English Composition Outside the Classroom

My English Composition class has taught me many things that have transferred to my other classes. Learning to see the meaing of text in different ways, using James Gee’s idea of Discourse, and Christina Haas’ idea of rhetorical reading has allowed me to think differently in other classes.

English Composition in Biology

I have noticed many times when doing my Biology homeowork or lab work I have transferred what I have learned in my English Composition class. For example, when assigned a scentific article to break down and present in 5 to 8 minutes in front of my class, I remember feeling frustated. Then I realized, maybe this is because I am not in the Discourse? After reading the article over and over I then related myself to Christina Haas’ idea of rhetorical reading.

“Drawing together common elements of these theories, I postulate a model or representation of discourse situations, a rhetorical frame, that helps readers account for the motives underlying textual acts and their out comes” (Haas 48).

I came to the realization that I was not reading rhetorically nor was I part of the Discourse. This was the cause of my frustation and confusion. However, I realized I needed to “mushfake” and build a rhetoical frame in order to get a better understanding of the scientific article. Gee’s idea of mush fake states:

“Mushfake Discourse means partial aquisition coupled with meta-knowledge and strategies to ‘make do’” (13).

In other words, to use previous knowledge and to pretend to be part of the Discourse. This helped me breakdown the article into the things I understood which helped my understand the other things I didn’t know. Without my English Composition class I would not have approached it this way and I would have continued to be confused and frustrated. In conclusion, I used:

• Rhetorical reading
• Mushfake
• Discourse