DAVID ZIRKIYEV – Life of David Zirk

Week 16-David Zirkiyev

After a semester of this course, I have learned and grown a lot as a writer. For one, I enjoyed the process of writing, re-writing, and re-writing again. Before this year, I never really submitted drafts of my work. Through this course, I learned that writing is truly a process and it cannot all be done in one night or one sitting. Even when I felt like I had written something perfect, there was always more work and editing that could have been done. I also learned that sometimes to write better, it is better to take a mental break. When I took a mental break away from my work, I would come back refreshed and filled with new ideas.

For future students taking this course, I would recommend everyone to stay very on top of their work. With online classes, it is sometimes difficult to keep track of all the assignments and due dates. I would suggest that a future student plan out exactly when all the assignments are due. Also, read every assignment carefully because it is easy to make a mistake. I would also tell the students to not be shy or scared of asking clarifying questions to the professor. The professor is here to help and guide you, not judge you. With the skills learned from the professors, you will see yourself grow as a student and writer. Even though it may seem like a lot of writing, the only way to improve as a writer is to keep practicing!

Week 15

For one of my revisions, I plan on revising my Literary narrative. The time and place of my project is set in my high school English class, and it relates to my project of writing a narrative. The purpose of this project is to share my personal experience as a writer, and highlight how the process of writing and interviewing influenced my opinion on a new genre. The primary audience for this piece is my professor and for her to understand my perspective of working with a new genre. The secondary audience can be other students, either in my previous high school or in my college right now. The relationship between me as a writer and my audience is for the audience to understand my experience. I think that between the writer and the project, the main relationship circulates around me expressing myself and sharing in a self-reflecting, yet education manner. In essence, I thought my project was effective in its organization and writing style, but it can use more work on including my own experience, as opposed to summarizing simply the actions I took. For revision, I was given really good and specific feedback on exactly what section of my work can be improved. My format will stay the same, as a paper. I plan to go over each page of the revision per day, so I can break it up and finish it in a timely manner. This way, I will not spend more than an hour a day on this revision, so I will not be too overwhelmed with my other studies.

Week 14 David Zirk

Dear Reader,

In planning my revision for the Revision and Revision 2, I primarily wanted to work on the two pieces that I felt like I could still grow as a writer. In this sense, I want to revise my narrative piece and my research piece. The reason I chose these two pieces is because both of these genres were new to me prior to this class. I have written many analytical essays in the past, and though I believe that good writing is filled with revision, I would rather continue growing as a writer within new genres. In my narrative, I wanted to add more details. As a narrative, I believe my piece should have been more introspective. I also think I could have portrayed my writing more as a story rather than an argumentative essay. As for my research paper, I think that I could always build and strengthen my argument. I think that research can always be updated and revised. For my paper, I want to focus more on primary pieces and add more personal experiences with plagiarism into my writing. In a way, I was wondering if conducting an interview and then using the data from that interview would be useful. This way, I would be conducting my own research and adding that to the research that I have already found. Also, I think strong arguments display counter arguments and then combat them. I might think of adding a counter argument section and working on that and still linking it back to my thesis.

Week 13-David Zirk

When I first saw that one of the major projects for this course was going to be a research project, I was instantly nervous and intimated. From my past experiences with writing, I was not used to writing research papers. Most of my work in high school was analytical. Also, I was never taught how to properly research a topic. In addition, when I picked my topic, I did not realize how difficult it would be to research.

I learned that research is not simply gathering the facts about a topic and laying them out on a page. But actually, research is used as support for an argument. In this way, I had to use my own voice and my own ideas more than I ever expected to. I found that when I was able to develop my own ideas and find my voice in my project, the research came along much easier. Now, I knew exactly what I was looking for. I did not have to filter through countless websites and read articles that have nothing to do with what I was trying to say.

I think this whole project really made me grow as a writer. Now, I can say that I have an experience in a whole new genre of writing. In fact, with my new experience, I don’t think I will ever be scared to write a research project again. In fact, I think I enjoyed research more than analytical writing. I think this is the case because I was able to use sources from an extended world, not a limited one.

Week 12-David Zirk

My thesis for my research paper is: Even though there is no straightforward solution to the issue of plagiarism, institutions have continuously shown reluctance in improving the present implementation system to make it fairer and more probable to dishearten plagiarism. I think my thesis makes a clear claim based on the evidence I found in researching that supported my argument. I do think that my thesis could be revised. I think my thesis can be more specific. I can list the ways in which the system is not fair, and I could argue how this issue can be solved.

After going over my first draft of my research paper, I highlighted the sections as defined in M-E-A-L. This stands for main paint, evidence, analysis, and link. I think that some of my paragraphs have a good balance as highlighted, but others could use more work. In some sections, I am making a lot of analytical points, but I am not providing enough evidence for these points. I think I can work on this issue by reviewing the articles and journals that I used for research and picking out more evidence that will be useful for my argument. I would need to add these points of evidence back into the paper. I think that I do a good job of linking all my body paragraphs back to my thesis. However, I think that if I fine-tune my thesis, I may need to go back and fine-tune the sentences I use to link my argument to the thesis.

Week 11. David Zirk

One time I had to synthesize information together was when I had to decide what college I wanted to attend. When making this decision, I had to first gather my options. Between these opinions, I was considering either attending Baruch or St. John’s University. Since I did not have any prior knowledge on these colleges beyond their relative locations, I had a lot of research to do before I could reach a conclusion of where it would be most beneficial for me to attend. By doing some research, I was given nothing but numbers. I knew how many people attended each school, I knew what the graduation rates were, and I knew how each program was ranked. What was missing was personal experiences. What did students that actually went to these schools feel about them? Did they enjoy it? Why or why not?

Upon looking at my current research, I have a clear analysis and break down on what on the topic. By analyzing these websites, I can clearly break down their rhetoric and how these messages are being portrayed to their intended audience. However, right now I am missing my own argument. Where do I think my side of the debate lies? What are other people my age saying about freshman writing in college? I think I could use some social media surveying to get more voices on this topic. This way, I will be able to develop an argument, not just an analysis.

Week 10. David Zirkiyev

Part 1:

“Freshman writing class” or “course”
College freshman writing course
First year writing class
Introduction writing class
Freshman composition class
Introduction to writing
College-level composition class or “course”
Required writing course
“Required composition class” and “college”
“Mandatory writing class” and “college”

Part 2:

The journal article “The Effects of Collaborative Writing Techniques on Freshman Writing and Attitudes” was written by Richard Louth, Carole McAllister, and Hunter A. Mcallister and published by Southeastern Louisiana University. Using the CRAAP test, in reference to Currency, the article cites most of the research from the late 1970s and early 1980s, which is when collarbivate writing began gaining attention. However, since it is not 2021, these citations are not current and could have been contradicted by now. In analysing relevancy, this article is relevant to my research because it described an experience and study made on the writing techniques of freshman college students taking their first writing course. The authors are all highly educated college professor’s at Southeastern Louisiana University, who have not only studied the topic, but worked hands-on with college freshmen writers. The information is accurate because it comes from a reliable source, which is jstor. Jstor has a collection of academic journals and papers. The purpose of this source is to conduct a study on college freshmen and their experiences with collaborative writing.

Week 9.David Zirk

In the past, I have used critical questions to develop my topic and discover what the true purpose of my research needs to be. For example, in high school, I had to write a research project about VolksWagen advertisements. In order to even begin this project, I first had to figure out what exactly was going to be the purpose of my research paper. I began by posing a broad question and researching historical context on VolksWagen. Once I had a solid grasp on the history, I was ready to start asking myself critical questions. I thought, what inspired a new wave of advertisements? How did the new advertisements compare to the old ones? I allowed these critical questions to guide the remainder of my research.

To start off my current research project, I decided to try out another seemingly interesting strategy. For this project, I began by writing a free write. For this project, I want to research a topic that is related to writing. Since I have some prior knowledge on this topic, I began by writing about all the things I knew when it came to current issues about writing, especially in schools. Since I now have a sense of the ideals I will be working with and seeing as I continue my research, I can begin to limit these ideas and think critically about them. Personally, I found this strategy extremely effective because I was able to organize all the ideas that I had in my head. Now that these ideas are all in one place, I do not have to worry about forgetting them.

Week 8. David Zirkiyev

The issue of grading and its inconsistencies are currently being discussed by students and teachers alike all throughout the United States. There are both sides to this debate. The students believe that grades put an undue pressure on students, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The teachers, on the other hand, believe that grades are needed to propel improvement in students. For instance, if students did not know where they stand on a certain topic, they do not know where to go from there. However, both sides agree that the idea of grades mostly sets the students against each other. Ultimately, the students see grades as a scale of comparison with their classmates. Students with better grades almost see themselves as superior than students with lower grades. Unfortunately, students with lower grades have lower self-esteem when it comes to their education and their self-perspective.
As a student, I can see the student perspective of this argument from first hand experience. I remember when I was in middle school, our entire grade was pressured with the competition of making it onto the gold honor roll. The gold honor roll was set for all the students in the grade that had a grade point average that was higher than 90%. If you were on the gold honor roll, you received a special certificate and you got to go on a special school trip. In fact, the gold honor roll was posted in front of the principal’s office. Therefore, the entire school knew who was on the list and who was not. This created an environment of competition, not an environment that encouraged healthy improvement and health self-esteem.

Week 7—David Zirk

Review of Chapter: Grading Has Always Made Writing Better

Society & History – what history or social norms exist. This chapter is about why teachers grade students’ work. This chapter exists in the history of the school system and its development in the 20th century. Prior to modern times, education was limited to the rich and elite. Therefore, class sizes were far smaller than they are today. In the past, when students would write, their writing would be evaluated in written and spoken form. Also, students were given far more personal attention. However, since education is now a legal right and every child must be in school, classroom sizes are far larger. These large class sizes make it difficult for a teacher to give special attention in the grading process, which is why they give out number/letter grades.

Audience – This chapter is being communicated to students, such as myself. Here, the perspective of teachers and why they grade us are given to students so they have a better understanding of the grading process and why it is needed.

Speaker – This chapter is written by Mitchell R. James, who is a writer and a teacher. He is a fiction writer, poet, and assistant profes- sor of composition and literature at Lakeland Community College.

Message – This chapter is trying to communicate why writing needs to be graded and how the difference between grading and assessment is useful for students.

Purpose – The goal of this chapter is to explain to students why their work is graded. It explains that even teachers can agree that grading does not always seem rational or fair, but most of the grading is done within reason. I think the goal is put students in the shoes of the teachers and not get so upset over their grades.

Context – The context is within the modern school and grading system.