Camryn Ward's Journal Response

Penguin pgs. 68-113, A&B 23.1, 23.2, 23.3 (pgs.461-467)

This reading talks about how to cite all different kinds of sources and information in your paper in MLA format. For in-text citations there is the parenthetical method and the attributive tag method. The parenthetical method is where you place the author’s last name and the page number in parenthesis immediately after the material being used. The attributive tag method is where you place those items at the beginning of the source material. It also mentions how to do your works cited list in MLA. Since there are so many different sources and information you could want to put in your paper, there are just as many ways to put those in your paper. Each type of source or quote, has at least 1 separate way to cite it from the last. Websites, newspapers, books, magazines, those are all cited in completely different ways, but somehow also similar. A tool in this reading I will use is all of it. I am very horrible when it comes to citing because it confuses me and I never do it right. I will definitely be using this book and the tools in it to help me remember how to cite my sources the right way.

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A&B 17.5, 17.6, pgs. 549-552, chart on 558

This reading talks about how it is necessary to have a clear topic sentence for each paragraph you are writing. You also should place these topic sentences at the beginning of the paragraph, which is right where the reader will be looking; so give them what they are looking for. Even when you think your topic sentence and paragraph are perfect, you should revise them. It can always improve, and you should always be thinking of ways to do so. Sometimes your topic sentence can make sense to you, but not to another reader. You should have a peer review it, just to make sure you are not the only one who makes sense of your writing. It is also very important to link all of your information together so that it makes sense, with good transition words and sentences. Knowing how to quote correctly and efficiently is something you need to know how to do to have a good and working paper. A skill I will use in my paper is to learn how to quote easier. I am not very good with quoting in my papers, specifically block quotes. There are different ways to quote different things and I need to learn how to do that for future papers.

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A&B 1.1, A&B 20.1

This reading talks about how it is so important to have a question to fuel your writing. Specifically, you need an open-ended question with multiple viewpoints to write about. It keeps you on task with what you’re writing about, and reminds you to stay on track and to answer that question thoroughly and well. Having a question is different than just having a topic. It is much more detailed and will help you to know more of what to write. You should make sure that your question is arguing your topic. A tool in the reading is using research roles to generate research questions. This will help you to have all of your info, and then create a question to go about throughout your paper. There are 7 rules that you need to accommodate to generate good research questions. I will follow those. This will help me in my writing to have a clear view of what I am asking, and what I am answering. It is important to know that when you are trying to find a question for your writing, there is a good amount of research that needs to be done. hey hey ho whats up man

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A&B pgs. 442-443, 17.4

This reading talks about how to put old before new information in your title, introduction, and conclusion. You should do this because it will help to hook your reader with something they know, then keep them reading to find out the new information. The reading also states that the “big picture” is quite important to making your paper effective. You need to start AND end with that in your paper. You need to forecast your paper with a thesis statement, purpose statement, or a blueprint statement. A tool I learned to use is to use a really good attention-grabber in your opening statement to hook the readers. Options would be: a dramatic vignette, a startling fact or statistic, an interesting quote, or an interesting scene. I am not very good when it comes to writing good introductions in my paper, but I will definitely use this tool to help improve that. I typically end up forecasting my paper with so much information that the introduction becomes boring and already says everything in it so there is no reason to move forward. I will make sure I find an interesting hook so that my readers will not get bored and want to continue.

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A&B 21.2, A&B pgs. 155-158, A&B pgs. 439-441, A&B pgs. 384-387, pg. 393

There are 3 main points in this reading. The first one is to know how to find credible and reliable sources for your paper. Lots of people can put whatever they want on the internet, so you should check facts and check the credibility of the writer and see if what he is saying is something you can use because it is factual instead of opinionated or false. The second one is to know how to make an annotated bibliography. In order for these to be good, you should takes notes as you go, put them all together, and then make your revisions. A first time draft isn’t going to cut it. The last main point talks about proposal writing. Proposal writing is when you offer a solution to a problem, or an answer to a question. That is what we are going to be doing with our research paper. There should be a description of the problem, proposal of the solution, and then justification. Those are the key parts to good proposal writing. A tool that it talks about in here a lot, is peer review. I would definitely use a friend or peer in my class to help me improve my paper. Sometimes it is really hard for me to hear feedback which is why I don’t ask for it, but I think it will drastically improve my paper if I do.

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A&B Chapter 17, 17.4

This reading talks about using the “big picture” in your introduction and conclusion to help improve your paper. You also should use this when creating your title. Your title should use the old before new information, a hook to get the reader’s attention and a word or phrase that forecasts information the reader is looking for beforehand. When starting your introduction you should also use the old before new information. Use the old information that they already know to start it out, and then the new information to surprise them with the argument. An introduction is not about length, it is about catching the reader’s attention with just a few simple sentences. In the conclusion you should be concerned about moving the parts throughout your paper back into the big picture as a whole. It will help tie it all together and not leave the reader confused. A skill I plan to use is practicing using background information and the old to new technique from 17.1. I will do this by finding background information on my topic and laying it out before each paragraph is written and completed. Using the old to new skill will help to make the argument more valid and to stand out more than it originally would.

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A&B Chapter 12, pgs. 284-293

This reading is mainly talking about analysis and synthesis. To analyze is to break down the parts of something to see the relationships and things they have in common. To synthesize . is to take those parts and put them together in a new and different way. When you are doing this you need to think with-the-grain and against-the-grain. It is important to pay close attention to the text and summarize the main points accurately. A synthesis basically shows how well you understand your writing, and the topic you are writing about. If you do this to your own paper, it can help you to see how the readers can better understand and relate to your paper. When you are analyzing your writing, it will cause you to question, weigh, and come up with new or better ideas to put into your paper. I will use both analyzing and synthesizing in my paper to try and understand my writing, and what the readers will be seeing. After I finish a draft I will take it apart, question the pieces, and put it back together in a new and improved way. Hopefully this will help me as a writer in future papers, me to understand the topic more, and the reader to understand the topic more. It will most likely be time consuming, but most definitely it will be a useful tool.

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A&B pgs. 82-88, Charts on pgs. 93, 95, A&B pgs. 102-104

This reading is mainly talking about how being a strong reader can help you out as a writer. Knowing the way you’re reading and what it’s accomplishing can help you. Things like reading with the grain where you are looking from the writer’s point of view and putting yourself in their head can help you deepen your understanding. Also you can read against the grain, which is questioning basically everything, including the main argument. That can help you to see other points of view, rebuttals, and your limitations in your writing. A skill I can use to help improve my writing is to try and understand the vocabulary better. When I see a word I don’t know, look it up and it may help to make more sense. Lots of college textbook readings have lots of confusing and big words that make you give up on what you’re reading. Also, understanding the background of what you’re reading can help to understand the reading as a whole. Knowing beforehand the basics of your reading can make a difference in reading as you go. I will try harder to look up words and create a better background of my reading before I begin. Going in blind is never a good idea.

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A&B pgs. 309-326

This reading goes into depth talking about arguments in your paper. It talks about the two types of arguments: truth seeking and persuasion. Truth seeking is defined as, “a diligent, open-minded, and responsible search for the best course of action or solution to a problem, taking into account all the available information and alternative points of view.” Persuasion is defined as, “The art of making a claim on an issue and justifying it convincingly so that the audience’s initial response to your position is overcome and they are moved toward your position.” It also mentions how important it is to find an arguable issue, and that it will basically make or break your paper whether you can accomplish that or not. If you have a weak argument, your paper will be weak. There are a few different areas of your research that you need to try to incorporate, all with equal importance. STAR criteria is a skill you can use to evaluate the evidence in your paper and see if it really works. It stands for sufficiency, typicality, accuracy, and relevance. When I am writing my paper I will use this whenever I am implementing research or evidence into my paper to make sure it works.

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A&B Chapter 3, 3.2 A&B pgs. 326-330

The main point in this reading is to understand how important it is to incorporate ethos, pathos, and logos. Each one is crucial to your paper and appealing to the reader in different ways. Using one more than the other might appeal to certain people and not others. Everyone enjoys things and learns differently, so it is good to incorporate them all. It will help your paper to be more enjoyable and interesting to read, and to help it flow better. Ethos means to appeal to the speaker’s character, meaning, you should try to appear trustworthy and credible. Pathos means to appeal to the reader’s sympathies and emotions to deepen their understanding. Logos means to appeal to reason and logic. I am going to better implement all of these 3 things into my paper. I will better use ethos by showing that I care about the issue, and I will research very well to do so. To use pathos better I will use some story-like writing and words with emotional suggestion to them. And to add logos in better, I will use logic and reasoning rather than just my opinion. Even if I don’t believe in the more reasonable answer, I will use it anyways.

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A&B Chapter 18, pgs. 479-481 (Skill 18.2) and pgs. 484-485 (Skill 18.4), The Little Penguin Handbook, pgs. 217-254, Part 6, "Understanding Punctuation and Mechanics"

The main idea of this reading is to learn to tell your story with certain words or ideas that will provoke the reader’s imagination. You need to use concrete words that will put an image into the reader’s head while they are reading, basically causing them to relate and understand better. There are two kinds of words to use, revelatory, and memory-soaked words. Revelatory words are words that associate with telling you the lifestyle, beliefs, values, etc. Memory-soaked words are words that will cause you to think about a whole chain reaction of events. They cause you to think of other ideas, emotions, and memories in a particular area. Nobody wants to read a story that is bland and straight to the point. Those “boring” details will make up the body of your story. I plan to use the Ladder of Abstraction to help my paper. I will make a list of events that I want to implement into the story, and then list the details and feelings that would associate with those events and how I would include them. It will help to know what I am trying to convey and plan out how to put that into my paper before I start, that way I know before hand.

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"Last Shot," Tobias Wolff and A&B Ch. 6, pages 125-130, 133-135, and 137-141, A&B Chapter 18, pgs. 475-479 (Skill 18.1)

The main idea of this reading is to learn how to better write about a significant event as a “story” instead of the traditional essay we are all trained to write. You should be able to understand what should be apart of autobiographical writing in order for it to be well-written. Tension, plot, character, setting, and theme are key components of a personal narrative paper. A technique I read about is asking questions to help shape and draft your paper. When you are trying to start the writing, you can ask questions like, “What are the major contraries or tensions in this story?” or, “What insights or meaning does you think your story suggests?” Asking questions like these will help you to get your writing going and have an idea of what questions to ask and to answer in your paper. I will use this in my writing to help stay on the main idea of the topic, and include all the information I need to. There are also questions to ask to help with developing the characters and setting, plot, and how to conclude or end your paper. I will ask these as I continue to write my paper, and as I revise what I have now.

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A&B Chapter 16 pages 426-431 (skill 16.4)

The main point of this reading was talking about peer reviews. When you are reviewing someone’s paper, you need to go through their writing as a reader, rather than a writer. As well as finding problems in their paper, you need to help to brainstorm ideas of how to fix each of the problems. If you get lost in some parts, then help make it more clear. If you can’t see the main idea, come up with some ways for them to implement it better into the paper. I am going to try and do a peer review workshop, to help and get feedback from others. You get a group of about 6 people and switch your papers around to get tips and ways that you can make your paper better. It will be good to get lots of different perspectives and opinions on my paper and different ways to improve it. Lots of times when you’re writing or revising your own paper, you only think of it in one way. Having others revise it will help you to open up your mind to other possibilities. I don’t do very well with criticism, I get very embarrassed and overly sensitive, so this will be something new for me.

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A&B Chapter 1, pas. 14-19 (Concept 1.3) A&B Chapter 17, pas. 462-467 (Skill 17.8) "Thesis statement" paragraph, pg. 3

This reading talks about closed-form writing, and open-form writing. Closed-form writing is very structured, planned out, and has lots of details. It basically presents the whole paper and what it will be talking about, and then it talks about each separate piece throughout the paper. It is a pretty predictable structure and is mainly good for business settings. While open-ended writing is structured like a story and is without set transitions. It lets you to interpret the writing in your own way, instead of the writer telling you what you are supposed to be reading and thinking throughout the paper. A skill I plan on using is to decide what kind of writing will fit best for the type of paper I am writing before I start. It will help set the entire tone of the writing and can basically make or break the paper. I will figure this out by researching the topic, and by knowing what type it is, I can figure out what will fit best for the paper. Depending on what type of audience I have, what subject, and what message I am trying to send out or just the purpose of my paper, is how I will decide which tone or writing style to be using.

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A&B Chapter 2, pgs. 22-32 (Concept 2.1)

To stimulate good writing, you need to ask open-ended questions instead of questions where you are expecting one answer. It will help to get multiple viewpoints for your writing and help you with your research and critical thinking. You also need to apply your complex thinking to other areas in your life. The mistake most people make is that they ask a question expecting one specific answer that they can write about. You should have a thesis that can be answered in more than one way. I am going to practice rising "Idea Mapping" more. It is a good way to connect your thoughts together, and to also find alternative ways to talk about your topic. It will help me to see how my new thoughts are related to the ones I first put down, and have a large variety of roads to take when I'm writing my papers. I'll start doing this every time that I have a paper to write. If i've chosen my topic already I will use this, or if I haven't. I'd be able to do it as many times as I need until I figure out which topic has the most ways to write about, or answer the question.

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A&B Chapter 16, pas. 418-425 (Skills 16.1, 16.2, and 16.3) A&B Chapter 14, pg. 372 ("Generating and Exploring ideas")

The really good and professional writers are not the ones who only have a few mistakes in their writing. They typically revise multiple times, and not just small revisions, they make big changes. You should revise globally and locally. Revising globally means to change things that will affect other parts of the writing, not just the one you’re fixing; revising locally, means it will only really affect the one or two sentences you are working on. Multiple drafts can help your short term memory by rereading and recreating the writing you already have. It can also help you develop your ideas better, and the audience you are writing to. You should also have a plan of what you are about to be writing. When you begin writing something, it shouldn’t be the first time you are putting the ideas down on paper. Also, you need to make sure you have the correct amounts of time to get every part and process done that you need to. For some writers, revising their writing takes even longer than the actual writing itself! As you are writing, think about the audience you are writing to, instead of you yourself. Your writing should accommodate to them and the things they appeal to. Lastly, don’t be afraid to exchange your writing with others for feedback, it helps to get more opinions than just your own.

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