Final Project (Erik Alatorre)

I did my research paper on the consequences of news outlets not showing the full picture when it comes to mental illness. For decades, news stories on mental illness have overwhelmingly shown a link between mental illness and interpersonal violence. As a result, stereotypes of people with mental illness are only engraved into the minds of the general public. Stigma makes it very difficult for people with mental illness to help themselves because not enough public policies exist that encourage treatment/rehabilitation. This leaves the mentally ill on a fence. However, if you want to change something you have to take matters into your own hands. A portion of the mentally ill population have done just that and successfully recovered with the help of the few options available to them and contribute to society in ways you otherwise wouldn’t read or hear about on the news.

This topic wasn’t my first choice, but I did write down “homeless people” as a possible topic for this project. The communities are similar in the fact that they face stigma fueled by factors out of their control. There are also not enough public policies in place that help them in the way that they should. What I found interesting when researching this topic were the numbers. In the study I used, 7% of the stories in the sample were positive.

Day 26: Style Imitation (Erik Alatorre)

Life is weird. Growing up in my neighborhood was a lot of fun, it was full of kids around my age so most of us grew up together. We all went to the same elementary school and took the school bus home. We played outside in our front yards after school and on the weekends. Our parents knew each other, they were the type of neighbors that we don’t see anymore. It was a simpler time. It amazes me how life plays out. I think the internet had a lot to do with killing my childhood friendships. We all still live on the same block but we don’t talk to each other. Middle school was the beginning of the end. We all went to different middle schools and made new friends. In middle school, I made friends that I would go on to keep for the past 7 years, who would’ve thought that my closest friends would be people that lived farther away than the friends I had on my block. (Joan Didion)

It was January 2018, a new year, a new me. I come home after school one afternoon, I see my mother and father in the living room. My mother tells me that my uncle died. It went in one ear and out the other, I was unphased, I snapped back into reality and consoled my mother as she began to cry. Family holds the number one spot on my priority list, I am extremely close to my immediate family. This year has taught me that life comes at you fast, I never believed it until it happened. When my uncle died, I felt nothing, not the heartless sort of nothing but the nothing where I couldn’t bring myself to cry or feel sadness. My uncle was a stranger to me, to my younger self he was someone I cared about. As the years went by so did my relationship with my uncle. The year before he died he reentered my life and I started talking to him again., but when he died, it was like a vaccination, it happened so suddenly that I guess I didn’t have time to react. After the death of my uncle, I started to see the effects it had on my family. My other uncle started visiting us more but that’s what amazed me the most, death brings about reflection in the living. My mother’s side of the family came to the realization that they weren’t as close as they used to be. (Lois Lowry)

Day 21: Using Sources / Writing Style (Erik Alatorre)

Using Sources

Summary

The information a writer has gathered is meant to supplement their writing. It has to be persuasive for the intended audience. Rheingold has coined the term “infotention” to describe what deserves attention and what doesn’t. Practicing Infotention asks the writer to be cautious of the information available to us on the internet. As a writer, you’re going to need as much evidence to support your claim and understand it as best as you can. After finding your sources you have to synthesize them, and figure out how the sources relate to each other, or not, and help support your claim. The intended audience has not read your sources, most likely, so to bring them up to speed you can paraphrase, where you put an author’s ideas into your own words. You usually paraphrase sources that you expect to use frequently. You could summarize, where you capture the gist of the source by including the key ideas that are emphasized in the source. It is usually shorter than a paraphrase. Quotes are used to show that the writer has referred to experts in their writing. They can either support your claim or present counter-arguments. However, before introducing a quote, give context and signal words. An academic writer who has gone through the trouble of finding and properly using the information will gain more credibility from their audience. The resulting paper will demonstrate the writer’s knowledge on the subject.

Response

From this reading, I have learned that there is a lot of planning involved in academic writing, at least, in well-written ones. As a writer, you are in a position of power/ influence where you will be informing a particular audience about a particular topic. The writer has to be aware of how they use their power, it is their responsibility to do the research and present the information properly.

Introduction to Refining Your Writing Style

Summary

Different rhetorical situations call for different requirements for your writing. Various discourse communities in terms of professions/fields of work use different styles of writing. In order for your writing to carry some credibility in a particular field, you have to appropriate it to fit into the writing conventions used by that field. When writing you want to always keep your audience as well as have your purpose in mind. This will affect what you write and how you write it. As the writer, the audience will look to you for information so write like you know what you’re talking about.

Response

This is another one of those readings from the book that would’ve been useful at the beginning of the semester. The reading uses language that is inviting because it repeats the notion that there is a lot to learn when writing at the college level. Although I can see its relevance to our current project.

Day 19: Research Process (Erik Alatorre)

Finding Evidence

Finding good evidence is nothing easy. Your rhetorical situation determines what kinds of evidence are appropriate for your circumstances. For example, certain types of evidence are preferred over others depending on your purpose for writing. In order to find the right evidence, you have to know how to look for it. There are two approaches to collecting evidence to support an argument. One is by using readily available information. This could mean referring to library resources, such as printed material and online databases, or using online resources such as search engines. However, the latter should be taken with a grain of salt because it can difficult to distinguish between credible and non-credible sources. The other approach is to create your own evidence. Going out there and personally performing experiments, conducting interviews, or collecting data from surveys requires a lot of planning to make sure it performs the intended task.

The reading was informative as it showed just how in-depth the research process can be. Although not all of it is new information to me since most of us have done research papers before. I’ve previously used Google Scholar for finding credible sources in high school. For this next paper, I might look into using some of the library databases for information.

Under My Thumb

Chelsea Booth wrote about women in the music industry, rather the lack of, as well as her own experiences as a woman in the music industry. Women have been disproportionally represented in music compared to men. She mentions that as a Major in Management of Musical Enterprises, she has spent countless hours learning about men in the music industry in her classes. However, women don’t get their spotlight for various excuses that she rejects. Some excuses include “there isn’t enough time,” or “historically women weren’t allowed to be musicians so there are less female musicians to talk about.” Booth frequently attends concerts and festivals because they make her feel free, but has found that they are usually unsafe for women. She has personally experienced sexual assault at concerts and it has made her question the place of women in music.

This piece was well-written because not only does it raise awareness of an issue in society but she includes a lot of her own findings that contradict the norm. For example, she gives examples of reasons given as to why women in music aren’t represented as much as men, she rejects them because she found evidence to prove otherwise.

Day 18: Manifesto (Erik Alatorre)

“Manifesto” was an interesting read, to say the least. I was left confused because it’s not really clear as to what, or rather who Saunders could be referring to. However, from my understanding, this piece was a social commentary on stereotypes. So it might not even matter who or what the author was referring to. The article was mocking people who believe in the stereotypes portrayed in the media. Towards the end of the article, Saunders writes “Since the world began, we have gone about our work quietly, resisting the urge to generalize, valuing the individual over the group, the actual over the conceptual.” This is most likely referring to the people who refuse to let stereotypes define others, to not follow everyone else into the trap. Saunders then writes “This is PRKA. To those who would oppose us, I would simply say: We are many. We are worldwide. We, in fact, outnumber you. Though you are louder, though you create a momentary ripple on the water of life, we will endure, and prevail. Resistance is futile.” This goes to show that although the opinions of the few are represented more often it doesn’t mean that they’re factual. As a whole, we can nullify the effects of stereotypes or better yet, put an end to the use of them.

Day 17: Researching Stereotypes and “Fake News” (Erik Alatorre)

Introduction to Researching and Making Claims

Summary: Research has the power to change us. It can expose us to new thoughts and feelings about the world around us. The more we research the better our understanding and increases our ability to feel passionate about something. Research comes in all forms, whether formal or informal but, research provides credibility for our claims, and with credibility comes ethos. Without ethos, a person may not have a valid reason to be believed.

The most interesting sentence in the piece, in my opinion, was “Many students were unable to discern whether something posted on social media was simply popular or whether it actually was true.” This is a prevalent issue nowadays with the many platforms for social media and the accessibility of it by millions of people. It raises concern because the population is being misinformed/misguided by biased media.

The Research Process

Summary: Research refers to the process of wanting to know more. Forming a research question means pausing briefly and looking at the world around us. Research aims to defamiliarize things and to see them from a whole new perspective. If we only look for what we already know then we don’t learn or grow from it. Research isn’t so much a collection of facts that prove your case but rather a type of exploration. Instead of finding a pre-existing truth, it looks to test out different ideas and hypotheses that could provide us with fresh ways of understanding the world.

The most interesting sentence in the piece, in my opinion, was “A problem from everyday life can produce a line of inquiry that leads you toward all sorts of other questions.” Everyday events can seem normal at first, but under the microscope, you can uncover a lot of unusual things about it. The potential for research lies dormant in the things we least expect.

Day 15: Revision (Erik Alatorre)

On page 117 of “Revising Attitudes,” Dethier writes “…For most of us, revision is the only road to success.” What I think I think the author meant by this was that by revising we work towards a personal triumph. In the context of school, by revising our papers we increase our chances of getting a better grade than if we don’t. Not everyone is a naturally good writer and even good writers struggle to get their ideas down the way they wanted so revision allows for improvement.
On page 124 Dethier uses the metaphor of working on a car to think about revision. Revision to me can be compared best to surgery. You want to get rid of anything that’ll burden you now before it affects you in the long run. Although we might not see the fun in revision, and neither is surgery, but you know that it is in your best interest to go through with it.
On page 103 of “Revising Your Own Manuscripts,” Murray writes “A piece of writing is never finished.” I think he gets it right on the money. I forgot which author said it or if it was even in the readings but once you submit something the curse of hindsight always points out something that could’ve been improved upon.

Day 13: Anzaldua and Naylor (Erik Alatorre)

How to Tame a Wild Tongue

Summary: Anzaldua argues that society has attempted to ‘whitewash’ her and her people. Many fall victim to the pressure and give in, losing their identity. However, there are some like Anzaldua, who resist the pressures and learned to stay true to themselves. As a Chicana, she speaks many languages but she doesn’t identify with all of them and at times the languages backfire. For example, Chicano Spanish is an illegitimate language that she speaks but finds herself only using it at home because she’s afraid that she won’t be understood by others, including other Hispanics. When she discovers Chicano literature she realizes that Chicanos exist as a people and that she should embrace her wild tongue.

Response: Language is a part of our identity. It is the means in which we communicate who we are. Throughout our lives, we learn other languages to be able to communicate with multiple discourses but that doesn’t mean it signifies who we are. Sometimes it can be out of necessity.

The Meanings of a Word”

Summary: Naylor recounts the time in the third grade when she was called a “nigger” by one of her classmates. At the time she had no clue what it meant but by using context clues she knew it was an insult. She realizes in adulthood that it probably wasn’t the first time she has heard the word being used. In her home/neighborhood environment the word had been repurposed to mean anything but an insult. For example, it could mean a man who had gained the approval of others through individual feats of strength, intelligence, etc. Except since she knew the word was used as an insult she asked her mother what it meant.

Response: Words do not define people, actions do. Words without meaning are just sounds. and context is important because the circumstances determine the connotations of the word being used.

Day 12: Alexie and Tan (Erik Alatorre)

Superman and Me

Summary: Sherman Alexie was a Spokane Indian boy living with his family on the Spokane Indian Reservation in eastern Washington state. His father loved books and spurred a love of books in him, however, this love wasn’t shared by others he encountered in his youth. From reading Alexie learned to view everything around him as a paragraph belonging to something greater. There were many factors working against him such as stereotypes. Reservation children were expected to be stupid and to fail in the non-Indian world. Alexie was determined to break this expectation so he kept reading through the hurdles set in front of him. Alexie found that his love for books came out of necessity because he was assuring his survival in the non-Indian world.

Response: For many people, this is the reality of learning a language. It boils down to a matter of life and death because language is a powerful tool. It allows us to communicate our ideas with others and without this ability, we lose out on many opportunities.

Mother Tongue

Summary: Amy Tan is a Chinese-American writer who comes to the realization of the many Englishes she uses in her day to day life. She uses vocabulary and sentence structures that are commonly used by someone in her field of work whereas at home she uses a toned down English with her mother and husband which she describes as her language of intimacy. However, when her mother speaks she uses a broken or limited English which to some might be hard to understand at all but to Tan it’s more than enough for her to understand. Tan and her mother have realized how this has affected their lives for the worse since many people often do not respect someone who cannot communicate their thoughts clearly.

Response: I think most of us can relate to this because depending on the circumstances we’re in will determine how we talk. However, this by no means takes away from what we’re trying to say because there are so many ways to say the same thing. As long as others understand what you’re trying to say then the language has done it’s job.

Day 11: Literacy Narrative (Erik Alatorre)

Introduction to (re)Making Language

Summary: Through words, we are able to express our thoughts and feelings. By learning new words or languages we can expand our knowledge allowing us to express our ideas in more ways than one. However, this comes with the risk of knowing too much for our own good. Seth Graves says it best when he writes “Knowledge broadens our receptivity to emotion, but with the risk that it opens us up to all emotion.” The example Graves gives is from Frankenstein, when the monster gains the ability to express his thoughts through words. He was able to reflect on what he overheard from a conversation on human history, as well as consider his own place in the world. Only the bravest can express themselves with the words, both good and bad, that best describes who they are.

Language, Discourse, and Literacy

Summary: Language refers to any form of interaction that is used by a specific community. This can be through words, images, body language, etc., as long as the meaning behind them is recognized and understood. A discourse is a shared set of language-use practices, and a discourse community is a group that uses the discourse. These communities may be related on the basis of profession or social groups. Literacy refers to one’s knowledge of a discourse, which affects how we interact with the members in a discourse community. Depending on the social environments we’re exposed to effects what literacies we acquire and how we acquire them.

Response

Now I know why you asked us if we can think without language and my answer still remains true, correct even. If we can’t name things specifically then we wouldn’t be able to create sensical thoughts. After reading Language, Discourse, and Literacy, I was hit with the realization that we all speak many ‘languages’. For example, there is formal language that you would use amongst professionals and there is informal language that you would use amongst your peers. Both ‘languages’ get our ideas across without fear of being misunderstood. Out of the two readings, I enjoyed (re)Making Language more because it sort of explains why we often find ourselves at a loss for words or forgetting what we wanted to say. It’s most likely due to the fact that we just don’t have the vocabulary to express what we actually want to say.