Framing statement:
- Active Reading, Critical Reading, and Informal Reading Response:
At the beginning of the semester I hardly had any annotation skills at all. The only annotations I had done before was surface level annotations, some chunking and highlighting key points. But as I got further into English 122 I started to go deeper into my annotations. I started to highlight less, make in depth notes and summaries to the side about each paragraph and identify claims and supporting evidence.
- Integrate Ideas with those of other:
I never had the opportunity to integrate my own opinions and thoughts into any of my work before. For this essay I was able to use my pre-writing and previous blog posts to analyze the work of multiple authors, such as Gee, and add my own opinion to the mix.
- Writing as a Recursive Process:
I never used to do pre-writing activities, however, once I started to, I never looked back. Pre-writing activities are helpful for me to organize my thoughts and ideas. They also allow me pick out certain things that I should, or should not include in my final draft. This process also allows me to dissect multiple texts and easily relate them to my own ideas.
- Critique Own and Others’ Work:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/17AC0QXaicl3XwhTkLuayKpcDAjyLVcUetXrC7OZodko/edit
The only peer reviews that I would ever get in the beginning were surface level (spelling, grammar, punctuation). Those comments never really helped me to revise and make my essays better. Once myself as well as my peers started to make more in depth comments about the work, it made things much easier when revising. - Document Work Using Appropriate Conventions (MLA):
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1elfrgOb7_QoLh75UB8QXA0PrZXYpwYJphkyejbukNbo/edit
Before this assignment I had never used MLA format and I had never had to use a work cited page. However, I think I use the MLA format well in this essay. In the link above you can see the proper use or quoting and my works cited page. - Control Individualized Error Patterns:
Draft 1: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17AC0QXaicl3XwhTkLuayKpcDAjyLVcUetXrC7OZodko/edit
Draft 2: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1elfrgOb7_QoLh75UB8QXA0PrZXYpwYJphkyejbukNbo/edit
Between my first and second drafts, I took out and changed a lot of my essay. I had too much going on and tried to touch on too many topics at once. In my previous works I never revised any of my papers, until a teacher of mine told me this: “Never fall in love with your first draft”. Ever since then I have taken that advice, and because of that my papers are much better.
Discourse Analysis Essay:
The world is made up, and classified in groups. If you think about it, society has divided the human population into groups and class. You have the lower class, middle class, and the upper class. You can then go even further into the segregation of race, religion, and even gender. People are classified into these Discourses, and then expected to participate and conform to those certain Discourses. So, can we change, or enter a new Discourse, and if so, how do we do it? Depending on the situation, I think, entering a secondary Discourse may require a combination of modeling, mentorship, and practice.
In “Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction”, Gee says, “A Discourse is a sort of ‘identity kit’ which comes complete with the appropriate costume and instructions on how to act, talk, and often write, so as to take on a particular role that others will recognize” (Gee 7). What Gee means by this is that a Discourse is what makes up you who you are and how you act. Gee writes that
“Discourses are not mastered by overt instruction, but by enculturation (“apprenticeship”) into social practices through scaffolded and supported interaction with people who have already mastered the Discourse” (Gee 7) and “Someone cannot engage in a Discourse in a less than fully fluent manner. You are either in it or you’re not” (Gee 9).
Gee believes that if you are a part of one Discourse you cannot transition into another discourse without an “apprenticeship”, or mentor with someone who is already a part of that Discourse. Otherwise it is obvious to those already in the discourse that you are an outsider. I don’t agree that you need an apprenticeship in order to enter a new Discourse. A person simply needs a model in order to learn how to act in a new discourse. One does not particularly need an apprenticeship in order to learn and practice what information they have gathered from their model of a Discourse.
In the TED Talk Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are, Amy Cuddy talks about the idea “Fake it, until you make it”. Cuddy asks, “Is it possible that we could get people to fake it and would it lead them to participate more?” (Cuddy 6:33). When Cuddy says “Fake it, until you make it”, she means if you want to be in a certain Discourse, but have no way into that Discourse, you can potentially pretend and act like you belong, until you actually become a part of that Discourse. This is where my idea of practice and modeling comes into play.
Cuddy brings up an example of how she was involved in an accident, and because of that she felt she lost her identity of “being smart”. So she worked hard, and pretended like she belonged to that Discourse, or identity, until she became part of that Discourse. Cuddy said, “She can fake it, she can become it” (Cuddy 18:07). If a person does not have a way into a Discourse, but wishes to become a part of that Discourse, they can use a model of how they think they should act, and then practice those values until they become part of that Discourse. Much unlike Gee’s theory where you have to have a mentor who’s already in the Discourse, and have an apprenticeship; Cuddy believes that you only have to pretend you belong until you actually do.
From my experience, I had to use different pieces of each Gee’s and Cuddy’s theories in order to enter the secondary Discourse of college. Growing up my mother was very controlling of me. I had no freedom, was expected to always do as I was told, and had to ask my mother for permission before I did anything. I almost never did anything on my own. I was very sheltered. I came from a small town where everyone knows each other, and because of this I never really had to make new friends. This was all part of my primary Discourse, and so when I made the transition into college it was a long process to become part of that secondary Discourse.
When I got to college it was a very different atmosphere for me. I suddenly had so much freedom, I could do whatever I wanted, and I had no one trying to control me. For the first time in my life I was able to think freely and do as I pleased, but it didn’t start like that right away. I had to transition. I was able to do that with the help of my roommates. I have two roommates, and both of them are very different from each other. One is very social and talkative, but doesn’t like to be alone. The other is less talkative, but still social and has a strong sense of independence. I on the other hand I was not very talkative, or social, and didn’t have very much independence. Even though I didn’t have much, if any, experience in the secondary Discourse of college, I was able to eventually transition and become part of that discourse through modeling, mentorship, and practice. In the beginning of this transition I relied a lot on my roommates to meet new people and force myself into the social lifestyle. I saw this opportunity as a mentorship. They were essentially teaching me what to do. I observed the way they acted, how they talked, and the things they did. I saw that even though they were starting to enter the same secondary Discourse as me, they seemed to be doing it with ease. I used these observations as a model for myself and as a path to where I wanted to be. Lastly, I began to practice these things for myself. I started going places by myself to try and practice my independence. I started to be more social by joining clubs. I also started to talk to people and make friends on my own. With a combination of all of these things, I was eventually able to become a part of the college lifestyle, my secondary Discourse.
I believe the best way to enter a secondary Discourse is a combination of both Gee’s and Cuddy’s theories. You need to have a mentor that you can model and then practice those values that you have learned for yourself. My roommates acted as models and mentors. I was able to observe their actions and then put those values into practice. I was then able to fully transition into my secondary Discourse with ease.
Being able to prove that a person can enter a secondary Discourse despite the classifications and segregation that society has placed us in, we are able to prove that we are above a label. With more opportunities for modeling, mentorship, and practice we are able to accomplish anything that we want, despite the expectations that we as people have been oppressed by. We do not have to conform to these Discourses just because we are born within them. With this knowledge of Discourses we will be able to overcome racism, sexism and discrimination for good. Especially in present day society, nothing is more important than breaking those barriers and putting an end to those ideals that are holding us back not only as a single person, but as a whole society. You are not stuck in one place in the world, and it is time to prove it.
Works Cited
Gee, James Paul. “Literacy, Discourse, And Linguistics: Introduction”. Journal of Education.
171.1 (1989): 5-17. Print.
Cuddy, Amy. “Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are”. TED Talks. Global.
June 2012. Web.
