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Learning Log
English 2010

“Donald J. Trump, Pope Francis, and the Bees That Defied Space and Time” - Benjamin
Solomon (January 15, 2019)

1. Trump understood that his supporters—both current and potential—weren’t so much

interested in elegant sentence structure and internal logic as they were in the threat of
terrorism and the promise of power and safety.
Notice how the Pope made himself sound more credible by quoting an ancient Greek
philosopher, while also asserting that he’s basically just human, making him sound more
humble at the same time?
2. In this essay it talks about how people craft language certain ways so others will see them
they way they want to be seen. They go on to talk about an argument the Pope and Donald
Trump got into and the certain language they used.

¨English Matters: A Rhetorical Look at Writing¨ - Chris Blankenship and Justin Jory
(January 17, 2019)

1. Or think about any building on your campus. It may seem like a strange place to go when
talking about language, but that building is the product of language. E-mails led to
proposals, proposals led to budgets, budgets led to plans, and plans led to the construction
of the building.
Within that text is language that encourages readers to view the writer as educated,
experienced, and skilled in particular ways that are suited to the job expectations. In other
words, it’s language that allows the writer to be—or at least appear to be—the best
candidate for the job.
2. People can try to make their words overly fancy so it can be hard to read sometimes. It
also makes it so you sound fancier so you can get the job you want or you´ll be taken
seriously.

“Genre in the Wild-- Understanding Genre Within Rhetorical (Eco)Systems”- Lisa Bickmore
(January 22, 2019)

1. You, as a writer in that situation, don’t precisely choose that genre, nor its formal
characteristics—in a way, the situation chooses those for you, and all the people who are
doing similar work to you use the same genre, in much the same way, and probably have
been doing so for quite some time.
It’s perhaps helpful, as you learn about particular genres, to think about how the genre at
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hand might fit into larger genre sets and systems—or even ecologies, and how genres
shape the ways we interact, live, and work with each other.
2. Genre doesn’t have to make your writing sound robotic, even if what you’re writing has
to be in an academic tone. You can still make things interesting and exciting even though
you must keep it professional. Some genres are exciting and you write in a more exciting
way so your voice won't sound robotc. Personally I think when I have to write in an
academic tone I come off a little robotic even if I don't mean too which is something I
can work on.

“Writing for Community Change” -Elisa Stone

(January 28, 2019)

1. Academic programs can also make a particular contribution to supporting the knowledge
base that organizers need, something that training programs that focus on skills and
tactics generally do not emphasize
Still, college is about more than an education, more than just taking class after class,
semester after semester, to get to where you want to go. College was designed to teach us
to be whatever it is we want to be when we grow up (assuming we do grow up at some
point), but it is also intended for a larger purpose: to make us good citizens.
2. One service activity i would love to do is go to a 3rd world country and help build
houses. I have friends who have done this and once they get back they seem much
happier like they found something about themselves that they didn't know was missing. I
would really love to go and help those who are less fortunate than I am.

Reading 3 Open Letters

(February 5, 2019)

1. In the Italy open letter she talks about what he loves about Italy and she talks to Italy as if
it were a person. It's not formal and it's very interesting to read.
The second open letter about reading included a lot of facts that would prove the person's
point. It was a very formal open letter.
2. They were both addressing something, even though the papers are different styled and
different formalities you can tell they are both important open letters.

“Peer Review” - Jim Beatty

1. The least helpful thing you can do when peer reviewing is correct grammar and typos.
While these issues are important, they are commonly the least important thing English
professors consider when grading. Poor grammar usually only greatly impacts your grade
if it gets in the way of clarity.
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Resist the powerful urge to get defensive over your writing. Try your best not to respond
until your reviewer is finished giving and explaining their feedback.
Perhaps the biggest challenge in peer review is deciding what advice to use and what to
ignore.
2. I think it's very important because you can get others opinions and ideas on the subject
and it will help improve your writing. Sometimes people dont go over your work that
well and instead you could have been working on your paper. Overall it's a good helpful
experience.

“The Elizabeth Smart Case: A Study in Narrativized News.” - Clint Johnson

(January 28, 2019)

1. Heroes in Smart’s parents, who were wealthy enough to stay in the public eye, and
eventually Smart herself, a victim straight from central casting: young, female, blonde,
attractive, wealthy, white.
Story is the primary way we make meaning from life. And so, sadly, the 800,000 missing
children cases that didn’t easily fit story structure did not “mean as much.” Thus, they
were underreported or not reported at all.
2. I think that the story was very heart breaking and tragic. So many bad things happened to
her that caught the public's eye and they were so horrific no one could forget it.

“Writing Is Recursive.” - Chris Blankenship

(January 30, 2019)

1. “Cursive” comes from the Latin word ​currere​, meaning “to run.” Combine this meaning
with the English prefix “re-” (to do again), and you have some clues for the meaning of
“recursive.”
Although your future professors, bosses, co-workers, clients, and patients may only see
the final product, mastering a complex, recursive writing process will help you to create
effective texts for any situation you encounter.
2. I think the second one if more accurate because every step connects to everything
whereas the first image, it all in a perfect straight line that shows a perfect easy process
where in reality writing is a lot more chaotic than that. When you write you always come
back to other steps no matter what so you have to go back a step so everything, in the
end, connects.

Reading 3 Open Letters

(February 5, 2019)
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1. In the Italy open letter she talks about what he loves about Italy and she talks to Italy as if
it were a person. It's not formal and it's very interesting to read.
The second open letter about reading included a lot of facts that would prove the person's
point. It was a very formal open letter.
2. They were both addressing something, even though the papers are different styled and
different formalities you can tell they are both important open letters.

“Peer Review” - Jim Beatty

(February 11, 2018)
3. The least helpful thing you can do when peer reviewing is correct grammar and typos.
While these issues are important, they are commonly the least important thing English
professors consider when grading. Poor grammar usually only greatly impacts your grade
if it gets in the way of clarity.
Resist the powerful urge to get defensive over your writing. Try your best not to respond
until your reviewer is finished giving and explaining their feedback.
Perhaps the biggest challenge in peer review is deciding what advice to use and what to
ignore.
4. I think it's very important because you can get others opinions and ideas on the subject
and it will help improve your writing. Sometimes people dont go over your work that
well and instead you could have been working on your paper. Overall it's a good helpful
experience.

“‘You Will Never Believe What Happened’: Stories We Tell” - Ron Christiansen
(February 13, 2019)

1. Telling stories is one way we use language as a resource to create and build relationships.
When we use language to recount events in our life, we are deliberately utilizing
strategies in order to enact a particular type of response to our words.
Stories are our attempts to make sense of the world. We narrate our experience in order to
connect with others and validate our own experience and self-worth. We shape our
identity
through these stories.
2. We tell stories to give others a glimpse into the life we live. When we read stories we
get a glimpse into others lives. Seeing how others live help make us more human because
we can connect with them and their experiences.

“Is That a True Story?” - Ron Christiansen

(February 15, 2019)
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1. I would argue, however, that one thing is clear: the minute we start to retell a story from
our past we are constructing it from our point of view, so there’s no need to get too
worried about getting every detail correct. It’s impossible.
For our purposes in a writing class, it is paramount that we tell meaningful and coherent
stories. Meaningful so that we are invested in communicating something to someone who
may or may not know us; coherent so that our story can be understood.
2. Truth is complicated because sometimes we can't remember all of it. We either add in
details that we thought happened or we remove details that did happen. Over time our
memory of the situation changes and in the end what we think we are saying is the truth
but really, it is now.

“Adding the Storyteller’s Tools to the Writer’s Toolbox”- Clint Johnson

(February 21, 2019)

1. The power Scene

○ Writing stories requires that we write meaningful scenes: areas of intense
focus where we describe people, places, and actions in order to make a
reader feel they have witnessed something themselves.
2. The Power Experience
○ When people make claims about what is good or bad, effective or
ineffective, or true or false, we automatically compare the claim to our
lived experience.
3. The power of sensory Detail
○ To describe something using the senses not only gives an additional
texture of reality to the subject, but it can help memory.
4. The power of Voice
○ Most good stories are about dramatic, interesting characters, people who
the author creates yet are not the author. Their words—dialogue—have
great power to establish unique, distinctive voices separate from the
author’s own voice as a story’s narrator. These character voices seem so
real it’s easy to forget that the author created them.
5. The Power of Conflict
○ You know that every good story is about conflict because conflict means
people care. Conflict is produced when different individuals or groups
have competing interests and take action trying to achieve their personal
goals, often by overcoming resistance from others.

“Memorability: 6 Keys for success” - Nikki Mantyla

(February 25, 2019)
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1. Simple: We can’t always be brief, but we can stay focused.

2. Unexpected: Writers who incorporate the unexpected in strategic ways—with a shocking
statistic in a report or a fresh take on a classic recipe or an unheard-of position on a
controversial subject—are more likely to hook their audience. Without such surprise, our
chances of being memorable are low.
3. Concrete: Regardless of genre, concrete ideas are easier for people to grasp. We might
not comprehend a blue whale’s thirty-meter length, but tell us that’s more than two
school buses and we can picture it. It’s better to make details tangible.
4. Credible: Writers can also buy cred by touting their own expertise: experiences with the
topic, relevant places they’ve worked or volunteered, observations that sharpened their
perspective, surveys or interviews they’ve done, classes they’ve taken, even their age.
5. Emotional: Aim for the kind of vibe that best fits the audience and purpose, and find
effective ways to solicit those emotions.
6. Story-based: Some people assume storytelling is only for memoirs or fiction writing or
movies, but in reality, stories are everywhere.
The best story type for each piece of writing will depend on its situation and purpose and
audience, but using miniature stories like the spotlight tale can be a great method for
highlighting a writer’s subject in a memorable way.
7. Conclusion: There is a power in language and you should use it in your writing to make
in better and more interesting.

“Story as Rhetorical: We Can’t Escape the Story No Matter How Hard We Try”-Ron
Christiansen
(February 28, 2019)
1. The writer is the individual, group, or organization who authors a text. Every writer
brings a frame of reference to the rhetorical situation that affects how and what they say
about a subject.
The purpose is what the writer and the text aim to do. To think rhetorically about purpose
is to think both about what motivated writers to write and what the goals of their texts
are.
The exigence refers to the perceived need for the text, an urgent imperfection a writer
identifies and then responds to through writing. To think rhetorically about exigence is to
think about what writers and texts respond to through writing.
2. A story is the writers way to convince the readers point of view is the correct one. The
writer uses facts and personal experiences to show the reader that their view is the correct
view even if the story is in argumentative. Sometimes when writing the writer doesn't
make their view as obvious as other times but their opinion is always there even if its
subtle.
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“The Narrative Effect: Story as the Forward Frame”- Lisa Bickmore

(March 4, 2019)
1. An explicit and decipherable timeline is key to the narrative effect—that is, key to
understanding a text as a story.
2. Stories also help readers understand why and under what conditions the story matters.
This, by the way, is true of most kinds of writing that matter to readers—either the
situation is clearly understood by all those who receive the piece of writing, or the writer
makes that situation clear.
3. As readers, we also hope for an opportunity to see into a vivid story-world that has a
sense of lived-in-ness, of detail and texture. This is what Herman refers to as the
“qualia”—the “what it is like”–ness of a story.
4. When we read pieces of writing as stories, we look for these qualities: an explicit timeline
or course of events, a sense of situation and occasion, and the animation of a story-world.
5. Similarly, writers choose to highlight narrative and narrative strategies—to create the
narrative effect for a reader—when they want the reader to see into that story-world, to
empathize or to feel with the characters, and to feel motivated by the circumstances or
occasions of the story’s telling.
6. When we read stories we look for the flow of things. We also like to look for things we
can relate to, like personal experiences or fun stories. The narrative is the most important
part of the story and writers have to make it interesting to keep the readers intrigued.

“Punctuation, Memes, and Choice”- Nikki Mantyla

(March 5, 2019)
1. What is new to you?
a. One little mistake can change the whole sentence giving it a new meaning and it
could lead to a lot of problems. Even the smallest punctuation can make the
biggest difference.
2. What’s interesting to you?
a. I liked when it showed the example of “A woman, without her man, is nothing.”
and “A woman: without her, man is nothing.” These are the exact same sentence
but with different punctuation it is completely different. I think this example is
perfect to show the power of punctuation.
3. What finally makes sense?
a. The longer you go without a period, the more emphasis gets lost along the way.
The longer your paragraph is the less interest your reader will have in reading
what you have to say. Semicolons and colons finally make sense to me now.

“Peer Review”- Jim Beatty

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(March 8, 2019)
1. How to give feedback
a. Don’t just correct grammar and typos, give real feedback about what you liked
and what they should change. That's one of the most helpful things you can do.
Also ask them questions about their work.
2. How to receive feedback
a. Don't get defensive over your writing. Don't get mad when people are trying to
help you because they're only trying to help you make it better and give an outside
point of view.
3. Make peer review apart of your life
a. Don't treat peer reviews as an assignment you're forced to do. Get the best out of
it and also do it outside of class. Have your parents and friends look over it, your
parents, grandparents. Don't be afraid to ask and always have a positive attitude.