PB2A

            Searching for scholarly articles is something that I have not been as familiar with in past years. I remember starting this research process through databases as early as middle school! In my recent academic career I have not had a reason to look through these databases but this assignment interested me. I chose an article titled “Nonmedical Use of Prescription Medication Among Adolescents Using Drugs in Quebec” provided by CanJPsychiatry for the purposes of illustrating the conventions of an academic scholarly article. This article is a great example of correct academic writing and the topic also produces very interesting information.

            This scholarly discusses the prevalence of nonmedical use of prescription drugs among adolescents in Quebec. There are several elements in the piece that are conventions of scholarly writing. One convention in specific is the use of acronyms. Many scholarly articles have to use long terms that need to be shortened. In order to shorten these frequently used terms, writers use acronyms in place. For example, this article defines nonmedical use of prescription medication as “NMUPUM”(556). This use of acronym helps make writing more concise by shortening the amount of words necessary and is extremely common in this type of writing. Accompanying these acronyms is a key that defines each to make the paper easier to read. An additional convention associated with academic writing is avoiding the use of emotional language. Emotional language is words used to portray a certain feeling or in some cases to sway an argument. Because academic writing is purposed to share information, often from research studies, the writing must come from a reporting standpoint and therefore must not elicit an emotional response. The writing is often used to state facts, so for example, the writer explains that the goal of the research is to demonstrate “that among adolescents who reported using at least one drug in the past year, NMUPM is associated with possibly problematic co-use of alcohol or several illicit drugs during the same period” (560).  This writing shows no emotion and instead shares the facts that were found in this research study. This style of non-emotional writing is common to scholarly articles. The set-up of scholarly articles themselves is also specific to the genre. Headings for each section are provided to give a general idea of what information will be shared. For this paper, the set-up consists of background information, results, and then discussion. These headings prepare the reader to know where the paper is heading. These sections make the article easy to follow and keep the research well organized. These conventions help make up the genre of scholarly articles and together, they set this genre apart from others.

            Understanding part 2 of this prompt was easier than expected with the headings for each section of the article. The purpose of the writing itself was to answer the question of what the prevalence and factors associated with nonmedical use of prescription drugs among adolescents who use drugs in Quebec. In other words, researchers are trying to learn about the health and well being of young people in Quebec and what factors are associated with their drug use. In order to come to conclusions to answer their questions, several tests were conducted. These tests helped test different factors that researchers believed could lead to information that could help answer questions about this phenomenon of drug use with adolescents in Quebec. This information for part 2 was found effortlessly because of the structure of the writing. To answer the last question, I believe the data and discussion sections were the most important to the paper. Without any evidence, no argument can be valid. The data section discussed the findings of the research studies that took place and helped give valid information that would help them answer their questions. The discussion section then analyzed and interpreted the data to help readers understand how they came to conclusions and how this data helped contribute to their knowledge. Without these two sections, the paper would have no relevance and everything that the writers argued would have no purpose.

            I really enjoyed reading this scholarly article. I liked how the headings and separation of the material were formatted. The paper flowed well and was very understandable for me as a reader who knew nothing about the topic. I hope that we work more with this type of writing!

Works Cited

Roy, Elise, Marc-Antoine Nolin, and Issouf Traore. "Nonmedical Use of Prescription Medication

       Among Adolescents Using Drugs in Quebec." Canadian Journal of Psychiatry 60.12 (2015):

       556-63. UCSB. Web. 31 Jan. 2016. 

Thlog #4

       This week in Writing 2 was different than the rest for me. I felt very frustrated at several parts. Coming into class to make the final changes to my paper, I expected that I was going to come to a conclusion about how I wanted to form my thesis quicker than I expected. The prompt for WP1 was broad. Usually I am a big fan of broad, because I like being creative and deciding where to take the path of the paper. For the purposes of this assignment, the creativity stumped me. I have been extremely comfortable in the past being thrown into different styles of writing, but for this one specifically I could not get a grasp. After a lot of digging down and countless failed ideas, I finally came to an idea that I felt comfortable with. Even so, walking into office hours I was unsure how my thesis would be viewed. The advice given to me was to get even more specific. I think the reason that I struggled so much with forming this thesis is because I had never been given any advice similar to this in the past. I learned a lot this week about writing in general that I think will stick with me throughout the years.

         Something else I really enjoyed from this week were the writing tips that we went over in class. I thought that the poemifying project was really interesting. I agree that varying the lengths of the sentences can help make a paper more well written. I also really enjoyed the activity of dissecting a writing assignment. As we continue to write so many different pieces for this class, it’s easy to lose sight of some of the important conventions of writing that can be overlooked. Doing this activity helped me organize and take note of all writing conventions and I think these skills will better my writing.

Thlog #3!

            This week in writing 2 we really learned about the editing process. Each student brought in their drafts of their WP1 and other students in the class edited their work for constructive criticism. I really enjoyed this editing process. I wrote for the school newspaper in high school and know how crucial the editing process is to having a great piece. I liked seeing how others approached the assignment.  This topic for the assignment was very broad and maybe even a little vague. My first draft for the assignment was different than I expected. The hardest part of the draft for me was first choosing the assignment and then the intro.

After the class discussion and editing, I was interested to see that after even completing the first full draft, I did not have a proper thesis for the paper. I did not think it was possible to write a paper without a thesis, but I somehow managed to do so! Because the topic was so broad, I was not sure how to focus my paper. After the class period, I think that I have a better grasp on how to formulate my paper. While I really like being able to be so creative with a topic and do what I please with the paper as long as I am getting the point across that is being asked, I now find how difficult it can be to write something with such little boundaries. I enjoy being able to have freedom and I think that overcoming this challenge as a writer will better my writing skills. In the past I have been so accustomed to creative writing projects, but since I have been in college I have not been in these positions any longer. I think that the editing process in the next 24 hours is going to be more difficult than I once thought but I am excited to see the final product.

Thlog #2

            This week I really enjoyed learning about Rhetorical Analysis. I, like most everyone else, do find myself making observations about people upon meeting them. I am not doing this to judge them but rather I am trying to understand them immediately upon seeing them, which is natural. Also understanding the different elements included in rhetorical analysis, such as exigence and discourse, gave me further meaning to the topic. Rhetorical Analysis especially interested me because I plan to go to law school and I believe that having a good grasp on this and understanding how it works could give me skills that could benefit me in the future.

            On top of our learning on rhetorical analysis, I really enjoyed our in class activities for the week. Every Monday and Wednesday I am excited to get to this class. This is the first class in my college experience in which I have had any sort of interactive learning. Every other class has been lectures from a teacher in which half of what the professor is lecturing in not understandable. In just two weeks of this class, I feel like I have learned so much useful information that is going to help me be a better student and a better writer. This week I really enjoyed the daily process tips during our Monday class. Although these are tips that we should have learned in past years, I enjoyed getting a refresher. Also being able to discuss how we annotate our readings with our classmates helped me change my strategy and I now have a better approach. Working on PB1B was also enjoyable for me. I like finding patterns and I would say that this assignment was just that.

            As we go into this week, I am interested to see how the drafts go for WP1. I feel prepared with everything we have learned so far and I am looking forward on gaining more skills this week.

All Just A Formula

            Over the past week we have learned about genres and I have come to learn that genres can be examined in several ways. A genre is made up of conventions, or several elements that are unique to that category, and by analyzing something based on those conventions, one can assess whether something belongs to a genre or not. I will be examining a few websites to see what their conventions are that make them each their own genre. Because of these conventions, there are processes called genre generators that are able to make productions that fall into a category of a specific genre by simply following their specific conventions.

            SCIGen is a website that generates different research papers in the computer science field. A context-free grammar is the process that helps form each paper. Every paper formulated by the website is different but they all share some similarities. Each article that is created has a distinguished title with extravagant language. The title insinuates that the article is extremely intelligent and well written with many scientific facts. This is what initially drew me into the article. Taking a closer look, it is obvious how these articles are created with a genre generator. Each article’s structure has the same layout. They start with an abstract and end with a list of references. The design intimidates the reader into believing someone distinguished wrote down all of his or her most novel scientific thoughts but in actuality, the structure of the paper is the only scientific part about it. The genre generator was able to dissect the conventions of these papers and create a structure for reproduction.

            Pandyland is another genre generator that I reviewed. Comic strips have many conventions that are specific to the genre. I think that this genre is easier to review than many others because its conventions are mostly visual elements. Boxed pictures, cartoons, and a story line are all crucial elements to a comic strip. This website incorporates all of these elements to create a new comic each time that they are generated. Words to create a story line are also supplemented with each picture to create a story. This website does a great job staying true to the genre and coming up with witty and interesting comics.

            Memes have been used throughout pop culture for amusement and entertainment purposes. The memegenerator provides an emporium of popular memes. Memes have been used throughout social media to refer to pop culture references and different common and relatable issues. Although some have similar qualities, they are all unique. Some important conventions of memes are the focal point in the middle, usually a singular picture, and then a background image. These images are accompanied by a few words to give more depth to the images. The words on the meme tell the story of the picture and usually, but not always, are not in complete sentences. An attribute of memes that are specific to the genre is the font that is used on all of the memes. Another genre-specific element is the shape of the meme, which is a square picture that is always the same size.

            An additonal genre generator that I evaluated was the Fantasy Name Generators. This website helps in generating different book titles for various different fantasy genres. From a list including adventure, drama, and romance, users can choose which fantasy track they want to pick. With each category, a description is included as to what the conventions are for each category. For my evaluation, I chose the romance category. One convention of these titles was the inclusion of love or a love related theme. Understanding that romance is about love helps in understanding why this convention is so important to this specific genre. Other conventions of these titles include themes of pain associated with love, hope for finding love and the association of significant others.

            After evaluating these websites, I am able to better understand genres. Conventions are what make up genres; they are like a formula or checklist that you can use in order to create something that is going to fit your intended category. Each website had their own set of qualifications that they needed to fulfill in order to meet the expectations of their viewers and as long as they met those requirements, they had the freedom to take their projects in any direction that they wanted. Having this mindset to understand genres helped me tie in all of the lessons from this week and I will be watching for patterns now of who is being fully creative and who is following in the steps of a genre generator.

Once Upon A Time......

           When growing up, my parents always wanted me to dream big. They would shield my sister and I from harsh truths of the world and attempt to fill my head with the happiest thoughts possible. Through their own personal experiences as well as implementing books and television shows, they did their best to provide me with exciting stories that would keep my outlook on life the utmost positive. One mechanism that helped them entertain me and keep my spirits high was fairy tales. Simply put, according to Merriam-Webster, a fairy tale is a story involving fantastic forces and beings. They often involve a character using a magical element to work with their environment in order to maintain happiness and peace.

To fully understand what a fairy tale is, it is important to understand its rhetoric features. The purpose of a fairy tale is entertainment. Authors of fairy tales have do not often have any intention of conveying any information through the writing and are not using them to teach any lessons. While sometimes these tales do portray an idea of good versus evil or practicing moral behavior, authors do not often have the intention of providing much more than entertainment from their writing. One of the most important features of fairy tales is the understanding of its intended audience. Fairy tales are most often intended for young children, this being that the stories are never truly based on reality and in order to fully enjoy them, one must not try to understand its content literally. Young children, without much life experience, have a different grasp on reality than those who are older and wiser and because of their viewpoint; they are the best audience for this type of literature. Understanding the context of fairy tales is also extremely necessary to fully grasp them. Fairy tales began as story telling as an oral tradition that was passed down and later became a textual genre that we see today. Once a story was created, people would re-tell the story and pass it on for others to hear. An interesting perspective on the beginnings of fairy tales is that some of the magical elements and themes that are used in the stories may have been somewhat applicable to the time period in which it was created and as the story got passed on became more unbelievable to the audience. The style and tone of fairy tales are also important to the understanding of the genre. Since fairy tales began traditionally with oral story telling, the tone can be described as informal and the style is informative. 

Many tales have been told over time that have been passed down through generations, but fairy tales have unique elements that make them unlike any other genre. A very distinctive feature of a fairy tale is the special beginning and ending words. Most people are familiar with “once upon a time” and it is phrases such as this that bring you into a world outside of reality that set the stage for a unique fairy tale experience. This is the most important feature that defines a story as a fairy tale. Other elements that are included in most all fairy tales are the use of a good and bad character to talk about some universal truth. Whether it is a coming of age story or a focus on hope for love or success, fairy tales most always incorporate the use of a protagonist and an antagonist to portray a truth of the world and in order to figure out this truth, they use magical elements to help them. In addition to these conventions, fairy tales often include patterns. Any recurring numbers or patterns, usually in threes, sixes or sevens, often play a role in the story line.

I found it extremely interesting analyzing what makes a fairy tale unique to its own genre. While there are several types of fairy tales, such as fables and parables, I found that the defining element of the genre is the special beginning and/or ending words. The story in between that beginning of ending has infinite possibilities that could keep it in the category of a fairy tale and I think that is extremely unique for a genre. To be true to the genre, after a long first PB assignment for the writing 2 class, they all lived happily ever after.