Reading Response #template

Sofiane Filouane

Summary
In this article by Lucille McCarthy called A Stranger in Strange Lands: A College
Student Across the Curriculum McCarthy describes a two year study of three college students
efforts focusing on one particular student named Dave to produce appropriate content area
writing in different disciplines. Using observations, interviews, composing-aloud protocols, and
text analysis, McCarthy evaluates the students performance according to the Gricean Rubric of
Conversation. She concludes that success was affected negatively by unarticulated social
aspects of classroom contexts for writing as well as explicitly stated requirements and
instructions.

Claim
The most important idea one of my peers outside of this class would benefit from is to
understand that these four methods that McCarthy used to evaluate the student revealed what
enhanced or denied his success in different academic writing situations.
Understanding this will make students understand how to successfully approach different
writing situations from the students experience within the study of the process of how he
approached writing tasks going from one class to another.

Data
To this end I combined four research tools: observation, interviews, composing-aloud
protocols, and text analysis. The data provided by the protocols and text analysis served to add
to, crosscheck, and refine the data generated by observation and interviews. I could view Daves
writing experiences through several windows, with the strengths of one method compensating
for the limitations of another.

Connection
In Luciles article there are many ideas and concepts that I would tell my peers to help
them better understand that following requirements , and instructions is always helpful.The most
important idea one of my peers outside of this class would benefit from is to understand that
these four methods that McCarthy used to evaluate the student revealed what enhanced or denied
his success in different academic writing situations.
Understanding this will make students understand how to successfully approach different
writing situations from the students experience within the study of the process of how he
approached writing tasks going from one class to another, and how their writing can only be
evaluated in terms of that particular community standards. To this end I combined four
research tools: observation, interviews, composing-aloud protocols, and text analysis. The data
provided by the protocols and text analysis served to add to, crosscheck, and refine the data
generated by observation and interviews. I could view Daves writing experiences through
several windows, with the strengths of one method compensating for the limitations of another.
This quote illustrates that McCarthy used the four methods to determine Daves strengths and
weaknesses and how it affected his ability to write successfully in various classes.

Vocabulary

Conscious concerns- These concerns were identified as anything the writer paid attention to
during composing as expressed by (1) remarks about a thought or behavior (2) observed
behaviors. Conscious concerns is the state or quality of awareness, or, of being aware of an
external object or something within oneself.

Quality- Conversants must speak what they believe to be the truth and that for which they have
adequate evidence. Quality is the standard of something as measured against other things of a
similar kind; the degree of excellence of something.

Relation- The information that conversants give must be relevant to the aims of the
conversation. Relation is the way in which two or more concepts, objects, or people are
connected; a thing's effect on or relevance to another.

Manner- The conversants must make themselves clear, using appropriate forms of expression.
Manner is a person's outward bearing or way of behaving toward others.