In this discussion, you will practice sharing the significance of the person or place you are observing with your group. Your goal is to get feedback about what makes your subject unique and what details you might include to make the significance stand out. 

Instructions

Respond to the following questions in a post of at least 150 words.

• Who or what is the subject of your observation? 
• What does the presence or action of this subject reveal about the larger community/place/group? What issues, challenges, or insights does your observation of this subject help to make visible? 

After you post, you may read and respond to the posts of your group members, but this is optional this week

Example

(from CEL Ch. 4, p. 115: Chester McCovey’s prewriting for “The Front Porch”)

What does the presence or action of this subject reveal about the larger community? What issues, challenges, or insights does your observation of this subject help to make visible? 

“What we see is a loss of community. The big garage shows us we’re leaving our own neighborhood a lot. The fact that the garage is connected to the living space shows us that we go from our living area directly, by pushing a button that opens the door, into the street and to another community far enough away that we drive to it. We don’t interact with our neighbors (we might not even know their names). We drive past them with our windows rolled up. We maybe don’t even smell or feel our neighborhood (I guess that’s an exaggeration, but there’s something there). Remember, we’re not talking about all houses. We’re talking about the ones built today. Is loss of neighborhood a loss to the people who live in those neighborhoods? Does big garage/no front porch mean loss of neighborliness? Yes, these relationships—or ones like them—can exist outside one’s own neighborhood. But what is the effect of this? What is a neighbor anymore?” (CEL 115)