George Washington was the best president ever, right? Every time someone reads any type of literature like the previous sentence they form an opinion. The reader relates the text to one of the three main reading analyses. That is the reader relates the text to their self, other texts, or the world. For those that relate the text to their self could have thought that the first line in this paper was very subjective and that they personally thought that George Washington was a good president but maybe not the best. The next type of reader, those who relate the text to other texts, could have compared and contrasted multiple texts on their views of George Washington. The final type of reader relates the text to the world. For this reader they would have read the sentence and thought of all the things that George Washington did that helped shape our nation. Every form of literature can potentially be interpreted by using three separate stages of reading development or analyses by a single reader.
Prior to this semester my personal reading development included all three stages while I observed that I stayed mostly between the first and second stage with a periodic use of the third stage. Depending on the subject matter that I was reading I found out that I was more prone to using a certain stage of reading development. For example, when I read for fun I tend to think about why or why not I liked the book that I read and I read just to read and for nothing else. Another example of my reading development prior to this semester was my women’s history class in which I focused mostly on text-world. Last semester in my women’s history class I did a presentation on Marie Curie. In this presentation I was relating the life of Marie Curie with other scientists of her time as well as showing how she made scientific advancements that helped the science and medical fields immensely. In this presentation I also related texts to other texts because some sources had conflicting information and it was important to give my class as accurate of a biography of Marie Curie’s life as possible.
During the same semester as my women’s history class I also took an ethics course. Personally I didn’t like this course and I found myself skimming through readings and constantly saying this reading is so boring and putting it down. It was a struggle to read for this particular class but we were always asked to relate what we read to the world around us. This was pretty easy but having to read the reading was not fun at all. In this particular class I mostly used the reading development of text-self and text-other texts. Following this courses and semester I saw myself develop as a reader.
Looking back at this current semester I was amazed to discover that I was using the second and third stage of reading development a lot more than I did in any of my previous reading. Part of that has to do with the courses that I signed up for and that I really enjoy the courses that I signed up for. In my sociology of work class with Dr. Keith Mann we are constantly being asked to read excerpts from Working in America by Amy S. Wharton and more importantly our seminar style classes also revolve around how the readings have affected the sociology of work. In these readings we relate them to other texts and to the world. Two particular excerpts were compared and contrasted in regards to the working conditions during a particular time. While we had compared and contrasted these excerpts we also were answering question regarding the economy and politics of the time and how they affected future policies and laws.
My weekly blog was a great way to look back and try to see what reading development stage I am at. My very first post entitle is “Lost In The Funhouse” and this blog was a great example of how I related a text to the world. In this particular blog I said, “After reading “Lost in the Funhouse,” it got me thinking that we are all living in our own funhouse….Life itself is confusing and like the narrator when someone else is looking at your life they are more confused than you are” (Skorusa). Not knowing it at the time I was trying to relate something that I read to class with the rest of the world. It might not relate to any politics or huge issues that affect life but it was just a statement on how life in general was a big funhouse.
Another example of what stage of reading development I am at is my final blog entitled “Judith Butler” which is a good example of me relating a particular text to the world. In this blog I wrote a statement that reads “in the next 10 years I can see many more countries allowing civil unions while there will be some countries that are still completely against it….Gradually women will go against the stereotypes which will give gays and lesbians room to go against the stereotypes as well” (Skorusa). In his particular blog I explore the future of gays and lesbians when it comes to civil unions and how I can foresee many more changes coming in the next 10 years when it comes to civil unions for gays and lesbians.
Relating texts to other texts and texts to self was also shown in my blogs. One blog that shows this is the “You Don’t Love My Yet” blog. In this blog I state, “I didn’t realize it at the time but doing the screen play was my way of saying “I like this,” and “we don’t need that”…. Our task was to think of how this novel could be converted into a screenplay to adapt it into film form I tried to use other books that were converted into movies to choose what to include in our screenplay” (Skorusa). This blog showed the thought process I had when I looked back at the mini-screen play assignment and how I was using two out of the three reading development stages. This semester I have seen a good amount of reading development growth which I would like to continue to improve on in the future.
In order to further advance my reading development I have to continue to take business classes and constantly try to think about how what I am reading can be relate and affect the world are me. After I finish reading any type of literature I will have to ask myself some questions as to how do these texts show the current views of society, how will this authors views change the views of society, or can this text affect others in the world.
Being a business major I have taken and will have to take courses that focus on how business law, accounting, and marketing have affected the business world and in effect people. If I have a set mentality to think about how the texts that I have to read relate to the world I will be able to greatly advance my reading development. Simply be always thinking about the world when it comes to my business classes I will have to form opinions on how texts can or will affect the world in many aspects.
George Washington may or may not be the best president in the history of the
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