for these participants. DeVoss, by playing games online began composing scenarios between characters and gained analytical skills by mapping out the spaces of the game and knowing where to go. Johnson, by showing an early interest in graphic design, experimented in what messages could convey visually. By bringing multiple visual elements together, he was composing an argument. Williams, as an older man without formal education began putting together a text on God. He learned how to use computers (word documents and emails) at the university where he was a maintenance man. He learned by observing and playing and getting to know the software himself - just as we (or some people) advocate - don't be afraid of the fear and the mess.

Ultimately, the author(s) thinks these three case studies teach educators three lessons - literacies are constantly shifting depending on time and context and educators need to be aware and prepared for this. Educators must also be willing to address the wide variety of literacies that come with time and context and with what students may bring into the classroom. Finally, educators have to acknowledge different literacies and work with them because that is what students know. By trying to stick with one (traditional text writing) we are not empowering students to learn.

"The Challenge of the Multimedia Essay" - Lester Faigley

By opening his article on the stories of a few teenage boys who were able to make money and little chaos by hacking into computer systems, Faigley makes the case that by avoiding the incorporation of multiliteracies and multimedia, we are not empowering students to become active citizens. They won't be able to see writing past the classroom. If we avoid this, we are avoiding all the shifts in the workplace that are happening around these multiliteracies and multimedia. It is a shift that must happen.

"Narratives in the Database: Memorializing September 11th Online" - Joyce Walker (Computers and Composition 24(2007))

Walker looks at the various multimodal elements that go into online memorials and how it closes the gap between public and private mourning. Her argument is that being online, with different elements change the emphasis of the rhetorical goal and interaction with the audience. For example, she compares the online databases of victims of the 9/11 attacks (the smiling pictures, the warm anecdotes of their likes and hobbies) and the perpetrators of the attacks (the Al Queda suicide bombers). She feels these juxtapositions help to create identities as mourners and cements them as cyborg citizens.

I'm Back in the Home Computing Business

My computer is feeling better. Although, I will admit, it was nice not being a slave to the computer when I was at home. I didn't feel the need to compulsively check my online class. Yesterday morning, I actually didn't turn on my computer first thing, choosing to read a little bit instead.

Speaking of reading, I've done a lot of it in the past week.

First up:

Writing New Media Theory and Applications for Expanding the Teaching of Composition - Anne Frances Wysocki, Johndan Johnson-Eilola, Cynthia Selfe, Geoffrey Sirc

I did read the whole book, which has a intro justification by Wysocki and various chapters by the other authors. Some of the chapters were more helpful than others. And that is what I will discuss here. The previously mentioned justification, "Opening New Media to Writing" how the incorporation of new media fits in with and expands thoughts on composition pedagogy. She outlines how technology has has changed how we communicate and has opened more literacies that educators must address. It discuss how the writing process gives more agency and power to the author (in new media settings) and how as writing teachers, we can help them learn about making choices that fit what the students want to say.

"Students Who Teach Us: A Case Study of a New Media Text Designer" by Selfe tells the story of a student who was born into low socioeconomic conditions, but always saw his mother reading. When he got to college (on a football scholarship) he become interested in graphic and web design. While he suffered at writing traditional papers, he excelled at making rhetorical choices visually. Selfe uses this case study to argue for multiliteracies. She also uses this as an argument that with these multiliteracies in the classroom, the boundary between teacher and student can be broken down and that it can become a more cyclical relationship where they are learning from each other and that instructors shouldn't be afraid of this shift.

"The Sticky Embrace of Beauty:On Some Formal Problems in Teaching About the Visual Aspects of Texts," by Wysocki challenges the cut and dry principles laid out by Robin Williams in The Non-Designers Design Book and turns towards Kant's critique of judgement so that designers can consider the context of the audience by thinking about emotions that are brought up through visual elements. This article was less helpful, but interesting nonetheless, especially as someone who has lived and died by Williams' book.

I also read, Computers and the Teaching of Writing in American High Education, 1979-1994: A History by Gail E. Hawisher, Paul LeBlanc, Charles Moran, Cynthia Selfe

A really interesting read about the early use of technology, not just in the classroom, but in scholarship and the workforce and of the technology itself. The shift in the kinds of technology and how it can be applied to writing (networks and Internets as collaborative writing) is pretty fascinating and the challenges that these early adapters faced are still fairly relevant issues today. It has really pushed me towards looking at access and power in the use of computers and technology. Some students don't have a lot of access or limited access prior to getting to school and when instructors expect students to have this knowledge, they aren't empowering students to learn.

I feel as though, in terms of Computers and Writing, I am reading the same things over and over again. This does get a little frustrating, but I feel as though I am heading in a direction of focusing my question so that I can branch out a little more. More on my questions later...

I've read a few other things that I will return to later. I am hungry right now. Greek pasta salad is calling my name!

Gunther Kress

" Reading images:Multimodality, representation and new media" - Gunther Kress

On page 119, Kress states, "The question of rhetoric-and how to make my communication most effective in relation to this audience, here and now-has moved newly, urgently into the center. Rhetoric has become a major issue for design." I think this is the important point Kress is trying to make as he examines how different modes can work, perhaps more efficiently, in conveying meaning. He traces both speech and writing as modes that work linearly. Audiences get little bits of information in succession. In these cases, the author or speaker has more power. In visual design, audiences can look at an image and take in meaning in whatever order they want, or as Kress writes, "design the order of the text for themselves (114). This changes the role of the designer. They are not the authority as a writer or speaker would be, they have to be aware of audience expectations and/or previous knowledge. It opens the rhetorical process.

I think this is going to a really interesting text that will work with both my computers and writing question and my technical communication question. Now onto, Writing New Media Theory and Applications for Expanding the Teaching of Composition. Hope to have it finished over the weekend. Have a long list of books that are commonly cited in articles that should provide some good context. The library doesn't have many of them. Although I am not opposed to buying the books for myself (because they can be used later), but if I buy every book, that is going to add up. Is it ok to ask committee members to borrow those (as I am sure they have these texts) or should I suck it up and buy them myself? Any advice?