Entry 3

Dahl, Trine. "Contested Science in the Media: Linguistic Traces of News Writers’ Framing Activity." Written Communication 32.1 (2015): 39-65. Sage, 17 Nov. 2014. Web. 25 Sept. 2016. <http://wcx.sagepub.com/content/32/1/39.full.pdf+html>.

In “Contested Science in the Media: Linguistic Traces of News Writers’ Framing Activity” by Trine Dahl, Dahl compares and contrasts the framing methods used in six different news articles writing about the same subject on research from Nature regarding the geoengineering of the ocean with iron to increase algae and plankton growth which would, in turn, reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Dahl’s argument is that the writers of the articles use framing methods such as “frame setting,” which is the personal interpretation of the issue, and “frame sending,” the relaying interpretations by various public actors that are not writer themselves. The ultimate conclusion is that based on the rhetoric that these writers use, they are indeed actively using these framing methods—a mix of both according to Dahl’s research—and that the lens in which each of the article was written under was not an arbitrary opinion.

I don’t see myself recommended this article to my fellow peers. It was only mildly interesting and I was a little disappointed myself in the ways in which the arguments were framed, discussed and concluded upon. The conclusion Dahl came to was nothing paramount or ground-breaking either. We all know that media and news have been framed and have had biases for decades, and I was hoping Dahl would give us more insight as to how the rhetoric that outlets use influences framing/how effective are they. I also don’t think this information would be terribly beneficial from a teaching standpoint. While I do see the validity in students learning that what they consume through the media isn’t completely neutral, I think for the purposes of a comp class that doesn’t necessarily fit the content. (I can see arguments against that, though.) Furthermore, I feel that there are better texts out there that could teach students rhetoric strategies in their writing as well as understanding how it works in other writings, rather than just looking at other writing and trying to discern what’s happening there.

Entry 2

Blancato, Michael, and Chad Iwertz. "“Are the Instructors Going to Teach Us Anything?”: Conceptualizing Student and Teacher Roles in the “Rhetorical Composing” MOOC." Computers And Composition 42 (2016): 47-58.Elsevier. Web. 18 Sept. 2016. <http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S8755461515300153>.

In “Are the Instructors Going to Teach Us Anything?”: Conceptualizing Student and Teacher Roles in the “Rhetorical Composing” MOOC.", Blancato and Iwertz examine the effectiveness of an MOOC (massive open online course) on Rhetoric Composition at the Ohio State and critique the structure of these classes in the way they assign roles to students and teachers, as well as how the perceived agency of the participants affect the way that knowledge is disseminated.

Blancato and Iwertz explain that there are usually two basic modes for MOOC: xMOOC and cMOOC, the former being a set-up where there is a strict instructor-student hierarchy and most of the knowledge is being handed down from the instructor (the expert) to the students, and the latter is where there is more of a discussion between the community of students and they are the primary medium through which knowledge is transmitted. After assessing the questions and needs of students, the conclusion that Blancato and Iwertz come to is that a strict focus on either style isn’t very beneficial to students. Rather, they propose that attention must be paid to the MOOC so that it takes on aspects of both styles. Their reasoning is that when using an xMOOC, students can feel alienated in how much agency they have in the information and knowledge they are receiving, as if they are at a shortcoming of knowledge in comparison to the instructor, and in a cMOOC, students can often feel lost or that they aren’t learning anything without some guidance from an instructor. In a perfect mix of the two, there is ample discussion and collaboration between the students on what they’re learning, but also consolidation and affirmation from the instructor.

I would definitely, definitely recommend this article to my peers, because I think it is a meta-analysis of what we’re doing now in our classroom, just on a smaller scale. I think that it’s important to assess how content and sure we feel about the information we’re receiving and if we believe that the propagation of knowledge in the classroom is sufficient enough to give us a solid understanding of the material we’re consuming. Especially, too, with the rise of the internet phenomenon allowing masses to take college classes from a distance, often not face to face, it’s extremely important to analyze the effectiveness of these classes before there is a potential overhaul to make MOOC’s (and somewhat similar style of classes) the standard mode of teaching rather than the traditional method.

Entry 1

Hanauer, David I. "Measuring Voice in Poetry Written by Second Language Learners." Sage 32.1 (2015): 66-86. 23 Dec. 2014. Web. 12 Sept. 2016.

In "Measuring Voice In Poetry Written by Second Language Learners," David Hanauer is conducting research to see if there is a significant voice in the poetry of ESL/2nd Language writers. The reason for his inquiry is that a lot of the current pedagogy for teaching English as a second language to international or foreign students is using creative writing as a tool. The argument for this is that the use of creative writing in that specific classroom setting helps develops a student's voice, provides them with emotional engagement and leaves them with a feeling of ownership over their writing and, ultimately, the language itself.
Through his experiment of seeing whether random participants could discern if two poems were written by the same author or another, Hanauer came to the conclusion that it was possible to identify two different works by the same author. He takes this finding to conclude that the reason one could identify these works as being from the same writer is because the writer has a specific voice and if that is the case, that the writer has a specific voice, than Hanauer believed it is fair to conclude that the use of creative writing in ESL classrooms is appropriate because it does hone a writer's craftsmanship and voice.
While I don't think this study itself is conclusive, I would indeed recommend this article to a lot of my peers, especially those in the MFA program that would want to pursue teaching because, as we have learned from this week's reading, separate classes for rhetoric and comp studies for ESL/EFL students are not as popular and everyone is being treated at an equal standard. This could provide an opportunity for MFA holders to use the skills they, themselves, are familiar with as well as create assignments and curriculum that would be conducive to helping ESL/EFL stay on track and be confident with being in a comp class with those that are native speakers/writers.