Extra Credit

What did you learn? What do you find most interesting about hook's piece? Be specific. Also, discuss the role that issues or race, gender, sexuality or class play in everyday writing.

If given hook's assignment, I would probably design a house with a significant amount of windows, a lot of wood features, granite counter tops, maybe a walk-in closet the size of Princess Mia's in the Princess Diaries movie. But if I were given an assignment that focused on our actual living spaces, I would have designed something that didn't focus on those aesthetically pleasing features but rather on the homeliness of the items inside. I grew up in lower-middle class, government housing so having a lot of windows, wood features, and granite counter tops were completely out the question because they'd be a ridiculous amount of money and for what? So a robber could easily see the computer you spent half of your bank account on? hook's point about the difference in class and how they would take the second assignment is interesting to me. It makes a lot of sense that someone who'd grown up with more privilege would design something that didn't function well because function wouldn't necessarily matter because they would have all the space they'd need. hook's argument that those who aren't well off would focus on functionality in the design says a lot about class structure and within that race and gender as well. Those who grow up in a lower class setting know how to make use of every little space. Most know how to think economically, using every little space to their advantage. hook's anecdote about the woman who was completely satisfied with her house being taken up by cots is an example. Material items don't matter to a lower class person because, frankly, they take up unnecessary space when that space could be used for something like a cot.

Race, gender, sexuality and class can all play a role in everyday writing. Wording, phrasing, spelling, what platform a person uses all are where someone can see all of those come out. If it's a letter, the difference could be in stationary: whether or not the rhetor writes using a piece of scrap paper or purchased stationary. It it's a blog post or a Facebook post, it could be how well that person uses grammar and spelling. If someone posts, "yo yall like my new rap it boss af," many people would assume African American, male, straight, mid to lower class, but it could certainly be Caucasian, male, gay, upper class. Race, gender, sexuality and class can all play a role in everyday writing but I think it's a discreet role and something that we don't necessarily need to comprehend fully to understand the text. We can know that the rhetor is gay but what if they are writing an article for a newspaper on the economic standing of the United States? Knowing these don't necessarily affect our understanding of the text. It is within a setting that society deems "normal" that they affect our understanding, for example a female writing a feminist blog.