Blog 4

What I learned about invisible narratives is that every piece of writing has an invisible narrative. It is similar to everything having a bias. In the beginning of the semester I believed everything had a bias, but I didn't realize that everything also has an invisible narrative. What I learned about my personal invisible narratives are that people probably aren't going to understand what my invisible narratives are until they have learned my discourse. Also, sometimes I have a difficult time finding my own invisible narratives.

Honestly, I don't believe there is any way to "lessen" the invisible narratives impact on others. I guess one thing you can do is to have your students keep an open mind on everything you read. Another way to lessen the invisible narratives on others is to promote the idea of being creative and work outside the box. Many of us grew up with someone telling us we can't do something in a certain way. Since we were always given a rubric to write something, we have turned into robots. We lack emotion and compassion in our writing. Sometimes it is just nice to be able to write non-stop for twenty minutes about a topic you're passionate about without stopping. This way, you can place out all your thoughts without having to organize them on the spot. You are able to look at all your ideas and adjust the order of them to your liking. I think that the freedom to just write out your thoughts feels more enjoyable than to organize thought in your mind, then writing them down. I also feel that being able to just write out everything your'e thinking can help get everything out of your mind. Sometimes I start to think about how I should organize a paragraph, but then I would forget my other topics in the meantime.


A metaphor I keep in the back of my head is "Take 2 cents of everything you read." What this means is to not believe everything you read and just take a little bit of information from it. This allows you to stay open minded and prevents any bias. The bias will still be there, but I do feel that it has lessened. I use this strategy pretty often and it has worked for me in the long-run. If someone tells me a lie, I am able to catch them quicker than if I believed everything everyone said, I would be gullible. I think that being able to analyze someone is a really good skill. 

After reviewing my diagnostic essay I wrote on my belief, I realized that there were invisible narratives in my own writing, even if I don't intend there to be. Looking back on some of my old work, I felt that I was holding back on my own discourse. Since I was taught to type and write in a certain way, I really wasn't able to express myself. After taking English 214 with Caitlin, I've realized how much easier it can be to write in your own comfortable discourse. I am not able to write more freely and it is very similar to the First Amendment.

In my career path, all I can do to prevent being impacted by invisible narratives are to just be open to every idea possible. People will always have offered opinions than you and all you need to listen to what other people are saying or thinking because they can think of something that you didn't think of. Everyone thinks differently and it is nice to sometimes get your friends opinion on something. 

This English course was quite different. Along with those differences came a new lesson, a lesson of learning about myself, my environment, culture, and my own discourse. Also, while learning about my own discourse, I learned about my soon to be future discourse. Unfortunately, my current discourse consists of slang, made up English words/phrases, and inappropriate words (curse words). As well as a whole different language.

    What I’ve learned in English class and that should be valued is not every individuals learns within the same discourse. We, as in students, who attend schools in the United States are taught in a Western type of discourse with the belief that all students will comply and learn at the same rate and the same discourse. However, it doesn’t quite work like that. Each student carries or nurtures their own discourse but are later taught a completely new one.

Furthermore an interesting view was presented in class once and to this day sticks with me, the environment an individual lives or is exposed to reflects the individuals discourse. That really make sense, your discourse is reflected on the environment you're exposed to. For instance, in an urban, inner city type of environment it tends to use slang or any other urban influenced way of speaking. On the contrary urban discourses comes the the traditional or the “ideal” discourse, it typically carries out a completely different discourse, more proper and intellectual compared to others. O, and let’s not forget the most important, the different language discourse, which is the most harsh to encounter.

I feel that I’ve either adapted or improved my own discourse. Leaning more on the improving aspect. But yes, in fact this English course has taught me a lot. Looking back to the first assignment, diagnostic essay, It’s clearly demonstrates that I’ve grown. From my diction to analyzing my quotes more effectively. I guess a piece of work that currently reflects my current writing ability would be the final research paper. There I embarked a whole new way of obtaining information to support my argument. Also I forced myself to understand a whole new discourse, analyzed it, and put it in my own words. Overall I’m grateful to be apart of this new learning experience in English class. I can take home a lot from this class, yet I personally know I got a lot more to learn. 

To sum everything up, this class has taught me how to critically think and analyze. Due to that its change my beliefs about discourses. Ones' own discourse is the most valuable thing they own because it reflects their environment, weather its negative or positive. The subject of discourses really stuck to me because I never thought it existed, and when taught to me, didn’t really thought it mattered. But it does exist and it does matter. I will embrace my own discourse and enhance it, the language I speak, and most importantly my culture. One last thought, this might be irrelevant, but I feel that in order to improve my discourse further it would consist of being open to other discourses and learn from them. Or simply start reading more. Another thing I need to work on, reading more.    

Changed Views

I have always been one to have strong opinions and concerns about things, but never expressed my feelings about it. After taking this class and having to write based on our own feelings, I have found it a lot easier to express my feelings about an issue I strongly believe in.

I know we had discussed it in class why most of us don't know how to write in our own discourse and express ourselves, but it is very weird that I had never realized it. I knew that we are taught in the Western ways, but it wasn't obvious to me. It wasn't obvious why expressing myself was difficult and why I didn't know how to write what I was feeling. Now that my eyes have been opened, I blame the teachers.

I blame teachers because I am sure that they learned about this in college, just like we did. I am sure they have learned to express themselves and have strong opinions about situations; that's what college is about right. Instead, they prefer not to pass it on and encourage the Western ways. I blame them for making us go to the norm instead of starting us to critically think from a young age so we don't have a difficulty with it in college.

As I go on with my days, I think about my different discourses and how to make them better. This changed one belief, but created a new one. I believe that professional writing:"the Western way" will get one where they need to be because they are writing how everyone wants them too. But I also think it is okay to throw in some extra little kick into it. Its good to put in ones' opinions in a professional manner that gets a point across.

It should be that one gets an A for how creative they are with their writing and ideas, not for how proper it is. And too think about it, for one of our assignments I stated that we should not write in our discourse, but now that has changed. I wrote that we should always write the Western way but as I try to express myself a lot more, I noticed that more people agree with me and seem interested even when I am expressing myself.

This class has taught me how to critically think and because of that, change my beliefs about discourses. Ones' discourse is the most important thing they carry because it is what they learn as kids. The subject on discourses really stuck to me because I never thought to express my feelings and sometimes was embarrassed to speak spanish in some cases. I will embrace who I am, the languages I speak, and most importantly my culture.

This Course

When this course is complete I must reflect back to everything that English 214 has given me and helped me gain. This class opened my mind in thinking and helped generate a different field for writing and structure. English is a difficult language to grasp its not like any other subject were one can remember formulas or just simply rules. Overall I can say that fundamentals that I got from this English Course this year has a huge impact on my writing but more on how view things.

I hope we can all agree on the fact that English 214 was completely different from our last English class.  I never had a teacher who let their students write their own syllabus. Which then allowed all the students to grade one another. In my previous English classes I was given a syllabus with all the requirements and what the teacher expects from the students. There was a grading rubric with all the percentages and how much each task was worth.  This class gave the option for students to think and truly do work on their own. One must be hold accountable to all the reading because if someone did not do the reading then in the long run they would be hurting themselves because they would not be able to engage in class discussions. This class opened my mind to blogging and expressing one self.

When I heard this class was going to start blogging I was intimidated because I have never blogged before and this made me scared. But after I started to get field in blogging it became easier and so much fun. I liked that fact that no one in the class knew the identity of each blogger. The blogger let me express my feelings and how I felt about a particular subject without being judged or disrespected. I have gained so much over blogging and the way people think and fight for different beliefs.

 

This English course got me to think differently but as well to stop judging. One of the most things I got out of this class is the Metaphors that are all around one another and we as people put among us. Discrimination and racism is a huge issue in society. The reason behind that is that everyone is quick to judge that creates ideologies, on the way one particular race is seen and their sexuality. Being a Chicano I want nothing but the best for my family and myself. I would love to get out of the poverty line and succeed in life. These things will create a new beginning and hopefully stop those stereotypes that people but upon Latinos/Chicanos.  This class gave me a total different view in the world. I will use everything I learned in this class from writing white to having an open mind in my carrier path. I am a business’s major and this class taught many things that I can use when dealing with other business associates or general things about attacking different scenarios.