Blog 3 shaggy dog stories

Suzy, Kimberly, Maritza

Shaggy Dog Stories

 In our Group we analyzed the effectiveness of a Shaggy Dog Story's punch line. We broke it down into it's various parts to see how the parts relate to make the punch line effective.

      Question: What makes the punch line of a Shaggy Dog story effective?

We analyzed the “Thank Friday, it’s God” story to use as an example of how Shaggy Dog stories (1) must have an audience with prior social knowledge, and (2)use Gee’s tool of intertextuality to make the punch line effective.

Social Language

·         “Robinson Crusoe fell desperately ill” =fell desperately grabs the reader’s attention and implies that he is a sick man…i.e. “before dropping into a comma”.

·         “he called for his man Friday”, “he went back into Crusoe's tent and found his master awake”, and “His helper answered”=all these imply that Friday is a servant or a worker for Robinson
Crusoe.

·         “staring at a beautiful glowing shape at the foot of his bed.”= this can be looked at as a religious symbol; it seems to have a certain significance of God.

            Social Identity

·         “danced and prayed for the gods to come and help his master.”= this shows that Friday has a very close relationship with God. He seems to be performing some sort of religious act by dancing and praying. Many people connect to God in different ways based on their religion. It also shows that he cares for and has a close relationship with his friend Robinson Crusoe.

In considering this language, what sorts of relationships among different Discourses are involved?

·         The relationship between Robinson Crusoe and Friday is that of a master and his servant. This means that Robinson Crusoe has authority over Friday (his helper), and speaks to him in that manner. For example, Crusoe said,. "Friday, get help! Get help!" Crusoe says this in a demanding way. He doesn’t need to ask in a respectful tone because he has that power as a master. When it comes to Friday on the other hand, his role as servant is seen when he replies a simple "Yes!" when his master calls him. He also runs outside not knowing what to do, showing that he knows where he stands as a helper, which is to not ask questions but to do as he is told. In viewing this, these are the roles the play.

 Intertextuality

·         Gee’s tool of “intertextuality” plays a big role in Shaggy Dog stories. The punch line in this story is “His helper answered, "Thank Friday! It's God!"  This is an example of intertextuality because it plays with two meanings. The first is actually within the context of the story where he’s thanking his helper for saving his life/helping him when he needed it the most. Basically
Robinson Crusoe asked for help from Friday because he was sick, and Friday prayed for him and God appeared, implying he was saved. Which is why he said “Thank Friday, it’s God.” The second is a connection outside of the story and falls under Gee’s “Conversation” tool (Big C). This requires prior knowledge of a particular social culture (pop culture) which knows the phrase as “Thank God it’s Friday.” This second meaning implies that people are happy it’s Friday because it’s the end of the work week and they don’t have to work the next couple of days (most people). The people that fall within this social culture are usually excited, relieved and happy to start off the weekend and not have to worry about anything work-related. This is why this culture usually says the phrase, “Thank God it’s Friday.

Blog 2

I understand analysis as breaking down a particular system or structure into its various parts and then examining those parts to see how they relate to each other. The puzzle that we did in class helped me to understand the term analysis better. I saw that it was much more than just testing a system, but rather, one has to figure out a way to break the system into parts and define those parts by giving identities and properties to it. In doing so, one can determine how those particular parts relate to one another. How they help or hurt each other. After breaking the parts down and seeing their relationships, it can be looked at as a whole system again, but this time with better understanding.

ENG302901Ackumey

I am aspiring to be a Special Education teacher; therefore, I am interested in researching the various ways writing can be taught to children with special needs, especially for the early childhood stages. I want to learn about the different type of methods to teach writing to children with autism, and English Language Learners. How do children with special needs learn how to write? How can teachers explore and bring out their creativity in writing? I guess what I’m trying to say is that I would like to research the types of studies that have been done on this subject matter. I feel it’s already difficult to break out of the technical type of writing into the expressive, unstructured writing. What types of studies have been done about how children with special needs understand writing? Do children with various types of special needs have a writing process? Are there extra steps to their writing processes or is completely different. I guess another type of research I am interested in is studies on the social media type of writing and what scholars think of it. Is it accepted or is it not considered a genre of writing at all? I’m not really used to blogging or posting on facebook, twitter, etc… and I am curious to find out what types of findings have been done on it.

Hello, This is my first post. Suzy