How To: Analyze

In today's reading we read about how to read and analyze text. This was a very helpful reading for the fact that we are going to be writing a paper that analyzes text so this gave me some insight on how to correctly analyze a text.

So the reading said that we are to write down our initial reactions to a text after reading it, whether the reaction is good or bad. This helps us to know what we believe about this topic of text and it helps us know how we feel about what is being said. Next it told us to play the doubt and believe game. This game is where you write about why you would agree with everything the author says and why you would disagree with everything. This forces us to think on both sides of the issue of text. Then we are encouraged to write down what the text says in our own words and what the text does to the reader. Such as does it make the reader feel angry, excited, make them think? We are also told to look at patterns in the authors writing and try to find a recurring theme that is present. Next we have to analyze the argument and find out if the reasoning behind the authors argument is legitimate and if it has good evidence to back it up.

Overall this reading was very helpful to me as I prepare to start my own text analyzation. It also provided the reader, me, with very useful examples about each of the sections it talked about.

Rhetorical What??

Today's reading covered how to analyze text and it also showed us what rhetorical analysis writing looked like. We read multiple stories that were very descriptive and analytical of something or someone.

I thought the reading was very intriguing because, for the most part, the authors wrote about both sides of the analysis so that they would not show their true opinions on the topic. This gave me, the reader, a much more unbiased look at the subject than say in persuasive writings. At first I was unsure what rhetorical analysis meant but after reading the stories and the description of how to analyze text I now know that it means to pick apart a text to give it a better meaning to the reader and to explain the point of the text. I enjoyed reading the stories especially the first reading by Dennis Noe, Parallel Worlds: The Surprising Similarities (and Differences) of Country-and-Western and Rap. This story went in-depth and looked at the words of both C&W and rap music and compared how similar they were. Noe explained how generally C&W is looked at in a more family-friendly way but he goes on to show that both C&W and rap are similarly close in how they portray violence in their music.

The third reading was also a very interesting one too. It was Pulpit Talk by Beverly Moss. This reading was a description of how in African-American churches the preacher would talk in "black" and that this was the best way to communicate to the other black members of the church. I thought it was very interesting how the preacher would talk and all the audience would talk back to him during his sermon. That is much different than how my church does its sermons. Normally no one speaks during church service so I found it interesting to hear that most African-American churches are never quite during the sermon.

The other readings were good too but for some reason I found it hard to read Seeing as Believing: The Paintings of Judith Belzer by Peter Stiglin. This story was hard for me to understand but maybe I just wasn't the authors target audience. Changing the Face of Poverty: Nonprofits and the Problem of Representation by Diana George was a very good description of how nonprofit organizations that fight poverty exploit our emotions with words and sad images.

For the Love of Reading

The five literacy narratives that we had to read were all unique in there own way but at the same time they all were alike. They all were somewhat alike in the fact that all the stories had a theme of something that the author loved to do. Almost all the stories were related because the authors had a love for reading and writing. They all strived to learn to read and write even if they were poorly taught.

I thought the readings were excellent and very fun to read. I especially liked the writing by Malcolm X because it was cool to see that people in prison would be so "hungry" to read. Most people take reading and writing for granted but most of these authors were very thankful to be able to read. Another reading I enjoyed was "Mother Tongue". This reading was fun to read because it shows that when you speak and write you do not need to use fancy words to impress people but rather you should speak in a way that they will understand completely, that way you communicate the best.

You may say "Who cares about reading and writing?". Well, for a few of the authors of these stories, reading and writing saved their lives, like the author of "Learning to Read", Frederick Douglass. Being able to read and write helped him be able to understand what abolition meant and that he could run away from a life of slavery to a life of freedom.

This reading will definitely make me realize how lucky I am to be able to read and write and how useful it can be to me.

Who's the Audience??

This reading talked about the types of purposes, audiences, stances, genres, and mediums, and the relation that they all have between each other. The author did an excellent job in giving examples of each piece of topic.

I thought the reading was very useful in the way that it showed how all those situations were related to one another. For example, it was interesting to know that the type of medium you use can depend heavily on the audience and your purpose. Like how you would not ask a girl out through one of your friends. You would normally do it by face to face interaction or possibly by phone. Also, the audience is a huge part of your writing. Without knowing your audience it is difficult to produce good writing. You also write differently depending on what type of audience you are addressing. As the book puts it, "...You likely alter what you say depending on whether you are speaking to a boss, an instructor, a parent, or a good friend...". The audience does matter! The quote means a lot to the reading because it combines what your purpose will be, what your stance is, the genre, and the medium.

You may wonder why the audience is so crucial? Well, if your audience is the President of the United States and you are addressing an issue to him, do you think he will listen to you if you are talking to him nervously and quite? No. You need to speak loud and clear and be assertive so that he will listen.