Presentation Day

This week, there were lot of presentations that cover almost five readings. From reading 2.3 which is about language, the information that i find interesting is about finding the right words in order to precise our statement. Failing to be precise can lead to miscommunication. We must have good arguments but it will depend on the precise definition of words and phrases that opponents in an argument might define differently. Besides that, a good definition should be neither too broad nor too narrow which convey the essential meaning of word, provide a context where needed, and not be slanted, figurative, obscure, or circular. This is quite difficult because it need to be precise and perfect for the whole context.

In reading 3.3, it covers about linguistic perspective. It teaches people to become as text analysts. It have used an approach driven by systematic functional linguistics which provide some analytical tools which can explicitly open up space for critical readings which enable people to act as text analysts. It is about problematise the texts and dig out the ideological positionings and provide the basis of informed debate, analysis and critique. It is to illustrate that some explicit knowledge about language, how it works and how it can be used is a useful tool in reading a text critically.

In reading 3.4, it is about the speech and speakers: the formation of individuals in discourse and genre. Discourse is about the modes of talking about the world from the point of view of a social institution. It is about Miss Seductress and Miss Winner. Everyone wants to be like Miss Winner because it has good characteristics. The successful texts resolve discussive differences between two of them. While the ‘subject positions’ are sets of statements which describe and prescribe a range of options one may take up. Everyone can choose either one of the text based on the subject positions in the texts.

In reading 4.3, it stresses on the evidence in the text or any cases. It has two cases which include the finding of the evidences in each case. The first case is about the kidnapping of an infant son of Charles Lindbergh at the nursery. It has used circumstantial evidence to reveal the kidnapper. However, this kind of evidence cannot be used because there is no witnesses who testified to having seen such a particular person commits the crime. Whereas in second case which is murder trial, this one involving eyewitnesses. It has used testimonial evidence such as eyewitnesses, who testify that they themselves have seen the accused commit the crime. The use of this reading is about seeking the truth, but must be content with high probability and not demand absolute certainty.

In reading 4.4, it concerns on the statistics. The importance of us to learn about statistic is to associate ‘facts’ closely with ‘figures’. It shows about the examples of the statistic and we learn that we have to think critically about statistic because it requires more thinking and we have to think about the complicated figures in the text which consist of statistics.

We have discussed on the article which entitle, ‘Please, let me go to your school’. It is about positioning which every role in the article has their own stance in saying their statements.