Unit 8 - Producing and Evaluating Critical Writing: Part 2

In this final unit, this unit is almost same with unit 8. The only differences between both units is while in Unit 7, we need to write our commentary in essay, in Unit 8 we only make our evaluation through the critical guidelines which is in a table form. There is only one article in this unit which is ‘Drugs or guns’ and the presenters for this last unit is Ili Izlin, Mardiana and Tun Amirah. They claimed that they did not understand what is the article all about as there are several words in the article which they were hardly find the meaning. They also agreed that this unit and Unit 7 are basically the same.

I also have the same opinion with them that this unit is hard to understand because of the reading. Fortunately, after had been explained more detail by the expert one Encik Humamuddin, i can get the idea of this unit which the students have a chance to write a critical review and have a chance to critique a fellow student’s writing on critical comment and at the same time have my own writing critiqued.

As we reach to the last unit in Critical Writing, what I can say is that I strongly agree that from all that we had learned, CRITICAL LITERACY suits with it. After being critically thinking at critical condition, I hope that my beloved and “otai” lecturer, Encik Humamuddin Abu Samah is satisfied with my critical piece of reflection on this blog. Thanks to you for having my mind critically thinking. Hehehe :p

Unit 7 - Producing and Evaluating Critical Writing: Part 1

Unit 7 also introduces us about the models of critical reviews and the commentary part which require greater autonomy and the text are more to academic style. For the first place, it is quite difficult for us to differentiate the changes as we cannot understand the new format. Then, I realized that this new format give authority to the readers to construct any articles that they read. To put it more simply, the readers are free to give their own opinion and comment.

The presenters for this unit are Wan Zahidah, Amira Syafinaz and me, Mariam Aisyah. Based on my understanding of the new format, in critical review, for example we can combine the topic and content in one paragraph. The same goes to sources and audience. It is highly likely writing an essay. When our friend gives his or her comment in the commentary part, he or she simply tries to mention or make a statement. They can support or argue on the critical review which has been written before. In this session, some elements of the format in the text are partly changed (in essay form). Different than the portfolio task format, critical review only consist 7 important aspects: the sources, audience, rhetorical function, purpose, perspective, positioning and impact.

Unit 5 – Audience and Impact: Who is the audience? What impact does the text have on the audience?

Generally, this unit had focussed more on how we go about establishing who the audience is, and calculating the likely effect a text will have. This unit had been used by referring it in completing our second assignment, which is about a gay relationship. Basically, there are two categories of intended audience. First is for the specialist audience and second is for non-specialist audience. This is because it is not easy to predict who the target audience is or the target readers for any reading materials will be. If a writer cannot differentiate this, the article might be read by the people who may not have been intended as the audience. In identifying audience, a good question to ask first is ‘who is the text clearly not intended for’.

There are four critical readings that consist in this unit. Firstly, ‘Australia’s methadone madness’. Secondly, ‘Out of puff’. Thirdly, ‘Types of exposition: “persuading that” and “persuading to”’ and lastly followed by ‘Metaphor’. The key questions for this unit are who is the intended audience and what is the likely impact of the text on the audience. The rest of the unit had clarified the questions through the tasks that had developed the ability to identify audience and assess likely impact.

Unit 5 was presented by Shahida Suhana, Farah Aida and Nadia. Firstly, I can see that this group is very well-prepared not only from their written notes in the transparency but also from the way they present this unit. They had presented a good presentation and provide their points with examples by using a picture of kitten. There are some of key terms and ideas in the course information where I cannot understand such as analytical exposition, hortatory exposition and others.

Unit 4 – Argument and Evidence: What is the argument and what evidence supports it?

According to the topic of this unit, what I had been explained by Encik Humamuddin is; Argument is the opinion or statement that support our main idea and evidence is information that gives a reason for believing or proving something. Basically, not every text includes argument and evidence as they are mostly found to present a case, typically for or against a proposition. Furthermore, they are usually found throughout academic journals of all disciplines, policy documentation and legal literature, as well as reports of many varieties. The key questions for this unit are what is the argument or case being stated, what evidence is provided to support the argument and does the evidence support the argument.

On the whole, there are four articles that I need to read so that I can identify and evaluate the elements of argument and evidence. There are ‘Body language that speaks to muggers’, ‘Burning out at nine’, ‘What is the evidence?’ and ‘Statistic’. For this unit, Izwani, Azila and Farah Diana had presented it and they came up with a simple explanation regarding arguments and evidence. They brought up the concepts in each reading of the unit starting from reading 4.1 until reading 4.5 and I think the presentation was interesting because they had give attractive information where they talk about the article and also told the class opinion. Besides, they use simple and easy approach in making the students understand fully their presentation.

Unit 3 – Positioning: How does the writer construct the participants in the text and how is the reader constructed?

This unit had focussed more on the idea of positioning in critical literacy. As usual the key words for this unit are how the writer constructs the people referred to in the text and how does the writer construct the reader. The rest of the unit had clarified some questions through the task given which it helps us in developing the ability to recognise and identify elements of positioning. In positioning, a reader must know how does the writer construct the people referred to in the text and how does the writer construct the reader itself.

In unit 3, there are four Reading articles. The first article is ‘Please, let me go to your school’. Followed by ‘Truth about youth’, ‘Critical Literacy: a linguistic perspective’ and ‘Speech and speakers: the formation of individuals in discourse and genre’. In this unit, the presentation had been presented by Thuraya, Yusafiza and Qursyia. The presentation look disorganized, maybe they did not understand fully this unit and they also have some difficulties in answering the questions given by the audience because they took a long time searching the answer of the question in the Reading book. Talk about unit 3, I only understand certain part of this unit where in my understanding positioning is when we read any reading materials, we must know how the writer constructs the readers and how the writer constructs the participants in that particular reading.

Unit 2 – Perspectives: What stance does the writer take in the text?

Basically, this unit is focussing on developing the skills in the ten areas that had been introduced in Unit 1 which are topic, content, source, audience, purpose, perspective, positioning, impact and visual literacy. In addition, in unit 2, it elaborates more on how to emphasis the role of perspective in determining a critical understanding of text. Some of the key questions are what stance is taken in the text, what does the stance tell us about the writer or producer’s beliefs and what implications does this have for the understanding of the text.

We had been given three readings in this unit that we need to understand. Firstly is ‘Battling the bullies’. Secondly, ‘Language, perspective, ideology’ and lastly ‘Text and Textualities’. This week, the presentation for Unit 2 is presented by Dalila, Zalikha and Fatihah. On the whole, the presentation cannot be understood fully by the students because of some explanation explained by them did not answered the question given. Furthermore, they just read 100% from the paper and it shows that they also did not understand the unit too. But some of the explanation that came out with good example had made the students understands certain part of their presentation. They also admit that they did not understand this unit fully and I do agree with them because for reading 2 and 3, I found it hard for me in understanding the reading until I need to read it many times. Besides, some of the ideas and terms used is hardly understandable for instance the words paradigmatic, syntagmatic and others.

Unit 1 – An introduction- Who produced this text, for whom and why?

This is the first reflection on the blog for the Critical Literacy subject. At first, we have the wrong information about doing the reflection on blog. But after had been explained briefly by Encik Humamuddin, I can understand what I had to do and what I need to write on the blog.

There are three articles that we need to read. There are ‘Convicted killer back at work’, ‘Stories and facts’ and ‘Rules and regulations’. The first article we need to do on the first portfolio for the first assignment. We already had information by reading the course information and for the first unit, we had been explained to the key questions such as who wrote the text, who is the intended reader and why was it produced. We also had been notified that there are basic skills in this unit. Some of the basic skills are topic, content, source, audience, purpose, perspective, positioning, impact and visual literacy. The most important is this unit introduced me the best way of approaching an article or text critically.

For this unit, the presenters are Nabil, Rahmat and Anuar. They had tried their best to make us understand on what they are presenting on unit 1. Eventhough they admit that they are not too clear in understanding the unit, they still finished their presentation and at the end, Encik Humamuddin had explained more details regarding the unit.