1. I strongly agree that I can effectively evaluate the credibility of evidence.
2. I agree that I can analyze information for its relevance in my research.
3. I do feel comfortable using primary and secondary resources in my own research.
4. I agree that when I read an argument, I can understand the main idea and intention of the writer.
5. I am neutral when it comes to detecting problems in an argument, explain, and define them.
6. I agree that I can explain my thoughts regarding an argument convincingly and logically.
7. I strongly agree to change my stance on an issue provided credible research.
8. I somewhat agree to considering genre before I being the writing process.
9. I do think about the audience in contextualization of research.
10. When it comes to judging accuracy and validity of a source, I check to make sure it is on a reliable website, there’s a date present, an author present, and if they used their own secondary sources as well.
11. I recognize and combat my assumptions and biases by first seeing if the online source I am using has my bias in their article and if they agree with it or not. If I am using a person, I would see if they agree with my bias or assumption or not.
12. I decide what goes in my final draft by trying to see what the audience would understand and I will skim through to make sure I only have relevant information in my paper.
Other Writing
Research Talk
1. What I have done for my research so far is continuing to analyze how my discourse community communicates with each other. I am seeing if any form of communication is changing, if they are staying the same, or if they are going to be improved.
2. I still need to ask a couple of questions to the president of the discourse community since I did not have the chance to interview her. But I still believe she can give me some insight on why she chose the forms of communication and updating she chose, and if they will change in the future.
3. My only concern is that I am not going to be fully satisfied with my research, because I had my mind set on interviews and testimony from some of the members. I am really going to have only my analysis and not at least one other party.
4. However, what has gone well in the research is that it is easy to analyze how they use different genres in the community. It is not like I am completely blind to what is going on.
Genre Analysis
Letter to the Reader
I intend for this research essay to not only educate readers on a new community and organization, but to show minority people, specifically women, that there is a place for us. I don’t want minority women to think that there is no place for us on the campus. Yes, there are many other black organizations, but the fact that there is a community specifically for minority women is refreshing. The readers I am directing this towards are college students. From one of my peer reviews, they said that they did not know an organization like this existed. To officially know that I am educating someone on a new thing is exciting, and I hope other college students can gather that interest of my community. My process was really just trying to look back into how I felt when I first found ESTEEM. How good it made me feel, how excited I was at the induction ceremony, and how helpful we are to each other. I already spoke with the president and vice president of the organization about setting up my interview, and I have a couple more people who would not mind being interviewed. The feedback from my peers was very helpful, because of the positive words I was receiving from them. It gave me reassurance that I was on the right track for my research.
Critical Thinking #1
- I looked through the prompt expectations and I went from there. I thought it was important to show the significance of why I joined the organization and what it means to me. However, I also tried to follow the prompt and add in what it asked me to input.
- Certain information that I left out was because it would have overshadowed the main point of the project. I knew that there are certain things that had to be talked about in the paper, and so certain things I wanted to leave out because I thought it would take away from what the prompt actually asked for.
- The steps for my research was to first go through the instagram page of my subject. Then I went through the GroupMe that I am currently in. Lastly, I asked the president of the organization some historical background of the community.
- I really did not bring any assumptions or biases because I had first hand information about the community considering I am a part of it.
- I stuck with the facts as much as I could. And I did not come into this wanting to persuade someone to join my community. I just wanted to talk about the community I love.
- Right now I am in the process of looking for my two interviewees.
Letter to My Selfie
I would definitely describe myself as a creative writer. When I have the opportunity to do creative writing, I thoroughly enjoy it, because it is almost like I get to have fun with my writing without worrying about the academic aspect of it. A time where I felt successful as a writer was when I was made editor-in-chief for my school newspaper. Out of everyone on the staff that were rising seniors my sponsors could have chose, they chose me, because of not only my work ethic, but because of the stories that I have written. It made me think I did something good as a writer. I would like to work more on literary analysis essays and research papers. I feel as if I could get passed them, but I feel like when I write those kinds of papers, it is very mediocre and not my best work. I am terrible at grammar, so I would like my instructor to be extremely tough on me when it comes to that. I am sort of like a free writer. I would stay on topic, but sometimes my mind would just wander and it could sometimes show on my essays.
Analyze Student Essays
Both essays were a lot to read, but I could safely say I enjoyed both, especially the one about poetry. What I liked most about the poetry essay that I think is a great strength, is that they had a great tone with their essay; in other words, it was almost as if they was explaining a club to a friend rather than a presentation for a professor. That is what I thought the other essay lacked about the Puerto Rico student association; although it was very informative, it was the hardest to read because it indeed felt like I was reading a research paper. What I give credit for both papers are the amount of reliable resources that they used. For the poetry they used sources from: books, personal interviews, reliable websites, and social media. For the Puerto Rico student association, they relied heavily on book information which is admirable.
Critical Thinking Intake Assessment
I can always find good credible sources for evidence (5). I am very good at analyzing information for its relevance to my research (6). I, for the most part, feel comfortable using secondary and primary sources in my own research (5). I am neutral when it comes to understanding the main idea and intention of the writer in an argument (4). I would like to improve on detecting problems in an argument, explain, and define them (3). I am neutral when it come to explaining my thoughts regarding an argument convincingly and logically (4). I am willing to change my stance on an issue provided by credible research if it convincing enough (5). I did not think about considering genre before I begin my writing process (3). I am neutral when it comes to thinking about the audience in the contextualization of research (4). My process of judging the accuracy and validation of sources is I check 3 other sources to see if the main evidence is similar. I usually type out my assumption or bias in a search engine and I see what sources support or go against my assumptions or biases. I scan through my rough draft and notes and see what points stand out and could make a strong impact for my final paper.
Exercise 1: Freewriting
So i was worried sick that I missed a homework. And it was like God told me to check writing and low and behold we had something to do. My roomate and I are in the same class so we kind of panicked together. We did the google form thing where we had to email you the password. and then we had to go back to do the exercises. I was kind of freaking out because it was a lot of reading and I was nervous I wouldnt be able to get it done in time. But luckily one of the exercise was free writing and that is something that i know all too well to do. Just to free write is so freeing. So I set my timer for 10 minutes for me and my roommate and we just went ahead. Rupauls drag race was on tv so as I am typing this now I am listening to Untucked and saying bye to my least favorite queen. I just checked my timer and we have five minutes to go. This is fun. Im glad I dont have to worry about grammar or anything. At least after this I now officially dont have any homework to do. I can just take a shower and rest in my bed and be lazy for the rest of the day. I have nothing else to say and we still have three minutes to go. But maybe if I just talk about the time going by I can make up for the next minutes. Im seeing a bunch of red underlining and I am tempted to go back and correct them but Im not going to. We are now at 2 minutes. I dont know what else to talk about. Actually thats a lie I have to call my mom so we can talk about Rupauls Drag Race. I mean the girl that went home we both didnt like so we are probably just going to throw shade at her. I think I know what my mom is going to say about her and who she reminds her of. Ok we now have thirty seconds. In conclusion, I am excited for your class this semester Mr. G. I cant wait!