When I spoke to Diane I already had a good idea about where I wanted to take my research. Misconceptions and stereotypes was a recurring topics and to make sure my perspective on the topic wasn't bias I asked her about the stereotypes she saw while working with low-income families. She said that most of the stereotypes are not true, such as most of these families are immigrants, lazy, these families are having a negative impact on the rest of the community or that if these families can't afford children they shouldn't be having anymore. She also said that these families have experienced certain obstacles such as abuse, addictions, emloyment loss and even if other people who are not low-income have experienced these things as well its important to realize that some can persevere through it fine while others cannot for whatever reason. I also like how she mentioned that people in general are more similar than different and all desire the same things for their families. So why do we put down people who are just trying to do the same thing others are doing and create a good future for their kids? She said that most income-families are uneducated and probably have a high school diploma or less. Part of her job was to educate them on life skills and the best way to take care of their babies.
So this helped me out a lot with my research. I wanted to make sure that I wasn't arguing against these stereotypes if they actually did have some truth to them. I started to think that it would be good to include reasons why the rest of the community should take part in this issue. Judging others is only hurting the community. Not just on a humane level but also from an economic standpoint. Diane said people are usually afraid to help because of misunderstanding or low-self esteem. My website would aim to enlighten those who don't understand the life of low-income familiy and that helping them can be as simple as a change in attitude.
The more I research, the more questions I have and many of these questions can't be answered by the research I'm doing. Sometimes its just hard to understand why we treat each other the way we do.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Friday, March 25, 2011
Unit 2-Final
http://communitystereotypes-lowincome.weebly.com/
My thinking about rhetorical choice has changed quite a bit since the beginning of this unit mainly because I didn’t realize all the details that need to be considered. I wanted to come across as professional and wee researched in my website because it was important that my audience take me seriously as they would probably be more reluctant to hear my information. To do this right I had to consider things such as the visual aspects of my website, staying aware of my audience and the basic conversation surrounding my topic.
The hardest part about this project was probably choosing a research question. I realized just how broad discourse analysis can be. I had to narrow my research to what, why and whom my research would consider. Keeping my research broad would just be really overwhelming. I decided to look closely at what was most important to me concerning low-income families. Narrowing down my topic was really helpful while I was researching but it also made it kind of difficult as well. It made research easier because while I was being bombarded with information off the internet I could sift through and choose what was useful to me. It kind of made things hard though because finding information that directly related to my topic could be difficult. I had to use several keyword searches before I found anything useful but while doing this I realized that not everything has to be used from a source and I don’t even have to completely agree with it either. Finding an article and just picking out what related to my topic was a lot more useful than trying to find an article that completely or almost completely agree with what I was trying to prove. The research I did with this project will definitely help me in future projects throughout college.
At the beginning of the semester I mentioned wanting to get better at using my sources by conversing with them rather than having them answer all the questions. I payed a lot of attention to this while creating my website. For me to sound educated on the topic was to have my own opinion about it meaning I couldn’t have someone else (my sources) saying everything for me. Using them to back up my claim instead of create it would be more beneficial in building up my credibility. This is probably one of my favorite parts of writing. Im glad to have the chance to create my own opinion with research from experts and would hate for my writing to be a simple repetition of what someone else said.
I can honestly say that writing on the internet makes me kind of nervous especially with an audience that would probably be reluctant to what I have to say. I realized how big my audience could possibly be. In my first audience proposal I remember feeling like my audience would listen more to a friendly tone but Tiana told me that I should be assertive so they were aware of the need for change. After a while I started to agree with her and the tone I used in my website was naturally more assertive than I thought it would be.
My writing in this project seemed more relevant and therefore caused me to reconsider my audience many times while I was making the website. These tools can be applied after I’m done with college in a real career setting. Writing just for the teacher or just for the rest of the class makes a lot of writers like myself overlook all the details that should go into writing like the perspective of the author and the audience and how sources are used to back up a claim rather than repeat one. I’m glad I had the opportunity to create a website so that next time I will be more aware of the side I’m taking and the side that my audience it coming from.
My thinking about rhetorical choice has changed quite a bit since the beginning of this unit mainly because I didn’t realize all the details that need to be considered. I wanted to come across as professional and wee researched in my website because it was important that my audience take me seriously as they would probably be more reluctant to hear my information. To do this right I had to consider things such as the visual aspects of my website, staying aware of my audience and the basic conversation surrounding my topic.
The hardest part about this project was probably choosing a research question. I realized just how broad discourse analysis can be. I had to narrow my research to what, why and whom my research would consider. Keeping my research broad would just be really overwhelming. I decided to look closely at what was most important to me concerning low-income families. Narrowing down my topic was really helpful while I was researching but it also made it kind of difficult as well. It made research easier because while I was being bombarded with information off the internet I could sift through and choose what was useful to me. It kind of made things hard though because finding information that directly related to my topic could be difficult. I had to use several keyword searches before I found anything useful but while doing this I realized that not everything has to be used from a source and I don’t even have to completely agree with it either. Finding an article and just picking out what related to my topic was a lot more useful than trying to find an article that completely or almost completely agree with what I was trying to prove. The research I did with this project will definitely help me in future projects throughout college.
At the beginning of the semester I mentioned wanting to get better at using my sources by conversing with them rather than having them answer all the questions. I payed a lot of attention to this while creating my website. For me to sound educated on the topic was to have my own opinion about it meaning I couldn’t have someone else (my sources) saying everything for me. Using them to back up my claim instead of create it would be more beneficial in building up my credibility. This is probably one of my favorite parts of writing. Im glad to have the chance to create my own opinion with research from experts and would hate for my writing to be a simple repetition of what someone else said.
I can honestly say that writing on the internet makes me kind of nervous especially with an audience that would probably be reluctant to what I have to say. I realized how big my audience could possibly be. In my first audience proposal I remember feeling like my audience would listen more to a friendly tone but Tiana told me that I should be assertive so they were aware of the need for change. After a while I started to agree with her and the tone I used in my website was naturally more assertive than I thought it would be.
My writing in this project seemed more relevant and therefore caused me to reconsider my audience many times while I was making the website. These tools can be applied after I’m done with college in a real career setting. Writing just for the teacher or just for the rest of the class makes a lot of writers like myself overlook all the details that should go into writing like the perspective of the author and the audience and how sources are used to back up a claim rather than repeat one. I’m glad I had the opportunity to create a website so that next time I will be more aware of the side I’m taking and the side that my audience it coming from.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Helping those in poverty for our communities children-Annotated bibliography
Rowley, J. Stephanie. Kurtz-Costes, Beth. Woods, A. Taniesha. “The Development of Stereotypes About the Rich and Poor: Age, Race, and Family Income Differences in Beliefs.” Journal of Youth and Adolescence (2005): pp. 437-445. Web. 18 March 2011.
This article describes the many stereotypes that follow low-income citizens concerning social policy, school, sports, etc. Research show that negative stereotypes have a negative impact on the group of people being stereotyped. So are low-income people lazy and apathetic or has society told them that so much that now they believe and act that way?
This article stresses how negative stereotypes have a strong affect on children and adolescents. Since low-income citizens are already viewed as ignorant and lazy then their children will most likely be seen that way also. Students and children are already taught to look down on other children of a lower class. This will eventually effect the way a child sees themselves and can cause a chain of cognitive development issues. Children as young as five years old are able to catch on to the widely held belief that upper class people are more respected and competent.
I really like what this article says because it goes along with what I’m trying to prove to other members of the community who have never experienced financial hardship, it states “Most middle and upper class individuals have never experience severe and enduring financial hardship, and therefore are unsympathetic to the plight of indigent people.” I think its important for the rest of the community to see how these stereotypes have a negative impact on out children because they grow up thinking they will amount to no more than living in poverty without the possibility of an education. In order to make this society equal and productive people of all class should help those in financial hardship because productive citizens aren’t those who have grown up thinking they won’t succeed.
This article describes the many stereotypes that follow low-income citizens concerning social policy, school, sports, etc. Research show that negative stereotypes have a negative impact on the group of people being stereotyped. So are low-income people lazy and apathetic or has society told them that so much that now they believe and act that way?
This article stresses how negative stereotypes have a strong affect on children and adolescents. Since low-income citizens are already viewed as ignorant and lazy then their children will most likely be seen that way also. Students and children are already taught to look down on other children of a lower class. This will eventually effect the way a child sees themselves and can cause a chain of cognitive development issues. Children as young as five years old are able to catch on to the widely held belief that upper class people are more respected and competent.
I really like what this article says because it goes along with what I’m trying to prove to other members of the community who have never experienced financial hardship, it states “Most middle and upper class individuals have never experience severe and enduring financial hardship, and therefore are unsympathetic to the plight of indigent people.” I think its important for the rest of the community to see how these stereotypes have a negative impact on out children because they grow up thinking they will amount to no more than living in poverty without the possibility of an education. In order to make this society equal and productive people of all class should help those in financial hardship because productive citizens aren’t those who have grown up thinking they won’t succeed.
Mixed-income communities to teach uproductive citizens?- Annotated bibiliography
Dumalo, Kassie. McDade, Zach. Levy, K. Diane. “Effects from Living in Mixed-Income Communities for Low-Income Families: A Review of the Literature.” Urban Institute (2010): pg. 1-37. Web. 18 March 2011.
This article is about the various factors that are necessary to consider when creating a mixed-income environment. They bring up some questions I had never thought of when researching this project such as What is community? and What is the definition of a mixed-income environment? The article also points out some things to consider like how big the income gap should be allowed to be in a mixed-income environment and an equal amount of low-income, middle income and high income households living in the same designated area. According to this article the middle class would be a good way to close the gap between low-income and high-income households.
When explaining the benefits of a mixed-income environment I kind of got the sense, and maybe I’m reading it wrong, that the highest of the income ladder are “better” than low-income families, “Mixed-income environments are believed to: improve social control, where the presence of higher-income people leads to higher levels of accountability to established norms and rules followed by increased order and safety; offer behavioral effects in which higher-income residents model alternate lifestyles and norms, which in turn promote behavioral change and increased self-efficacy among low-income residents”. It reminds me of the video I saw of them men in New Orleans who were saying that low-income families don’t want to move to suburban neighborhoods because then they would have to actually follow rules and take care of things. Maybe that example is a little extreme to what this article is saying but it does, to some extent, believe in the idea that low-income families don’t like to follow the rules everyone else in the community usually does and that they are unproductive citizens. It makes me wonder if this thought is merely a misconception or has been proven before.
This article is about the various factors that are necessary to consider when creating a mixed-income environment. They bring up some questions I had never thought of when researching this project such as What is community? and What is the definition of a mixed-income environment? The article also points out some things to consider like how big the income gap should be allowed to be in a mixed-income environment and an equal amount of low-income, middle income and high income households living in the same designated area. According to this article the middle class would be a good way to close the gap between low-income and high-income households.
When explaining the benefits of a mixed-income environment I kind of got the sense, and maybe I’m reading it wrong, that the highest of the income ladder are “better” than low-income families, “Mixed-income environments are believed to: improve social control, where the presence of higher-income people leads to higher levels of accountability to established norms and rules followed by increased order and safety; offer behavioral effects in which higher-income residents model alternate lifestyles and norms, which in turn promote behavioral change and increased self-efficacy among low-income residents”. It reminds me of the video I saw of them men in New Orleans who were saying that low-income families don’t want to move to suburban neighborhoods because then they would have to actually follow rules and take care of things. Maybe that example is a little extreme to what this article is saying but it does, to some extent, believe in the idea that low-income families don’t like to follow the rules everyone else in the community usually does and that they are unproductive citizens. It makes me wonder if this thought is merely a misconception or has been proven before.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Website/Audience Proposal
1) The audience of my website will probably be those people in the community that believe poverty is something only the poor should have to deal with. They may not have ever seen a poor neighborhood before or been to the poor side of town. It might include people who stereotype low-income families. I believe that education is usually the answer to ignorance and my website’s purpose will be to try and educate those who may not understand why poverty is a community problem and why the stereotypes are not usually true. My audience will probably be well-off financially and may even have some form of higher education. I’m thinking of the typical suburban community member that has never really seen anything beyond their suburban neighborhood. In a way, my website will aim to unite two very divided communities into one.
2) One of the purposes of my website is to provide background information because I thing part of the problem is that my audience isn’t very informed on the daily lives of low-income families. A large part of my research will involve explaining the hardships of low-income families. I’ll try to contradict some of the stereotypes with facts and if maybe the generalizations are true to some degree, I will mention why and how others should help.
3) If my readers already have some sort of negative attitude or misconception toward low-income families then they might be resistant toward what I have to say. I could probably keep their interest by mentioning how fixing a community problem like poverty would benefit them in the long run. Another chunk of my research will be dedicated to providing information on why my audience should care in the first place. To seem credible from the start I will have to create an official and professional looking website just so they don’t take it as a joke and all of my information should be supported by facts.
4) Well the misconceptions of living low-income are a big deal. Many people seem to believe that people living in poverty are lazy, don’t work and just wasn’t to take advantage of the government. These stereotypes seem to be aimed more toward minority groups also. It’s interesting because some the articles I read don’t outright say that low-income families fall into certain stereotypes, they might not be just the ones I mention earlier, but the information they are giving me seems to assume that families already have these characteristics. Every low-income family is low-income for a different reason. I realize it will be a challenge to narrow down my research without generalizing especially when I want to discourage it.
5) In order to keep the attention of my audience I can’t blame them. I don’t want them to feel attacked and put a stereotype on them when I’m discouraging them from doing the same thing. At the same time though I will need to be assertive so they understand the need for change. A very important aspect of keeping their attention will have to include providing enough proof for why they should care. I can’t just use “you should care because it’s the right thing to do”. Somehow my information will have to lead them to believe that helping low-income families will eventually help them as well.
6) Low-income families are in that situation for many different reasons that probably don’t fall into the usual stereotypes many people place on them and programs such as Baby Steps provide a lot of information to help those in need. It is a community wide problem, which is why more the community should pay attention to this situation.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
The effects of poverty on a developing infant-Discourse analysis
“The Effects of Poverty on Infant’s Development.” Livestrong.com, July. Web. 18 Februrary 2011.
I just read an article on the Livestrong website that takes a very general look at how poverty affects and infant’s development. To find the bias in this article I think it might be important to look at what the website in general supports. The website seems to promote health and fitness for children and adults. It includes topics such as, eating healthy, ways to stay fit, how to keep track of dieting and fitness. It also includes a section on how to stay connected with the community and explains more about the Lance Armstrong Foundation. I believe the information on this website to be honest because it is based on the Lance Armstrong Foundation and because it seems to “genuinely care”, if you know what I mean. I don’t believe any kind of website that has raised so much money for cancer research would pull information out of no-good sources and wants a healthier community. The author, Lily Medina, has had some background in education, health, fitness, writing and parenting. I think that the information in her article might be partial to information that readers could find on the rest of the website. Not that this was intentional but it covers a lot of the same information found in other article headlines that are listed to the right of the page I was reading. Medina’s article may have been chosen because it correlated so well with what the website is trying to promote and also because it would keep a reader browsing longer if they realized related information was found just a few clicks away. The website is also covered with advertisements so the information would have to appeal to the companies that are sponsoring it.
I noticed that much of what Medina says leads back to mentioning how the parents are responsible for their baby’s development which makes sense since a baby is very vulnerable and relies entirely on its parents. She doesn’t say that it’s necessarily the parents fault but she mentions a lot of the stereotypes I find while researching this topic. She states that delayed infants in low income families are at greater risk of experiencing injury and illness because of accidents, abuse or neglect. These factors, according to Medina, are caused by stress, physical labor and drug and alcohol abuse. She also says that lower intelligence might be affected by the absence of the father, a mother’s depression or uneducated parents. I understand the reasons behind these stereotypes and research seems to support them but this aspect of the article stood out to me. I believe she probably mentions a parent’s role in this article because she is a mother herself so good parenting would be important to her. Medina also pulled out certain key words such as, malnutrition and mental health, to define and explain exactly why these words are important to a baby’s health. Her background in health and education probably played a role in deciding to focus on these words.
In general this article did not openly try to persuade and gave very general information about the topic. It does bring up some good topics though that would be useful to pinpoint and research further. Plus, it is in a place where other closely related articles can be found.
I just read an article on the Livestrong website that takes a very general look at how poverty affects and infant’s development. To find the bias in this article I think it might be important to look at what the website in general supports. The website seems to promote health and fitness for children and adults. It includes topics such as, eating healthy, ways to stay fit, how to keep track of dieting and fitness. It also includes a section on how to stay connected with the community and explains more about the Lance Armstrong Foundation. I believe the information on this website to be honest because it is based on the Lance Armstrong Foundation and because it seems to “genuinely care”, if you know what I mean. I don’t believe any kind of website that has raised so much money for cancer research would pull information out of no-good sources and wants a healthier community. The author, Lily Medina, has had some background in education, health, fitness, writing and parenting. I think that the information in her article might be partial to information that readers could find on the rest of the website. Not that this was intentional but it covers a lot of the same information found in other article headlines that are listed to the right of the page I was reading. Medina’s article may have been chosen because it correlated so well with what the website is trying to promote and also because it would keep a reader browsing longer if they realized related information was found just a few clicks away. The website is also covered with advertisements so the information would have to appeal to the companies that are sponsoring it.
I noticed that much of what Medina says leads back to mentioning how the parents are responsible for their baby’s development which makes sense since a baby is very vulnerable and relies entirely on its parents. She doesn’t say that it’s necessarily the parents fault but she mentions a lot of the stereotypes I find while researching this topic. She states that delayed infants in low income families are at greater risk of experiencing injury and illness because of accidents, abuse or neglect. These factors, according to Medina, are caused by stress, physical labor and drug and alcohol abuse. She also says that lower intelligence might be affected by the absence of the father, a mother’s depression or uneducated parents. I understand the reasons behind these stereotypes and research seems to support them but this aspect of the article stood out to me. I believe she probably mentions a parent’s role in this article because she is a mother herself so good parenting would be important to her. Medina also pulled out certain key words such as, malnutrition and mental health, to define and explain exactly why these words are important to a baby’s health. Her background in health and education probably played a role in deciding to focus on these words.
In general this article did not openly try to persuade and gave very general information about the topic. It does bring up some good topics though that would be useful to pinpoint and research further. Plus, it is in a place where other closely related articles can be found.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Poverty Misconceptions-Annotated Bibliography
Lalasz, Robert. “Full-Time Work No Guarantee of Livelihood for Many U.S. Families”. Population Reference Bureau. Web. 4 Mar. 2011.
In his article Lalasz uncovers some of the facts and myths surrounding low income families. The Public Reference Bureau is working with a program called Working Poor Families Project. It is a fairly new national program that helps take care of the needs of working adults and determines whether individual states policies made to aid those adults are necessary and effective. PRB has gathered this information in working with this program. These facts might surprise most people as Lalasz says that “More than 25 percent of U.S. working families-9.2 million households with 39 million people-earn such low income that they are struggling financially.” It makes stereotypes such as these: that the poor “don’t work, that they aren’t married, and that they are overwhelmingly minorities or immigrants,” seem rather small and ridiculous simply because it’s clear poverty is affecting more than just a small percentage of this nation. PRB has found these statistics to help exploit these types of misconceptions with these facts: “71% of low-income families work, 72% of low-income working families have American-born parents only, and 47% have white, non-Hispanic parents only, 53% of low-income working families are headed by a married couple.” With over 25% of the U.S. population struggling financially I think it’s safe to say that poverty is a community problem rather than a problem for “those people who live on that side of town.” Stereotypes are words that get thrown around when people want to blame others and don’t want to put in the time or effort to help fix a community wide problem.
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