After completing the post class assessment online, I feel really good about everything I have learned this semester and even last semester. I felt really good about the questions it asked and like all my answers were truthful and valid. Before this class, I think my biggest issue was tending to sound biased in my writing, but after this class, I feel a lot more equipped on how to successfully write a persuasive or non-persuasive essay without sounding like I am leaning towards one side more than the other. I also now know what a genre is and how to really integrate that into my writing. I still have a long way to go on my writing skills and future papers, however, I feel greatly equipped for the upcoming years and what I have learned so far from this Writing class. It has definitely made me a lot more confident in my writing style and shown me many different aspects of writing and literature that I did not even know existed.

1. So far for my research I have made a sutori, planned out my strategy on how Pinelake College is a community, and conducted interviews/attended PL College to answer some of the questions that I have surrounding it.
2. I still need to touch up my interview process and I need to come up with a plan on how I am going to get the word out about Pinelake College and truly exemplify and show people how exactly to become a part of this community.
3. I don’t think I really have any concerns regarding my research at the moment! Sometimes it can be a bit challenging to find information/research on my topic or regarding my topic but other than that it is going great!
4. So far, all of my research has gone pretty good. I was a little confused on what exactly a scholarly source was so I did not do to great on my MP 2, however, now I know a bit more about it and I know what to look for in the future. My research has really shown that it is not just Ann Johns or in class that we talk about having a discourse community and the importance of it. In fact, a lot of my research has shown a lot of people talk about it and see it as something really important to have in life! It was really refreshing to see how many people agreed with the research that I was doing that being a part of a community, more specifically being a part of a church community is really important and can be extremely beneficial to your life. Overall, I am really happy with the research that I have done so far and I have found out a lot more details about the importance of a discourse community and seen a lot more perspectives to it that I never would have thought of before!

On Wednesday, March 10, I attended Pinelake College and talked to a few fellows as well as chatted with a well known resident of Pinelake College. I also was able to experience, like I do every other Wednesday night, Pinelake College for myself.

Some of the research I acquired was:

Q: Is it easy to get involved at Pinelake College and what are ways people who are interested in joining this discourse community can do to get involved?

A: It is super easy to get involved! At the end of each Pinelake College session, there are numbers that you can contact to get involved at PL College, as well as at the end when we are dismissed, there is a station in the back room with people who can provide further information on PL College and what you can do to become a volunteer.

Q: How has PL College changed your life?

A: PL College has given so many opportunities that would not have been possible before it. Many people have become part of their missionary program which is not only helping those in Oxford, but actually allows you to travel all over the world preaching about what it is Pinelake stands for. It has also given many mission work opportunities in places like Belize, India, etc!

Q: Is Pinelake College considered a community?

A: Absolutely. Pinelake College has made so many people feel truly apart of something. Just watching the staff and many who are apart of the staff at Pinelake College has shown that having a community is possible and is something that is so needed in your life. Pinelake College has made so many people feel like they are at home, from working on the work crew, to simply sitting in the crowd, you never feel alone.

I know for a fact that Pinelake College has always made me feel like I have a community and people to fall back on, however hearing other peoples stories on how they got involved at Pinelake College and hearing how they truly feel involved in a community while at PL shows that its not just me who feels this way, its everyone!

 

Reading Journal

Title of Article + Proper MLA Citation for Works Cited page	Putting Ethnographic Writing in Context by Seth Kahn
Summarize the article — include your reaction, thoughts, anything to help you remember its claims. 100 to 150 words	In this article, Seth Kahn talks about what exactly ethnographic writing is. He discusses how ethnographic writing is a writing that is a lot more personal and something that really connects the writer to the reader. A lot of times in writing, an essay can end up sounding more factual than personal however with ethnographic writing, that is the opposite. Ethnography is more about relationship than fact and entirely focuses on the participant-observer relationship.
Define new terms and concepts by quoting or paraphrasing the original author.	Pre-writing: reflections on what you know about the culture you’ll study, what you think you know Journal: a running internal monologue
How does this reading connect to other articles from class and/or your own research?	This reading connects to the last reading we did about formatting essays and making it sound more personal than factual without sounding biased. I think this essay really showed how to write a good ethnographic essay.
Based on the reading, craft one question to act as a springboard for class discussion.	My question about this article would probably be can you use ethnographic writing in all formats of essays? Or does it have to be something that is personal or relating to you. For example, could you use this type of writing in an argumentative essay?

 

1. When writing my draft, I decided to only add in a few details for right now about my topic. I did not want to overpower the essay with fact after fact, so instead I wrote about the necessities and what related to the essay at that moment, and then went from there.
2. I decided this was best because when I conduct my interview, I did not want it to sound like my essay was to repetitive if they said the same things I researched. I thought I added in some good information, but not too much to where the reader or recipient no longer feels interested in the topic or interview.
3. The steps were basically just looking up more information about Pinelake and how it came to be. I wanted to find out more about the roots of this church and then later dive more into Pinelake College.
4. I am obviously biased to Pinelake and Pinelake College because I attend both of them, however, I tried to avoid talking to much about my own experiences there and rather focused on what they do as a whole. I did not want to come across pushy or biased on PL College.
5. I didn’t really form an argument in my essay I would say rather than a build up to PL College. I gave multiple examples of what it is they do and why so many college aged people attend every Wednesday night.
6. I still need to do a bit more research on the history of Pinelake and who actually thought of Pinelake College and I still need to get my interview in regarding PL College.

Reading Journal

  

Title of Article + Proper MLA Citation for Works Cited page	Introduction to Primary Research: Observations, Surveys, and Interviews  By: Dana Lynn Driscoll
Summarize the article — include your reaction, thoughts, anything to help you remember its claims. 100 to 150 words	In this article, Driscoll ultimately went over ways to incorporate research into your work and essays. Driscoll went over how to know which information is relevant to use and ways to primarily research topics in an efficient and useful way that will help make your essay or paper the best that it can be. He even gave some personal examples of how he has used primary researching in the past and how it can be useful to each genre of writing.
Define new terms and concepts by quoting or paraphrasing the original author.	Voluntary participation: using other people with their permission for your primary research Researcher bias: Collecting data and writing about something you might already have previous knowledge on and it sounding a little biased
How does this reading connect to other articles from class and/or your own research?	This article connects to the genres article we read about because this gave another side of the work that goes into writing essays and how it’s not just about writing, it’s about picking a topic/genre and really diving in and doing your research on that specific topic.
Based on the reading, craft one question to act as a springboard for class discussion.	I would say my one question is what are ways to avoid researcher bias? Is it possible to write an essay on something you are already familiar with without sounding bias to one side?

 

Reading Journal

  

Title of Article + Proper MLA Citation for Works Cited page	Assessing Source Credibility for Crafting a Well-Informed Argument  By: Kate Warrington, Natasha Kovalyova, and Cindy King
Summarize the article — include your reaction, thoughts, anything to help you remember its claims. 100 to 150 words	In this article they go over ways to use critical thinking to the maximum capacity and how to use critical reading strategies to help with future or past research papers/essays. They also go over ethos, pathos, and logos and how to analyze and find those in writings and how to use those in your writing. This article really just went over how to approach every assignment and how each assignment or essay is different and how you should approach each essay or reading with critical thinking and strategies.
Define new terms and concepts by quoting or paraphrasing the original author.	A new concept I learned is how sometimes ways that you word things in an essay can often come off as biased and that is the last thing you want to sound like in an essay, especially an informational research essay.
How does this reading connect to other articles from class and/or your own research?	This article connects to the article we read last semester about ethos, logos, and pathos. I remember that article gave a lot of examples on how to incorporate those three strategies into papers. In this article it gave ways to use those ideas but in an unbiased way and how to use them in all sorts of different essays.
Based on the reading, craft one question to act as a springboard for class discussion.	I would say my one question is, is it ever okay to sound biased in an essay. I know that in research assignments you should never sound biased but in personal essays, is it okay to state your personal opinion on a matter in a respectful way?

 

Reading Journal

 

Title of Article + Proper MLA Citation for Works Cited page	Reflective Writing and the Revision Process: What Were You Thinking? By: Sandra L. Giles
Summarize the article — include your reaction, thoughts, anything to help you remember its claims. 100 to 150 words	In this article by Sandra Giles, she discusses how to correctly and efficiently write a reflective essay and ways to make the revision process even better. Reflective writing can be many things but often is either an essay about an experience that one had and are writing about how it affected them. A reflective essay can also be about a reading and writing about what the reading was actually about.  She talks about having “intentions” when writing, meaning having a sense of audience and purpose and what the writer wants for the essay they are writing.
Define new terms and concepts by quoting or paraphrasing the original author.	Process memo: a tool to help the workshop instructor know how to respond to the writers story Reflection/reflective writing: any activity that asks you to think about your own thinking
How does this reading connect to other articles from class and/or your own research?	I think this article connects to pretty much all the other articles we have read this semester. It just provides further information and tips about how to write an excellent essay and ways to revise/reform it to make it the best that it can be.
Based on the reading, craft one question to act as a springboard for class discussion.	My question regarding this article would be how do you write a reflective essay without sounding biased? For example, if you are writing about your personal experience from something is it okay to sound/be biased towards a situation?

 

After reading both essays that those students did, I was actually fairly impressed. There was many strongpoints in both essays with only a few weaknesses. I think the biggest strength that I found to be was the introduction. I thought it set the essay up very well and gave a very good entail as to what was to come later in the essay. The essays also gave a good amount of information about the actual program “S.P.I.T.’s” itself. They also provided some personal experiences into the essay which made it feel a lot more relatable and personal. The weaknesses that I saw was mainly just the structuring. I thought the overall organization of the essays could have been better in order to make the paper really flow and look presentable. However, other than that I thought the paper was pretty well put together. The sources they used were Kerry Dirks, Navigating Genres article, Sean Glatchs personal interview, Ann Johns article on Discourse communities, and the Facebook page about the program SPIT. Overall, other than a few tweaks, I thought the essays were fairly well put together and ultimately got the point across.

Reading Journal

 

Title of Article + Proper MLA Citation for Works Cited page	Understanding Discourse Communities by Dan Melzer
Summarize the article — include your reaction, thoughts, anything to help you remember its claims. 100 to 150 words	In this article, Dan Melzer discusses what a discourse community is and why it is very important in the writing world, especially in the college writing world. He talks about how to get involved or into a discourse community and how gives many examples on the benefits of a discourse community. He even provides personal experiences and relates the idea of discourse community to his own life. He also provides tips on how to start an essay and how to plan a great essay.
Define new terms and concepts by quoting or paraphrasing the original author.	Discourse community: A broadly agreed upon set of common public goals Discourse: can mean any type of communication, from talking/writing to music/media
How does this reading connect to other articles from class and/or your own research?	This article relates to the last article we read in  class about genres. In the last article, we talked about genres and how genre doesn’t just describe music, but a way or writing. In this article, Dan also discusses how important genres in writing can be especially when related to the discourse community.
Based on the reading, craft one question to act as a springboard for class discussion.	I would say my one question would be, is there a way to further involve your discourse community into your writing?