Final Blog!!

The final blog sounds so depressing…. Just kidding I’m so happy I actually wasn’t a huge fan of the blogs. I know they were supposed to be fun and creative but they were actually really stressful for me. I think I am a fun or creative but if you read my blogs, you would think I am so incredibly boring. I never had any pictures or funny stories, I was always straight to the point. Truth be told, I always forgot to do them until right before they were due…kind of like this time…..sorry. But I even think the blogs were my least favorite genre because I felt you had to be so creative and interesting but I still saw it as an academic assignment because my peers and my professor were going to read them. Having a length or word minimum was also very stressful because some things just were that inspirational enough to write hundreds of words about. most of the time though, I wasn’t enough close to the word minimum so I just stop writing because no one wants to read a bunch of pointless words. Also, in a really shy and private person so knowing people were going to read my writing scared me.

But my favorite genre would have to be the narrative. I would it was cute to remember this important memory and use it in our writing. It was also probably the easiest because there was no research or too much analysis, it just came from remembering something important to you. At first I was really confused when we had to think of a discourse community but once I thought of one, everything else was a piece of cake. We got to use that memory and analysis it now that we’re a little bit older and have some distance from that situation so I feel like we were about to learn a lot not just about the situation but also about ourselves. So that was really cool because in a RWS class, I really didn’t expect to learn something about myself. I was out here trying to learn about different genres.

My first resume was in high school and it was the worst, I was such a lame high school student, I never participated in anything. I had volunteered in some things but I didn’t think those things mattered but they ended up completely necessary because they gave me something to fill up my resume with. I remember I was just trying to find any job in the mall, I ended working in a retail job, which was the worst. If folding clothes and dealing with stressed holiday shoppers doesn’t make you want to cry then I don’t know what to tell you. I think I got the job because of my resume because I had done some stuff even if my volunteer stuff wasn’t related to working retail but I guess the fact that it was the holiday season and they needed a bunch of people to work was also a big factor too. 

blog #10

What discourse community am I researching? Hmmmm. Honestly, I’m not super 100 percent sure I even know what a discourse community really is. Every time I think I know what it is, I do a little more research, I confuse myself.  But so I need to double check that. But the discourse community I would like to research, once I actually find out if it actually is a discourse community, is the deaf community. I’m fascinated by the deaf community because I have quite a few family members who are deaf and I am very interesting in how they communicate with each other and anyone else in general. Some of my deaf family members know sign language and the others don’t. They can still communicate with each other though. I’ve noticed that they read my lips to communicate with people. I found this out the hard way when I tried to mouth a word instead of mumbling something under my breath in front of my mom, she was not pleased. In society, it is socially acceptable to make eye contact with someone when they are talking so deaf people can come off as rude when they stare at their mouths.

            I plan on interview my family members who don’t know sign language vs the ones who do and compare their experiences in this community. The cost to be in this community is to be either to born into this community or join by accident, meaning you lose your hearing.

            There’s a lot of things that my mom and family members do that I don’t really understand but then if they run into another person who is deaf and they completely understand. Now that I’m older I understand it more now, I had to be use context clues but it really isn’t that difficult to understand their mannerisms. Of course, anyone can learn sign language or read lips so that’s what this community kinda different. It doesn’t have to be just deaf people, it can really be anyone who just have to learn and adapt to their skills and mannerisms. 

blog #8

I definitely agree with you, I wouldn’t want to be working as a waitress once I graduate college. You go to college to get some high power kind of job. Waitress is nothing to be ashamed of but I don’t think I would want to have that as a job forever. I don’t think it would make me very happy. Well I see or talk to people who are waitresses, they always seem really mad because people are always so mean to waitresses. I don’t want people to be mean to me. But people aren’t really mean to doctors or CEOs of giant corporations.

            But I think it would really suck to have to take these courses in college like organic chemistry or statistics just so you end taking some bratty teenagers order. You would have broken your brain thinking about all these number and formulas and you end up never using it ever again, I would feel really frustrated and incredibly angry. If I spent all my time, money, and energy on learning all this material, I better be using this knowledge all the time or at least in my career.

            I don’t consider customer service industry workers to “mindless” like Peter Drucker says. You have to a mind to be able to handle all the dumb and crazy stuff customer service workers have to deal with. I really don’t think people can be superior to each other just because of their job. Your job doesn’t determine your importance or your worth to society. And I’m pretty sure you have to have more than a ninth grade education to be a server, because ninth graders are still pretty stupid. Waitress are a lot smarter than any ninth grader I’ve ever met, and a whole lot nicer too.

            I work in the mall and since I haven’t graduated college yet, I could definitely say you don’t need a college diploma to work in the mall. I could’ve worked in the mall when I was in ninth grade but I would have been way worse at my job. College doesn’t just provide you with knowledge about school stuff, you learn how to act better in social situations. 

Total Mushfaker:

I am for sure a huge mushfaker. In fact, one of my favorite saying is “fake it until you make it”. Definitely words to live by! Ninety five percent of the time, I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing, the other five percent pretending I have a slight clue as to what’s going on. Well I’m not that clueless all the time but really who knows what to do all the time? No one! I’m kind of a slow learner, it takes me a while to actually properly learn how to do something but once I pick it up, I’m pretty great at it. In the time you spend faking it, you actually learn how to do it. Sometimes, you don’t even realize that you picked it up, it feels natural. Practice makes perfect.

            I’m the worst mushfaker when it comes to social situations. In social situations, I don’t think I can “fake it until I make it”. I’m a really awkward person and I’m really shy too (a dangerous combination). But once I get at least one friend, I instantly become way less awkward and shy. I just follow that one friend around and once they start a conversation with someone else, I casually chime in at times. Then I become friends with that person. And that’s how I make friends… being creepy and casually chiming into other people’s conservations.

            Honestly, when I’m mushfaking I feel way more nervous and shy than I really am. I feel really scared that someone could expose me for being a fake. The first time you enter a new environment, you don’t even know how to fake it. You have to do some people watching first then you adapt to their behaviors, language, and costumes. You can’t really fake your way your first day because you still need time to observe and adapt. Mushfaking is kind of like an art form, you really have master the craft of faking, some people can’t fake their way around something. You have appear like you fit in even though you know you don’t. Not only is it a state of being, it’s is a way of thinking. If you think you are something, you will soon become that. It’s like that saying, you think like a winner, you become a winner. Kind of cheesy but it’s true. Even if you lose, if you think like a winner, you’ll be a winner in your heart.

            A common new discourse environment is usually new job situations. When you go to an interview, you wouldn’t go in sweats and a sweater, there’s an unsaid protocol that you follow. You dress up as something you don’t normally dress up as. Not only are you dressing up your physical, you’re also dressing up your persona. You don’t present yourself to the interviewer the same way you would present yourself with friends or family. You’re mushfaking.  Then if you get the job, you still don’t really know what you’re doing, you’re mushfaking again. You’re kind of mushfaking your way through sometimes, at least during some big moments in your life. 

I’m the first in my family to go to college and that made it so much tougher because I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. My parents don’t even speak English, how did I think they were going to help me or even understand me during my college adventure. Since, I didn’t know anyone who went to college, I had to base my entire expectation on movies….. it definitely isn’t the same (I’m hurt!). High school Melissa was expecting something so different and I’m definitely not living my life like the movies. I guess that’s a good thing too, don’t know how I survive my college life partying or drunk (I don’t party at all, I’m a total grandma) sorry not sorry.

            Since me going to college, two of cousins have gone to college (wohoo for female progression). So I can talk to them about and they’ll definitely get my relatable college memes that I text them. Our parents never understand us and it can get really hard because I just wanna nap everywhere and they’re not digging it. I really like learning new things and talking about important controversial things because I like knowing people’s opinions. And that annoys my family so much! When people say don’t talk about politics or religion with your family and friends, they really mean DON’T DO IT. It’s either I’m mad or they’re mad, it’s not fun. That Akon song “Lonely” starts playing in the background (it’s a good song, but it’s a sad song too. So it’s not fun to have as your background song or theme song).

            College is hard and I honestly hate it…. But Imma still go tho. Being completely immersed was definitely the toughest thing in my life. I had absolutely no idea what to do and I was so scared. I think the thing I was scared of the most was the fact that my mom couldn’t sign me out of class and have it be ok because in college, you miss five minutes of lecture and feel completely and totally lost. Shout out to my mom for signing me out of class in high school, you the realest.  

            I didn’t feel like I fit in at school, I still do. I think that’s because when I first got to college I thought there was gonna be a lot more diversity. The first Mexican person I saw was one of the construction workers that was working on campus….. really disappointed in that. I was really sad that I couldn’t speak Spanish to anyone or campus, I love speaking Spanish. I grew up speaking Spanish, everyone in my high school spoke Spanish so once I got to state, I spent a lot of times talking to my parents on the phone just to make sure I didn’t forget my Spanish (but most importantly my culture).

            College is very hard and three years and I still have no freaking idea was I’m doing. But I’m still gonna keep “college-ing” (???)… that’s not a word but you know what I mean. 

These op-ed pieces are very strong one-sided arguments. The authors of the op-ed pieces seem like the kind of people you do not want to have an argument with. You might even want to walk the other direction when you see them approaching you on the street. The authors of the JSTOR Daily pieces base their articles on research and often reference their opinions to the opinions of other articles; for example, the stranger things article discussed “The Five Signs of Death”. You could bring in some evidence to be able to debunk a JSTOR Daily but an op-ed piece could not be proven or unproven. The JSTOR Daily article would be more acceptable to use to reference in an academic research paper. Op-ed pieces are about current life events nut they base their current opinions on past events. The viral Black Death article brings to lights the lynching of African Americans and compared it to the current injustice African Americans face now. The op-ed piece reinforces emotional appeals. The JSTOR Daily uses more logos while the op-ed pieces utilize pathos, however both kind of genres try to use ethos. In the “liberal are the sort of people who…” article uses loaded language in an attempt to appeal to their extremely conservative audience. Their audience will read this article and think it is humorous and will probably squeal “ahhhh so true” but their untargeted audience, aka the liberals, this article will be extremely insulting and frustrating. There isn’t much logic behind their argument. Op-ed pieces only try to appeal to one kind of audience, while JSTOR Daily can appeal to any general audience. The JSTOR Daily appeals more to younger (lazier) generations who don’t want to read long articles of extensive research. The JSTOR Daily reinforces western ideas of thinking, the idea that an opinion should be backed up by facts and research. Op-ed pieces are for more individualistic cultures rather than collective cultures. 

The Devitt reading was actually really difficult and, to be very honest, it was kind of boring at certain parts. The parts I found the most interesting was the parts that discussed that teachers can't really teach any genre of writing completely. It made me feel a lot better about my writing, because I  have never been a very good writer. I always felt so restricted when I write, no matter the genre. As Devitt discussed, all genres have their own ideology that they follow, and that ideology can be very restricting. I even feel somewhat trapped when I am typing this blog post. I feel like this has be to be informal, goofy, and contains lots of pictures. However, since I am writing for a class assignment, i feel uncomfortable using pictures and typing as if I am texting someone. As uncomfortable I am writing a blog, I still enjoy it more than a five paragraph essay.

All genres follow their own ideology, you'll be able to identify different types of writing just by looking at it. Each genre has its own structure that it follows. Within the structure, there are usually steps it follows. For example, within a five paragraph essay, there is always an intro, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. The intro always has a attention grabber and the thesis with three positions or three main points. The body discusses the each main point and provides evidence to support each of the main points. Then the conclusion, just "ties everything together" and restates the main point. To be honest, the conclusion is pointless, most of high school ap teacher even said this. If your point needs to be restated again at the end, it probably wasn't very supported throughout the essay. 

When Devitt says "existing power structures and dynamics" (347) I think she means that each types of writing each strict styles of writing. For example, resumes always have to have your name at the beginning of the paper. The five paragraph essay has the intro, bodies, and conclusion; and there is no deviation from that order. They have so much power because they are so restricting.  

The types of writing that I encounter in my every life are writing such as resumes, research papers, and social media posts. The types of writing I usually encountered are informal but they still follow a certain format. The resumes tells an employer quality about yourself that would ensure a job with them. Social media posts tell your audience something about yourself or something going on in your life. Research papers provide information about a topic. No matter the genre, there is a story to tell. 

Hi! I'm Melissa Munguia. I'm currently a junior. I'm officially a public health major and it took me forever to decide on public health but I'm so glad I picked it. If there's one thing I love it's helping people. Now that probably sounds like a lie to make to sound like a good person, but it's honestly very much true! If I can make the world a little less terrible, I'll definitely do it! I'm a very quiet person, most of the time people forget I'm in the room (yikes). I'm a small 5 foot 2 Mexican girl and it's really easy for me to be overlooked. But since I'm so small, it's really easy to be carried everywhere. Which works out perfectly because I just may be the world's clumsiest person ever. I'm always falling over something and ending up with cuts and bruises, usually meaning someone has to carry me everywhere to make sure I don't seriously injury myself. My favorite thing to do in the world is to watch tv. It sounds really boring but I love being able to relax with snacks watching my favorite tv characters doing something funny or dramatic; comedies and drama are my favorites. If there's one thing I could never be, it's a morning person. I'll stay up all night watching my tv shows then be confused about the fact that I'm not a morning. So when you see me tomorrow and I'm not a bright sun shining face, it's because I was watching way too much tv the night before. I'm short, sweet,and simple... just like this blog post byyyyyye!