Interview Abilities

Zach's description of our interview is very accurate. I noticed that he used a lot of quotes,which could mean one of two things. He was either very interested in what I had to say and felt that he must quote me or he was very proud of himself for making correct assumptions. Learning to ask the right questions can be a great skill.

I have several strengths and weaknesses as an interviewer. First, I was correct in assuming that Zach uses his bookbag to carry his books to class and for other trips. I was also correct in noticing the brand. Timberland's products are usually expensive and durable. Zach has carried this bookbag since the 9th grade. Finally, I have a strength in asking every question I could think of. Asking a lot of relevant questions provides you with a lot of answers. Doing this will help you piece together information even when there isn't much significance in the pieces.

I failed to think of the standard bookbag. If I had inititally done so, I would've noticed the missing handle, which surely would've been a sign that this bookbag is different. My assumption that he had purchased the bookbag from a store interefered with my ability to predict other aspects. For example, because I own one bookbag, I assumed this is the only one Zach owns also. In fact, he owns several. Because he loses the others and keeps this one would suggest that he likes this one because it has lasted the longest. I had also expected the bag to be sentimental to him because it belonged to his brother who left for the Navy. I would've felt some sentimental connection to such an object. When my brother left for the Army and was in Iraq for a year and a half, everything that he owned was senitmental to me. My experience prevented me from seeing the practical reasons of keeping this bookbag.

I should definitely change a few things the next time I interview someone about an artifact. First I should think objectively about the object and think of the stadnard for that object. Doing so would provide a basis for comparison. And second I should ignore my assumptions. Associating my feeelings with another person's object prevents me from seeing the association between the object and its owner.

Zack's Bookbag

Choosing a classmate's artifact was challenging because most students don't carry around objects with culturally significant backgrounds and complicated uses. So when I first looked at Zack's bookbag I thought it looked like any other bag that students carry around campus. And I was right, but there's something to be said about the objects we use and why we use them.

My first impression revealled a few details about this ordinary bookbag. Zack's typically sized bookbag is black and grey with red trim. It has a lot of straps and at least three pockets so he must like to be organized. The straps are torn from what must be years of use. I also inferred the bookbag's long use because of the Timberland brand which usually isn't cheap.

I immediately made a few basic assumptions. I assumed that he bought it at a store so he could more easily carry his books as he goes to class and maybe to use when he takes a trip or other activities. Bookbags must seem appropriate to Zack and his means of travelling to and from class. I don't like bookbags because I have to walk a lot to and from campus and it makes my back hot. I carry a bag on my shoulder instead. However, Zack might drive to class or maybe bookbags don't affect his travel to. Also because of its wear and tear I assumed that he uses the bookbag for other activities. In fact, he does carry it on trips (to Germany) and to the shooting range. Finally, I guessed that he had carried the bookbag for a long time; otherwise it would look new.

When Zack told me his bookbag once belonged to his brother who had left for the Navy, I assumed it had sentimental value. This is not really the case. There are several other practical reasons he chooses this bag. First you should know that Zack owns several bookbags. He apparently forgets them at various places, such as his home. So when Zack couldn't find one of his unnumbered quantity of bookbags, he stole his brother's. The torn straps and missing handle were actions of his brother and the bag has remained in the exact same condition since his junior year of high school. The bag is only important because it has carried his books, pens, cough drops, and whatever else for so long. Zack even purchased a new bookbag, but his old one already houses his things and he doesn't want to switch.

If you own a newer version of an object, why would you use the older one? The answer could be the association of the older version to a part in a person's life. The ordinary bookbag I first noticed is a one-of-a-kind bookbag (figuratively) to Zack because it is the one he doesn't lose and it doesn't fall apart. It could also literally be one-of-a-kind because I looked up Timberland bookbags online and did not find Zack's bookbag listed. Maybe its not important that his brother owned it or that it probably costed between $40 and $180 (this was the range on the Timberland website), but the fact that he will carry this bag throughout his college career and whatever else.

The Political Science Genre

Describe the features, functions, and student activity of a textbook for a single field, such as American History. Write a paper analyzing the genre.

Political Science books are usually very factual, full of history, definitions, and cases. American Constitutional Law is the textbook I have to read for my Civil Liberties class. The textbook is definitely a part of the Political Science genre, according to Charles Bazerman, since it functions to provide history, the structure of the government, and some critical question, such as how U.S. Supreme Court Justices affect these two issues. Maps, graphs, and definitions appear frequently throughout the textbook to better define the features of the book. There are no pictures, which also typical of the Political Science genre. Student activites require students to evaluate the learned history and analyze why or how it happened.

This textbook serves its purpose of the Political Science genre: to inform and encourage critical thinking. The activities encourage me to do more research or question my professor about a give topic.

The WWF Website

Find a website. Analyze how and how well the site is suited to its aims and audiences.

The World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) is an organization interested in helping people live in harmony with nature. I know this because their website, which is actually fairly persuasive, told me so several times. However, because WWF takes donations and has several financial programs, restating this fact on every page of their website could be a rhetorical statement involving a contextual strategy. Why do they continuously make this point? Because at this point in time, the organization needs money. Another contextually important aspect involves time specific issues, such as energy problems, climate change, and overpopulation. The WWF must address these issues because they are relevant to our lifetime and solutions are needed.

Textually speaking, the arrangement and style of the website is persuasive. The arrangement is general to specific in order to first inform and then direct the audience's interest to a specific topic, such girls education in South America. Readers are then presented with options of action. The main headings are "What We Are", "What We Do", "Places", "Species", "Science", "Climate", and "Act Now". These headings set up the style of information. The inform and then present opportunities builds the credibility of the author because they provide very specific information and relate it to problems in specific regions of the world.

A Definition of Commuter Students

Analyze how the article uses, builds on, takes a position with respect to, and adds to prior publications.

The assignment is to find a research or scholarly article that pertains to your field. The text I am analyzing isn't really either, but instead a definition of commuter students according to http://www.answers.com/. I have been using this information for research at my internship. The definition builds on other texts to define what a commuter student is, so I thought it would be interesting to analyze the intertextuality of such information.

Like any other publication, this article uses a number of sources primarily to build information. Indirect quotation, mentioning a person and document, and using familiar language are all means of building this information. Because the purose of the article is to inform, the mentioned sources include reports and studies. For example, the first sentence indirectly quotes two researchers about the definition of a commuter. The author uses this definition to define the topic, and then present his or her position. Specifically, the author presents challenges of commuting.

Another way the author uses other publications to build on the article is using words that would be common in all the sources in order to create a complete definition for the reader. These words are directly related to college life, so readers who have never been to college may not fully understand the corresponding concepts. A few of these words are "off-campus", "higher-education institution", and "residence halls".

Just as the author indirectly quotes a source in the introduction of paragraph in order to define "commuter," the author uses the same tactic to reinforce his or her point that retention for commuters is low: "A study by Vincent Tinto in 1987 indicates that students who have high interaction with their university's academic and social systems are more likely to persist in college." Because commuter students rarely spend downtime on campus, they face more difficulty in interacting with the campus life. Using studies to reinforce information with a factual purpose is an effective to convince readers of your point.