Faith by the Spoken Word - Final Post

We inherit many things from our parents. In the process of growing up, we learn to speak their language. We mimic their actions, striving to become like them. We gain this folk knowledge from our parents without needing to be taught explicitly. We simply learn from their example. Perhaps most importantly, we construct our beliefs according the values taught by our parents. Without question, we accept the religion of our fathers. It’s only after we are grown and we enter a larger world that we realize the variety of religious options that exist. Worldwide there are hundreds of religions that have been preserved throughout the years by oral tradition. Arguably, these religions have thrived only because they have been passed down orally. In fact, oral knowledge has had a more powerful effect upon spirituality and religious practice than any other type of knowledge.

Fin

Knowledge comes in many different forms and is also learned in many different ways. Using the 4 units of knowledge we discussed during our in-class salon, I was able to better analyze the connections between all the units.

Here’s a brief overview about the 4 units of knowledge from my discussions:

            Folk: Essentially the knowledge gained not by textual means but rather by first-hand experience. For example: taking a shower, how to sing, and throwing and catching a ball.

            Oral: I discussed with Jenna and Rachel how knowledge that is transmitted orally must have the basis of folk knowledge. Within religion and spirituality, oral communication is necessary and vital. For example: listening to general conference, Buddhists’ mantra, and ministers in common churches.

            Written: Discussion interestingly centered a lot on handwriting and the value they hold within even today’s culture. Also today’s knowledge institutions still have written knowledge. For example, math and physics classes have homework assignments with formulas, equations, and problems that are all handwritten and turned in.

            Print: Talked of the possibility that print will become obsolete and what the effects will be. Translation with each generation of past knowledge, have we reached the point where future generations will not have to translate into own medium?

Thesis:            

            Through the evolution and development of knowledge, society and culture have developed multiple mediums to communicate that knowledge and will continue to do so with the fundamental unit being folk knowledge, while other units of knowledge may become obsolete or nonessential.

One Final Paper

             When going through the ages and looking at the different forms that knowledge transmission has taken, and the different institutions in which knowledge has been preserved, it’s impossible to avoid noticing trends.  When the history of knowledge is examined from the standpoint of these institutions, the ideas proposed by Ian McNeely in his book Reinventing Knowledge seem to almost present themselves.  One thing that is certain is the inevitability of change.  I have found, however, that there are a few things that remain constant in the way that things change.  In almost every case, as media and institutions shift, the new method tries to imitate or reproduce the old, then grows into its own niche, finally reaching the end of a ‘learning curve’, where a new institution or medium can meet new needs left by the old medium.

Knowledge Needed for a Nation

     Throughout history nations have come to be and passed by, leaving their mark on existence. Some left legends of grandeur, while other left nothing but their bones to be found by others. Traditions have been passed down mouth to mouth; some nations have left scrolls and pictorial scripts. While others left only remnants of tools and craftworks for a clue about their ways of life. What helped these nations who thrived and chose to do more than just exist to become the beacons of knowledge? These nations became so much more because they were built on a foundation that knew how to purvey their knowledge from one form to another.

Reinventing Knowledge: The Final Post

As this semester has gone on, my ideas about knowledge have constantly been changing. Each new unit, blog post, and in class discussion gave me new insights on the topic, and standing at the end of our journey I have come to a conclusion. The ability to express our thoughts through spoken word is the most significant advance in the communication of knowledge in human history, and this oral knowledge is the basis of knowledge in all of its other forms.

And So It Ends

Folk Knowledge

Self-Directed Learning:
For me, folk knowledge is anything that is learned outside of the classroom. I focused my initial studies on symbols and their meanings.  I noticed that the culture greatly influenced a person's understanding of symbols. Also, I learned to knit. Something that I never expected to learn to do. In fact, my roommates were quite shocked when they found me sitting at my desk with the purple knitting needles in hand. (maybe they were even more shocked by the "lengthy" scarf at the end of the needles.)

Response to...well...a whole semester of information!

Well, I didn’t do it the way everyone else did it, and now I like everyone else’s posts better!  Oh well.  I studied with the post about the informal blog and the salon in front of me, and I took notes on the interesting things I remembered, and reviewed several of the blogs I found most à propos.  I went through after I was finished and tried to organize these more or less by unit, but it’s far from a perfect science.  Anyway, my notes!

Oh, How Far We've Come

Preliminary Blog Post

Let me start off by saying I hope you're all doing well with your exams and not stressing out too much! I know for me as a new freshman at BYU this is definitely a learning experience! In preparation for our "salon" tomorrow, here's a look at some of the great work our class has done over the course of the semester.

Montana & Shuan - Our Musings

For the preparation for the in-class salon, Montana and I decided to work together. We took the time today to look through all the blogs and selected 2 individuals to read through their experience in this class. We reminisced of all the projects and posts we have done. It was great fun to look back and see all that we've accomplished this semester.

Paper Again

So this didn't end up being as bad as I thought it would be. I managed to finish the paper although I didn't end up using all that much of my rough draft. I had talked with Morgan Mix on Saturday to talk about the project and she had had some very good Ideas. This paper was very challenging to write but that is what happens when you just randomly choose your topic from a list. Morgan and I had talked so that we could help each other figure out a direction to go with our papers and she had some very good ideas. Unfortunately the ideas didn't help me with writing my paper that much in the end because I stuck to writing on a bibliography instead of doing something more related to her subject. I'm glad that I finished the paper and in the end it wasn't as bad as I was thinking it was going to be when I posted and called the paper the paper of doom.

The Academic Paper of Awesomeness

The day of reckoning draws dearer, our papers are due tonight! I guess I could've posted about my progress earlier in the week, but as I'm sure we can all attest to, this week has been insane!! Either way I would very much appreciate your input, even at the eleventh hour.

As I'm sure some of you may have already inferred by my comments about it in class, (and I apologize if they've gotten annoying, I just really like this topic) my academic paper is about the political ramifications of applying print to legal texts.

 Here's my intro paragraph:

"The American Revolution, the English Civil War, and the French and Russian Revolutions, all are examples of unprecedented political and social change that occurred after a particularly pivotal event in history – then invention of the printing press. The application of printing to the law led to greater political change than any other singular event in history. This primarily brought about a change in the way people communicated legal knowledge, and thereby how they communicated their ideas on the subject. There are two main results of printed law that directly caused this change: greater public access to uniform legal decisions and court proceedings, and a more public discourse regarding law and its functions leading to the wide dissemination of political ideas. While some may argue that the transition from spoken to written law or some other turning point in history was more groundbreaking in its nature, it’s quite apparent that the transition from oral and written legal traditions to the printed word had an effect with far greater scope than those of other developments."


In case you didn't catch it, my thesis is, "The application of printing to the law led to greater political change than any other singular event in history." I think it's simple, provocative, and gets my point across. 

What are your thoughts? Did this really lead to more political change than ANY other single event in history? The only one I could think of was possibly The American Revolution, which I believe depended a lot on print knowledge in the first place. I think it's a pretty divisive statement, so I'm sure there will be someone who disagrees with me. Thanks in advance for your input!

A Different Path..

So when I was typing up the paper, I realized that I wanted to take the paper in a different direction. So I revamped my  thesis and intro paragraph.

Here it is:

          Since the start of elementary school, many students remember the multiple practice sheets taken home to repeatedly copy the same word over and over again to remember not only how to write the words but how to spell them. Orthography is the study devoted and concerned with letters and spelling of a language. Learning to read, while it may seem absurd to think it is especially difficult since the frustration once experienced took place, for the majority of the population, when they were very young. The acquisition of spelling is vital to orthographic knowledge that is gained while learning to read. Literacy is affected by the orthographic knowledge acquired because without learning how to spell correctly, word identification and comprehension become issues. Orthography has impacted general education in respects to literacy greatly and has affected how people gain the knowledge skills required to be able to read.

The Paper of Doom

While working on my paper on bibliography I have been having trouble finding articles that relate to the direction that I have wanted to go, which is that bibliographies are more than just a way to find the sources that others have used to write on their topics.

The only book that I have found that is truly useful is a book that was written in 1934. I found this really funny cause the book had stamped in the front April 4 1954. The fact that I was using a book that my great grandma could have been using really amused me.

The good thing that happened for me was that Professor Burton recommended a number of people that I could contact to interview them about bibliographies. I was able to contact Robert Means and he spent time with me discussing bibliographies. He made a number of really good points, which I shall let you know more about when I use them in my paper.

Here is the start of my paper I may end up changing it completely around after my interview but I wasn’t able to interview Professor Means before the rough draft was due. If anyone has any pointer on what I could do or use to better cover the topic of Bibliographies I would be happy to hear them.

While talking with some people who are not members of our class about the subject of bibliographies, they attempted to help me. Only after receiving some direction from them on where I could go with my topic did I realize that Biographies and Bibliographies can be easily confused. Many people don’t tend to think much about bibliographies. They will glance at the end of the book or at the footnotes to see where the information for the information that we are reading is from and that is as far as most people actually get on the topic. However, bibliographies have a rich history, and do much more than just point us to where writers get their information.

When we look at some of the first bibliographies we do not know who the compilers of the bibliographies are. These bibliographers spent many hours reading and attempting to find many books on the same subject. They would then compile what they had found into a sort of list or index. The few of the first bibliographies that we do know the name of the person who wrote the compilation, we only know because they included their name on the list.

Bibliographies come in a few different forms. We have the normal biography, which is just a list that includes the name and author of the work along with a number of other details. We then have something which when combined into a list on the subject is extremely usefully, the annotated bibliography.

An annotated bibliography is a summary of what the main points of the book are about. They include many of the same things that a normal bibliography has, such as the title, the author’s name, and the year it was published. The most important thing about the annotated bibliography though is the fact that it summarizes the thoughts of another author and allows for another to quickly search for what the book is about.

Bibliographies have come from

Brainstorming Individuality

A Comment and a Question...

So, I'm working on my paper (don't worry, there *will* be a rough draft tomorrow, it's just a matter of how rough it will be!) and I'm actually having a problem I've never had before.  After spending several weeks working on several long papers, I'm suddenly having a really hard time being concise!  My last few papers have been much longer, so when I finished my intro and inserted the thesis I had planned on writing, I suddenly realized that I was onto the second page, and I hadn't even gotten to my points yet!  I almost wish it were longer...almost.  Cutting is still easier than adding, though.

So, here's my thesis, and I'm curious what you think about it.  I won't bore you with a long history of publishing, just know that I've been talking about how publishers and authors started off on the right foot, then publishers started to take advantages on authors.

"How did this change come about?  While there are many factors that certainly contributed to these changes, it was mainly economic realities that caused the shift in the balance between these parties that caused this necessary shift."

What do you think? I didn't exactly follow Professor Burton's advice, mainly because I haven't found any good arguments against my thesis...yet. I am sure I will have some by Thursday. Excepting that minor detail, what does everyone think?

The Attention Grabber:

I've been worrying about my intro paragraph.
I'm not sure if it really grabs attention of the reader. I've tried revising it a couple of times but I'm just getting lost, so I thought I could post it up and get some opinions. I'd really appreciate your help!

Since the start of elementary school, many students remember the multiple practice sheets taken home to repeatedly copy the same word over and over again to remember not only how to write the words but how to spell them. Orthography, the study devoted and concerned with letters and spelling of a language. Spelling changed how people not only learned also how they interacted with each other. Orthography has impacted general education and society greatly, especially since the introduction of print, and has effected how knowledge is communicated, gained, and shared.

The Paper

*Before I begin this blog post of the process to writing this paper, I would just like to ask if you could please bear with me if this post is not the greatest or a little scattered. Due to some personal problems I'm currently a bit compromised and unfocused. Through time I know I can get out of this rut but I just need that time first.*

For the academic paper, I considered how I would like to approach this. I considered just finding the big picture from all the books I found regarding orthography and the effect it had on print. But I realized I wouldn't have too much time to look through all the books again.
I then decided I would pick one learning outcome and emphasize that using orthography and print.
After looking over the learning outcomes list, I realized that there was something in each of the outcomes I could address and use and emphasize.

I figured out then how I could instead use 3 of the outcomes, the ones I had trouble narrowing down with, and use them to emphasize orthography and print, how each applies to the learning outcome.
The 3 outcomes I'm using are:

• Communicating Knowledge
• Knowledge Skills
• Sharing Knowledge

I feel like spelling has a big impact on all of these.

I figured the bulk (body) of my paper would be devoted to them.

As for my thesis:

"Orthography has impacted general education greatly, especially since the introduction of print, and has effected how knowledge is communicated, gained, and shared."

I feel like it is a simple thesis, but straightforward. I never liked making an obscure thesis statement like my AP Lit teacher tried teaching me how to do. I feel the most straightforward thesis is what gets the point across.

What do you think?

Stop the Press!

In my last blog post about the origins of printed law I briefly touched on how the advent of print in the Islamic world didn't have too much effect on their laws. This is because they followed Sharia law, which they believe to be a divine code set forth in the Quran and by the example of the prophet Muhammad. Because of the sanctity of law in their society, they were very much opposed to defiling their written traditions with the use of printing. In fact not only the printing of Islamic holy laws was forbidden, but the use of the printing press in general was strongly resisted. As a Middle Eastern studies major I thought this cultural conflict was rather fascinating, so that is what my blog post for this week will be about. This article turned out to be an invaluable source for researching this topic. Follow after the jump and see for yourself!

History of Bibliographies

As I have been working to figure out what to do for this project I honestly was confused for a time because everything I tried to search for to find some decent books on this subject were not really coming up. I finally found something about the history of bibliographies (which finding a subject that didn't already have the book checked out that I was looking at online was what became my hardest challenge). Funny thing as I was looking at bibliographies for some reason my brain kept thinking that I was trying to tell it that biographies and bibliographies are the same thing. Biographies- descriptions of people in history. Bibliographies- things used to cite documents and sources.


E. W. Padwick, Bibliographical Method, James Clarke and Co. Ltd., 1969
[I found this book when I was looking at the section Z 1001 where books on bibliographies are located.]
The Bibliographical Method discusses how some of the first printed biographies came about. They were not widely printed until Conrad Gesner, in 1545, Published Bibliotheca universalis.  A book which had over 1,264 folio pages with numerous author writings published in this book, including a bibliography of every author.
(link to where to find Bibliographical Method  HBLL website)

George Schneider(Translated by Ralph Robert Shaw), Theory and History of Bibliography, New York Columbia University Press, 1934
[This Book was also found as I scoured section Z 1001 looking for books that had titles that had to do with the history of Bibliographies]
The Theory and History of Bibliography talks about how bibliography's came to be the type of book that they are. Originally they were defined as the mechanical writing and transcription of books. Ebert is quoted as having said that bibliographies are, "in the broadest sense, the science that deals with literary productions." Ebert was one of the greatest German bibliographers.
(link to Theory and History of Bibliography  HBLL website)

D. F. McKenzie, Bibliography and the Sociology of Texts, Cambridge University Press, 1999
[Bibliography and the Sociology of Text was also found in the Z 1001 section of the HBLL.]
Mr. G Thomas Tanselle one said, referring to bibliographies, "a related group of subject that happen to be commonly referred to by the same term." Theory and History of Bibliography divides bibliographies into a number of categories; enumerative or systematic bibliography, descriptive, analytical, textual, and historical bibliography.
(link to Bibliography and the Sociology of Texts HBLL website)

D. W. Krummel, Bibliographies Their Aims and Methods, Mansell Publishing Limited, 1984
[Bibliographies Their aims and Methods was found on a shelf again in the Z 1001 section.]
Bibliographies Their Aims and Methods points out that bibliographies are not as Sir Walter Greg said, "it is convenient to students of any subject to regard bibliographers as a race of useful drudges-servi a bibliotheca-who are there to do for them some of the spade-work they are too lazy or too incompetent to do for themselves." D. W. Krummel discusses that the earliest bibliographies may be lost in historical records and that bibliographies themselves coincided with the origins of research during the time of Aristotle.
(link to Bibliographies Their Aims and Method Villinova Website)

Robin Myers and Michael Harris, Pioneers in Bibliography, St. Paul's Bibliographies, 1988
[Pioneers in Bibliography was found in section Z1001]
Robin Myers and Michael Harris point out that bibliographers who pioneered catalogues of medieval for the most part nothing is know about them. Very few bibliographers do we even know there names unless they signed their library catelogue. These men point out that only through bibliographers writings are we able to learn to about why these men compiled the works that they did.
(link to Pioneers in Bibliography HBLL website)

Publishers: An Annotated Bibliography

I love libraries.  I had actually forgotten how much I loved libraries; so far in my college experience, I’ve sort of avoided the library, but making this bibliography (or at least starting it; I’ve found a few more references I want to track down later) has reminded me how much I enjoy the time I spend in the library.  Actually, though, it’s probably a good thing that I haven’t been into the library too often; I have to admit that a large portion of the time I spent there was actually getting sidetracked by other cool or interesting things.  I probably spent the same amount of time reading extraneous articles as I spent reading books germane to my topic.  Oh well, I enjoyed it, so I can’t really say it was a waste.  J

Spelling is Eazzee

I decided to do my annotated bibliography on the effect of print on orthography. If you don’t know what orthography means, it’s ok. I didn’t either. So, after another Google search I found that it means “The conventional spelling system of a language.” Basically, orthography is a fancy way of saying spelling.

As I sat and pondered how I would find the books I needed for the annotated bibliography, I literally went to Google and searched “how to find books in the library”. (Judge me if you wish, I judged myself) Surprisingly, I found a great site that explained the Dewey decimal system. Good thing I discovered from a trusty librarian that the BYU library uses the Library of Congress classification…

So, after another, yes another, Google search for “Library of Congress classification”, I found THIS!

I figured that I should understand how the organizational system of the library works in order for me to actually find the books I need. After I read through and got a semi-solid basis of understanding, I went the BYU library website. 

Printing the Word of Law

For my annotated bibliography post I decided to research how the advent of printing dramatically changed the nature of written law. Although law codes had been written in various forms for thousands of years, the transition to print as the medium for this very important knowledge would usher in a new era of uniformity, and challenge conventional authority, changing the way law is perceived in our society. Keep reading to find out more!

La Biblia en La Biblioteca

For the class field trip, I went to The Life and Legacy of the King James Bible, as my other group members Tanner and Montana have as well.

 I found myself rather amazed by the history of the Bible itself. From the original Latin Vulgate version to the final translation of the King James Bible, the history is full of drama, enough to probably create a long running series if one were made.

To Everyone Concerned (an update on my life)

So, maybe you've noticed I haven't done much blogging in the last week, or maybe you haven't.  I know it's been vacation, so we've all been taking a little break.

For those who didn't know, my fiancée Camille left me last week.  I haven't had much desire to do anything.  I apologize for falling behind, but I needed this week to myself to be with family and friends, and reflect, and try to move on.  I'll be getting back to business as usual next week, and I hope to be able to catch up for the posts and comments that I have missed.

Thank you all for being great to work with.  I really appreciate having such a good group in this class.  See you in a week.

Brett

Miles of Aisles

Today I found myself dancing down the library aisles rocking out to my iPod while searching for literature on the history of books. I spent a few hours wandering the shelves searching for the perfect resources. It was quite the adventure!

"A Bible! A Bible! We have got a Bible"

For my "field trip" for our class's print unit I decided to visit, "The Life and Legacy of the King James Bible" exhibit in the Harold B. Lee library here at BYU. It was truly an eye opening experience for me to see just how much time, effort, and even controversy went into creating what I thought was just the de facto Bible throughout history (that shows just how much I know). Keep reading after the break!

The Freschetta Stone

So, for our civilization project over in the Greece Group, we got together and discussed how we wanted to do our artifact and Rosetta thing.  Our first thought was that the Greeks, like many other ancient cultures in the Mediterranean area, frequently wrote on papyrus.  It seemed easy enough, it is a simple and common medium, but when we tried to get our hands on papyrus, we immediately started running into difficulties.  First, we tried online, but the fastest reliable shipment method we could find would have taken a full four days (by which time we needed to be translating our new artifact), so we searched to see if there were any local stores that might have it, to no avail.  We considered stone, which was a popular medium at certain Greek time periods, but discarded that idea because of the difficulty of writing into that medium.

Our Rosetta thing and our received artifact, displayed against
The Freschetta box we used to preserve the "Stone"

The Bible

When I visited the Life and Legacy of the King James Bible Exhibit I really thought it was interesting how bibles changed over time to fit the new medium and the changes in language. As was discussed in class originally the first bibles that were printed were made to look like the handwritten bibles of the past. 

The bible was translated from its original language into languages that for the most part the general population couldn't read. Later after King James the 1st comissioned the new translation of the bible(Madison Grant has a good blog about this specifically) and the translator did there best to make sure that there translations were accurate by going back to the Hebrew and Greek versions of the bible that they had to make the best translation possible. If we were to look at alot of the meaning of the words that the translators translated in the past we could find alot of things hard to understand because languages change over time. 

Some words today if I read from the King James version have a much different meaning than I would think was being refereed to. Such as, accursed which means devoted or amazement which means terror(More here). These word have a much different meaning and can really be confusing in today's world. 

How much do the differences in our language today affect the understanding of the Bible and in the future with languages changing how much will the changes affect the understanding further?

Write Like an Egyptian

For the Rosetta Stone project I was in the African cultures group. Fittingly enough for a project emulating the famous stone, we decided to write out our message in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics... and because that's virtually the only written language of ancient Africa that has been translated into English, so we had no choice in the matter. Now, I'm not trying to make this project sound miserable, it really ended up being a lot of fun! It was really cool to see just what challenges played into the translation of ancient texts. Follow after the jump to find out for yourself!

Our Own Rosetta "Stone" sort of

What I got to help with for the making of our Rosetta Stone was the writing of the 2nd half of the project. Alicia emailed me the translation for the Greek wax that we got from the other group and the translation said, 

"Equo ne credite, Teucri! Quidquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentis.

Do not trust the horse, Trojans! Whatever it is, I fear the Danaans,

even when bringing gifts.

不要相信馬，木馬！不管是什麼，我怕希臘人，甚至帶來的禮物時," 

This project turned out to be a much more challenging thing than I expected. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to fit all of the project on this one medium so I first had to write it on the project lightly. My first attempt was to large. The Greek was not going to fit on the medium with the English and the Chinese on my first try. So i shrunk down the Greek to take up a smaller space and this time it was the proper size which was awesome. It took me a few hours to pencil out all the symbols and then another two and a half hours to paint over the symbols that I had made. When I got to the Chinese, my friend Rebecca came over and helped me cause she looked at my Chinese symbols and let me know that what I was doing did not really have the flow of Chinese symbols. My writing didn't have the curves that Chinese character should. 

Also I was lucky enough to be doing my writing around my friend PJ and had him read over the Chinese that I had written. He said that my symbols were correct but I didn't have some of the symbols grouped together correctly. Lucky for me I was able to fix the problem with my writing and so now my looks good with only a mistake in one spot, an ink smear. Over all I learned that some mediums are better than other at helping to write different languages. Luckily we chose a medium that even though the message is somewhat long it was able to include all three languages very easily.