Archive for September 2009
Blog #9
- First impressions are important, even in writing
- intro paragraph needs to start with a sentence that peaks interest in the readers
- thesis sentence must be direct and informative
- Thoughts for making a good hook (first sentence) Humor, Interesting Fact, Quotation that catches the eye
Fleming, Grace. “The Introductory Paragraph.” about.com. 29 Sept. 2009 <http://homeworktips.about.com/od/paperassignments/a/introsentence.htm>
- They should get the reader’s interest so that he or she will want to read more.
- They should let the reader know what the writing is going to be about.
- Do this second with a well crafted thesis sentence
- Know that your intro paragraph will not catch the attention of everybody, but try and get the biggest reader population possible
- Never say you don’t know what you are talking about!
- Move confidently into your essay
Livermore, Harry. “A Proper Introduction.” 29 Sept. 2009 <http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/intros.htm>.
I found both of these articles to be very helpful in better understanding what an introductino paper consists of. I now know that it is now just a straight forward statement of what you are going to write about, but also some catchy quotes or humor that will keep the reader wanting to read more. The first impression is very important, so the first sentence needs to be catchy or witty or something not boring!
Add a comment September 30, 2009
Blog # 8
Critically Analyzing Information Sources
- There are five main parts of the source that one should look at
- Author
- Date of Publication
- Edit or Revision
- Publisher
- Title of Journal
- One must next look over the content of the journal if they find that the source is reliable
- If there is an abstract or preface, it is important to read that over first to see if the source is even going to help with your research
Engle, Michael. “Critically Analyzing Information Sources.” Cornell University Library. 24 Sept. 2009 http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/skill26.htm
Critically Analyzing Information Sources
- There are a couple main steps
- Is there an author and what are his credentials
- Look at date of publication, is it an out of date journal
- Who is the publisher, many colleges publish and then these are usually scholarly journals
- Now you must look at the content and see if it applies to your research
- Consider if the content is biased or opinionated
- Is the material primary research or secondary research
“Critically Analyzing Information Sources.” Texas A&M University. 24 Sept. 2009 http://library.tamu.edu/help/help-yourself/using-materials-services/critically-analyzing-information-sources>
I find that after looking at these two articles that the most important aspect is making sure the author is reliable. In both articles, the authors said that checking the credentials and date of publication and other aspects of without even reading the article is the first thing to do. I found this very interesting because I always go right for the content to see if I can use it. I guess it makes sense to check this entire section first though because if it can’t be used, why even read it right? I also realized that I need to look into the type of writing and how biased the piece is more. Most of my articles so far, I have just picked them out because when I typed my topic into EBSCO HOST they came up and after quickly skimming them, I thought they would work. I now see that I have a lot more work than I imagined and a lot more critical reading than I thought. All of these steps are extremely important to finding reliable and informational sources. In order to write a well written paper and a paper that is backed up by legitimate information, one must complete these steps, no matter how lengthy the process.
Add a comment September 24, 2009
Blog #7
Honestly, I am still pretty confused on all the different parts that go into a research paper. I have used the different articles that my group members and I have had to look up for our blogs to figure out to the best of my ability what each section entails. I have also looked over many examples online and in my own journals that I plan on using for my research to see what different authors did for their papers. From doing all of this, I think I have a good understanding on many of the parts, but the most confusing to me is the lit review. I believe this to be a section of ones proposal in which the author using different sites to explain what the research is and why it is important. Also in here, one should have cites that show that the author has an understanding of what types of research has already been done in this area.
As for the introduction, I believe I have a better grasp on this idea for my paper. The introduction is not a summary of information like the lit review is, but it is the authors own ideas on how to get the readers to become connected to the paper. Many authors use stories or ask personal questions to get the readers to want to continue to read the paper. The introduction is basically the first thing the reader is going to read, so it is very important that you think about the audience that you want to touch with your words. We have read many articles on connecting with your audience and I believe this is very true. If you are writing to someone about something they know nothing about, they may not want to learn anything, so you need to connect it with something they may be familiar with. Connecting with the audience in the introduction is going to be hard, but it is a very crucial part of writing this research paper.
The annotated bibliography is very different from the lit review, although I didn’t think that at all at first!The anno bib will come at the end of the paper, and is a short summary of all the cites that one has used for the paper. It is important to take ones time when writing this and analyze each cite very well so that it is easier to write the lit review. If one write the anno bib first, they will see what sources can be clumped together and which ones have very strong arguments that they should use in the lit review to persuade readers to continue reading. It is important to use realiable sources for a research paper. This may be difficult to determine what is reliable, but with the help of research engines such as EBSCO HOST, one can type in that they want scholarly journals and only those that are reliable will come up. As for making sure the sources are timely, Marlene said it in class, and I have heard it from many of my high school teachers, if the journal was written anytime prior to five years before the date it may be out of date. It does not mean that the information is bad, but it is imporatnt to keep in mind that there may be new research that has proven this journal wrong since it was written.
The first journal that I have found, has helped me better understand how a research paper should be written, but most importantly it has helped me understand what an introduction paragraph should look like. The author makes it very clear what he wants the reader to take from the paper, although I feel he may have been too impersonal. He clearly states what his two main goals of the paper are and then backs this up with a little research from some well credited authors (Senghas and Monghan ). Overall I think that this was a good example of the structure of a research paper introduction.
The second journal that I read, also gave me a better understanding of the introduction paragraph. In this piece I found it interesting, and will definately think about using this in my paper, that the author gave some information going against his research. I think it is important to show there are other sides of your research so not to turn people away and sound to biased. In this journal the author states, “However, an unintended consequence of IDEA has occurred. After 30 years of institutionalizing the practice of mainstreaming, D/HH students, particularly those who use sign language, have not become “hearing”-that is, only speaking and hearing spoken English language without the use of sign language” (Rosen 1).I find this to be a good way to keep people reading because they know that you are just trying to get information across to them and not be biased.
Rosen, Russell S. “An Unintended Consequence of IDEA: American Sign Language, the Deaf Community, and Deaf Culture into Mainstream Education.” Disability Studies Quarterly; Spring2006, Vol. 26 Issue 2, p35-35, 1p. 19 Sept. 2009 < http://navigator-iup.passhe.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=20570042&site=ehost-live>
Senghas, Richard J., and Leila Monghan. “SIGNS OF THEIR TIMES: Deaf Communities and the Culture of Language.” Annual Review of Anthropology; 2002, Vol. 31 Issue 1, p69-97, 29p. 19 Sept. 2009 < http://navigator-iup.passhe.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=7392216&site=ehost-live>
Add a comment September 20, 2009
Free Writing
Stressed About Time
I definately do not I mean NOT have enough time to do this class this semester. I don’t know how I thought I was going to get through this all. I have six classes this semester and two writing intensive ones. I mean I am usually good at time management but ths semester suckss some major ass. i am also playing rugby where i am match secretary and co president of the sign in claub on campus.. i don’t even have enough time to do my work until the night before. this is procrastination, this is just a SHIT Load of work. like this whole flu season thing is scaring me too. i get the flu easily. had it twice last year and i feel like i may be getting it now, so what am i suppose to do if I get it and can’t come to class or make up my work on time. Also, you said that there are no extensions in this class, I have been kicking my ass to get work done, and in class on wednesday you gave a week extension for proposal and outlince, like it was nothing. I was pissed. it makes me not want to do that work. it prob should have made me proud that I got things done on time, but it didn’t. I mean my weekends even suck ass. So much for free time. I have rugby on saturday morning, then the rest of the weekend is HOMEWORK and RESEARCH. I want to go home and have a vacatoin and I was so excited to come back to school and now I just want to go home. What the hell. I can’t even go home for a weekend if I wanted to because I have too much work.
Add a comment September 18, 2009
Blog #6
The Owl at Purdue
- The requirements for MLA formating change almost yearly
- Using citations protects the writer from plagerism
- There are a list of general guidelines that one should follow
- A few examples are to double space the header, one inch margins on all sides, and there should be a seperate end notes page before your works cited page
- There is no cover page unless said otherwise by your instructor
“Owl at Purdue.” MLA Formatting and Style Guide. 2009. 17 Sept. 2009 < http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/01/>.
A Writers Reference
- The writer must cite all direct quotations and also any ideas borrowed from a source
- This includes summaries and paraphrases, statistics and other specific facts
- Make sure the sources are credible
- Make sure your in text citation is cited correctly, there are many different ways to do so
- It is good to paraphrase ideas from a work so that your reader can better understand them, just make sure you cite the idea!!!
- Do not overuse quotations from other authors use your own ideas
Hacker, Diane. A Writer’s Reference. 6th ed. Boston: New York, 2007.
After reading the two articles, I have found that my experience using MLA is no where near perfect. There are many important facts that I have yet to learn before reading these. I am one hundred percent guilty of using too many citations in work. I thought before that a research paper is one where you just take work and put it together, now I understand that you have to put your own thought and meaning into the paper. It is VERY important to cite other authors work, even if you think that you had that idea, and you find someone else did, go ahead and cite them. It is better to be safe than sorry when it comes to plagerism. I am very thankful for the book that Marlene has recommended and think that it will help me write a correct MLA formatted research paper without getting kicked out of IUP!!!
After having class the first week where Marlene made it clear that we must properly cite everything. I only had to go back and cite my first blog, but I understand better now that I must cite everything, not just mention the article.
1 comment September 17, 2009
Blog #5
Critical Reading for Critical Writing
- * First find the thesis of the paper, this is their reason for writing the paper
- * think not what facts are but what they mean concerning the subject matter
- * Be open minded, stand back and see exactly what they are saying, think about how you would say it
Knott, Deborah. “Critical Reading Towards Critical Writing.” University of Toronto. 15 Sept. 2009
< http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/reading-and-researching/critical-reading>
What is Critical Reading?
- *Do not try and memorize facts you will not get to critical thinking
- * When critical reading you not only read what the text says but also what it does with the facts and what it means by giving you the facts
- * Certain goals that one must accomplish ( examples find authors purpose and recongnize bias)
Kurland, Dan. “What Is Critical Reading.” Reading and Writing Ideas As Well As Words. 15 Sept. 2009
< http://www.criticalreading.com/critical_reading.htm>
I found both articles to be very helpful in understanding critical reading more. I believe this will help me make more critical comments on my classmates blogs. I found the article that I found on the internet to be most helpful. It gave goals for a student to reach while reading. These goals are a very helpful start to understanding critical reading.
Writing For An Audiance
- * create a common ground between you and your audiance
- * do this by knowing who your audiance is that you are writing for
- * also be aware of the audiances needs, this means that although you want to them to see what you are saying, you have to adapt to them enough that they want to continue reading your paper
Flower, Linda. “Writing for An Audience.” 15 Sept. 2009 <http://marlenharrison.com/images/flower_writing_for_an_audience.pdf>
Choosing and Writing for An Audience
- *it is very important to know who your real audiance will be (real meaning the people who will actually read your paper) because you do not want to say anything that will intentionally hurt anyone
- *if you do not have an audience in mind, your writing may be more broad than intended
- * also if you have an intended audience that is smaller, you may be able to write more personal and pck out the right questions to answer and how to word them
- * you may want to pull your audience in with a personal introduction, indicating you are talking to them personally
Dr. Hale, Steven. “Choosing and Writing for An Audience.” 15 Sept. 2009 <http://facstaff.gpc.edu/~shale/humanities/composition/handouts/audience.html>
After reading the article given by Marlene, I was a bit confused about what the author meant when she said know what your audiance knows and wants. I figured you just write and then whoever reads it, well just reads it. But after searching more articles, I believe that I understand better. You need to know who you intend on reading it, but at the same time think rationally and know who will more likely read it. Once you have those two groups in mind, it may be best to write to both throughout your paper. Also, you really need to make it somewhat personal so that your audience stays hooked.
1 comment September 16, 2009
Blog #4
1. After meeting with one of the class assistants and talking about my topic, I have changed my idea about what I want to research. Before I thought that I was going to do something with baby sign, but after thinking about it I realized that it was very broad and has been research quite a bit before. The class assistance asked me why I was interested in that and I explained how I am a deaf educatoin major so we got talking about IUP and its deaf education major. We discussed how it is one of the only colleges in Pennsylvania that offers the major, but not many people know it, even the students on campus. That got me thinking that IUP is not the most Deaf friendly college. There are many speakers who come here anddon’t even have an interpreter. I am going to a comedy show next friday, its a deaf comedy show, and there will be a voice interpreter. This made me realize that a lot of times people who have disabilities do as much as they can to make “normal” people comfortable in a situation but the general population does not do the same. So my research question is why is IUP not more Deaf friendly and how can we do so to become more.
2. IUP does not have the money to be more deaf friendly.
How much money is given to the college of education at IUP?
Who decides what money goes for at IUP?
IUP feels there is not enough interest to have interpreters at every speaking event.
If there is a deaf education major, shouldn’t there be more for the students to experience?
Wouldn’t having an interpreter make more awareness of the deaf community?
The general population does not often think of those who are different.
Why are people not more aware of others who are not like them?
How can IUP work better to make the world more even for everyone?
Why does IUP not work harder to do so?
IUP deaf education majors could make more awareness since these people will be there students.
How can the students work harder to make everyone aware?
Will the awareness make the campus come together?
If there were more deaf events the college may get more awareness for the major.
What kind of events could IUP hold?
Where would the money come from?
3. There has already been research on how people with disabilities are overlooked. There are acts that protect people who have disabilities like deafness.
Some journals that have information from others who have researched this topic are listed below.
Obviously there isn’t any research on how IUP is involved with the Deaf community. My research will focus mainly on this and how IUP can improve.
4. I first want people to know what the Deaf community is, so I will do some research on that. This information will come from the different scholarly journals that I have posted. I will then need to find out exactly what IUP does for the deaf community, because honestly there may be more at IUP than I know of. I will need to talk to people in the Deaf Education department, and student’s who attend IUP that are deaf. I will also speak to the IUP deaf education student’s and see what they feel the campus is lacking for the Deaf Community. I want to contact different universitys all over the states who have a deaf education program and see what their different programs have for someone who is deaf. I also want to see what IUP can do to better it, so I may talk to different deaf people and see what they feel the general population can do to be more aware of their dissablity. I mentioned money so I will need to find out where money goes in the education department and maybe look at different prices for the interpreters I’m thinking we should have. It is alot of contacting many different people, but I feel this will be a good topic.
5. http://www.deafnewspaper.com/contact/contact.html
This is a deaf newspaper that I plan on contacting.
http://www.deaf.com/contact/contact.php?domain=Deaf%20Life
This is Deaf Life, a magazine I will contact.
http://www.indianagazette.com/our_newspaper/contact_us/
The Indiana Gazette, the local newspaper.
I want to also contact the Penn at IUP
3 comments September 13, 2009
Blog # 3 – Genres
There are two major types of research genres that I was able to find are the argumentative and the analytical research paper. According to The Owl at Purdue the argumentative paper is a type of paper in which the author is able to present the audience with an issue, often controversial, and their opinion on that issue. They do this in hopes of persuading the audience to agree with their stance, which many times is found in the thesis sentence of the paper. The analytical paper then is more of an information based paper in which the author does not give their opinion or stance, but rather is relaying all sides of the issue to the audience.
Source
Baker, R. Jack. “Writing a Research Paper; Genre and The Research Paper” The Owl At Purdue. 10 Sept. 2009 < http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/658/02/.>
After class on Wednesday, I was able to get a better idea of what topics that I came up with may be most effective for me to research for this class. I am going with my instinct and with some feedback from my group members and picking the sign language topic and the technology topic. I am choosing the sign language topic because it was my original instinct to do this topic and I am very closely attached to this one. I really feel that I can do some pretty neat primary research and find out alot about baby sign that will be helpful to parents and to upcoming teachers like myself. I chose the technology topic as a backup. This too I found to be a very interesting topic, and I feel that it will benefit many for me to publish a paper with my findings. I think that it is a topic that many people don’t think about because we are surrounded by technology so much that they don’t think about how life would be like without it. I hope that from these two topics I am able to find one that will help me produce a great research paper.
I feel that the sign language paper would be an analytical paper. I know I would be saying that baby sign is good for children, but I’m not really saying that not teaching it is detrimental to the child. So really, I don’t know if it is a little bit of both. I know the second paper would be an argumentative paper. I do feel that technology has become more advanced than it should be and that it is ruining society. I know that many people disagree with me and feel that without technology our lives would be worse off. I hope with this paper to persue some people or maybe just open others eyes to what I see.
2 comments September 10, 2009
First shot at the research topics
Sign Language
I would like to do something with baby sign language. It is important to me as a deaf education major, and also as someone who would like to in the future teach my own children baby sign. I hope that having such a personal tie to this topic that I can bring a new outlook on baby sign. My research question should be something along the lines of at what age is baby sign easiest to pick up and how can parents incorporate this into daily life? I would then use my research to write an informative paper for parents so they can help their children learn sign language.
Teenage drinking
I know that this topic has been used many times before but hopefully not in the way I hope to do it. It is important to me because I went through high school being pressured and now my younger sibling and cousins are going through it. I would like to see the effects of a child deciding not to fold into peer pressure in high school and the effects it has socially on that person later on in life. My research question may be something like, how does sobriety through out the teenage years affect ones social status in the later years.
College Athletes
I play rugby at IUP. I know many college athletes who are amazing at sports, but could be better if they did not smoke or drink. I would like to find out if drinking or smoking has more of an affect on college athletes and their performance. My research question could be along the lines of which affects a athlete more, and I would hope to be able to tie that into IUP.
Education Jobs
I would like to find out where exactly are the most jobs for someone in my position. It is very important to me because in three short years I will be out in the real world looking for employment, and by the looks of it now, I may be having to look harder than I thought. I am not only going to look at local places, I will look in surrounding states, and find out salaries and benefits so that one can see how well of they would be if they were to snag that job. My research question would be something along the lines of where in the world are all the education jobs?
Technology
I don’t know all that much about technology or how to use it, but what I do know is that it has been improving rapidly over the past decade. I would like to find out how it has changed the lives of many, and if that is for the better or the worse. I will look at it from all age groups, from people who when they were little never had a tv, to people who never knew a time without one. I think this is important for everyone to know and realize because personally I feel technology may be hurting our society. I would make my research question along the lines of how has technology changed the lives of all people and has it hurt of bettered them? I would present this in an informative paper.
4 comments September 8, 2009
Interests
My family background
Sign Language
Music Therapy with students who are disabled
After going through the different interests that I had I crossed out quite a few. I highlighted Sign Language because I am a deaf education major and find this very interesting. I don’t know exactly where I am going to go with the topic, but I hope to be able to refine it to make a new and exciting topic question.
Add a comment September 4, 2009
