Nancy Sommers

Responding to Student Writing by Nancy Sommers is an academic article that focuses on teachers commenting in student writing. This articles purpose is to open the eye of every teacher there is out there and have them realize that not every single comment made on student writing is beneficial to students and their writing. These types of comments are also useful to question or show any discrepancy in our writing “that we, as writers, are blind to.” (Sommers, 1982, p.148) In order to prove herself, Sommers started a study based off of 35 teachers, the comments the teachers wrote on first and second drafts and interviews of both the teachers and the students that the writing belonged to. In her study Sommers found that “teachers do not respond to student writing with the kind of thoughtful commentary which will help students to engage with the issues they are writing about or which will help them link about heir purposes and goals in writing a specific text.” (Sommers, 1982, p.154) What Sommers meant by her first point is that teachers take comments and use them as a way to grammatically correct a student’s writing and not engage the student further into the topic, which in turn will be useless because the student only makes those changes the final draft will look exactly the same or worse. On the second point Sommers also points out that many of the teachers take commenting as a mean for appropriating a student’s text. She notes that instead of teachers letting students express how or what they feel the teacher turns around and makes the writing say or sound in the way they want or think is the “right-way”. In order to make better writers Sommers suggest that “we need to reverse this approach” (Sommers, 1982, p.154) and have a change in action by starting on trying to give students thoughtful comments. These comments are both positive and important to writers because they are needed in order to show when an idea has been communicated or when it has not. By taking the authors research and my past experiences I would have to agree because I have been in the situation when I do not understand the topic and when I read the teachers comments I have no idea if I am headed in the right direction or not. This will come to great use in future use of peer-reviewing. 

Lea Ramsdell

Language and Identity Politics: The Linguistic Autobiographies of Latinos in the United States by Lea Ramsdell is an academic article that focuses on how three writers use language to position themselves in relation to power. The sole purpose of this article is to show how powerful language really is. When the author uses the phrase “Language is identity and identity is political” (Ramsdell, 2004, p.1) she implies that your language identifies you with your family and ethnic history and your ethnic history and family have political pasts, statuses and beliefs. In this phrase Ramsdell also refers to identity politics in which the authors are able to identify who they are by the language they use. Richard Rodriguez (first author analyzed) sees English and Spanish at opposite ends because of going through the “agonizing” experience acculturation as a young boy. Rodriguez sees that by leaving Spanish behind and mastering English he became a member of the world of economic success. Ariel Dorfman (second author analyzed) also places English and Spanish at different ends. However he does not leave his Spanish behind, but in fact embraces both languages but in separate settings. On the other hand, Gloria Anzaldua (third author analyzed) views both English and Spanish as once since she identifies herself on both sides of the “linguistic divide”. Anzaldua “embraces Spanglish” to show the acceptance of both her American and Mexican sides. Though Richard Rodriguez, Ariel Dorfman and Gloria Anzaldua identify themselves differently they all view language as home and “the very essence of their selves”. (Ramsdell, 2004, p.1) From this analysis I have learned that there is in fact several ways that language can change how one views oneself or better embrace how they view themselves by changing both their actions and beliefs. Which I think is true because language is used to express oneself and if you do not feel comfortable with your language you will not be able to do so. This analysis will help me to better understand different cultures, especially since I will be reading The Toughest Indian in the World which deals with Native culture. 

Gloria Anzaldua

             La conciencia de la mestiza: Towards a New Consciousness by Gloria Anzaldua is an academic article about a woman who has to live up to the expectations of two different cultures and the issues she has to deal with in order to do so. The main purpose of this article is trying to accept and adapt a new consciousness which the author is calling the “mestiza” consciousness. This new way of thinking will allow us to take down our borders; which are both physical and mental. The physical borders in the article is used as a metaphor for the identity issues that the author explores, “la mestiza undergoes a struggle of flesh, a struggle of borders, an inner war.” (Anzaldua, 1987, p.100) This inner war is the battle between the most dominant culture’s views and beliefs and the least dominant culture’s views and beliefs.  However, Anzaldua refuses to keep this “war” going. By using her life experiences Anzaldua suggest we should change or actions and our beliefs to adapt and accept the mestiza consciousness. Once we have accepted and have a mestiza consciousness we will be able to create new mythos- “that is, a change in the way we perceive reality, the way we see ourselves, and the ways we behave” (Anzaldua, 1987, p.102). Embracing a mestiza consciousness will help one deal with social and economic issues affecting oppressed groups in the United States, because it will take away the ignorance. Ignorance is what “splits people and crates prejudices” (Anzaldua, 1987, p.108). Only when the ignorance is gone will we be able to accept everyone as our equal and learn from each and every one of us has to offer and make this society better in both the social and economic aspect; which I completely agree with. When everyone works together towards a common goal they will be more prosperous. These new ideas will help me understand and view different cultures in a positive way, which will come in handy as I read The Toughest Indian in the World by Sherman Alexie.