Dialectical Notebook: Dawkins

Before You Read:

1.) The treehouse made of wood scraps and cardboard, was my sister's and made a great place to play.

2.) My sister's treehouse, made of wood scraps and cardboard, made a great place to play.

3.) My sister's treehouse made a great place to play and was made of wood scraps and cardboard.

Summary:

In John Dawkin's article, "Teaching Punctuation as a Rhetorical Tool", Dawkins explains to the reader how important punctuation can be. He talks about the concepts of raising and lowering, as well as giving many examples of different types of punctuation. Dawkins describes each type of punctuation and how each type can cause the reader to convey the writer's message differently. He also explains how punctuation can emphasize a phrase, to make it stand out from the rest of the sentence.

Synthesis:

When reading, I compared the article to Elbow's article on, "Voice in Writing Again, Embracing the Contraries". I feel that punctuation is one of the most vital and influential actions that can be used when writing. It relates to voice because punctuation can help develop the tone and thoughts of an author's writing and helps the reader understand what points the writer is trying to get across. Another author that this article reminded me of was, "Intertextuality and the Discourse Community", by Porter. I feel that Porter and Dawkins have a similar mindset when it comes to teaching students the rules of writing. They both feel that students shouldn't be punished for doing something wrong, (Porter's example of plagiarizing) and (Dawkin's example of student's using punctuation incorrectly). Both authors believe that by not punishing a student, it helps them express their ideas in a better way, and in turn will help their writing develop.

Response	Quotation
I feel that this quote shows just how well Dawkins practices what he preaches. He uses a great amount of punctuation in just this one sentence. The fact that this was in the first paragraph shows that Dawkins is trying to give the reader a taste of how punctuation can be used and how is emphasizes words or phrases.	“First, manuals of style and college handbooks have it all wrong when it comes to punctuation (good writers don’t punctuate that way); there is, I propose, a system underlying what good writers, in fact, do; it is a surprisingly simple system; it is a system that enables writers to achieve important—even subtle—rhetorical effects; it is, even, a system that teachers can teach far more easily than they can teach the poorly systematized rules in our handbooks and style manuals” (Dawkins 140).
This quote explains Dawkin’s views on teaching punctuation, and just teaching in general. He believes that student’s shouldn’t be scolded on whether it is right or wrong, but rather they should be encouraged and rewarded for “good behaviors”, therefore they won’t do the bad as often.	“…better instruction—in any skill, I assume—is going to tell students what to do and how to do it, it is going to encourage the “good” behaviors, not discourage the bad” (Dawkins 141).
I like this quote because Dawkins addresses how culture and upbringing can influence your writing style. I thought it was interesting and showed how different cultures think when writing.	“Forster used a colon, but I suppose that many of us would choose a dash (and if your background is British, you’d be tempted by a semicolon)” (Dawkins 147).
In this quote, Dawkins shares his opinion of how students should think when writing and using punctuation. They should be conscious of how the reader is going to perceive their writing and whether they should use punctuation to put an emphasis on a word. He says that it helps the writer and reader connect.	“…the student reads and considers her or his intentions and the reader’s needs, then decides according to an intended meaning and emphasis” (Dawkins 150).
This quote is a perfect example of how many students think. Many students are so worried about rules and whether their writing mechanics are correct, instead of worrying about whether they are getting their message across to the reader.	“…the student is punctuating to avoid error rather than to create meaning” (Dawkins 150).

Question for Discussion:

5.) I learned from Dawkins'  article that punctuation is one of the most important tools when trying to emphasize something that you are trying to say. I also learned about the concept of raising and lowering, which also helps either increase the emphasis you are trying to implement or decrease it.

Meta Moment:

I think my teacher wanted me to read this article because Dawkins gives very good examples of different types of punctuation. It is also a lot easier to read about punctuation, rather than having my teacher explain it without a visual reference. By reading the article, I am able to see in which ways punctuation can be used and how it creates emphasis.

Thoughts:

I thought this was a very insightful article. I found that it was a very helpful article to read, especially before starting our research paper. I never really knew that punctuation could be so important, but Dawkins does a great job of explaining it. I found the article a little lengthy, Dawkins definitely got his message across.