PB3A- The New and Improved Research Paper

            This assignment for WP3 has gotten me the most excited for an assignment all year! I love having creative freedom when working with a topic and this assignment definitely allows creativity. Over the course of the quarter we have learned so much about genres and their conventions. Understanding a genre and which audiences they are intended for has become something of great importance over the last few weeks. For this assignment, I will be using the article “The Research Paper, and Why We Should Still Care” by Doug Brent and will be converting the material into an appealing way for a younger audience and then another option that would appeal to an older audience and use my own moves in doing so.

            The article itself focuses on why the research paper is still important in today’s world. When I read through the article tonight, something that stuck out to me was how people were disputing the name “research paper”. People argue that this term is too broad and it does not well define the genre. Instead, a name that people think is better suited for the genre is “reading to write” or “writing from sources”. The article focuses on evidence as to why these terms may better suit the genre and would appeal to those writing. I came up with a very abstract idea to appeal to an older audience. I thought of creating an obituary for the term research paper. In this obituary, I would use the traditional set-up of an obituary to include an announcement of death, biographical sketch, family, service times, special messages and maybe incorporate some type of photos. I would make up some details to fit some of the descriptions but would focus on incorporating history of the research paper that is spread throughout the article. In addition, I would really focus on backing up this information with the transition to the new type of research paper which is considered “writing from sources”. I would make “writing from sources” the new generation, or children, or the formerly known research paper and give more information about this genre and how and why this is different. Although it is abstract, I think that it is unique and would definitely appeal to an older audience while still sharing the information that is included in this article!

            Again, for the genre for a younger audience, this is an extremely abstract idea. I am thinking of doing a product review of the well-known toy “research paper”. This toy has awesome features (all the features of a research paper which I will explain in kid-friendly tones) but unfortunately it is not a great review. This toy is being compared to “writing from sources”, the new toy that hit the block this spring. Both of these toys will be on Amazon.com and will be set up to seem like the customer is trying to decide which to choose. The features of the “toys”, really how these papers are defined differently, will be the main product description for each. I will compare how they are the same and different and make it very realistic with customer reviews and ratings. I think that this idea of toys will be appealing to a younger audience and the comparison between the two definitions will really shine through.

            I really appreciate the amount of creativity we have with this project and I cannot wait to see how it turns out as well as everyone else’s!

Thlog #8

Although I was only in class for one of the days this week, unfortunately, I thought that I learned a lot of material. I thought it was interesting learning about how the rest of the quarter is going to be set up. I really like that for the portfolio we will be able to edit our work and learn from our mistake. In writing classes especially, I think the best way to learn is learning by doing. This course is no exception. Everything that we have learned so far through all the journals and interactive activities really bring light to the material that we are learning. As far as yesterday went, I enjoyed the summarizing activity that we did for the last reading assignment. I liked hearing Zack's more professional summary and seeing how someone who has studied writing for a long time would pick out of the subject. It was interesting to see what my classmates had to say as well. I also enjoyed talking in depth about WP3. I like the assignment a lot. In the beginning of high school I did a similar assignment when I was reading To Kill A Mockingbird in my honors English class. We were supposed to create a different medium to share the story in a way that would be appealing to other people our own age. I decided to make a Facebook page that would share the story and made accounts for the different characters to comment on different posts to give more depth to the material. It was one of my favorite projects to this day and I hope to be doing something as creative and similar for this assignment. I think the trickiest part of the assignment is going to stem from the specificity of the articles. While we are learning about writing and should have a lot to say about it, I feel like I may feel limited in my creativity but I am excited to see what I come up with!

Thlog

This week has been another rough one personally so I am very sorry that this is a day late! I really enjoyed this week of class, although it was short. I continue to be very excited about the level of engagement in this class and this week was no exception. I really enjoyed the peer editing process this week. Seeing other people's work, as well as getting constructive criticism on my own writing, really helps me improve as a writer. In high school I was surrounded by writing and really enjoyed this process, so I am super excited about getting to be editing again. In these peer edits I really liked how we had to comment with questions only. I think that this strategy can really help people improve their writing because they are forced to think deeper about the topic. I have never used this strategy before but I think that it will be very beneficial as I go back and do my drafts again. WP2 has been more tricky for me then I once expected. Although we were warned that this was going to be the most difficult of the three, I again was confused on the structure and content that would be best included for the drafts. I think after time I was able to create a structure that I felt comfortable with, but I was unsure of how to incorporate the moves, mainly. Also, figuring out how to get course readings in the paper was difficult with the amount of readings that were available, but I liked the challenge and will continue to work on the incorporation. I tried my best to do the reverse outlining and really incorporate all of the tips that we have learned throughout the weeks. I think that I am really improving as a writer and I am excited to see how my draft finalizes.

It's All About the Moves- PB2B

            The idea of a “move” is an interesting one. I like to think of moves as actions that people take in order to get closer to accomplishing a goal. These moves can be seen in a wide variety of complexes, but writing is an easy way to see these moves. Every author has individual elements to their writing. These elements are unique actions that they take in their writing, and can be referred to as moves. These moves are very important to differentiating writing from one another. In all of the articles that we have read so far this quarter, all of the authors have distinct qualities within their writing. In the They Say, I Say appendix, several of the moves that they discuss can be seen in these articles that we have read in our class.

·      Introducing Standard Views: In this move, authors try to make claims using the information that appeals to the general public. The wording is general and attempts to keep the playing field level. These are mostly general claims that are assumed as common knowledge. In Navigating Genres, Dirk says that “It is well known that Bob is one of the wealthiest people in Cash City” (256). In this example, Dirk uses the standard view in assuming that this face of Bob’s wealth is commonly known. Many writers incorporate the use of the “standard view”.

·      Introducing Quotations: Many authors supplement their writing with quotations from other sources. These sources could be other people or other research studies that could potentially further their argument. In order to incorporate a quote, one must use a specific format to do so. Using the specific format to incorporate quotations ensures that it is clear to the reader which words are not the author’s own. In Embracing Contraries: Explorations in Learning and Teaching, Peter Elbow uses examples in quotations. Elbow uses correct formatting in this example: As a teacher, it helps me to have these two clear goals in mind when I come across a student about whom I must say, “She clearly is a smart person but why is she so often wrong?” (60). The quote is introduced in the middle of a sentence, so a comma is put in place before the quotations and the end punctuation is inside of the quotations.

·      Capturing Authorial Action: When writing many pieces, it is important to clearly define who is saying what. This often can be accomplished with quotation marks, but in other circumstances, when giving examples of other author’s ideas, authors use particular wording to capture authorial action.  In the “So what, who cares?” piece that we have studied this quarter, there are examples of authorial action. In one of the sentences, it states; “Notice how Grady’s writing reflects the central advice we give in this book…” (94). The wording used clearly demonstrates that Grady is responsible for this concept of the central advice given and that if anyone were to dispute this information, Grady would be responsible.

·      Establishing Why Your Claims Matter: In my opinion, this is probably the most important move. For any argument, it is important to back up your claim with evidence, and then further analyze that claim as to why it is important to your argument. This move is crucial to any well-written piece, because without explaining the importance of your claims, you have very little credibility. Elbow discusses in his piece how it is important to wait in time to revise and backs up his claim by saying that “but if we hold off criticism or revising for a while, we can build a safe place for generative thinking” (61). Elbow elaborates on his reasoning as to why he believes what he does which is crucial to his argument.

·      Adding Metacommentary: This move is used to help the writer be clear in what he or she is trying to say. As mentioned in other moves, the author must distinguish what he or she is saying from other people and must do so in the clearest way possible. Adding metacommentary further clarifies what is happening in writing. A common phrase that is used to clarify in this technique is “In other words,” which Dirk uses in his piece (252). Adding in these phrases keeps the reader on a clear path to understanding the author.

There are several other moves that are used throughout the articles that we have read through. Below I will name some of the moves that I have come up with for these articles.

·      The Bro: In some pieces, authors choose to be extremely informal in their writing style. Dirk often refers to the reader as “you,” which creates a more friendly tone for the reader to understand.

·      What If: Some writers decide to engage the reader by asking them to think of a hypothetical situation so that he or she has a further connection to the writer. Dirk does this when he asks the reader to “think about a time when you were asked to write a research paper” (255).

·      Just Not on Time: Authors sometimes use the technique of delaying a thought to add emphasis. Elbow starts a second paragraph to further a point that he has that he is not content with merely asserting a link (33). He waits to give this information in a separate section so that it is further emphasized.

·      On Display: There are many times when authors put examples on display to further emphasize them. They will take the example and put them in the middle of the paragraph but then create spaces between the top and bottom so that it is clearly distinguishable from the words. This can be seen in the “So What, Who Cares” article.

·      Boom Boom: As certain examples, authors sometimes include bulleted lists of examples or information. These lists help to supplement an authors point and are stated as a list to be more clear and concise rather than writing flowery which would confuse the reader.

Works Cited

Dirk, Kerry. "Navigating Genres." Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. Vol. 1. Parlor.

Print.

Elbow, Peter. Embracing Contraries: Explorations in Learning and Teaching. New York:

Oxford U Press. 1986.

Thlog #5

            To be honest, I was a little out of it this week during sections. I had some personal home issues going on so my mind was wandering, but I did my best to pay as close attention as possible. Something that stuck with me this week was the lesson about moves. The most common term I hear my friends say is “We gotta make moves!” I think of this phrase often and it always makes me think of motivating to take action in some way. The lesson about Moves made me think a little differently. Moves makes me now think of something that is individual to someone. An action that someone takes that is individual to that person. Learning about how this could apply to different types of writing really helped me prepare my PB2B.

            Another topic from this week that I really enjoyed was our lesson on concepts. I enjoy critical thinking and taking a topic and applying it to two different subject fields really made me think differently about the topic. I like being able to take one topic and analyze it from different perspectives, I think that this skill is important to have as a student for research and for writing. Something else that I appreciated during this lesson was that the concept of choosing something that you are interested in to write about was really stressed. I have found over the years that my best pieces were written on topics that I was genuinely interested in researching. I think I lost my love for writing toward the end of high school because I was being told to write essays about books that I did not enjoy so I was really excited for PB2B to be able to research a topic that I was interested in. I am looking forward to seeing how all of these projects help in the progression to WP2!