Month: September 2018

I agree with Gee when he makes the statement that you are either in a discourse or not because it requires 100% fluency. Gee writes that when it comes to a Discourse “You are either in it or you’re not” (Gee 9). A discourse is a sort of identity kit that makes up your whole personality and more, if you were to attempt to embody another identity or discourse you would fail because you would not be able to embody it 100%. According to Gee attempting to enter a Discourse could never be successful, people who are already members of the Discourse would realize that you are an imposter very quickly.

Cuddy expresses the idea that if you have a discourse that you wish to become a member of you can simply “fake it ‘til you make it”. This idea says that if you force yourself to embody and adapt to the ways of a certain discourse eventually it will become more and more natural until you are actually a member of a Discourse. “You are not quitting, because I took a gamble on you, and you’re staying. You’re going to stay, and this is what you’re going to do. You are going to fake it. You’re going to do every talk that you ever get asked to do. You’re just going to do it and do it and do it, even if you’re terrified and just paralyzed and having an out-of-body experience, until you have this moment where you say, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m doing it. Like, I have become this. I am actually doing this.'”This directly contradicts Gee’s opinion on the matter that you cannot fake being in a Discourse because you will be found out. In this case I agree with Gee’s statement because I believe that no matter what situation you cannot fake experience or credentials. Cuddy’s idea can only apply to people who already have the experience and credentials to become a member of a discourse but lacks the confidence to be successful in that area. There is a massive difference between not being qualified to be in a Discourse and not being confident enough.

 

The idea that your primary Discourse will show through and affect you even when you are engaged in a secondary discourse was expressed by Gee when comparing the typical Discourse found in homes from different races and socioeconomic levels. I disagree with Gee when he makes this statement because I believe that if someone were to put the effort and work into being able to hide some aspects of their primary Discourse they would be able to do so successfully. This could be necessary for someone who grew up in a lower class, black home because typically these types of homes have a primary Discourse that is less suitable for a business or school setting when compared to those from a higher class home.  

 

 

My Stance	Gee	Cuddy
Agree	“If you have no access to the social practice, you don’t get in the discourse, you don’t have it. You cannot overtly teach someone a Discourse, in a classroom or anywhere else.” I agree with Gee here because I think that you cannot teach someone or yourself to become a member of a certain discourse. I think that to acquire a discourse it needs to occur naturally, a Discourse is how someone speaks, writes and acts it’s not something that you can change or pretend to be a part of.	“I don’t have ego involved in this. Give it away. Share it with people, because the people who can use it the most are the ones with no resources and no technology and no status and no power. Give it to them because they can do it in private. They need their bodies, privacy and two minutes, and it can significantly change the outcomes of their life.”(Cuddy, 8) I agree with Cuddy here because her technique of “fake it ‘til you make it” is something that requires nothing but yourself. This a way that people who have nothing, can give themselves the confidence that they need and put their best foot forward.
Disagree
Agree, with a Difference	“For instance, the primary Discourse of many middle-class homes has been influenced by the secondary Discourses like those used in schools and business. This is much mess true of the primary Discourse in many lower socioeconomic black homes, though this primary Discourse have been influenced by the black church community” I agree with Gee’s statement here because there is evidence that backs this up but I do disagree with how he relates this to a statement later on in the paper where he says that your primary discourse will always show through even when you are engaged in a secondary discourse. This is saying that someone from a low socioeconomic black area will never be as successful as someone who is from a middle class white area, because of the nature of their primary discourse. I don’t think that this is true because if someone is willing to work hard enough to be successful in an area they will be able to not use the pieces of their primary discourse that would put them at a disadvantage.	So at the end of my first year at Harvard, a student who had not talked in class the entire semester, who I had said, “Look, you’ve gotta participate or else you’re going to fail,” came into my office. I really didn’t know her at all. She came in totally defeated, and she said, “I’m not supposed to be here.” And that was the moment for me. Because two things happened. One was that I realized, oh my gosh, I don’t feel like that anymore. I don’t feel that anymore, but she does, and I get that feeling. And the second was, she is supposed to be here! Like, she can fake it, she can become it.              I agree with Cuddy here but only in these types of situations. In this situation the student had already been accepted and in the class and obviously had all the necessary credentials to be where she was, but the thing that she lacked here was confidence. In a scenario where a person has all the necessary qualifications or credentials but lacks confidence faking it until you actually build that confidence is a realistic and reasonable approach. If someone who was completely in over their head and had no credentials or qualifications attempted to fake it until they made it, they would be discovered as a fraud, eventually someone would know they did not belong in the position in which they were in.

 

One of the main concerns that I had while I was completing my first draft was my ability to clearly state and express my opinions about the works of Gee Cuddy. While writing the paper I felt as though my ideas were becoming cluttered and disorganized. My best work regarding Cuddy is when I am discussing how using her tactic of “fake it ’til you make” and how this can be used by anyone, “Great quote. I think that this is a very important part of the message that she is trying to convey. The quotation sandwich is also pretty strong.” (peer review). According to my peers the two biggest challenges that I need to work on in this paper are to make more text to self examples and to be more clear and concise when stating my beliefs for either piece of literature.  In order to fix the first problem I need to make sure to use an example using myself that I have experienced when it comes to a discourse.  The second problem can  be fixed by not trying to touch upon and talk about every idea that is proposed by Gee and Cuddy, this will help to make the paper more concise and my opinions will be clearer. Overall I believe that the ideas presented by both Gee and Cuddy are valid but can only realistically be applied to different situations. Cuddy’s theory of “fake it ’til you make” is only applicable when you already have the ability to become a member of that discourse, whereas Gee’s beliefs apply to someone who is starting from scratch.

3.) Gee’s first theorem is basically that in order to be a part of a discourse you need to be 100% fluent. You are either 100% and included in the discourse or you aren’t, there is no in-between. You cannot be partially or semi-fluent and still fit into the discourse. This could be seen as controversial because many people although not 100% fluent would consider themselves to be a part of or understand certain discourses and this theorem goes against that common belief that you only need to know a certain amount to be considered a member of a discourse.  Gee’s second theorem states that a primary discourse cannot be liberating literacy.  This is because Primary discourses are both unique and contain only themselves, they can show up in other secondary discourses but a primary discourse can never be liberating as it cannot be a main idea of any other discourse. This could be seen as controversial because some people may believe that a primary discourse can be and have the qualities to be liberating literacy.

4.) Gee states that “mushfake” is “to do with something less when the real thing is not available” (Gee 13) This definition means to improvise, he supports this claim by comparing it to prisoners making hat,  “So when prison inmates make hats from underwear to protect their hair from lice, the hats are mushfake.” Gee also defines meta-knowledge as being able to use new knowledge along with prior knowledge. Meta-knowledge helps to analyze situations by combining new knowledge with knowledge you already had in order to better understand a situation.  Gee’s final definition is for resistance, in his terms resistance means to have the ability to keep one’s primary discourse while still gaining new knowledge and pieces of other discourses.

5.) One way that the ideas between Gee and Cuddy are related is because they both have similar beliefs when discussing growing and learning to master a situation. Cuddy discusses this by giving the idea of “faking it until you become it” and Gee discusses showing your ability to master a discourse.  Another way they are related is that they both touched on the subject of successful students which directly related to the mastery of a situation and subjects. 

They say I say:

1.) It is important to engage with other people’s views because recognizing and using an opposite opinion can strengthen your argument. “If it weren’t for other people and our need to challenge, agree with, or otherwise respond to them, there would be no reason to argue at all. You cannot just simply state what you believe if you want to make a compelling argument, you must propose your ideas as a conversation, ” To make an impact as a writer, then, you need to do more than make statements that are logical, well supported, and consistent. You must also find a way of entering into conversation with the views of others, with something “they say”.”(They say I say, 4)

2.)In chapter 1 the authors discussed the idea of putting other’s views into your writing to strengthen your argument, this is something I had been told to do all throughout my high school writing experience. I believe that using this  technique makes your argument more clear and have a stronger point, “The answer is that if you don’t identify the “they say” you’re responding to, your own argument probably won’t have a point.” (They say, I say 4)

3.)

1.) In his piece Gee has defined a Discourse as “saying (writing)-doing-being-valuing, believing combinations”. It is important that all aspects of this combination are met to be considered a discourse. These elements together make up how a person acts, speaks and interacts with people, these are essentially what a discourse is.  An example of a discourse could be from where you grew up. Each area is different and has its own style, culture and slang, therefore creating its own sort of discourse. If you were to adhere to the typical style, culture and slang of your area that would most likely end up being your primary discourse. For example being from New Jersey I believe that a discourse that I have would be from where I grew up because I would consider it to be part of my “identity kit”, the way I dress, speak and act all resemble people that grew up in the same area as I did.

3.) There are both similarities and differences between primary and secondary discourses. The main differences between them is that a primary discourse is the first discourse that we automatically use to interact with people and make sense of our surroundings. A secondary discourse in more often used in certain situations that demand other types of discourses for certain social networks.

5.) Discourses can be important in many different fields of study and work, but especially in the business field. Discourses are how you speak, how you act and how you carry yourself. The nonverbal discourse is extremely important for business, your body language lets anyone you are interacting with how you are feeling in that moment. Confidence is key when it comes to business, your body language lets people know immediately how confident or unsure you are. For example Cuddy stated that “So you have people who are like caricatures of alphas, really coming into the room, they get right into the middle of the room before class even starts, like they really want to occupy space. When they sit down, they’re sort of spread out. They raise their hands like this. You have other people who are virtually collapsing when they come in. As soon they come in, you see it. You see it on their faces and their bodies, and they sit in their chair and they make themselves tiny, and they go like this when they raise their hand.” Cuddy said that she can tell the confidence levels and personality type as soon as students walk into the room. The students that are seen as less confident will not be as successful in business as their more confident peers.