Inquiry Contract Prompts

Catherine Verdico
Eng 401-01
Inquiry Contract Prompts
October 29, 2007

When the general public considers the subject I’m working with, what are the issues, questions or concerns that they think are important to discuss? Do these questions and concerns differ from those of the scholarly discourse community?

I think the most prominent issue when it comes to advertising is the portrayal of men and women, the over – use of sex and the idea of “beauty.” Whether or not these concerns differ from those of the scholarly discourse community, I’m not sure because I’ve never read/heard what scholars think, only the general public.In discussions of my subject, what are some of the status quo assumptions that appear to go unsaid but nonetheless seem almost universally believed? For example, if I am exploring how writing should be taught in high school, what do most people tend to believe about the kinds and amount of writing that high school students should do? What do people believe writing teachers should do to prepare students for the world beyond high school? How do people believe that teachers should respond to students’ writing?

When it comes to the idea of “beauty”, I think we, as a public, are so use to seeing ads that demean women, or use sex in an obvious way, but because we are exposed to this 24/7, it has become the norm. And more times than not, we give into these ads. I’d really like to explore what makes these ads sell more…the images or the words. Personally, I think it’s the image. In texts that people produce about my subject, what kinds of outcomes or results do they expect the texts to have with readers? Do writers about my subject usually expect a reader simply to consider their ideas, to believe in them strongly, to take some specific action? What?

I have not yet found any text on my topic, but I feel that with this issue, it is very difficult to take some specific action, so that would probably not be the authors intent.