Order is a Fantasy
Order, in essence is an imaginery thing. We create our sense of order, or perhaps we are born with some divine sense of it, for such a pupose as to make sense out of the true chaos life really is. Each culture, and truly, each individual has his/her own definition. Perhaps that's the biggest sign we have of its artificiality.
But as I pondered about it in class, it seems that there must be some orders that serve more purposes than others; in this way the type of order that serves the largest number of individuals must be, in general, considered more effective. I'm still bothered by the author of the chapter on order's allusion that some how her messy office is just as functional as her friends: labeled and categorized. True, the author's office might serve her well enough, but what if anyone else tried to find anything in it?
I guess that's what I mean when I think of order. Not so much a system of organization or a specific level of cleanliness or tidiness. Rather, I measure it by thinking about the ease that someone not familiar with our form of order could find something or feel comfortable in such a place.
And I feel this relates perfectly to writing. True, that with our personal writing we can be as creative with organization as we'd like. We can go so far as to confuse even ourselves. But when writing in an academic setting, we need to follow certain rules so that those reading the papers (mostly professors I know, but I think they deserve a little bit of help, don't think?) can follow theorganization enough that they can understand the main points.
I think it's interesting that we watched that film on diversity after discussing order to such an extent. I think that one of the biggest differences I see between cultures in regards to writing is the way they setup their order within papers. Again, I do believe that any organization is fine with personal writing, but I guess I find that some of the possible plans for order seem more effective than others. Please don't think me intolerant because I feel this way. I was on the tolerance committee; I try my best to be politically correct.
Speaking of which: this is something that's been bothering me quite a bit lately. What is the definition of racism? Isn't it defined by each country, each individual, every generation differently? What one might consider totally inappropraite might be viewed as highly respectful. Does one's attempts to be politically correct really benefit the world or are there enough people who don't care to counter act all the potential good that one individual might do? If the purpose of cultural celebration is to embrace and accept each others' cultures then why are there still so manyhurt feelings when ones' culture gets misinterpretted? Clearly, no one can no everything about any culture not even one's own.
Anyway, class has started me thinking along those lines. I would love any insights any one might have.To answer the blog question. To put it simply I tell students to outline their paper the way Americans have for generations: Thesis, body, and conclusion. If that's not the best way, well, it's what I know. Take it for what it is worth.
But as I pondered about it in class, it seems that there must be some orders that serve more purposes than others; in this way the type of order that serves the largest number of individuals must be, in general, considered more effective. I'm still bothered by the author of the chapter on order's allusion that some how her messy office is just as functional as her friends: labeled and categorized. True, the author's office might serve her well enough, but what if anyone else tried to find anything in it?
I guess that's what I mean when I think of order. Not so much a system of organization or a specific level of cleanliness or tidiness. Rather, I measure it by thinking about the ease that someone not familiar with our form of order could find something or feel comfortable in such a place.
And I feel this relates perfectly to writing. True, that with our personal writing we can be as creative with organization as we'd like. We can go so far as to confuse even ourselves. But when writing in an academic setting, we need to follow certain rules so that those reading the papers (mostly professors I know, but I think they deserve a little bit of help, don't think?) can follow theorganization enough that they can understand the main points.
I think it's interesting that we watched that film on diversity after discussing order to such an extent. I think that one of the biggest differences I see between cultures in regards to writing is the way they setup their order within papers. Again, I do believe that any organization is fine with personal writing, but I guess I find that some of the possible plans for order seem more effective than others. Please don't think me intolerant because I feel this way. I was on the tolerance committee; I try my best to be politically correct.
Speaking of which: this is something that's been bothering me quite a bit lately. What is the definition of racism? Isn't it defined by each country, each individual, every generation differently? What one might consider totally inappropraite might be viewed as highly respectful. Does one's attempts to be politically correct really benefit the world or are there enough people who don't care to counter act all the potential good that one individual might do? If the purpose of cultural celebration is to embrace and accept each others' cultures then why are there still so manyhurt feelings when ones' culture gets misinterpretted? Clearly, no one can no everything about any culture not even one's own.
Anyway, class has started me thinking along those lines. I would love any insights any one might have.To answer the blog question. To put it simply I tell students to outline their paper the way Americans have for generations: Thesis, body, and conclusion. If that's not the best way, well, it's what I know. Take it for what it is worth.
posted by Anonymous at 1:14 PM
1 Comments:
After reading your blog, Chris, I remembered something that Clarie said on Thursday in our discussion about diversity. She said that the way Americans write, the way we order things, is "different, not wrong." Is that something that we could tell ESL students? The way we are suggesting to organize thier paper isn't the one right way--- its just different, and it is our culture's way of organizing. That's why we do it that way.
Good questions to think about.
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