Unit II · Reading the Conversations — Dr. Parton (Literacy In Place) · January 14, 2022
Project 2: Summary & Synthesis. You'll read all four Unit II texts, pick two, summarize each in your own words, and then write a synthesis paragraph putting them in conversation.
This is the second of the four Unit II texts. You've already read the Wilkey piece; the two after this one (Hillbillies in Higher Ed, Digging in the Trash) you haven't read yet, so don't try to connect it to them. Read this one on its own.
It's about 2,374 words, a personal-essay argument by Dr. Parton (the Literacy In Place blog) about his own rural language variety. Short enough to read twice.
Same method as the Wilkey piece — it's the same kind of text. Recreational reading is built for momentum; academic reading asks you to stop where the writer makes his move. Four things to do.
Read it twice, on purpose — Once at your normal speed, for the shape and the feeling of it. Then once more, slower, for the argument.Find the claim sentence and mark it — He's not just describing his variety; he's arguing something about how it's treated. Find the sentence where he says what he wants you to believe.Watch for the turn — Notice where he stops describing his own experience and starts arguing something larger. That turn is where a personal essay becomes an argument, and it's the part that's easy to read straight past.One sentence per section — After each chunk, say in one sentence what he was trying to prove there and what he used as proof. If you can't, that's the part to reread.Dr. Parton writes the Literacy In Place blog (literacyinplace.com) and teaches and studies rural literacy. He's a speaker of the rural variety he writes about here, not an outside observer. Notice what that insider stance lets him do that a detached description couldn't.
Three short questions and one essay, three tries each. The shorts check whether the reading landed; the essay asks you to state the argument and show how it's built. Nothing here goes to the course.
