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“Research Talk”

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For my research I have done intense research on my organization and I have looked into their mission statements and goals as a group. I have done extensive research on how the Active Minds at the University of Mississippi is a discourse community and how they have displayed actions that a discourse community would. I still need to get started on my MP3 and look into what I am going to do about the situation with my interviews. My concerns really only include getting all the projects done on time with the abundance of other work that has been given to me by my other classes. For the most part everything has been good. I’ve efficiently and correctly gotten my work done and I have done a great job in terms of research and making sure that it is descriptive and well understood. By those who could be looking at the work I have already done. 

 

Kahn Reading Journal

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Title of Article + Proper MLA Citation for Works Cited page

  Seth Kahn, “Putting Ethnographic Writing in Context”

Summarize the article — include your reaction, thoughts, anything to help you remember its claims. 100 to 150 words

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This article informs the reader on putting ethnographic writing. This article first addresses what ethnographers are and what they do. It explains to the reader how they study cultures, relationships, and so much more. They then go on to talk about how to list out what one can do to list out the requirements and steps for their writing. They then include about five steps that could help one efficiently do so. As the article discusses, they talk about how the writer can potentially learn from experiences of their own and then the experiences of someone else, such as our peers. As it goes on, it addresses the risk and benefits that can apply to the participants. It is essential to keep in mind we are writing about real situations and people and that our words can significantly impact. The article ends by wrapping up all the points they made and forming a final conclusion.

Define new terms and concepts by quoting or paraphrasing the original author.

Ethnographies-the scientific description of the customs of individual peoples and cultures.

Anthropology-the study of human societies and cultures and their development.

predecessors-a person who held a job or office before the current holder.

How does this reading connect to other articles from class and/or your own research?

This reading connects to our upcoming and future project by providing us with information and tips that can be useful within our writing.

Based on the reading, craft one question to act as a springboard for class discussion.

What are some of the risk and benefits of including other situations and experiences within our writing?

 

“Letter to the Reader”

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I plan to research why college students struggle with mental health and if it is due to an impact that the college is having on the students themselves. I want this to spark a necessary conversation, and I want it to be a source of information for those who could be dealing with this themselves. I think my readers will be college students or potential parents of college students. I think my process will include researching for information that could be supporting evidence, then determining what is crucial to my paper and needs to be included then making my essay. I just created a plan and an idea of what I need to do in my head and the most effective way to get my work done. With my plan, I had to shorten the time frame and the order in which I wanted to do some specific things, and I had to figure out what to spend more time on versus spending less time on other things. I made these decisions by weighing out my options and seeing what method was the best in order to get the most effective paper. It helped me tremendously to have comments from my peers because it allowed me to get constructive criticism without feeling judged. I think doing peer reviews for my classmates allowed me to see what they did on their work and how I could possibly do better on my own. 

 

Critical Thinking Reflection #1

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I think the information from the draft that was the most important was information portraying to why I chose the organization and how I connected to it. Then, in addition, the background information talking about the organization and its start-up. The only thing I really removed was fluff or extra wording used to make my sentences sound better. I made these decisions because I thought it was doing too much and making my points confusing due to the extra wording. My steps were to figure out what organization I wanted to do first then after that. My first goal was to make a personal connection to said organization. After that, I looked on the internet for information pertaining to this organization, and once I did, I distinguished what was of value to my paper from what wasn’t. I was curious about what started this organization because of how much someone saw others struggling, so they felt a desire to help, or was it because of a personal experience. It could have even been both, but after researching, I found out it was because of what happened to a young adult who did not get help. I just took what I viewed as vital and valuable points that others could relate to and decided to incorporate them into my paper. I am still trying to figure out what role I could play in this valuable organization and what they could provide me with!

 

Dana Reading Journal

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Reading Journal

 

Copy + Paste this template into a different document (do not try to type directly on it). Then fill it out and post to your blog. 

 

Title of Article + Proper MLA Citation for Works Cited page   Dana Lynn Driscoll, “Introduction to Primary Research: Observations, Surveys, and Interviews

 
Summarize the article — include your reaction, thoughts, anything to help you remember its claims. 100 to 150 words I

This article is mostly talking about observations, surveys, and interviews, as stated in the title. I think this article was probably assigned in order to prepare and help us with our next major project. This is when we will eventually have to interview a person from the discourse community we chose. Thinking back to the article, it discusses topics such as the ethics of one’s research and how this involves voluntary participation, confidentiality, and more. Then they talk about planning one’s research project. They show this by creating a timeline and showing what it could potentially look like for the researcher. Then they address moments when primary research is useful and appropriate. They then continue to elaborate on how to handle face-to-face interviews, a collection method for the data, and so much more.
Define new terms and concepts by quoting or paraphrasing the original author. Inductive reasoning- a type of logical thinking that involves forming generalizations based on specific incidents you’ve experienced, observations you’ve made, or facts you know to be true or false. 

Double-Barreled- having two parts or aspects 

scrutinizing- examine or inspect closely and thoroughly 

Qualitative- of high quality; excellent 
How does this reading connect to other articles from class and/or your own research?

 

 This reading connects to previous articles before the paper because it is all in relation to topics and subject matters for our major projects. 
Based on the reading, craft one question to act as a springboard for class discussion. What are some effective methods for planning our primary research project?

 

Argument Credibility Reading Journal

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Title of Article + Proper MLA Citation for Works Cited page     Kate Warrington, Natasha Kovalyova, and Cindy King, “Assessing Source Credibility for Crafting a Well-Informed Argument”
Summarize the article — include your reaction, thoughts, anything to help you remember its claims. 100 to 150 words I

This article was one I enjoyed reading because it discussed a topic I was interested in knowing more about, which is argumentative writing and all its properties. It discusses credibility and how important this is in terms of a paper. It also talks about biases and how one can assess this. This can be hard when emotions and feelings are involved, but it is still necessary. As it continues, it addresses how one can find good sources and questions you can ask to determine their credibility. It ends with the note of talking about how this is not a process someone can do on their own and how you will need help, but that is okay.  
Define new terms and concepts by quoting or paraphrasing the original author. Oriented- to be positioned in a direction relative to something or someplace else 

formidable- inspiring fear or respect through being impressively large, powerful, intense, or cable.  

scrutinizing- examine or inspect closely and thoroughly 
How does this reading connect to other articles from class and/or your own research?

 

 This reading connects to the rest because it is based on writing and in relation to some it is based on how to better our writing. 
Based on the reading, craft one question to act as a springboard for class discussion.
  • What are the necessary steps needed to determine if a source is credible or not?

Letter to my #Selfie

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As a writer, I am very abundant and transparent with my thoughts and feelings on whatever I am talking about. In my senior year of high school, I told a college writing class to prepare myself. At the beginning of this class, my grades were, on average, a low B or high C, and the harder I worked and the more I learned, I became an A student. This was a big deal to me because I put in the work, and it paid off for me as a writer. In terms of things I would like to work on, they would be my ability to provide textual evidence. This is something I have struggled with in the past, but I am optimistic.

Another thing is my grammar and punctuation; these are fundamental aspects of writing so getting them down packed is a necessity. I can’t say that I have certain elements, but I can say that whatever mistakes I make if my teacher does not mind bringing it to my attention and maybe helping me with it. I think I do best with what I cause half and half criticism. This involves listing out things I did well with and then also maybe somethings I need help with. I have learned that it provides a reasonable balance and lets students know that they are also doing some things right.

 

Exercise 1: Free Writing

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I think since my roomate Nadia will not listen to my boy drama I will just share it here. First of all I have no desire to truly be in a relationship, one because there is no reason to be tied down right now. Most importantly the idea of a relationship is scary because boys or at least the ones I have dealt with are far from sane. Now getting into the drama can anyone imagine breaking up with someone and you think you are finally free from an unhealthy relationship. Then boom you find out they are now going to the same college as you. This was really a shock because you believed that they weren’t going to go to college and they decided to work for the family business. Of course I had a moment of riding on my high horse and thinking well maybe they came and followed me. I thought this until I see his other ex here who I use to be friends with that also said that they think he came here for them. Like is this the land of my ex and my ex’s ex’s. It was just baffling and of course I told myself I would not associate them and I was gonna focus on me. You already know this didn’t last. You would think after this boy has called me a dog that can’t be trained, a person who would ruin his reputation because of race and much more would be nothing to me. Well I thought so to but he has a way of convincing you he is going to be better and do better. Then next think you know he is back to his old bullying ways. While the isn’t the best circumstances I am hopeful I will work up the courage to walk away for the tenth time.

Final Reflective Project

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Final Writ Project

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This is Only the End of the Beginning By: Jalyn Anderson

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When it comes to anything you do in life, there are certain things you have to abide by in order to be successful. In this writing class, I failed to do this on our first project with the common reading. One of the main things in the paper’s requirements was meeting the word count of a thousand words, and I didn’t do that. In order to be successful, one has to pay attention to what they are doing and if they are doing it correctly. When I came to the realization that I had only provided seven hundred of the required word count, I was devastated. I instantly reached out and went to my teacher for assistance. In the end, I did not get the finest grade, nor anywhere near the grade I would have liked to have. One could question how this mishap stuck out to me in terms of my many developments throughout the semester. While this was not a direct problem with my writing itself, it caused a negative impact as a whole with the end result. No matter how good my writing was, the value was diminished by my failure to do what was needed. As a result, I never made this mistake in my future projects and papers. Which overall is a fantastic accomplishment and improvement to make.

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When it comes to my papers, I tend to rely on my ideas and thoughts. While these things are essential to incorporate into a paper, that is not all they should be. One’s reflection of the information they are comprehending is nothing without textual evidence to back it up. This was something that was hard for me to put into my writing because my teachers didn’t strongly require it from me in my past years of writing. In my project two-unit reflection, I said, “Instead of just referring to my own ideas, I had to go outside my comfort zone and actually pull information from my Op-Doc and incorporate it into my paper.” This shows that I was aware of what I needed to do; I just had trouble with the execution. In the reflection, I also noted that I would first have to provide information to show where my thoughts were stimulated in order to get my concepts and ideas across effectively. After reaching out and allowing someone else to show me what I was missing so that they could lead me down the right path, I came to this realization. In the end, while this is something I am still working on, I am constantly getting better, and that is all that matters.

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think in the beginning, while working on my common reading project; I was afraid to ask for help. This feeling stemmed from not being able to talk to my teachers in person. Only because I was concerned about the reaction, I would receive when asking for help from my teachers. I did not personally know who they were, so there was a risk that they would reject or avoid helping me. Later on, I realized that this was not the case at all. In fact, by reaching out to my teachers, I would actually benefit from doing so. Since I sought out my peers and teachers to give me advice about my papers, it allowed me to fix mistakes, and weak points that I didn’t even know were in my writing. This could be seen in my Op-Doc, where I failed to provide visuals and information from the source itself to help give the readers a better understanding. It was because I reached out to my teacher that I discovered that this was an issue within my paper. When going back to my first project, if I had asked and reached out for assistance, the small mistakes made that I was not aware of at the time could have easily been avoided. In hindsight, it is better to do something later than expected as opposed to not doing it at all. While it took me some time to get over my worries and get help, it paid off in the end.

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When you want to get something done effectively, you have to make a plan in order to get it done in a structured and efficient way. That is something I failed to do in some of the papers I wrote. Specifically, with the argument workbook, I don’t think I prioritized it as much as I should have. This workbook was a perfect opportunity to map out a plan for my argumentative paper, but I did not wholly utilize it. After realizing that I didn’t, I tried to avoid doing so in the future, which I did. From that point on, I would get my ideas and desired points together so that I would not just be throwing something together. While it was unfortunate that I didn’t completely do so with my argumentative paper, it was okay. The fact that I learned from that mistake and did my best to improve from that point on showed growth. Besides, while I don’t believe this was the most prominent aspect of my development, I still think it was somewhat important. In the end, the little things can add up and therefore have a significant impact. This also shows that one has to pay attention to every aspect of something to learn and get the most out of it.

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Throughout this, it is clear to see that I made improvements throughout my writing journey this semester. One can especially see this with the grades that I made. On our first project with What the Eyes, I made a sixty-eight, and now with my last two grades, I had the same average of eighty-three. That is a drastic change and a tremendous improvement that was made. While that was a great step in progressing, I must keep pushing to do better and be better. The work and progress I have now made means almost nothing if I stop trying to do even better. With my Op-Doc analysis and my argumentative paper, there was no improvement in terms of the grade I made. While that is not necessarily bad, it just shows that my work is not over yet, and I need to continue to strive for the improvement I so badly want. No matter how big or small that may be, something is better than nothing. It just shows one that they are moving forward instead of backward or, in my case, standing still. After being encouraged to do better, I plan to take what I learned and use it in my work. I am going to do this as I continue to learn more and grow as a writer. As I work through this process, I am going to remember that most good writing begins with a horrible first attempt, but you have to start somewhere!