- When Haas talks about being “literate” in college she talks about “knowing about” and “behaving toward” different texts, the knowing about being the “framing” of the writing (who the author is, why they wrote it, when did they write it, who did they write it for) and the behaving towards it being the reaction to the different answers you may get. She further states in her explanation that”texts are best seen not as static, autonomous entities but as forms of rhetorical action” (Haas 44), meaning that writing is not set in stone, but can be analyzed, questioned, and challenged, and is always changing its meaning and relevance. Obtaining the ability to utilize these different factors simultaneously is more-or-less the qualifications for being “literate” that she mentions.
- Firstly, an autonomous text is the idea that a text is completely unconnected from anything else and everything you need to know about it is contained within its confines. Additionally, Haas states that “beginning college students approach academic tasks as if they believe that texts are autonomous and context free” (Haas 46). She explains that students think of texts as unrelated to others, not affected by the time they were created and the time they are being read, and other important factors. Haas refers to an autonomous text as a “myth” because there is no such thing and every piece of writing is affected by its author, purpose, history, and other such factors. I agree with this concept fully as writing, especially academic writing is never done without a purpose, and this, along with its background information behind the scenes will always make it connected and relatable to other texts, history, and opinions.
- By observing and analyzing the academic career of a student she names “Eliza” Haas shows the growth of an average college student. She explains that in her freshman and sophomore years she does not think about the “frame” of the writing and only worries about memorizing and summarizing. By her junior year she began thinking about the reason, context, and history behind the text and according to Haas, “by her senior year she often viewed texts as multiply connected – to authors, to other readers, and to historical circumstances – and even demonstrated some understanding of her own connections to both scientific texts and to the objects of her own research” (Haas 69). She talks about how she connects texts to other sources and is able to “frame” the writing effectively. This experiment expertly highlighted a normal experience for a college student over 4 years, and the understanding they gain over their specific field and the ability to correctly “frame” a piece of writing to more extensively analyze it.
- An important concept that Haas addresses is the use of a “rhetorical frame” which she uses repeatedly throughout her writing. In her own words, “elements of a rhetorical frame include participants, their relationships and motives, and several layer of context” (Haas 48). In laments terms it is looking at the author, background, history, reason it was written, and combining all of those aspects to further study a piece of writing and develop its meaning and validity.
- Several aspects of Haas’ and Gee’s concepts coincide with one another quite well. One of these is that James Gee’s theory on developing what is known as a “Discourse” involves what he calls a “master-apprentice relationship” in which the master teaches an apprentice how to enter a Discourse by simply using that certain Discourse. The question Gee then poses is whether or not this is a truly adequate method. Very similarly in Haas’ analysis on her experiment she states that “the context of Eliza’s work experience directly supported her education in biology” and addresses “the importance of the mentor-student relationship” (Haas 77). She quite similarly explains that this relationship is very useful, in this case to develop her “rhetorical frame” technique which could be used as a tool to utilize a literary Discourse more effectively. Even more so, these roles also connect to Amy Cuddy’s example of how her teacher-student relationships proved wildly successful. In this example I have chosen it is possible to see that methods that Gee, Haas, and even Cuddy put forth (in this case the mentor-student relationship) can all be used to better oneself, whether it be to get into a Discourse or be able to develop a rhetorical frame.
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