Apparatus Sample Questions & Responses: Elbow and Bartholomae

Apparatus Sample Questions/Responses

Elbow:

Getting ready to read

1. How do you construct an identity using your Facebook profile? What do your different choices of what to include within your profile say about your identity online versus your identity at home?

The Facebook identity is carefully crafted (usually…) Personally, I am always conscious of my profile picture—do I look happy, sad, professional, mentally stable? When people see this image I use to represent “Me,” what ideas are connotated to them? The picture then is always one chosen that represents me at my best, or most ideal…obviously something I cannot always be at home or in public. Other constructions of identity for me include showing casing my “in a relationship” status, as it is very important to me; my job as a college instructor, and that I am a doctoral candidate…I am actually frustrated that these are the things I highlight most to construct “who I am” on facebook…because really, I’m not the tidy person that beams a smile at you from my profile page, or the person who is apparently completely stable and happy in her 30’s…no, no, it is only the constructed image of the person I think I ought to be, the person I think people will gravitate to, the person who lots of “friends” on facebook. Reality is messy, and I’m a real mess my facebook page never truly shows.

Questions for Discussion and Journaling

1. How do you define voice? Have you encountered different definitions of voice in the past and how do they compare to Elbow's definition of voice?

This is such a tough question!! I guess I would start by saying voice (to me) is a particular personal style of writing. Certain words, turn of phrases, even the way a piece of writing is structured and organized certainly play into “voice.”

I have definitely encountered the concept of “voice” before, but it would be difficult for me to talk about what was said or how it was defined—it has always been used casually or vaguely. Elbow talks about voice as being the “true self” and one’s “rhetorical power,” it is sincere or designed to appear sincere. If I try to graft this onto what I have heard about voice before—I would say that these ideas were present, gestured at, but never specifically stated as Elbow does here.  

Applying and Exploring Ideas

2.    

  What happens when you listen to a passage rather than reading it silently? Elbow asserts that it often makes your reading less complicated. How has "ear training" affected your comprehension of something in the past? Based on this, do you believe it's a tool you should use and when should you implement it?

I definitely understand better when I read and hear (not one or the other, but both). I used “ear training” extensively as an MA candidate—our program was extremely theory focused and I really needed to hear that theory in order to make sense of it. I still use this tool and I say use it whenever you need to! I will often ask students to read out loud in class or, if we are reading silently, that they can go into the hall or stairwell and read out loud if they need to—obviously we are not always in a position when we can (or maybe even should) be doing this—but—as often as we can, as often as we need to, GO FOR IT!

Connecting to Other Readings 

2.      Is voice a part of the myth Allen fights against? Or is it, as Elbow discusses it, a way out of the influence of that haunting ghost?

I don’t quite think Allen’s “Inspired Writer” is tied to “voice.” The “Inspired Writer” is really some kind of overachieving boogy-man typing in your ear as you restlessly try to sleep—certainly the “IW” would of course have great personally voice and style and flourish, but they are more about being that writer how can sit down and flawlessly pump out page after page, so I think we are getting a bit off by trying to put voice as the main threat of that metaphor.

Bartholomae:

Getting ready to read

3.      

Under what specific situation do you change your writing and how? Consider all aspects of writing in your life: academic, communication via email, forums, and text, within creative works, etc.?

Yes, definitely, I of course write differently for various situations. I think the biggest decider or when and why is audience. Who I am writing for—friends, family, students, peers, teachers, etc—that really determines whether I am formal or casual, how casual or formal, what type of humor I use (if any), and so forth.

Questions for discussion and journaling

2.What does Bartholomae illustrate happens to a writer's identity ("voice") through the revision process? And have you ever experienced this in your own writing (whether writing an essay, a report, an email, or a creative work of fiction or poetry)?

I think what really gets transmitted here is that during the revision process, we are able to go back and recraft our voice—we can add/subtract/polish, etc., but that the end result will be a “voice” that is closer to the voice of our “true self” as Elbow would say. This also connects to Lamont’s essay Shitty First Draft, having that draft to say what we want to say no matter what, lets the voice run all over the place—but it’s there, we can see it, start to hear it through the screaming—and then the revision is all about eliminating the static and tuning into the right frequency for our voice to resonate.

Applying and exploring ideas

3.      

Reread the poem "America," by Tony Hoagland (page 21, paragraph 35). Bartholomae poses character and caricature as different tools for leading the reader through ideas. How does Hoagland both use those tools to make us alternatively sympathize and dislike the main character, the student, in the poem?

Meta-moment

Read Page 23, Paragraph 57. How have you done this previously in your writing and how might it apply to your future academic writing or college classes?

The comedian in me wants to say that I am doing it right now…but seriously, I joke. I think my writing was most fractured as an undergraduate (and forget about irony! I could barely let myself crack a smile while writing, let alone be ironic or snarky in a paper!) My “identity” as a writer seemed to become more cohesive as a graduate student though—that is where I started learning to use my “voice” more and allow myself to be playful. As for the future? Well, I see a very sarcastic dissertation writing itself in the next few years.