Dr. Ron Strickland of I.S.U. has judiciously defined "situated" and "symptomatic" reading in his "Guidelines for Writing Micro-essay Position Texts" as follows:



Situated reading is reading that "self-consciously" acknowledges the sociopolitical and discursive interests of the reader as it engages the text. Symptomatic reading is based on the assumption that meaning is the effect of particular power/knowledge relations--that meaning is produced in discursive conflict, not inherently or authoritatively given. No text, therefore, can be read in isolation. All texts are implicated in particular ideological frameworks and systems of reading. To read symptomatically is to reconstruct the conditions that enable the text to "make sense" within these frameworks. The symptomatic reading makes visible the suppressed discourses, the naturalized (hence invisible) power relations, the systems of exclusion which allow the text to make sense in particular ways. It is in this sense that symptomatic reading treats the text as a symptom, locating the marks of the text's "dis-ease" relation to itself, reconstructing the problematic concealed by reading from the dominant discourse. Finally, the symptomatic reading should strive to show what interests are served by the ways in which "meaning" is produced and by the kinds of meaning that are made most readily available and/or desirable to us--meanings which seem "natural" or "obvious."

[url=]http://www.wiu.edu/users/mftrias/syl180.htmhttp://www.wiu.edu/users/mftrias/syl180.htm[/url]

Strickland: English 100
Guidelines for Position Texts
In this course we will address such issues as how meanings of texts are generated, and analyze the conditions in which certain texts are privileged as literary. In accordance with Jacques Derrida's argument (in Of Grammatology) that thinking and writing are inseparable, students are required to establish positions through writing. In the position papers, students will take and explain their positions in response to the text(s) in question. These papers should not be summaries, and I would prefer not to get accounts of "gut responses," though gut responses may be interesting "texts" in themselves, and therefore may provide useful points of departure. But I would like for you to analyze the reasons texts produce certain responses.

The position papers should be 200-300 words, though you can write more if necessary, emailed to the course discussion list . Position texts are not formal essays; they can be written in an informal or fragmented style, as discursive outlines, or as notes or "theses" (e. g., Marx's "Theses on Feuerbach").

Position papers should aim toward situated and symptomatic reading of the text(s) or issues in question. Situated reading is reading that "self-consciously" acknowledges the sociopolitical and discursive "interests" of the reader as it engages the text. Symptomatic reading is based on the assumption that meaning is the effect of particular power/knowledge relations--that meaning is produced in discursive conflict, not inherently or authoritatively "given." No text, therefore, can be read in isolation. All texts are implicated in particular ideological frameworks and systems of meaning. To read symptomatically is to reconstruct the conditions that enable texts to "make sense" within these frameworks. The symptomatic reading makes visible the suppressed discourses, the naturalized (hence invisible) power relations, the systems of exclusion which allow the text to make sense in particular ways. It is in this sense that symptomatic reading treats the text as a symptom, locating the marks of the text's "dis-eased" relation to itself, reconstructing the problematic concealed by reading from the position of the dominant discourse. Finally, the symptomatic reading should strive to show what interests are served by the ways in which "meaning" is produced and by the kinds of "meaning" that are made most readily available and/or desirable to us--meanings which seem "natural" or "obvious."
[url=]http://www.cas.ilstu.edu/english/strickland/100/guide100.htm[/url]

Here is apparently an example of a situated reading- this is making my head hurt-
[url=]http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/EPS/PES-Yearbook/94_docs/DAVIS.HTM[/url]

It's not due until Tuesday, I sure wouldn't have started by now when I was in college.