Saturday, October 8, 2011

DFW blogs and Future Synthesis

A lot of you definitely got what DFW was saying in the commencement speech. I realize that this was the "easiest" piece we have read because it was originally given orally and it is a genre that we are all familiar with. Freire's work in particular is of a "theoretical/philosophical" genre that makes it more difficult to comprehend and Rodriguez's was a lengthy scholarly essay.

In your syntheses, it will be really important to not merely erase the several differences among these 3 articles. Indeed, I would recommend that you discuss the three articles in a particular order, showing their relations through making your own argument. Many of you seem to be partial to DFW's point, which is fine. One of the best ways to actually write something meaningful is looking at each piece as a "challenge" to the other. I would argue that much of Freire's piece challenges DFW's piece in ways that we have not explicitly discussed.

The best way to do this is to pay close attention to each of the texts. It will be imperative that you move past summary into more close reading. You will most likely  have to re-read Freire (and Rodriguez) since they have probably faded a bit from your mind.

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