Cyber-Assignments and Recap
Today's freewrite looked at the terms: Dissonance, Conflict and Compromise, all elements the protagonist Leymah Gbowee confronts in her memoir, Mighty Be Our Powers.
Post your response to the freewrite here.
Homework:
Revise the summaries of the Thompson article and post here as well as email to me (attach and paste in the email: coasabirenglish1A@gmail.com)
Read the corresponding sections in Hacker. We went over a few this morning. I posted some re: analyzing a text and annotating in the June 20 post. To stay on top of everything note the day by day plan.
Right now I am improvising. Read the Preface, Intro and Part 1 in They Say, I Say. I believe, if you look at June 25, we will look at Part 2 for Tuesday. Readings assigned on Monday.
In Mighty read the preface and Part 1. I suggested to students that they read Part 1 and Part 2, so Monday reading Part 3 will not feel so enormous a task.
We will write a fast draft on Thursday. Just bring in the essay planning sheet and an outline.
Here is a link to the film. We will watch it in class. Full episode (53:31):
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/women-war-and-peace/full-episodes/pray-the-devil-back-to-hell/
We Are the Ones
We will start the We Are the One's Freewrites on Monday as well. Bring the appropriate books to class.
Freewrites
When you post your freewrites or assignments, make sure that you include the heading, a title and space the writing so that it is legible. Put spaces between the paragraphs, the title and the essay, around block quotes, etc.
Handouts
There were three-four handouts today.
Today's freewrite looked at the terms: Dissonance, Conflict and Compromise, all elements the protagonist Leymah Gbowee confronts in her memoir, Mighty Be Our Powers.
Post your response to the freewrite here.
Homework:
Revise the summaries of the Thompson article and post here as well as email to me (attach and paste in the email: coasabirenglish1A@gmail.com)
Read the corresponding sections in Hacker. We went over a few this morning. I posted some re: analyzing a text and annotating in the June 20 post. To stay on top of everything note the day by day plan.
Right now I am improvising. Read the Preface, Intro and Part 1 in They Say, I Say. I believe, if you look at June 25, we will look at Part 2 for Tuesday. Readings assigned on Monday.
In Mighty read the preface and Part 1. I suggested to students that they read Part 1 and Part 2, so Monday reading Part 3 will not feel so enormous a task.
We will write a fast draft on Thursday. Just bring in the essay planning sheet and an outline.
Here is a link to the film. We will watch it in class. Full episode (53:31):
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/women-war-and-peace/full-episodes/pray-the-devil-back-to-hell/
We Are the Ones
We will start the We Are the One's Freewrites on Monday as well. Bring the appropriate books to class.
Freewrites
When you post your freewrites or assignments, make sure that you include the heading, a title and space the writing so that it is legible. Put spaces between the paragraphs, the title and the essay, around block quotes, etc.
Handouts
There were three-four handouts today.
For the super students:
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2011/gbowee-lecture_en.html
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2011/gbowee-lecture_en.html
http://www.npr.org/2011/10/07/141162208/gbowee-talks-about-winning-nobel-peace-prize
http://www.npr.org/2011/12/10/143509346/nobel-peace-prize-accepted-by-3-women
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFluqvgtSJE (On Peace after the Nobel Peace Prize)
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/06192009/watch.html
Be the Change; Gbowee after the Nobel Peace Prize
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/women-war-and-peace/features/leymah-gbowee-on-life-after-the-nobel/
posted by Professor Wanda's Posse at 4:03 PM
32 Comments:
Anthony Gamarra
Professor Sabir
English 1A
20 June 2012
The gender of our writing style
When you read an article and want to know the gender of the author, without looking at the name, just look at the way the article is written. According to an article by Clive Thompson, Does Our Writing Style Give Away Our Gender, two gender-detection experiments were performed. A group of computer scientists and professor Moshe Koppel, from Bar-Ilan University, create a computer algorithm that can:
“examine an anonymous text and determine, with accuracy rates of better than 80 percent, whether the author is male or female” –paragraph 2.
At first, results showed there was a difference in male and female writings. When submitted to the journal Proceedings of the National Academy, skepticism was felt by many, as they brought up concerns that the results would create another opportunity to oppress women. Despite this opinion, it would seem men are more objective, and females more personal, as men use “determiners” such as: a, the, that, these; while women use “personal pronouns”: I, you,she, myself, yourself.
“..if women use personal pronouns more than men, it may be because of the old sociological saw: Women talk about people, men talk about things”-paragraph 11.
What happens when the topic is gender specific?
The second experiment consisted of a group of students analyzing articles from men’s and women’s magazines, attempting to discover the gender of the author. So according to the results, when a topic is audience-specific, it no longer mattered what gender the author is. You could be man, woman, trans-gendered or homosexual, but as long as you understand the mind of the reader, the reader would not be able to tell the difference. According to theorists of gender, specifically Berkeley’s Judith Butler,
“it’s as much about how you act as what you are” -paragraph 12.
Ka Wai Ng
Professor Sabir
English 1A Summer 2012
06/21/2012
Free Write
Improve with conflicts
Conflicts are like air, that exist all around the world as long as the living species stand on the Earth. Specially between people, it occurs more frequently than the other species. Another thing different than the animals is that people can think more about the issues. They know the best timing to solve the conflict for a better result. However, some of the problems are not easy for people to choose to be compromise or fight back. Sometimes, if something occurs deeply related to one's important thing, then the conflict appear amount people. It might become worst, if no one decides to be compromise for the issue. Although the conflict among people can bring up many horrible thing, it still pushes the society to improve. It presses people to notice their mistakes and gives people a lesson. It is actually like the pills that heal the dissonance between the people. It must tastes very bad at the beginning, but once people get over with, then the better circumstance will comes up.
Saalihah Mays
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 1A
20 June 2012
Koppel’s Test
It is pretty crazy to find out that writing can declare what gender you are. In this essay it was said that the way that people write can show if they are male or female, pretty interesting. Not being big on authors I have read quite a few books and I have been shocked to find out that the person writing them was a man. So I think it’s pretty cool that these scientists decided to do this research. Based off what I have read the writer’s intention is just to prove that it is possible to determine who is writing male or female without knowing. Based on the essay women use more personal pronouns as Koppel stated like “I, you, she, myself’ and men use more determining words such as “a, the, that, and these”.
Thompson used a great thesis statement to put his readers into the essay. Asking if I could tell by reading his essay if he was a man or a women honestly it never really crosses my mind check if the author of some of the books I read is a women or a man. I do know that his research he used was credible because of how extensive it is he really did his homework on Koppel’s work. Koppel’s work doesn’t seem to be bias at all just stating true fact or proven facts, that is one of the reasons that he did mention that the was with a woman was on the science team so at least there is a person for each end of stick.
In this essay it also mentions that sometimes the writer is trained to write in a certain way no matter if it’s male or female. Women can write for GQ magazine and make it seem like it is from a male or male perspective but really their just doing their job and making their articles sound a certain way to target that particular audience. In this case anyone could be writing such as homosexual people they are writing as if they were but they are not so they can take their audience were ever they need to. In the end it’s all in the style of writing.
Saalihah Mays
Professor wanda Sabir
21 June 2012
English 1A
Free write
Conflict
conflict happen each and every day they are just another part of life. The key is how you deal with your conflict weather it be positive or negative the out come determinds where you stand as a person. As well as when things put you in compromising positions the first natural reation is to think of the worst or freak out about it but you have to keep your cool and get thruogh it. In my family we have a lot of conflict but some times it all comes from misunderstanding and miscommunications and its not even nessesary. I personally admire people that can handle conflict without getting caught up in them or making it work out for the better. It just make me think about how I can make things better within my life.
Marisol Mora
Professor wanda Sabir
21 June 2012
English 1A
Free write: dissonance, conflict, and compromise
Dissonance: A: lack of agreement; especially: inconsistency between the beliefs one holds or between one's actions and beliefs and one's actions and one's belief
B: an instance of such inconsistency or disagreement.
Conflict: A: competitive or opposing action of incompatibles : antagonistic state or action (as of divergent ideas, interests, or persons)
B: mental struggle resulting from incompatible or opposing needs, drives, wishes, or external or internal demands.
Compromise: A: Settlement of differences by arbitration or by consent reached by mutual concession
B: Something intermediate between or blending qualities of two different things.
What dissonance, conflict, and compromise all have in common is the reoccurring word agreement. There is an agreement that is either broken or misunderstood. When all three occur thats when it gets bad, imagine a person being in that situation of mental struggle. The way in which I apply this to myself is that, no matter how hard I try or how good of a person I am I will some way or some how come across at least one of these words in my lifertime. Which I have, all three as a matter of fact. More than once too! It is the most uncomfortable situation when experiencing a conflict or dissonance, but no matter what life throws at you, you as a person has to learn how to deal with it and eventually come to a compromise. As the saying goes, temporary struggle for long time success.
Monica Contreras
Professor Wanda Sabir
21 June 2012
English 1A
Free write: dissonance, conflict, and compromise
I believe that these components are the action and the effect. When you have a conflict it drags people to react certain way. Some react in a positive way where they try to fix the problem. The might compromise with themselves not to over react or compromise with the person who is causing the problem. There is others of course who react in a negative way where they decided to take drastic measures. When having a conflict it is best to always agree to a compromise or else you will live with that hate. There are some people who become violent and do certain illegal things that drive them to illegal situations. I tend to always come to an agreement when I have a conflict because I believe that everything has a solution except death. Others might argue that it is best to take revenge in their own hands. I also believe that what goes around comes around and you shouldn’t dirty your name by taking revenge in your own hands. Everyone has experience conflicts and you should be wise enough to find a solution and let you drag you down.
Monica Contreras
Professor Sabir
English 1A
20 June 2012
Summary of the Thompson article
Distinguishing if the writer is a women or a man in reading has not become a problem. There are many ways and techniques you can test yourself to know what is the gender of the writer. It sounds silly and ironic but people have observed and discovered a way to do so.
Women talk about human begins and men talk about object and things.
There are many readers who can distinguish whether the writer is a male or female. They look at their witting and the type of words they use. According to the article “does our writing style give away our gender”, “Men use personal pronouns I, you, she, myself or yourself. “Using certain words is a giveaway as to what gender is writing the piece of writing you are reading.
Women tend to use the same words when writing. Men are more carried to use other words in substitution. There have been many studies where they have shown that this is true. Women uses more words constantly . Women want to connect with the reader by using. The author of the article “Does Our Writing Style Give Away Our Gender” has many theories on how to know the gender of a writer. He argues that women communicate different then men. He has does several experiments and he states that they did a research with a group of people. They were given pieces of writing forma male and female magazine. It wasn’t hard to distinguish what gender wrote what. The sentences with the shorter sentences and straight to the point was men. The first piece of writing in the magazine were longer and used more verbs that described what they were talking about.
Tiffany Chang
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 1A
21 June 2012
Free Write: Compromise,Dissonance, and Conflict
Everybody makes compromises each day of their lives. Whether it is something really small, like choosing to exercise instead of eat cookies, to something really big, like choosing to move to another state for a job instead of staying at home with the family. Depending on each person’ life situation, the severity of each decision varies. Each compromise is attached to dissonance and/or conflict, whether it is internal or external. A person makes a decision by resolving the internal disagreement or battle of which choice is better in their case. Broadening the views a bit, there is the dissonance of the high speed railway being planned. I read an article about it the other day, and learned what had to be compromised in order to finish construction. Since it is such an expensive project, funds from the state had to be used. In exchange for the complete railway to be finished, something like two textbooks for every K-12 student in the state could have been purchased. That is a big compromise. The chance for better education has sacrificed for a potentially better economy and environment. The dissonance or conflict is between those for the railway and those against it. Some can see that the education benefits outweigh the profit from completing the project, while others say otherwise. There is not always a right answer for what is right or wrong, so it depends on those debating to resolve the problem by making the right compromises.
Tiffany Chang
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 1A
21 June 2012
Summary of “Does Our Write Style Give Away Our Gender” by Clive Thompson
Clive Thompson is a science-journalist and author of the essay, “Does Our Writing Style Give Away Our Gender?” which argues for the ability to identify the gender of the author of a piece of work by looking for key words in the text. Surprisingly, the words turn out to be common terms rather than the expected main words related to the subject being written about. Moshe Koppel, a professor of Israel’s Bar-Ilan University, and his team of scientists conducted an experiment where a computer algorithm was invented to prove that:
Women are far more likely than men to use personal pronouns-- I, you, she, myself, or yourself, and the like. Men, in contrast, are more likely to use determiners—a, the, that, and these—as well as cardinal numbers and quantifiers like more and some. (89)
The authors of the experiment claim that these specific words indicate the gender since men and women have different preferences when describing their thoughts. It is amazing to see how accurate about fifty indicators found from the experiment can determine the sex of the author.
Thompson does well in proving that Koppel’s results are unbiased and accurate. He mentions the presence of a female coauthor to show that the research is not against women, and clearly states that authors of the texts used for testing were evenly split between men and women. Thompson includes the input of linguist Deborah Tannen, who explains how the results make sense. She is able to use her expertise to explain that women usually use a more intimate way to communicate because they want a closer relationship with the reader while men use more numerical terms since they are referring to objects (90). Koppel only ran into one minor obstacle when trying to submit his paper. He was able to dismiss the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reviewers’ accusation that he was against women by the simple addition of his coauthor’s middle name, confirming there is a female. His paper was then passed and then published.
In further research, it was found that “when women wrote for men’s magazines, they wrote in the ‘male’ style” (91).This creates a loophole in Koppel’s experiment, but does not prove him wrong. The evidence shows that people can change the way they write depending on who the audience is, but his claim still holds true for other, more general situations. Aside from the counterargument, there is also another predicament. The problem that seems to still be in question involves the people who do not completely fall under the “female” or “male” gender categories. The works of gays, lesbians, and trans-genders have yet to be tested. With the support of Deborah Tannen and other sources, Clive Thompson successfully defends Koppel’s results that the gender of the author can be identified by looking at certain words in the text.
Chie Shan Chan
Professor Sabir
English 1A: Summer 2012
20 June 2012
Can You Really Tell?
In Does Our Writing Style Give Away Our Gender, Clive Thompson stated that people’s gender could be technically identified based on their writing. Moshe Koppel who was part of a group of scientists in Israel successfully conducted an experiment of determining the gender of writers based on their writing has over eighty percent accuracy rate.
Koppel’s group found that the single biggest difference is that women are far more likely than men to use personal pronouns---I, you, she, myself, or yourself, and the like. Men, on contrast, are more likely to use determiners---a, the, that, and these---as well as cardinal numbers and quantifiers
like more or some (89).
These identifications were not stated out of nowhere, but there are reasons to why certain genders use the words they do.
The differences presented actually had a psychological explanation to it. Koppel states that “Women use personal pronouns more than men, it may be because of the old sociological saw: Women talk about people, men talk about things” (90). Women tend to try to develop a closer connection to their readers whereas men who tend to talk about things would use more of quantity words. There was also a study done with a group of students where they discovered that men’s magazines had shorter sentences but women’s magazine has longer sentences with more descriptive verbs. Despite the evidence shown, there are many controversies with the experiment itself.
There were some people who believed that the experiment claimed that men and women are different, leading to the idea of sexism. There were also times where the experiment failed to support its purpose because what mattered to the way someone writes depended on their audience. One unknown result that Koppel have not tested out yet is the writing of transgender, gays, and lesbians, where they do not really fit into the definition to how we categorize as male and female genders. They don’t exactly fit in to the definitions we define as females and males. There are still many points that are questioned as there is no definite way to truly identify someone by how they write.
Chie Shan Chan
Professor Sabir
English 1A: Summer 2012
21 June 2012
Freewrite: Dissonance, Compromise, Conflict
Dissonance, conflict, and compromise all have a connection with each other but they are also different. These words play a sort of a story plot. I define dissonance as tension between two not agreeable groups. This is the stage where two people begin to have a sense of dislike of each other. They don’t get along at all and always disagree on the tiniest things. But as the disagreements grow and continue; conflicts happen. Conflicts are like dissonance but more serious and fist fights would not be a surprise. As there are conflicts, there would always be some sort of compromise between the two parties. A compromise is when the dispute between the two groups finally settles.
If you think about it, this is initially how all wars begin. When countries have meetings together, there would always be some disagreements between them. So there is bound to have some hard feelings from the mini disputes they have from one another. But as these arguments become bigger, it would become a conflict. Thus, countries will declare war on each other and prepare their weapons for battle. And when one side loses or decide to stop the war, a compromise to done. Countries finally decide that fighting is enough and settle it peacefully.
Lori Nguyen
Professor Sabir
English 1A, Summer 2012
6/21/12
Freewrite: Summary
Style Writing of Genders
“ Does Our Writing Style Give Away Our Gender?” written by Clive Thompson is an article that explains how there are certain ways of being able to determine whether the writer is a male or female. In this article the author intention is to tell the reader how women and men may have a different writing style, but it is mainly based on the audience they are writing for. According to a computer science group and Moshe Koppel, a professor at Israel Bar-Ilan University,to determine whether the writer is a male or female they identify the choice of words the writer is using. Koppel group had created a machine where it can distinguish the different gender of the writer 80 percent of the time. The group had discovered that women are more likely to use “personal pronoun” which are I, you, she, myself or yourself. As men are more likely to use “determiners” which are a, the, that, and these because often men usually talks about things while women talks about people.
According to Deborah Tannen, she agrees with this statement because she believes that women usually try to connect with the reader, which leads in using pronouns. Tannen then set up an experiment with a group of students analyzing articles from men’s and women’s magazines, testing them if they can identify which article is written by which gender. For the students it was not difficult because usually the men’s magazine have sentences that were shorter compared to the women’s magazine. Also the women’s magazine has more “feeling verbs”. Tennen later notice that the gender did not matter. What really mattered was who the audience the writer is writing to. She noted, “ It didn’t matter whether the author was male or female. What mattered was whether the intended audience was male or female.”(pg 91) This stated that the audience can change the way the writer writes because they want to grab the reader attention. If a female writer is writing an article in a male magazine she would most likely write in a “male like” style and vice versa.
With the results of trying to identify the gender of the writers other people had question if Koppel’s “algorithm” would work with gays, lesbians, and transgender.
“ Bring further notes that gays, lesbians, or transgendered people don’t fit neatly into simple social definitions of male or female gender. Would Koppel’s algorithm work as well if it analyzed a collection of books written mainly by them?”(page 91)
With this question Koppel does not know the answer because the experiment has not been done yet. Thompson then conclude that as long as you understand who the audience is and understand how they think, they might not be able to tell the difference.
Lori Nguyen
Professor Sabir
English 1A, Summer 2012
6/21/12
Freewrite:
What is dissonance, conflict, and compromise? These words are different from one another, but in other ways they are all related and have similarities too. Dissonance means having a lack of agreement, while conflict means a prolonged fighting. Comparing with the word compromise which means settlement of difference. Although they all have different meanings they all involve at least two people and how it might lead to an argument. Dissonance can lead to conflict as it is a lack of agreement and conflict can sometime lead to compromise as the people finally agree with one another. Conflict may not always end in a good way because not everyone would agree with one another and that may cause a bigger fight.Conflict can be caused due to misunderstanding and sometime miscommunication as someone may take it the wrong way. Although everyone has experience conflict, I am sure no one likes the feeling of it and how negative it can bring your mood and attitude down.
Juan Santoyo
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 1A Summer 2012
June 21 2012
Freewrite: Dissonance, conflict, compromise
You can’t have one without the other once it comes to these three words. Dissonance means to have a disagreement, conflict is your reaction to the problem, and compromise is when an agreement is reached. It all depends on how each person can resolve these problems; either peacefully or with violence. We all deal with these situations in our life; it’s a matter on how you take it and most importantly to learn a lesson so such situations don’t happen as often.
Name: Tsgereda Leul
Professor Wanda Sabir
Date: 21 June 2012
English 1A summer 2012
Freewrite: Dissonance, Compromise, Conflict
It begins with dissonance, a clash between two elements or thoughts. From this result a conflict that tears a group or a single person apart. There has to be a compromise to result the issue, by congregating. In order to free oneself from conflict there has to be acceptance of faults to kill the issue from the root.
Manucher Khajvandi
Professor Sabir
English 1A 730-1020a
6/21/2012
Free write: Compromise, conflict, dissonance
We as people have grown to compromise with everything. We compromise time, schedule, and life. Every individual can and will compromise one thing or another, whether it’s with your wife, children, work or other obligations, it’s a must in this day and age and has been since I could remember. Conflict can and will come hand in hand with compromise. Conflict can cause the most patient person some stress. Life brings many conflicts to us in the world and we cannot let it beat us down. We must learn to get up and not succumb to the pressure. I will try my very best to not panic when things don’t go the way I planned it. Conflict and dissonance are close to the same. Dissonance is a clash between two elements that are opposites together, causing conflict. There is no way to avoid conflicts or dissonance but you must compromise. This morning I woke up late causing conflict with my schedule. The dissonance with my staying up until the wee hours and waking up with the sun rise definitely clash. This causes me to be very tired and rushed to get to class. As a result I must compromise school and my bed time in order to get up early and if I don’t change that element of my life for the time being , I will have to compromise for a lack of sleep as a result to continue my habits. It is close to impossible to avoid one over the other. With compromise comes conflict and dissonance and vice versa.
Manucher Khajvandi
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 1A 730a-1020a
6/21/2012
Does Our Writing Style Give Away Our Gender?
Searching for Identity
Have you ever wondered if one can give his or her identity away by the way they write? Clive Thompson, a journalist who writes mostly under the topics of technology, politics, and culture, tells about Moshe Koppel, a professor at Israel’s bar-Ilan University. In Thompson’s article, Does Our Writing Style Give Away Our Gender?, Koppel and his group of scientists develop a computer algorithm to examine whether or not a certain style of writing can determine whether it was written by a male or female. It is stated that “A group of computer scientists began publishing two papers in which they describe the results of their gender detection experiment.” (88)By using a few words, we reveal our identity in a matter of time using quotidian texts.
In this article, a prediction machine was made in order to identify what style of writing belonged to which gender. “With the development of the computer algorithm, scholars found a way to examine anonymous text and determine, with accuracy rates of better than 80 percent, whether the author is male or female”.(88) It was found in Koppel’s group that there was a major difference amongst how each gender used their writing. “The biggest difference is that women are far more likely than men to use personal pronouns such as-I, you, she, myself, or yourself, and the like(89). The difference being is that men too have their own unique style of writing, which is much different than their female counter parts. Men, in contrast, are more likely to use determiners-a, the, that, and these-as well as cardinal numbers and quantifiers like more or some.” (89) Koppel’s findings were under the lines of women spoke more about people as to men speaking about things.
This was the proof that Koppel discovered and thus presented to different publishing journals. As surprising as it may sound, Koppel’s findings resulted in controversial topics of discussion. He was criticized for being biased in his report. As a result Moshe Koppel submitted their papers to other journals and added a new component. “One of the coauthors, Anat Shimoni, added her middle name “Rachel” to her byline, to make sure reviewers knew one member of the group was female.” (88) This was done in order to make viewers aware of female presence in the research. Koppel did not want to make biased claims or sound sexist for he did his best to answer pundits. He wanted to submit an honest report of his findings, not to claim how men and women are extremely different.
Chie Shan Chan
Professor Sabir
English 1A: Summer 2012
20 June 2012
Can You Really Tell?
In Does Our Writing Style Give Away Our Gender, Clive Thompson stated that a person’s gender could be technically identified based on their writing. Moshe Koppel who was part of a group of scientists in Israel successfully conducted an experiment of determining the gender of writers based on their writing has over eighty percent accuracy rate.
Koppel’s group found that the single biggest difference is that women are far more likely than men to use personal pronouns---I, you, she, myself, or yourself, and the like. Men, on contrast, are more likely to use determiners---a, the, that, and these---as well as cardinal numbers and quantifiers like more or some (89).
These identifications were not stated out of nowhere, but there are reasons to why certain genders use the words they do.
The differences presented actually had a psychological explanation to it. Koppel states that “Women use personal pronouns more than men, it may be because of the old sociological saw: Women talk about people, men talk about things” (90). Women tend to try to develop a closer connection to their readers whereas men who tend to talk about things would use more of quantity words. There was also a study done with a group of students where they discovered that men’s magazines had shorter sentences but women’s magazine has longer sentences with more descriptive verbs. Despite the evidence shown, there are many controversies with the experiment itself.
There were some people who believed that the experiment claimed that men and women are different, leading to the idea of sexism. There were also times where the experiment failed to support the certain words that female and male uses because what mattered to the way someone writes depended on their audience. One unknown result that Koppel have not tested out yet is the writing of transgender, gays, and lesbians, where they do not really fit into the definition to how we categorize as male and female genders. They don’t exactly fit in to the definitions we define as females and males. There are still many points that are questioned as there is no definite way to truly identify someone by how they write.
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 1A
22 June 2012
I enjoyed reading the freewrites and summaries of the Thompson article. I’ll start with the freewrite. There were several posts that resonated with me for the examples used like the student who spoke of the high speed rail system and how the cost if being augmented by taking money from public education, 2 books per elementary school student (!). She stated that this compromise was not favored by everyone, but the majority or those with ties to state budget purse strings like this deal. Another writer spoke of how we are always in a state of conflict, dissonance or compromise, one leading into or from the other, the words themselves linked, (another writer stated). Several writers looked at war and how the conflict was resolved when a country lost a strategic battle. Compromise is often a face saving strategy—not peace.
The writing in the freewrites was outstanding for the most part, linked of course to the reasoning or thinking about the words and their meanings. The summaries were a mixed bag.
I wondered what the data collected would be used for—marketing to specific constituencies or more sinister reasons like exploitation or manipulation. If one depends on something as weak as a name to shift bias, then who’s to say boys or men will chose androgynous titles like Teri and Bobbi to confuse us (smile). Many times governments sponsor studies for military security such as computers and information systems. The public is the last frontier in these experiments.
Stay tuned.
In a world where one’s autonomy and freedoms are eroded daily, I am suspicious about yet another way to pigeonhole me for an unarticulated purpose—believe it, findings are always used, often to the subjects’ detriment. Israel is a country divided—bloody fingers leave traces of DNA on rattling keys in the Occupied West Bank as the head of state lies in a medically sustained coma (I think).
I such an environment, why would I trust the “state to do no harm?” From separation walls to bulldozed homes and razed olive groves, check-points and sharp shooters—conflict based on fear—dissonance based on unarticulated guilt and anger, leaves the idea of compromise one that is tried and fails over and over again.
Many students sampled largely from Thompson’s palate, some of the introductions sporting originality which made them more fun to read—how does one stand out when the assignment is the same for all?
It is the similar for the shopper who buys a dress and then wears it to a party then sees it on another woman there. How does one keep the eye of the reader interested enough so that one is not dismissed as a copycat—been there does that, seen that so what else is there to do?
When one is following an assigned writing prompt or filling in a template, the originality comes in the title of the work, one’s point of view on the topic and how one decides to tell the story—examples used, wit employed. I like Tannen’s work which is not numbers crunching, rather she uses her finding about gender communication to develop strategies to bring men and women together in meaningful communication, where both sides feel listened to and heard. The study illustrated no practical outcomes or uses.
I noticed missing words, misspelled words, clarity issues because the piece needed proof reading. We will go over a few of these freewrites together on Monday (smile).
Rigoberto Ruiz
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 1A
21 June 2012
Tell me, am I a men or a women?
Can you tell if am a man or a woman by the way I write? science-journalist Clive Thomson in his article "Does Our Write Style Give Away Our Gender” report a research made by Israeli professor Moshe Koppel successfully conducted an experiment determining the gender of a writer based on their form of writing.
Thompsons explains how Koppel's group developed series of tests of algorithm ; with an eighty percent of accuracy; Koppel's experiment allocates the main differences between men and women writing forms. Thompsons states that the "biggest difference" is simply "...that women are far more likely than men to use personal pronouns---I, you, she, myself, or yourself, and the like. Men, on contrast, are more likely to use determiners---a, the, that, and these---as well as cardinal numbers and quantifiers
like more or some" (89). Even thought the experiment clearly states that Men are more carried to use different words in substitution of other repetitive words and Women use more words constantly to get a connection with the readers. Though this experiment has not been tested on "...gays, lesbians, or transgendered people [because] they don't fit neatly into simple social definition of male or female gender" the experiment is seen as successful research.
Although many points are still at question to truly identify a definite way to tell the gender of a writer, a man or a women can always be seen as an authentic writer.
Yizhe Liu
Professor Sabir
English1A summer 2012
June 21 2012
Topic: Free write about Dissonance, Compromise and Conflict
When there is a disagreement between two or more parties, a dissonance is created. Many people say that it is the source of war which creates the conflict thus disaster. It is true, because the war in Liberia between Liberia government and rebel groups that are supported by neighbour governments of Guinea and Sierra Leone is a conflict failed of compromise when dissonance occurs. In consequence, thousands lives were killed, and I really hope that one day they can come to a compromise of peace even though the reality is cruel.
At the same time, when we pay attention to the G20 happened this week in Mexico, we can see that many countries having dissonance are meeting together peacefully, and they are looking for a “pathway” to resolve the conflict. It showed that it’s not necessary to have wars for settling disputes.
In our daily life, although disagreements sometimes lead to conflicts, we still need them as they allow us to see different points of views, to develop our knowledge by learning from each other. For me, it is a process of informing just like a debate, that it doesn’t need to be compromised at the end.
Yizhe Liu
Professor: Sabir
English 1A
21 June 2012
Topic: Summary of Does Our Writing Style Give Away Our Gender?
The writing styles between men and women can easily be identified by their topics and choice of words. Clive Thompson, a journalist in social science initialed his article Does Our Writing Style Gives Away Our Gender by asking “Judging by the words alone, can you figure out if I am a man or a woman?” Moshe Koppel, a professor at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University and his research group published their papers about the gender-detection experiment. They are the first in gender prediction technology by calculating writers’ words. At the beginning, their paper was rejected by the prestige journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences for the reason that it will “Oppress women.” But after one of the coauthors Anat added her middle name “Rachel” to her byline, their papers were accepted by the journals Literary and Linguistic Computing and Text. A mixed gender team is more persuasive toward this topic, and also it helps to avoid antifeminism’s accusations.
According to Koppel and his team’s researches, “women talk about people, men talk about things”. Based on data, the computer calculated that women use more personal pronouns while men use more mark word like the, my, some and also of phrases. Koppel pointed out that when people throwaway words, their identity can be revealed. Donald Foster, an English professor from Vassar College added, “they’re like fingerprints,” Words like the and and are often used when people don’t pay much attention about the basic parts of speech, together with other words such as some, many and other feeling expressions, Koppel is able to predict that person’s gender with over 80 percent accuracy.
Not only different genders write differently, writers also write in different gender’s style to attract the intended audience. Tannen summarizes that the writing style in for women’s magazines and men’s magazines are different. Because of the different audience gender, authors for magazines would write for men’s magazines with a male tone, and a female tone when writing for women’s magazines. Thompson states, “Gender isn’t simply innate or biological, …, it’s as much about how you act as what you are.” At the end, he also mentioned about Janet Bing[a linguist at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va.]’s notes of gays, lesbians, or transgendered people, that they could not be predicted by the technology because they don’t fit into the social definition of male or female gender. After reading this article, I realized that this detection of gender in writing could also play a part in quotidian communication.
Ka Wai Ng
Professor Sabir
English 1A Summer 2012
06/20/2012
Confusing Question
"Does Our Writing Style Give Away Our Gender?" is an article written by Clive Thompson. It gives an argument about an experiment by Moshe Koppel. His experiment tests that will the writing style tells the gender of the author. Clive introduces to his readers that the writing skill can be found to determine the different genders. At the beginning of the article, he asks the audiences to figure out his gender by the information he has given. He believes that the readers can find out the answer by the information he gives. However, by the information from the article is actually hard for the readers to respond to his question.
In the second paragraph, Clive tells the readers that Moshe Koppel can figure out the gender of the people from their writing style. Then, he gives a lot of details about the team of Moshe. He keeps describing the way the team do to find the evidence:" But Koppel's group is the first to create an actual prediction machine"(Para. 2). Readers only can see what did the scientists do but the actual way to find out the answer. He does not declare clearly what he wants to present to the readers.
Instead of telling the result of the experiments, Clive gives an deeply description of the scientist Moshe. He describes how did Moshe prove his ideas. He confuses readers about what is the main point of his article really wants to tell about. He gives the arguments between Moshe and the other scientists:" 'You find what you 're looking for. And that leads to this sneaking suspicion that it's all hardwired, instead of cultural,' argues Janet Bing"(Para. 15). The readers clearly know about the way Moshe try to prove his discovery, but not the evidence to prove its reliability.
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 1A
23 June 2012
Revised comments
I enjoyed reading the freewrites and summaries of the Thompson article. I’ll start with the freewrite. There were several posts that resonated with me for the examples used like the student who spoke of the high speed rail system and how the cost is being augmented by taking money from public education, 2 books per elementary school student (!). She stated that this compromise was not favored by everyone, but the majority those with ties to state budget purse strings like this deal. Another writer spoke of how we are always in a state of conflict, dissonance or compromise, one leading into or from the other, the words themselves linked, (another writer stated). Several writers looked at war and how the conflict was resolved when a country lost a strategic battle. Compromise is often a face saving strategy—not peace.
(I am on my way to a the Voices for Peace Conference this afternoon in Oakland at The Scottish Rite Center at Lake Merritt.)
The writing in the freewrites was outstanding for the most part, linked of course to the reasoning or thinking about the words and their meanings. The summaries were a mixed bag.
I wondered what the data collected would be used for—marketing to specific constituencies or more sinister reasons like exploitation or manipulation. If one depends on something as weak as a name to shift bias, then who’s to say boys or men will chose androgynous titles like Teri and Bobbi to confuse us (smile). Many times governments sponsor studies for military security such as computers and information systems. The public is the last frontier in these experiments.
Stay tuned.
In a world where one’s autonomy and freedoms are eroded daily, I am suspicious about yet another way to pigeonhole any portion of the population, in this case women or girls, for an unarticulated purpose—believe it, findings are always used, often to the subjects’ detriment. Israel is a country divided—bloody fingers leave traces of DNA on rattling keys in the Occupied West Bank as the head of state lies in a medically sustained coma (or did he wake up or did he die? )
I such an environment, why would I trust the “state to do no harm?” From separation walls to bulldozed homes and razed olive groves, check-points and sharp shooters—conflict based on fear—dissonance based on unarticulated guilt and anger—all of this leaves the idea of compromise, one that is tried and fails over and over again to yet another impasse.
Many students sampled largely from Thompson’s palate, some of the introductions sporting originality which made them more fun to read—how does one stand out when the assignment is the same for all?
This quandary the writer faces is similar to what the shopper who buys a dress and then wears it to a party and sees it on another woman there, one with a more flattering figure I might add (out of spite—smile). How does one keep the eye of the reader interested enough so that one is not dismissed as a copycat—“been there done that,” “seen that” too, so what else is there to do?
When one is following an assigned writing prompt or filling in a template, the originality comes in the title of the work, one’s point of view on the topic and how one decides to tell the story—examples used, wit employed. I like Tannen’s work which is not numbers crunching, rather she uses her finding about gender communication to develop strategies to bring men and women together in meaningful communication, where both sides feel listened to and heard. The study illustrated no practical outcomes or uses.
I noticed missing words, misspelled words, clarity issues in some student writing because the piece(s) needed proof reading. We will go over a few of these freewrites together on Monday (smile).
Josefina Belloso
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 1A Summer 2012
21 June 2012
Free Write: Dissonance, Compromise, and Conflict
I believe that these three words lead to each other; if in a situation you do not have compromise you might be lead to dissonance and have a conflict. I think we all need these three things in our lives because it would make everything easier for us in the aspect that having compromise in a relationship with someone it would show a lot of you. Conflict is always around, unfortunately it’s always around us. But we all have our ways to deal with it, we have to make sure not to hurt anyone and stick to what we have promise and to what we know.
Raymond Hui
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 1A 7:30am - 10:20am
June 22, 2012
In life, we will face three aspects of war: dissidence, conflict, and compromise. Even if you are not in actual combat, these same aspects continue to apply in everyday life. When a disagreement occurs among peers, it is often caused by conflicting opinions, and then friction occurs between them. Afterwards, the situation can arise into conflict. This does not have to be a physical confrontation with one another. It can be verbal or psychological conflict, such as a debate. Finally, the conflict can be resolved through compromise. Dissidence often occurs when two or more groups share opposing opinions to something. This small opposition can lead to things such as wars or famines. It is difficult to understand the main causes of the problem, but the result of them is something people around the world can understand. Conflict is the part of the war that results in mainly violence. Soldiers are sent out to fight for a cause, whether they agree with it or not. War does not just affect the people fighting; it also affects the people who have nothing to do with the conflict at all. People who die in war who were not part of the actual combat are often referred to as “collateral damage.” I believe in a psychological sense, instead of calling people “people” and changing them into more of a general object, society is able to accept the things that are happening in wars.
Josefina Belloso
Wanda Sabir
English 1A Summer 2012
24 June 2012
Summary: Does Our Writing Style Give Away Our Gender?
The Problem
Men and women think differently, that is something very obvious that everyone knows about. After reading this article “Does Our Writing Style Give Away Our Gender?” by Clive Thompson, I understood various things. To me it is amazing how the way we write can let someone know of our gender, that helps us understand how men and women think differently. “Women talk about people, men talk about things” (Thompson pg. 89). This quote is really significant, because when you are reading an article or something similar, this is one of the things that will help you know if it is written by a woman or a man. Our gender can easily be known by the way we write, because like I mentioned earlier men and women think differently.
It is not only about being women or a men, it is of whom we are, how we act. There are many men that sometimes tend to think like women, because they want to understand them. On the other hand, women also tend to do that. When we write we somehow pour our heart out, we show the reader what we feel, what we want. That is another reason why I believe that our writing helps people know if its written by a man or a woman.
“They are like finger prints” Say Foster (pg. 89). The words that are used in writings give all the information away, lets the reader know what the message is and how it is being sent. The words women use are different than the ones men use. “Koppel’s group found that the biggest differences is that woman are far more likely than men to use personal pronouns – I, you, she, myself, or yourself and the like” (pg. 89) and men are more likely to use determiners says Kopper. As in conclusion, the words women and men use in writing is what helps the reader know who has written the article. Because, of the way we both think, differently.
Donna Hang
Professor Sabir
English 1A
June 21th, 2012
Freewrite
In society today, there is a lot of conflict, dissonant, and compromise within people. People today would often deal with conflict, dissonant, and compromise by going to war. But even if we are not involved in the war physically, we are still a part of it because we argue and fight with our each other every single day. Other ways that people would be involved with conflict, dissonant, and compromise would be that people would that they would trade stuff in order to get what they want. Not only do humans deal with conflict, dissonant, and compromise but other species do too as well. Animals deal with conflict and dissonant often by seeking out their prey and claiming it first. They often try to do this by leaving their scent with the animal that they hunted. The way that I often deal with conflict, dissonant, and compromise would be that I would try to talk it out with the person that I am having the conflict with and then compromise with them to see what we both can do better. Also, I believe in the saying “what goes around, comes around” meaning that the more negative things that you do to other people, the harsher the punishment will come back and bite you.
Linde Huang
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 1A summer 2012
June 22, 2012
Quickwrite 3 words.
They say you build a relationship off compromise. Words like, “if you do this, then I will do that.” But what happens if the compromise falls through? Such examples of “Great” compromises can be seen through our history. In fact, our history is rich in compromise. Our Great Compromise in where the New Jersey plan and the Virginia plan was founded on. Where both the small states and large states can have both their says in the government.
Without conflict, there would not even be a need for compromise. Without conflict, compromise is not even needed. Dissonance is when there is a discord, therefore almost the same as a conflict. Without dissonance, there would not be a disagreement that leads to a conflict, therefore needing a solution, leading into some sort of a compromise.
Donna Hang
Professor Sabir
English 1A
June 20th, 2012
The difference between male and females’ writing
Homework
Clive Thompson’s article “Does our Writing Style Give Away Our Gender” is about a man named Mosh Koppel and his computer science team conducting a gender detection experiment in which they will tell if an article or book was written by a man or woman without looking at the author’s name. The experiment could correctly guess the gender of the author by 80 percent.
When Koppel and his team sent in an article to the “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,” the company did not approve it because of “ideological grounds” but when they submitted their work to other Journal companies, one of the scientist would add her middle name so that the person who is reading the article would know that one of the scientist is a girl. One of the fascinating things that researchers found was that there was a word choice and language difference between females and males; it states “In men’s magazines, he sentences were always shorter, and the sentences in women’s magazines had more “feeling verbs.”
The writer’s intention of this article was to inform us about the difference between the word choice and language that female and male writers have.
Thus, there are differences between men and females writers.
Rigoberto Ruiz
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 1A
21 June 2012
Tell me, am I a men or a women?
Can you tell if am a man or a woman by the way I write? science-journalist Clive Thomson in his article "Does Our Write Style Give Away Our Gender” report a research made by Israeli professor Moshe Koppel successfully conducted an experiment determining the gender of a writer based on their form of writing.
Thompsons explains how Koppel's group developed series of tests of algorithm ; with an eighty percent of accuracy; Koppel's experiment allocates the main differences between men and women writing forms. Thompsons states that the "biggest difference" is simply "...that women are far more likely than men to use personal pronouns---I, you, she, myself, or yourself, and the like. Men, on contrast, are more likely to use determiners---a, the, that, and these---as well as cardinal numbers and quantifiers
like more or some" (89). Even thought the experiment clearly states that Men are more carried to use different words in substitution of other repetitive words and Women use more words constantly to get a connection with the readers. Though this experiment has not been tested on "...gays, lesbians, or transgendered people [because] they don't fit neatly into simple social definition of male or female gender" the experiment is seen as successful research.
Although many points are still at question to truly identify a definite way to tell the gender of a writer, a man or a women can always be seen as an authentic writer.
Rigoberto Ruiz
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 1A
21 June 2012
ODE To LEYMAH GBOWEO
Once upon a time, a young woman was born
in the country of Liberia she came to be known.
Her life was a music symphony,
and little by little became the song of the dissonance.
Confused, her existence turned to be the center of conflict;
no prides, no self-steam, and bound by a strong grip.
By fears and depression she was frozen,
little did she know that for great thing she was chosen.
And in the middle of the conflicted, unpleasant sounds of her life,
she learned to believe and dared to fight.
Peace was a goal in her poor lousy life,
yet after years of struggles she was the cause for a peace compromise.
her country Liberia learned it had peace
the day Leymah Gbowee learned to be free.
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