reading 4

Assalamualaikum Mdm. Evening. What are you doing? if u don’t mind, I want to bother you for a minute to read and comment on my latest blog which focuses more on unit 4 that is argument and evidence: what is the argument and what evidence supports it? The first thing that I have learnt in this unit is about these concepts which not every text includes argument and evidence. Generally, these are found in texts which present a case, typically for or against a proposition. These texts are found throughout academic journals of all disciplines, policy documentation, and legal literature as well as reports of many varieties.

We have already read reading 4.1 that discussed on “body language that speaks to muggers”. In this text, it discussed about pedestrians that may signal criminals which that they are easy targets for mugging by the way they walk. For me, people especially pedestrians must beware and always alert with their surroundings when they are going somewhere. They can give the muggers the chance to rob by the way they walk. Prison inmates who had been convicted of assault, the most qualified to judge the muggability of city pedestrians. There are scale rating ‘assault potential’ basis of Grayson and Stein. In the article, it also shares about the several movements characterized as easy victims. From that information, people can be aware and more cautious when they are at any places.

In reading 4.3, chapter 5 that discussed on what is the evidence? It is concerned with the issue of evidence. From the reading, I know that evidence is information that gives a strong reason for believing or prove. It is also an answer to a question that describes an event at which one present. For the evidence, it has two types which are circumstantial evidence and testimonial evidence. Circumstantial evidence was like a mute witness, pointing to someone with the unspoken words. Meanwhile, testimonial evidence is eyewitnesses, who testify that they themselves have seen the accused commit the crime.

We also have discussed about statistics in reading 4. This chapter concerned with the use and misuse of statistics and is intended to caution readers into amore informed response to texts that link facts and figures. It begins by defining terms, mentioning a number of domains where statistics are widely used. The word ‘statistics’ has two meanings. When it is used with a plural verb, it refers to information about any phenomenon or activity expressed a numerical form. In its singular sense, it denotes the art and science of collecting, presenting, analyzing and interpreting numerical data. The importance of statistics is, it is easy to use (the basis) of rational decisions and conclusions. I did understand about this topic after it has been more explained from Ain, Mira and Anis. I think this topic is easier that other topics that has been presented by other groups previously.

Reading 4.5, Crooked and fallacious thinking has been discussed by Farah Hanis, Nana and Fairuz. These two chapters argue that crooked and fallacious thinking is not only evidence of illogical mental processes and poor communication skill but is also a manipulative tool of speakers or writers that wish to influence and affect the judgment of their listeners or readers. In other words, there is intent to persuade someone towards a particular belief or course of action. This topic is a little bit confusing actually but I will try to read it more to gain more understanding in it.

I think that is all for now. Feel free to comment my blog. Tata..titi..tutu..=D

reading 3

Assalamualaikum Mdm. How r u today??? Hope you’re doing fine because I need you to check and comments on my third blog and topic. As you know, our class, Decom 4B had spent one whole week in reading, viewing, presenting and discussing on the third topic which is positioning: how does the writer construct the participants in the text and how is the readers constructed? As for this topic, it had introduced me to a new whole new way of approaching and focusing on the positioning in Critical Literacy. It also provides me with extra practice in applying the core skills that involved in Critical Literacy such as positioning. In particular, the text had been accentuating the role played by positioning in understanding text.

In the class, we were given the articles to explore and to be critical on the article titled ‘Please Let Me Go to Your School’ and ‘Truth about Youth’. For the article Please Let Me Go to Your School, it want to inform the readers about a discrimination case against The Bulkham Hill Grammar School for refused to accept Scarlett Finney who is suffering from a physical disability. For me, I think it is unfair for the school for not to let Scarlet Finney in and attend the school as other disabilities students did because the school’s prospectus already stated that the school will accept disability students but at the end, the school refusal to accept Finney.

The other article which is the ‘Truth about Youth’ wants to inform us about the problems that the youngster are facing which can lead to a huge impact to their lives and also to the people around them. As for me, students who are facing any problems should refer or go and having small talk with their teachers and parents. Discuss about the problems they are facing instead of doing something stupid like commit suicide. It is very stupid things to do for educated people. Besides, there are ten elements that we should consider of in reviewing those articles. The article Please Let Me Go to Your School is much easier than the article Truth about Youth. For me, the article is a bit difficult to understand and it is difficult to identify the writer’s position in the text but I’ve tried my best to complete all the ten elements in it. Hope Mdm would satisfy and please let me know if I’m doing any mistakes so that I can consult with you and could do better in the next ten elements.

The third topic has two types of reading by two different authors which is reading 3.3 written by Wignell (1995), ‘Critical Literacy a Linguistic Perspective’ and the second one is reading 3.4 written by Kress(1994), ‘Speech and Speakers’. From the first reading, Wignell’s approach is to develop the linguistic tools readers need to enable them to recognize certain global or key elements of a text. Wignell’s aim is to discover elements of the language so as to dig out the ideology that exists, as it ideology may in fact be shown to be highly ideological. From this first reading, I just can understand a bit from Shah and Minor’s presentation.

For the second reading, Kress shows how texts construct particular identities for their readers through a process called positioning. He describes how texts introduce readers into particular value systems as well as certain norms and modes of behavior. In explaining how texts achieve this, Kress introduces and clarifies a number of important terms. This reading 3.4 presented by Leah, Pia and Ika is quite easy to understand as they had stated the example clearly.

that's all for now....
=D

reading 2.1 battling the bullies

Assalamualaikum and good evening to Madam Imasuzianna. As for today, I would like to comment and response to the Unit 2 which focus on Perspectives: What stance does the writer take in the text? This unit will focus on developing our skills in the ten elements introduced in unit 1. In particular, this unit emphasized the role of perspective in determining a critical understanding of the text. They are 3 questions that we have focuses on this unit. The first question is what stance is taken in this text, second, what does the stance tells us about the writer or producer’s belief and the last one is what implications does this have for our understanding of the text. We have acknowledged that this unit just focuses on writers and our perspective. In reading 2.1, we have learned about the article titled ‘battling the bullies’ by Martina Simos on 2003, April 8 in the ‘The Advertiser’ newspaper at page 31. From the article, we have got lots of things, knowledge, and perspective. As for me, I hate bullies so much because it is like the bully has full authority to harass and physically abuse the victim as their victims are weak and that is maybe because they think that they are stronger than the victims.

I have an experience to share with you and others about the case of bullying. I have a best friend, named Iqbal. He told me that he always been bullied by 3 friends from other classes. It actually just began with shoving. Then the bully started hitting him as and when they felt like it. He did not fight back nor did he tell his parents or teachers because he did not want to cause any trouble. So he endured the bullying for a few weeks. Gradually the bullying got worse and he think that he has to face the bully, for better or for worse. So, during recess one day, the bully came to him. At that time, he was ready to fight back with a short stick hidden behind his back. The bully came with clenched fists but before he could land a punch, Iqbal lashed out with a stick on the bully’s leg. The bully cried out in pain and collapsed o the ground. Iqbal raised the stick to strike again but stopped when he saw that the bully was crying and begging him for mercy. After that, teachers and prefects arrived to see what the commotion was all about. He and the bully were taken to the headmaster’s office and each given two cuts for fighting. It was worth it. The bully never troubled him again.


From that, I can tell that if someone has been bullied, they should inform other people such as parents, teacher and friends, so that they can take any preventions or precautions earlier because prevention is better than cure. As parents, they should play their role effectively such as care enough and concern about their children’s daily life. They should be closed to their children, so that their children will tell them if something goes wrong. Same goes to the teacher and friends. They should notice what is going on around them so that they can the precautions and preventions earlier. This is because schoolyard bullying is not a new issue. It happen everyday at school, whether someone will be abuse physically and mentally. Bullying can give big impact to the people and the victim itself. They will get anger, depress, anxiety and others. Bullying among students can be perceived as uneducated people. It shows that the bully has bad attitude, destructive past life and maybe the bully comes from a bad and trouble background family.

Reading 2.2, in chapter 5, we have discussed on language, perspectives and ideology. We already know about the meaning discussed on glossary which are ideology, perspective, metaphor, metonymy, euphemism, diachronic perspective, equivocation and attenuate. They are certain meaning that I do not understand such as attenuate but I will read more to get and know on it meaning. For the reading 2.3, my group has presented about signifier, signified, paradigmatic, syntagmatic, semiotic, connotation, denotation and myth. For this reading 2.3, I do not truly understand on paradigmatic, syntagmatic and semiotic. I have asked my friend but still don’t understand. Hope madam can give the meaning and more examples on these three glossaries. I think that’s all that I want to share with you. So, see you in the third blog. Tata…=D