November 2015
Participation Supplement 5
Today we spoke about several terms, connotation, denotation and hegemony.  The topic of denotation and connotation was very interesting.  It was interesting to find out that the exact definition of communism and feminism goes against what most people view as a communist or feminist.  Feminism for example, is all about equality for everyone, but in today's modern world, when we see a feminist, we associate certain stigmas about them, not the textbook definition.  The same is also true about communism.  Speaking about the connotations that communism has, usually people think of a horrible leader who suppresses the people and steals their money.  There have been communist leaders who have fallen under this connotation, but there have also been communist leaders who have not.  The former ruler of Yugoslavia, Josip Tito, was actually a very beloved leader and he happened to be communist.  I don’t support communism in any way, but I am just stating that the citizens of Yugoslavia enjoyed the country and his leadership.  In fact, when he passed away, all of the areas that made up Yugoslavia all disbanded into their own countries now known as the Balkan states or countries.  He was the glue that was holding that volatile region together.  I’m giving this example to say that we need to be aware of certain denotations and connotations, we need to keep an open mind so that we don’t simply lump a person or country or whatever entity into a set category based on predetermined stigmas.  We also touched on Hegemony, which is like a leadership or dominance of a country.  In technical writing though, this is a very important topic because the dominant country can influence how the writings that are produced by that country are written.  This can tell us a lot about that nation.  This is also an interesting subject to keep in mind when writing, how is my culture influencing my work?  Is it good or bad?