Introduction
This is the first in a series of flipped lessons in Incident Analysis, the first project in this class, GSW 1120; Seminar in Academic Writing. Under the general framework of Writing About Writing WAW, the overarching theme for this course is Writing about Othering. 'Othering' is a term that means the different ways by which a group mentally and physically conditions and treats another as 'not belonging' or 'oddly strange' either consciously or otherwise. According to John Powell and Stephen Menendian, 'Othering' not only encompasses the many expressions of prejudice on the basis of group identities, it also reveals a set of common processes and conditions that propagate group-based inequality and marginality.
Throughout this Unit, and for the rest of this course, we will be exploring different kinds of writing (including videos, photo essays, podcasts, images etc.) that address the various forms of Othering and we will be doing this within the Writing About Writing framework; specifically, we will be looking at and writing about the rhetorical situations surrounding every writing.
As a writer, you have a responsibility to yourself, your society, and your world to join in conversations surrounding critical issues for a freer and fairer society.
In this series, we are applying Othering to the specific situation of language and thought. We will be exploring different arguments of scholars on how the language we speak condition our thoughts toward others. The purpose of this Unit is to get you to ask informed questions about writing, questions that may form a good research topic as you progress in this course. The hope of this lesson (and the rest of this unit) is to inspire you to identify an issue, a problem that needs attention; a problem you find interesting, a problem that requires a solution/explanation you may be willing to provide through your writing.
Your Task
- Watch: The lesson video below. It contains an excerpt from a TED Talk by Lera Boroditsky titled "How Language Shapes The Way We Think."
- Read: Keith Grant-Davie's "Rhetorical Situations and Their Constituents." (PDF in Canvas).
- Reflect: Make a list of issues raised in the speech. What issue(s) raised in the speech do you think require further explanation; an explanation that you as a social stakeholder can provide; in what ways may you contribute your own voice to conversations surrounding these issue(s); how can you relate to the issue(s) you have identified?
- Write: Following Grant-Davie's explanation of the concepts: Exigence, Rhetor, and Audience, make a note on why this speech matters; to whom the message is or may be addressed.
- In class: (on Wednesday Jan 30) Complete Task (3) above. (on Friday Feb 1) Complete Task (4) above and Further Consideration below. Be prepared to share what you learned and work on Project #1 on both days.
Further Consideration
Utne Reader calls her one of the 25 top Visionaries changing the world. Lera Boroditsky's 2017 TED Talk titled "How Language Shapes the way we Think" is thought provoking. In the speech, she maintains that each of the 7,000 languages that are spoken in the world represents a cognitive universe. According to Frantz Fanon, "To speak a language is a to take on a world, a culture." But how fully and equally represented are these cognitive universes in the global space? What implications does their recognition have for mutual understanding among peoples, societies, cultures, countries? What is at stake for these Other universes considering the dominance of English, French, German etc.? Why should we care? When a language dies, a way of understanding the world dies with it, a way of looking at the world, says Steiner G. Why is their presence or recognition important? Boroditsky helps us understand these questions when she maintains that the language we speak shapes the way we think and see the world. Often, we are blinded to the other perspective of things until we exercise conscious effort for understanding.
The language we speak shapes the way we think. By extension, our experiences shape how we perceive reality. In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey reminds us that "we simply assume that the way we see things is the way they really are or the way they should be." What issues come to mind as you read this? How can you interpret Stephen Covey's statement, either from your own personal experience or something you learned about?
Works Cited
Boroditsky, L. (2017, November). How language shapes the way we think [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/lera_boroditsky_how_language_shapes_the_way_we_think?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare
Covey, S. (2017). The 7 habits of highly effective people [Kindle Version]. Retrieved from Amazon.com
Grant-Davie, K. (1997, Spring). Rhetorical situations and their constituents. Jstor. 15(2), 264-279.
Powell, A. J. & Menendian, S. (n.d.). The problem of othering: Towards inclusiveness and belonging. Retrieved from http://www.otheringandbelonging.org/the-problem-of-othering/
Designed by Michael Oshindoro