In Judith Butler’s article “The Values of Difficulty”, in which she wrote in response to Denis Dutton’s article “Language Crimes: A Lesson in How Not to Write, Courtesy of the Professoriate”, she argues that complex ideas require complex language to develop societal change and challenge common sense. Butler shows how difficult language us useful, but I disagree with her overall claim. I do not think that intricate wording is needed for a logical point to be made. Judith Butler wrote this article to argue against the belief that scholarly writing is overcomplicated just to boast intelligence. Butler begins by explaining how scholars, whose work topics focus on he humanities, are accused of bad writing by the journal Philosophy and Literature. She believes that intellectuals in such fields should explain how their work interplays in everyday life, but that these intellectuals should also create new ways of looking at the world. A more socially just world would be possible if common sense were to be challenged. Butler’s definition of common sense is different than traditionally thought of. While common sense may be defined as having good judgment in practical matters to most, she seems to define it as an old way of thinking, stating that, “Many quite nefarious ideologies pass for common sense. For decades of American history, it was ‘common sense’ in some quarters for white people to own slaves and for women not to vote.” (p.147) She thinks that for society to improve,
In any successful work of non-fiction, authors employ the use of rhetorical analysis to articulate their main points and ideas. Mike Rose’s essay, “Blue Collar Brilliance,” focuses on the fact that looking down on blue-collar workers is a common occurrence in America and people fail to understand how a person can be intelligent if they had dropped out of school. Throughout the essay, he refutes this notion and explains why blue-collar intelligence may be different from the intelligence gained by years of schooling but it is of the equal stature, since it helps them in their occupation. Rose uses pathos and other rhetorical devices to inform the audience of his belief: blue-collar workers are under appreciated and overlooked as many people fail to see the difficulties and cognitive demands involved in their daily routines at work.
"Students do need to read models of intellectuality challenging writing-- and Orwell is a great one--if they are to become intellectuals themselves. But they would be more prone to take on intellectual identities if we encouraged them to do so at first on subjects that interest them rather than ones that interest us". (Graff, 265). By this, Graff means that by mixing social and academics together, an endless path of opportunities can be introduced to learners. When students are given an opportunity to write about issues they are interested in, they are naturally able to learn more about the subjects linked to their day-to-day lives as well as acquiring the benefits of classroom knowledge.
According to “Why We Read: The University, the Humanities, and the Province of Literature," Richter illustrates why literature should be studied in the first place. David Richter is an English professor who was very dedicated to his job. In this article, he had five section: English Literature as an Object of Study, The Era of Grand Theory and Cultural Wars, Reading Liberation; Teaching as a Propaganda, The Function of English at the Present Time and After the Culture Wars: The Problem of Disciplinary. The founder of English Adam Smith was not English at all but a Scottish polymath who taught English lectures in 1748 and 1751. The author goes on to explain all the knowledge about how literature became so important. He used those reference
To begin with, Brooks provided accurate, trusted information about percentages of humanities graduates, and supported his claims by multiple evidences, one of which is the report about the humanities by the American Academy for Arts and Sciences that explains the rewarding results on an external and internal basis for someone who studies the humanities. He shows credibility when he quotes Karl Weintraub, an old history teacher at the University of Chicago, explaining the situation with his students’ lack of interest in the historical figures and events. The author did not use sophisticated terms and expressions, and made his point of view clear: People are no more interested in studying history, or the inner side of the human being, i.e. his soul, morality and truth, going rather to a materialistic focus, even with the humanities themselves.
Graff opens “Hidden Intellectualism” by presenting one of the piece’s three major points of focus. He states, “What doesn’t occur to us, though, is that schools and colleges might be at fault for missing the opportunity to tap into such street smarts and channel them into good academic work” (Graff 264). By introducing his argument as something that is commonly dismissed by a large group of people, he utilizes the writing template in They Say I Say for introducing what “they say” as a tool to keep the big
In the civilized society that everyone lives in today, all languages and culture should be equal. That is the main idea in both Gloria Anzaldua’s essay, “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, as well as James Baldwin’s “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?”. The authors in both these texts support their argument in various ways, and in doing so, manages to effectively persuade their audience. The ways that each author approaches their argument is different in their appeals, evidence, and styles. Similarities also exist between the texts of the two authors. The rhetorical strategies that Anzaldua uses makes her argument much stronger than Baldwin’s argument.
The reader disagrees with Rodriguez’s idea that other languages besides the primary language of a society cannot be used in the classroom. Rodriguez says that “it is not possible
Jacoby seeks to answer how and why these barriers negatively affect this “Age of American Unreason”. In Jacoby’s book she explain how American’s have become less and less intellectual over the year due to our culture our distraction. In order to understand what constitutes such anti-intellectualism in our culture, we must first understand what it means to be an intellectual. By doing this, it will help us understand why many American’s today lack such intellectualism.
The observation of the written account “Inventing the University” by David Bartholomae, is in the mistakes of primary writers failure to come up to expectation and how their shortfall of comprehension of a discourse community averts them from conclusively being accepted as a part of that educational community and flourishing in their scholastic fascinations. Bartholomae defines what is inventing the university, and he says, “He has to speak our language, to speak as we do, to try on the peculiar ways of knowing, selecting, evaluating, reporting, concluding, and arguing that define the discourse of our community (pg. 403).” Bartholomae gives an explanation of the endeavors of unsophisticated writers, the method proficient writers compose, and
For example, “many assumed that those whose language differed from that of the dominant culture were less intelligent. Even today, that pre-1980’s stereotype used by some to describe struggling writers continues” (Fernsten & Reda). However, these perspectives based on historical events do not adequately present a well- rounded view on academic experiences, a marginalized student or instructor may currently endure. For example, “Setting and maintaining uniformly high
Jaded from seeing humanities uprisings first hand, he knows that they are nothing more than symptoms of an underlying disease. Because of his experience, he is able to see more deeply into the truth of American ideology, but he is unable to do much about it. As he says, “Once you figure out what a joke everything is, being the Comedian's the only thing that makes sense” (Moore and Gibson, Part 2, Pg. 13).
Languages and the way one speaks, can have many differences around the world, however, just different alphabets or linguistic rules are not the only things that make a person unique. Speaking a certain language contrast to others also may affect the way one thinks or operates. In a article published by the Wall Street Journal, Lera Boroditsky, a professor of psychology at Stanford, proves that language distinctions can have an effective on one’s cognitive skills and decision-making. “Lost in Translation” by Lera Boroditsky is an article convincing fellow psychologists or language scholars that knowing divergent languages can cause one to think in different ways. Boroditsky uses allusion, appeal to expert opinion, statistics, and anticipating objection to argue to her audience that there is a direct connection between language and one’s thought process which can cause one to act or think in a particular way.
One of the most important themes in this novel is power. The society of Gilead restructures the meaning of words to establish power. Gilead’s new vocabulary reinforces a totalitarian regime by using language to regulate the words and ideas that people can express, similar to linguistic determinism. In Eleanor Rosch’s (1974) article of Linguistic relativity, she identified both a strong and weak version of the linguistic relativity hypotheses, a degree in which language is presumed to influence our thought and behavior. The weak hypothesis is linguistic relativity, where linguistic categories and usage only influence thought and decisions. (Rosch, 1974). However, the Gilead’s use of language reflects that more of the strong hypothesis.
Over the past month, we have been studying the concept of reading and writing in different communities. To assess this, we have read two different texts. Richard Rodriguez’s the achievement of desire”, from his autobiography “Hunger of Memory”; and Lucille McCarthy’s “A Stranger in Strange Lands: A College Student Writing across the Curriculum” from “Research in the Teaching of English”. Both answer key questions regarding what it takes to become a great reader and writer, however, from the reading that I have done, each one only answers one part of the question. Rodriguez’s main focus is in the aspect of reading, whereas McCarthy mainly focuses on the writing portion. Both do a decent job of analyzing and putting forth a view of how they believe a person can best perform in these environments. This then allows us to use their concepts and create our own version, based on their points of view. But why should we care? Most people at this level of academia will have developed a system of writing that works for them, and will have a difficult time breaking from it if they’re process doesn’t meet the criteria that Rodriguez, and McCarthy put forth. The reason it’s so important is because of implications these ideas have. Both authors put forth concepts that are indirectly related to one another and that are highly beneficial to all who will apply them. They will force you to conform to new environments in order to succeed, this in turn will make you more
While the main purpose of language is to communicate, Joseph Heller creates the world in which language loses its function as a tool for communication in favour of an