Thlog 2

A very helpful activity that we did in class was the “nesting dolls” activity. Nesting dolls are a set of wooden dolls of decreasing size placed one inside another. They consist of wooden figures which separates top from bottom to reveal a smaller figure of the same sort inside which has another figure inside of it and so on. The nesting dolls were to help us break down our genres into even smaller genres. Everyone’s genres were so broad including mines until we did the “nesting dolls” activity several times because even after the first time doing the activity there was still some confusion. The activity really started to make more and more sense as we got assignment after assignment.

This “nesting dolls” activity really helped me with PB1A and WP1. As far as PB1A I would say it really helped me because with it I would have just talked about the broad subject of “social media” but instead I was about to break that broad genre down to specific genres inside of the super broad genre for example like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. As far as WP1 were we had to pick at least two different genres from (different mainstream media or pop culture) that focus on the same topic. Without the activity I think that I would’ve had two very broad topics which would have probably been very difficult to analyze. So I think this was a very helpful activity that DP came up with and should continue to use this activity in the future.

Thlog 1

When I first noticed this course was two classes in one it kind of made me nervous. I thought walking into class for the first time it was going to be an old dull professor. Well good thing I was wrong in that aspect. My professor DP is a very cool guy I actually like the way he teaches I might not like what he’s teaching but his teaching style in general is pretty damn cool. It’s like most of the stuff I learned in grade school was incorrect on an English stand point.

For example I was familiar with the word “genre”. Genre is often times defined as a division or separate class or even things that are regarded as having particular shared characteristics (conventions). Which that interpretation is correct, in Navigating Genres by Kerry Dirk she mentions “Genre is used to refer primarily to form, which meant that writing in a particular genre was seen as simply a matter of filling in the blanks.”. Also understanding what Lloyd Bitzer an rhetorician said “when something new happens that requires a response, someone must create that first response. Then when that situation happens again, another person uses the first response as a basic for the second, and eventually everyone who encounters this situation is basing his/her response on the previous ones, resulting in the creation of a new genre.”. Before this Eng. 101-108 class I only broke genres down as like music: hip hop, rap, country, urban, rock & roll, and like movies: horror, comedies, documentaries, etc.. Which are all genres but I was never was aware or taught that there was also “genres” within writing.

Understanding all these new defined definitions on “genre” they helped me break down different topics to make a selection on my WP1. I think without all this useful information the first half of this class/semester would be nearly impossible because all of our papers had something to do with it in some way or another.

PB2B

I choose a text about Jonnu Smith a college football player at Florida International (FIU) who got burned by his girlfriend Mary Gaspar. In my PB2B I will be identifying the different players that are involved in this article, I will also be discussing the different people/organizations that are impacted by this cruelty. I will be connecting this article I’m reading to Shelly Reid’s “Critical Reading Strategies” and then combining the “Doubting and Disagreeing” strategy with the “Taking Positions” strategy.

In this article the injured Jonnu Smith is deeply involved in this issue. He is involved because now he has suffered severe burns on his head, neck, back, a shoulder and an arm. To a result of these burns he now has to sit out the rest of the season. If I was in Smith’s position I would ask my girlfriend why would you do this to me? Why would you mess up my good season I was having? What if this messes up my chances to get into the NFL?

Another key “player” involved is Mary Gaspar Smith’s girlfriend. She is a key “player” because she caused Smith’s injuries and now she has to sit behind bars because of her actions. If I were her I would ask Smith why wasn’t you paying me attention while we were arguing? I would ask myself why would I stoop so low to do such a thing? What if I have to do some time because of my actions?

Smith and Gaspar’s baby could also be another player because the mom might have to do some time and not get the correct care the baby needs to stay healthy. Another reason this situation might break the parents up and the baby would suffer because it’ll be growing up in a broken home.

The whole FIU organization is key “players” including Smith’s coaches and teammates because they’ll be losing a major factor on the field in Smith. He made the midseason John Mackey Award (best college tight end) that’s a big deal in the college football world. If I was one of his coaches or teammates I would ask him, why would she do that? Why are you still with her after we told you that she was crazy bro? How we going to find your replacement? 

http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/18014878/florida-international-golden-panthers-te-jonnu-smith-season-suffering-burns-attack

PB2A

In my PB2A I will be analyzing and searching for different moves that Samantha Master made in her article “13^th and the Invisibleness of Black Women”

The first move that I noticed that Master made was when she states “What has emerged as common knowledge through the Movement for Black Lives is laid out clearly and plainly in the film: Mass incarceration and modern-day policing are mutations of American slavery that mean to maintain the economic, social, political and legal subjugation of black people to support the (white) American enterprise.” I would call this move “Damn that’s Everyday” I would refer this move to that because I feel as though a lot of Blacks have been getting sensuously killed lately. I think this helped the text because before she got into her argument she mentioned The Black Lives Matter Movement which has to do with the overall of the article

The second move that I spotted in this article is “13th evokes the eponymous 13th Amendment, which simultaneously emancipated enslaved Africans and laid the groundwork for their continued confinement and the forced extraction of labor from their bodies through convict leasing, Jim Crow and, more recently, “broken windows” policing and the war on drugs.” I would refer to this move as “Bringing Up History” I called it this because she brought up the history of the 13^th Amendment and what it did for blacks in history. It brought out more evidence and ethos that the author knows something about the topic she picked to write about.

The third move the author made was when she said “The abolition of slavery, “except as a punishment for crime,” is an insidious loophole in the 13th Amendment that provides an instructive framework from which audiences can better understand today’s crisis of mass incarceration: The U.S. has less than 5 percent of the world’s population and a quarter of the world’s prisoners.” I referred to this move as “World Facts” After all she mentioned “world” two times and having 25% of your population being incarcerated when you only have less than 5% of the world’s population is a whole lot. I feel as though the author made this connection because the movie “13^th” is about mass incarcerations.

The fourth move I noticed was when Master reminded us that “”13^th” boasts an impressive slate of organizers, historians, advocates, scholars and formerly incarcerated people who tell the origin story and contemporary impact of America’s hypercriminalization of black people, including the power of media to create narratives about blackness that were so terrifying that even black America took up the mantle to cage and confine our kindred in the name of “law and order.”” This move is called “Capturing Authorial Action” In my opinion it is called this because the author is stating her opinion. I assume this move was made so she could make her next move.

Her next move was “However, the film’s power is tempered by a glaring omission: black women’s stories.” I call this move “Authors Quote” This helped the author’s text because it was a good transition from the last paragraph.

Another move I noticed Master make throughout her whole article was her putting a lot of hyperlinks to other sites which made her argument even stronger and that she did her resource on the topic. I call this move “Stating Facts” It helped the article because it made me personally believe what she was saying even more by her citing other sites.