Blog 2

For the shaggy dog stories, I will refer most of my examples to shaggy dog example two, the one with the punch line, "Giant Panda, lives in China, eats shoots and leaves."

1. The language within the shaggy dog stories seem to be very exaggerated and contain words that one person wouldn't normally use every day. The characters within the stories are also very random. For example, in the second shaggy story the main characters consisted of a panda, a maître d', a few customers, and a detective. The language is also very sarcastic and literal! For instance, after the panda eats and shoots he asks the maître d' "what do I look like to you?"

2. For the reader to get the joke of the shaggy dog story, he/ she must grasp the connection of what happened within the short story. First, the panda was served. Second, he ate, Next, he pulled out a gun and started shooting people, and last, he left. The punch line at the end says, once the detective looks its up, "Giant Panda, lives in China, eats shoots and leaves." The reader must know that giant pandas literally have a diet where "shoots and leaves" are what they eat. Of course the point of the story was to take that line in a different literal way, which makes it humorous.

3. The shaggy dog stories relate to other spoken or written forms in numerous ways, but I believe mostly to get a simple joke out in a unique way by flipping the normal and boring story. Like other written forms, some of the main purposes are to persuade, entertain, and inform the audience. The shaggy dog stories fall directly under these categories, with just a flip.

4. These particular stories fall under s pattern, with the pattern being "organization". In simple terms, all the shaggy dog stories I have read all start off with a situation that is repeated throughout the story, characters that someone would not normally choose to write about, and a direct conclusion that answers the situation within the text. Also, word choices play a main key into these stories. Sometimes you may fine that the words don't really fit in at first, but the do in the end.

Research Ideas?

I don't really have a set and exact focus on what I would like to do my research project on, but it does revolve around communication within elementary school teachers. I have come up with the idea that maybe I can research how elementary school teachers communicate differently with different groups of people that they are constantly surrounded by within their field:

• Students
• Parents
• Supervisors
• Principles/Vice
• Superintendent
• etc.

There are also different resources, more for the parents and supervisors, which I'd like to research to see which would be more appropriate, under certain situations:

• Telephone
• Email
• Written letters
• In person
• etc.

 The writing study that this falls under is "characterizing discourses by audience." As a future teacher, it is important to me to have a balance within everyone I will be communicating with on a daily/weekly basis. I'd like to get a better feel on how these grammar school teachers communicate differently, given their circumstances.
Any feedback would be great:)