Path-ing Reflection #1

Sources Read: 

• Faigley, Lester. "Material Literacy and Visual Design." Rhetorical Bodies. 1999. 171-201.
• Olson, David R. "From Utterance to Text: The Bias of Language in Speech and Writing." Harvard Educational Review 47.3 (1977): 257-81.
• Trimbur, John. "Delivering the Message: Typography and the Materiality of Writing." Visual Rhetoric in a Digital World: A Critical Sourcebook. Ed. Handa, Carolyn. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2004. 260-71.

My focus for this week’s reading has been to explore further into Trimbur’s chapter on the materiality of writing. This chapter from my Visual Rhet class this spring really fascinated me, particularly Trimbur’s views of the influence of the essayist movement on expectations for rhetoric today: “One of the main obstacles to seeing the materiality of writing has been the essayist tradition and its notion of a transparent text” (261).

Style and Stance #8: Coding My Control Data Set

Warning: To those who want no more than a casual look at sociolinguistics, move on from this post.  Explore lighter posts like this one about design -- it's even colorful!  In the post you are currently reading, I am starting to dive into the coding of my two data sets, the submission guidelines for a traditional print journal and for a digital academic journal. Come back another day for my findings written in a more blog friendly (and maybe digitally academic) way!

Style and Stance #6: Defining These Terms

Reading ahead to Kiesling’s  “Style as Stance” was really great advice from Dr. Anderson.  I have been trying to understand the relationship between style and stance, and Kiesling presents a new idea for me to consider: "any choice of linguistic form made by speakers is based ultimately on the interpersonal or epistemic stance they wish to take with their various interlocutors at a particular time, and … it is stances that become associated, through cultural models, with various identities" (172). In other words, stance is at the heart of what then drives style choices and style-shifting.

Style and Stance #4: My First Data Examination

My goal tonight is to examine the submission guidelines for traditional academic journals to establish their style and stance then turn to digital academic journals' guidelines to see if I can find any contrasts.  Wish me luck on this first foray!