Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Discourse Posting:
When I was in high school I was apart of the swim team. Outside of practice most
people didn't understand what the swimmers conversations were about. My teammates
and I would talk about things we had done in practice such as fireballs, dolphin kicks, fin
drills, and others. Fireballs, commonly thought of as the whiskey brand, wasn't a widely
known workout outside of my swimming community. Fin drills were an easier term to
decode. Swimmers would put on fins our feet, and swim the length of the pool six to
eight times. During that particular drill you weren't allowed to come up for breath for that
length of the pool. If you did come up for breath, you would have to put on the parachute.
Essentially a tool designed to create drag and make swimming harder on your body. It
was always fun talking swimming in class while the rest of the students were clueless as
to what the discussion was really about.
Another instance of a discourse community I was apart of was my group of
friends in high school. We always had certain words that we would use out of context and
wouldnt make sense to anyone besides us. The terms bitty, quasi, and a few others were
widely used by my friends and I. At the time those words were fun to use, but looking
back now I realize how ridiculous these words made us sound. Still its interesting to see
the things people say and do inside their own circle of friends.
Response:
This was one of my favorite responses because I was able to reflect upon my time
swimming. I was unable to swim my senior year of high school because of an injury so
getting to reflect on the vocabulary, swim meets, and practices was pleasant. In writing
this post I was also able to see this isnt what I wanted to write my essay on. I am no
longer apart of the community so it wouldnt have been convenient to research this topic.
Also it helped me understand how to elaborate on different aspects of a discourse.
Ultimately I chose Paleo as my discourse because I felt it was something I am more
passionate about.
Rodriguez Analysis:
Message of the story: Language affects your life; Your language is a part of what
intimately bonds you with your family and friends.
Intended Audience: Immigrants. Those who are not in favor of bilingual language
system. Those who are in favor of bilingual language system (to challenge what he thinks
are flaws in their beliefs)
Ethos: Richard displays credibility based on his experience in public schools and cites at
one point only knowing around 50 English words. Knowledge about the difficulty of
learning a second language establishes credibility. As a reader I want to automatically
trust Richard because his account was of him as a child. People tend to trust children
because they are more innocent compared to the world around them.
Logos: Richard's personal experience confirms his reasoning against bilingual schooling
because he did not succeed when using his own language in school rather than the "public
one." Learning from a different language than other students creates a barrier between
Richard and other students because he can't communicate effectively with them.
Pathos: When Richard writes about feeling unsettled hearing his parents struggle with
English it makes readers heartache for him. He talks about his trust in his parents power
person or oneself. When writing a daily journal, reflective writing is used. I could write
about my day, my friends, or even my dog. I am able to express personal emotion in these
topics and that is what makes it reflective. It also includes writing that is reflective upon
someone elses writing. It is used to create an opinion of someones work in a literary
perspective.
Many times throughout high school I was asked to reflect on a story or novel that
the class had been asked to read. One of the stories was Beowulf. The story was about a
hero that had overcome impossible battles. We were asked to reflect on the story and give
ideas different ending and how certain event affected our judgments of the
story. Beowulf was a remarkable character that lived a heroic life all the way to his
death. He death was even heroic which gained the most respect form me.
Although reflective writing is not my favorite style it is important because it is a way for
me to give my opinion on how another person writing affected me. Reflective writing is a
good way to let writers express constructive emotion. It helps me by letting me process
certain thoughts and emotion I felt throughout a piece and understanding the authors
purpose with evoking those emotion.
Response:
I found this topic particularly important because I had to reflect on my writings
throughout this past semester. I have significantly grown as a writer and made major
improvements to my papers because of this class. The page counts were high compared
what I was used to, but after learning how to analyze and elaborate on my topic my
papers started flowing. I believe my past experience in English prepared me to grow and
learn more than most in this class.