Katie Grace Brake

Prof. Graves

LANG 120

25 January 2017

Anzaldua, Gloria. Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. 3rd ed. N.p.: Aunt Lute, 2007.

Print.

Gloria Anzaldua writes Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza as a way to explain

different invisible borders that separate and marginalize people. Anzaldua comes from Chicano

heritage and feels like she doesnt belong anywhere. She speaks English with an accent and

doesnt speak standard Spanish. The use of metaphor in rampant in this excerpt, creating a very

vivid imagining in the readers mind of what Anzaldua is talking about. She also switches

between Spanish and English in order to highlight the way her bilingual mind works. The use of

both English and Spanish also serves to bring her two sides together (American and Chicano.)

This book was written in 1987, when America as a whole was less tolerant of the other. The

audience could be others struggling with identity and invisible borders, but it could also be the

cultural majority that shes aiming her book at as a way to get them to empathize with the

marginalized people.
Katie Grace Brake

Prof. Graves

LANG 120

23 February 2017

David Russell, "Activity Theory and Its Implications for Writing Instruction," from

Reconceiving Writing, Rethinking Writing Instruction, ed. Joseph Petraglia, Lawrence

Erlbaum, 1995.

Russel begins Activity Theory and Its Implications for Writing Instruction by

explaining why he is writing the piece and what inspired him to write it. His audience is teachers

and school officials who need to know his ideas. The main idea of the paper is that freshman

writing classes have failed in the past, but that it can become effective by integrating Activity

Theory into teaching. He cites past research and explains known ideas that support his claim. He

writes in a very formal way because hes writing an academic paper. Formal, non-personal

writing helps to get ideas across while sounding confident and well-learned. He hopes that the

audience will adjust their teaching styles accordingly in order to better teach students how to

write.
Katie Grace Brake

Prof. Graves

LANG 120

23 January 2017

Villanueva, Victor. Excerpt from Bootstraps: From an Academic of Color. Urbana, IL: NCTE,

1993. 66-77. Print.

Victor Villanueva, a Professor at Washington State University who grew up in New York

City as a child of Puerto Rican emigrants, writes Bootstraps: From an Academic of Color. This

autobiography captures his struggle to complete college after going to war in Vietnam. The book

was published in 1993, which was a time when the amount of white people who graduated

college was more than twice the amount of Hispanics. He wants others who are marginalized

(whether it be by race, language, or age) to understand that they are not alone and its possible to

reach their goals. Villanueva switches between first person and third person while telling the

same story. The third person viewpoint serves to let the readers see themselves in the protagonist,

while the first person point of view helps the author to interject his thoughts and feelings at that

point in the story.

Katie Grace Brake

Prof. Graves

LANG 120

11 April 2017

Nancy Sommers and Laura Saltz, "The Novice as Expert: Writing the Freshman Year," College

Composition and Communication, vol. 56, no. 1, Sept. 2004, pp. 124-149

Nancy Sommers and Laura Saltz write about a longitudinal study that they conducted in

order to find out how freshman writing plays into a students academic writing career. Citing and

explaining how the study was done helps to establish ethos for the authors, giving them

credibility. They begin with an anecdote about the experience freshmen have when beginning

college in order to create a pathetic connection to the reader. They then explain their findings.

The point of the article is to show how their findings support the theory that freshman

writing is an important starting block for students to learn how to write well. The article is aimed

at professors and education executives who have a say in whether or not freshman writing is

taught. They want freshmen to engage in writing assignments and classes in order to learn more

in depth and grow as students.

Katie Grace Brake

Prof. Graves

Lang 120

28 April 2017

Teresa Thonney, "Teaching the Conventions of Academic Discourse," Teaching English in the

Two-Year College, vol. 38, no. 4, May 2011, pp. 347-362

Theresa Thonney, an english professor at Columbia Basin College, writes Teaching the

Conventions of Academic Discourse in 2011. The purpose is to explain how to improve

freshman writing classes. Her article is aimed at professors and teachers of writing. She wants

them to change their approach to teaching in order to provide students with relevant information.

The article begins by looking at others arguments on the matter in order to show that

what she is talking about is important. She frequently brings in information from other

established authors to support her thesis. Thonney cites many examples in order to make what

she is saying more clear. She lays out specific guidelines that she believes should be followed in

order to effectively teach students.