Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Kathryn McDermott Homework #3

     While reading pages 64-69 in Everything's A Text I came across two hotspots. I read my first hotspot at the beginning of the second page when they are quoting Mina Shaugnessy. The start of her quote says "'. . .They have nonetheless had their own worlds to grow up in and they arrive on our campuses as young adults, with opinions and languages and plans already in their minds'" (Melzer, Shaugnessy 65). This quote struck me because it directly relates to my life as a new college student, we have been taught so many things in our previous years of schooling that as we come into college we already have our minds set on a correct way to write. However, as we read on in the quoted paragraph, it explains that we should go into college with a more open mind, so we can learn to take our past and use it to influence our future as writers but not put boundaries on it.
     As I kept reading, I found another hotspot on page 66, this hotspot is not a small quote, but rather a larger section of the page. I am writing about the "questions to consider as you reflect on what it means to be personally literate" (Melzer 66). I chose this section for my second hotspot because it refers to questions that help us discover our personal literacy history. It explains in the book that it is important to know our history as we enter new learning places so that we can discover our place within our society and culture. I agree with how it explains that because I think it is important to work towards self discovery everyday, and knowing our past is key to making our future the best it can be. I think self discovery can be made through writing and literature so answering those questions and being aware of our literary history can help us move forward as a writer and also as a person.

4 comments:

  1. Nicely said--I totally agree; We've been sort of 'trained' to think certain things, and sometimes it's a bit harder to have an open mind, but when you do, you learn so much more. And, I love what you said about self discovery--beautifully written. :)

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  2. I agree with your first hotspot a lot! Like Matilda said as well, we were "trained" in high school to think one way and no other way.. such as the dreadful 5 paragraph essay.. when all you use that for is high school! Not college :)

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  3. I definitely agree with what you said about how self discovery can be made through writing. It's so interesting to see how people's viewpoints and opinions about themselves can change just by writing about them.

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  4. I also wrote about your first hot spot. I think it is going to be hard to write for a different teacher after i was trained for two years on how to write for my english teacher last year. I like how this class is mostly blogging instead of essays like my high school class was.

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