Feb 2
Setting Idea Sources in Relation
Reading/Viewing:
- the opening pages from of Ch 3 of Walter Ong's "Orality and Literacy."
If this link doesn't work, look for Ong's essay among the readings posted on the Lecture class's Blackboard site. - Harari, Ch 7.
- Matt Parker, "What was the first (known) maths mistake?"
The goal of today's writing assignment is to present the ideas of two authors in meaningful relationship to one another. From the three sources listed above, choose two that strike you as having "something to say" to one another. I encourage you to think of idea sources as characters, identifying each text with the author who created it. So when two idea sources encounter one another in the space of your brain, how do they get along? Are they allies? Enemies?
I'm giving you TWO paragraphs to present your thoughts on these sources. The first ¶ should focus our attention on a curious idea from one of the sources (Author A). The second ¶ then brings in the second source (Author B), but note that this can be done in any of a number of ways:
- Author B objects to the account given by author A in the prior ¶.
- Author B offers a deeper explanation of a phenomenon described by Author A.
- Author B offers a curious example of a broader phenomenon described by Author A.
- etc.
Try to keep your ¶s short. Make sure to include both authors as characters, using phrases like "Harari suggests," "Ong argues," etc.). Try to express each author's idea in clear, vivid language. And, finally, give a clear signal at the top of ¶2 as to Author B's relationship to Author A's idea: agree, disagree, complicate, challenge, etc.
Post your response in the comments below. Note that in posting HW on this website, you should make sure that there are two carriage returns between your ¶s. Formatting your response this way will make them show up as separate ¶s, each with a first-line indent.
In Class
“Once upon a time, as a walk through the woods was taking place on the part of Little Red Riding Hood, the Wolf’s jump out from behind a tree occurred, causing her fright.”
What's wrong with this sentence?
Looking Ahead to Essay One
Essay one asks you to work independently from the readings we're doing in class, writing a short analytical essay on Columbus' objectives during his discovery of the new world. Take a few minutes to read the Synthesis—Draft assignment, linked at top right. I'll set aside the last 15 minutes of class for questions about this assignment.
Walter Ong discussed how primarily oral communities might have communicated without means of recording information. Obviously, without pen and paper the transmission of new ideas relied solely on that person’s ability to remember the information. There was no concept of “looking something up” or flipping through a dictionary to find the correct term. So how did people living in these communities efficiently and effectively communicate with one another? Ong states that “rhythmic oral patterns,” such as alliteration or assonance, were the main methods used to recall and relay information to others in a group. Phrases such as “‘divide and conquer’” or “‘to err is human, to forgive is divine’” were rhythmically balanced, and therefore much easier to remember for later. Anything more complicated would have gone right over the recipients head.
This brings about the controversial topic of why writing was created. Some believe that writing was needed mostly for recording stories and new ideas. However, others are confident that writing originated from the need to record numbers and data. For example, in chapter 7 of his book, “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind,” Yuval Harari supports the idea that writing was developed through myths and ideas that homo sapiens began to spread after the Cognitive Revolution. According to him, writing was not invented solely because of things that physically exist such as plants or domesticated animals. In Matt Parker’s video however, he stated that writing was created specifically for numbers and data keeping instead of myths. He believed that after the Agricultural Revolution, people needed to write mainly to keep track of the new surplus of wheat and barley. Regardless of which idea is correct, we still use writing for both myths and record keeping today.