Discourse Analysis

Anne Wysocki introduces her article by pointing out that all page and screen-based texts are visual and we (as readers) have certain expectations that each texts needs to be. Example of the expectations are how some are for children (bright colors), some are towards adults and getting them to purchase something (weight loss commercials) and academic pages are very formal. Texts change and transform constantly to capture the reader that they want. Anne Wysocki states, “Visual arrangements do some of the work of the genre. This means, then, that the visual arrangements can be analyzed in terms of the genre work they do.” (Wysocki 124) This brought up the main point of her article to answer the question why do we expect the academic or literary pages to be professional looking the web pages that are academic or literary to be creative and inspirational. Her first point of view is that the visual elements and arrangements of the text are what people link towards first, like the logo or the headers of a paper. Wysocki also points out those attitudes towards the visual aspects of texts change over time. In the middle ages the educated believed that the visual presentations of pages were to make for a reading process where readers moved slowly through pages using the visual presentation of the pages as an aid to memory but today we want quick outlines or layouts to help us get what we need with no distraction or slowing down. This specific visualization leads to the reason we only use certain types of typefaces for certain papers. She also talked about different ideas that you can do with a web page and many different kinds of texts.
Like every program the High School Equivalency Program has its flaws as well as its strengths. The first video that I watched on YouTube was talking about the benefits of the program and According to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qW9YI2dIrvE most people get the wrong idea of “migrant workers”, most people expect that the workers are from Mexico or Central America and either Latino or Mexican. In all reality many people come down Canada or are around the United States who is just looking for the seasonal farm work and that is all they really know. It’s usually a big diverse group all working to the common goal; to make a living. So the student featured in the video goes on to explain that the program tries to support them in many different ways. The program is trying to help them to their General Education Degree so they support them by providing transportation, child care, a general stipend at the end of every week, and they also remain as flexible as the can be to address any problems that come their way in order for these workers to be successful. The program just tries to help out in any way possible. Also the program assistants in the video just hopes that the word about the program spreads to reach people that need the help. Everybody has interacted or knows someone who could benefit from this program. One thing that the assistant doesn’t talk about is about the different problems that you can come across when volunteering in the program.
High School Equivalency Program for Recent Dropouts; Smith, Franceska B. 18 AUG 2006 Volume 1984 Issue 21 Pages 41-54 March 1984. Was an article that talked about how there are still big dropout rates throughout the country despite all of the programs that we have offered to address many of the different issues presented throughout the country. It addressed the dropout rates among the High School Equivalency Program showing us that we the program does not have a one hundred percent success rate, many times the students have to move during seasons before they can finish their schooling. Another problem was just like regular high school drop outs and they give up on finishing their education because the class material was too hard or another problem came up. Many times the students found it hard to balance work, family, job, end everyday life which can definitely be a difficult task and need some good work ethic as well integrity to finish the schooling. Without getting the text book this was all of the information it would give me. I find looking for information on this subject very frustrating because none of it goes into depth and there are very few websites about the program. There is though in fact plenty of information about different branches off of the program, for example immigration, migrant farm workers, education, volunteering, and you can still take a look at many different ideas on what to write about.
An online article located at http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/migrants.html was talking about today’s migrant workers here in the United States. It informed us that according to the United States Department of Labor there are approximately 1.3 million U.S. Citizens that migrate between the states making a living by working on the farms and the agriculture industry. It gave all of the usual statistics about have they live a hard a life with little education, tough work and harsh living conditions. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration list agriculture as the second most dangerous occupation in the United States. The Farm worker Health Services Program reported that the average life expectancy of a farm worker is lower than the national life expectancy of the United States population. There was many different articles and information on the past history of migrant farm workers but it talked about how today the workers are 88 percent and alone working in the United States because they work in the states and send money back to their families back at their home. Only 55 percent are married and 71 percent are not living with their spouses. Many of them don’t change jobs and started this work in their early 20’s and just work until they are not physically capable of doing the farm work anymore. The workers usually have no more than a sixth grade education on average. 93 percent are foreign born, and 65 percent are working here in the United States illegally. This statistic then gets into the subject of border control and on whether or not the employers in United States should be punished for hiring migrant workers knowing that they do not have the correct documents to be citizens here in the United States. The migrant workers have generic paths that they follow when doing their seasonal work; In the East the workers start in Florida and work their way up through Ohio, New York, and Maine following crops that range from citrus to tobacco to blueberries, the Midwestern Stream starts in Southern Texas and moves through every state in the Midwest., and the workers in the west start in Southern California and move up the coast to Washington and North Dakota. They follow these patterns either because of the seasons, economy, and different crops patterns.
I still feel like each of the informative texts could have explained more on the program and about its strengths and weaknesses, Wysoki talked about detail and explanation in each of the multimedia texts and each of these could have used more of that. Each of the articles were boring and it took me a while to get through it, the assistant in the video talked about how they wanted to get more information out about the program so how about a specific informative website about the High School Equivalency Program that isn’t just for the students but also for the volunteers that want to be involved with the program. I feel like the HEP Program could use a marketing plan and actually put the ideas to use.