Bartholomae IWA

"Must We Mean What We Say?"

Pre-Reading:
My favorite novel is Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. The author speaks in the beginning but there is a voice change throughout between author and main character Janie, which is brilliant for reader connection. I think it works very well.

Summary:
Barholomae, a freshman English instructor, gives us examples and summaries of use of voice and identity through papers he's graded and students he's taught over the years. His observation is that students write disconnected essays when they are not allowed to insert personal voice and identity claim to the subject matter. He does not feel that that allowing students to use such voice is wrong, nor does he believe allowing them to change voice in the paper is wrong, either. I connect this idea to McCloud's switch in voice the moment he introduces the real picture of himself. It does not change the voice of the comic for us, but it further reinforces his argument.

QD:

I believe that the title of this article, "Must We Mean What We Say," goes back to Bartholomae's claim that student write disingenuine and disconnected papers.  Must students mean what they write? Should they have connection to the subject matter and have identity in their claims? Or should they write it to turn it in and get a grade? There is much argument in just his title, alone.

AE:

Hoagland uses both devices to one, step back and introduce us as separate from the ungrateful teen, but then moves us into connection with a personal identity and character closer to the reader, the speaker. Then, as readers, we are invited to compare our own lives and understanding, and it becomes an active participating conversation between writer and reader.

MM:

I think that my contribution with identity play works well with fiction. there is a piece of my identity in everyone of my characters, and often times, it's resonance. However, We change how much we want to give a way in each character so we step back to caricature to allow audience a connection. Fiction writing is really a great analogy for Barthalomae's arguments.