- Haas explains in the opening of her text “At the college level, to become literate is in many ways to learn the patterns of knowing about, and behaving toward, texts within a disciplinary field” (43). She breaks down the way college students learn throughout their four years and the difference between freshman and seniors. “beginning college students approach academic tasks as if they believe that texts are autonomous and context free” (Haas 46).
- Haas discusses a myth that involves the understanding of a text once it has been read. Autonomous texts are independent meaning there is no outside involvement. “the belief in autonomous texts views written academic texts as discrete, highly explicit, even “timeless” entities functioning without contextual support from author, reader, or culture” (Haas 45). Haas believes this to be a myth, and quite honestly i am very confused by the whole thing.
- Haas’ study of Eliza helps us understand how a college students understanding of a text progresses during their studies of a major. Haas explains that early college students are more likely to look at texts and only retain initial factual information and they don’t anywise further. he goes on to say how students would benefit from a more rhetorical model. using Eliza as an example he states ” Although Eliza may have tacitly subscribed to the doctrine of autonomous texts early in her college career, by the time she left college she had come to a greater awareness of the rhetorical, contingent nature of both the activities and discourses she participated in within her chosen field, biology” (Haas 46).
- A rhetorical frame is a “model or representation of discourse situations” (Haas 47). This includes three elements “participants, their relationships and motives, and several layers of context”(Haas 48). According to Haas a rhetorical frame should help a reading understand the underlying text.
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