English 245: Writing and Money Blog

Reading Response: Lanham

1/27/20

In this weeks reading titled “Stuff and Fluff”, Lanham explained how we live in an attention society. Within this society we have more information than we could ever process, but yet we always want more “stuff”. Lanham displayed this paradox between “stuff” and “fluff” with the example of “The Tragedy of the Commons” written by Garrett Hardin.

This essay described an English village that allowed anyone to bring their sheep to a communal field to graze. The more people that grazed their sheep, the more overgrazed this field became since nobody was responsible for taking care of the field. This, Lanham argued, is the problem with “stuff”. The more we want it and obtain it, the faster it is depleted. The author argued that stuff cannot be shared, since only one person can have ownership of it.

Lanham then created his own version of the commons that he called “the comedy of the commons”. He claimed that this is the internet or “World Wide Web”. The more people use this technology, the better this resource becomes for everyone else. This, he argued, is an analogy for “fluff” or non-stuff. The more people that “graze” this resource, the better it becomes, since more attention is paid to it. When more attention is paid, there is a better understanding. Lanham concludes this argument by claiming that the internet “combines the power of a free market, where individual gain leads to collective benefit, with the cooperative ownership of the cultural conversation”. While stuff is depleted when more attention is paid to it, non-stuff is enriched and strengthened.

Question of the Day

1/29/20

One piece of culture that has to do with money: A song by Pardison Fontaine called “Not There Yet”. This song is about how he has been saving money even though he has been finding fame. He still sleeps in the bed and home he grew up in and spends all of his money on his family and for his daughter. He talks about how he is still “grinding” and that he is not yet where he wants to be financially and that he is going to save until he is.

If I were to do a rhetorical analysis on this song, I would focus on what Pardison Fontaine focused on in his song for a textual analysis. What about his life has changed since he has begun achieving stardom and what has remained the same. For example, he claims that he sleeps in the same bed and in the same house that he grew up in. However, he has spent money on his daughter, which brings me to a contextual analysis.

For the contextual analysis, his situation has changed greatly. He has recently had a daughter and he has begun to accumulate wealth. I would also look into how other people in this genre of music usually begin to spend their money once they become wealthy, and its impact on their wellbeing.

I believe that I would find that his view is the minority view, especially for people in this genre. It would help me to better understand why he wrote this song, and why he felt that it was important enough for him to spend the time writing and recording it. Additionally, it would help to understand why he felt the need to share this with the world.

Reading Response: Bourdieu

2/10/20

In Pierre Bourdieu’s “The Forms of Capital”, he divides capital into three distinct kinds. The first type of capital is the most obvious and likely what most people think of, economic capital. This is simply the economic resources somebody has, such as money or property. The next is cultural capital, which is a persons academic skills/education that allows them to advance into a higher social-class standing. Finally, there is social capital which includes connections and professional networks that one has and maintains that helps accumulate resources.

Bourdieu then divides cultural capital into three types. The first is embodied cultural capital. This type of capital is not able to be transferred and is accumulated over time as the individual gains more cultural capital. This acquisition is done through self-improvement, and involves a personal cost.

Secondly, Bourdieu describes objectified cultural capital as something that is transmissible in its materiality. Objectified cultural capital can both be appreciated for its symbolic meaning, and has a material or economic value. It can be changed from cultural capital to economic capital.

Finally, cultural capital can be institutionalized. Institutionalized cultural capital is a formal recognition of cultural capital in the form of academic qualifications. These credentials allow one to obtain a job. This job then transforms institutionalized cultural capital into economic capital. The accumulation of cultural capital therefore can lead to the accumulation of economic capital.

Reading Response: McMillan Cottom

2/17/20

In this introduction to Professor Cottom’s book titled “Lower Ed”, she talks about her experience as an employee at for-profit universities. By doing this work, she saw the flaws and evils of these universities, and how they thrive and survive off of income and employment inequalities.

There were many things in this reading that not only shocked me, but also disgusted me. The first was Strayer College’s claim that a lack of jobs and “competition for fewer high-quality jobs” was “financially beneficial”. Seeing a college that wants a lack of jobs to increase enrollment, leading to students spending money on a degree that may not lead them to a job (due to the competitive employment market) was truly appalling.

Secondly, hearing her story about Jason, and many other students in a similar situation showed me the heartless nature of for-profit universities. These admission employees were simply there to close sales, and encourage students to take on loans that they will likely not be able to pay off. They seemed to care more that students made their payments and showed up to class more than the students doing well at the school and having a promising future. This was evident in the statistic she mentioned regarding their budgets. She claimed that 22.4% of revenue went towards advertising, while only 17.7% went towards education. This reading showed me the issue of for-profit education that I was previously unaware of.

Free-Write:

2/17/20

The most important questions to ask about the economy are its stability and how it is influenced. I want to understand how individual contributions make up the economy and lead to collective, nation-wide change. Additionally, inflation is very interesting to me, seeing how the cost of living has raised along with the devaluing of money occurring simultaneously. The aspect of the economy that I believe should be changed is income inequality. My motivation for understanding the economy, or writing and money, is understanding how I can impact the economy with my personal actions. I also want to know more about the economy so I am better prepared as I enter the professional world and have to work for a living and somehow balance all of the expenses in life.

Project 1: Draft

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Cg7OGRI6_RHtfXAHuBBZm43eXcSDz_lWt4L1dFAsLBc/edit?usp=sharing

Plan:

The exigence our analysis would address is the issue of people only appreciating “The Big Short” for its entertainment value, and not for the lessons it taught. The audience that we would likely be targeting are people who watched the movie and average consumers of media.

A podcast is a genre that most of our target audience would prefer to engage with, rather than an academic article or essay. Podcasts have become very popular, and are something that does not require an advance education to consume and understand, similar to the movie. We can also use the podcast form to possibly implement audio from the movie in places that we want to include direct quotes and character tone.

We made choices to make our presentation available to everyone. Our podcast will be in language that most could understand. This will serve our goals since it will allow us to reach the largest amount of people, and likely have a large overlap with people that saw “The Big Short”.

Ian Bigalk and Jake Michaelis

Engagement: Passive Agressive Note

2/24/20

The story I have behind sending passive aggressive notes surrounds some work that my landlord did to my apartment over winter break. The contractors entering and leaving my apartment left the door unlocked and my living room a mess multiple days in a row, so I stuck post-it notes on the walls and door where they were working, that I knew they would see. These notes are usually made up of an indication that something is an inconvenience or making me upset but without being too confrontational or seeming too upset. An example is a note that I always have had on my door to remind myself to “Lock the Door”, but I added a note underneath that simply stated “Contractors Included!!”. The audience for a passive aggressive note has to be one that would understand why the note was being written. For example, I could not share this note with another friend and expect them to understand the note without first understanding the context in which it is being written.

Engagement: Rhetorical Analysis in the Wild

2/26/20

Tolentino wrote this article about the #MeToo movement to raise awareness of the negative, unintended consequences of this movement. She is addressing the exigency that men are using this movement to motivate them to reestablish their dominance over women, giving the example of Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation as a result of this. By addressing this rhetorical situation, Tolentino is showing her audience, the readers, this unintended consequence of the #MeToo movement to raise awareness about it to try and inspire change, although she ends on a very pessimistic note.

Project 1: Rationale Workshop

2/26/20

What central point are you trying to make in your analysis? We are explaining the main argument and purpose of the movie, being that “The Big Short” was created to raise awareness of the causes of the 2008 recession and housing crisis. In our analysis, we ensure that people who saw the movie got the correct takeaways from the movie.

What problem might your analysis mediate or solve? People only watching the movie for its entertainment value, not its educational value.

Who needs to hear your analysis? People who saw the movie, “The Big Short”, especially if they only watched it for entertainment, and did not realize the main point of the movie.

With those things in mind, what specific composition choices did you make in this assignment? We chose to use very common, easy to understand language in the format of a podcast.

Why did those composition choices achieve your rhetorical goals? These choices made it best suited for our intended audience, average people who watched “The Big Short”. It was in a medium that they would likely rather engage with, compared to an academic essay or article. We also used language and terms that were similar to what was used in the movie, making sure that nearly anyone could understand and comprehend what we were saying.

Project 1 Rationale

Project 1 Rationale Download

Reading Response: Brandt

3/2/20

In this article about the value of literacy in a knowledge economy, Deborah Brandt argues for the increasing need and demand for literacy or being able to write for a living. She did this by interviewing and collecting perspectives of people who currently write for a living. Early in this article, Brandt states that “in a knowledge economy, wealth is created by generating and leveraging knowledge” (Brandt, 167). She goes on to state that human capital is a necessity in this economy, something that those with high literacy and writing skills often have.

Brandt then goes on to claim that knowledge is a “leaky property”. She defines this has ones ability to carry or move their learning into other contexts and projects. Later she proves that literacy is a form of knowledge that is also a “leaky property” as “the social capital of literacy and knowledge that travels beyond the workplace and into family and social relations” (Brandt, 192).

People who work in these fields, and use literacy or writing in their jobs often seem to have a large amount of pride in their work. Brandt explains multiple perspectives where, even though they do not receive direct credit or authorship, employees in these positions are able to see their work’s effect years down the line. Examples were given of someone promoted genetic research to help advance the medical field in the future, and an attorney setting a precedent in court that has been used and talked about all throughout the country.

Brandt paints a good picture for writing for a living, and the importance and value that is placed on it in nearly any field or domain of work. This article was written in 2005, which makes me wonder how attitudes and value placed on literacy in our economy’s current state, 15 years later.

Engagement: Brandt Option 2

3/2/20

The future career goal I have is to become an attorney. In this work I could see myself writing very often. A large portion of my writing would be to communicate with clients and other lawyers. I will need to be able to articulate my points clearly to these people, as well as be able to attract clients, especially if I work in the private sector. I will likely also need to prepare notes for courts, as well as different proposals or pieces of written work that will go to the court system, or to the opposing counsel.

Currently, I work as a paralegal for a lawyer that works in eviction law. So far I write emails to clients, prepare documents that are sent to court and use writing to help my attorney keep his schedule up to date. I imagine that much of this writing, although I do not want to go into eviction law, will remain the same. Law is a field that literacy is incredibly important, both in being able to understand things I will read, such as court decisions and statutes, as well as being able to convey my message and argument clearly to its intended audience.

Engagement: Research Brainstorm

3/4/20

An interesting strand of thinking is how one feels about retaining authorship of their writing. Additionally, I find it interesting to learn about the differences they see in their own personal writing and when they write when presenting something for a company (a law firm, in my specific interests).
How is writing used within the field of law, and what value is placed on literacy, both from a personal and industry standpoint?
I believe that interviews and text analysis would give me the most usable data and information. Within this field, I believe that attitudes towards writings, or beliefs of the value of literacy within the field of law are very important. This is data and information that an interview could obtain. Secondly, analyzing actual text that these attorneys have written for their job would help me to see how what these individuals value and find important transfer onto their actual work. It would also let me analyze the importance of writing in the field of law, since I would be able to see what each text was doing, whether it be attempting to obtain a client or preparing a statement for court.

Reading Response: Nakamura

3/9/20

In Lisa Nakamura’s article “The Unwanted Labor of Social Media: Women of Color Call Out Culture As Venture Community Management”, she explains how women, especially women of color, are present and primarily responsible for every level of digital labor. This digital labor is often either unpaid or grossly underpaid. This is where the idea of “Venture Community Management” comes from, as she defines “venture labor” as free, unpaid work in which workers willingly take up. These individuals, primarily women, who help to moderate social media are the venture community management that is essential to keep social media safe, but often is not appreciated. In fact, it is more likely that these individuals are faced with criticism and threats, rather than praise and appreciation.

Throughout this article, Nakamura compares women that help moderate social media sites and call out and intervene in sexist, racist and other hateful discourse that appears on these websites. She explains that this work too is very dangerous, and is highly stigmatized and attacked. While the dangers are far different from cheap female labor in production lines, mainly taking place in East Asia, she shows that this danger and cheap or unpaid labor is mainly placed on women of color. The burden of digital labor is primarily placed on these women, however they receive little to no compensation for it, whether that be monetary or through appreciation; or any other form of compensation.

Engagement: Observation Practice

3/9/20

People appear happy and are clapping for younger individuals, showing that it is a celebration of some sort. The people watching appear older, suggesting they may be parents or family members and are also much happier than the people walking. These people appear to have a collective identity, likely school based on some clothing and age groups. The people in the celebrated group know each other and are friendly with other people. They also know people in the audience, which can be seen through waving and pointing, as well as photos and videos being taken.

Project 2: SWA

3/11/20

My research question will be: “What role does writing and literacy play in the field of law and one’s ability to be successful?” Especially the ability to write for a particular audience. I am curious about the role of flexibility within this field, and believe that learning more about this will help me answer the larger question of the role of writing and literacy in one being successful as a lawyer or in this field.

The things that I want to learn about the field of law are what kinds of writing is used and important, how often lawyers need to change their style and be flexible depending on audience, and how important it is to be able to write and be literate in this field. This information may influence how I approach writing and working on my writing skills throughout the rest of my college career to be better prepared.

The idea of flexibility influenced me. Since lawyers are constantly talking to different people with different amounts of knowledge of the law and legal terminology, how important is it to be able to speak flexibly. This is especially important as it pertains to being successful (obtaining clients, winning cases, expressing your point clearly to its intended audience, etc.).

I believe talking to both lawyers and paralegals would help me answer this question. This is because often a lawyer will do the majority of their own written work, or they will have a paralegal do it for them. These are the two positions within the field of law that I am interested in when it comes to how writing influences their job, and how important they believe it is. I plan to collect different types of written work. I want to look at both a communication with a client, with another lawyer/coworker and a document sent to or used in court. There are no observations that I will complete. I do not believe that this would be effective to answer this question.

Interview Protocol:

What does a typical day at work look like for you?
Did you consider yourself a good writer or enjoy writing before going into your career?
How often do you write in your career and for what general purposes?
How important is literacy and the ability to write well for these purposes?
How might your writing style change if you are talking to your client or the opposition?
Is there any regulation or reviewing of any of your writing before it is used (whether it be documents sent to court, or communication with clients)?
Do you find it difficult to write to multiple audiences?
Have there been any instances in which poor or unclear writing has caused any issues?

I will also include additional questions depending on the type of lawyer I am interviewing, and change the questions slightly for the paralegal. However, these are the general questions I expect to ask.

Recruitment Script

Hello NAME,

I am currently taking an English course on the topic of writing and money and am looking into the role that writing takes in the economy, specifically within the field of law. I was hoping to interview you about the role writing and literacy play in your daily tasks required for your job, and report my findings in the format of a research paper.

This paper will only be used for educational purposes, and will not be shared with anyone other of me and my professor. Any personal information (names, company, etc.) will either be removed or replaced by pseudonyms. Additionally, I will need to record the audio from our interview for the purposes of writing my paper. Once again, this recording will not be used outside of this project and will be destroyed following the completion of said project.

Thank you, and I hope you are able and willing to assist me with my project. I look forward to your response!

Thank you,

Ian Bigalk

Engagement: Data Analysis Practice