Response to “History Now: Media Development and the Textual Genesis of Wikipedia” by Kohl, Liebert, and Metten

Meta Moment

How does it change your understanding of writing if “collaborative processes of writing dissolve the central intention of the author” and “the authors only work on passages and never on the entire text” (para. 29)?

Meta Moment Response

It does not make the piece as cohesive. It will not flow as well. This was represented all throughout this reading with just the three authors. Different writing styles can clash and contradict sometimes. I think pieces generally do not benefit from multiple authors except for ensuring information is correct and credible, such as how wiki pages ridicule textual input to ensure all information is accurate and properly cited.

Response to “Revisualizing Composition: Mapping the Writing Lives of First-Year College Students” by Various Authors

Exploring #2 Question

The authors state that they are “working from the assumption that students lead complex writing lives.” Then they go on to all of the ways that students’ writing lives are complex. Make a list of the various ways that your writing life is and has been complex, using their discussion as a model.

Exploring #2 Response

Changing to adapt to new writing environment. Different expectations in similar environments. Sometimes you do not have time to ensure your writing is proper.

Meta Moment Question

Do you define “writing” differently after reading this article? As you use technologies for writing, can you consider how they help you do things differently than you would without those technologies?

Meta Moment Response

No, I have always thought of writing to be very diverse and adaptable for many different purposes. Any communication through written words is writing.

Sosnoski Question

Out of the 8 hyper reading methods(Filtering, Skimming, Pecking, Imposing, Filming, Trespassing, De-authorizing, Fragmenting) Which did you use in this article and which do you generally find the most effective?

Student Blog Response

Riis Wilbrecht

Response to "Instant Messaging and the Future of Language" by Naomi S. Baron

Response 2.
There are many normal conventions of writing worth maintaining. Most in fact. Cursive should disappear though as it is completely useless and everybody hates it.

Response to From Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literacy Technologies by Dennis Baron

Question 2.
What writing technology do you wish someone would improve? What kinds of improvement does it need?

Response 2.
I believe we need an improvement to our cell phones. Of course there is always room for improvement but specifically I would like to see them function just like computers. This could be possible through technology and maximizing the space of the phone. This could also be achieved through projected images for some tasks.

Discourse Community Paper

The Great Race

            Sports are great examples of discourse communities. There are many and they all pose a great argument as to why they are strong ones. I believe that my discourse community is among the strongest of all sports discourse communities. Alpine ski racing brings together people globally with a common goal. Ski as fast as possible. Everyone involved does not only compete together but also trains, lives, and interacts in nearly every hour of their day. Communication comes in every form and expression imaginable. Although this community is very broad it is extremely exclusive at the same time. The lexis goes beyond any other with seemingly almost every word being excusive to the community. All of these things make ski racing a very special discourse community.

            To help understand much of this community I got help from my friend Henry Maloney. Henry is a 10-year veteran of the community and had a fantastic insight of it. I interviewed him to gather information. The interview exposed much more than I ever imagined it could. Not only did I get answers but also the emotion behind it came out. This was communication in itself and said a lot.

Here is the interview: Patrick (P)    Henry (H)

P: How are you doing today Henry?

H: I’m doing well.

P: How long have you ski raced?

H: (Counting…4..) 10 years.

P: Okay, awesome. So was there anything in ski racing that took you a really long time to understand? And if you can think of multiple things what took you the longest to understand?

H: Like techniques!? Or…

P: Anything! Any object that, anything that comes to mind first. Of what took you the longest to understand. It could be something socially, techniques, rules, whatever.

H: Ummm…. Well…. Let’s see, what did I get stuck on? Mmm… I was a backseat skier for a long time, so it took a lot for me to move to stay forward at a certain point. Like I just was always skiing in the back seat so I had to move forward.

P: Okay. And is there anything that you still do not understand?

H: Fuck ya! Everything!

(laughs from both)

H: But… Specifically I was struggling with…

P: Come on Henry we can find it.

H: Hey fuck you these are not easy questions! Umm.. Jesus come on I thought these questions were gonna be easier! Like yes or no, true or false, come on. I still don’t understand how the universities in the NCAA division 1 skiing, how that can be considered fair when they just give away all their scholarships to racers from out of the country, from Finland and Sweden that don’t even benefit the country in any way, just move back home and race for their national team and do whatever after they get a free education in the US.

P: Okay! What were your motives in ski racing?

H: I wanted to be better than everyone because I hate everyone. (laughs) Just kidding! Uhh… I wanted to race collegiately NCAA division 1.

P: What work did you put in?

H: The fuck kind of question is that?

P: Just answer it God dammit.

H: What kind of work did I put in? I just diddly dicked around and showed up to races. Umm.. I trained like on snow. I trained on snow 5-6 days a week and I worked out in the gym 3 or 4 days a week.

P: Are there any rules that bother you?

H: You are gonna need to pause… Well a lot of the so-called safety rules sort of bother me when it comes to gear and stuff.

P: Like skis and helmets?

H: Ya, like that. Originally it pissed me off of course when they (FIS) changed the ski length but it ended up not being that big of a deal because the technology was able to overcome that rule, but none the less, when you try and limit the sport that much by trying to keep thing “safe”, they do it in every sport too, that bothers me. It’s like there is always gonna be a hazard so you might as well allow the sport to progress.

P: Okay thank you Henry. And so what is the most influential figure to you? It could be anybody anywhere. Infinite.

H: That would have to be my coach Paul Tronnier from Team Summit Colorado. He influences everything I do and the way I think about it.

P: Fantastic. So I asked you earlier what were your motives. But this question is similar but different and I hope you can see the difference there. So why did you do it? Why did you ski race?

H: Because I enjoyed it. Umm.. It was something that I was good at and something that I actually enjoyed doing. I didn’t really feel forced to be there so it was something that I wanted to do.

P: Alright, so what do you feel is the most important document to ski racing?

H: Document?

P: Yes.

H: What the fuck does that mean? What do you mean DOCUMENT!?

P: A document

H: Like paper, like something written down important to ski racing.

P: Yes!

H: Probably the fucking FIS rule handbook. That seems pretty fucking important.

(Laughs)

P: I just want you to know this is going to be submitted to my teacher.

H: Oh shit sorry.

P: Are there any weird habits within the community?

H: Weird habits? Oh my god. Uhh ya people do weird shit all the time. Let’s see… I need a good example now. What’s some weird shit people do. Oh ya! Huuuuge amount of tobacco use in the population. Incredible amounts of chewing tobacco! I don’t know why and I don’t know where it came about but ya that’s, that’s a big part. There is definitely some weird pre-race rituals. Almost everybody has one and they are all really fucking weird and like mine.

P: What’s yours?

H: I don’t always do all of them but they are things that like if I fuck up on the run somewhere I’m definitely like that’s why. Like I have to buckle my boots from the top down. Like if I buckle them from the toes up like that will fuck everything up.

P: I always buckle them from the toes up.

H: Oh god! No!

P: should I quit or should I just start changing the way I buckle my boots.

H: You should definitely. Booster strap and then all of the way down to the toes.

P: that is completely backwards but that is okay.

H: No. No.

P: this is why Henry Maloney is slower than I am.

H: Nooo. This is why Patrick isn’t on the ski team here (Montana State). Because he is buckling his boots the wrong fucking way. Um ya people do weird shit all the time in the start gate and before their race. All the pre race rituals are weird as shit.

P: Is there anything else you would like to say that’s you think?

H: No I’m pretty much done here.

P: Okay thank you so much Henry.

This interview speaks for itself and the whole discourse community in so many ways. It addressed the extensive lexis words, single most important document, goals of the community, who is experienced, difficulties, conflict, habits, and rituals.

The ski racing lexis is very extensive. The interview with henry introduced many of these words. I am also going to reference a training journal I created last year to address this collection. The words used that are specific to the ski racing lexis from just these two pieces are backseat, FIS, Booster Strap, crossblock, driving, line, arc, counter, edge angle, DNF, ruts, leveling, linking, bring from behind, round, straight, tempo, and pinch. Many of these words can likely be interpreted correctly and others you will probably have no idea what they mean if you are not part of the community. Some are acronyms such as FIS (Federation International Skiing) and DNF (Did Not Finish). There are many acronyms beyond these that are used all the time.

Different areas and levels of ski racing follow different documents and rules. The racing I have done the past four years had been FIS sanctioned. All of these races must follow the FIS rulebook to exact specifications. Without these rules the sport would be nothing, or close to because there would be no continuity between races or ways to compare results. This also outlines safety and conduct. Besides rules there are other documents such as my training journal and race times

The first and foremost goal of ski racing is for every racer to ski as fast as they can. This needs work from everyone. The athlete, coaches, officials, trainers, and equipment manufacturers must all contribute to this. Without everyone doing their part nobody will be satisfied and athletes will not reach their potential. After the goal of the athletes there are people trying to make careers and they may have other sub-goals for their lives.

All of these people who help the athletes are very important. As an athlete I often idolize them and have great appreciation. Some of these people are much older and some are only slightly older than myself. Regardless they all contribute all of their knowledge and expertise. Some who have more experience become legendary and can be considered the great oldtimers. I have been lucky enough to work with one of these oldtimer coaches. Hermann Gollner, originating from Austria, is now 71 years old and has a list of accomplishments too long to list. Being able to receive knowledge and wisdom from his was invaluable. Henry also mentioned how his coach, Paul Tronnier, was the most influential figure to him. Without coaches we could not acquire the knowledge to succeed.

Overcoming your problems in ski racing can be extremely difficult and they may always haunt you. Making technical change can be very difficult and requires communication from athletes to coaches and back the other. Way some things can be felt while others can be seen. There is never any one solution and every method of communication must be explored to overcome those.

Henry spoke on how certain rules and procedures upset him. He is not the only one concerned with these things and those are not the only conflicts. The NCAA rules and FIS ski rules only touch the surface. There are also rules about helmets and what is legal. Many of these rules do not benefit anyone or the sport but help manufacturers sell more equipment.

The community has many weird habits that in many other places would be seen as absolutely crazy. Henry mentioned the one about how chewing tobacco is ever so popular within the community. There are also many others such as ski tuning and wearing skin-tight suits to ski in. The two latter are very necessary to be successful in the sport though. Without making these normal practice you will not be prepared on race day.

Athletes’ rituals can be very weird. Henry has his and I have mine. Every athlete has his or hers. Henry is concerned with how he buckled his boots. I have to shake my head a particular way in the start gate. Without these athletes would lose their minds. These help them keep calm and confident in themselves. The start of a ski race is the most stressful event I have ever experienced. I will do close to anything to take that edge off while keeping my aggression. Some athletes will discuss their rituals and others will not. I even have some rituals I will not discuss or do not even realize I do.

After reading this you probably think ski racing is absolute madness. Well frankly, that’s because it is. The lexis is never ending and the communication is very hard to figure out. Ski racing is very difficult and fueled by passion. This passion brings everyone together to be very tight knit. Ski racing is both the greatest and worst thing I have done with my life.