Month: July 2020

Posted on

Unit 3 Project Draft – Dominique Van Gilst

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1XWyQvhRiTjKvf0hQSCBa19RW5-tdwSbqIcrVuBnlxQg/edit#slide=id.g35f391192_00

The audience of my project are parents/guardians who have children going into inclusive classrooms. In this scenario, I am the teacher of an elementary school classroom, and the parents/guardians have come to the school for a back to school night type thing where instead of it being back to school night, it is something that would happen before school starts. The purpose of this project is to help the audience understand the power of inclusion, and why it will be beneficial to their child. I have added voice overs to make this presentation as realistic as possible.

 

Posted on

Discussion 6/29/20 ( Dan)

1.

Cori Wong entered a very important and popular topic in her article “Changing organizational culture: from embedded bias to equity and inclusion”.  As we are learning in our studies of the book “They say I say”, it is important for an author to enter a conversation and to add something new to it as opposed to simply restating facts and ideas authors have come up with. She did just that in a very enlightening way when she used a metaphor for describing the difference between equality and equity. Her metaphor was that if a group of people are running a long race, a decision based on equality would be to give them all the same exact shoe (size and all). This technically treats everyone the same as equality strives for. However, people have different sized feet (i.e. different needs). Therefore, some people may have an inherent advantage in running the race due to their perfect fitting shoes while others are at a disadvantage who’s feet don’t fit. Equity on the other hand would be assessing individual’s needs and getting them a shoe that fits well to give them equal opportunity to succeed in the race. I believe this metaphor was an excellent contribution to the conversation of diversity and inclusion. This was significant to me because it really helped me visualize and understand the difference between equity and equality. It is very important to be able to distinguish the difference because the language that we use is powerful and can dramatically impact how our society functions.

 

2.

After reading chapter 8 of “They say, I say” and reading Cori Wong’s article, I noticed multiple location where she used important moves to “connect the parts” of her sentences and paragraphs. In doing so, Cori was able to create an article that reads very easily and flows nicely. Had she omitted the various transitional words/phrases her writing would be choppy and would be much more challenging to understand. The following paragraph found on page two of the article states

“[While diversity often refers to representation of difference, inclusion refers to how differences are meaningfully incorporated and integrated into daily practices. As such, a better way to frame the commitment to be more equitable and inclusive would start by asking, “Who is not represented at the proverbial table? In what ways have we kept some people out?”]”

After her first sentence explaining the definition of diversity and inclusion, Cori begins the sentence with “As such”. This technique refers back to her previous sentence and indicates to the reader that she is going to add something related but new to her argument. She does this by staying on topic but including the addition of an example to help the reader digest the new ideas she is describing.

Posted on

Discussion Week of 7/27

The presentation that I found to mirror what I will be focusing on shows how to address the topic and the genre of a presentation about empathy and the workplace. The first source I found is a presentation that discusses empathy in the workplace. The presentation “Empathy At Workplace” was written by Abu Zafor Md. Shaleah, Assistant Manager HR at A Leading Group of Companies and published on slide share which is apart of the LinkedIn platform. I choose this example because I can learn from the features of the writing such as the way that the author addresses the topic. He spreads the terms and points out throughout each slide telling a story and keeping the attention of the audience. The presentation does a good job of introducing topics and defining them before diving into examples and resources, this influenced me to make sure to limit the amount of vagueness in my presentation. I am going to try to incorporate how the author includes common questions on the topic and then respond with answers that way the presentation connects with the audience. Since the bibliography is a large part of this project I made sure to look at how these sources cited the work. In this presentation, the author used a slide at the end to summarize all of the references. Though I like the idea of a reference slide, in the end, I do think that it could be organized better and I will aim for that when creating mine. The platform the source is posted on also influenced me when deciding to have the presentation be published online or presented in person. Publishing my presentation on LinkedIn slide share similar to this presentation seems to be the best choice because it is a platform that is constantly populated with college students. Overall this source is a good reference for me when crafting my work and I will take the positives and negatives from it to move forward.

Posted on

Audience, audience, audience

Know the 3 most important factors in real estate? Location, location, location.

Well, for writing, it’s audience.

Take a look at the rubric for your Unit 3 project, and you’ll see this come up again and again–note how many of these items hinge on textual features that are appropriate to the audience. That’s why you need to have a very clear picture of who your audience is, so that you can better assess what they will need and expect from you, so that you can deliver.

Presenting your research in an audience-appropriate fashion is the critical to the success of your communication. You might have terrific information and important new ideas to share, but if you can’t make them land with your audience, there’s little point in you writing in the first place.

That’s why we’ve spent the last couple of weeks looking at texts that weren’t scholarly articles or straightforward academic-style essays. Those genres work really well for certain audiences and purposes–to communicate cutting-edge new ideas to other people with some background knowledge/expertise in the field–but they don’t work well for everybody all the time. We depend upon other genres to communicate in other situations.

And that’s why I’ve asked you to get pretty specific in setting forth the rhetorical situation that you’ve conjured for this text you’re creating. In order to understand and evaluate your work, your readers need to know just who you’re aiming to reach and under what circumstances. (Make sure that you include a brief note explaining all this in the body of your draft post, due by the end of the day on Friday, 7/31).

It’s worth reviewing some of the myriad ways in which audience matters

Decisions about audience and purpose are intrinsically connected–it wouldn’t make sense to provide general knowledge background to people who are already experts, nor would it make sense to lobby entry-level workers for policy change (since they’re not the ones who make those decisions). Your audience and your objective need to be tightly and logically connected.

Your audience dictates various writing choices–how long will you be likely to have your readers’ attention? how much specialized jargon can you use? how much background information will you need to provide? what’s an effective level of detail? what kinds of examples will they be most interested in? what source information will your readers expect to have for their own follow-up? what kind of relationship will you seek to establish with them?

Knowing your audience lets you shape your text to be functional for them–in terms of level of formality, voice, use of graphics/media, visual organization of the text, incorporation of external links, etc.

 

Posted on

Week of 7/27 – Discussion

For my research I came across two news articles that I found capture the genre of writing I’m aiming for. The first from the University of Colorado Denver articulates a very academic friendly text crediting many of its sources through in-cite citations. The article does a very effective job of including many voices referencing academic researchers and highlighting direct quotes from first-hand accounts. It presents a wholesome narrative keeping the reader engaged and able to jump to related or more detailed issues through hyperlinks. What I like especially is the way it breaks down the text in big headline topics that are controversial or straight to the point. The first headline, for example, called “What We Talk About When We Talk About Diversity” serves as an introductory starting point for the authors and gives a clear picture of what the subject (and later paragraphs) will be about. Other ones such as “BIPOC – Never Heard of It?” and “Forget Minority and Underserved” shift focus to critical areas that need to be addressed and reevaluated for modern discussions.

Overall I find the way the article is written works particularly well keeping in mind the reader’s attention span with hierarchical takeaways (like italicizing text, increasing font size, inserting block quotes). What I think the article could improve in, however, is by increasing the variety/ type of breaks. In the second article I found from CNN, I liked the way it includes key images with captions and related videos. In this example, it varies by adding historical, geographical, and audio information to round out the reader’s understanding. Though longer to read and less effective in being direct with the audience, the strategies I liked of the two will be helpful in crafting my final project.

 

Posted on

Discussion Week 7/27

The article I chose is one that models the project I wish to create and focuses on the effects of social media on adolescents and the way that peer experiences play monumental roles on their development. This article lays out in a chart the causes and effects of kids that are introduced to peer activities and exhibits the reactions to each varied experience. It is not only able to show the real life consequences of these negative impacts on the students but also the unknown ways that they are being negatively impacted and the dynamics that will be tampered with as a result. I enjoyed that his article not only talked about what’s already occurring but how the future generations will be impacted if changes are not made. It sets up a framework to exhibit to the readers how each dynamic within the adolescents life will change because of social media. Although the article presents solid information and numerous facts, I feel it turns into a rather long research presentation as it explains the various ways and situations the students can possible experience. The article is broken down into multiple concepts and frameworks in order to convey one central issue when I feel it can be condensed to present the information to the readers more efficiently. When I am creating my own project I will use some of the same methods such as presenting the information in a chart or bullet like formation and breaking apart the social issues based on cause and effect.

 

https://link-springer-com.libezproxy2.syr.edu/article/10.1007/s10567-018-0262-9

Posted on

Discussion Prompt week of 7/27 genre

The article I chose was one written by the New York Times  regarding the black lives matter movement, and the breakdown of numbers and the protesting in general. I believe this sample works, and it does not. The article does a good job at describing numbers and giving exact examples to back up what he is saying. He breaks down the article into subtopics which helps divide the information for the reader to better understand, or be able to find exactly what they are looking for in the article. I like these parts of the article, as it is a good representation of what I hope to do — the visual pairing with the information and broken down in a way that is easy to read. However, there are ways in which the article is less successful. The author almost uses quotes and information too much, to the point where it is more general information rather than to the point. The article is a way of putting information together to make it easier for the reader, instead of to the point and an easy read. The article is wordy, however that is not a bad thing with the magnitude of information being represented. I believe they did a good job at presenting important information that matters, however I will be trying to find a balance. It will take practice, however I do believe it is able to be achieved.

Posted on

Discussion post (6-15-20)

3. I can tell that the article “The problem with diversity in computing” has a good flow to it. The reason for this is the excellent transitions that Ian uses from paragraph to paragraph. His ability and the transition sentences he forms prevents his article from sounding choppy. For example, He speaks about Charles Isbell who is the director of the constellations program at Georgia tech. Isbell claims that we should be more interested in integration of individuals as opposed to just diversity. Ian places the following quote at the end of the paragraph.

“Diversity is just membership,” Isbell said. “Integration is influence, power, and partnership.”

This allows Ian to start his next paragraph by responding to Isbell’s assertations by stating that integration is much harder than diversity. He adds in another quote from Isbell stating that in order to reach integration in industry new folks need to be capable and confident and older folks need to be willing. This sets him up for the following paragraph where he speaks about the willingness of tech industry giants such as Google.

 

  1. I was intrigued by Bryans work about language diversity. One of the facts that I found most interesting is that when most people think of diversity they often think of race, religion, and gender. Nonnative accents are generally not the first thing that comes to mind. However, nonnative accent discrimination is a serious problem and should be discussed so that we can strive to find a solution. I really liked the TED talk that Bryan included by Lera Boroditsky in which she discusses how language affects our thinking. Some of the parts that I found most interesting was how some cultures such as a specific tribe in Australia base their entire language off of the directions north, south, east, and west. This helps them to stay very oriented which is opposite to our culture. Another thing I found interesting is how a language such as English places blame on someone who makes an accident ( such as breaking a vase). We say “John broke the vase”. In other cultures such as Spanish speaking cultures it is much more common to say “The vase broke” when speaking of an accident.

This topic that Bryan chose has really opened my eyes to new issues of organizational culture. It has formed the basis of my unit 2 research and my unit 3 research paper.

Posted on

5 Rhetorical moves (Dan)

Upon reading “The problem with diversity in computing” I was able to identify a handful of techniques the other used to communicate his ideas.

First, right off the bat Ian discusses problems that Amy Webb, a professor at NYU, and other females deal with at TSA precheck lines due to the technological systems. Issues such as the X rays not being able to distinguish their underwire bras and large curly hair that results in more extensive checks and pat-downs. By doing this Ian is able to illustrate a problem that is very relatable and understandable. This sets Ian up for further examples to strengthen his argument.

Second, he uses an experience from his own workplace at Georgia tech. There is a certain center at the university that focus on funding and supporting computer-science classes in public schools in Atlanta that are predominantly black. Including this shows that the issue is serious and that there are institutions (like his) that are attempting to fix the issue.

Thirdly, Ian now states “Those efforts have merit, but their impact might be a drop in the bucket given the size of the tech industry.” By saying this he alludes to the fact that there is still a lot of work to be done and that everyone needs to do their part. This is a call to action after expressing the importance of the issue.

Fourth, Ian introduces a new perspective through Charles Isbell, the executive director at Georgia techs “constellations” program. The prospective is that though diversity is important to strive for, the real goal is integration as it would change the entire industry as a result of their presence in the community. This is contrary to Amy’s perspective that we may not need push kids to go into STEM.

The last strategy he uses is by paraphrasing something Amy said. “We’re all discriminated against by computing,” and “Anyone who falls outside of that core group of interests are not being represented”. Ian states that if this is true, then maybe the problem isn’t that its not including the needs of the diverse public but that the problem with computing is intrinsic. I believe by stating this he takes something that someone else has written and flips it in his favor by highlighting what the statement lacks and making it seem not well thought out.

Posted on

Discussion week of 7/27, Aaron

The Making Of The Troubles In Northern Ireland

This link posted above is an example of the style of writing I am doing. It’s a traditional research report that starts just as any research essay would- the introduction asking a thesis question and the body of the work breaking it down with different points per paragraph or per page. The advantage of this kind of writing is that it’s really self explanatory- you read the entire article and come away from it with more understanding on a topic than you did prior to reading this, However, this advantage leads directly into the disadvantage of this style of writing. I know this sounds confusing and maybe a little conflicting but my point is this: a lot of people don’t enjoy reading these kinds of reports unless it is something they are assigned to do or are genuinely very interested in, otherwise it may be boring and not something that many people would be interested in. I may be in. the minority in this, but my style of learning suits these kinds of research reports. I am sincerely into sitting in a three hour lecture where a professor goes on about sectarian divides developed between two groups of people over the years, and can sit there and take notes with a smile on my face the whole time. With that being said, I am going to have to direct my audience to something different than previously thought. My writing about how ethnic and cultural bias is effecting education is better suited for people that are studying the field, and not professors who are already inside the ranks of being educators.