English 2150 Blog

Where can we draw the line between persuasion and manipulation? When in an artifact — whether an ad, a book, a show, whatever — ceasing to persuade and beginning to lie? What’s the connection between lies and fallacies?

I think persuasion and manipulation go together in many ways. Manipulation is the act of fooling and controlling the other person to believe or do something. Persuasion is the idea to get somebody to do or think a certain way. I don’t think you necessarily have to manipulate to persuade somebody, because you can give factual information and still get somebody to do something. You don’t have to fool or control the person to persuade them. Though there may be some areas of persuasion where you might have to manipulate to make the persuasion stronger. Lying and fallacies are also very similar in a way that they don’t say the truth and they’re both done to benefit the person doing the lying or fallacy. Fallacies aren’t as clear or direct that a person maybe lying especially when the fallacy helps persuade the other person to think or do something.

A fallacy is an error used mostly in advertisements and arguments to prove a point. Fallacies are both informal and formal. In most cases fallacies are bad examples when proving a point or when arguing on a specific side. Here are some the examples of fallacies from different advertisements:

For this ad the fallacy would be an appeal to authority. That is because the ad is using an Olympic athlete to show us that maybe drinking coke can make us an Olympic athlete. In reality tho we all know that she is just endorsing Coca Cola and drinking coke does not make you a better athlete, instead it can make an athlete worse.

I would say that this is another appeal to authority fallacy. The authority here is the doctor, and it states that more doctors smoke camel cigarettes than any other cigarette brand. We know that smoking is bad for our health, but the ad uses a doctor, who is suppose to keep us healthy, to show that their cigarette is supposed to be healthy. This ad is completely illogical.

This ad is an example of a non-sequitur because it is comparing to completely different things. This ad is comparing the shape of a women and a cigarette which are completely different things and are irrelevant to each other. This ad also seems to be targeting men because of the comparisons with the shape of a women. I think the ad is also offensive to women in many ways.

A body paragraph should consist of a topic sentence, a couple of supporting sentences, and a concluding sentence. The topic sentence is usually the main idea of the body paragraph. The reader should be able to tell what you paragraph is all about just based on the topic sentence. The supporting sentences can be examples or elaboration on the topic sentence. The body paragraph, when written as an essay is usually just about one topic from the introduction of an essay.

Dialogue method:

1. Whats your point?
2. I don’t get it
3. prove it
4. so what?

Rewrite using dialogue method: A body paragraph is a paragraph that is after an introduction and usually elaborates and emphasizes on one point of the introduction. It goes in depth and explains more thoroughly the idea of the point that is being stated. The body paragraph usually consists of a topic sentence which is usually the main topic being discussed, supporting sentences which are used to elaborate and support the topic sentence, and finally the concluding sentence which generalizes the main ideas being discussed. Without body paragraphs in any forms of writing the reader would not be able to fully understand what is trying to be conveyed. Body paragraphs are important to any piece of writing because they give the reader a more detailed perspective of the message or messages that you are trying to convince.

Quantitative Data Analysis

According to John Swales, author of The Concept of Discourse Community, a speech community is group of people that share linguistic rules, cultural concepts, and shared regulative rules. So therefore based on my research I fall into two different speech communities which are English and Bengali. I interact and switch between the two languages when it is appropriate. Sometimes I also mix the two languages together because, though I am fluent in Bengali a lot of the words do not come to me easily, so therefore I just say them in English, but it is still understandable to most native Bengali speakers. This also brings me to my next definition of multilingualism and code switching. Multilingualism is the term for using several languages and in my case the languages I use in my daily life are English and Bengali. According to Rosamina Lowi the process of code switching is when an individual switches his or her language or tone based on the situation or subject he or she is talking to. Also according to John Swales a discourse community, a group that one belongs to based on similar lifestyles or characteristics and Is usually influenced by persuasion and occupation. From my research I can say that I can be a part more than one discourse community. This data is important to me because it is showing me a glance at how I use some of the terms mentioned above without even knowing and it also gives me a good understanding of the unique language and tone that I speak.

All of the data was collected by just taking notes on how and who I spoke to. I used my cell phone to take note of all the languages I spoke and how I spoke them based on the situations. My data was recorded on two separate times, two weekdays and weekends. I broke the time periods up into 3-4 hours a block I was able to jot down the ways I spoke and whom I spoke to. For the most part I would say I was able to take the data down all the time but there were sometimes where I would forget to, and I would add it to the block. Here are brief descriptions of some of the languages and styles of languages that were used:

Bengali: Language used by people from Eastern India and Bangladesh and also the Bengali diaspora around the world.

Slang English: A type of informal English I use to talk to my friends and cousins. An example would be “Yo where you at?”.

Texting English: The English language and grammar that is used when texting. Example would “wbu” which means what about you.

Bengali and English: The use of both Bengali and English in one sentence or statement.

The graph above shows data of different languages used by me from October 7-8.

The graph above shows the different languages used by me from October 12 -13.

In conclusion based on my data, my use of languages really varied from weekends to weekdays. I anticipated these results because during the weekends I am usually at work and a lot of formal and semi-formal English is used. During the weekday, I use a lot of texting English and also slang and semi-formal English because I am away from work and more around family and friends. This data really helped me realize that code switching is something I do on a minute to minute basis. It also gave me a little understanding of what discourse communities I belong to, though I still believe this is too little of a sample to show what discourse community I am part of.

References:

1. Swales, J. (1990). The Concept of Discourse Community. Boston: Cambridge UP.
2. Lowi, R. (n.d.). Codeswitching: An Examination of Naturally Occurring Conversation. In (pp. 1393-1406). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press

According to John Swales, author of The Concept of Discourse Community, a speech community is group of people that share linguistic rules, cultural concepts, and shared regulative rules. So therefore based on my research I fall into two different speech communities which are English and Bengali. I interact and switch between the two languages when it is appropriate. Sometimes I also mix the two languages together because though I am fluent in Bengali a lot of the words do not come to me easily, so therefore I just say them in English, but it is still understandable. This also brings me to my next definition of multilingualism and code switching. Multilingualism is the term for using several languages and in my case the languages I use in my daily life are English and Bengali. According to Rosamina Lowi the process of code switching is when an individual switches his or her language or tone based on the situation or subject he or she is talking to. Also according to John Swales a discourse community, a group that one belongs to based on similar lifestyles or characteristics and Is usually influenced by persuasion and occupation. From my research I can say that I can be a part more than one discourse community This data is important to me because it is showing me a glance at how I use some of the terms mentioned above without even knowing.

All of the data was collected by just jotting down how and who I spoke to. I used my cell phone to take note of all the languages I spoke and how I spoke them based on the situations. My data was recorded on two separate times, two weekdays and weekends. I broke the time periods up into 3-4 hours a block I was able to jot down the ways I spoke and whom I spoke to. For the most part I would say I was able to take the data down all the time but there were sometimes where I would forget to, and I would add it to the block. Here are brief descriptions of some of the language types:

Bengali: Language used by people from Eastern India and Bangladesh and also the Bengali diaspora around the world.

Slang English: A type of informal English I use to talk to my friends and cousins. An example would be “Yo where you at”.

Texting English: The English language and grammar that is used when texting. Example would “wbu” which means what about you.

Bengali and English: The use of both Bengali and English in one sentence or statement.

In conclusion based on my data, my use of languages really varied from weekends to weekdays. I anticipated these results because during the weekends I am usually at work and a lot of formal and semi-formal English is used. During the weekday, I use a lot of texting English and also slang and semi-formal English because I am away from work and more around family and friends. This data really helped me realize that code switching is something I do on a minute to minute basis. It also gave me a little understanding of what discourse communities I belong to, though I still believe this is too little of a sample to show what discourse community I am part of.

Annotation for The Concept of Discourse Community — John Swales

Summary: In this article John Swales discusses the ideas of discourse communities and speech communities. He mentions the definitions of both speech communities and discourse communities and also conceptualization and examples of a discourse community. He mentions that a speech community is a group of people that share linguistic rules, cultural concepts, and shared regulative rules. So therefore a speech community can be the English speaking people of the world. He notes that being part of the speech community is usually done by birth or when you learn the language of the community. A discourse community is something that can change and to be part of a discourse community you must be accepted by the group and is made by persuasion, occupation, etc. He also gives six different points that make up and describe a discourse community. These points are having the same goals, mechanisms of intercommunication between members, using mechanisms to provide feedback, utilizing one or more genre in communication,  acquiring some lexis, and having a level of members with relevant content and expertise. He also gives an example of a discourse community that he is part of, which is Hong Kong Study Circle. He points out the groups interest which is studying the usage of stamps in Hong Kong. So even though the group has many members from different countries they all have one interest and that is the interest in stamps prints and usage.

Evaluation: John Swales did a great job of clearly distinguishing between a speech community and discourse community. Being part of a speech community is basically being able to speak the language of the community. To be part of a discourse community, one must have the same interests and they must also have the certain qualifications of the discourse community. The mechanisms of speaking to members of the discourse community stood out to me because with that point he also brings in the idea of tone. I believe tone is something that really distinguishes discourse communities because even if the language is the same the way you interpret and communicate is very important to the community. Giving an example of what he thinks a discourse community also was a great way to explain his idea of the discourse community and the difference between a speech and discourse community.

“I Am Articulate“
by Jamila Lysicott

Summary: In this poem, the author mentions that she has three different ways of speaking and how they all make her articulate. She has a way of speaking in school, with her family, and with her friends. She talks about English as being multi faceted and having many different tones. She notes that even when Americans speak “articulate English” they sound foolish to the British. She notes that being able to have 3 different tones of the same language shouldn’t be something that is looked down on but should be a celebration. She is trying to tell us that being articulate doesn’t mean speaking “proper English” but it is about being able to interpret different tones and languages. She is articulate in her own way because she is able to converse with more groups of people.

Evaluation: I think that she has a really good point with mentioning the different ways someone can be articulate. She notes that there are three different languages that she speaks and it should be looked at as a celebration. Whether we speak hood or formal that does not determine how proper or formal we are. It depends on the location and time of things, when talking to friends we will speak in a informal tone and when speaking in a professional manner we speak formal.

Codeswitching: An Examination of Naturally Occurring Conversation — Rosamina Lowi

Summary: In this article the author talks about a process called “code switching”. This process is the way of switching languages and tones when communicating with different people. She also looks at the tone as a significant way of expressing thoughts. The way in which somebody speaks a language is important in conveying the message. She interviewed many different individuals who are bilingual and frequently used the code switching technique in their lives. Some individuals pointed out that it was beneficial to know different languages because it was used for different purposes. From the data there was a lot of mixed data.

Evaluation: This data has a lot to do with my own data because I do speak two different languages. As one of the individuals pointed out speaking a different language is beneficial because it is used in different purposes of communication. Tone is also an important aspect when speaking because it presents the informal or formailty of a conversation.

Data collection for October 12, 12 p.m. to October 13, 12 p.m:

12 pm to 4 pm:

• Texted my cousin in semi formal Bengali about random things
• Spoke to my dad over the phone in a semi formal Bengali and English
• Told my mom I was buying lunch from outside
• Ordered my food with the people in the restaurant in a formal manner
• Texted my friends in slang English about fantasy football
• Texted my mom that I was leaving to go to college

5 pm to 8 pm:

• Spoke to my friends about the readings we had to do for the class
• Spoke to other classmates about the exam we had the class before
• Texted my brother right before class about random issues

8 pm to 11 pm

• Came home and spoke to my cousin about random things
• Talked to my dad over the phone about random issues
• Ate dinner with my family and spoke in semi formal English
• Spoke to my cousins and brother in semi formal English
• Texted friends about random things going on

11 pm to 8 am

• Sleep

8 am to 12 pm

• Ate breakfast and told my mom I was going to college
• Spoke to my group about starting our project
• Texted my friends and cousins about random things

Some of the challenges I faced while logging my own language is actually forgetting to log right at the moment I was talking. I was actually talking a lot and I was busy at work so I would forget to log my dialogue. Some things that surprised me was actually noticing they way I changed my language so quickly  at different times of the day. I was also surprised at the way I was hearing myself talk to different people and I noticed that speaking semi informal is something I do a lot.

Summary: Gee talks about the term language and how it is not just grammar and the dialect but also the way one speaks the language is just as important. The author later introduces us to a term called Discourses. He says that discourses are how one uses language of thinking and acting to be accepted or be part of a group or network. Discourse is something that is not taught to somebody but is in a way made inside of you. It is made based on the people you interact with, where you grow up, and just a certain lifestyle that you like to follow.

Evaluation: I think Gee’s definition and idea of Discourse is very interesting. I agree with most of Gee’s claims that Discourse is a thing that is sort of shaped into you based on your lifestyle. One thing I do not agree with is when he states that learning two discourses helps with the primary discourse just like speaking two languages. I speak two languages and i believe that if, I or other people who are bi- lingual,  only spoke English, that my English vocabulary would be much better.