Thlog 4

Week 4 has come to pass and we have finished up the first part of PB2.  I have found myself struggling to find motivation and inspiration in my writing this year.  Ordinarily I find writing easy and it just flows, but as we continue to write about textual genres and conventions, I find my lack of interest in the topic hinders my writing.  Regardless of how hard I try to convince myself that there is something useful to be gained from this topic, I find myself spending a long time sitting in front of my computer struggling to put what I want into words.  Hopefully if I work on starting my papers with first order thinking and return to revise it with second order, things will flow a little better for me.  I found the reading this week, "How to Read Like a Writer" by Mike Bunn, to be particularly interesting.  The main idea that I got from this reading is that I should begin to ask myself what specifically the author did to make me feel a certain way or reach a certain conclusion.  This ties in well to our current lesson of "moves".  Mike Bunn's reading is telling us that we can gain knowledge for our own writing by trying to determine what moves the author of our reading makes, and how those moves affect us.

PB2A- SCIgen is a bunch of nonsense

The random computer science paper generator “SCIgen” is intended to create works that appear to be complex research papers.  The randomly generated papers all abide by a set of conventions that make them similar, but the content is mostly a bunch of words thrown together.  When a paper from SCIgen, “Trica: Replicated Symmetries”, is put up against an actual scholarly publication,  “Who does Red Bull give wings to? Sensation seeking moderates sensitivity to subliminal advertisements”, it is interesting to compare and contrast.  From the start, it is clear that the SCIgen paper is laid out to imitate an actual scholarly paper. Both are very similar in structure in the way they have abstracts, results, discussion, and other characteristics of a real research paper.  At first glance, you could be led to believe that a paper from SCIgen has all the conventions of a scholarly paper, but there are some very notable differences when it comes to a full rhetorical analysis.  The biggest key difference is the purpose of the papers.  The purpose of a scholarly paper is to contribute something new to the field it is written for.  In the case of “Who does Red Bull give wings to? Sensation seeking moderates sensitivity to subliminal advertisements”, the publication is meant to add to the study Economics and Business.  Given this information, the content of the paper must be thoroughly thought out and peer-reviewed before it can ever become published.  The SCIgen paper, on the other hand, does not have such a serious or meaningful purpose.  These papers instead are intended to fool the reader into thinking it is legitimate, when in reality they are a bunch of meaningless words thrown together.  These purposes are clearly tailored to different audiences.  While the SCIgen paper is obviously just written to impress someone who only skims over it and reads a few complex words, the scholarly paper is written for educated readers who intend to actually learn something in the field of economics and business and will read the publication in depth to gain a better understanding.

Looking at the scholarly publication ‘Who does Red Bull give wings to? Sensation seeking moderates sensitivity to subliminal advertisements”, it is clear that the paper emphasizes credibility.  It is apparent that what gives this paper such power is the fact that everything is backed up.  To start, the paper is peer-reviewed.  This means it has been proofread and and edited by countless other individuals, all of them with their own credibility.  Names are listed on the side of the paper to show exactly who has done what to make this paper what it is. Not only is the paper peer-reviewed, but every claim, fact, and data point given in the paper is backed up by a number of references or sources all listed at the bottom of the page.  These are all strategies to create an underlying ethos appeal that makes the reader believe what they are reading is accurate.  Another thing that strikes me as important in this piece is the organization.  Everything in this paper is rigidly structured, from the way they introduce the topic, give data and results, analyze the data, and tie it all together in a conclusion.  The organization of the paper provides more credibility by giving it a professional appearance, as well as creates an underlying logos appeal by giving information in a clear, step by step method.  This allows the reader to better understand the information and reach the same conclusions as the author.

Thlog #3

This week we continued to finish up our work on WP #1.  After revising my draft and turning in the final, I am pretty happy with my work, but I know there is much I can do to improve on future WP's.  I am continuing to try to use Elbow's writings to help me be more creative.  Keeping the idea of first order thinking in my head to start has really allowed me to get more ideas down onto paper and let my writing flow.  I hope this is a skill I will be able to develop further throughout the quarter.  This weekend was great to have a bit of a break and I'm ready to get back to work on the next WP.

Thlog 2

This week in writing 2 was mostly a continuation of the work we have been doing thus far. We continued our focus on textual genres and the conventions that define them.  I have definitely improved my understanding of these genres and that understanding has helped me with PB1A and B. Our next task is to construct WP #1.  In WP #1 we are supposed to analyze the rhetorical features and conventions of a genre and demonstrate how they represent that genre.  As I approach the assignment, I am trying to find a genre that will give me lots of examples so that I can go into depth with my rhetorical analysis. The task looks fairly difficult and time consuming so I will be sure to spend a solid amount of time researching and writing. I am looking forward to the next week in writing 2 and am interested in what new topics we will discuss.

PB1B- Understanding Genre

Identifying a literary genre is not difficult.  It is easy to read something and categorize it as one thing or another without actually thinking very hard.  However, if we examine the topic further and try to describe why it fits in that category the task becomes slightly more difficult.  The question then becomes, “What makes a genre a genre?”  The answer is not as simple as it would seem.  Genres are defined by the conventions or common traits of the works within them.

Online there are several “genre generator” websites that randomly produce literary works within a specific genre based on computer science.  Examining these generator websites can allow someone to better understand what a genre actually is.  To create these generator programs, the programmers must set some guidelines.  These guidelines are the conventions that make a genre what it is.  The programs must allow for random selection of content, but still maintain the basic structure that makes it fit the genre.

An example of one of these genre generators is the website pdos.csail.mit.edu/scigen. This website randomly produces complete research papers designed to fit the conventions of the genre.  In this particular case, the works produced must have a very strict structure.  The genre is characterized by the title, abstract, introduction, design, sources, and several other sections that make up the paper as a whole.  Upon examining the papers produced by this generator it is easy to tell the the conventions of the genre by comparing similarities between the randomly produced pieces.  Since the conventions of this genre are so apparent, one can categorize one of these works without even understanding the content.

Another example of a genre generator is the website pandyland.net/random.  This website also is programmed to produce random works of a specific literary genre.  In this particular case, the genre is comic book strips.  When it comes to comic book strips, the genre is defined by its appearance.  In a comic strip, there are squares lined up next to each other, each depicting a scene.  Generally these scenes have drawings along with dialogue and interactions between characters.  If you were to generate new strips on this website continuously, you would begin to notice that these are the things that stay consistent regardless of the content.  This is because they are the conventions that make up the genre. By examining how conventions are consistent throughout the genre on this website, a viewer can grasp a better understanding of what genre is.

The third website we have that generates works within a literary genre is memegenerator.net.  This website is meant to provide a platform for people to create their own memes, a form of satire commonly found on the internet.  This website makes it very easy to identify the conventions of the genre because it provides a structure for the user to fill in the blanks.  The structure provided is exactly what makes a meme a meme.  It is characterized by a picture background with a two part caption involving writing at the top and bottom.  It is a simple design, but it does an excellent job of displaying how a genre is defined by conventions, and if someone were to view the process of creating a meme they would gain a better understanding of genre as a whole.

All of these websites are an example of how works fit into a genre based on their conventions and by using those conventions we can make anything fit a particular genre.  If someone wanted to gain a better understanding of what genre actually is, playing around with these websites would show them exactly this point.  Defining genre is not an easy thing to do but the key is to comprehend how genre is defined by conventions.

PB1A

It is often questioned how a literary genre is defined.  Many genres do not necessarily have strict rules, but rather a set of conventions or guidelines that works tend to follow to fall into that category. There are many obvious genres like novels, articles, and essays, but genres can be much smaller and more specific.  For example, religious scriptures can be classified as their own literary genre.  This is one of the oldest literary genres in the world and is referenced very often.  The most well known books and scriptures in the world fit into this genre and include the Bible, the Quran, the Book of Mormon an many more.  This genre is special because of its ability to influence people and cultures. People base their entire lives off of books from this genre and dedicate their time to studying and memorizing their content.  There are not set in stone rules of how writings of this genre should be constructed but the key idea is that all writings in this category are based off of a religion's history and ideas.  As for syntax, many works of this genre follow a fairly specific set of conventions.  Generally, works of this genre are composed of many different books and chapters, sometimes from different authors, all brought together to form one big piece of literature.  Within these books and chapters are often found verses.  This makes it easy to reference specific parts when necessary.  For example, when someone wants to reference a particular part of the New Testament, they could write John 3:16.  This is the proper way of denoting a book, chapter, and verse of the Bible.  Another convention commonly found in religious scriptures is an abnormal use of outdated language.  Many famous religious scriptures were written long ago and in the language customary to that particular religion or geographical region.  Religious groups try to stay as true to the original texts as possible, and as a result, translations are often difficult to understand or outdated.  For example, many of the texts contained in the Old Testament and Torah were originally written in Hebrew as per their regions of origin, but it has since been translated so many times that many verses take on new forms and meanings when translated to other languages.  It is for this reason that many religions encourage their followers to study their original languages so they can have a better understanding of their religious texts. Another important convention of this genre is that they are usually written by a person of significance in the founding of the religion.  For instance, the Book of Mormon was written by Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism and passed on to his followers.  These are all common conventions of religious scriptures, but they are not entirely necessary for a literary work to fall into this genre.  There are many ways to approach a literary genre and often times the way a genre is defined is changed by the works made for them.

Thlog #1

This thlog is meant to reflect upon my first week in writing 2, and so far I can say I am enjoying the class.  We have begun with an analysis of genres and conventions, and I have found the discussion of what actually makes up a genre to be very interesting.  I found the writings of Peter Elbow to particularly interesting.  Elbow discussed how writing can promote both first and second order thinking.  He defined first order thinking as unrestricted and creative while second order is very critical and analyzed.  In the particular excerpt, Elbow asserted that the best approach to writing is a combination of both first and second order thinking.  He claimed that first order thinking is useful to produce new and creative ideas, while second order thinking is useful for refining those ideas and making them come together.  As I applied this reasoning to my own work and thought about my writing I realized I have gotten into the habit of relying on second order thinking.  Often times I am far too critical of my ideas before they even reach the paper.  This results in a lack of creativity in my writing and I feel I have to force words into a paper. After thinking about this concept of combining the two forms of thinking I plan to use this method in my future writing.  It is my goal for writing 2 this year to become better at utilizing this technique in order to improve the flow and creativity of my writing while still maintaining structure and intelligent thought.