Fetterly/Moreno

The main focus of Fetterly's essay was that "A Rose for Emily" was written as a sexual conflict, proving that the reality that women live in is different from the reality that women are typically written into. Throughout the essay, Fetterly compares "A Rose for Emily" to Hawthorne's "The Birthmark", which she uses to prove that typically, women are servile and weak in literature, but in Faulkner's story, Miss Emily empowers herself (although negatively, as her empowerment leads her to murder her lover,) despite her town's habit of coddling her and treating her like a typical woman in polite society. 

Fetterly uses her textual analysis to create a convincing argument against a patriarchal society, making her feminist ideals apparent. This type of research is used commonly in literature courses and within the English department. I can't think of another situation where one would use this type of research, as I think it's tailored to fit what an nerdy English person would do. (Which, of course, is why I enjoyed this essay and was bored by the Moreno piece.) Textual analysis is used to appropriate a text to ones' own views (Fetterly looks at Faulker through a feminist lens, etc.)

In Moreno's essay, she uses a lot of quotations to prove that what she is saying is valid. She assumes that because her student felt a certain way, that she can assert that others feel the same. The issue with this essay is that although Raymundo's writing was an excellent way to understand writers who come from other cultures or backgrounds, it is not necessarily telling the audience anything on a particularly deeper level. The class was a "race and ethnicity writing couse", so Raymundo was following prompts and was therefore not as candid and honest as he may have otherwise been - this made it easy for Moreno to use his words to prove her own.I found her writing convoluted, and worst of all, boring. After class discussion, I understand that this essay was meant to show a classic example of this type of research, but I think what I really gained from it is that I never, ever want to do this type of research. Ever.