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.
Child development in a low-income family-Extended bibliography
The article “Factors Affecting Toddler Cognitive Development in Low-Income Families” describes a study done with 84 low-income mothers and their toddlers. The study revolved around three basic ideas that have been found to affect early child cognitive development in related research. These three factors were that level of maternal knowledge, maternal stress and maternal supportiveness during mother-child interactions. The results of this study were used to stress what factors should be focused on in intervention programs with low-income families. There was a correlation between low cognitive scores in two of the three areas. Maternal depression, surprisingly, had no affect on cognitive scores at either age.
In the results of this experiment they mentioned a possible bias when comparing scores of cognitive development and maternal depression. The mothers and their baby’s were only video taped for twenty minutes and I believe that signs of incompetent mother-child interactions are subject to judgment. The conductors were very surprised by this result because they strongly believed the every day struggles of raising a child in a low-income family would cause a great deal of stress which would most likely lead to depression.
The Baby Steps agency deals directly with many of the issues suggested in this experiment. They offer many education opportunities to teach mothers life skills and ways to improve the birth and development of their baby. I believe these types of programs are necessary to help mothers learn how to handle situations that are difficult and sometimes out of their hands. I think that teaching mothers how to deal with the stress of going to work, possibly living paycheck to paycheck, and raising a family is one of the most important things a program like Baby Steps can teach.
I only disagreed with the experiment in the fact that they didn’t find a correlation between maternal depression and cognitive scores. Nurturing is a necessary part of a baby’s development and it would be hard for a mother to tend to his/her needs if she is sick herself. They did mention that they were not ready to say depression and cognitive scores were unrelated since a lot of previous research has shown otherwise.
Helping low-income women work-Extended bibliography
“Helping Women to be able to work.” http://views.washingtonpost.com. Avis Thomas-Lester, September 27, 2010. Web. Feb. 2011
In the article “Helping Women to be able to work” Avis Thomas describes a report released by the Women’s Economic Security Campaign (WESC) in September or last year. He says this report was to draw attention to the fact that low-income women cannot afford quality and reliable child care. With this problem at hand, low income women have a low chance of finding a good job and keeping it because of their fluctuating work schedules. They argue that this problem would eventually come around to affect businesses as well since “Disruptions in child care for working parents cost U.S. businesses approximately $3 billion each year.” Low income families also typically lack the resources necessary to the development of young children including books, music and other brain-stimulating
materials.
materials.
This article expressed the need for help and attention when it comes to low-income mothers and their children. Thomas recognizes that these parents might not always be able to obtain the resources or the knowledge of raising a child and that it usually isn’t their fault. Thomas explains that parents will most likely take care of their children before worrying about work so if businesses don’t want to feel this pressure then something needs to be done so that child care for low-income families is affordable. This article seems to lean more toward single, low income mothers rather than families, which might include a father.
This article is expressing the need for programs such as Baby Steps. Baby Steps offers free child care given by graduates of the program. This allows parents to receive the kind of education they need to raise a healthy child without having to chase their kids around the whole time. The issue of low income mothers and reliable child care seems to be a nationwide problem that is quickly grabbing the attention of many people. I believe that it is important for researchers to point out to businesses that the affects of low income mothers without child care will come back around and cost them a lot of money. Unfortunately, that’s usually what it takes for people to start paying more
attention.
attention.
Low-income families and depression-Extended Bibliography
Chavis, Selena. “Lower Access to Care for Low-Income Mothers with Depression.” Psych
Central September 2 2010. Web. 6 Feb. 2011.
Central September 2 2010. Web. 6 Feb. 2011.
The Urban Institute did a study that revealed a scary statistic: “more than half of infants living in poverty are being raised by mothers suffering from depression (Chavis).” Low-income parents usually don’t have insurance to cover the cost of mental health treatment. This article explains that mental health services should be offered for mothers who cannot afford it since they are most likely already receiving WIC or food stamps. Problems with depression do not only affect low income parents in fact “Findings revealed that 41 percent of mother across all age and income brackets reported some symptoms of depression, and 7 percent reported severe symptoms.”
This article was not only looking at low income mothers with depression but they were the main concern. Mothers who suffer from depression but receive more than low income wages have more of an opportunity to obtain treatment. The results from this study were very alarming and public
health services are aiming to find more help for low income mothers with depression.
health services are aiming to find more help for low income mothers with depression.
During my orientation for Baby Steps, Diane, who is the coordinator of the program, mentioned a lot of different issues low income mothers face. She mentioned drug abuse, missing doctor’s appointments, and unreliable health care. The classes offered are not only to help a mother raise a healthy baby but also to help her stay healthy as well. I wondered at the time if the mothers participating in Baby Steps were ever tested for depression or other psychological illnesses because even after they graduate from the program mental illness will be a persisting problem that could get in the way of them advancing toward living successfully on their own. I would like to know more about the affects of depression and stress on a developing child and how those things make programs
such as Baby Steps more necessary.
such as Baby Steps more necessary.
Unit 1 Final
February 14, 2011
I was lucky enough to have an English professor my first semester of college that completely changed my perspective on writing. This class allowed me to have more confidence in my writing and also taught me that writing can be used as a tool to explore ideas and make a difference in the world. I can still improve my writing in many ways but I believe I came into English 102 with the beginning of a strong foundation in academic writing. I have been introduced to some of the skills necessary to be a successful academic writer. These skills might include such things as using a reading as a lens to examine the general cause of an important issue, being conversant with my sources, and finding my role in the conversation. This semester I plan to practice and improve these skills because I believe they are the most important aspects of academic writing.
English 102 is a chance to use the rhetorical features of academic writing I learned last semester by participating in service learning and posting my work on a blog. With the help of service-learning I can join a very real conversation on a topic that is prevalent in the community. In “Service-Learning and First-Year Composition” Haussamen states, “Service learning is not primarily social assistance; it is a pedagogy, one that addresses not only the issue of how best to learn but also the question of the best purposes of learning;” the idea of joining a legit and intelligent conversation has made writing for school more relevant to my learning and life in general (Haussamen,414). Posting my writing on a blog will force me to consider my audience and what I say more carefully. It will also be the most useful way to put my writing out in the middle of an ongoing conversation since so many people post their ideas on the internet as well. Service-learning, researching, and blogging is about finding a “middle ground between developing an idea that is entirely independent of what experts have written on a subject and producing a paper that does nothing but repeat other people’s ideas” to
propose the problems and solutions I see in real life situations (Rossenswasser,216).
propose the problems and solutions I see in real life situations (Rossenswasser,216).
A good writer must also be a good reader. This doesn’t always mean simply reading an actual text but reading the environment surrounding them. I know a big part of my research will involve reading articles and periodicals of what experts have said about low income mothers and their baby’s health but through service-learning I will also read the environment of the Baby Steps agency and actually see mothers that struggle with finances and raising a child first hand. In order to use reading as a lens then I must first realize that the mothers at Baby Steps are a small portion of a bigger problem. In my research they represent many mothers across Idaho, or even on a much bigger scale, the United States, but that would require much more research than can be done in a semester. The periodicals I read will help me learn just how big this problem really is. There are two steps in using my reading as a lens to get to the roots of this community dilemma. First, I must literally look at the things the reading is trying to say and second, defamiliarize myself with the reading meaning, I need to allow myself the opportunity to see things differently (Rossenwasswer,213). By applying my research to different situations I can pull what I want out of any article or Baby Steps session that I attend. For example, in my research I might decide to focus on how the stress of living in a low-income family affects the development of a child under a year old rather than how agency’s such as Baby Steps help mothers get back on their feet financially. Allowing myself view things from different angles also teaches me to get rid of any bias that I might have toward the issue.
Academic writing is about joining a conversation with some of the most informed and well researched people of a certain genre. Writing on a blog can be tricky for this very reason. Every time I think about blogging, not just nonsense but, actual informed facts and ideas, I think of the millions of people who have the chance of reading what I write. It’s daunting to realize that my audience has just expanded from my teacher and my peers to an infinite number of bloggers and researchers; some are experts and some most certainly are not. It’s the experts on the issue that make blogging intimidating because nobody wants to look like an idiot on the internet. Someone could just tear apart every piece of information I just researched to ask me a million questions that I will have to back-up with reasonable thoughts and facts. This is why it’s important to make sure I am conversant with my sources. I need to find the “middle ground” that I mentioned earlier because “typically, inexperienced writers either use sources as answers-they let the sources do too much of their thinking-or ignore them altogether as a way of avoiding losing their own ideas (Rossenwasser, 216).” If I use other experts to prove that my ideas are reasonable and not just grabbed out of thin air then it makes my claims seem more educated. I will also have the resources to look back on should someone try to contradict what I say. Through that middle ground I can begin to create my own space in the conversation and perhaps, depending on the genre, might even become an expert myself.
There are specific tools that I can use to help make academic writing easier for me. A lot of time I find that it is difficult to find my place in a conversation when I feel like one of my sources has said everything I want to say, I seem to struggle the most in this area. Two tools that I believe would work well in helping me with this problem can be found in “Writing Analytically”, a very helpful book on writing academically. Rossenwasser mentions “reading with and against the grain” and “uncovering the assumptions in a reading-where the piece is coming from” (205). Using this information I can get a more objective view on the source by finding “what else it believes that is more fundamental than what it is overtly declaring” (Rossenwasser, 209). It would also be important to view the source and what they write as two independent things. I agree with Rossenwasser when he says “written works…are produced by authors but not ultimately controlled by them” (210). If I could just step back and see what the author is communicating without realizing it then it would be easier to uncover something I don’t necessarily agree with. I can sift through the information this way and place myself right in the middle.
The whole idea of using writing as a way to find my place role in a conversation brings a more relevant feel to English and school too. Too many times people who attend college don’t understand why required courses such as English are necessary but I’ve learned that it’s a very good communicative tool that will be necessary should I ever feel the need to state my stance on an issue which will more than likely happen sometime during my career after college. Last semester I feel that I learned the basic rhetorical features of academic writing and even had the chance to try it out a little bit. No doubt, this semester I am simply taking what I learned and applying it to real life situations and hopefully finding a solution for low income mothers and their families.
Works Cited
Hausseman, Brock. Teaching English in the Two-Year
College. 1997. Print
College. 1997. Print
Rossenwasser, David, and Jill Stephen. Reading
Analytically. Print.
Analytically. Print.
Classism and racism toward low-income families-Discourse analysis write-up
This video was taken in New Orleans during or before an LSU athletic event. The men shown in this video don't seem to be people who have ever had to live pay check to pay check, day by day. They even say so themselves that they are well off and living a good life in a suburban neighborhood. So it makes me wonder how they can spell out the lives of poverty stricken residents when they've never had to live a day in their shoes. I was surprised after I watched this video. I thought, do people really think like that? I believe the creator of this video was striving to prove a point. She wanted to give a sense of what people are saying about New Orleans no longer offering affordable housing for low-income families. The person creating the video said she has lived and worked among the low-income families these men are insulting so, she understands what they are going through and is seeking to
understand what the rest of the community thinks about this issue. This video opens an interesting side of the low-income family conversation that I have been researching lately.
understand what the rest of the community thinks about this issue. This video opens an interesting side of the low-income family conversation that I have been researching lately.
It’s important to consider the time and place this video was taken however; I don't believe these factors remove its credibility. These men said racist things while they were probably a little drunk but I can't say that what they said doesn't hold some truth to how they really feel. It’s easy to say, and I know many of us find ourselves doing this more than once, that because people like this are in a faraway place like New Orleans what they say shouldn’t matter to us here. I don’t think that because this video was taken in a place nowhere near Boise that it doesn’t give some insight
into how other Americans feel, even those closer to home. This is another area I’d like to focus on in my research because that same attitude of “I can’t see it, I’m not living it so it doesn’t affect me” is an issue when it come to dealing with a community problem such as poverty. That’s what poverty is, it’s
a community wide problem that affects communities across the United States. Eventually, if not already, it will become a nationwide problem. So I plan to give reasons for caring. Although, I will say that I think people should care because….well they just should. It’s the right thing to do. I realize though that for men such as the ones shown in this video, I will have to give more evidence of how
poverty in another community may eventually come around and affect them in the long run and they wouldn’t want that now would they?
into how other Americans feel, even those closer to home. This is another area I’d like to focus on in my research because that same attitude of “I can’t see it, I’m not living it so it doesn’t affect me” is an issue when it come to dealing with a community problem such as poverty. That’s what poverty is, it’s
a community wide problem that affects communities across the United States. Eventually, if not already, it will become a nationwide problem. So I plan to give reasons for caring. Although, I will say that I think people should care because….well they just should. It’s the right thing to do. I realize though that for men such as the ones shown in this video, I will have to give more evidence of how
poverty in another community may eventually come around and affect them in the long run and they wouldn’t want that now would they?
These men weren’t looking to be politically correct. What they gave was the raw and vulgar viewpoints of a racist and classist person. This may be very helpful in my research since a lot
of my information is found in articles of experts and government run websites which usually contain some form of bias but is kept hidden between the lines. There are other factors of bias to consider in this video but I trust most of them only give more reason to believe that what these men said is really and honestly how they feel. I don’t think that because it was taken in another community far from this one that it can be completely discounted as evidence for the conversation concerning the lives of low-income families.
of my information is found in articles of experts and government run websites which usually contain some form of bias but is kept hidden between the lines. There are other factors of bias to consider in this video but I trust most of them only give more reason to believe that what these men said is really and honestly how they feel. I don’t think that because it was taken in another community far from this one that it can be completely discounted as evidence for the conversation concerning the lives of low-income families.
SneakinSal. (Jan 9, 2008). Low-Class Southern Suburban Bigotry~ Warning Racist Content. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hVvMfgvocE. (Mar 5. 2011).
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