Dieting is a terrible thing to mind

Based on the reading, 7.1, Chapter 12 ‘Dieting is a terrible thing to mind’. This article was written by Martin Seligman (1994).this article was taken from Sydney: Random House, pages 174 to 197. This reading was quite a long text. So, the lecturer asks us to make a group and discuss about this text. The interesting information that I can find in the text is what the real truth about dieting. Other than that, what I found interesting is the myth that widely people stated. Such as, people that overweight is over eat, overweight people are different from non-overweight people, physical inactivity is a major cause of obesity and when the people are overweight are lacking their willpower. All of the myths are all wrong. Besides that, in the text also tell the reader about several way of dieting that also only effective in a short period and not permanent. Overall, the text is easy to understand because the writer uses many simple words. However, there are some terms that ordinary people seldom use, such as buxom, midriff bulge and purveyors. But, the reader can know about the meaning by the sentence before or after the word to guess its meaning.

READING 4.5

In reading 4.5, we use Chapter 6: ‘Crooked and Fallacious Thinking’ and Chapter 7: ‘More to crooked and fallacious thinking’, in critical thinking. The writers of this chapter are Aik, K C and Edmonds, S (1976). This chapter tells about the development of a clear and perceptive outlooks entails the ability to think logically and to recognize and analyze instances of crooked and fallacious thinking. There are several points that included in this chapter, which are transfer device, circular argument, false analogy, equivocation and either-or assumption. In chapter 7, there are more of crooked and fallacious thinking. Much human misunderstanding and blunders arises because many people are not aware of the fact that their trends of thought and thus their communication processes are frequently muddled, illogical and fallacious. In conclusion, it is important to be able to interrogate the logic contained in the argument in a text.

READING 4.4

For reading 4.4, it uses the Chapter 9: ‘Statistics’, in critical thinking. The writers of this chapter are Aik, K C and Edmonds, S (1976). This chapter tells about the use and misuse of statistics. The writer also tells about terms by mentioning a number of domains where statistics are widely used. Statistics refers to information about any phenomenon or activity expressed in numerical form. In statistics, there are four common statistical slips. There are unqualified average, fallacious sampling, percentages unaccompanied by actual numbers and misleading presentation. As a conclusion, the importance of statistics on human affairs is obvious from our tendency to associate facts closely with figures.

READING 4.3

The title of this chapter was ‘What is the evidence?’ This chapter was written by Ruby, L (1954). The cases that included in this chapter were the cases of kidnapping of the infant son of Charles Lindbergh and examine the evidence, wholly circumstantial, that led to the conviction and execution of Bruno Hauptman. Other than that, the presenters also elaborate about the definition of the evidence. This word means information that gives a strong reason for believing or proves. Next definition is clearly seen or notice. Based on the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, evidence means to gives answer to the question, describe an event at which one was present, law court or at inquiry. There were two types of evidence which were circumstantial and testimonial. In conclusion, evidence will create people’s perspective and put the position towards someone and not all witnesses can be trust and honest in giving statement.

READING 3.4.

The sixth background reading in our syllabus is Reading 3.4. this reading use Chapter 2, ‘Speech and Speakers: the information of individuals in discourse and genre’, from a book entitled Linguistic Process in sociocultural practice. The publisher of this book is Deakin University Press. The author of this text is Kress, G. based on the text, the writer shows how text construct particular identities for their readers a process called ‘positioning’. Other than that, the writer also illustrates how text interact the reader into a particular value systems. Other than that, Kress also introduces and classify a number of important terms for example, ‘ideal reader’, ‘subject position’, ‘reading position’ and ‘construction’. In conclusion, Kress said that our ability to use and understand language reflects how texts have shaped us as people. Which means the understanding of who we are and our attitudes to other people and the world in general.

READING 3.3.

The next background reading in our study is Reading 3.3. this reading entitled, “Critical Literacy: a linguistic perspectives.” This reading was written by Wignell, P (1995). For this reading, Aina and Ain were presenting their slides. They present according to the ten elements in Critical Literacy. They not present the summary of the chapter. So, I could not manage to understand what they want to present. After take a quick reading in this chapter, what I understand the chapter is about a possible linguistic approach to critical literacy. The writer use two text that taken from a junior secondary commerce textbook entitled ‘Commerce Two’. The authors of the textbook are Parker, B., Clarke, T. and Carter, P. (1988). In the text also explain about Wignell’s aim to discover elements of the language and also find the ideology that exists in the writing.

Reading 2.3

The fourth reading in Critical Literacy is reading 2.3. The title of this reading is Text and Textualities. The writers for this reading are Thwaites, T, Davis, L and Mules, W (1994). This reading is quite long to read. So, the presentation for this reading helps me to study more on this chapter. In this chapter, the writer explain about what is text and the feature of a text. In subtopic about social text, social meanings, it explain how advertisement works. It also tells the reader what is myth in the culture. Myth is like the believe of the people towards something. When they believe, it will become real because they believe and practice it. The writer also use several article to differentiate them from the way they write and from their own perspective. In conclusion, this chapter helps us to understand more deeply about what is text and textualities.

Reading 2.2

The third reading in our study is Reading 2.2, entitle “Language, Perspective, Ideology”. The author of this reading is Lee, D (1992). In this chapter, the writer discuss about linguistic reflexes of differences of perspective across speakers of the same language. The writer also use several article to show the example. Other than that, in the article also include the idea modes of communication in academic and industrial context (Fowler and Kress 1979a, Kress and Fowler 1979, Hodge et at, 1979, Sykes 1985). Then, the writers also show how the article was written from white and black perspective. For instance, the writers explain what a good writer should write their article. Besides that, the writers also include the language use in the article. In conclusion, Reading 2.2 contains much useful information that can be use for reference.

Introduction, Reading 1.2&1.3

Unit 1 in this subject is an introduction of Critical literacy. Before I learned about the introduction, I should know the meaning of critical literacy. Based on my understanding, critical literacy is to describing a particular approach to reading and writing. We should think critically about the text. Then we learned about the introduction, there are some elements in critical literacy. That is produced by someone, for some else and for a particular purpose.
In this chapter, there is 1 article. The title is ‘Convicted Killer back at work’. We should answer the 10 elements in this article. That is topic, content, source, audience, the rhetorical function, purpose, perspective, positioning, impact and visual literacy. I learned how to criticize the text. The article is really easy to understand. What the story is all about and the structure of the article. It is a very interesting article. Beside that, in unit 1 I found something that can attract me to read the text.
From reading 1.2, stories and facts written by Martin J R (1987), there is some interesting value that can define in this article. The presentation was made by Atiqah, Zila and Shyreen. From the text, I can know the meaning by an understanding the text and try to think critically about the text. The word that the writers used is quite confusing for me to understand the article what is all about. Because of many examples in this article, I will know what it means by those entire things. Hence, the writers trying to used the simple words. Other than that, in this text written by Martin, he tries to explore the relationship between the function and form of different types of writing. In my point of view, this chapter focuses on forms of factual writing like description, recount, procedure and report in writing in order to illustrate the link between form and purpose.
From reading 1.3, Rules and Regulation written by Fowler, Roger and Kress, Gunther (1979), I found that the article was quite confusing when I made a speed reading through the text. But after the presentation made by Izamuddin and Fazrul and read it again, I can understand the chapter more clearly than before. In the article, the writers explain how the ways language is organized and also tells us about the relationship between the writer and the intended audience. The writer also explains more deeply about rules and regulation uses in writing.

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