- literacy is complex and very hard to understand the different ones. haas talks about scientific literacy as “not only the mastery of scientific facts and concepts, but an understanding of “the evolving contributions of individual scientists and groups of scientists, … the social communities and historical settings in which scientists work” ( Haas 45 ) even though there are different forms of literacy each one takes its own form to fully comprhend each ones concept.
- Autonomous text is the idea that the text is not connected from everything and all you need to know is contained within it. one of the things Haas says is that “beginning college students approach academic tasks as if they believe that texts are autonomous and context free” (Haas 46). She states that students think of texts as unrelated and not affected by the time they are being read, and other factors. Haas calls an autonomous text as a “myth” because its not real and every piece of writing is affected by its purpose, author, history, etc.
- By watching her student “Eliza” Haas shows the growth and development of a college student. In her first two years she try’s and concentrate more about memorizing and summarizing instead of the outline of her writings. Then by her third year she begins thinking more about the context behind the text itself. Haas states that “by her senior year she often viewed texts as multiply connected – to authors, to other readers, and to historical circumstances – and even demonstrated some understanding of her own connections to both scientific texts and to the objects of her own research” (Haas 69). During her junior and senior years, she had a better understanding of what the text she was reading was trying to say, she was able to make connections between the different texts to put them in her own research.
- An import concept that Haas addressed is called “rhetorical frame” which she repeatedly uses throughout her work. As she states “elements of a rhetorical frame include participants, their relationships and motives, and several layer of context” (Haas 48). this looks at the background, author, the reasoning it was written, along with combining everything to expand your writing.
- many parts of Haas’ and Gee’s concepts corrispond with each other. One is James Gee’s theory on developing what is known as a “Discourse” and how to enter a Discourse and if it works. In Haas’ analysis on her analysis on “the context of Eliza’s work experience directly supported her education in biology” that addresses “the importance of the mentor-student relationship” (Haas 77). She explains how this relationship is very helpful to develop her “rhetorical frame” technique which she could use as a tool in literary Discourse.
- Eng110I
