Writing in Psychology Overview
Psychology is based on the study of human behaviors. As a social science, experimental psychology uses empirical inquiry to help understand human behavior. According to Thrass and Sanford (2000), psychology writing has three elements: describing, explaining, and understanding concepts from a standpoint of empirical investigation.
Discipline-specific writing, such as writing done in psychology, can be similar to other types of writing you have done in the use of the writing process, writing techniques, and in locating and integrating sources. However, the field of psychology also has its own rules and expectations for writing; not everything that you have learned in about writing in the past works for the field of psychology.
Writing in psychology includes the following principles:
- Using plain language: Psychology writing is formal scientific writing that is plain and straightforward. Literary devices such as metaphors, alliteration, or anecdotes are not appropriate for writing in psychology.
- Conciseness and clarity of language: The field of psychology stresses clear, concise prose. You should be able to make connections between empirical evidence, theories, and conclusions. See our OWL handout on conciseness for more information.
- Evidence-based reasoning: Psychology bases its arguments on empirical evidence. Personal examples, narratives, or opinions are not appropriate for psychology.
- Use of APA format: Psychologists use the American Psychological Association (APA) format for publications. While most student writing follows this format, some instructors may provide you with specific formatting requirements that differ from APA format.
Types of writing
Most major writing assignments in psychology courses consists of one of the following two types.
Experimental reports: Experimental reports detail the results of experimental research projects and are most often written in experimental psychology (lab) courses. Experimental reports are write-ups of your results after you have conducted research with participants. This handout provides a description of how to write an experimental report .
Critical analyses or reviews of research: Often called "term papers," a critical analysis of research narrowly examines and draws conclusions from existing literature on a topic of interest. These are frequently written in upper-division survey courses. Our research paper handouts provide a detailed overview of how to write these types of research papers.
Rhetorical Considerations and Style in Psychology Writing
Knowing who you are writing for, why you are writing, and in what context is key to writing successfully within your psychology courses.
Audience: Your audience is person or group of people you are writing for. In psychology courses, this is often your professor or teaching assistant, although you might also be asked to write for a "general audience of psychologists" or to your classmates. Your instructor may or may not indicate who your audience is for your paper, so it is always good to ask. In articles, it is more complex—a combination of reviewers, journal editors, and readers in your area of interest.
Your audience's expectations about your writing determine:
- Formatting and style
- Tone of the piece
- The amount of technical language or jargon used
- The amount of information you assume the audience already knows
Audience expectations aren't always straightforward. For example, if you are taking a course in psycholinguistics and you are writing a critical review of research on semantic priming, your primary audience for the course is your instructor. While your instructor knows what semantic priming is, you may still be required to define it in your paper so that your instructor knows that you know what it is. Part of the instructor's expectation in this case is that you can clearly define key vocabulary concepts discussed in class in your term paper.
Purpose: While the overall purpose of your term paper or experimental report may be clear (to pass the course, to convey the results of your research) more specific purposes for writing your report are not always so. When you are prewriting and drafting, as yourself not only what your larger purpose is, but also what additional purposes you may have and want to achieve.
Context: The context is the larger writing situation in which you find yourself. Are you writing for a class? Are you writing an internal report to your advisor? Are you writing an article in preparation for submission to a journal? The context in which you are writing is another important factor that helps you determine style, format, and content of your piece.
For more information on audience, purpose, and context see the Rhetorical Situation PowerPoint resource.
Formatting and style in psychology
Your choice of format and style are dependent on the audience, purpose, and context of your piece. Most writing in psychology follows a strict format, developed by the American Psychological Association (APA). Some instructors or journals may have their own style guidelines that deviate from APA to varying degrees. You should always ask for clarification on the correct formatting and style from your instructor, advisor, journal editor or other primary audience member.
As a social science, the style of writing is scientific. A good rule of thumb when writing in psychology is to be clear with your discussion, be concise in your writing, and minimize your use of first-person pronouns ("I think that…", "I believe that…"). See the Purdue OWL handout on Stylistic concerns in APA format for more information.
Learning style in your field can be tricky and requires time and practice. You can benefit from analyzing examples of other pieces of writing from psychology. Look at published articles or ask the instructor for examples of previous papers written for the course.
Prewriting and information collection
Depending on the type of report you are writing, you will go through various stages of prewriting. The following list provides you with some options finding material to write from and beginning to prewrite.
Prewriting note-taking and class notes: Notes from readings, class lectures, conferences and presentations, and other professional activities can help you formulate ideas. You can keep your thoughts, sources, and notes organized in a journal, text document, or on note cards before you write.
- If you are writing a critical review, keep notes on topics of interest and sources that you encounter during your class (and related coursework) that can contribute to your topic.
- If you are writing an experimental report, notes from your previous coursework can help you find sources of information. As you are planning and conducting your research, keep a notebook handy to record your thoughts and ideas.
Creating an annotated bibliography of articles and books: Annotated bibliographies can be excellent ways to summarize and organize sources you are drawing upon when writing critical reviews or experimental reports. Please see our Annotated Bibliographies handout for more information.
Additional Purdue OWL resources you may find helpful in writing for psychology
Avoiding Plagiarism: Plagiarism is a major concern of any discipline. Be sure you are clear on what constitutes plagiarism.
Writing Concisely: A strategy for eliminating wordiness and redundancy in your writing.
Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing: Assists you in integrating sources into your paper with different techniques and avoiding plagiarism.
Proofreading your writing: Every writer needs to develop good proofreading skills.
Writing the Experimental Report: Overview, Introductions, and Literature Reviews
Experimental reports (also known as "lab reports") are reports of empirical research conducted by their authors. You should think of an experimental report as a "story" of your research in which you lead your readers through your experiment. As you are telling this story, you are crafting an argument about both the validity and reliability of your research, what your results mean, and how they fit into other previous work.
These next two sections provide an overview of the experimental report in APA format. Always check with your instructor, advisor, or journal editor for specific formatting guidelines.
Experimental reports follow a general to specific to general pattern. Your report will start off broadly in your introduction and discussion of the literature; the report narrows as it leads up to your specific hypotheses, methods, and results. Your discussion transitions from talking about your specific results to more general ramifications, future work, and trends relating to your research.
Experimental reports in APA format have a title page. Title page formatting is as follows:
- A running head and page number in the upper right corner (right aligned)
- A definition of running head in IN ALL CAPS below the running head (left aligned)
- Vertically and horizontally centered paper title, followed by author and affiliation
Please see our sample APA title page.
Crafting your story
Before you begin to write, carefully consider your purpose in writing: what is it that you discovered, would like to share, or would like to argue? You can see report writing as crafting a story about your research and your findings. Consider the following.
- What is the story you would like to tell?
- What literature best speaks to that story?
- How do your results tell the story?
- How can you discuss the story in broad terms?
During each section of your paper, you should be focusing on your story. Consider how each sentence, each paragraph, and each section contributes to your overall purpose in writing. Here is a description of one student's process.
Briel is writing an experimental report on her results from her experimental psychology lab class. She was interested in looking at the role gender plays in persuading individuals to take financial risks. After her data analysis, she finds that men are more easily persuaded by women to take financial risks and that men are generally willing to take more financial risks.
When Briel begins to write, she focuses her introduction on financial risk taking and gender, focusing on male behaviors. She then presents relevant literature on financial risk taking and gender that help illuminate her own study, but also help demonstrate the need for her own work. Her introduction ends with a study overview that directly leads from the literature review. Because she has already broadly introduced her study through her introduction and literature review, her readers can anticipate where she is going when she gets to her study overview. Her methods and results continue that story. Finally, her discussion concludes that story, discussing her findings, implications of her work, and the need for more research in the area of gender and financial risk taking.
The abstract gives a concise summary of the contents of the report.
- Abstracts should be brief (about 100 words)
- Abstracts should be self-contained and provide a complete picture of what the study is about
- Abstracts should be organized just like your experimental report—introduction, literature review, methods, results and discussion
- Abstracts should be written last during your drafting stage
The introduction in an experimental article should follow a general to specific pattern, where you first introduce the problem generally and then provide a short overview of your own study. The introduction includes three parts: opening statements, literature review, and study overview.
Opening statements: Define the problem broadly in plain English and then lead into the literature review (this is the "general" part of the introduction). Your opening statements should already be setting the stage for the story you are going to tell.
Literature review: Discusses literature (previous studies) relevant to your current study in a concise manner. Keep your story in mind as you organize your lit review and as you choose what literature to include. The following are tips when writing your literature review.
- You should discuss studies that are directly related to your problem at hand and that logically lead to your own hypotheses.
- You do not need to provide a complete historical overview nor provide literature that is peripheral to your own study.
- Studies should be presented based on themes or concepts relevant to your research, not in a chronological format.
- You should also consider what gap in the literature your own research fills. What hasn't been examined? What does your work do that others have not?
Study overview: The literature review should lead directly into the last section of the introduction—your study overview. Your short overview should provide your hypotheses and briefly describe your method. The study overview functions as a transition to your methods section.
You should always give good, descriptive names to your hypotheses that you use consistently throughout your study. When you number hypotheses, readers must go back to your introduction to find them, which makes your piece more difficult to read. Using descriptive names reminds readers what your hypotheses were and allows for better overall flow.
In our example above, Briel had three different hypotheses based on previous literature. Her first hypothesis, the "masculine risk-taking hypothesis" was that men would be more willing to take financial risks overall. She clearly named her hypothesis in the study overview, and then referred back to it in her results and discussion sections.
Thais and Sanford (2000) recommend the following organization for introductions.
- Provide an introduction to your topic
- Provide a very concise overview of the literature
- State your hypotheses and how they connect to the literature
- Provide an overview of the methods for investigation used in your research
Bem (2006) provides the following rules of thumb for writing introductions.
- Write in plain English
- Take the time and space to introduce readers to your problem step-by-step; do not plunge them into the middle of the problem without an introduction
- Use examples to illustrate difficult or unfamiliar theories or concepts. The more complicated the concept or theory, the more important it is to have clear examples
- Open with a discussion about people and their behavior, not about psychologists and their research
Writing the Experimental Report: Methods, Results, and Discussion
Your method section provides a detailed overview of how you conducted your research. Because your study methods form a large part of your credibility as a researcher and writer, it is imperative that you be clear about what you did to gather information from participants in your study.
With your methods section, as with the sections above, you want to walk your readers through your study almost as if they were a participant. What happened first? What happened next?
The method section includes the following sub-sections.
I. Participants: Discuss who was enrolled in your experiment. Include major demographics that have an impact on the results of the experiment (i.e. if race is a factor, you should provide a breakdown by race). The accepted term for describing a person who participates in research studies is a participant not a subject.
II. Apparatus and materials: The apparatus is any equipment used during data collection (such as computers or eye-tracking devices). Materials include scripts, surveys, or software used for data collection (not data analysis). It is sometimes necessary to provide specific examples of materials or prompts, depending on the nature of your study.
III. Procedure: The procedure includes the step-by-step how of your experiment. The procedure should include:
- A description of the experimental design and how participants were assigned conditions.
- Identification of your independent variable(s) (IV), dependent variable(s) (DV), and control variables. Give your variables clear, meaningful names so that your readers are not confused.
- Important instructions to participants.
- A step-by-step listing in chronological order of what participants did during the experiment.
The results section is where you present the results of your research-both narrated for the readers in plain English and accompanied by statistics.
Note: Depending on the requirements or the projected length of your paper, sometimes the results are combined with the discussion section.
Continue with your story in the results section. How do your results fit with the overall story you are telling? What results are the most compelling? You want to begin your discussion by reminding your readers once again what your hypotheses were and what your overall story is. Then provide each result as it relates to that story. The most important results should go first.
Preliminary discussion: Sometimes it is necessary to provide a preliminary discussion in your results section about your participant groups. In order to convince your readers that your results are meaningful, you must first demonstrate that the conditions of the study were met. For example, if you randomly assigned subjects into groups, are these two groups comparable? You can't discuss the differences in the two groups until you establish that the two groups can be compared.
Provide information on your data analysis: Be sure to describe the analysis you did. If you are using a non-conventional analysis, you also need to provide justification for why you are doing so.
Presenting Results: Bem (2006) recommends the following pattern for presenting findings:
- Remind readers of the conceptual hypotheses or questions you are asking
- Remind readers of behaviors measured or operations performed
- Provide the answer/result in plain English
- Provide the statistic that supports your plain English answer
- Elaborate or qualify the overall conclusion if necessary
Writers new to psychology and writing with statistics often dump numbers at their readers without providing a clear narration of what those numbers mean. Please see our Writing with Statistics handout for more information on how to write with statistics.
Your discussion section is where you talk about what your results mean and where you wrap up the overall story you are telling. This is where you interpret your findings, evaluate your hypotheses or research questions, discuss unexpected results, and tie your findings to the previous literature (discussed first in your literature review). Your discussion section should move from specific to general.
Here are some tips for writing your discussion section.
- Begin by providing an interpretation of your results: what is it that you have learned from your research?
- Discuss each hypotheses or research question in more depth.
- Do not repeat what you have already said in your results—instead, focus on adding new information and broadening the perspective of your results to you reader.
- Discuss how your results compare to previous findings in the literature. If there are differences, discuss why you think these differences exist and what they could mean.
- Briefly consider your study's limitations, but do not dwell on its flaws.
- Consider also what new questions your study raises, what questions your study was not able to answer, and what avenues future research could take in this area.
Example: Here is how this works.
References should be in standard APA format. Please see our APA Formatting guide for specific instructions.
Tables, Appendices, Footnotes and Endnotes
Appendices: When appendices might be necessary
Appendices allow you to include detailed information in your paper that would be distracting in the main body of the paper. Examples of items you might have in an appendix include mathematical proofs, lists of words, the questionnaire used in the research, a detailed description of an apparatus used in the research, etc.
Format of appendices
Your paper may have more than one appendix. Usually, each distinct item has its own appendix. If your paper only has one appendix, label it "Appendix" (without quotes.) If there is more than one appendix, label them "Appendix A," "Appendix B," etc. (without quotes) in the order that each item appears in the paper. In the main text, you should refer to the Appendices by their labels.
The actual format of the appendix will vary depending on the content; therefore, there is no single format. In general, the content of an appendix should conform to the appropriate APA style rules for formatting text.
Footnotes and Endnotes: When footnotes/endnotes might be necessary
Because APA style uses parenthetical citations, you do not need to use footnotes or endnotes to cite your sources. The only reasons you need to use footnotes are for explanatory (content) notes or copyright permission. Content footnotes contain information that supplements the text, but would be distracting or inappropriate to include in the body of the paper. In other words, content footnotes provide important information that is a tangent to what you are discussing in your paper.
The footnote should only express one idea. If it is longer than a few sentences, then you should consider putting this information in an appendix. Most authors do not use footnotes because they tend to be distracting to the readers. If the information is important, authors find a way to incorporate it into the text itself or put it in an appendix.
If you are including a quote that is longer than 500 words or a table or figure in your paper that was originally published elsewhere, then you need to include a footnote that acknowledges that you have permission from the owner of the copyright to use the material.
See our APA guidelines on Footnotes and Endnotes for more information.
When to use tables
Tables enable you to show your data in an easy to read format. However, you do not need to present all of your data in tabular form. Tables are only necessary for large amounts of data that would be too complicated in the text. If you only need to present a few numbers, you should do so directly in the text, not in a table.
How to use tables
Each table should be identified by a number, in the order that they appear in the text (e.g., Table 1, Table 2, etc.). When using a table, you need to refer to the table in the text (e.g., "As shown in Table 1,…") and point out to the reader what they should be looking for in the table. Do not discuss every piece of data that is in the table or else there is no point in having the table. Only mention the most important pieces of information from the table.
The table should also make sense on its own. Be sure to explain all abbreviations except standard abbreviations such as M, SD, and df. Don’t forget to identify the unit of measurement.
APA style has a specific format for tables. Tables should appear at the end of your paper, after the reference list and before any appendixes. Every table needs a unique title after its label. The title should be brief but clearly explain what is in the table.
References and Sources for More Information
The following is a list of works consulted when creating this guide and recommendations for additional information.
Bem, D. J. (2003). Writing the empirical journal article. In J.M. Darley, M. P. Zanna, & H. L. Roediger III (Eds), The Compleat Academic. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
An updated, online version of Bem's article is available.
This article is often required reading for most new graduate students and is one of the best sources on writing empical articles. The article provides a thorough overview of how to write a successful empirical journal article. Bem presents information what to write about, specific details about format of paragraphs and sections, writing methods, results, discussions, on revision, and on style.
Delvin, A. S (2006). Research Methods: Planning, Conducting, and Presenting Research. Thompson Wadsworth, Belmont, CA.
Delvin's book provides an excellent introduction to all phases of the experimental research project, including an extensive section on writing and presenting results. This book is very easy to understand and is, therefore, an excellent introduction for undergraduate students new to writing and conducting research in psychology.
Thaiss, C and Sanford, J (2000). Writing For Psychology. Allyn and Bacon, Needham Heights, MA.
Thaiss and Sanford provide an excellent overview of both formatting and writing processes for psychology students. They include information on presentations, written exams, experimental reports, and critical reviews.


Culture of Puerto Rico
The culture of Puerto Rico is the result of a number of international and indigenous influences, both past and present. Modern cultural manifestations showcase the island's rich history and help to create an identity which is a melting pot of cultures - Taíno (Aboriginal/First Nation/Indigenous), European (Spanish, Canary Island, Corsican and Irish), African(West African), Anglo American (U.S.A.), Latin/Caribbean, Asian especially Japanese and Chinese,Hawaiian, and other influences.
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A subgroup of the Arawakan aboriginals (a group of Native Americans in northeastern South America), inhabited the Greater Antilles (comprising Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola [Haiti and the Dominican Republic],.
The Taíno culture impressed both the Spanish Europeans (who observed it) and modern sociologists. The Arawakan achievements included construction of ceremonial ball parks whose boundaries were marked by upright stone dolmens, development of a universal language, and creation of a complicated religious cosmology. There was a hierarchy of deities who inhabited the sky; Yocahu was the supreme Creator. Another god, Jurakán, was perpetually angry and ruled the power of the hurricane. Other mythological figures were the gods Zemi and Maboya.
The zemis, a god of both sexes, were represented by icons in the form of human and animal figures, and collars made of wood, stone, bones, and human remains. Taíno Indians believed that being in the good graces of their zemis protected them from disease, hurricanes, or disaster in war. They therefore served cassava (manioc) bread as well as beverages and tobacco to their zemis as propitiatory offerings. Maboyas, on the other hand, was a nocturnal deity who destroyed the crops and was feared by all the natives, to the extent that elaborate sacrifices were offered to placate him.
Myths and traditions were perpetuated through ceremonial dances (areytos), drumbeats, oral traditions, and a ceremonial ball game played between opposing teams (of 10 to 30 players per team) with a rubber ball; winning this game was thought to bring a good harvest and strong, healthy children.
The Taíno aboriginals lived in theocratic kingdoms and had a hierarchically arranged chiefs or caciques. The Taínos were divided in three social classes: the naborias (work class), the nitaínos or sub-chiefs and noblemen which includes the bohiques or priests and medicine men and the caciques or chiefs, each village or yucayeque had one.
At the time Juan Ponce de León took possession of the Island, there were about twenty villages or yucayeques, Cacique Agüeybana, was chief of the Taínos. He lived at Guánica, the largest Indian village in the island, on the Guayanilla River. The rank of each cacique apparently was established along democratic lines; his importance in the tribe being determined by the size of his clan, rather than its war-making strength. There was no aristocracy of lineage, nor were their titles other than those given to individuals to distinguish their services to the clan.
Their complexion were bronze-colored, average stature, dark, flowing, coarse hair, and large and slightly oblique dark eyes. Men generally went naked or wore a breech cloth, called nagua, while single women went naked and married women wore an nagua to over their genitals, made of cotton or palm fibers, the length of which was a sign of rank. Both sexes painted themselves on special occasions; they wore earrings, nose rings, and necklaces, which were sometimes made of gold. Taíno crafts were few; some pottery and baskets were made, and stone, marble and wood were worked skillfully.
Skilled at agriculture and hunting, then Taínos were also good sailors, fishermen, canoe makers, and navigators. Their main crops were cassava, garlic, potatoes, yautías, mamey, guava, and anón. They had no calendar or writing system. Their personal possessions consisted of wooden stools with four legs and carved backs, hammocks made of cotton cloth or string for sleeping, clay and wooden bowls for mixing and serving food, calabashes or gourds for drinking water and bailing out boats, and their most prized possessions, large dugout canoes, for transportation, fishing, and water sports.
Caciques lived in rectangular huts, called caneyes, located in the center of the village facing the batey. The naborias lived in round huts, called bohios. The construction of both types of building was the same: wooden frames, topped by straw, with earthen floor, and scant interior furnishing. But the buildings were strong enough to resist hurricanes. It is believed that Taíno settlements ranged from single families to groups of 3,000 people.
About 100 years before the Spanish invasion, the Taínos were challenged by an invading South American tribe - the Caribs [Glos.]. Fierce, warlike, sadistic, and adept at using poison-tipped arrows, they raided Taíno settlements for slaves (especially females) and bodies for the completion of their rites of cannibalism. Some ethnologists argue that the preeminence of the Taínos, shaken by the attacks of the Caribs, was already jeopardized by the time of the Spanish occupation. In fact, it was Caribs who fought the most effectively against the Europeans, their behavior probably led the Europeans to unfairly attribute warlike tendencies to all of the island's tribes. A dynamic tension between the Taínos and the Caribs certainly existed when the Christopher Columbus landed on Puerto Rico.
When the Spanish European settlers first came in 1508, since there is no reliable documentation, anthropologists estimate their numbers to have been between 20,000 and 50,000, but maltreatment, disease, flight, and unsuccessful rebellion had diminished their number to 4,000 by 1515; in 1544 a bishop counted only 60, but these too were soon lost.
At their arrival the Spaniards expected the Taíno Indians to acknowledge the sovereignty of the king of Spain by payment of gold tribute, to work and supply provisions of food and to observe Christian ways. The Taínos rebelled most notably in 1511, when several caciques (Indian leaders) conspired to oust the Spaniards. They were joined in this uprising by their traditional enemies, the Caribs. Their weapons, however, were no match against Spanish horses and firearms and the revolt was soon ended brutally by the Spanish forces of Governor Juan Ponce de León.
As a result, Taíno culture, language, and traditions were generally decimated, and were claimed to have "vanished" 50 years after Christopher Columbus arrived. Since the early 21st century, efforts have been made to revive and rebuild Taíno culture.
In order to understand Puerto Rico's prehistoric era, it is important to know that the Taínos, far more than the Caribs, contributed greatly to the everyday life and language that evolved during the Spanish occupation. Taíno place names are still used for such towns as Utuado, Mayagüez, Caguas, and Humacao, among others.
Many Taíno implements and techniques were copied directly by the Europeans, including the bohío (straw hut) and the hamaca (hammock), the musical instrument known as the maracas, and the method of making cassava bread. Many Taino words persist in the Puerto Rican vocabulary of today. Names of plants, trees and fruits includes: maní, leren, ají, yuca, mamey, pajuil, pitajaya, cupey, tabonuco and ceiba. Names of fish, animals and birds includes: mucaro, guaraguao, iguana, cobo, carey, jicotea, guabina, manati, buruquena and juey. As well as other objects and instruments: güiro, bohío, batey, caney, hamaca, nasa, petate, coy, barbacoa, batea, cabuya, casabe and canoa. Other words were passed not only into Spanish, but also into English, such as huracan (hurricane) and hamaca (hammock). Also, many Taíno superstitions and legends were adopted and adapted by the Spanish and still influence the Puerto Rican imagination.
The most profound European influence is that of Spain, the island's colonizer. Spanish influence is the most notable of all cultural influences in Puerto Rican culture. Spanish heritage has left an indelible mark on the island, and signs of this cultural exchange can be found everywhere, from the official language to the local culinary styles.
The culture of European countries has also influenced the development of the performing arts on the island, especially in music. Many of the island's musical genres have their origins in the Spanish culture, which is responsible for such genres of music as decima, seis, danza, mambo, etc.
With the introduction of slavery to the colony, the island experienced an influx of Africans who brought with them the cultural trappings of their own tribes. These influences are evident in the fields of dance and music, such as la bomba, la plena, and most recently in reggaeton ,which is an Afro-Caribbean based Puerto Rican genre, as well as influences in Puerto Rican Spanish, and Puerto Rican cuisine.
The presence of African diasporic religions, such as Santeria, is due to African influence. More subtle ties also exist, such as those that connect Puerto Rico's literary history with the rich African tradition of oral storytelling. Also, all Afro-Caribbean, Afro-Latino, and African American cultural influences from the United States, neighboring Caribbean islands, and Puerto Rico itself, are largely African in origin.
Caribbean and Latin America
The shared African heritage of many Caribbean nations is reflected in cultural pursuits like dance, as well as in local culinary styles. Most regional influences are Latino and Afro-Caribbean. The neighboring islands that have had the most influence on Puerto Rico's dance and music are Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Jamaica. Panama has shared its great passion for Spanish Reggae with Puerto Rico, the Spanish language version of Jamaican Reggae. Eventually Reggaeton, a Puerto Rican break-off of original Spanish Reggae, became very popular throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, the US and Spain.
Puerto Rican artists helped create Salsa music with Cuban artists, and also helped Dominican artists with the development of Merengue. Recent Haitian and Dominican immigration has been producing many new cultural influences. Significant cultural exchange has been evident between Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, especially the islands of St. Croix, Vieques, and Culebra, such as Puerto Rican style Patois mixed with Spanish.
A number of Latin American countries have also exerted influence on Puerto Rico, particularly in helping the island to develop its own distinct cultural identity. In the filmmaking community, co-productions between Puerto Rico and other Latin American countries have created an exchange of ideas and influenced their film conventions. For instance, the Latin sense of humor and fantastical elements are evident in Puerto Rican films.
(ASIAN ESPECIALLY JAPANESE/CHINESE and also Hawaiian Influences)
Large-scale Japanese and Chinese immigration to Puerto Rico and the Caribbean began during the 19th century. ASIAN immigrants had to face different obstacles that prohibited or restricted their entry in Puerto Rico.
When Puerto Rico was a Spanish colony, the Spanish government did not encourage settlers of non-Hispanic origin. Although the Spanish government changed its policy with the passage of the Royal Decree of Graces (Real Cédula de Gracias) of 1815, the decree was intended to attract non-Hispanic Europeans who were willing to swear their allegiance to the Roman Catholic Church, not non-Christian Asians.
After Spain ceded Puerto Rico to the United States in accordance to the Treaty of Paris of 1898, Chinese immigrants were confronted with the United States' passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882), which forbade the entry and immigration of Chinese nationals to the United States and its territories. After 1943, when the Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed, and particularly in the 1950s, when hundreds of Cuban Chinese fled Cuba after Fidel Castro came to power, many more Chinese immigrants went to Puerto Rico. and present day Chinese Puerto Ricans are involved in operating Chinese restaurants, and others work in other sectors. Many members of Puerto Rico's Chinese minority have integrated both Puerto Rican and Chinese cultures into their daily lives. Some Chinese have intermarried with Puerto Ricans and many of today's Chinese-Puerto Ricans have Hispanic surnames and are of mixed Chinese and Puerto Rican descent, e.g., Wu-Trujillo.
Various businesses are named Los Chinos (The Chinese) and a valley in Maunabo, Puerto Rico is called Quebrada Los Chinos (The Chinese Stream). The Padmasambhava Buddhist Center, whose followers practice Tibetan Buddhism, has a branch in Puerto Rico.
Los Chinos de Ponce (English: "The Chinese from Ponce"), formally "King's [Ice] Cream", is an ice cream store whose owners are descendants of Chinese immigrants who arrived in Puerto Rico via Cuba in the early 1960s. The ice cream parlor, which is in front of the town square, Plaza Las Delicias, opposite the historic Parque de Bombas, opened in 1964.
Illegal immigration of Chinese nationals has become a problem in Puerto Rico. On November 28, 2007, the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that 15 citizens of the People's Republic of China were arrested and indicted for human smuggling. According to the indictment, the defendants participated in an alien smuggling organization operating out of the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. The organization was transporting, moving, concealing, harboring and shielding aliens. They arranged the transportation and moving of Chinese nationals from the Dominican Republic into the United States. but there are many great things Asians have brought to Puerto Rico including great culinary dishes such as fried rice and sushi that has mixed with Puerto Rican food.
Culturally, Puerto Rican sentiment for the U.S. tends to vary between emulation and opposition, a result of the complicated socio-political relationship between the two. Since establishment as a United States Commonwealth in 1898, traditional economics, social structure, nationalism, and culture has been affected in Puerto Rico.
Before the United States captured Puerto Rico from Spain in 1898, the colony was agriculture based. Most worked on sugar cane, tobacco, or coffee plantations. Through the beginning of the 20th century, Puerto Ricans remained agricultural. Operation Bootstrap, an operation of the United States and Puerto Rico's Economic Development Administration, began in 1942 and was put in place to transform Puerto Rico into an industrial colony. Government owned factories were built to shift development to industrial factory work and, eventually, education of the factory work force. The growth of Puerto Rican industry changed the outlook on familial social structure.
Traditionally, the Puerto Rican family was a large, three generation family living in the same home or as neighbors. The family was built around a set of parents or a single mother, and the family was sustained through multiple wage earning jobs. As the industrial revolution progressed, women found factory jobs more easily than men, becoming the bread winners. The Puerto Rican family structure changed to a small, nuclear matriarchy consisting of only immediate family members.
The United States ideal of small, patriarchal families also impacted the contemporary Puerto Rican family structure in policy. In an attempt to demolish poverty in shantytowns, the Puerto Rico Housing Authority established public housing by example of United States policy. The public housing further disenfranchised the large multi-generation family by dividing nuclear families into public, single-family dwellings. Links to extended family are still an important aspect to the culture of Puerto Rican family structure, however they have been significantly weakened.
The relationship between the United States and Puerto Rico makes national identity complicated. Puerto Ricans maintain United States citizenship while aligning with a uniquely Puerto Rican heritage. Although the island's culture is not heterogeneous, Puerto Rico establishes several binary oppositions to the United States: American identity versus Puerto Rican identity, English language versus Spanish language, Protestant versus Catholic, and Anglo-Saxon heritage versus Hispanic heritage.
Another issue splitting national identity is political ideals on Puerto Rico's national status. There are three primary positions: pro-Commonwealth, pro-statehood, and pro-independence. Basically, Puerto Rican identity has been developed in rejection to American cultural identity. Since United States citizenship was instated, about half of the pre-Commonwealth population of Puerto Rico has relocated to the continental United States. Generally, those who have relocated to the United States are not considered part of the Puerto Rican nation. This is probably due to the cultural identification that exists to the opposition of American culture.
American influences such as jazz can be found in the development of the island's unique musical style, but there is also evidence of cultural antagonism, particularly in areas such as literature. This dichotomy also exists in cinema, which has been greatly influenced by the U.S.
With its commonwealth status, Puerto Rico has always attracted U.S. studios to shoot in the commonwealth, and film genres popular in the States during specific periods were often mirrored in contemporary Puerto Rican productions. However, other films delve into issues springing from the complex relationship between the two countries. Much film produced in Puerto Rico focuses on the complicated national identity of Puerto Ricans. For example, in the film La Guague Aerea directed by Luis Molina Casanova, Puerto Rican identity is expressed as "one that expands beyond the islands geo-political boundaries...portrayed in a state of constant transit between island and mainland political, social and cultural sites."  Aside from producing film for political commentary, Puerto Rico also is a large market for film landscape. The Puerto Rico film commission has instated incentives for film production on the island. Some major motion pictures filmed in Puerto Rico include The Men Who Stare at Goats and the Pirates of the Caribbean series.
- Cinema of Puerto Rico - the island's own film industry, as well as its role in international cinema.
- Cuisine of Puerto Rico
- Puerto Rican literature - literary achievement has helped Puerto Rico gain international acclaim.
- Music of Puerto Rico - music on the island blends diverse cultural influences. Performing arts such as dance are an integral part of cultural expression.
- Art in Puerto Rico - Puerto Ricans have contributed a great deal to the world of visual arts.
- Sports in Puerto Rico
- Cultural diversity in Puerto Rico
- Corsican immigration to Puerto Rico
- French immigration to Puerto Rico
- German immigration to Puerto Rico
- Irish immigration to Puerto Rico
- Spanish immigration to Puerto Rico
- List of Puerto Rican slang words and phrases
- African influence in Puerto Rican culture
- Puerto Rican people
- Puerto Rico Convention Center. "Puerto Rico: Culture". About Puerto Rico.
- ""Puerto Rico: Culture", Puerto Rico Convention Center.". Archived from the original on January 2, 2007. Retrieved January 4, 2007.
- Morales Carrión, Arturo (1983). Puerto Rico: A Political and Cultural History. New York: Norton & Co.
- "Taino Tribal Census Registration: A Record of Hope and Survival". La Salita Cafe. Retrieved 28 November 2014.
- •The Indigenous People of the Caribbean •In Defense of the Indians : The Defense of the Most Reverend Lord, Don Fray Bartolome de las Casas, of the Order of Preachers, Late Bishop of Chiapas •The Tainos: Rise & Decline of the People Who Greeted Columbus Other Resources •Arawaks •Cacicazgos del Siglo 16 •Caciques, Nobles, and their Regalia •Indigenous Puerto Rico: DNA evidence upsets established history •The Jatibonicu Taino Tribal Nation •The New Old World - Antilles: Living Beyond the Myth. •Tainos
- Ayala, Cesar J. and Bernabe, Rafael. Puerto Rico in the American Century: A History Since 1898. The University of North Carolina Press, 2007, p. 14.
- Mintz, Sidney W. "The People of Puerto Rico Half a Century Later: One Author's Recollections" in The Journal of Latin American Anthropology. Vol. 6, Issue 2, p. 76.
- Cook, James. "Operation Bootstrap" in Forbes. Vol. 150, Issue 4, p. 50.
- Safa, Helen. "The Transformation of Puerto Rico: The Impact of Modernization Ideology" in Transforming Anthropology. Vol. 19, Number 1, p. 47.
- Safa, Helen. "The Transformation of Puerto Rico: The Impact of Modernization Ideology" in Transforming Anthropology. Vol. 19, Number 1, p. 46.
- Safa, Helen. "The Transformation of Puerto Rico: The Impact of Modernization Ideology" in Transforming Anthropology. Vol. 19, Number 1, p. 48.
- Dunay, Jorge. "Nation on the Move: The Construction of Cultural Identities in Puerto Rico and the Diaspora" in American Ethnologist. Vol. 27, Issue 1, p. 10.
- Dunay, Jorge. "Nation on the Move: The Construction of Cultural Identities in Puerto Rico and the Disapora" in American Ethnologist. Vo. 27, Issue 1, p. 12.
- Falcon, Angelo. "The Diaspora Factor: Stateside Boricuas and the Future of Puerto Rico" in NACLA Report on the Americas. Vol. 40, Issue 6, p. 40.
- Dunay, Jorge. "Nation on the Move: The Construction of Cultural Identities in Puerto Rico and the Diaspora" in American Ethnologist. Vol. 27, Issue 1, p. 22.
- Maldonado-DeOliveria, Debora. "Problematic Ideas of Puerto Rico in Puerto Rican Cinema: Luis Molina Casanova's La Guagua Aerea" in Centro Journal. Vol. 23, Issue 1, p. 163.
- Maldonado-DeOliveria, Debora. "Problematic Ideas of Puerto Rico in Puerto Rican Cinema: Luis Molina Casanova's La Guagua Aerea" in Centro Journal. Vol. 23, Issue 1, p. 164.
- "Menu." Puerto Rico Film Commission. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Dec. 2013.
- Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, a government agency dedicated to the study, preservation, and development of Puerto Rican culture


Baking is a sacred ritual, one that requires simple ingredients: water, salt, yeast, and flour. But there is another ingredient that is just as necessary: time. The time for seeds to be planted, for wheat stalks to grow tall and turn from green to golden brown, the time for threshing, for cleaning, for milling, for mixing, for kneading. Time for dough to ferment and rise. Time for dough to be rolled thin for tortillas. The story of White Sonora wheat is one of time, patience, and listening to the land.
The history of White Sonora wheat in the Sonoran desert begins with the people who brought it here and the people who grew it. In the seventeenth century, Spanish and Italian missionaries brought White Sonora’s precursor, a candeal soft white wheat, to the desert. By 1640, Opata and Lowland Pima Indian farmers were growing the wheat near Tuape, Sonora. When Father Eusebio Francisco Kino arrived in Sonora in 1687, he brought the now well-established crop northward. Among the many crops the missionaries brought, White Sonora endured because it was drought-and disease-resistant, thriving in the arid Sonoran landscape.
Maribel Alvarez, an anthropologist at the University of Arizona’s Southwest Center, has written extensively on White Sonora wheat. She found a reference to the grain in one of Father Kino’s journal entries from 1710 where he discusses bringing the grain to Pima and Yuma Indians: “I sent … grain and seed which had never been seen or known there, to see if it would yield as well as in those other fertile new lands; and it did yield and does yield very well.”
Ethnobotanist Amadeo Rea says the introduction of wheat “completely altered the life of the Pimans. Before they had this winter crop, the Tohono O’odham were entirely dependent on the summer rains for agriculture, [and] could raise but a single crop a year—if everything went right.” White Sonora meant that Pima and Tohono O’odham now had a viable winter crop to sustain their communities. Dams were built of mesquite branches to direct water and nutrient-rich silt to fields and wheat was harvested using sickles. Threshing was done with horses or mules on circular threshing floors called eras in Spanish, and the cleaned wheat was made into flour on volcanic grindingstones called taunas.
The Pima—along with Yaquis, Maricopas, Yumas, and Hispanics—adopted White Sonora wheat into their cuisine, making posole (poshol in Piman)—wheat berries soaked, cooked, and mixed with tepary beans—and huge flatbreads known as tortillas de las aguas (che’chemait in Piman). The White Sonora wheat was ideal because of the protein content that allowed dough to stretch very thin.
Over time, Alvarez says wheat “became integrated into the social fabric of communities that grew it, harvested it and consumed it.” In public art, in home décor, in religious festivals and cuisine, she says, Sonorans began to incorporate wheat as an indelible part of life.
For more than three centuries, White Sonora was one of the principal crops grown in the Sonoran desert. As industrialization of farming took root following World War II, cereal scientists and grain breeders began to think about how to stabilize and secure staple crops like wheat. Combining wheat bred to be high-yield and fertilizer-responsive with artificial fertilizers, pesticides, and irrigation systems, farmers in arid climates were no longer dependent on drought-resistant grains. Farmers planted seed from short breeds to avoid rot and mold caused by stalks toppling from wind and rain.
While these changes helped farmers increase yields, something was lost. We lost diversity in the grains we consume. We lost our connection to eating what was adapted to grow in our local ground. We lost our connection to the earth.
Conservation scientist Gary Paul Nabhan, the co-founder of Native Seeds/SEARCH, first spotted some of the last remnants of White Sonora wheat when he worked with farmers in northern Mexico in 1976. By the 1980s, no one was growing White Sonora wheat in the larger valleys of Arizona or Sonora, says Nabhan. The Nobel Prize-winning plant breeder Norman Borlaug had developed one of the first Green Revolution wheat varieties, Sonora 64—a semidwarf, high-yield, disease-resistant variety—purportedly using White Sonora as breeding material. In addition to the advent of commercial farming, Nabhan attributes the demise of White Sonora to a series of droughts and freezes, as well as a generation of farmers dying out, and with them, the knowledge and infrastructure required for traditional wheat farming. According to Jeff Zimmerman of Hayden Flour Mills in Phoenix, there were 44 mills established in Arizona Territory between 1865 and 1912. Today, there are only two.
In 2012, a coalition of local organizations was awarded a $50,000 USDA Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) grant to bring White Sonora soft wheat and chapalote flint corn back into the local food chain.
“There’s a lightbulb that goes off. Oh my gosh, this is what bread should taste like.”
People were drawn to the grain for many reasons. For Native Seeds/SEARCH, bringing back White Sonora was aligned with its mission of preserving heritage seeds. Research and education program manager Joy Hought says, “For us, it’s about climate change and bringing back crops that don’t abuse or overuse our natural resource.” Grants and special project manager Chris Schmidt adds, “Twenty to 30 years from now, these crops are going to be more important than ever. We need to work to preserve genetics and build the infrastructure for production now.”
In addition to the SARE grant, Glenn Roberts, founder of Anson Mills in South Carolina, donated 5,600 pounds of White Sonora wheat seed over a three-year period so farmers wouldn’t have to face the expense of seed in addition to more labor and less yield.
While a variety of heirloom crops have been growing in popularity over the years, extra enthusiasm and effort was needed to bring back heirloom grains. “Harvesting wheat involves complicated and technical processes,” says Hought. “It’s not the same as other crops where you can just pluck the apple off the tree and get it to the consumer. You have to get the grain at the right time. You have to thresh and clean it. Jeff Zimmerman has spent the last few years learning how to mill it; it’s a craft.”
Jeff Zimmerman grew up in North Dakota on a wheat farm; as the farm changed hands from his grandfather to his father, and now to his cousin, he witnessed the industrialization of the farm. A manager at an insurance company by day, Zimmerman has always prioritized food; so has his wife, a nutritionist, and their five children. Years ago, Zimmerman developed a passion for bread baking. But he found that even when he took the time to make bread from scratch, he was dissatisfied with the end result: “It tasted empty,” he says.
Zimmerman began milling his own flour and became inspired to restart the well-known Phoenix-based Hayden Flour Mills, a mill that had closed in 1998 after a 15-year decline. That dream kicked into high gear after the 2010 Farmer+Chef Connection, where Jeff met Marco Bianco, baker for Pane Bianco and brother of Chris Bianco, restaurateur and James Beard award-winning chef.
At his famous Pizzeria Bianco, Chris is committed to using the freshest ingredients and sourcing them locally; for years, he had been looking for a way to access locally grown and milled grain. Emma Zimmerman, Jeff’s second eldest and his business partner, had two degrees in bioengineering and was pursuing a Ph.D. in bioethics when she returned home to help her father with his passion project.
“I don’t know if Chris and Marco thought that we were serious, that we were really going to do it,” says Emma, laughing. They were. Jeff Zimmerman ordered a stone mill from Austria and soon it was installed at the back of Pane Bianco.
Although it was a tight fit, being housed in the kitchen of Pane Bianco had its perks. Marco Bianco could immediately experiment with the freshly milled flour and offer feedback.
“If you work in a marble quarry, you don’t necessarily see the statues. But if you are a miller and you’re working next to my brother every day, it’s a pretty interesting relationship when you are working, vetting things out. How was the hydration of it? Was the protein too high or low? So that dialogue became beneficial,” Chris says.
Bringing back White Sonora involved bringing back infrastructure for smaller crops—from farming and harvesting, to cleaning and milling—that no longer existed. At first, the Zimmermans were ordering the freshest grain they could find from out of state, but when Nabhan approached them about heritage grains, they immediately came on board. The first farmers they approached did not.
Emma explains. “The whole reason industrialized farming works is they have bred these grains to be high yielding; they’re very short and dense. You plant an acre and you’ll get 5,000 pounds. You go back to heritage and you get 2,000 pounds.”
But when the Zimmermans approached an old family friend, Steve Sossaman of Sossaman Farms, he agreed to grow their first crop of 10 acres of White Sonora in 2011 as a personal favor. But that first season made growing heritage grains a passion for him as well, Emma says; he recently renovated his old pole barn into a milling space complete with a tasting room.
Hayden Flour Mills is now working with five farmers growing 20 varieties of heritage grains. In 2014, they grew 300 acres of grain. With 200 wholesale customers nationally, Hayden Flour Mills can barely keep up with demand. Tucsonans can pick up their flour at Whole Foods, Native Seeds /SEARCH, Time Market, and at some farmers’ markets, or taste it in local restaurants like Zona 78, Gallery of Food, Canyon Ranch, Agustín Kitchen, Proper, Food for Ascension, and Pizzeria Bianco.
In 2014, Hayden Flour Mills was one of nine companies to win Martha Stewart’s American Made contest, showcasing American companies doing innovative work. The award included a $10,000 prize, a trip to New York, and a spread in Martha Stewart Living.
“People just seem to react to eating Marco’s bread, or eating a really good bread,” Emma says. “There’s a lightbulb that goes off. Oh my gosh, this is what bread should taste like. Even me, starting out, I didn’t think about flour. It’s just powder in a bag. You don’t think about where it comes from. All of a sudden, you think: Why does this taste so good and what is it made of? And you realize, Oh, this is rye or barley; there’s all this amazing diversity behind it. I think it goes back to people tasting the food that is made with these really good ingredients.”
At $10 to $12 for a one and a half pound bag, Hayden’s flour is two to three times as expensive as conventional all-purpose flour. “This used to be something I apologized for,” Emma says. “But now, I say: Isn’t it amazing that you now get this grain that didn’t even exist in this region five years ago at your Whole Foods? You treat it differently. This is the true cost of flour. We are so out of touch with what food costs.”
Hayden Flour Mills offers educational discounts to schools to make their flour more accessible, and they hope that over time, as heritage grains grow in popularity and infrastructure is established, heritage flour will be available to everyone.
Riding down a road in Marana, past the mid-century steel silos that signal arrival at BKW Farms, fourth-generation farmer Brian Wong points outside his window to the small field that has just been furrowed up, brown dirt piled alongside shallow ditches waiting for seeds to be planted. This was the very field BKW used to grow its first round of organic White Sonora wheat three years ago.
BKW just celebrated its 75th anniversary but this was its first venture into organic farming and the first time it had grown heritage grains since the Green Revolution. BKW’s main crops are cotton and durum; the wheat is exported in its entirety to Spain. Not a part of the SARE grant, BKW Farms became involved after farmers Ron Wong and Karen Dotson attended the Native Seeds/SEARCH grain school and learned about heritage grains such as White Sonora wheat. They realized that more and more local restaurateurs, brewers, and bakers were becoming interested in local heritage grains, which gave them an opportunity to grow crops that would stay in the local foodshed.
In 2012, they obtained 1,800 pounds of White Sonora seed from Native Seeds/SEARCH’s inventory and planted their first crop of certified organic White Sonora on 15 acres. For their conventionally grown wheat, they typically get 7,000 pounds an acre. With ideal weather that initial growing season, their first harvest yielded a total of 40,500 pounds, or 2,700 pounds per acre. Inside their climate-controlled storage room are the fruits of their harvest: huge white totes holding tons of the small tan berries. Because of their high yield, they were able to donate double the amount they borrowed back to the seed bank.
This year, they will plant two new heritage grains: organic Red Spring and organic Durum White. (They’re also growing barley to be made into beer by local breweries.)
“We know how to grow things,” Wong says. “The biggest problem is not growing but the selling and making sure people want what we are growing.”
At Ramona Farms, Ramona and Terry Button are growing White Sonora wheat not only because of its growing market, but also because of its history. When Schmidt asked the couple to help bring back heritage grains by cleaning White Sonora wheat and Pima Club seed, and growing half of it, they immediately agreed. They planted 15 acres and returned double their yield.
Growing White Sonora wheat fit with Ramona Farms’ commitment to honoring traditional farming done by the Pima Indians. Today, Ramona and her daughter Velvet do outreach on the reservation and teach the importance of reintroducing native crops into modern diets, hoping to instill pride in young people for what their ancestors did to develop agriculture in Arizona.
Terry credits the work of organizations like Native Seeds/SEARCH and individuals like Nabhan and Rea for providing a market for place-based heritage grains. “Health-conscious people are wanting to improve their diets. Native foods are being introduced to high-end restaurants,” he says. “It’s gratifying for us because we think maybe there will be a market. Without a market, we can’t preserve seeds just with seed banks. Seeds have an expiration date. They have to be replotted and grown back and that seed stock needs to be replenished. If we do have a market, we can save these crops. Indian corns, tepary beans, heritage grains—they contain survival qualities we need. If we can preserve diversity in seed stock that have other traits, we could avert famine in the future.”
A soft wheat, White Sonora, when ground, crumbles. The density of the flour makes it challenging when used on its own for bread, which requires more elasticity, but White Sonora is perfect for pastas and pastries. The taste is hearty, fresh, of the earth. Marco Bianco bakes with White Sonora for cookies, biscotti, and tarts. Barrio Bread’s Don Guerra uses 12 percent of the grain in his baguette mix because the soft flour adds contrast to the harder varieties he uses.
In Marco’s kitchen, loaves made of Red Fife and soft wheat are set aside to proof while other oval loaves in the oven have begun to develop a dark brown crust. A historian in the guise of a baker, he knows not only every property of White Sonora wheat but also every detail of its history in the history of farming and milling in Arizona.
Marco likens modern all-purpose flour to having one kind of red wine. While all-purpose flour has good baking properties, bakers have no idea what kinds of grain are being used. “The thing we eat the most, we know the least about,” he says.
He now works with 12 varietals for the assortment of bread, tarts, and pastries he makes for the Bianco restaurants. “If you were growing your own wheat and making bread every day you would start to know the tendencies of that varietal. We lost that. We’re starting to get it back now,” he says.
Bringing back local heritage grains farmed without the use of chemicals in growing or baking may allow for more people to have access to wheat. Marco says, “It’s really in the last 10 to 12 years that there’s been an explosion of people with gluten problems. When the bread is allowed to have a long fermentation, it breaks down the gluten so it is more digestible. In commercial baking, components are added to the bread to mimic the natural fermentation process but do it in less time. Commercial bakers making 10,000 loaves a day want bread to be done in three and half hours, start to finish. It takes 18 to 24 hours for one of my breads.”
And, he says, “If you look at the back of the bread label, there are 25 ingredients you can’t pronounce,” Marco says. “My bread has four ingredients: a sourdough starter made from wild yeast, water, flour, salt.”
No research exists that proves products made with heritage grains are better nutritionally or digestively. Joy Hought says, “There are too many variables: breeding, growing, processing baking.” But anecdotally, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. “People with nonceliac gluten sensitivity who buy our flour to go home and bake with, come back and tell us they didn’t have the reactions they typically have,” Emma Zimmerman says.
Some argue that it is conventional farming techniques rather than fast-track baking that leads to potential allergic reactions in consumers. “My dad had a list of best practices for conventional farming methods for wheat,” Emma says. “It lists 30 chemicals that you spray on that crop. The last one is spraying Roundup so it all dries up uniformly. That [ends up] in the wheat head.”
No one involved in the process of bringing back White Sonora wheat to the local foodshed will take credit. Conversations are filled with effusive storytelling about the others involved. Emma Zimmerman credits the Biancos for making space for their mill. Marco Bianco says Jeff Zimmerman was the spark that got the whole thing going. Chris Bianco praises Glenn Roberts for donating the initial seeds and Gary Nabhan and Chris Schmidt for connecting folks around the SARE grant, which provided much needed money and infrastructure to get the project going. BKW expressed gratitude for the bakers and local brewers, who have been vital in communicating both their support and what they need in their grains.
But everyone is excited about the success of bringing back White Sonora wheat, not only because of its value to our palate and our pantry, but also because in doing so, they have developed a model for bringing back other wheat varieties.
In our modern world, urgency is a part of daily life. We are always on our way somewhere, always checking our devices. We don’t sit still; we don’t have much patience. In a culture in which humans have often attempted to control the land rather than listen to it—where time is commodified rather than respected and honored—returning these heritage grains is a radical act.
“A broken tradition is now revived,” Nabhan says. “We affirmed White Sonora’s value in the very place where Norman Bourlaug won a Nobel Prize for breeding high-yield wheat. It reminds us these things aren’t obsolete.”
Chris Bianco says that everything is about communication and connection. “We’re in the relationship business. We are in relationship with each other, our consumers, our environment,” he says. “I’m just a little raindrop. For this thing to work it’s going to take a big puddle, a pond, and an ocean of change. We are all a part of change.” ✜
Hayden Flour Mills. 480.557.0031. HaydenFlourMills.com.
Native Seeds/SEARCH. 3061 N. Campbell Ave. 520.622.5561. NativeSeeds.org.
BKW Farms. Info@bkwazgrown.com. BKWAZGrown.com.
Ramona Farms. Arizona 87. 520.418.3642. RamonaFarms.com.
Pane Bianco. 4404 N. Central Ave. 602.234.2100. PizzeriaBianco.com.
Lisa O’Neill originally hails from New Orleans but has made her second home in the desert, where she writes and teaches writing. Find her online at The Dictionary Project or at lisamoneill.com.


SPEECH UNIT Part 2: Language & Mass Communication IB11 Language and Literature RESEARCH • Using your SMART phones, research: • Nelson Mandela (imprisonment and President of South Africa) • Springbok Rugby Team • Apartheid (what was this in South Africa? Groups involved?) • Movie, Invictus MORGAN FREEMAN PORTRAYING NELSON MANDELA IN THE MOVIE INVICTUS • Context: The National Sports Council has just voted to change the colors, emblem and name of South Africa’s National Rugby Team, the Springboks. Upon hearing the news, Nelson Mandela (portrayed by Morgan Freeman) rushes to the meeting to persuade the Council to reconsider its vote. • Audience: • Purpose: • Effects: WHAT DOES THE TEXT SAY? • Text: Brothers, sisters, comrades, I am here because I believe you have made a decision with insufficient information and foresight. I am aware of your earlier vote. I am aware that it was unanimous. Commentary: Mandela lets the Council know from the outset that he disagrees with them. However, he is respectful of their authority and explicitly recognizes their vote and the fact that the vote was unanimous. WHAT DOES THE TEXT SAY? • Text: Nonetheless, I believe we should restore the Springboks. Restore their name, their emblem and their colors, immediately. • Commentary: He states his position clearly, forcefully and at the outset. There is no room for doubt. He still has his work cut out for him, but everyone knows where he stands. Coming clean with his audience at the outset will not likely win much support – but it should earn him some respect for having the courage to state his convictions openly. WHAT DOES THE TEXT SAY? • Text: Let me tell you why. On Robben Island, in Pollsmoor Prison, all of my jailers were Afrikaners. For 27 years, I studied them. I learned their language, read their books, their poetry. I had to know my enemy before I could prevail against him. • Commentary: Here begins the argument. He immediately seeks common ground with his audience. And that ground is obvious – the years of oppression that they all suffered under Apartheid. Of course, Mandela had it worse than most; but he doesn’t pity himself. Instead, he talks about the effort he went through to understand the “enemy” – a strong word – in order to prevail against him. WHAT DOES THE TEXT SAY? • Text: And we did prevail, did we not? All of us here … we prevailed. #1 Commentary: ?? WHAT DOES THE TEXT SAY? • Commentary: Again, seeking common ground. And also letting the audience know, subtly, that they have already won. There is no need to continue to fight. WHAT DOES THE TEXT SAY? • Text: Our enemy is no longer the Afrikaner. They are our fellow South Africans, our partners in democracy. • #2 Commentary: ?? WHAT DOES THE TEXT SAY? • Commentary: This comes as a shock to many in the audience, but Mandela has to get his point out: times have changed; we need to work together to build the country. It is here that he starts to appeal to his audience to think about a higher ideal. • Text: And they treasure Springbok rugby. If we take that away, we lose them. We prove that we are what they feared we would be. • #3 Commentary: ?? WHAT DOES THE TEXT SAY? • Commentary: Emphasizing that rugby is something more than a sport for the Afrikaners; it is something that runs deep within them. Note the gesture with his fist. And note also the caution at the end that the Council risks becoming, in a sense, as oppressive as the Afrikaners had been in the past. This is a powerful rhetorical tool – showing the audience that their position is similar to something against which they are adamantly opposed. WHAT DOES THE TEXT SAY? • Text: We have to be better than that. We have to surprise them with compassion, with restraint, and generosity • #4 Commentary: ?? WHAT DOES THE TEXT SAY? • Commentary: Another call to a higher ideal. WHAT DOES THE TEXT SAY? • Text: I know. All of the things they denied us. • #5 Commentary: ?? WHAT DOES THE TEXT SAY? • Commentary: Again recognizing the suffering of the audience in the past. WHAT DOES THE TEXT SAY? • Text: But this is no time to celebrate petty revenge. This is the time to build our nation using every single brick available to us – even if that brick comes wrapped in green and gold. • Commentary: ?? WHAT DOES THE TEXT SAY? • Commentary: But immediately appealing once more to the higher ideal and the importance of using every available resource to build the country. WHAT DOES THE TEXT SAY? • Text: You elected me your leader. Let me lead you now. Who is with me on this? Who is with me? • #6 Commentary: ?? WHAT DOES THE TEXT SAY? • Commentary: Asserting his authority and ending with a call to action. ANY GIVEN SUNDAY • Get into groups • Watch movie trailer • Watch Al Pacino’s speech • Fill in Audience, Purpose, Effects (of speech) • For group assignments: What do you notice in the speech? What’s Pacino saying? What’s the effect of different elements that you notice? High light these elements and write down notes. --Write down notes ANY GIVEN SUNDAY • Get into combined groups and compare notes • Present notes to class. Class take notes. “WHAT’S IN YOUR BACK PACK?” • Get into groups • Watch movie trailer • Watch George Clooney’s speech • Fill in Audience, Purpose, Effects (of speech) • For group assignments: What do you notice in the speech? What’s Clooney saying? What’s the effect of different elements that you notice? High light these elements and write down notes. --Write down notes WHAT’S IN YOUR BACK PACK? • Get into combined groups and compare notes • Present notes to class. Class take notes. COMP. BOOK #6 • What makes a good speech? • What does a speaker need to do? • What have you noticed works well in Morgan Freeman’s speech as Nelson Mandela and Al Pacino/George Clooney’s speeches? ANALYZING SPEECHES WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SPEECHES AND RHETORIC? • Greek philosopher Aristotle defined rhetoric as “the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion.” Basically, it is the study and the art of using language effectively to persuade an audience. Speakers use rhetoric to persuade or compel the audiences of their speeches. CONTEXT & PURPOSE • Rhetoric is always situational – it has a context – the occasion or the time and place it was written or spoken – and a purpose or goal that the speaker or writer wants to achieve. CONTEXT • When considering context – consider current events or cultural bias that the speaker must take into account. PURPOSE • When considering purpose – ask if the speaker is trying to win agreement, persuade us to take action, evoke sympathy, make someone laugh, inform, provoke, celebrate, repudiate, put forth a proposal, secure support, or bring about a favorable decision ARISTOTLE’S RHETORICAL TRIANGLE • Before looking at the construction of arguments, it is first necessary to look at their shape and form. To do this, we must recognize that arguments occur within a social context--they are the process/product of people interacting, and relating. Over the years, several scholars have mapped out these relations, much as you would a family tree. Aristotle was the first to notice the similarities of arguments and stories. For Aristotle, the act of storytelling consisted of three elements: a story, a storyteller, and an audience. ARISTOTLE’S RHETORICAL TRIANGLE Storyteller------------------------>Story----------------------------->Audience Similarly, arguments also required these three elements: Speaker/Writer--------------------->Message------------------->Audience ARISTOTLE’S RHETORICAL TRIANGLE • Aristotle defined these three elements as ETHOS, LOGOS, and PATHOS. Since then, different scholars have conceived of different models of rhetoric, but the model we are concerned with comes from Robert Scholes. Realizing the three elements, Scholes examined the relationship between the speaker/message, speaker/audience, and message/audience. These three relations make up the three sides of the rhetorical triangle. You may use this triangle to map out the overall effectiveness of an argument. ARISTOTLE’S RHETORICAL TRIANGLE Note how the equilateral triangle below would refelct an argument with a careful balance of ethos, logos, and pathos. HOW DO SPEAKERS USE RHETORIC TO PERSUADE AUDIENCES? • According to Aristotle, speakers use the three corners of the rhetorical triangle to persuade audiences. ETHOS • Ethos – represents the author's ability to reveal his or her credibility through the tone established, his/her reputation, or the type or thoroughness of the information being presented. (speaker) ETHOS PATHOS • Pathos - represents the author's ability to appeal to the audience through the use of figurative language, allusions, personal anecdotes, etc. to engage their emotions. (audience) http://www.storyboardthat.com/userboards/kated/pathos-in-action PATHOS LOGOS • Logos - represents the author's ability to reveal logic and reason through their offering of a clear claim (or main idea), specific details, examples, facts, statistical data, or expert testimony and support. (subject) http://www.storyboardthat.com/userboards/kated/logos-in-action LOGOS YOUR TURN • You are to write appeals based on ethos, pathos and logos. • Your appeals must all be based on the same product or idea. • Be creative. • Have fun. • We will share these with the class. WORKS CITED • Docimo, Katherine. "Ethos, Pathos, Logos." Storyboardthat.com. N.p., 13 June 13. Web. 19 Sept. 14. DICTION • How does diction play a role in rhetoric? DICTION • The words speakers use shape an audience’s impression. Understanding how diction works is paramount to understanding rhetoric. QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER WHEN ANALYZING DICTION: • Which of the important words in the passage (verbs, nouns, adjectives, and adverbs) are general and abstract? Which are specific and concrete? What is the effect of abstract words? What is the effect of concrete words? • Are the important words used formal, informal, colloquial, or slang? What is the effect of using formal diction? What is the effect of using slang? • Are some words used non-literal or figurative (figures of speech such as a metaphor or simile)? What is the effect of using a metaphor or simile? SYNTAX • Another important aspect to consider is syntax, or the organization of words into sentences QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER WHEN ANALYZING SYNTAX: • What is the order of the parts of the sentence? Is it the usual (subject-verbobject), or is it inverted? What is the effect of an inverted sentence? • Which part of speech is more prominent – nouns or verbs? What is the effect of a noun-heavy sentence? • What are the sentences like? Are they periodic (moving toward something important at the end) or cumulative (adding details and support as important idea in the beginning of the sentence)? What is the effect of using a periodic sentence? • Are the sentences short, medium length, or long? What is the effect of the length of sentences? “THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS” • Take out your phones or computers. • Research The Battle of Gettysburg RHETORICAL DEVICES • The speech is full of rhetorical devices. • Each of these devices was chosen by Lincoln for a specific effect. YOUR TASK • Rewrite the speech removing ALL rhetorical features from it. • You are to create a speech with the same meaning, but without any flourish. • You will do this with your tablemate. • While you do this, I will check off your speech terms set. ENUMERATIO • Figure of amplification in which a subject is divided into constituent parts or details, and may include a listing of causes, effects, problems, solutions, conditions, and consequences; the listing or detailing of the parts of something. WARM UP: ENUMERTIO • "Much will be said about my father the man, the storyteller, the lover of costume parties, a practical joker, the accomplished painter. He was a lover of everything French: cheese, wine, and women. He was a mountain climber, navigator, skipper, tactician, airplane pilot, rodeo rider, ski jumper, dog lover, and all-around adventurer. Our family vacations left us all injured and exhausted. He was a dinner table debater and devil's advocate. He was an Irishman, and a proud member of the Democratic Party." -- Ted Kennedy, Jr., Eulogy for Ted Kennedy, Sr. http://www.americanrhetoric.com/figures/enumeratio.htm WARM-UP: ENUMERATIO Kramer: "Who's gonna turn down a Junior Mint? It's chocolate; it's peppermint; it's delicious." Seinfeld: "That's true." Kramer: "It's very refreshing!“ -- from the TV sitcom Seinfeld http://www.americanrhetoric.com/mp3clips/figures/seinfeldenumeratio.mp3 COMP. BOOK #8: SPEECH TERM WARM-UP: ENUMERATIO • Write a series of sentences which employ enumeratio. BACKGROUND RESEARCH “THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS” PRESENTATION • Group Work • #1: Abraham Lincoln • #2: “The Gettysburg Address” • #3: The Battle of Gettysburg Directions: 1) Label each piece of butcher paper with title of subject (e.g. Abraham Lincoln) 2) List at least 6 facts about your assigned topic 3) Present your poster C.A.P.E. • Context: • Audience: • Purpose: • Effect(s): LISTEN TO “THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS” • Colin Powell https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mn4pUQmimOc • Ken Burns https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndmcgAsA1aI DISCUSS “THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS” • What do you notice? • What is Abraham Lincoln saying? PARALLELISM Parallelism: Figure of balance identified by a similarity in the syntactical structure of a set of words in successive phrases, clauses, sentences; successive words, phrases, clauses with the same or very similar grammatical structure. This figure often occurs in a public address with others such as antithesis, anaphora, asyndeton. WARM-UP: PARALLELISM • "Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.“ -- John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address http://www.americanrhetoric.com/mp3clips/figures/jf kparallelism.mp3 WARM-UP: PARALLELISM • "I've tried to offer leadership to the Democratic Party and the Nation. If, in my high moments, I have done some good, offered some service,shed some light, healed some wounds, rekindled some hope, or stirred someone from apathy and indifference, or in any way along the way helped somebody, then this campaign has not been in vain." -- Jesse Jackson, 1984 Democratic National Convention Address http://www.americanrhetoric.com/mp3clips/figures/jessejacksonparallelism.mp3 WARM-UP: PARALLELISM • "We have seen the state of our Union in the endurance of rescuers, working past exhaustion. We've seen the unfurling of flags, the lighting of candles, the giving of blood, the saying of prayers -- in English, Hebrew, and Arabic." George W. Bush, 9-20-01 Address to the Nation on Terrorism http://www.americanrhetoric.com/mp3clips/figures/georgewbushparallelism. mp3 COMP. BOOK #8: SPEECH TERM WARM-UP: PARALLELISM • Write a series of sentences which employ parallelism. ANAPHORA • Anaphora (an-NAF-ruh): Figure of repetition that occurs when the first word or set of words in one sentence, clause, or phrase is/are repeated at or very near the beginning of successive sentences, clauses, or phrases; repetition of the initial word(s) over successive phrases or clauses. WARM-UP:ANAPHORA • "To raise a happy, healthy, and hopeful child, it takes a family; it takesteachers; it takes clergy; it takes business people; it takes community leaders; it takes those who protect our health and safety. It takes all of us."-- Hillary Clinton, 1996 Democratic National Convention Address Note: Can you spot the alliteration? http://www.americanrhetoric.com/mp3clips/figures/ hillaryclintonanaphora.mp3 WARM-UP: ANAPHORA • "That my heart has been troubled, that I have not sought this nomination, that I could not seek it in good conscience, that I would not seek it in honest self-appraisal, is not to say that I value it the less. Rather, it is that I revere the office of the Presidency of the United States."-- Adlai Stevenson, 1952 DNC Presidential Nomination Acceptance Address http://www.americanrhetoric.com/mp3clips/figures/adlaistevensonanaphora. mp3 WARM-UP: ANAPHORA • "What we need in the United States is not division. What we need in the United States is not hatred. What we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness; but is love and wisdom and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country whether they be white or whether they be black." -- Robert F. Kennedy, Announcing the death of Martin Luther King http://www.americanrhetoric.com/mp3clips/figures/rfkanaphora.mp3 “SECOND INAUGURAL” • Today we are going to start looking at Lincoln’s “Second Inaugural” speech. • What is an inaugural speech? INTRODUCTION • Write an introduction as if you were writing an analysis essay for “The Gettysburg Address” • Details • Begin with a “hook” • Consider the background research you’ve done --The Battle of Gettysburg (1/3) --”The Gettysburg Address” (2/3) • Include a claim as the last sentence • Must be 5-8 sentences in length INTRO. HOOK---FIVE STRATEGIES • Make a controversial statement • Ask a question • Define your subject • Compare your subject to something compelling • Quote someone else BACKGROUND RESEARCH “SECOND INAUGURAL” Directions: GOAL: Establish context and purpose of this speech 1) Research Lincoln’s speech 2) Write down at least 6 facts on the back of the speech that you found. 3) Walk around room and add your research to the hanging posters. Your contribution must be original ANALYZING A SPEECH •What should do after you have established the context for the speech? ANALYZING A SPEECH • Read for comprehension • Circle unknown or interesting words • Patterns DISTINCTIO • Distinctio: Figure of explication (full explanation) in which an introductory reference to a word's meaning is made (e.g., "by x I mean", "which is to say that", "that is") followed by a further elaboration of that word's meaning; explicit definition of or elaboration upon the meaning or meanings of a particular word or set of words. WHICH RHETORICAL DEVICE IS IT? • "Let me walk you through the five procedural errors that occurred in conjunction with that mission [the flying of 12 cruise missiles back to Barksdale AFB, Louisiana] that facilitated this serious and unprecedented incident. As you see here -- if we'll bring up slide 1, please -- on the morning of August 29th, a team of Minot airmen was dispatched to the base Weapons Storage Area to pick up and transport two pylons to a Barksdale B52 aircraft. For those of you unfamiliar with the term "pylon," for our purposes today, a pylon is a self-contained package of six cruise missiles that can be quickly mounted to the wing of a B-52."-- U.S. Department of Defense briefing on B-52 munitions and the "Bent Spear" incident, delivered 20 October 2007 by Major General Richard Y. Newton III, USAF http://www.americanrhetoric.com/figures/distinctio.htm WHICH RHETORICAL DEVICE IS IT? • "I've been in football all my life, really, and I want to say this -- that it's a great game, and it's a Spartan type of game. I mean by that it takes Spartan qualities in order to be a part of it, to play it. And I speak of the Spartan qualities of sacrifice and self-denial rather than that other Spartan quality of leaving the weak to die." -- Vince Lombardi http://www.americanrhetoric.com/mp3clips/figures/vincelombardidistinctio.m p3 DISTINCTIO • "It was the best of times, it was the -- I say -- worst of times -- andby worse I'm talkin' as bad -- I say -- as bad as my aunt Jenny's corn puddin'. That stuff will sink you like a stone."-- delivered by Foghorn Leghorn for GEICO http://www.americanrhetoric.com/figures/distinctio.htm COMP. BOOK # DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. “I Have a Dream” BACKGROUND RESEARCH “I HAVE A DREAM” Directions: GOAL: Establish context and purpose of this speech • Research King’s speech • Write down at least 10 facts for the following topics: 1. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 2. Civil Rights Movement (1960s) 3. “I Have a Dream” Speech SHARE RESEARCH • Get together in larger group according to topic • Discuss research • Compile research and create word doc. with top 10 points to be shared with the class • Email doc. to Mrs. Milstead: [email protected] TIME DUE: 1:15 • Groups present their research to the class. • Audience to take notes ANALYZING A SPEECH •What should do after you have established the context for the speech? ANALYZING A SPEECH • Read for comprehension • Circle unknown or interesting words • Patterns “I HAVE A DREAM” • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smEqnnklfYs ANALYZING A SPEECH •The Big 5 of textual analysis •Tone/ Mood Sheet ANTITHESIS • Antithesis (an-TIH-theh-sis): Figure of balance in which two contrasting ideas are intentionally juxtaposed, usually through parallel structure; a contrasting of opposing ideas in adjacent phrases, clauses, or sentences. Ex: "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose" -- Jim Elliot • Ex: Lloyd Braun: "Serenity now; insanity later." -from Seinfeld episode "The Serenity Now" WHICH RHETORICAL DEVICE IS IT? • "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!"-- Martin Luther King, Jr., I Have a Dream http://www.americanrhetoric.com/mp3clips/figures /martinlutherkingantithesis.mp3 WHICH RHETORICAL DEVICE IS IT? • "The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here."-Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address (delivered by Jeff Daniels) http://www.americanrhetoric.com/mp3clips/figures/abrahamlincolnantithesis. mp3 ANTITHESIS • "...although the surface appears to be...very, very fine-grained as you get close to it. It's almost like a powder...Okay, I'm going to step off the LEM now. That's one small step for [a] man; one giant leap for mankind."-- Neil Armstrong, Apollo 11 Moon Landing Speech http://www.americanrhetoric.com/mp3clips/figures/ neilarmstrongantithesis.mp3 ANNOTATE THE SPEECH • Individually annotate assigned section • With a partner: • Share annotations/ continue to annotate assigned section of the speech for rhetorical terms • Prepare a PowerPoint presentation • Read passage • Explain what passage is about • Present annotations & their effects • Submit to turnitin.com • PowerPoint should be clear and easy to understand and see MINI SPEECH ASSIGNMENT • Speech opening, position, and point • 500 words MLA format MINI SPEECH ASSIGNMENT— BRAINSTORM TOPIC Individually…. Choose topic 1. State position 2. What points are you going to cover * Complete this work beneath the rubric on the back of the assignment sheet. Table partners… Share what you brainstormed MINI SPEECH ASSIGNMENT— OUTLINE I. Outline due: Friday, Oct. 10th A. typed B. bring two copies to class **Reference Milstead sample outline from Mrs.