Blog Entry 2

Perspective is one of ten areas of critical literacy which I outlined in introduction topic in my past blog entry. The significant of studying perspective that’s it showed the writer’s stance or viewpoint, let me to put in more simpler words; that’s everybody look at different ‘windows’ to view on something or matters. The word ‘windows’ itself which I used to represent the perspective because everyone has it own preference or the tendency to choose favorite point of views which suited them. Perspective can be either positive or negative, or maybe both of them in which it often fall somewhere a continuum (scale) represented below.

Condemn………………………………………………………………commend

The second writing practice which I’d examine an interesting article on the problem of bully among schoolchildren base on ten areas of critical literacy but for this blog I only emphasize on the perspective part. Firstly, I will outlined the words used by the writer in order to give the reader better understanding on the perspective of the writer. The usage of word in article such as “sadistic” and “who get a big kick of hurting people” to refer the bullies which fall on condemn (or negative) continuum above. I realized it is very difficult to determine the perspective as we need to develop the ability to ‘interrogate’ the text thoroughly.

Language, perspective and ideology

A topic presented by my classmates a few weeks ago if I not mistaken, this topic revealed how language, perspective and ideology affected the writer’s preference to construct their writing. First of all, I shall explain what are language, perspective and ideology; language is a systematic communication between people, perspective is a stance or point of view and ideology is a system of belief or attitude in particular group of people. What really understand about the topic is that’s writer’s language, perspective and ideology determines the scope of the writing he/she produces. For example, if the writer is Malay and he/she want to write an article in a Malay newspaper, he/she will prefer to write in language, perspective and ideology that will fit the preference of the Malay.

Texts and Textualities

For this topic, I’ll discover that’s not every words can be used in any types of text because every words has its dissimilarities between it such as in term of meaning and also usage within the text, and this can be illustrated as the signifiers (words) have multiple signifieds (meaning) associated with it. The chapter about Texts and Textualities also included the connotations and denotations meaning of words in text, connotation is defined as a meaning or connection implied for a group of people or individual. Whereas, denotation can be define as words or expressions that be associated to something in a real possible world. I like to use ‘gold’ as an excellent to explain both this concept, in connotation the meaning of gold which agree by many people; is ‘a precious yellowish metal, highly malleable and ductile, and free from liability to rust’ (Macquarie Dictionary). Whereas, in denotation refer gold as a symbol of wealth and high-status.