• QUESTIONS ABOUT THE TEXT
• I don’t understand the mismeasure of men besides the fact that its trying to find a distinction between science and behavioral influences on intelligence.
• I did not complete the reading for Plessy v Firguson, therefor I have no idea what happened in the reading. I will be completing the annotation tonight.

• How does Gould define biological determinism? (page 52) “it holds that shared behavior norms, and the social and economic differences between human groups- primarily races, classes, and sexes – arise from inhibited, inborn distractions and that society, in this sense, is an accurate reflection of biology” (52).
• What are the two major sources of data that have supported this theme known as biological determinism? (page 52) Craniometry (measure of the skull) and Psychological testing.
• What have biological determinists invoked when it comes to the issue of race? (page 52) They spoke about how the white mans skull is bigger than a black one’s which would mean that white men are more superior.
• According to Gould on page 53, biological determinism is useful for: utility for groups in power.
• According to Gould on page 53, for the adherents of biological determinism, changes to a social and political system based on a racial caste system seen as an extension of nature is: enormous costs for individuals psychologically AND enormous cost for society economically.
• Gould’s arguments against biological determinism begin by attacking which two fallacies? (page 56) Reification and ranking
• In the last paragraph of page 56, what does Gould write is his book is about (his explanation continues onto page 57)? disadvantages of “disadvantaged groups—races , classes, or sexes—are innately inferior and deserve their status. In short, this book is about the Mismeasure of Man” (57).

• Finish this sentence, which can be found on page 59: “In most cases discussed in this book, we can be fairly certain that biases—though often expressed as egregiously as in cases of fraud—were unknowingly influential and that scientists believed they were pursuing unsullied truth.
• On page 60, Gould describes biological determinism as a theory of limits. What does he mean by that? What he meant by that was that, ” it takes current status of groups as a measure of where they should and must be” (60).

Plessy v Ferguson

• According to Brook Thomas, the editor of Plessy v. Ferguson: A Brief History with Documents, what were the problems with laws designed to keep races separate (hint: it deals with the concept of skin color and “passing”)? (page 3)
• What did Albion Tourgee want the Supreme Court to do when it came to segregation laws? (page 4)
• Why was Homer Plessy chosen as a test case? (page 4)
• Why did Justice John Ferguson rule in favor of Daniel F. Desdunes riding a train over state lines but against Homer Plessy, who rode a train within the borders of Louisiana? (page 5)
• What is the difference between a social right, a political right, and a civil right? (page 12)
• Why does Congress pass a civil rights act? (page 13)
• According to Charles Walter Collins, what did the 14th Amendment do? (page 14)
• Which group was the first to bring a case before the Supreme Court citing a violation of their rights under the 13th and 14th Amendments (hint: it wasn’t African Americans)? (page 18.)

• watch OWL video and annotate.

Plessy vs fergesson p 1-20 : They couldn’t find the book the other day, when they did (today) I took pictures of the wrong pages. I took 20-38 which is tonight’s homework. I’ll take the “L”.

• “Mismeasure of Man” (p. 51-62):
• The writing is confusing to read
• Biological determinism: “hold shared behavioral norms, and the social and economic differences between human groups – primarily races, classes, and sexes – arise from inherited, inborn distractions and that society, in this sense, is an accurate reflection of biology” (52). Principle theme within biological determinism: the claim that worth can be assigned to individuals and groups by measuring intelligence as a single quantity”. The example of that is craniometry ( size of the skull) and psychological testing (52).
• Mettle: Plato’s way of speaking of people’s worthiness
• Louis Agassiz (1850): talked about how “naturalists” should have the right to view the physical relations of men as scientific questions and nothing related to politics or religion (52).
• Carl C. Brigham (1923): he wanted to execute the southern and eastern European immigrants because he thought that it would “preserve or increase” our intelligence by science and not by “political dependency” (52).
• “if the status quo is an extension of nature, then any major change, if possible at all, must inflict an enormous cost- psychological for individuals, or economic for society- in forcing people into unnatural arrangements” (53).
• The basic concept of this reading so far is understanding what is the leading influence into a mans intelligence and the means to measure one’s intelligence.
• “the purely relativistic claim that scientific change only reflects the modification of social contexts, that truth is a meaningless notion outside cultural assumptions, and that science can therefor provide no enduring answers” (54).
• Enduring: continuing or long lasting.

• How does Mirabelli describe the purpose of this chapter: serving is more than serving. You have to be literal, verbal and nonverbal, “have to be read and dealt with appropriately”. Serving and working in service work does not make you a servant (serfs).
• According to Mirabelli, what does being literate mean when a waiter is using the menu at Lou’s? : specific vocabulary that can mean different things in the same context, “the meaning of the language used in menus are socially and culturally embedded in the context of the specific situation or restaurant” (544). Describe how it’s made, and the background of the ingredients, more complex ideas like what pairs with what especially ingredients.
• How do waiters “get the jump” in fine dining restaurants, and why, according to Mirabelli, do these waiters do this? : printing menus in foreign languages, the customer has to go through the waiter/ waitress. They do this to “gain control of selecting items from the menu” (547). Up sale is important (more friendly).

Multiliteracies: verbal and nonverbal ques, being able to handle interactions and the process. People become multi-literate in their discourse communities.

Discourse: communication goes long distances. Socializing people which is important to socialization. Creates the socialization process.

Socialization: a continuing process where an individual acquires a personal identity and learns the norms, values, behavior, and social skills appropriate to his or her social position.

• Mirabelli and the rhetorical triangle:
• Mirabelli (first point), Reader, Issue. We need to find the gap between reader and Issue. The issue: “serving requires multiliteracies”
• Who is the potential readers: People who are not in the service industry.
• The Gap: the gap is to identify and understand literacy and realize when they’re not textual.

“The Concept of Community Discourse”

1. Who is the writer of this article (like more than his name–what important, pertinent info can you found out about him online)? John Swales is Professor Emeritus of Linguistics, he is an academic.
2. Who do you think he imagined as his perfect audience of readers? His audience would be academics, Linguists.
3. What do you think, in your own words, is the issue this article is trying to address? The issue that this article is trying to address is the difference between Discoursed communities and Speech communities.
4. In your own words, what do you think that Swales imagined as the gap between what he had found out about discourse community versus what his readers already knew about the concept of discourse community? There is still a misunderstanding of Discourse community so he came up with SIX characteristics that will help identify them.

Read and annotate “Discourse Communities: How Do Communities Shape Writing?” and “The Concept of Community Discourse,”

• “Discourse Communities: How Do Communities Shape Writing?”
• James Gee calls it “Discourse with a capital D” and John Swales calls it Discourse Communities.
• Discourses: are group members’ shared “ways of being in the world”
• Discourse Community: when a group of people share goals or purposes, and uses communication to achieve them.
• James Gee explores ” what members of a discoursed community must have in common in order to recognize each other”, as well as arguing “about how people go about acquiring these Discourses”.
• Communities of Practice: another name for Discoursed Community.
• Enculturated: adept at the culture, or a new community.
• Activity Systems: “Elizabeth Warde uses this perspective to help her analyze the relationship between language and the activity seems to demand and the strangeness of the language to the writer being enculturated”.
• Multiliteracies: how people read and understand not only the text (writing) but also those around them and the activities around them as well.

• “The Concept of Community Discourse”
• The writing off the bat, is very confusing, which is requiring to look up vocabulary I’m not familiar with.
• Swales states that there are six distinct characteristics, “help define discourse community”.
• Discourse community vs. Speech community
• Discourse community: groups that have goals or purposes, and uses communication to achieve those goals.
• Speech community: a community that shares the knowledge of rules of speech.
• Lexis: a word used in a language, or by a group of people that outsiders will not be able to understand.
• Genres: types of texts that are recognizable to readers and writers, meets the need of Rhetorical Situations.
• Rhetorical Situations: consists of an issue, an audience and a set of constraints.
• The SIX characteristic that help define Discourse communities, according to Swales:

1. Common public goals
2. Ways to communicate with others
3. “participatory” communication methods
4. What Genre defines the group
5. Basic knowledge needed to be a member

• Why does reading John Swales’s work suck?
• Complicated wording, very long. Hard to understand on the first read-through
• Too long to get to the point
• The explanation of the HKSC is very niche, distracts from the article (show how language works in the real world, he is using “field research”).
• Includes useless information that can’t be used outside academia (most people aren’t going to read this).
• It was for a class.

1. If we take this as true, in your own words describe what you think Swales sees as the gap in this conversation he’s participating in (the conversation described by the editors in the preface to the chapter). Clarification of what “discourse” means. There are different definitions of what discourse can be.
2. In your opinion, how does this piece fill that gap? There are differences between the discourse community and speech community. He fills it by giving six criteria. Go above and beyond to articulate his point.
3. Who do you think is the audience for this essay? I think that the audience is people who are academics and Linguists. It’s structured in a way that states facts and reiterates on them.
4. What’s the danger of an essay like this? Shuts down anything else. Too deep- declines any further research basically.

The intended readers are the common folk who read the news. We spoke in class about it in class and the audience is the people who read the news because Time is a news magazine. He addresses them in a way that would be seen as confrontational, he addresses them as “Yankee haters”. He uses it to catch the attention of the readers. People take their favoritism into a sports team which can bring about emotion. The values that the writer seems to have in common with the reader is the fact that we are all in the United States. He talks about how America’s belief in it’s objectivity and our moral authority. Like mentioned previously, the conversation we had in class was that this was about our country and our society. America thinks of itself as the biggest and baddest in the world. The writer appeals to the audience by bringing up that we pay the wealthy so much money, “If all the cities had the same amount of money, every year might be as exciting in a roll-of-the-dice way, but there would be no truth in it. America is a nation of vast economic, educational and ethnic disparities. The Yankees are the real America” (Stein, Joel). He speaks about things that we would find as patriotic, “People come to America for the same reason that A-Rod wanted to join the Yankees: both are well-run organizations with long histories of success” (Stein, Joel). Is stein working to persuade the audience, he is re-affirming shared values, when speaking how he appeals to the audience (Akash). “He is preaching to the choir” (Professor Bailie). He uses humor and tries to entertain while also making an argument (Patrick C.).

Cited: http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,593910,00.html

1. Is Stein doing anything that is mentioned in last nights homework? Yes he is, he is creating a couple of different connections. One being, the comparison of the audience and Aims of Argument. So what he is doing is he is writing for a specific type of audience, and how we discussed earlier that is the “common folk” who read TIME Magazine. He uses the Fallacies of Ambiguity.
2. I believe that the audience that Stein deploying is People who share your view. I think that is the audience because the reading was not to make you believe in something new (although it feels like he is pushing you to like the Yankees). Nor is he trying to hold an open conversation, but he is trying to form an agreement.

Analytical notes on “Brief Thompson 72-87”.

The interesting part about the reading, to me, was when the article was describing how to engage certain kind of audience to your topic (the structure of your words based on the desired audience). The information about the engagement of the audience educated me that I can use audience relevancy to map out what I expect my audience to be, the things that they might believe, and what they do on a regular day, to make your point either persuade them or leave them in an open debate.

• I saw a lot of vocabulary that comes along with the writing process that I wasn’t familiar with, so I took notes.
• It’s important to look at all the different perspectives, cannot be biased.

List 1: The things that make me feel comfortable in a classroom: approachable teacher, when people talk and laugh or acknowledge others. When there are not a lot of people in a room.

List 2: The things that make me feel uncomfortable in a classroom: when people aren’t responsive or if there is someone or something that makes me feel as if I’m stupid or that I should know better.

• Joel Stein is an american journalist: Sarcastic or ironic, comedic writer. Offends readers but is considered funny. He was a researcher for Martha Stewart, got fired super quick. He mocks wealthy people, he also challenges common cores and values as well as views in American culture. He wants to challenge the common thought. He does not treat the apposing perspectives fairly, the reason he does this is because hes trying to make the other side not as credible and making the other side mad who would be in support of the other national teams. I think that the intended audience was supporters of the Yankees.
• Speaker is “not Stein”, alternative ego who is an over the top bully. He doesn’t treat the opposite side fairly because in his opinion their view isn’t being treated fairly; he demonstrating what is already out there.
• 2004 we are in Afghanistan and Iraq. George W Bush is president. It is all about this: Yankees are america, we crushed dictators. SO what Joel Stein is referring to the two biggest ward that we were involved in at the time. His audience is the average-joe. TIME magazine is a news magazine.

Annotation of the text “Brief Thompson” p.49-57.

The text was on basic information about numerous ways of staying engaged with a reading to aid in the retention of information as well as to go deeper into the meaning behind the work. It showed several possible ways in which a student can make comments on a piece of writing that has most strategies to use not only in our own reading but also prove reading other students material.