While taking this class over the last two semesters, I have learned many valuable tips and skills to write academic essays along with analyzing many different scholarly sources for credible information. I have become pretty confident and comfortable using primary and secondary sources, detecting problems within the article or my own essay, explaining my thoughts, change my stance, and understanding the main idea. A few things that I struggled with this year was reading comprehension with some articles and also finding credible evidence within some articles. I enjoyed most of the work for this class, especially writing about discourse communities. Until taking this class, I had never heard of a discourse community. After consistent semester long research, I have found out that these communities as all around us and have used the idea of discourse communities as a reference for many of my other classes.

Andrew Griffin

Research Talk

1. What have you done for your research so far? So far, my research has consisted of an interview with Mary Elizabeth Upton with Operation Christmas Child, taking notes on Ann John’s article about discourse communities, and researched the history of the organization.
2. What do you still need to do? I still need to find 4 secondary sources and analyze the organization’s important genres.
3. What are your research problems/concerns? I’m slightly concerned about getting another interview.
4. What has gone well in the research? There are many things that are going well with my research so far. To start, I was able to get my first interview last week from Mary Elizabeth Upton. Unfortunately we were not able to meet face to face, but we worked it out and she gave me great information and feedback to my questions. Another thing is going well in my research. We have already looked over a good amount of articles regarding discourse communities this semester, so I can look over my summaries and use the information that will benefit my essay. There are many more sources that I can use if I need additional information on discourse communities or a genre analysis. I also have already written two papers on this organization so I can use some of the information to add some “fluff” to major paper 3 if needed.

Andrew Griffin

Interview with Mary Elizabeth Upton

How did you become a member of this community? 

I first learned about Operation Christmas Child when my church became a drop off location for shoebox gifts each November. I loved the idea of packing a shoebox filled with simple gifts like toys, school supplies, and toiletries and then these boxes being delivered to children in need in over 100 countries all over the world. I began packing shoeboxes with my young children each year around Thanksgiving. 

How long have you been a member? 

Around 20 years

How did you receive the role that you currently hold?

When the leader at our church retired, I was approached about becoming a year round volunteer. I went through an interview process  and leadership training with Samaritan’s Purse, the charity that started Operation Christmas Child. 

What kind of readings (or writings) do you do to participate in this community?

I am part of a network of shoebox drop off locations in my state that process shoebox gifts each November during National Collection Week. I primarily use email to communicate with other team members and with the Samaritan’s Purse coordinators in Atlanta, GA, supervising our logistics. There is also a website for volunteers that is updated regularly with information and documents needed. 

What are the means of communication in this community? 

Email and conference calls/ zoom meetings 

How do you communicate differently with different members? 

Some of the members of our volunteer network have less training with technology. I will call them, rather than email. Also, we have an annual in person training for all the members of our volunteer network leading up to National Collection Week. 

Who do you consider an authority in this community?

The Southeast Regional Director for Operation Christmas Child

How do people gain authority in this community? 

Samaritan’s Purse has full time employees whose job it is to lead and direct the year round volunteers in their region. These year round volunteers (me) have the job of organizing and leading local volunteers to collect shoebox gifts each year.

 

Reading Journal

 

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Title of Article + Proper MLA Citation for Works Cited page	Kahn, Seth. “Putting Ethnographic Writing in Context.” Writingspaces.org, 2011, writingspaces.org/sites/default/files/kahn–putting-ethnographic-writing.pdf.
Summarize the article — include your reaction, thoughts, anything to help you remember its claims. 100 to 150 words	In the article, “Putting Ethnographic Writing in Context” Seth Kahn talks about why ethnography is important for a college student to learn. Khan states, “Ethnographic writing challenges you to consider everything that’s interesting and difficult about writing; it pushes you to generate, collect, analyze, and synthesize more material than you’ve probably had to work with in one paper before.” This stuck out to me because he says to basically research every detail about the topic you are writing about in order to have the information as possible. Kahn also says that when using ethnographic writing cannot be done in the same, normal format of a regular essay. This is important because it forces the student to write in a different style than what they are used to, which adds variety to their arsenal of writing tools.
Define new terms and concepts by quoting or paraphrasing the original author.	ethnographic writing- is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures  participant-observation research- type of data collection method by practitioner-scholars typically used in qualitative research and ethnography.
How does this reading connect to other articles from class and/or your own research?	This article connects with most articles that we have read and analyzed this year. Specifically, it is related to the articles that discussed discourse communities. I think that the Anthropologists that study ethnography are in a discourse community because they must work together in order to understand cultures and what interesting characteristics they possess.
Based on the reading, craft one question to act as a springboard for class discussion.	When ethnographers are studying different cultures, do they have to be discrete with their research in order for it to be as natural as possible?

 

Letter to the Reader

Dear Reader,

The whole point of me writing this essay is to educate you and whoever else reads this on how Samaritan’s Purse and Operation Christmas Child work and how it is a discourse community. If you have never heard of a discourse community it is a group of people who share a similar or the same goal and use effective communication amongst each other in order to achieve it. Before writing this essay, I actually worked for Operation Christmas Child as a volunteer, so I used this experience to further discuss in detail how the organization runs and how it is effective. 

A few things that helped me write this essay was my experience with the organization which gave me a lot of things to think about, setting a firm foundation by doing an outline beforehand, and making corrections based on what my peers and teacher gave back to me after reading it. Having a physical copy of an outline made a huge difference while writing this essay. It made my paper more organized because I already knew what I wanted to talk about and it was much easier to read because of the clarity. Another thing that helped me was the many reviews and corrections from my peers that I received. There were multiple things that were pointed out to me; for example, I received feedback that I needed to add more sources and also a few grammatical errors that needed to be corrected. 

I hope that you found this information useful and can be used on the next paper that you write!

Sincerely, 

Andrew Griffin

 

Reading Journal

 

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Title of Article + Proper MLA Citation for Works Cited page	Dana Lynn Driscoll. “Introduction to Primary Research: Observations, Surveys, and Interviews.”https://wac.colostate.edu/books/writingspaces2/driscoll–introduction-to-primary-research.pdf.
Summarize the article — include your reaction, thoughts, anything to help you remember its claims. 100 to 150 words	In the article, Introduction to Primary Research: Observations, Surveys, and Interviews, Dana Lynn Driscoll talks mainly about primary research and teaches how we can also do our own research. Driscoll states that primary research is primarily found through the scientific method. Researchers use the scientific method mainly to form questions and hypotheses to gather information regarding the topic at hand. “The ultimate goal in conducting primary research is to learn about something new that can be confirmed by others and to eliminate our own biases in the process.” There are also 3 points on how to conduct research properly that Driscoll found. This consists of observing, interviewing, and conducting surveys.
Define new terms and concepts by quoting or paraphrasing the original author.	Primary research- research that is collected first hand rather than found in a book, database, or journal Social research- a method used by social scientists and researchers to learn about people and societies so that they can design products/services that cater to various needs of the people Confidentiality- keeping a secret or being kept secret
How does this reading connect to other articles from class and/or your own research?	I don’t think that this article is connected to anything that we have read yet this term.
Based on the reading, craft one question to act as a springboard for class discussion.	How much research is required for something to become a credible source?

Reading Journal

 

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Title of Article + Proper MLA Citation for Works Cited page	Author(s). “Title of Article.” Title of Journal, Volume, Issue, Year, pages.
Summarize the article — include your reaction, thoughts, anything to help you remember its claims. 100 to 150 words	This article, written by Kate Warrington, Cindy King, and Natasha Kovalova, informs the reader how to craft a well formed argument using credible sources. This article really helped me out, as I have struggled to find liable sources in research papers in the past. The article taught me how to establish credibility, assess bias, evaluate support, and find the best topic. The example of Jack responding to Dorothy Allison’s essay really gave me something to think about next time I am finding sources. I learned that the number one most important part of finding a credible source is reaching the author.
Define new terms and concepts by quoting or paraphrasing the original author.	Pathos – a quality that evokes pity or sadness. Synthesize – combine (a number of things) into a coherent whole.
How does this reading connect to other articles from class and/or your own research?	This article connects to a research paper I had to complete last semester for my writing course. If I had access to this article prior to my research last semester, it would have aided me in my work.
Based on the reading, craft one question to act as a springboard for class discussion.	After reading this article, what steps will you take in order to find the most credible sources?

 

Reading Journal

 

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Title of Article + Proper MLA Citation for Works Cited page	Giles, Sandra L. “Reflective Writing and the Revision Process: What Were You Thinking?” Writing Spaces.org, writingspaces.org/sites/default/files/giles–reflective-writing-and-the-revision-process.pdf.
Summarize the article — include your reaction, thoughts, anything to help you remember its claims. 100 to 150 words	I think that Giles did a great job explaining what goes through students’ heads while they write. For me at least, I relate to what she said about wanting to please a teacher and trying to write what they want to hear. Students, like myself, so often get caught up in just trying to get a good grade, rather than actually trying to get something out of the class. Yes, from time to time we will get the A that desire, but if we write for ourselves by writing what we actually believe rather than just trying to please our professors, we will achieve more skilled and intellectually driven works.
Define new terms and concepts by quoting or paraphrasing the original author.	Convert- cause to change in form, character, or function Jumbled- mix up in a confused or untidy way
How does this reading connect to other articles from class and/or your own research?	This article connects with my own research of how students try to please the professor rather than writing that they want. It is extremely difficult sometimes but once you get the hang of it, essays and papers begin to flow a lot better.
Based on the reading, craft one question to act as a springboard for class discussion.	Is it difficult for a teacher to tell when the student is trying to kiss up to them in an essay?

In the first article that I read, “You Better Think Before You Spit” the author explains the concept of S.P.I.T. Spit stands for Student Poetry Initiating Thought. The purpose of spit is to get schools to have less generic organizations  like athletics, ethnic backgrounds, and sciences and focus on widening their horizons to have more unique organizations. This was a strong paper, for example the Tuesday Knights organization. This is a poetic group that meets one or two times a month where the students have an open space to practice their poetic skills in a safe environment. The second article, “The Puerto Rican Student Association: A Community Identity Analysis” is about Puerto Rican students at UFC that help “serve as liaison between the UCF and Puerto Rican community to support and unite Puerto Rican students at UCF. PRSA is committed with providing social, cultural, and educational awareness among the UCF community about the Puerto Rican people.” This was also a strong article because the author talks about how the organization is a discourse community and the students do great things for the Puerto Rican community.

Reading Journal

 

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Title of Article + Proper MLA Citation for Works Cited page	Melzer, Dan. “Understanding Discourse Communities.” Wac.colostate.edu, wac.colostate.edu/docs/books/writingspaces3/melzer.pdf.
Summarize the article — include your reaction, thoughts, anything to help you remember its claims. 100 to 150 words	This article was very interesting for me to read because I am also currently trying to learn how to play the guitar. Melzer’s guitar journey was very similar to mine except for meeting up with strangers. I also write down notes for how to play better so this helped me understand discourse community better. Another thing that Melzer said that helped me understand discourse community was how he explained his guitar story but in pieces that fell under the six definitions that he gave
Define new terms and concepts by quoting or paraphrasing the original author.	Discourse community- A broadly agreed upon set of common public goals; Mechanisms of intercommunication among members; Use of these communication mechanisms to provide information and feedback
How does this reading connect to other articles from class and/or your own research?	This reading connects with the article we had earlier this year that was also about discourse community. Both authors explained discourse community in different ways. The first author was more direct whereas Melzer used the guitar example to get the point across.
Based on the reading, craft one question to act as a springboard for class discussion.	If there is no intercommunication is it still a discourse community?