Hello, an intro and a post on Williams

So this is to be my introduction I suppose. My name in Amy, I'm the girl that had to leave class early last week. My close friends call me Table, and you can too, if you like. I feel stupid having to misspell my name for the sake of this, but apperently there is more than one person on the internet that goes by the name 'Table'. I'm a sophmore, which means I procrastinated on this class, and I'm majoring in English Ed, which means I'm REALLY procrastinating. I'm minoring in French and plan to study abroad in Africa this spring.
Hmm, now how else does one describe themselves? My best friend and roommate last year(MIA in california) referred to us as zealots, and I feel thats pretty accurate. I love starting new projects, and getting very excited about new ideas; fnishing them is another story. I like skateboarding, art projects, and national geographic. One of my most outward qualities is probably my ability to talk, and one of my favorite subjects is society, so this reading was quite perfect.
I really like how Williams took a sort of empty word, 'culture', and gave is some bones to stand on. He defined it as everything! Well his word was 'ordinary,' but i feel that is what he meant. He said culture is what we recieve, how we interpret and what we in turn create. Culture is the colllection of traits that a bunch of people (a society) have in common.
I feel he did an accurate, enlightening job in his definition.
Kudos Williams!

Culture Is Ordinary

Culture is a big aspect on life, i believe. Raymond Williams, just defines it alot more. In his story, I noticed his descriptive writing style. I felt like that was a good way to protray what he thought was culture in the areas explored in the writing.

Culture is Ordinary

In "Culture is Oridinary", Raymond Williams portrayed a plaudible perspective on culture. His statement "...culture is everything around us." summarized the fact that culture is found everywhere. By providing his own life experience, he enabled the readers to see this better. He stated that culture is consistently changing, there's always something to learn about it, and individuality strives within it. He said there are two known meanings of culture. He was open-minded, and I agree with his writing.

My Introduction

Hey. My name's Alissa. People call me Liss. I'm coming from the Bloomsburg area, it's about 1hr 1/2 from KU. My major is Education - Secondary English.

Culture is Ordinary

Raymond William's article shows us how we are all different in one way or another. It can be from our religion to our culture, and many different other aspects of life. By having Raymond William writting about his backround and his life in the beginning, I think has helped me understand a lot better that people are different and also that they do have different views and opinions on things. Not everyone is the same. I think that by writting about your life and your backround is a great way to write. It makes the reader more interested in what the author is writting if the readers know a little bit about that person's backround. I really like how all his ideas flow together. I think it is a great way to write because it makes it so much nicer to read and to actually understand what the author is talking about. On the other hand when someone writes sloppy, and has ideas all over the place it is hard to follow the idea and actually understand it.

Ordinary Culture

After reading "Culture is ordinary" , and thinking about what Raymond Williams was trying to express, I've come up with this. When he says culture is ordinary he means that everyone has culture. We all have beliefs, opinions, and views on subjects. By posting on this blog we are all sharing our culture with each other. Williams is right when he says people can have different views of what culture are and I feel that he did a very good job of expressing both of those views in his writing rather than saying this is what culture is end of story. He allows for the understanding that not everyone comes from the same place or background. Culture is ordinary, but every person has their own unique culture, and I think that is what he is trying to show us in his writing.

Introducing myself

Hi everyone,
My name is Sara Love. I'm from Chambersburg, PA which is near Shippensburg University. I am a psychology major and I would like to continue my schooling after I graduate from here and become a School Psychologist.

Culture is Ordinary

I think Raymond Williams is a unique writer. In Culture is Ordinary he stated "I could stand on a mountain and look north to the farms and the cathedral or south to the smoke and the flare of the blast furnace making a second sunset." I feel that this is an important line in the passive because he feels when he just looks around he can see different culture all over and close to him. Most of us prolly thought that we have to be in a different city or even state to view different culture, which really its all around us. Raymond writes with a lot of personal experience and thoughts, which keeps the reader always thinking thoughtout.

Introducing Myself

Hi, my name is Pascale Fontaine, and I live in Boyertown. It is about 45 minutes south from here. My major is Secondary Education / French. I am french canadian, I moved to the US about 6 years ago. It was a big change for me, but I lived through it.

Introduction

Hi my name is Cody Lilly. I am from Kunkletown PA. I attended Palmerton Area High School. This would be an hour north of Kutztown. I'm majoring in business.

Culture Is Ordinary

I believe that Raymond Williams takes much pride in the way he views culture and where it comes from. He starts out by describing the way to where he grew up, and where his family was, and then begins telling the reader about how he grew up and what his family was like. He talks about culture in a way that is easy for the reader to understand. He says that culture is made up by what we already know, and also by what is learned along the way. I feel that Williams expresses himself very well by what he believes and not just what the common belief is. Raymond Williams' writing on culture was a great way to keep readers interested and express his way of where his culture comes from.

Introduce Yourself

Hi, my name is Samantha Brehm. I'm from Hershey, PA and went to Hershey High School. My major is sociology.

Hello, my name is Bob Souder. I am from a town called Perkasie, it is about an hour south of Kutztown. I enjoy skateboarding, along with listening to music and going to shows. I also enjoy drawing and am majoring in Illustration. I guess I have introduced myself enough, have a nice day.

Introduce Yourself

Hi, my name is Justin Miller. I am from the small town of Mertztown right outside of Kutztown. I graduated from Brandywine Heights. I enjoy listening to and playing music, watching movies, comedy, and hanging out with friends.

Culture Is Ordinary - Assignment #2

I think that Raymond Williams has a very fine point to his writings. He begins by telling about his life, about where he grew up and how he lived as a child on the farm. As he is telling this writing, he begans to explain about how he believes that culture is ordinary andhe relates it to his life. He expresses himself through what he believes and it is as though what he is stating is true. Raymond Williams mentions how culture has "two aspects: meaning and directions", (pg. 5). I agree with him because I related this to my culture and I realize that we have meanings we live by and we also have direction. For instance, my meaning in my culture is to succeed and i must carry myself in positive direction. To sum this up, I believe that Raymond Williams has a strong structure to his writing which causes readers to think while reading.

Introduce Yourself

Hello, my name is Chantel Evans. I am from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and I graduated from Sci Tech High. My major is business marketing and management. I like to listen to music, read, go shopping, eat, and workout.

Culture Is Ordinary

"I could stand on the mountains and look north to the farms and the cathedral or south to the smoke and the flare of the blast furnace making a second sunset." I think to some of us saying culture is ordinary is a stretch of the imagination. When we think of culture we think of different parts of the world and different races but what Raymond is saying is that these cultures are closer to us then we believe. When he says I could stand on the mountains and look north and south and see two different things he is saying that there are different cultures all around us and that it is indeed ordinary. When he says the growing society is here , yet it is also made and remade in every individual mind, he is trying to get across to the reader that people learn from the way they are brought up, or from the people they associate with. Raymond Williams' outlook on culture is that it is in fact more extraordinary than ordinary. However, it is founded on ordinary aspects and principles.

Culture Is Ordinary: Assignment # 2

I think Raymond Williams is a very detailed writer. The author uses the tool of figurative imagination to convey to his audience a detailed look at where he once lived. Williams starts out the article by saying: "Culture is Ordinary", and finishes the article by restating: "Culture is Ordinary." This obviously is really important to his idea of Culture as a whole while looking at from two aspects. "the known meanings and directions, and the new observations and meanings." Williams chooses to write his article by first painting a picture of his culture, showing how culture is yes ordinary, but also very unique to one's own life. Williams is not concerned about "stating the facts." Williams is more concerned about conveying the natural idea that everyone's soceity is different, and that one learns what he or she knows by the soceity they live in, and their personal experiences. I like how Williams also touches on the fact that he asks questions not only about general facts or differences, but also deep personal meanings of different cultures.

Introducing Myself

My name is Sean Gibbons. I am from Scranton, PA. I am an Secondary Education Major with a concentration in English, with a musical theatre minor. I went to Scranton Preparatory School in Northeasten Pennsylvania. I like to read, write, play soccer, sing, act, run, and hang out with my friends.

Welcome to Mahoney's College Composition Blog!

Hello all!

Welcome to the blog for our College Composition course. As you will notice, this blog is not empty. The conversation you will be entering has been going on for two semesters. I encourage you to check out how students have used this blog in the past and some of the ideas and projects they have made public for all the world to see.

The concept of "a conversation" will help frame how we investigate writing, language, and audience over the course of the semester. In particular, we will often return to a quote from the literary and rhetorical scholar, Kenneth Burke, who highlights the conversational nature of knowledge making through his metaphor of the "parlor":

Imagine that you enter a parlor. You come late. When you arrive, others have long preceded you, and they are engaged in a heated discussion, a discussion too heated for them to pause and tell you exactly what it is about. In fact, the discussion had already begun long before any of them got there, so that no one present is qualified to retrace for you all the steps that had gone before. You listen for a while, until you decide that you have caught the tenor of the argument, then you put in your oar. Someone answers; you answer him [or her]; another comes to your defense; another aligns himself [or herself] against you, to either the embarrassment of gratification of your opponent, depending upon the quality of your ally’s assistance. However, the discussion is interminable. The hour grows late, you must depart. And you do depart, with the discussion still vigorously in progress (110-111, brackets mine).

Before next class, spend some time getting used to posting to the blog. Introduce yourself. Tell us what you think!