Learning Log

English 2010
¨Donald J. Trump, Pope Francis, and the Beef That Defied Space and Time¨
Benjamin Soloman
January 15, 2019
1. ¨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¨
¨If a student turned in a sentence like this to me, I’d comment, “I’m not sure this makes
logical sense.” I’d consider it first-drafty, undercooked, and expect the writer to work on
clarifying its structure and logic. So it’s tempting for me to call Donald Trump a sloppy
grammarian, or a logical fallacy on legs. But actually, I think Trump’s use of language was both
calculated and intentional¨
2. The two side in the article are clearly butting heads, trying to make their own side seem
the more righteous of the opposed. It's interesting to see how each of the two sides uses there
language to make a point, both use different methods. The Pope uses more credible sounding
language and Trump used a jumbled loop of information, yet it gets his point across.

“Language Matters: A Rhetorical Look at Writing”

Chris Blankenship and Justin Jory
January 17, 2019
1. ¨Ask anyone who studies rhetoric what it is, and they’ll tell you it’s difficult to define¨
¨All three of these scenarios show how careful attention to language and the contexts that
surround it can help individuals understand the communication challenges they experience and
effectively respond to those challenges¨
2. I believe they are saying it that way because there are so many ways to write certain
things and equally as many ways to interpret it. It is often difficult to appeal to audiences when
trying to make your writing understandable.

“Genre in the Wild--Understanding Genre Within Rhetorical (Eco) Systems”

Lisa Bickmore
January 22, 2019
1. “Genre is a word we use when we want to classify things, to note the similarities and
differences between kinds of writing. But we don’t identify genres solely by their formal
markers.”
“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.”
2. I feel like it depends. If you stick to an academic hyper structured genre, then yes it
does. It doesn’t if you have some sort of freedom to explore the genre because it will give it
individuality rather than being the same as everything else.
“Writing for Community Change”
Elisa Stone
January 24, 2019
Q: If money and time were no factors, what service opportunity would you engage in? Elaborate
1. “Being a good citizen, in other words, can actually help you get a higher GPA and be a
more attractive candidate to not only prospective employers, but also to transfer institutions if
you plan to pursue additional education after your current degree.”
“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. I would want to go ahead and do research on deadly diseases and cancers. If there is
no cap on money of time, the whole world could be cured of all ailments which would help
everyone.

“The Elizabeth Smart Case: A study in Narrativized News”

Clint Johnson
January 28, 2019
Q:WHat, in your opinion, make the elizabeth smart story so universal and long-lasting.
1. “The Smart family, with extended kin, refused to let the lack of developments silence
media coverage. They started a website to serve as a resource for the investigation and
provided media with home videos of Elizabeth as a child and teenager.”
“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. It had to do with the new coverage, first of all. It was everywhere and everyone knew
about it which made it possible to solve the case and find Elizabeth Smart. Also, it is such a
horrible incident and now Elizabeth is an advocate for stopping instances like her own, a reason
why it is so long standing.

“Writing Is Recursive”
Chris Blankenship
January 30, 2019
1. “But if you’re willing to put aside the linear steps and view invention, research, drafting,
revision, and editing as ways of thinking that can be revisited over and over again until you
accomplish your goal, you will become a more successful writer.”
“recursion is used to describe a process that loops or “runs again” until a task is complete.”
2. Writing isn’t necessarily a linear process because one thing changed at the end of an
essay of piece of writing can impact the beginning. It’s a sporadic process where change and
revision happens in multiple areas that involves all the elements. You may have to start from
the beginning and go through the process again if you change something, or jump into a part in
the middle of the linear process. That is why a web is more accurate.

“Making Choices in Writing”

Jessie Szalay
February 1, 2019
1. “We make decisions all day every day, narrowing dozens of options down to a few, often
without even noticing, and then selecting our chosen option fairly quickly.”
“You might have heard the saying, attributed to Michelangelo, “Every block of stone has a
statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.””
2. I’m going to pick something I want to write about. I’m going to be careful about my word
choice, whether I write informally or not. Setting a meaningful tone and structuring it so it makes
sense is important. I don’t want it to be too long, just enough to have a powerful point.

“Dear Italy”, “An Open Letter to High School Students About Reading”
February 5, 2019
1. “I simply found a place in you, where I felt as though I belonged.”
“Obviously, however, with minimal effort comes minimal rewards.”
2. Some commonalities between the two letters are along the lines of evidence. Both of
their evidences support their idea they are expressing. Their structure is also very similar. It
moves from point to point explaining the main idea.

“Revision Is Writing. That Is All.”

Lisa Bickmore
February 7, 2019
1. “Predictive outlines can be enormously helpful in plotting out an initial draft…”
“Paying attention to sequencing is paying attention to the logic of the piece—the way that a
particular point might need to be made, or a piece of evidence established, before another point
can be made.”
2. “Revising is an important part of writing. It is necessary to be aware of what your
argument is and who you’re targeting in order to revise properly.

“Personal Literacy an Academic Learning”

Marlena Stafford
February 11, 2019
1. “When we think of “literacy,” we generally think of the ability to read and write.”
“In the present age, to be literate means to be able to communicate through texts in ways that
help you meet your needs and the needs of others.”
2. Picture books, chapter books, novels, short stories, argumentative essays, classical
works, articles, informational essays, research, rhetoric

“You Will Never Believe What Happened!”

Ron Christiansen
February 13, 2019
1. “For clarifying our view of the world.” “For asserting our identity.”
2. The quote means that telling stories is what give a person their identity, but when you
read stories it is gathering the identity of others so that you can compare them to yourself. It is
interesting to see other people’s stories and how your own are different or similar; it can be what
binds people together.

“Is That a True Story?”

Ron Christiansen
February 15, 2019
1. “Does my story have to be true, like completely true?”
“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.”
2. Truth is complicated because you can never really tell what the truth is. You could
remember something in a specific way, like someone wearing a red shirt twelve years ago, but
that might not have been the truth. It could have been orange. I think the fact that truth comes
from our perspective is what causes the complications.

“Adding the Storyteller’s Tools to the Writer’s Toolbox”

Clint Johnson
February 21, 2019
1. “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.”
“To describe something using the senses not only gives an additional texture of reality to the
subject, but it can help memory.”
2. There are many tools that writers can use to formulate successful pieces of writing. One
of which is using sensory detail because it can help personalize stories and make it more
effective.

“Memorability”
Nikki Mantyla
February 25, 2019
Simple: “He took a direct approach. And he kept it concise.”
Unexpected: “Juxtaposition, in which you compare things that seem unrelated, can be a great
tool for creating irony.”
Concrete: “...showing with concrete details means readers experience firsthand input and draw
their own stronger conclusions.”
Credible: “One way is to borrow fame, as this article does by showcasing a celebrity. Take
advantage of any impressive sources.”
Emotional: “Aim for the kind of vibe that best fits the audience and purpose, and find effective
ways to solicit those emotions.”
Story-based: “Most crucially of all, tell a story. It’s one of the best ways to appeal to emotion—
and appeal to humans.”
Conclusion: “That’s the power of language to do things, be things, and make things in the
world.”

“Story as Rhetorical: We Can’t Escape the Story No Matter How Hard We Try”
Ron Christiansen
February 28, 2019
1. “Did you know that writing teachers disagree about what kinds of writing they should use
or teach, even if they (sometimes? often?) act as if there is a consensus?”
“Unfortunately, rigor is often defined, unknowingly at times, as that which students simply do not
like…”
“...story is not simply rhetorical because writers make decisions about it.”
2. Story is an argument because it often is concerning someone’s experience. Those help
from opinions which eventually leads to an underlying argument, regardless of if it is on purpose
or not.

“The Narrative Effect: Story as the Forward Frame”

Lisa Bickmore
March 4, 2019
1. “In other words, Berube argues that narrative is a cognitive structure—something we use
to think, or even a kind of thinking in and of itself—that affords specific uses and opportunities
for the reader and writer alike”
“If we think of story as underlying all understanding, we might consider the possibility that we
should think of all writing as storytelling”
“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.”
“Writers create the worlds of their stories by using sensory detail, but also by evoking the
narrator’s or other character’s states of mind.”
“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.”
2. The last “ah-hah” moment is the one I want to formulate into my memoir. I want mine to
capture every necessary detail with the utmost clarity so that I can tell my story exactly how I
want people to see it. It would be more enjoyable and a better piece when written with the
proper qualities.

¨Punctuation, Memes, and Choice¨

Nikki Mantyla
March 6, 2019
● What's new? Em dashes can work similarly to parenthesis. There are no spaces for
them.
● What's interesting? Punctuation can be used to put emphasis on something.
● What finally makes sense? The use of certain punctuation can give certain phrases
entirely different meanings.

¨Peer Review¨
Jim Beatty
March 8, 2019
¨The least helpful thing you can do when peer reviewing is correct grammar and typos.¨
It would be much more beneficial to suggest ideas in order to make their paper stronger rather
than make it more correct. It is more important to have meaningful, well communicated content
than correct style. Punctuation and grammar can be fixed at any time and I feel they should be
done last. I would prefer someone to help me develop my ideas instead of telling me I´m wrong.
¨The best writing comes out of communal effort.¨
I feel like some of my best pieces of writing were analysed by other people. For example, I
wrote a letter to Westminster when I was submitting my application. It was decent before I had
my parents look it over. My parents offered a lot of feedback which made my overall paper
much better than if it had just me judging myself. Writing really well requires perspective from
someone who isn't.