February 2021 – ashurst

Reading Journal- Kahn

February 22, 2021 ashurst

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?

Critical Thinking Reflection #1

February 19, 2021 ashurst

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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- Driscoll

February 17, 2021 ashurst

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- Warrington, Kovalyova, King

February 3, 2021 ashurst

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- Giles

February 1, 2021 ashurst

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- Melzer

February 1, 2021 ashurst

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?