MAYA: Most Advanced Yet Acceptable (30-45 min)
What does this mean and why are we talking about it?!
Can MAYA apply to documents at the sentence level? Metaphor, simile, other figures of speech?
https://www.thoughtco.com/top-figures-of-speech-1691818
idiom (What are the limits to using idiom?? Limit your audience to native English speakers??)
http://www.smart-words.org/quotes-sayings/idioms-meaning.html
Look at this document from “The U.S. National Library of Medicine”. What are some of the figures of speech? Do these figures of speech “make familiar” or increase your understanding of the CRISPR process? Who is the audience for this article?
https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/genomicresearch/genomeediting
Look at these articles in groups. Find the paragraph/s describing how CRISPR works. Look specifically at the language used to describe CRISPR. Is language used similar or different from the “U.S. Nation Library of Medicine” article? Are figures of speech employed? How? Do these figures of speech “make familiar” or increase your understanding of the (unfamiliar?) CRISPR process? Who is the audience for these publications? What leads you to believe that? Is this style of article familiar to you? What is different about these article?
- Skim through this article from Wired.com.
https://www.wired.com/2015/07/crispr-dna-editing-2/
- Skim through this article from National Geographic.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2016/08/dna-crispr-gene-editing-science-ethics/
- Skim through this article in the New Yorker.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/02/rewriting-the-code-of-life
- Read this article in Buzzfeed.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/danvergano/embryo-repair-surprise?utm_term=.pd0QAD83l#.rdD5rGWgO
Does this count as MAYA?
After being exposed to these documents, how would you describe CRISPR? Would you use the same figures of speech or different one? Would your answer change if you were writing a white paper? Or a newspaper article? Or telling a friend?
Some of your thoughts on MAYA… (15-25 min)
Can documents benefit from using MAYA??
“Although, I do have a little more difficulty finding the unique aspects in professional writing. I correlate professional writing to resumes, cover letters, and proposals, where many of times it is the same format. It is difficult for a writer to expose him/herself to an employer and convey the best portrait of themselves in such a specific format. Over time this may evolve, and admissions/employers may accept a variety of submissions, but as of now individuals need to stand out by the small amount of ink found on a white page.”
Resumes are a great example of how to use MAYA.
“In a public sphere, readers are going to be accustomed to the texts they read behaving in a particular way. Lawyers have a specific style and format by which they are required to make their documents. Even the average person with a Twitter account is expected to keep their daily musings short and sweet… Lawyers, for instance, do have to abide by specific stylistic and formatting rules set out for them, but that doesn’t mean that there are never opportunities for them to push their documents further. The language of legal documents is surely not the same as it was two hundred years ago. With time and linguistic changes, there is a chance for lawyers to move beyond what is fundamentally familiar and into new territory. Will the word “yeet” ever be included in a legal document? I highly doubt it, but I can’t definitively say. There is always a chance for stylistic changes.”
Recent Supreme Court Ruling
https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/16-299
Case from 1875
https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/88/162
Are there any figures of speech used?
What about rigid genres like scientific journals?
“On the other hand, professional writing, such as a science journal, there isn’t room for MAYA. The format is nearly the same for each possibly because any attempt to change it may take a shot at the author’s ethos.”
“I would also argue the MAYA model applies to a lot of nonfiction writing. Much like the Spotify example from The Atlantic article, it is beneficial to have support from already existing content. Even if the author is making new claims, they pull from the work of others before them. This is not only used to establish credibility and validity, but also appeals to the “mere-exposure effect.” This may not be as impactful for someone who is reading an article for general interest, however this applies heavily to professionals. Continuing education requires many professionals to stay on top of current research. This familiarizes them with other professionals in the field. So even if there is a new name on the research paper, they may recognize one of the other professionals that is cited within the work. Using medical journals as an example, physicians recognize the names of their colleagues, and the work that they have done in the past. All of the entries usually follow the same format, starting with an abstract and ending with a results/ conclusion section. While we are technically looking at new research, it is delivered to us in a familiar digestible format, and it uses pieces of information that we have already accepted.”
By-line ethos, Journal credibility, FAKE NEWS??
“Overall, Loewy was onto something with his MAYA idea. If it applies to most aspects of our lives such as apps, names, and TV shows, it certainly applies to writing, too. Where the line is drawn between the type of writing MAYA applies to, I am not completely sure. But, if I had to guess I’d say it falls somewhere amidst professional writing.”
IF WE HAVE EXTRA TIME
“What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet”
“Potentially, a middle name could represent one’s lineage and may be less “popular” while an individual’s first name succumbs to the culture and common names that are used today.”
“Many families have traditions to their naming practices… So even though we have fairly popular names, with conventional spellings, my parents sought a way to differentiate us from other children by telling a story.”
CRISPR VIDEO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=29&v=2pp17E4E-O8
Genre, MAYA, and Action (15-25 min)
What are all the types of writing you could do for a public audience? We already know of about a few from what we saw on during our first few classes: a white paper, a brochure, an informative webpage, a blog post. What other options are there?
As many as we can get. What options would be useful for your campaign? What ones do you want to know how to compose? What might be useful for you later, too?
When thinking of using a specific genre of writing, ask yourself this: what is the rhetorical situation you find yourself in? What action is being taken through your writing? What are the constraints? Where will it be read? By whom? Write from that perspective.
What do you choose? Well, what recurring rhetorical situations make a genre? That is, something sorta similar happens over and over again, and people have created a type to respond. Using that type for a rhetorical situation similar to yours is a good way to go. Genre is action.
Why are you choosing the documents you are choosing? You need the rhetorical situation FIRST. Then you think about the documents: the audience, the context you might reach them, what you want them to do, etc
How does MAYA apply within a specific genre?
Break (15 min)
Interview Planning (10-25 min)
Logistics:
-You should have your interview scheduled by the end of next week at the latest.
-You should complete your interview by February 20th.
-Unless impossible (i.e., you cannot meet in person), you will record your interview so you have the option of using audio or a written transcription. You must ask the interviewee’s permission.
-You will incorporate part or all of your interview into one of your group’s campaign pieces.
Questions to Ask Yourselves:
-Who are you interviewing and why?
-What do you want to learn more about in relation to your campaign?
-How might you use material from this interview for one of your campaign pieces? Brainstorm some ways.
Conducting the Interview:
-Don’t ask yes or no questions. If outcome is “yes” or “no”, these answers often aren’t that useful for future incorporation into a piece of writing.
-Let interviewee speak until finished, don’t answer for them or interrupt them too soon. Might miss out on something good. If you find them to be rambling, it might be worth trying to politely interject with a followup question, or subtle cues that time is running short.
-Ask permission to record on phone or computer (Download “Audacity” if using computer: a free program to edit sound recordings, will go over in class how to use a bit later this term).
Tech Tips:
-If using phone, almost all smartphones come with an audio recording app. Play around with it to get some practice. An iPhone has what is called “Voice Memos. To record, you simply hit the red button in the middle. To stop recording, you hit the same button. Be sure you know when it is recording and when it is not, not matter what the app is.
-If using computer, I am asking you to record via the free software called “Audacity.” This is a good and widely used sound editing program. To record in Audacity, click on the button with the red circle in the middle at the top of the page (it is the last button in the row that begins with the “pause” symbol, the “play” symbol, the “stop” symbol, the “rewind” symbol, and the “fast forward” symbol).
-If recording as audio, make sure the interview is in a quiet location. The person’s office would be ideal, for instance. A busy coffee shop will probably be too noisy to get a good recording.
-When you are in the interview, test the recording for 5-10 seconds and play it back to make sure everything is working alright, to ensure you are in a good location to record the interview, and to make sure everyone is speaking loudly enough (mostly for you, but you could test out if you can hear your interviewee by asking them to say a few things).
-Be sure the phone is close enough to the interviewee and the person asking the questions.
-When the interview is done, save the file to your computer. If you are using Audacity, this will be pretty straightforward as a sound editing file. As an audio file, you’ll have to convert it. I recommend MP3, and to do this you’ll need to download the LAME MP3 encoder; see these instructions or the manual on that. If you are using your phone, it should be pretty straightforward to plug your phone into your computer and save it somewhere. For an iPhone, it will come up right in iTunes. The default file type is incompatible with Audacity, so later on you may need to convert it if you want to use the audio file for a campaign piece.
What sorts of documents will you make? (15 min)
While you are with your group, start to think out some pieces you will make for your first campaign piece. Likewise, start talking about your campaign plan draft that is due on 2/13 (prompt is in syllabus, but pasted it below, too).
First Draft of Collaborative Campaign Plan. 500-750 words. In this assignment, you’ll have to think about what your stance is for this problem, you’ll have to think about what evidence warrants this stance, what “public” you are addressing, you’ll have to begin to map out what rhetorical moves you can make to insert your (supported) stance into your selected public’s consciousness. With your letter completed, you can use what you learned from that to work through this assignment. Think of this as another “draft” of your proposal, only instead of trying to prove the merit of your issue, you are focusing much more on the merit of your decisions you have sketched out so far. These are the sorts of questions worth asking to help you write your campaign plan :
-What attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, behaviors would you like to change or encourage?
-Who do you hope to reach? Why is this audience key to addressing your topic?
-What kinds of documents will your group be producing?
-Multiple media and compositions are typically used to address modern issues. What media will you use?
-What modes (e.g., sound, static image, video, alphanumeric writing)?
-How will your documents reach your target audience? How will they see it, how will it get to them? In other words, how will you attempt to circulate these documents?
-What “themes” might bleed over across documents and how will you make that happen?
-Have a rationale. Why did you choose this kind of writing and media? For instance, why did you decide that your audience would respond better to a poster rather than a video? Why deliver this document at this time? Why these documents in this order? Why that document in that medium? Why do you believe your strategies for circulating your writing are effective?
-What have other people and organizations produced about this issue? What genres of writing? What sorts of audiences have they targeted? What media was used? What modes (sound, image, video, alphanumeric writing, etc.)? How might you adapt/build on what others have done? Or, how might you do something very different?
Remember, this is a first draft— a first attempt at working through some initial ideas.
Letter to Classmate on Public Interest Scaffolding (15-30 min)
If time, we will do a partnered activity in class on your letter. More likely, I want you to fill out this handout to help you think about your letter to a classmate on your public interest topic and start writing when done.
Admin (5-15 min)
-Submit your letter on BlackBoard on 2/7 deadline (I always have major things due day after so you get peer response time in class)
-Bring a hard copy of your letter to class. It would be a good idea to email it to your partner so they get a headstart on reading it (we will have time in class to read each other’s letters, too).
-Remember that your draft of your campaign plan is due on 2/14 (bring hard copy to class on 2/13). If you are in a group, be sure to get on same page about how you’ll collaborate.
-Next blogs due on 2/19 with comments due 2/20. Be sure to keep up with schedule since we have two straight weeks without blog posts.
-Remember you only have to comment *once* during weeks you are not writing a blog post. By all means, you can comment as much as you want! But the requirement is only for one comment when not writing a blog post.
-Have to cancel office hours next week, but can meet by appointment.