My research intends to answer questions regarding the community of UKirk. UKirk is a christian community that is primarily of the Presbyterian denomination at the University of Mississippi. Two questions that I would like to focus on in my research are finding out how the genre of Presbyterian differs from other denominations such as Catholicism, Methodist, Baptist, etc., and how the discourse community of the Christian community changed over time. The readers will likely be people who are Christian but people of multiple different denominations who would like to understand the history of their religion and the differences between the genres of the religion. My process of drafting this essay will include doing extensive research on this topic. My planning for this was to write a synthesis paper regarding this semester long project and lay out a plan with some deadlines. I plan to interview multiple people affiliated with the UKirk community to get their perspective on the religion, its history, the Presbyterian denomination and how all of those things can relate to genre and discourse communities. I plan to finish off this semester long project with a video that explains the group and wraps in some topics such as discourse communities from the class. Peer editing helped by telling me to think about deadlines and who exactly within the organization that I should interview.
Driscoll Reading Journal – Feb. 17
| Title of Article + Proper MLA Citation for Works Cited page | Driscoll. “Introduction to Primary Research:
Observations, Surveys, and Interviews.” Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 2, 2011, pp. 153-174. |
| Summarize the article — include your reaction, thoughts, anything to help you remember its claims. 100 to 150 words | It begins by explaining that research is not defined the same in every situation. It explains the difference between secondary and primary research, and why it is important to consider. It then explains that primary research typically comes through one of three major categories: surveys, interviews and observations. The article explains why primary research can break certain ethical codes. The three things that are important when considering the ethics of a study are voluntary participation, confidentiality and anonymity, and researcher bias. It then explains why it is important to have a set plan for your primary research. That process includes narrowing your topic, developing research questions and choosing a data collection method. |
| Define new terms and concepts by quoting or paraphrasing the original author. | Secondary research – studying what’s already been found
Primary research – studying something new, producing new articles and reports on a topic |
| How does this reading connect to other articles from class and/or your own research?
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It connect to the authors they typically had to use some form of secondary or primary research to come up with their articles. |
| Based on the reading, craft one question to act as a springboard for class discussion. | How have you used primary research in the past? |
Warrington, Kovalyova, King Reading Journal – Feb. 8
| Title of Article + Proper MLA Citation for Works Cited page | Warrington, Kovalyova, King. “Assessing Source Credibility for Crafting a Well-Informed Argument.” Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 3, 2020, 189-203. |
| Summarize the article — include your reaction, thoughts, anything to help you remember its claims. 100 to 150 words | This article is about teaching students how to use credible sources and use critical reading strategies. The article establishes that one of the most important things that a writer can do is establish credibility through sources and ethos. Two important questions to ask when assessing the level of credibility that an author has is knowing who the author is and what is their level of understanding when it comes to this topic. When assessing potential bias it is essential that one understands whether or not the author uses emotion in their argument and if the author uses loaded language to be hyperbolic or to distract the reader. It is also important to know an author’s support for their arguments and to find their sources. |
| Define new terms and concepts by quoting or paraphrasing the original author. | Author bias – using an excessive amount of emotion and using loaded language. |
| How does this reading connect to other articles from class and/or your own research?
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This can connect to Ann Johns because she writes about discourse communities and these types of bias and credibility in a discourse can be assessed within a discourse community. |
| Based on the reading, craft one question to act as a springboard for class discussion. | Do you believe that you can write an opinion piece on a topic that you care about and not use bias? |
Comparing student examples – Feb. 3
In the student article “You Better Think Before You Spit” the author begins with an introduction that explains their beginning joining a creative group that involved her love for poetry. The author describes the details of the group and why it happened to appeal to them. The author then describes that in order to engrain themselves within the group that they interviewed people to understand the genres of this group, citing Dirk’s text to help further give context to what a genre is. The author would go on to describe what they do in the slam poetry group and how it relates to genre. The author cites Ann Johns about how students are expected to dissociate themselves on a personal level in order to write in a present way. The author then wraps up the article with a conclusion that the poetry group provides a no judgement environment for them to share comfortably. In the student article “The Puerto Rican Student Association: A Community Identity Analysis”, the student does not use the same organizational structure by labeling the sections like the first student article did. This student writes about what the Puerto Rican Student Association is and does. It is explained that this group qualifies as a discourse community and cites Swales as their source. The student also would go on to use Kerry Dirk and Ann Johns work to discuss how the article can relate to genre and emotion in writing, similar to the first article. I thought the first article was stronger than the second because it was organized in a way that was easy to follow and understand.
Dirk Reading Journal Jan. 29
| Title of Article + Proper MLA Citation for Works Cited page | Dirk. “Navigating Genres.” Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 1, 2010, 247-262. |
| Summarize the article — include your reaction, thoughts, anything to help you remember its claims. 100 to 150 words | It starts off talking about a common joke regarding country music. It then goes on to talk about what country music contains and what its general characteristics are. The author then talks about how given the knowledge of these broad characteristics of this genre, they could attempt to write about a country song themselves. He uses this example of country music to help the reader understand what exactly a genre is. The author then explains the history of the word genre and how it has changed over time in meaning. It talks about how it is difficult to understand what exactly the definition of a genre is even though we are engaged in so many. |
| Define new terms and concepts by quoting or paraphrasing the original author. | Genre – Becomes a thing when something new happens and that requires a response and someone must create that first response, and when this situation repeats itself over time it results in the creation of a new genre. |
| How does this reading connect to other articles from class and/or your own research?
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It can connect to my own research because when I am researching something it typically has stay has to stay inside of a certain genre. |
| Based on the reading, craft one question to act as a springboard for class discussion. | How would you define the term “genre”? |
Giles Reading Journal – Feb. 5
| Title of Article + Proper MLA Citation for Works Cited page | Sandra L. Giles. “Reflective Writing and the Revision Process:
What Were You Thinking?.” Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 1, 2010, pages. |
| Summarize the article — include your reaction, thoughts, anything to help you remember its claims. 100 to 150 words | The article begins by giving the umbrella term of reflective writing that asks you to think about your own thinking. It describes what could go into that process such as describing your decision on things like word choice, sentence rhythm, audience, purpose, or to evaluate your development as a writer as a whole. The author speaks about a class they took while at Florida State University where the professor asked that they write a process note where they described their process as a writer. The author then talks about their first attempt at a process note. They wrote about the whole process that required multiple drafts, peer editing, and other things. At the end she decides that she likes this system and adopts it going forward. |
| Define new terms and concepts by quoting or paraphrasing the original author. | Reflective writing – a student’s process of thinking about what she or he was doing while in the process of that doing. |
| How does this reading connect to other articles from class and/or your own research?
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It connects to my own research because when I have done my own research I typically have had to do editing such as this. |
| Based on the reading, craft one question to act as a springboard for class discussion. | Do you think that your current editing and revising strategy is the most efficient and effective way to write a good paper? |
DasBender Reading Journal – Jan. 27th
| Title of Article + Proper MLA Citation for Works Cited page | DasBender. “Critical Thinking in College
Writing: From the Personal to the Academic.” Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 2, 2011, 37-45. |
| Summarize the article — include your reaction, thoughts, anything to help you remember its claims. 100 to 150 words | It starts off talking about how the term critical thinking makes people unable to think often. The author then writes about their experience as a teacher and having to deal with the fact that they do not have interest in the topics that their students write about. The author then explains that in order to maintain interest they must think about the person behind the text. The author goes on to write about what it means to actually think critically. The author then explains it is a good sign of a critical thinker if they are asking the right questions, listing the important ideas, and being able to notice the key words and summarize important quotes. The author wraps up the paper by writing about how it can be applied to writing. |
| Define new terms and concepts by quoting or paraphrasing the original author. | Critical thinking – Having an informed opinion using rational thought, careful reasoning and healthy skepticism. |
| How does this reading connect to other articles from class and/or your own research?
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It can connect to my own research when I researched about the drug war and came to my own conclusion for this class. |
| Based on the reading, craft one question to act as a springboard for class discussion. | What steps do you need to take to become a better critical thinker? |
Ann Johns discourse communities – Jan. 25
It starts with introducing the concept of a discourse community. The author gives a list of questions to consider and a list of statements that have to be true to make something a discourse community. The author describes a discourse community as being a group that focuses on a common language or text, a genre or lexis that allows members to maintain their goals, and communicate effectively with others within the group. The author then describes how students become a part of a discourse community through the different way of speaking that comes with being in a different academic group on a campus. Next, the author begins to discuss how social, political, and recreational communities can become discourse communities. An example the author gives is a group known as the “Hong Kong Study Circle”, or (HKSC) for short, and uses it to show the influence of social, political and recreational communities in developing discourse communities. The author goes on to write about how members of her family are also affiliated with multiple types of communities. An example of this is that her family is a member of a local cultural organization in the art museum. She speaks about how her husband is involved in a community that is not local but international, with cycling. The author also writes about how there are different levels of community with some being more broad and others being specific.
Discourse communities I am apart of:
- College community
- Basketball community
- Xbox community
- Church community
- Local community (Dallas)
- Young Men’s Service League
- Poker community
Lessner exercise 3 – Jan. 22
One way that I write outside of class is texting friends and family over snapchat and iMessage. My knowledge of people, place and things determines how I communicate by deciding which mode of communication I use. If I am trying to communicate with my friends I will likely use snapchat because that is what we use to communicate. If I am writing to my family I use text messages because they do not have snapchat and typically use their phones to text each other. This writing has affected my ability to be in an online community because it allows me to connect with family and friends in a way that I would otherwise not be able to. I also am in an online community through social media apps such as instagram and twitter with others from my hometown and new friends from college.
Letter to my #Selfie – Jan. 27th
I would describe myself as a writer as being straightforward. I like to write about what I have on my mind and I like to state those things bluntly. I think that I am good at making my point known and developing reasoning behind it. I think this helps me in writing in places where I need to make an argument for something. An area where this does not help would be non-fiction writing. A time when I felt successful as a writer was when I wrote an essay over my opinion on the drug war during the first semester. I am not actually sure that it was my best essay that I have written but it is definitely one of the only times where I cared about the topic I was writing about and felt like the words I was writing about had purpose. The essay made good points, but it did not flow as well as I wish it did, and that is something I want to work on this semester. Also, I typically have solid grammar, but I lack in vocabulary, and I also need to work on that. I would like my instructor to help by telling me what I could do to make my papers flow better. I learn the best through trial and error. If I screw up and then fix it, usually that sticks with me the most.