1.5 Evolving Ways of Knowing

Putting It All Together: Evolving Ways of Knowing

As we have been exploring in this module, our perspectives and ways of knowing are shaped by our experiences and identities. The intersection of our individual experiences and identities creates a unique lens through which we view the world. But because we are continually changing and experiencing new things, these lenses are not static. Instead, they change continually—sometimes gradually, and sometimes all at once.

Paradigm shifts describe fundamental changes in the frameworks or models we use to understand the world. These shifts occur when new information or experiences force us to question our beliefs and see the world in different ways. If you’ve ever found yourself questioning what you know about religion or love, or if you read a book that transformed your way of thinking, you’ve experienced your own version of this.

Another way of theorizing the change in perspective that humans undergo is through what Gloria Anzaldúa calls the Path of Conocimiento. The Path of Conocimiento refers to a specific journey toward knowledge, self-awareness, and a commitment to social change that entails perspectival change—the path of personal and collective understanding as we navigate different experiences and challenges. In working through these challenges, we also renew our commitment to others/the world. This process is not linear; it involves cycles of reflection, growth, and transformation as we grapple with our identities, beliefs, and the world around us.

Both concepts highlight the importance of having a framework—a lens through which we interpret and make sense of the world. Different frameworks are shaped by various disciplinary and community contexts, as we will explore in more detail in future modules.

For now, to close out this unit, you will be asked to write an essay in which you will examine and explain your own thinking processes as well as some of the factors or influences—personal, cultural, spiritual, intellectual, etc.—that shape them. This assignment will also require you to make connections between your experiences and course texts, deepening your understanding of both and enabling you to better communicate those experiences (by drawing on shared ideas and concepts) to your intended audience—namely, your classmates.

Task: Describe and analyze a significant event in your life—one that contributed to your development into the person you are today. This does not need to be a major event in your life—but it should be some event that, in retrospect, you can point to as having shaped your way of thinking about yourself, the world, etc. As Rosenwasser and Stephen point out in Writing Analytically, “Sometimes the most telling moments, those that play a significant role in how we come to be who we are, are subtle, small moments, rather than ‘big’ life-changing experiences. Some of these small but significant moments are barely remembered until we start looking for them with writing. Thus, they engage readers in the writer’s process of discovery, which is what good writing should do” (7). Use a course text as a framework for deepening your analysis (this involves summarizing one or more key points or concepts from that text, explaining the connection to your own experience, and showing what gets illuminated through this connection).

Purpose: The goal of this exercise is to use writing as a means to reflect on your experience and identity, showing understanding of key course concepts. This assignment will help you prepare for more complex writing and analysis activities in future modules by developing a strong sense of your own personal positionality and perspective, both as a reader and a writer.

Steps:

1. Return to your reflection on a moment when you have experienced a formative experience that has shifted or transformed the ways you understand or think about the world. Elaborate more on the perspective you had before this moment. Elaborate on the perspective you had after this moment.
2. Review the texts from Nyuygen and Crenshaw to identify a key concept that connects to your experience as a framework for your analysis. What language does the text provide that can be used as a lens through which to view your own story?
3. Summarize one or more key points or concepts from that text, explaining the connection to your own experience, and showing what gets illuminated through this connection. Summaries must demonstrate a careful understanding of ideas and concepts from the course text, supported by evidence from that text (quotation and citation) and your own analysis.

1. • In The Art of Summarizing, Graff and Birkenstein emphasize that “a good summary requires balancing what the original author is saying with the writer’s own focus.” In other words, the ideas that you draw from the text should be representative of the author’s purpose or argument (and not simply side details), as well as relevant to the story that you’re telling, your purpose in telling it, and your analysis of it.

4. Draw on the text on narrative from Karen Palmer to make clear and deliberate choices as to what the purpose of the narrative is and what strategies are needed to achieve it. This entails carefully selecting which details to include (and exclude), organizing the essay effectively, and using writing to engage the senses (“show” as well as “tell”).

• • There is no one way to organize a narrative essay. What is important is that you decide what your purpose is (the central idea that you want to communicate) and what rhetorical strategies you need to use in order to achieve it. In other words, be sure that your essay does not drift off into a “random” recounting of events. The details of your story should support the central idea(s) or purpose, and there should be a clear logic to the organization of your body paragraphs. This doesn’t mean that you have to narrate events in chronological order, but your ideas and paragraphs should build upon one another.

Criteria: Essays will be 4-5 double-spaced pages. To meet the assignment requirements, you will need to:

• Narrate a transformative experience
• Use course concepts as a lens
• Make clear and deliberate narrative choices
• Go through a process of peer feedback and revision as determined by your professor (see the appendix materials on peer review [Chapter] for resources)