Product and Process, Literacy and Orality: Composition and Culture - Assignment Example

Student Name> Answer Questions based on material Question No. 1:   Do you think the inclusion of films or websites ‘dumbs down’ a course? The inclusion of films, websites and other electronic media is common nowadays in schools, colleges and universities. At college level, students need to have a broader vision and practical exposure, so for this purpose, they look for every possible source they can use. However, I think that the school students should be limited in this regard and their teachers and trainers should guide them properly about the references they need to use. We cannot take internet and films out of school kids’ life but teachers can give them guidelines about the use of the electronic media. They can be given a list of websites that could be helpful for them for the particular assignment, and same goes for the films. No matter how advance electronic media can get, we still cannot deny the authenticity and importance of books. Our society is built on this literature and these books helped our ancestors to build what we are using today. We are living in the era of knowledge and development and we can get information on every issue of this universe by using search engines. But the problem arises here is to sort out that information according to our needs. College and university students can do it quiet easily but it is hard for school students to sort out their required information from the pool of knowledge. Lots of their time is wasted in this process and even after that they usually do not come up with an appropriate result. So in order to overcome this issue, students should be encouraged to use books and to take full advantage of the beautiful words written in them. In English writing, it is observed, books are more useful than the websites and films. It saves a lot of time and also it gives them proper knowledge from start till the end. While browsing the web, students usually jumps up to their required topics and rewrite it in their own words, even sometimes they write it as-it-is, which leads them to plagiarism. However, book reading is best because it gives them the knowledge of whole topic and provides them, most of the time, authentic information. Authenticity is another issue in electronic media. Today, launching a website is no problem. There are number of free servers, which enable the users to publish their work. There is no way of checking the authenticity and validity of published text. We have seen many websites which contains text about a particular group of people and only their beliefs. A belief of one group could be different from the others, so that’s why if a student get a link to the site similar to the one mentioned, then there is a problem that he or she will get a totally wrong concept and will learn a biased arguments instead of facts. So like this, students are endangered of getting wrong knowledge and sometimes student copy-paste the text from not-so-famous websites. Websites cannot make them understand the beauty of language and its natural flow. As Gilbert Mane wrote in “Teach the Children Well” Shakespeare also presents the vocabulary of emotional and sentimental language: “the language of hope and the language of ambition and the language of betrayal and the language of love.” In order to maintain the standard of language learning, students should be encouraged to use books and texts more, but they can keep themselves updated by the use of electronic media. Q No. 2: Why is an understanding of rhetoric so important to writing studies? According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, rhetoric is defined as, “the art of speaking or writing effectively”. These are the set of principles which are used in speaking and writing and were made by the critics of ancient times. Its importance cannot be ignored in the religious terms as well. We all use rhetoric everyday because this is associated with our speaking, writing and all other kinds of persuasions. Whatever we do, we cannot take ourselves away from the use of rhetoric. While studying writing, one must know the proper use of rhetoric. It will help them in understanding the audience and their demands. We can say that writing depends on rhetoric and this dependence shall not be ignored. The main goal of the writer is to take attention of his readers and it could easily be done with the help of rhetoric. This is a way to make our writings affective, so it is said that rhetoric makes the writings more affective and touching. An important thing for writers is to distinguish facts from opinions; otherwise his writings will not gain popularity among the readers. This quality of the writing increases the credibility and authenticity of the writing and also the writer. In order to achieve this quality in writings, writer must be able to evaluate the rhetorical principles, which are concerned with the information used in the writing. This will increase the readability of rhetoric. The importance of rhetoric was clearly felt during the ancient times, when during the Roman Empire, the study of rhetoric was considered as a central part of the study of verbal arts. Though, we do not see the study of verbal arts much developed, but rhetoric is still here. They are still much popular in writing, whether it is the art of letter writing or the sermon writing. Rhetoric is considered as a secondary in the study of logic, students were given exercises and classic legal questions during the historical subjects. It enables writers to make their writings according to the values of society and also according to the changes which are regular in our society. Q No. 3: Has Brown’s reputation (his ethos) been damaged by charges of plagiarism? Dan Brown is one of the most well read author of this time and his books are the best sellers in the world. During the recent years, it is observed that Brown is accused of plagiarism. He is accused by a Russian Da Vinci expert, Mikhail Anikin, who is planning to drag him in courts, if, according to him, Brown would not apologize of his plagiarism. Dan Brown has always rejected this idea and he won a court ruling in New York against the writer Lewis Perdue. Lewis Perdue claimed that Dan Brown actually stole some elements of his two novels. His first novel is Daughter of God, published in year 2000 and second was The Da Vinci Legacy, published in 1983. These accusations kept Dan Brown busy and also kept him in the news, but I personally believe that it does not affected his popularity and people are still reading his novels. The popularity of his novels is still there and people like reading them because they like the research he do and the way he explains the history. His critics were happy over this issue and they have always criticized him on writing such sensitive topics. But a large number of people love his novels. The reaction of his readers over the claim of plagiarism was very encouraging. Many people said that this claim is baseless and they read both books and have found no resemblance in the story and facts. Mostly readers have rejected this idea and popularity of Dan Brown is increased but not decreased. Q No. 4: Were you aware of the controversy about the authorship of Shakespeare's works? Has this altered your opinion of his work? What are the parallels between Shakespeare and Dan Brown? I heard about the controversies arising about the authorship of Shakespeare’s work. These controversies rose in the early eighteenth century and it was discussed that whether Shakespeare wrote all the work associated with him or it is written by the group of writers1. Few evidences were given to support this argument. When I first heard this, I felt disappointed and also a bit excited about this. My disappointment was due to the respect which I always felt towards this great writer. I have always considered Shakespeare as someone above all the other human beings. The reason I felt like this was because his writings are followed throughout the world and people considered his books as a bible in the word of literature. So a person, who is being respected and loved that much in the world, actually did not write anything from his own but is only taking credit of someone else work was not so good idea for me. I consider him as someone who cheated the whole world. And at the same time I felt excited, and I tried to get some more information about this issue. But during the same time, it crossed my mind that whether he wrote it from his own or taken credit of someone’s else work, it does not matter as long as his writings are helping people in the world. Another thing I would like to highlight here is that these kinds of issues are raised constantly in every time about the famous people. We can say that people lack tolerance and they cannot see someone being appreciated and admired. This is the reason that they try to sabotage their reputation and normally these are not the facts, they are perceptions and assumptions. This thing does not affect his work and the influence of his work in the world of literature. The same blame goes for Dan Brown, who is a famous but a controversial writer in today’s world. He is the author of many famous books, including, “Angels and Demons” and “Da Vinci Code”. He usually writes on the sensitive religious topics and invites criticism. Like Shakespeare, it is said about Dan Brown, that his Da Vinci Code story is taken from the Lewis Perdue’s three previous books, though his fans usually say that there is no comparison between two, neither in story nor in writing style. It is quiet a hard task to draw parallels between both of the writers, but the above reason helped in this regard. But the major difference between them, which I found is that controversy over Shakespeare’s work raised after centuries of his death but Dan Brown is facing this in his life and it is much harder for a writer to face this kind controversies. If Shakespeare would be alive today or these controversies would have risen during his life, then there is a possibility that he could have proven them wrong, just like Dan Brown. Important thing to note is that Shakespeare is not alive and he cannot answer all these controversies and there is no way that people can go and ask him. So they can make assumptions and can find out proofs in order to gain popularity and fame. This would not be easier for them to do if Shakespeare was alive. Q No. 5: Has a book or film ever affected you to the point that it has caused you to change your behavior in a sustained and meaningful way? Do you think that art can change the course of history? Media greatly influence people’s mind and their behaviors. I fully agree over this fact that film or book change people’s perspective about a certain issue and they finally make their minds according to their own will, but this could only be achieved, if the work is done intelligently, though it could not be said about the history books. History is a trace of facts and people mostly do not want any twists in history. This makes the film makers and writers careful while developing anything regarding history. However, in some cases, it is observed that people do try to make changes in history and facts, and they succeed in this regard. It is one of the worst damage to a nation, which lead them to wrong perceptions and stereotypes. So there should be a check on the documentaries and films and the behavior of director should be responsible. Personally, I found myself being influenced by books and films I watch. Some time back, I saw a documentary “Jonestown: The life and Death of People Temple”. It was created by Stanley Nelson. This documentary tells about the Jonestown Massacre, where nine hundred and thirteen people committed suicide. I found this documentary more interesting and less biased than Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11. The director showed reality and facts, unlike Michael Moore. Michael Moore, on the other hand, projected his political agenda and gave advantage to his favorite side. The best thing about the documentary, film or any book is that it is written without any prejudice and biasness. This can only happen, when the director himself wants to tell truth and facts, without twisting. The director of “Jonestown: The life and Death of People Temple”, ended the documentary with the scene, where hundreds of people lay died in the Jonestown meeting area with a sign on the wall reading “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. This was actually the main point of the documentary and director had conveyed his message properly through this last scene. Q No. 6: Is gender an issue in relation to Beth's quest to find a voice? Is gender or class an issue when you are called upon to write or speak for an academic audience? I do not think so that gender is an issue for Beth, because finally the eloquent Elizabeth is also a female. She finally discovered a character out of her who is a female, rather than a male. If gender would be a problem for Beth, she would have been more comfortable with a male character, who can give her more strength. But Elizabeth is a female voice insider her and a woman can be brave and intelligent, she is confident of herself. Gender sometimes becomes an issue while speaking for an academic audience. Female writers face more criticism and they need more confidence than the male writers. But whether the male or female, both of them should have a prior knowledge of their audience, because this gave them confidence and they can prepare themselves according to the caliber of audience. Sometimes the audiences are literate and intellectuals and they expect writer to present something which is worth watching. If a writer is not prepared according to the audience’s caliber, then it will not be a good experience for both writer and audiences. Beth started taking interest in writing after her teacher’s comments, and she started linking her acting with writing. This not only improves her writing but she suddenly became more interested in it. She started playing two characters, who guide her writing and she call them her voices. These are the imaginary editors, one is for style and the other is for content, both of them help her in making her writing better. Gender and class could be an issue while writing or speaking for an academic audience, but this issue remains only for the early days or for only first few attempts. As the writer becomes more experienced and he or she starts getting feed back from the audience, then gender and class do not create any problem or hurdle in the way of the writer. Works Cited Killingsworth, M Jimmie. ‘Product and Process, Literacy and Orality: An Essay on Composition and Culture.’ College Composition and Communication 44.1 (1993). Read More