PB3A

I chose the scholarly article, “‘Big Picture People Rarely Become Historians’: Genre Systems and the Contradictions of General Education” by David R. Russell and Arturo Yañez. This article was based on the study about how students performed on a general education Irish History course which put an emphasis on its writing requirement. The study discussed how students have trouble actually creating good writing because of how the students (non-experts) are expected to be experts by the professor/TA’s (experts). Both authors also discussed how students take GE courses because they want to fulfill necessary graduating requirements, so most come in with little interest for the actual subject, thus coming in thinking they know how to write for the class when in reality they probably don’t because each subject has its own unique way of creating what is considered good writing.

The main subject (student) of this article was Beth, a Journalist major, taking the class to see how she could become a better writer by learning about history. She came in thinking only like a journalist so when it came to writing like a historian, she was inexperienced. She had trouble with the writing and thought that it was bad grading on behalf of the TA, but after meeting with her TA and getting to talk to him and beginning to start to see how writing is different based on the field, she improved and in the end got her A. Beside telling Beth’s experience, the authors went into a deeper description of how this struggle could be resolved by having the system (the universities, departments, professors/TA’s) think about using the activity theory and genre system theory to address the contradiction students have about writing in a new perspective compared to the perspectives they come in with.

The Younger Audience:

For my younger audience I was thinking about writing some sort of short story in which I describe the adventure of Beth, and had the two author be the narrators of the story making commentary throughout the story. I was thinking of maybe adding some sort of magical element into the story because I think that younger people tend to like reading fiction than non-fiction. The story would have a moral of some sort relating to what Russell and Yañez were trying to advocate: that the university system and their staff must be willing to work with students to correctly teach them how each field has their own genre of writing and how one must be willing to adjust to it, while if wanting incorporating their own majors. The story would of course include pictures because we know just how attention grabbing pictures can be because of how something a good break from just pure text is needed. The title and cover would also need to be appealing because people do judge a book by its cover. The one aspect of this story that I think will be really important is making Beth relate able to my audience because when people make connections they enjoy something more.

The Older Audience:

For my older audience I was thinking about doing some sort contract paper. I don’t know the specific name, but it I got the idea because many adults sign many papers when having to make big purchases such as a house or a new car, things that represent the introduction to adulthood. The contract would of course have different sections with lots of text in each one and signatures at the end and in between the text to make it seems more legitimate. I think each section would address a different part that Russell and Yañez article had, focusing on the two theories, Beth’s experiences, and the conclusion given at the end of the journal, addressing all the main parts. The paper itself would have plain and simple with little exaggerations in any form because it is conserved a formal piece of paper and is of great importance to both the contractor and the person signing.