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Vivyanne Medina

English 1301/1320.158

Trang Phan

Sept. 28, 2010

Writer-based prose: A Cognitive Basis for Problems in Writers. Linda Flower; College English, Vol. 41, No. 1 (Sept., 1979), pp. 19-37

Summary:

What’s being told on the article by “Linda Flower” is just to be effective writers and to know how to properly give your own ideas as writers. Just like a writer-based prose, “process...good writing...transformation...a structure and style adapted to a reader.” pg. 20 as of a Reader-based prose, they “attempt to communicate something to the reader...purpose of the writers thought.” We basically got to learn to give more effective details on our thought and opinion on our writing and transform our thoughts to the reader’s interest. A writer-based prose creates ideas on their own and their focus is egocentric. Pg. 25 Also, “for a reader is by itself is a powerful tool.”pg. 26 we need to know about reader-based prose so we can teach it and improve to learn about writer-based prose. Inner speech is very similar to writer-based prose because it gives “private verbal thoughts....plans, organizes, and control their activities.” Pg. 21 This helps us to give our thoughts and sort them into something that will interest the reader. Writer-based prose inspires inexperienced writers the confidence and motivation to go on in their writing. To be alert and “recognizing transformation as a special skill...” Pg.37

How does the author describe the egocentric nature?

Egocentric nature is explained as someone who has no interest in what other people think about them, doesn’t explain themselves well enough to understand, and don’t even try to look for the answers when questions are asked. An egocentric person is basically someone who doesn’t care about much, and don’t mind if anyone is paying attention to them. As in thinking of themselves, they are “locked in their own monologue” pg. 20. To them nothing else matters, only their own “point of view.”

Egocentrism in writing is something that is harmful to our paper as an author, because we have to think if the reader is going to be able to understand what we are trying to say. As in relation with writer based prose, egocentrism go together by both definitions that are kind of the same thing. The difference between them is that one is related to writing, which is WRITER BASED PROSE, and EGOCENTRISM is related to our human nature.

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Cynthia Sanchez
M. Andrea Martinez
English 1320/1301.158
Trang Phan
Writers-Base Prose: A cognitive Basis for Problems in Writing,
Linda Flower, Writers-Base Prose: A cognitive Basis for Problems in Writing, College English, Vol. 41, No. 1 (Sep., 19879), pp. 19-37
Summary:
In this article Linda Flower briefly describes of how writing should not be an obstacle in peoples life’s. She explains over some formats that people use that is not hard for them as they say writing is. For example “expressing what they think: or “saying what they mean”. Flower explains over how readers find it so difficult to understand some of the writing the writers write on article they publish, she describes over different ways writers explain their point of view but some readers seem not to get the hang of the writers view. Writers-base prose is an expression that is very well known for writers to use during their writing time, it is a record that they use verbally, it is known that Writes-Base prose falls into associate, narrative path of the writer’s confrontation towards their subject, as well as explaining that the writers go back to their experiences that they have faced before and they just turn them into facts. It is known that headings, topic sentences, and several of the subjects refect on new subjects and focus on process, peoples, and problems.
Question:
What is the difference between Write-Based Prose and Reading-Based Prose?
Response:
Writer-based prose as the writer just writing what he or she is thinking. They just write down what they feel and all their emotions in their own thoughts or ideas into a piece of paper and they do not take into consideration their audience that are reading their article. In order for the writers to change the writing they should think about the reader’s first like to put themselves in their reader’s shoes. So that the readers can understand the writers point of view. They have to take into consideration how the reader sees the reading and if they are able to understand it. Reader-based prose is when the writer does take the reader into consideration. So the reading is more understandable to reader and the reader doesn’t get caught up in the reading without knowing what the reading is about. Overall I think writers should write reader-based prose when they write a story, not writer-based prose because the reading is for the readers not the writer. They should write writer-based prose only when they are writing in a journal or diary, because that is their personal space and they should be able to write their thoughts freely.

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Lucero Chinchurreta
Alba Huerta
ENG 1320/1301.158
Instructor: Tran Phan
September 28, 2010
Writer-Base Prose: A Cognitive Basis for Problems in Writing
Linda Flower, “Writer-Base Prose: A Cognitive Basis for Problems in Writing”. College English, Vol. 41, No. 1 (Sep., 1979) pp. 19-37
This article is basically about writing and the” act of expressing what the person thinks”. One of the questions that the writers ask is why is writing often such a difficult thing to do? Also it says how the writers express what they think but usually is harder for the reader to understand or gain the same meaning. Later on explains how writers express their thoughts and also transform them into a more complex and describable ways so the reader can understand better what they are thinking or saying. Overall this article is an explanation of this under transformation mode of verbal expression. In the article explains the style of writing and the style of thoughts. “Writer-Base prose represents a major and familiar mode of expression which we all use form time to time.” No piece of writing will be a pure example they can be identify by the functions, style and features of structure. Also writer- base purse is also a practical concept that helps us teach. Is a way to intervene in the thinking process and it taps intuitive communication strategies that writers already have. In this article it shows that Linda Flowers did a study of the psychological theory of egocentrism and inner speech. The “egocentric speech, the child talks only about himself and takes no interest in his interlocutor.”

Question:
How would you identify a Writer-Based Prose and a Reader-Based Prose?
Response:
I identify a writer-based prose as the writer just writing what he or she is thinking. They just write down freely their own thoughts or ideas into paper and they don’t consider their audience. In order for writers to change this they should put themselves in the reader’s shoes. So they can be able to see a different point of view. They have to take into consideration how the reader sees the reading and if they are able to understand it. Reader-based prose is when the writer does take the reader into consideration. So the reading is more understandable to reader and the reader doesn’t get caught up in the reading without knowing what the reading is about. Overall I think writers should write reader-based prose when they write a story, not writer-based prose because the reading is for the readers not the writer. They should write writer-based prose only when they are writing in a journal or diary, because that is their personal space and they should be able to write their thoughts freely.

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Ricardo Salinas
Daniel Garcia
ENG 1320/1301. 158
Trang Phan
9/27/2010
Writer-Based Prose: A cognitive Basis for Problems of Writing
Summary:
This paper is telling us the different perspectives of Writer based prose and how when you transform it you create the Reader Based prose, they did different kind of study’s so you can see the relationship between this Reader and Writer prose.
In function Writer Based Prose is a verbal expression written by a writer to himself, is working on his verbal taught, because sometimes the reader doesn’t get what the writer put on the paper, and in structure is when you reflect the associative and narrative path of the writer own confrontation of his subject. The Writer Based Prose is a process when the writer put his own taught in structure and style adapted to the reader, everyone uses the strategies of Writer Based Prose, but good writers go a step further to transform the writing, this technique gives confidence and motivation to the inexperienced writers to go on.
Reader Based Prose is the task the groundwork laid in the first stage of the process, its an extension of our communication with ourselves transformed to the needs of the readers, most of the transformations that occur with this strategy are when you select a focus mutual interest to the reader and the writer, moving from facts, scenarios and details to concepts.
Question:
How would you identify a Writer-Based Prose and a Reader-Based Prose?
Response:
A Writer-Based Prose is when the writer make a verbal expression but its for him, it is address from him-self and for himself, and nobody else, like a journal or a dairy that only the writer would read it. It contains his personal thoughts, his personal experiences, also the deepest feelings from the writer, his language, the way he express. In its structure, Writer-Based prose reflects the associative, narrative path of the writer's own confrontation with her subject. In its language, it reveals her use of privately loaded terms and shifting but unexpressed contexts for her statements.
Reader-Based prose is a deliberate attempt to communicate something to a reader. To make that possible the writer tries to put a common language so the reader can understand his idea, or main point. It also offers the reader an issue-centered rhetorical structure rather than a replay of the writer's discovery process. In its language and structure, Reader-Based prose reflects the purpose of the writer's thought; Writer-Based prose tends to reflect its process.

Writer-Based Prose: A Cognitive Basis for Problems in WritingAuthor(s): Linda FlowerSource: College English, Vol. 41, No. 1 (Sep., 1979), pp. 19-

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Zalina Nazarova and Adrian Badillo
Eng 1320/1301.158
Trang Phan
Writer-based prose: a cognitive basis for problems in writing.
This article talks about writer-based prose, a study of a transformation, its function, structure and style. Writing prose communicates what we mean to another person. Effective writers don’t simply express thought they transform it in certain complex in ways for the needs of a reader. Writer-based prose is a verbal expression written by writer to himself or for himself. It is also the record and the working of his own verbal thought. In contrast reader-based prose is attempted to communicate something to a reader. That creates a shared language and shared context between writer and reader. In its language and structure, reader- based prose reflects the purpose of the writer’s thought and tends to reflect its process. Writer-based prose can be identified by features of structure, function, and style. The structure of write-based prose reflects an economical strategy we have for coping with information. Readers expect writers to produce complex concepts- to collect data and details under larger guiding ideas and place those ideas in integrated network. For an inexperienced writer the complex transformation of a periodic sentence can be difficult juggling act. So the good writer is the one who strive for reader-based prose from the very beginning: they retrieve and organize information within the framework of a reader/writer contract.
Q. What is a survey strategy that writers use and how effective is it?
R. Writers use a survey strategy to compose because it’s a powerful procedure for retrieving and organizing information. When writers have gone through the composing process, it means that they have taken a piece of writing from the stage in which they develop ideas and think about ways of organizing them, through drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading. In practice; it is much messier, some¬ times jumping ahead, sometimes looping back. Nevertheless, most writing— and all successful academic writing—is the result of the writer's attention to all these stages. A survey strategy offers the writer a useful way into the composing process in two ways. First, it eliminates many of the constraints normally imposed by a speech act, particularly the contract between reader and writer for mutually useful discourse. Secondary, a survey of one’s own stored knowledge, marching along like a text book. To be clear most of the advantages here accrue to the writer. One of the assumptions of the writer-based writer is that once the relevant information is presented, the reader will do the work of abstracting the essential features, building a conceptual hierarchy, and transforming the whole discussion into a functional network of ideas. It may be also a useful road into a creative process for some writers.

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Javier Lopez
Ryan Martinez
English 1320/1301 .158
Trang Phan
9/28/10

Writer-based prose- A cognitive Basis for Problems in Writing

On the article by “Linda Flower” she states that to be effective writers you have to give more details on what your writing. Writer-based prose is mainly giving your “private verbal thought” (page 21.) about what the story is about. As for reader-based prose readers just “skim quickly” (pg. 22) though what they read and don’t correct the mistakes. They “attempt to communicate to the reader”(pg. 20) as they progress and “reflects the purpose of the writer's thought.” (pg. 20) Egocentric doesn’t do much but just want things in hand, just like a reader-based prose. Inner Speech is the same to a writer-based prose, because that shows that they give details and go beyond those thoughts to express themselves. They have to learn to be a reader-based prose first, so you can become a writer-based prose. To know that one day we can become writer-based prose, it motivates us to continue the “multistage process” (pg 37) of transforming our thoughts to something that captivates the readers. To learn the skills and confidence to develop to become better writers.

Q. What does writer-base prose fail to do in terms of Rhetorical Strategies? Please Explain

R.
Here Linda Flowers explains that the reason writer-base prose fails is because it focuses more on emotion and lacks a connection between the reader and writer. This causes a problem, because the reader cannot make any relation to the writers thoughts and ideas. Creating a bond with the writers ideas makes it much easier to read and understand the concept of the writers article

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Linda Flower "Writer-Based Prose: A Cognitive Basis for Problems in writing". College English, vol. 41, no. 1 (Sep., 1979), pp. 19-37.


Summary
In this article Linda Flower talks about the types of Prose there is when writing. One of the prose is called writer-base prose, and this is when a writer writes a piece based on their self-thoughts. When writing this way it is hard for the reader to understand your piece, becuase the writer is trying to re-word his/her thoughts and feelings onto paper and its hard to really try to get their point across. When the reader reads a piece like this and does not understand it, the writer would have to go back and re-write their essay all over again. Now on the other hand when Linda Flower mentions Readers Base Prose, she talks about how thw writer takes his/her time to make sure he/she gives good and enough details and information to make sure the reader understands thw piece written. Another method the writer uses is that he/she will try to put themselves into the readers shoes so they can figure out a way to write their piece or essay so the reader can understand it. So those are the two types of prose and if you want ot be a successful writer the prose to use is Reader Base Prose. The reason why is because it will help you write a well understanding piece.

Question:
What does writer-base prose fail to do in terms of Rhetorical Strategies? Please Explain.

Response:
The Writer-Base Prose fails to help the reader connect with the content, because writer-base prose deals with writing with emotions and self-thought. So that understand the writers writing. It is also very important for the reader to create a connection between the piece of writing and themselves in order to have a better understanding. In creating a connection with the piece of writing the reader is able to compare their own ideas or knowledge to the ideas that the writer is trying to relate. But none of this is possible because writer-base prose fails to do this.

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Linda Flower : “Writer –base-prose: a cognitive basis for problems in writing” College English Vol. 41 No.1 (sep. 1979), Pg 19-37
Linda Flower states that a lot of writers have a hard time communicating to their reader what they want to say. She said that these problems mainly happen because the writers are uncertain of how to transform their ideas in to a piece of writing that is both logical and understandable to the reader. She explained that writer-base prose is like the inner voice that tells the writer what to write; she goes on to say that most of these writings are egocentric and that in this type of writing the author have an easy time putting their thoughts down, but have a hard time leading the reader form one thought to another. In the other hand reader-base-prose is the complete opposite; here the author puts himself in the readers “shoes.” In reader-base-prose the author chooses carefully the function, structure of the easy, and the style of the text so that the text is more understandable to the reader, and still effective enough to get his point across.






How are the writing styles different between writer-base-prose and reader-base-prose?
One of the writing styles, writer-base-prose, is more focus on the emotions, thoughts and experiences of the writer; rather than focus on making sure that the text is understandable to the reader. In this type of writing the author does not take his audience into consideration he/she basically write what’s on his/her mind; this make the text really difficult for the reader to read, understand, and most importantly it is difficult for them to make connections to the text. Now reader-base-prose is the complete opposite to writer-base-prose; in reader-base-prose the author of the text puts him/her self in the readers position and tries to make his writing as simple and as understandable as he can. He tries to utilize writing as efficiently as possible to get his point across as fast as possible. In this type of writing the author takes careful consideration in the structure of the easy, and the style of the text; because s/he wants to make sure s/he gets his/her point across. This process takes longer than writer-base-prose, but I believe that it’s the more efficient way of writing; because you’re more likely to get your point across to your audience.

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Oscar Ramirez
Michael Silva
Eng 1320/1301
Tran Phan
09-28-10
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Linda Flower College English Vol. 41. No. 1 (Sep. 1979), Pg 19-37
In the article the author made point when people were writing they would make mistakes that were
careless and could be missed. Based on her research she notices that most of the stuff they so they put
new strategies on how to understand the reading. When they first started the experiment they studied
on small children on how they developed a sense of imagination and how they wrote it in a story form.
When they noticed that as they got older the way they wrote was different than what was expected
from them. They noticed that most of the writing was not up to its full potential. When they wrote
about a certain topic it they were off topic or they just did not make any sense for the other readers
could understand. They developed steps to improve their writing frame work. The steps were to
improve the writing by changing up certain wordings or phrases and then as usual rewrite the whole
essay to make it sound better. They build up that structure upon Function, Structure, and Style the
three ways to make the essay better and approved by other readers. If you follow the structure of the
plan eventually the paper should be will enough to show what data and other information is shown.


Q: What is the difference between Writer base prose and Reader base prose?


R: In the article the author points out two ways of writing in the article. One way of writing deals with
emotions, self-thoughts, and comments within their own writing. When they write like this it is called
Writers Base Prose it just means that the writers put thoughts of their own which to a point that other
readers read it and don’t understand it. Then the writer has to back and redo the whole writing to a
point for other readers can understand it and get the point of view. When the writers does that kind of
writing it makes it hard to understand what they are trying to say they write up to a point where the
other readers have to put thought in to it and understand what the other writer is trying to say in
between the writing. Most writers use the method when they want to make a personal log it to a journal
or keep thought to themselves to express. And in readers-base prose, the writer is taking his time to make sure that he is getting his point across to the preferred audience that he is trying to send out the message to. This means thinking everything over and making sure it is not confusing or going off topic and generally interesting to keep the audience fascinated about your paper. This can be a more time consuming process and maybe a little more difficult for some people.

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Eloy Gonzales
Arturo de la Torre
Trang Phang
9/28/10

Linda Flower. “Writer-Based Prose: A Cognitive Basis for Problems in Writing”. College English, Vol. 41, No. 1. (Sep., 1979), pp. 19-37.

S: Linda Flower clearly explains the problems that writers have a hard time saying what they want to say inform that readers can understand. There is a problem with many writers that don’t know how to transform their ideas in a way that the reader can understand. The author explains the writer-base prose by standing off with inner speech and egocentric and discovered that many writers have a hard time using words that transition you from thought to another without being monotone. Writer-Base prose is a workable concept, which can help understand that it can be a way to intervene in the thinking process, it taps intuitive communication strategies us as writers already have, but are not adequately using. There are three steps necessary in Writer-base prose which is function, structure, and style and each make an important part in this writer-prose understanding. Reader-Base prone the writer has to put himself in the readers shoes, he/she thinks more about the reader the as oppose to the writer-base prone.

Q: How would you identify a Writer-Base prose and a Reader-Base prose?

R: In my opinion a Writer-Base prose is a writer that writes for himself. For example a journal or a personal diary is a place where a writer-base can write without being questioned of his work or being criticized. The Writer-Based prose writes for their own understanding. In reader based prose, my opinion is that the writer is writing to fit the audience and thinks more of the audience and what the audience is going to look in its paper. In Reader-Based the author tries to make a point and helps the reader understand what the message is. A Writer-Base prose writer writes what they are usually thinking about without having the thought of being responded to. Writer-base writers write for themselves and do not take into consideration if the readers understand what they have written or care if they are criticized. A Reader-Base prose in the other hand takes into consideration his audience and tries to make his writing more understandable for his reader making space for comments and other suggestions. An example of a Reader-Base prose is a research paper, where the writer needs to explain their point to the audience. I believe that the Reader-Base prose and Writer-Base prose are both important because even though the writer-base is mostly ideas and thoughts; those ideas and thoughts could be used later on when writing on a reader-base prose side. Those ideas can help have a base on the writing that is going to become reader-based which is organized for the reader to understand.

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Rhetorical Reading Strategies and the Construction of Meaning

Summary:

This article is about an experiment that was made on ten readers. The experiment was meant to see the difference in the construction of meaning between experienced readers and student readers. The experiment consisted in giving both types of readers a text, and asking them what the text was about every few lines. The data of the experiment was then broken up into three categories. They were content, function, and rhetorical. Out of the three the most important is rhetorical, this is when the reader fully understands what the text was about, it’s when the reader looks at everything the author is trying to tell him. The other types of readers just find the main points of the text. Whit the experiment they found out that experienced readers use more rhetorical situations, meaning that they look for the author’s purpose in the text, this is when they look at the main points, and at what the author is trying to inform you about, the context and the audience, this is when they look at what type of people the text is talking to, and basically what the text is about. This constructive method is also very helpful when writing; it helps you stay in task, and also lets you focus more on what you want for the readers to get out of your text.

Question:

What does it mean to have “rhetorical “reading strategies?  Do you practice this method of reading?

Response:

When you read rhetorically you don’t just look at the text for the main points of it, or look deeply only on certain parts that seem to be important. Reading rhetorically is when you look deeply into the text, and break down what you are reading until you fully understand what the author is trying to tell you.

I think I use this method sometimes when I’m reading something that really interests me, but when I’m reading something that I don’t really care for, or something that I’m not getting anything from it, I don’t really use this method.

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SUMMARY:

This article written by Linda Flower was mainly about is the writer’s based prose, and the technique and steps of how to transform your work to a reader based writing. This article also talks about many studies people tests to show the relationship between these writer-based proses.
Most of the times people make their writing work to an audience; or in the other cases people write to discover their ideas or feelings. The steps people need to follow before starting to make their work it is very important to craft writing suitable for a reader, sometimes there is people that fear to show or express their thoughts or ideas because someone could judge them but they need to feel confident about themselves in order to make a good writing assignment with their own ideas even though other people will always just pay attention to the mistakes in the work and lack of reason. Sometimes peoples should not worry about what others will say; they have to focus on being original and try new things and being honest with our thoughts even though it could sound out of place. The writer-based prose it’s in charge of all the writing people make to themselves and even all the work that is composed to a reader before they put themselves into the reader’s shoes to see their point of view.
Every time people write, they write their ideas like brainstorming even though that is not one of the best ways to start a good composition but still could be considered as a way of starting to write because they generate ideas and that way they will not forget them. By following those tips people will improve their writing skills on “writer-based” prose they will star with the “reader-based” prose that the audience needs to understand their message.

QUESTION:
Explain what is writer-based prose and reader-based prose.

RESPONSE:
This article is mainly about two topics; writer-based prose and reader based-prose.  Linda Flower says that ineffective writers are the ones who apply “writer-based prose.” The author explains that writer-based prose is when the writer expresses his/her thoughts about a topic in written form and it is written by the writer for the writer. The writer does not care about the reader’s understanding but him/her own understanding.  Flower says that here is where the writer shows his/her process of thinking or writing about something.  Also she says that the ideas of the writer are hard or unclear to relate to one another so it is very difficult to understand their message; plus it contains “private” language where the writer mean different things to different people.

Reader based-prose is when effective writers apply it, Flower says in this article that this prose is when the writer knows and identified the reader.  Also, when the writer maintain the reader’s purpose for reading the work or composition in mind. It has clear ideas and is related to one another plus the work is well developed. The writer share the same language with the reader that way there are no difficulties in understanding the work.

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Jessica Mendoza

 Roxanna Diaz

ENG 1320/1301. 158

Instructor: Trang Phan

Sept. 27, 2010

Linda Flower.”Writer-Based Prose: A Cognitive Basis for Problems in Writing”. College English. Vol. 41, No. 1 (Sep., 1979), pp. 19-37.

Writer-Based Prose: A Cognitive Basis for Problems in Writing

SUMMARY:

            Writer-Based prose reflects on its process and Reader-Based prose reflects on the purpose of the writer. In this article Flower want to explore the different ways of writer-based prose. Inner Speech and Egocentrism, talks about how children develop their ways of thought, by observing this they found a child talking only about himself, to himself, and by himself a way that many kids do so not to come of selfish but to plan, organize, and control their activities kind of like a monologue in play. The egocentric talk of kids and the inner speech of adults have some in commended as well, not just in kids but they share some similarities in adults too.   In a case study of a transformation they show two different drafts, similar but the ways the two drafts are written are completely different. Flower also talks about the function, structure, and style of writer-based prose. If people see writer-based prose as a functional system not just many of mistakes that English teaches know then Flower thinks that it would be easier to teach writing itself. And finally Flower thinks that writer-based prose is one of the problems composition courses are meant to fix. She feels that a reader-based prose is better way to write, which includes a reader in the entire thinking process, but it’s not always possible.

Question:

How would you identify a Writer-Based Prose and a Reader-Based Prose?

Response:

Writer-Based Prose reflects on its process and Reader-Based prose reflects on the purpose of the writer. For example writer-based prose is when we are just writing and do not think of what our audience think. And we sometimes tend to elaborate too much that it just confuses the audience and don’t understand what we are trying to get across. It gets to the point that the reader looses interest and doesn’t focus on the writing itself. Sometimes while writing in writing-based prose we tend to use our own language that the audience doesn’t understand.   In the other hand Reading-Based prose is when the writer “includes the reader in the entire thinking process” and by that the audience is able to understand the paper. While writing in reader-based prose the audience is able to understand it because the writer set the paper in stages that make it easier to understand. The writer also gets right to the point that way the audience doesn’t get lost in too much nonsense detail that the message gets across. The use of vocabulary is much more understandable in the reader-based prose as well. In our opinion in order to have better writing we need to have reader-based prose so that our audience can get our point across in an easy way.  

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Rhetorical Reading Strategies and the Construction of Meaning
This is article written by Christina Haas and Linda Flower talks about how rhetorical reading is being used by experienced readers and freshman readers. Teachers should help students move pass the information exchange view of reading. So the students could be able to view a reading more expandable and complex rhetorical reading of constructing meaning. Haas and Flower both study readers, to be able to understand their rhetorical reading.
They raise two questions, the first is “how does this constructive process play itself out in the actual, thinking process of reading?” and the second question, “are all readers really aware of or in control of the discourse act which current theories describe?” These two questions helped them understand the reader’s complex college-level text and helped them observe their rhetorical reading view point. There are many strategies that are very helpful; the strategies that help construct a rhetorical situation for the text. Experienced readers draw more onto the wider rhetorical situation to deconstruct the text. On the other hand freshman readers focus more on the specific and actual content of the text.
Rhetorical reading process is very important; it’s a strong element in which a very large process of critical reading is used.
Christina Haas and Linda Flower. “Rhetorical Reading Strategies and the Construction of Meaning”. College Composition and Communication, Vol. 39, No. 2. (May, 1988), pp 167-182.
Question:
What is Constructive rhetorical reading? Does constructive rhetorical reading applies to you and in what way?
Constructive rhetorical reading is “complemented by work in rhetoric which argues that reading is also a discourse act, which is when readers construct meaning, they do so in the context of a discourse situation, which includes the writer of the original text, other readers, the rhetorical context for reading, and the history of the discourse”. By our understanding constructive rhetorical reading is when we star thinking about what we have reader and we star questioning about what is happening, when there’s emotion and we may believe what the author is saying. In our own personal experiences I think most of the times were not aware that we read as constructive rhetorical reading but we do sometimes especially when the article or story interests us. Those are the times when we actually star asking questions about what is happening or why is this like this things like that or also when it relates to something we have pass through already it can also be more interesting or useful for us. Some others way when we actually pay attention to what we are reading is when there is some background behind what we are reading for example if is cultural maybe is about our culture of a culture we read before or depending on what it is if there is some information already in our minds we tend to pay more action and read as constructive readers. Another way we realized later we are reading constructively is when we star getting images or we can kind of read what the writers mental representation is not limited in the story because is represented in a unlimited verbal way or by images, ideas or anything that gives a clue to what the author is thinking at the moment he wrote the piece of writing.

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Javier Lopez
Eng 1320/1301
Trang Phan
9/25/10

Rhetorical Reading Strategies and the Construction of Meaning

S.
In this article, Linda Flower and Christina Hass both explain about the growing consensus in our field of reading; should be thought of as a constructive, rather than a receptive process. In this case, there is different ways in viewing constructive, which are literary theory and cognitive research. They even mention how reading rhetorically is not a separate and different strategy but is a progressive enlargement of the constructed meaning of a text, meaning reading for a purpose is better then reading for recreational purposes due to the fact that it may be dominant and crucial at times. Flower and Hass, both experienced writers explain how difficult teaching to read rhetorically due to the fact that students focus on bits and pieces of the reading and not focus on how the reading is written and how its put together.
Q. What does it mean to have “rhetorical” reading strategies? Do you already practice this method of reading?
R.
If you have rhetorical reading strategies it means that you can relate real well to the content of the paper. Using this strategy is the most important because personally when I read a article or any type of writing, I like to look past the writing and focus on the more in depth features. If you, the reader, can relate to the writer, it is much easier to relate to the ideas stated in the article. Me for instance, it takes a good article to catch my attention, not everything grabs me by the eye, but when that one article comes past me I can relate to it in any way or form I can.

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Christina Haas and Linda Flower. “Rhetorical Reading Strategies and the Construction of Meaning”. College Composition and Communication. Vol. 39, No. 2 (May., 1988), pp. 167-183.

Rhetorical Reading Strategies and the Construction of Meaning

SUMMARY:

In this article Christina Haas and Linda Flower write about an observation they did with on ten readers some were student readers and the others were experienced readers. They wanted to know how each of them did construction of meaning when reading something new. In order to do this they gave them a piece of text for them to read and say what they thought. Every few lines they had to stop and ask themselves the question “how do you interpret the text now?”. After the observation they were able to rank the answer into three categories which are content, function/feature, and rhetorical reading strategies. The first strategy is content which means that the response of the reader was about what the text was mainly about. The other strategy is function/feature which is when the reader tries to point out certain part of the text as the main points. The last strategy is rhetorical reading in which the reader finds the purpose and the message the writer is trying to get across. One thing that both of these type of readers were doing was finding claims in the reading but the experienced readers would find them faster because they did rhetorical reading. The authors with these observations were able to conclude that in order for the student to be used the “complex rhetorical model” they have to stop viewing reading as an “information exchange”.

Question:

Christina Haas and Linda Flower describe reading as a constructive process, rather than a receptive one. What do they mean by “constructive process” and “receptive process”?

Response:

What the authors mean when they say constructive process is that it does not exist in the text because we will build our own understanding of the reading. And we do this by connecting what we as readers think what the text is trying to say. Constructive process is also used in a way that we as readers are able to add our own opinion and show our point of view of what we have just read from the articles. We as readers use constructive process when we read something that really interest us. Because when we read something interesting we get mental representation in which it makes it easier for us to understand the text. Receptive process is what we receive form the text, which means we don’t add any opinions of our own or our point of view but what is said straight from the text.  We as readers use receptive process when we read something that does not interest us, for example an article that is being enforced to us to read. So when we read this article we just read it to get it over with. We don’t take the time to actually understand what is really trying to say. We agree with Haas and Flower that in order to fully understand an article we need to use constructive process rather than receptive process.

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Vivyanne Medina & Erika Carrizales
            English 1301.158

Trang Phan

Sept. 14, 2010

Rhetorical Reading Strategies and the Construction of Meaning

Christina has and Linda Flower. “Rhetorical Reading Strategies and the Construction of Meaning.” College Composition and communication, Vol. 39m No. 2 (May, 1988), pp. 167-183

Summary:

Rhetorical reading strategies consist trying to make sense of the text just read. It is also a think- aloud procedure to show how reading is both constructive and rhetorical. It is helpful to imagine what readers think about as their going through text. Which are made above many nodes of information? Readers and writers usually try to include information that would give you visual images or expressed emotions, through specific words. They usually add their own perspective to the understanding of the meaning of the text. The teachers as co-readers can teach students how to use their imagination in order to make their text better for the readers. Some students are very good readers but not very good writers. What many of our students need to do is to construct representation of conduct of structure and of conventional features. As for experienced readers, they draw more on the wider rhetorical situation (the author’s purpose, context, and audience) to deconstruct the text, while freshman readers primarily focus on the specific context of the text. The mean proportions of strategies used are content, feature, and rhetorical strategies. Which make a very significant difference in the way we read? These constructive ways of reading would give you better knowledge of what you’re reading and also what you’re writing.

Q:  (a) What does it mean to have “rhetorical” reading strategies? (b) Do you already practice this method of reading?

(a)  “Rhetorical strategies take a step beyond the text itself.” (p.176) What it means is that as a reader we have to think about what we are reading and  make connections with our previous knowledge in order to get a better concept of what we are reading. We have to be extremely careful to what we are reading in order to being able to comprehend the text as better as possible. This concept is mainly used by experienced readers, but sometimes we use it to.

(b)  We do use this method when we don’t get a clear idea of what we are reading; we go back and reread it so we can get a better understanding if it.

Sometimes when we have to summarize a text or something like that, we have to read and put it into our own words so we can understand it, if not just at least have an idea of what that is talking about.

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In “Rhetorical Reading Strategies and the Construction of Meaning”(1988) Christina Haas and Linda Flower are suggesting that reading should be taught as a constructive process rather than a receptive process. They state that there are noticeable differences between expert and student readers do to the way they associate with the text. They noted that student readers mostly utilized “content strategies” rather than “functional strategies” or “rhetorical strategies,” to create what they believe to be a satisfactory understanding of the text; while expert readers used “rhetorical,” “functional,” and “content” simultaneously to create a better understanding of the text, it’s purpose and the emotions the authors seeks to create with in his reader. They (Haas and Flower) use this study, although observational not experimental, with different level readers to point out how readers that use “rhetorical strategies” identify the key points faster and create useful connections to the text than those who don’t. In other words they believe that reading should be seen as a constructive process rather than a receptive process to help readers create a more complex and in depth understanding of any text.

Should reading be taught as a receptive or as a creative process?
We agree with Haas and Flower that reading should be taught as a creative process rather than a receptive process; because if reading is only taught to students as a receptive process they will never “see” past what is in the paper; they will not be able to make any real connection with the text. They (Haas and Flower) say that teaching reading as a creative process will help students create a better understanding of the text, its purpose and the emotions the authors seeks to create with in his reader. We believe that reading should be taught as a creative process; due to the fact that it will help students have a better understanding of the text and the purpose it was supposed to serve. They, the students, will have an easier time reading and responding to a text that they had no prior knowledge (as stated in the scholarly article) or any piece of literature for that matter. Why? Because they will be able to make more connections with the text and as a result they will be able to see the purpose of the text and most importantly they will actually be able to learn something that might help them or something that they can apply in their everyday life. However if reading continues to be taught as a receptive process as it is today the students will continue to struggle with higher lever reading, because they don’t know how to interpret a text; all they know is what the text is saying and nothing else. They are unable to draw conclusions from the text; they will also be unable to recognize ideas that are implied within the text. That is why we strongly believe that reading should be taught as a constructive process rather than a receptive process.

q&r#4

Adrian Badillo & Zalina Nazarova
Eng 1320/1301.158
9-22-10
Trang phan
Rhetorical Reading Strategies and the Construction of Meaning Christina Haas and Linda Flower. “Rhetorical Reading Strategies and the Construction of Meaning”. College Composition and Communication, Vol. 39, No. 2 (May, 1988), pp. 167-183.
This article is about the research that Christina Hass, and Linda flower conducted on
Reading strategies. The authors emphasized on three strategies that the students applied when
reading, which are the following: content, function/feature, and rhetorical. Content strategies
focus mainly on the “summery” of the reading, in other words to just figure out what the text is
saying, function/feature strategies focus not just on what the text is “saying” but also on what the
text is doing by figuring out the main idea that the article is trying to portray. Christina Hass and
Linda Flower assert that reading rhetorically is a far more complex process because besides
figuring out the main ideas and content of the text it goes beyond that and tries to figure out what
the purpose of the reading is.
Question:
Is Rhetorical reading a talent? Or can anyone just read rhetorically?
Rhetorical reading is extremely difficult this is why we don’t see ourselves using rhetorical
strategies in articles like the one we just read, because it is not a subject matter that is attractive
to us. Personally I like to read comics, and readings that concern technology, and Zalina does not
like to read at all.
We believe that that the majority of standard students use content strategies because they just
read to extract the knowledge that the article is portraying. Most of us don’t care what it says or
even think of it at all, they just use the strategies to find the point and get it over with.
We know that function/feature strategies is used by 20 percent of experienced readers which is
a higher percentage than rhetorical reading strategies in experience readers, who I think are
geniuses at English, I guess what we’re trying to say is that they are above average in thinking
capabilities.
Maybe you the reader can help us understand what the small percentage of people think, and
how they are able to read boring articles or boring books, and be able to use rhetorical strategies.
Leave a comment below and tell us what you think.

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Christina Hass and Linda Flower College Composition and Communication, Vol. 39, No.29 (May, 1988), Pg 167-183

As I read the articles it focused on mainly how readers used many techniques to read like constructive or rhetorical view of reading. Both reading have different ways of being used to understand a story to get the point of view. When students get to college say they can read good only means that they can read fast and understand big vocabulary, but they don’t really know how to understand a story and get the point of view when they read the story. When the authors conducted the experiment with several students of all kind of reading levels they noticed that all the students were confused while reading it and they couldn’t get the point of view. When they readied the student’s works they noticed that the students tried to understand the text and used strategies to find out what the author was trying to get across in the story. They point out the kind of strategies that people use to understand the authors point of view they use constructing meaning which breaks down the story in several parts and use other strategy to help understand get to the point of view and understand it.

Q. This article states that the “meaning” does not exist in the text but in the readers representations they build. What does this mean and can you relate?

R. To me this means that you can read the article all you want but if you can not relate to what you are reading then it is pretty pointless to read it because you are not going to understand anything at all. In my opinion the only way to understand what you are reading is to make connections with the article. If you read a paragraph, try to relate it to a past experience somehow. For example here is a line from the article “that is, when readers construct meaning they do so in context of a discourse situation, which includes the writer of the original text, other readers, the rhetorical context for reading, and the history of discourse.” You have to try to relate to this in the best possible way that you can. So as you read enjoy yourself and connect to it for it can come better to you. Most readers only skim through a book because it takes too long to read it there is no strategy used there because they didn’t connect to it so when it comes up to the time to write a summary it’s pretty hard to come up with one due to the fact you only skimmed through it did the point of view come to you when you kind of read through it. We build up skills for a reason. It is to help us out on the long improve on our reading skills so we become better readers and understand the point in the story that is called constructive reading. It is to build up on the skill for you can be better at what your reading and understanding it better. In the article they notice that the kids who readied the passage were from all sorts of majors to see how they would react to the story. Apparently they themselves did not make the curriculum that the authors expected. The authors expected to see results but they only got hint that students didn’t understand what they were reading due to what the comments and summaries that were written. So it’s good to reread all your readings to get a good understanding of what the material is.

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Christina Haas and Linda Flower. “Reading Strategies and the Construction of Meaning”. College Composition, Vol. 39, No. 2 (May, 1988), pp. 167-183.

Rhetorical Reading Strategies and the Construction of Meaning

Summary

In the article the authors talked about constructive process as the way that reading should be understood. In a constructive process readers construct meaning in multiple facets their private mental representation of: content information, function of the text, and rhetoric strategies.

Christina Hass and Linda Flower observed and analyzed the strategies of ten readers (graduate and college freshman students) in order to understand “how readers go about ‘constructing’ meaning and the constructive strategies they use to do so” (171). The authors choose a text, and they asked the readers to read the information eight times. Each time the readers asked themselves “how do you interpret the text now?” (171).

The authors classified the readers’ strategies in: content, function/feature, and rhetorical reading.  Readers use content strategies to paraphrase “what the text is about”. In function/features strategies the readers name what the text is “doing”. In the rhetorical strategies the readers recognize the author’s intention, specific purpose and actual effects. As the authors said constructive reading is the “act of building a rich representation of the text” (181).

The authors mention how as teachers, it is very difficult to teach students to make use of rhetorical strategies as they read and write because students see writing and reading as an information exchange.

Question #3

What does it mean to have “rhetorical” reading strategies? Do you already practice this method of reading?

To have rhetorical reading strategies means that you as a reader are able to connect yourself to the content. It is very important for the reader to create a connection between whatever they are reading and themselves in order to have a better understanding. As the readers connect to the content they are able to compare their own ideas or knowledge to the ideas that the author is trying to relate.  “Rhetorical” reading strategies are the readers’ recognition of the author’s intention, specific purpose of the content, and the actual effects on the audience. In my opinion recognizing the author’s purpose is the cue for reading, been able to recognize what the authors wants to say through their writings is the fun part of reading. Is when you as reader, are able to compare and connect the author’s point of view with yours.

Unconsciously I have practice this method of reading before with topics of my interest. For example, when I read this article it interested me, and as I read it I had to go back several times to reread some parts because there were kind of confusing. As I reread I used several of the rhetorical reading strategies to get a better understanding of the text. However, now I find these strategies very interesting, because as I read the article I noticed how we as readers can learn so much more. Using these strategies, are a better way to read. Hopeful I will be able to put these strategies in practice from now on.

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Maria Andrea Martinez

Cynthia Sanchez

ENG 1320/1301 158

Trang Phan

09/22/2010

Rhetorical Reading Strategies and the Construction of Meaning

Rhetorical Reading Strategies and the Construction of Meaning Christina Haas and Linda Flower. “Rhetorical Reading Strategies and the Construction of Meaning”. College Composition and Communication, Vol. 39, No. 2 (May, 1988), pp. 167-183.

Summary:

In this article Christina Haas and Linda Flower briefly explain about the growth in their field, in how reading should no longer be known as a receptive process, but as a constructive. Constructive is viewed as two different ways which are literary theory and cognitive research. Hass and Flower described how rhetoric is viewed by work, they explained the its reading is also a discourse act, which is when readers build up meanings with the point of a discourse situation, that’s when the writer of original text other readers , the rhetorical context for reading, and the history of the discourse come in handy. Good reader students are known as those who can identify topic sentences as well as introductions and conclusions, generalizations, and they can support the main details on what they are reading, because of their high standards in reading they are least to frustrate. Hass and Flower were looking forward to figure out on how readers go about “constructing” meaning and the constructive strategies. They took into consideration of how many academic topics would just give out an unfair advantage to those who were known as the experienced readers that they knew were better knowledgeable on reading automatically by invoking the best of what they can do over an academic topic.

Question:

What are the differences between constructive and rhetorical?

Response:

Constructive and rhetorical are two keywords that are some what alike, but have differences concerning meaning wise. Constructive process is what is known as an opinion that a reader predicts when he or she reads an article, novel, etc. As for the constructive strategies there are quite a couple of them; for example, content, functions/feature, and rhetorical reading, these 3 part coding scheme that are known to be distinguished. The meaning of these 3 strategies are, content is what the text is about, function/feature are used to refer to convention features of discourse. Last but not least, the meaning of rhetorical strategies is to take a step beyond the text itself. These are the 3 main strategies that the constructive process falls into. On the other hand, rhetorical process is what is known as to be or can be important feature in the process of critical reading. Rhetorical is what is also known for readers to use in text as well as for them to use their own knowledge to redo the rhetorical situation of their writing they are doing. It includes not only one representation of discourse but a unique discourse with the original author as well as a specific purpose and actual effect. These two process are mainly what reading do while their writing. Researchers have said that constructive is what real readers and writers are known for.

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Daniel Garcia
Ricardo Salinas
ENG 1320/1301.158
Instructor: Trang Phan
Christina Haas and Linda Flower.” College Composition and Communication”, Vol.39, No.2 (May, 1988), pp. 167-183
Summary
Rhetorical Reading Strategies and the Construction of Meaning
This article is telling us the different strategies that students and experienced writers use, because when a student reads and article and has to do an essay, not everyone is going to use the same strategy to make a meaning for their essay. They did an study making a group of experienced writers and students writers to see what strategies they use and how they make a meaning for their text.
Experienced writers see a text not only as a content, they see it also as a result of someone who is expressing what he is thinking and as a study, they go beyond content and create a multi-dimensional representation, and they put they’re own experience and knowledge to the text that they are doing, they using what is called rhetorical strategy.
Student writers they usually what they do is construct representation of the content, they don’t go beyond the text, they don’t build rhetorical representation of the text, they just extract information and put they’re own words of what they rode and they are happy with that work they have done, and almost all the times the strategy that they use the content strategy, the main idea for the strategy is just putting what you understand about the text.
Question:
What does it mean to have “rhetorical” reading strategies? Do you already practice this method of reading?
Response:
Rhetorical reading strategies involves the careful analysis of a text, identifying its
main claims, and actively responding to it with your own ideas and arguments, that means when you go beyond about the writer’s main point, when you read between the lines you get what the writer is talking about. They are questions that you ask yourself to go beyond the text.
We often practice this strategy, but unconsciously when the topic is from our interest we apply this method to enrich our knowledge. When the topic is not of our interest we don’t usually do it because we don’t pay attention to it, we don’t keep focus on the main point of the writers