Each page of a Learning Module will be a blog post so we can use the comment functionality of a blog post.
This week, we focused on reflection:
-Work on your writing: Final Reflection, any major writing assignments (first drafts or revisions), any makeup work beyond that if you want to do that
Make sure your review the prompt for the Final Reflection (go to Blackboard>Submit Assignments>Major Writing Assignments>Final Reflection).
If you choose Option 1, you should be focusing the outline of the reflection on two pieces:
If you choose Option 2, the outline would follow this:
Also consider what direct quotes from your writing that you will use if you do Option 2.
In a comment below, give a rough outline or just some notes about your initial thoughts for what you will write about in each part of the assignment option you choose.
After commenting, click the button below to continue:
Perhaps the most important part of reflecting on your writing is to spend time critically reading your own writing.
With the work you did on the previous page in mind (i.e., goals for writing and values about writing), take some time to read through your previous writing, namely:
As you read through your writing, consider “Check-in about Reading Annotations and Learning Module” on the 2-8-2021 Lesson Plan and from the Reading Annotation Guidelines to think about how to make effective notes when reading that get more toward the “how” and “why” of things you read rather than just “what” you read.
In the case of reading your own writing to reflect on what you learned, you are looking for how you are doing things in your writing (e.g., at level of argument, organization, sentence, word choice, etc.) as well as why (e.g., to have reader linger on something, to provide a counterargument, etc.).
Consider, too, comments you got from your Writing Group and from me!
You may not have time to read thoroughly now, but by the time you submit your Final Reflection, you would have read through everything you wrote very thoroughly.
In a comment below, tell me about one thing you noticed that confirmed one of the goals you commented on the previous page of the module and one thing that maybe was a little surprising that you did not mention on the last page of the module.
After commenting below, click the button to continue the module.
For our final reflection (no matter which option you choose), it is important to consider what you value about writing rather than cumulatively trying to do it all. In other words, think hard about what you want out of writing, what you prioritize most.
In that spirit, review each of the following:
In a comment below, choose at least 1 goal or value about writing from each of the above bullet points and comment below with a note on each of these 3 goals/values and why you value each of those 3 goals/values.
After commenting below, click the button to continue the module.
This week, we slowed down a bit to focus on the last few things we should think about as we get ready to turning in the research writing project:
-Turn in your Research Writing Project on May 3 by 11:59pm.
-Start working out a plan for doing the last project of the class and getting in make up work if you have any (we will talk more about this in class on May 3, to include the final reflection project.
The Qasim piece uses MLA documentation style and we see that, too, in the works cited page.
Like we talked about in class on 4/12 and also in Learning Module 8, learning a documentation style is just learning how to look up information for how to format something according to conventions of the documentation style.
While not nearly as important as doing the synthesis work on the last page, readers will come to expect you to follow conventions of a documentation style for in-text citations (e.g., putting the citation in correct spot in sentence) and for the reference list (e.g., formatting a reference entry item in right spot and in right format in reference list).
You’ll notice that there is a sort of indent after first line of each entry in Qasim’s works cited page. In Google Docs or Microsoft Word, the easiest way to do that is to use the ruler function. See picture below to see what it looks like in Google Docs:
In this image above, the blue marks are what to pay attention to. The triangle on the bottom need to be moved to the half-inch mark to represent a five-space indent. You get that set up, and all your reference list after that will follow the format text after first line of an entry being indented five spaces.
There are other formatting things to consider with reference list formatting. Depending on the documentation style, you can find the rules at the UW-Madison website on documentation style conventions.
In the reference list by Qasim (or, in MLA terms, the works cited page), there are two different kinds of sources that you will likely use in your research writing, as well:
You might also use a few others that are important, like books or reports published by organizations, which will require looking up how to cite via the UW-Madison page or anther online resource that gives explanations and examples for conventions of making a reference list.
Looking over Qasim’s works cited page, you should get a sense of the differences between formatting a works cited entry in MLA. Translating these entries into another documentation style will also help you get acquainted with this format.
Do one of the following:
IMPORTANT: Try not to reuse a source in a specific documentation style that someone else already used! There are 13 entries and 5 documentation style options, so this should work out alright. If it doesn’t, still try to challenge yourself to get some practice by not looking.
After commenting below, click on the button below to continue.
So the Research Project is due May 3. Let’s revisit the prompt and talk about the things you should have in order soon:
In a comment below, tell me your plan for today, tomorrow, and every day until May 3 for what you will be doing to work on your research project.
One of the most difficult (and arguably most important) elements of academic writing is integrating your voice with the ideas of other scholars and writers because:
This is difficult, but really helps you as a reader, writer, and learner! If you can do these things well, it means you can enter into complex discussions about a topic and move those discussions forward. That is a really valuable thing to know how to do personally (e.g., as a consumer of news and politics to make political decisions, thinking about medical decisions, weighing disputes among family and friends) and professionally (e.g., writing reports, evaluating possible scenarios for different decisions).
After reading the Qasim research-driven writing project in our textbook, I hope you noticed some moments where Qasim effectively integrates different perspectives and voices together well and that you can use that article as a model for your own writing for your research-driven writing project.
I’m going to isolate one excerpt from the reading on page 242. I’m going to paste the excerpt as a whole at first and then a second version with my annotations.
The United States is not alone in its dependence on immigrants for economic prosperity, and can learn lessons from the consequences of strict immigration policies abroad. Jason Furman, Harvard professor of economic policy and former chairman of Barack Obama’s economic advisors, believes Japan’s harsh stance on immigration has caused its economic instability, concluding that “immigration makes a strong contribution to economic growth” (Furman). For many nations, immigration has become a necessity due to lower birthrates and rising age of the population with lower percentages of workers to take their place. As Furman reports, Japan’s working population has been shrinking due to its rising average age, hindering the growth of their economy. Lest we think this can’t happen in America, Daniel Griswold points out that, without immigration, our labor force would begin to shrink soon, and he contends that immigrants revitalize areas of the country where populations have declined (“Immigrants Have Enriched American Culture”)
Here is the same paragraph with my annotations for what is going on in terms of synthesis of multiple voices with the writer’s own voice.
The United States is not alone in its dependence on immigrants for economic prosperity, and can learn lessons from the consequences of strict immigration policies abroad. [previous sentence sets up argument of paragraph and sources’ relevance to argument]. Jason Furman, Harvard professor of economic policy and former chairman of Barack Obama’s economic advisors [INTRODUCES SOURCE], believes Japan’s harsh stance on immigration has caused its economic instability [paraphrase about case of Japan before setting up direct quote about applicable lesson of Japan], concluding [signal word that identifies main argument of piece] that “immigration makes a strong contribution to economic growth” (Furman). For many nations, immigration has become a necessity due to lower birthrates and rising age of the population with lower percentages of workers to take their place. [previous sentence sums up connection between immigration’s impact on economic instability and economic growth in nation] As Furman reports, Japan’s working population has been shrinking due to its rising average age, hindering the growth of their economy [goes back to source to look at that relationship to Japan]. Lest we think this can’t happen in America, [transition toward relevance for U.S. as way to introduce new source] Daniel Griswold points out that, without immigration, our labor force would begin to shrink soon, and he contends that immigrants revitalize areas of the country where populations have declined (“Immigrants Have Enriched American Culture”). [paraphrase to make parallel to Japan case study complete]
In a below comment, do one of the following:
If you do option 1 or 3, just try to annotate after any signal words/phrases and at the end of each sentence as best as you can.
After commenting below, click on the button below to continue.
In this Learning Module, we explored:
How do you make your voice the strongest? By connecting sources and saying something a bit newer even if not completely new, you start to develop a strong voice that can help address your research question in a robust fashion.
Here are the three main tools to do that:
Summary can be helpful for you to understand the source, so could be good to write on your own (as you’ve done with Reflective Annotated Bibliography entries). They can sometimes be useful within your draft, but only if an extended version of contextual information about the source is necessary. In your Rhetorical Analysis, this was sometimes true because your audience was the class and you can’t assume everyone had read/heard/viewed the same text you were analyzing.
For academic arguments, you’ll want to key in on:
Paraphrase can be helpful to capture a point from one of your sources (say, a good sentence or paragraph related to your argument) but positioning in your own voice to make for better writing or to better fit it, structurally, into the organization of your writing:
Good to use direct quotes when the author puts something really well that you using paraphrase instead would not put so well. To quote:
Here are some examples of direct quoting and paraphrasing (we covered summary a bit already in the Rhetorical Analysis, so check that out for review in past lesson plans and Learning Modules):
In the above examples, you will note some “signal words” or words that help let your readers know that you are gesturing toward another writer. I used words like “writes,” “argues,” and “claims” to do this. But, there is a really great word bank on page 175 in our textbook that has other examples.
In a below comment, choose something from one of your sources for your paper so far. Do three things:
After commenting below, click on the button to continue the module: