April 27th Response

While I do agree that there are clear differences between genders (no one can deny that one!), I do not believe that men and women always have different writing styles.

“Feminine identification processes are relational, whereas masculine identification processes tend
to deny relationships” (176). Women are dependent on other human beings and have no problem
admitting it, but men deny those relationships, even if they are dependent on others. Chodorow’s
claim holds true in the student writing Flynn examined. The narratives of female students are
relational—“stories of interaction, of connection, or of frustrated connection.” Conversely, men’s
narratives are “stories of achievement, of separation, or of frustrated achievement”. (Magee,p. 117)

Chodorow's findings may hold true in the student writing that Flynn examined, but this small selection surely cannot account for and explain the writing styles of all men and women. In fact, I know that it does not. Although I am not a great writer myself, I often edit my boyfriend's papers-- I'm of the belief that it is always beneficial to have a second pair of eyes look something over. His writing is never void of relationships, nor does he deny their existence. I believe that maybe a large number of men and women fall in line with Chodorow's findings, but it is not fair to either gender to stereotype them all into one genre.

Upon reading the article by Bawarshi, I found a few sentences that can help me further explain my feelings about gender writing genres.

"This "social turn" (Trimbur) recognizes that there is more at work on the text than just the
writer's autonomous cognition; there are also various social forces that constitute the scene of
production within which the writer's cognition as well as his or her texts are situated and shaped"
(Bawarshi, pg. 69).

This applies to the gender genre because while it may be the case that most men have experienced many of the same social forces and therefore write in similar ways (the same applies to women), it is also just as likely that men AND women of a certain ethnicity, locale, religion, etc. have experienced the same social forces that shape who they are as writers.

When I first began reading Allen's article, I agreed with his statement that "Rhetoric is often perceived as the art of persuasion, while science is generally seen as the art of demonstration (173). This idea implies, to use a figure of speech, that rhetoric and science should not be seen together in public" (Allen, p. 94). But as I continued to read there was another statement that stood out to me even more so:

"While the historic public face of science may exude objectivity, there is a pervasive, if less
openly discussed, subjective side. Even if scientists were able to collect data in a purely objective
way, Brent Slife and Richard Williams contend that “we cannot ignore the necessity of interpreting
the data yielded by scientific method” (5, emphasis in original)" (Allen, p.95).

Scientific data is nothing without a skilled, knowledgeable professional to analyze and interpret it based upon past experiences.

April 25th Response

The articles by Dirk and Devitt differ because Dirk is explaining what Genre is and giving examples that she believes many students will be able to relate to in order to get her point across, and Devitt is discussing how to professors can teach "critical genre awareness".


"Genre teaching can indeed be formulaic and constraining, if genres are taught as forms without social or cultural meaning. Genre teaching can also be enlightening and freeing, if genres are taught as part of a larger critical awareness. I argue in this chapter for a genre pedagogy that recognizes the limitations of explicit genre teaching and exploits the ideological nature of genre to enable students’ critical understanding." (Devitt, pg.17)

Here Devitt stresses the importance of teaching genres in a way that allows for a more broad definition and therefore understanding of the application of the term and its uses. Dirk quotes a similar view of Devitt's on page 252 of her article and then states:

"As such, we can see how a genre like the State of the Union Address helps for more effective communication between the president and citizens because the president already has a genre with which to work; he/she doesn’t have to create a new one, and citizens know what to expect from such an address."

In this quote from Dirk she is explaining in further detail (with an example) how genre can be broad and encompass many aspects of communication other than categorizing types of books and music. I like that she explains genre as a way to create "more effective communication" by setting precedent. This loosely reminds me of what I learned in my Communication Law class last quarter about court cases and precedent-- many times the precedent set by earlier court cases gave jurors and judges in new cases a better idea of how to go about making their decision. For example, maybe court cases involving student rights could be considered a genre.

These articles have changed my idea of what the definition of a genre is. If I hadn't read them, I wouldn't have made the connection between court case precedent and genre and I would not have considered genres as creating more effective communication.

April 20th Response

Harris challenges discourse communities when he begins to quote Raymond Williams' Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society in "Williams and the Problem of Community". Williams states that "(Community) seems never to be used unfavourably, and never to be given any positive opposing or distinguishing term," (66). Harris takes this to mean that community can have an "empty and sentimental" meaning. I don't think Harris disagrees or rejects discourse communities, he just disagrees with the way it is viewed sometimes.

Johns also brings up the negative aspects of discourse communities when he discusses conflicts, diversity, authority, and the cost of affiliation. Like Harris, he doesn't disagree or reject discourse communities-- he just finds it beneficial to point out the cons as well as the pros so that one can make the most of their experience.


I believe we have spent so much time reading these articles so that we can only understand what a discourse community is, how discourse communities apply to writing, and how we can get the most out of our experiences with discourse communities.

April 18th Response

Wardle discusses the difficulty that many people have acclimating to a new discourse community/ecology, as well as her personal experience trying to fit into a particular discourse community/ecology in her graduate school program. Instead of calling them "discourse communities" she calls them "activity systems". She states that...

"for workers to be successfully enculturated into new communities of practice or activity systems, including learning to write in ways that are appropriate to those communities, neophytes must learn and conform to the conventions, codes, and genres of those communities. However, when and how much each neophyte must conform largely depends on how much authority and cultural capital the neophyte possesses or cultivates to accomplish work effectively." (pg 523)

Wardle is basically saying that although we don't always feel that we fit into the particular discourse community we are in during certain parts of our lives, we still have to find a way to function appropriately within that community. She feels that in order for students to be successful in doing so when they graduate and join the professional world, they must "consider what it means to write in the workplace." Looking at writing from one's future profession is a good way to do this. Once again, I can relate this to one of the earlier articles we read about "Reading Like a Writer". In this case, it is important for students to read writings from one's future profession in such a way that they can consider the important aspects of that kind of writing. This way maybe it will be easier for students to acclimate to the new writing environment when they graduate.

Wardle mentions that many people in the general public are criticizing professors for not preparing students for writing in the professional world. Maybe the issue isn't that students do not lack "polished language", they may just not know the proper way to apply language in writing in their own profession. Academic writing and professional writing discourse communities are very different from one another.

One of the biggest differences I noticed between the academic writing of Johnson, Clark and Burton and the professional writing of Windsor is the story-like opening of the former writing piece. Johnson, Clark and Burton use a hypothetical scenario in a story form as an introduction to their work. Some readers may find this juvenile, but in some cases I believe that it may be the right way to go about their topic. If their target audience is students, this could be a good way to relate to many of them.

April 13th Response

"Choosing how to express your meaning is every bit as important as the message itself, which is really what rhetoric is," (Boyd, 87)

I like this simple definition because at times I find myself grappling with what "rhetoric" means in relation to writing. When I wrote my cover letter I tried to be very careful to sound confident but not cocky, inspired but not obsessive, etc. Writing (or talking) about myself has always been a little challenging-- I prefer to listen to what someone else has to say in a conversation because I usually find their life much more interesting than my own thoughts or actions. I also do not like to talk about myself. This made it hard for me to create my cover letter because it is a document in which I primarily describe myself and in which I also describe the things about myself that would be suited for whatever position I am applying to. Finding a balance between writing something that showed my confidence in my knowledge of the design field and also my understanding that I do not (and will never) know everything and my desire to learn more was a challenge.

I found that one of the best ways to show my knowledge of the design field was to use design jargon-- to talk about typefaces, particular design elements, and other things that only people who are experienced or knowledgeable about design would know. On page 89 Boyd references this:

"Jargon is the terminology used by those in a particular profession or group to facilitate clear and precise communication, but this rhetorical tool is not limited just to the professional world. For example, anyone who participates in a sport uses the lingo specific to that sport, which is learned by doing. Doctors use medical jargon and lawyers use legal jargon, and they go to school specifically to learn the terms and abbreviations of their professions..."

By using design jargon I not only proved that I am familiar with the design field, I communicated this in a "clear and precise" way. In doing so, I realized who my audience is (professionals in the design industry) and catered my writing to their expertise.

In Gee's introduction he discusses literary studies as being "social practices". I like this approach because it is very similar to what I was just reading about in Boyd's piece on rhetoric. It is about expression, not just what one is writing or doing. The rights and wrongs of expression change based on one's surroundings and target audience. Gee explains this with his drinking buddy scenario. This knowledge is helpful in interviews. This is because one's actions in an interview should depend upon the company he/she is interviewing with. For example- if it is a laid back office then maybe one shouldn't wear a suit whereas if it is a more upscale office one should probably wear a suit.

I'll be honest here in saying that the Cooper reading was a little hard to follow, and although I read it I don't feel that I have anything valuable to say about it.

April 11th Response

"Like other genres, resumes are a means of social interaction, as Carolyn Miller (1984) suggested twenty years ago. And as Joe Comprone (1993) explains, any genre is itself the place where writers balance two sets of needs at least: on the one hand, the needs of a writer to express an intent; on the other; the needs of one or more audiences. Somehow, Comprone says, we must balance these competing needs."

I like that this article cites Comprone's idea that resumes belong to the genre of social interaction and those of us who are creating them need to not only take into consideration our personal desires but also keep in mind "the needs of a socially constructed world". This is important because for example, some potential employers may put a lot of emphasis on an applicant's GPA and if someone does not feel that his/her GPA is important and chooses not to include it in his/her resume-- he/she will probably not have as good of a chance at receiving that position as he/she would have had he/she included his/her GPA.

This idea of the "social interaction" genre relates back to what Rosenberg said about how reading should be like “participating in a conversation.” When a potential employer is reading my resume, I'd like it to be personal enough that he/she feels he/she is speaking with me, but I'd also like to make sure that I am getting the point across and discussing all of the important points they need to know about me without them having to ask. This feeling is a mix between both Rosenberg's article and Comprone's idea of genre.

On page 155 the writer talks about having students study persuasion in different types of writing such as newspaper articles, web sites, poems, and academic papers. I think it is important to keep persuasion in mind when creating a resume and cover letter because they are essentially tools to persuade a potential employer into hiring you. I like that the professor created an assignment in which students needed to collect and study a certain number of resumes within their field of study. I think it is important to look at what has already been done to decide what is good and bad practice. This relates back to a couple of our other readings such as Reading Like A Writer. This is because this assignment is essentially having students reading resumes like they would write them. These students will learn from the experience and be able to pick up on things that they may like or dislike.

April 6th Response

I think that Klein and Shackelford are correct in saying that no matter what the writing assignment is, one should think about the design of the text. This does not necessarily mean that everything that is ever written should have "pretty" fonts and colors and design elements-- the design of a writing piece also refers to the organization of that writing piece as well as the use of the right fonts and font weights to help convey the meaning of the text.

It is important for a text to be properly organized so that readers can easily understand what they are reading and so he/she can fully comprehend the topic or the point of view the writer is trying to make. In order to successfully organize a writing piece, one should keep in mind what Klein and Schackelford said on page 334 of Beyond Black on White: Document Design and Formatting in the Writing Classroom:

"An often-overlooked element of design is the visual treatment of text itself. In this definition of text, text does not include your word choice or the structure of your argument. Instead, it refers to the look of the words on the page."

They go on to identify a variety of font choices as ways to use proper visual treatment of one's writing. For example, if you are writing an article for a fashion publication that likes to emphasize the importance of the names of different fashion designers, it might be a good idea to bold the names of those fashion designers in an article so that readers can scan the page and find which one they are looking for.

As a graphic designer I believe that it is always important to have a style guide to follow, whether one is designing a page layout, decorating a room, or even writing a paper. That is why I like writing style guides such as MLA. On page 341, Klein & Schackelford make a very important point about style guides:

"Style guides reflect the items of importance in writing for a particular community."

There are many different areas of writing, and it is important for these areas to have guidelines. This makes for easy reading because each style guide is tailored to the content for a particular topic.

April 4th Response

We are studying design in a professional writing class because it is important for our resumes and cover letters to not only be written professionally, but to look professional as well. Many times people judge something based upon its attractiveness before even getting to the content. By implementing good design* we are trying to make someone's first impression of our resume and/or cover letter a good one. This is because we know that for many people, a first impression can make or break their interest or it can lead someone to make a judgment about something that may or may not be true. For example, if a potential employer had two resumes on his/her desk, one that was easy to read and designed well and then another that was cluttered and hard to follow, the latter of the two will probably be looked at last, if at all. This is because it is too difficult to understand, even if the person who sent the latter of the two was much more qualified for the position.

*Good design starts with the proper use of contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity. It is also important to use harmonious colors, a font that embodies the character of the writing, and to work on a grid. Other things to keep in mind when designing: avoid center alignment, use columns to organize body copy, and simplicity and concept are key. What looks good to one person may not look good to another, but the basic principles hold true.

I am a graphic design major, so visual design is very important to my profession. I will not be doing much writing in my profession aside from resumes, cover letters, and information for infographics because most of the copy that exists on any particular design I create is provided to me (articles in newspaper or magazine, copy for an ad, etc.). My job is to implement the principles of good design in laying out newspapers, magazines, advertisements, websites, etc. I help others make the writing in their profession look good. For example, the Virginian-Pilot newspaper (as well as all other newspapers) have a design staff to make the articles that the journalists write look good in their paper so that people are more likely to read them. Many people base the credibility of content on the look of its presentation- this happens a lot with websites. It is similar to the resume scenario I explained before- if someone go to a website and it is disorderly and unattractive, he/she will feel that the company is unprofessional and that company will lose credibility regardless of whether or not their content is good.