We have been doing readings that in some way or another allude to the term “knowledge”—and we had a very interesting conversation about the term last week. So, the topic of this journal is going to be “knowledge,” and I want you to think through some questions:
What is knowledge? Define it using your own words. Support this definition—use examples from the past couple readings (including Edwards piece on Johnny Cash) as well as experiences from your own life. How important is knowledge to learning? How important is knowledge in education?
What is a writing knowledge? Where does this writing knowledge come from: do you believe you build upon prior knowledge or do you believe that there can be the creation of brand new writing knowledge?
Conclude your post with final thoughts on knowledge drawing connections between readings, class discussions/activities, and your own life.
Shoot for 350-500 words. Engage with others.
Due: Tuesday, February 7, 2012 by class time.
Knowledge is abstract. We can define it as a thing that objectively existing in the world and being discovered by human being, because as the saying goes “We can get knowledge. We can learn knowledge.” Thus, in the world, there is a thing we can get, we can learn---knowledge. We also can define it as a thing that relates to one person’s experiences. When one person knew or understood something he did not know or understand before, the thing he or she knew or understood can be defined as knowledge. I agree with the second interpretation of knowledge. Knowledge is relates to experiences and changes all the time. In The Rhetorical Situation, Lloyd F. Bitzer talked about what the rhetorical situation is and how it relates to writing. Since I take the 1122 writing class, I have felt that my writing skill improved a lot, because I have learned how to analyze the rhetorical situation and have built my own writing process. Before I take the writing class, I do not know anything about writing--- what I should do before write a piece of writing, what things I should pay much attention on, what I should do after finished the draft. During the process of learning rhetorical situation, I knew that there are three elements of rhetorical situation, and the three elements are exigence, audiences and constraints. I did not like to revise my essays before I know the importance of revising writings. Instead, I always peer review and revise my drafts once I wrote them, because when I revised my academic papers, I can fix a lot of grammar and spelling mistakes as well as organization of the essay. Improving the writing quality is the happiest thing in the world! These are my new knowledge. I do not know them before I been through the process of learning. The new knowledge is also built upon my prior knowledge, because if I cannot read English writings, I cannot learn this knowledge. We can learn the knowledge from every situation, such as readings, activities and even thinking how to solve problems. Knowledge is relative and depends on one’s experiences.
ReplyDeleteThough Dylan and I always seem to throw a wrench into your previous experiences, I think that very accurately depicts my opinion on knowledge. It is clear that knowledge very much depends on the individual. I know it appears that I'm looking much to deep into this, but I think it's worth noting that new knowledge (in general) can't exist without being based off of previous knowledge, thus rendering the idea of new knowledge useless on a worldly level. Now, learning is a whole other beast. This is where knowledge becomes new to an individual. In that respect, there is new knowledge being created all of the time, how on earth would we get poetry if we didn't know the alphabet? neither of those things are new, but to someone just beginning to write, they are totally and utterly new. In short, I am responding to the question "How important is knowledge to learning?" and I say that you must learn in order to gain and create knowledge. Simple as that. And now I'm ranting. Pardon me.
ReplyDeleteAs far as defining knowledge, I believe, quite firmly, that knowledge is a mental awakening of sorts. It is indeed that "Eureka!" moment, where everything comes together (or begins to come together) and is clear. Solidifying that thought or idea, much like Johnny Cash and his religious revelations, it is the way we use those thoughts or ideas to further our knowledge or learn something new. As on page 162, "As he concentrates of multiple meanings and interpretive undecidability, Cash points out that his process of questioning and parsing generated forty of fifty more verses that he did not use." It is exactly that process that I believe creates knowledge. He learned as much as he could from the bible, and then made many many connections within the text to come out with a plethora of ideas and lyrics. Even though he didn't use some of them, it does not mean that it was knowledge lost.
As far as new writing knowledge, Joe has the most perfect example I have read: "The new knowledge is also built upon my prior knowledge, because if I cannot read English writings, I cannot learn this knowledge." New knowledge can only be gained in these modern times if they are indeed based off of prior knowledge. It will boil down to the most basic functions there are: How can you read or write if you don't learn the alphabet?; How can you solve or define a math equation without learning numbers and ways to manipulate them?; How can you create a song without knowing (even to the smallest extent) how to play an instrument? It's these basic things that fuel bigger, more complex ideas, but it's never quite original after that. Nothing really seems new to the world, just new to the individual.
Like Joe said I think knowledge is abstract in many different ways depending on how we as individuals choose to see it. In my opinion knowledge branches from what we already know in attempt to reach a better education about any given subject. Country singer Johnny Cash sets a great foundation to explain my idea of knowledge. This chapter talks about cash as an extremely religious man, exploiting new areas around religion. Constantly exploring the Christian religion, Cash can always took more new knowledge from each experience from the last. Page 161 explains Johnny’s wide variety of knowledge through his song lyrics. He writes, “Cash’s lyrical output includes songs fitting this more recent general trend of a friendly vision of god or Jesus (songs like “He’ll be a Friend” and “The Greatest Cowboy of Them All”)” and than turns over with songs warning about Judgment Day. Sharing these songs around the world at many religious camp based sites, Cash always appreciated new knowledge from every one of his experiences.
ReplyDeleteIn my own experience I think about my economics class I took my senior year in High school. As people in the United States we all know what an economy is but further knowledge pertains to the act of learning more about a specific interest than you knew previously before that. Now I’m taking economics again in college and although many ideas over lap, knowledge is what sits on top of what we already knew. Although we as individuals all obtain what we define as knowledge differently it still is the foundation in all forms of education.
Education comes from the knowledge we obtain from people and experiences around us and reading and writing are the key components to learning any variation of knowledge. I think CJ explains this well when he simply explains how could you read or write if you haven’t learned the alphabet? Everything we learn as individuals you could say came from once learning the alphabet. Joe makes another good example when he explains that he couldn’t learn any new knowledge without first learning a basic English word.
It’s the simple aspects of knowledge that produce more knowledge and so forth as individuals continue to learn and reach a higher education around the study of any particular interest.
When I think of knowledge, different math problems, or concrete facts that I have learned come to mind, but is that really knowledge. I will agree with CJ in saying that knowledge is unique to each person based on how they look at it. Knowledge is something that makes sense to a given person that they did not understand before. I believe that since mankind has existed on the earth, people have been coming up with new knowledge’s, and building on previous ones. I don’t believe that it is fair to say that knowledge cannot be created and is just built because my definition of knowledge sums it up as something a person learns. I believe that people find new knowledge in their everyday lives.
ReplyDeleteIn the Johnny Cash reading, I believe that he found new knowledge all throughout his life, causing him to take many different beliefs on religion. On page 169, it talks about how Cash had hit “rock bottom” with his drug addiction problems and had found god again. It doesn’t say the exact reason for Cash’s realization, but I believe that he found new knowledge sometime throughout his downfall that caused him to want to change.
When I was a little kid, my dad had a Harley Davidson that he loved to ride. I always loved sitting on the bike and acting like I was driving it, but one day right after he got home, I decided it would be a great idea to run and climb onto the bike. Little did I know at the time, the pipes and engine were still very hot, and burnt my leg to a crisp. I believe that I gained new knowledge about motorcycles on that day, because never did I ever jump on a hot motorcycle again. I believe that knowledge can be gained from past experiences and watching other people make mistakes.
When it comes to writing, I believe that most of the time knowledge builds on past knowledge, and people learn from their mistakes. I believe that once a subject clicks that has never worked before, new knowledge has been created. Therefore, knowledge comes from the world around us, our mistakes, and whenever a subject we struggle with clicks and becomes automatic.
Although Johnny Cash went to strict church services as a kid, he never believed that one could make you go to heaven and one couldn’t. He used/created his own knowledge saying that even if you never go to church, you can still have a personal relationship with god. Knowledge is created from experiences, and past knowledge, and is built throughout ones lifetime.
Knowledge is one of those concepts that until class last week, I had never bothered to really think about or questioned. When we began discussing it in class, I realized that I really did not have a good definition for knowledge, and it actually really annoyed me. Even though I could not provide a concrete definition for knowledge, I did have some idea of what it implied, and I was certain that ever since I have been in this class, I have been reminded of how little knowledge I actually have. Me realizing my lack of understanding of the word was just the beginning, I have also been enlightened to the fact of a rhetorical situation and it’s components, which I had no idea even existed before this class, even though I have been unknowingly using them for a good portion of my life. These are concepts that I have been using, but did not understand, and this is what I think the key idea of knowledge is.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Joe in his saying that knowledge is abstract, because it truly is. Although there is a definition for knowledge in the dictionary, I do not believe it is a term that can be defined, because it is an ideal that can differ on the individual level. Much like Johnny Cash’s religious views, knowledge is a widespread concept that can be interpreted differently person to person. Johnny Cash was a devout Christian, but he treated his religion in a different way than one might expect a so called religious enthusiast to. He worshiped God like any other man of faith, but where he deviated from the norm was that he did not compromise his lifestyle that he described as “full of sin” for his religion, he believed that he could follow god while still living the way he wanted to. This is different than many religious people out there, but it also marked a gateway for others to live in that same way.
Much like Johnny Cash’s way of honoring his tradition is unique to him, my definition of knowledge is unique to me. Some might simply classify knowledge as how much someone knows about anything and everything; but to me there is a big difference between knowledge and just knowing facts. Facts are something that you have to study in order to learn, but often forget over time. To me, knowledge is knowing something, but to a point that it is part of your subconscious. These are things that you just know, without having to think about why and how, for example that when flipping a coin, the probability of it being heads is 50%. Knowledge is the things we know without knowing why we know them, that we use to understand aspects of our lives that we would otherwise be oblivious to.
Knowledge is a very unique word and I think it means something different to everyone. So I agree with Jacy and CJ when they say that everyone looks at knowledge a little differently. Knowledge is unique because not everyone has the same level of knowledge. Knowledge builds off past experiences and learning new things. When we are born, we have a blank slate and we start to make a foundation. Once we start learning words our knowledge just keeps growing until we can make whole sentences and so on. I think all knowledge is based off of something else. When there is a new discovery that product was discovered because we had the materials to get there. Everything is built off of each other, which can be a good or bad. Good because we just keep improving, but if there is no true new knowledge at some point we may come to a stand still. “The speakers performance of religious faith is, implicitly, a role he plays to certainty in others.” I think Cash uses his knowledge about his religious faith to inspire his music, and the people that listen to his music. Knowledge is very important in writing because you need to know the basics before you start learning the advanced material. A kindergartener has to learn how to do simple math before they can learn how to do calculus. Knowledge is very important in education because it makes you aware of certain things, and like I said before you can’t learn something advanced if you don’t have the basics down first.
ReplyDeleteA writing knowledge is when you build off of the basics of writing. I think once you start writing you get a foundation and then you start building your knowledge off of that. This is a very helpful thing because you never have to start from the beginning again. I believe that it definitely builds off of each other because each time you write you start to gain more knowledge. You figure out what works and doesn’t work and your mind remembers it. I don’t think there can be brand new writing knowledge, except if you learn a new word. But to me that’s not brand new knowledge because it has been invented before, you just learned it.
Knowledge is something everyone discovers in there life. As you start to grow up you learn different things that add to your knowledge. For example when I was younger I stole my moms wallet because she would not buy my friends and I ice cream. I went with her to get all new cards because she simply thought that she lost it. One month later we were cleaning my room and she found it between the box spring and mattress. I got grounded for a very long time, and I learned my lesson. My knowledge grew that day, and I haven’t stolen since. Knowledge will always grow and never stop.
In my mind knowledge is understanding truths about anything in particular. Someone can have knowledge on any subject. It is just a general understanding of facts. In both the Lundsford and Ruszkiewicz and Wysocki and Lynch readings when they discuss the topic of logos and ethos, they talk about how when people are confronted with truth and facts that are presented by a knowledgeable person who has an understanding of the topic and has observed it closely, first hand, to convey their knowledge, people are more likely to believe them. In terms of the Johnny Cash piece my definition is not quite supported. I find that the entire piece was talking about how his upbringing and surroundings influenced his thoughts and his music, but what he thought he knew wasn’t based on anything concrete or even transferred to him through people that knew exactly what they were talking about.
ReplyDeleteI believe that knowledge and learning go hand and hand. Since my definition of knowledge is an understanding of truth or facts, learning would be the process of understanding and absorbing these facts. Contesting them where there seems to be a lack in understanding or holes in the knowledge. Knowledge as a whole is extremely important in education. With no knowledge there would be no one to educate the students in the first place. Even before the existence of the plethora of knowledge we have today there have been those that experience and observe first hand and gain a general knowledge of something and then pass it on to those willing to hear it.
Writing knowledge to me is having a general understanding of the conventions of techniques and language to convey your point effectively. As an individual I believe you have to start accumulating your writing knowledge from scratch, starting from the procurement of basic language skills, but once you complete the first building blocks then you build upon those. I believe there can be the creation of new knowledge in any particular subject, be it physics, chemistry, or writing.
In general, my life as a whole has been an accumulation of knowledge. To me as an individual it is all new knowledge. However, I’ve learned practically everything I know from some other, already created, knowledge base. Although that is true for me, I believe that there is a certain type of genius or adventurous spirit that exists that allows people to find out something new and thus create more knowledge.
Looking at knowledge, I agree with Jacy and CJ about what counts as knowledge to each individual. Knowledge, as we discussed in class the other day, cannot be created. It is always progressed from something else. Ideas are inspired by previous ideas, and therefore new creations are made. Knowledge to me is the revelation of something new to someone that contributes to his or her unique concrete intelligence.
ReplyDeleteReading the Johnny Cash article, I thought his dream about the Queen where he was a “thorn tree in w whirlwind” and how that contributed to his concrete knowledge. If I had that dream I would think it was bizarre and tell it as a funny story instead of dissecting it. Maybe that shows how different Johnny Cash and I are, but it also shows how unique each person’s knowledge is. It took him years to figure out where that had come from, the book of Job, and then use the line as an inspiration for a new song. He took this knowledge, newly discovered, and learned of himself from it. Those words to him are knowledge. To me, they would be nothing worth looking into.
There are things I do look into though. Many photos inspire me to look into different projects going on in the world or aspects of the world that I did now know of before. Weird as this sounds, I’ve stumbled upon photos that inspire me to look at green project websites and TED talks. This isn’t really the same thing necessarily, but it’s my form of knowledge and they spark new ideas within me because like Johnny Cash is interested in religion, I’m interested in a green lifestyle.
Knowledge is important for learning because it provides a foundation for all educational growth. As stated before, knowledge does not just appear; it is a ongoing progression from previous ideas. Writing knowledge is the same thing. Everyone knows how to write, but from the first grader who writes, “The dog barked” to presidential speeches, we all started somewhere. Writing knowledge has the same progression of all other forms of knowledge.
Knowledge is priceless and sought the most in this world. It is a discovery, not a creation. People are always striving to be better and knowledge is what determines that.
Knowledge is a collective of information that someone has. It is not something that we are born with; rather, it is acquired through time. Learning and knowledge are directly related, for we attain knowledge through the act of learning. Knowledge is something that is always changing and evolving, and is often impacted by outside sources. Once we attain information, it is up to us to synthesize and analyze it. The conclusion that we draw from this analysis then becomes our own personal knowledge. For example, Johnny cash would commonly write and talk about religious subjects. He would act as if he was a source of knowledge on the matter, and he would refer to his main source of information, the Bible. That said, however, Cash would often take his own spin on the matter: “There is a spiritual side to me that goes real deep, but I confess right up front that I’m the biggest sinner of them all.” Cash would use his own knowledge, a combination of facts and opinions, in order to create his own lyrics and writing. Without his unique knowledge, his lyrics would probably be much different.
ReplyDeleteI believe that knowledge in directly important to education, for it creates a base for students to go off of. The knowledge that I attained in high school is simply expanding in college. I am able to use a lot of the information that I already know to write essays that critically think. I am also able to use my knowledge during class discussions, by connecting what we are learning about with another relevant topic that I already have knowledge on.
I agree with Molly that like general knowledge, writing knowledge is an ongoing progression from previous ideas. Once someone has the foundations of writing, they are simply elaborating and expanding their knowledge on the subject. Like Molly says, we all start out at the same place in writing, and our knowledge continues to grow based on what information we add to it. I also agree with Jill when she compares knowledge to life experiences. When we were little, we all did something that was considered “wrong.” Although it wasn’t fun to get in trouble at the time, we learned from the experience and added the event to our all-encompassing knowledge.
Before this writing class, I did not know all that much about the rhetorical situation. I had never read about it before, nor did I know the definitions to the terms that went along with it. I did know, however, something about writing, and I was able to add the new information I was learning to that knowledge that I already held. Through this writing class, I am able to grow and learn more about my writing style and myself. I am able to stretch myself to write in different mediums, ultimately adding to my knowledge in order to be more successful in the future.