Month: October 2021

October 22, 2021

Research

1. What I did:

• Read BIAW Research Starts with Answers
• Read BIAW Research Starts with a Thesis Statement
• Read Invention
• Read Taking Flight: Connecting Inner and Outer Realities during Invention

2. What went well:

• Able to finish all readings on time
• Felt relived due to no need to rush for time to complete assignments
• Able to learn about invention and its connection to writing

3. What was hard:

• Nothing was hard for the most part this week, time has always been a struggle but not this week

4. To-Do List:

• Look over week 10 assignments
• Make a schedule of when to do readings and when to do research project

5. Where I left off:

• Left off with finished readings
• Left off with a knowledge of intervention and its correlation to writing

6. How do I feel?

I feel relived that I got time to finish my assignment on a Friday. I didn’t feel rushed for time for the most part, and I was able to get what I needed for this week which may or may not go into me doing my research project in the future. Not much problems occurred this week, so that is also a plus.

7. Try at least one of the Invention Strategies here for the Research project.

When doing research in the past, the strategies that worked for me were asking critical questions about the topic, brainstorming ideas from the specific topic, the use of mapping, and looking at the rhetorical situation of the topic I’m writing about. However, these strategies all worked in different situations. But for this situation, I decided to use brainstorming as a way of getting my research question. This is because you have all your ideas on the table in order for you to look over them. With this, I was able to connect different ideas together and see which were the most interesting for me to study. In my thought process, looking at the different invention strategies placed in front of me made it a little difficult for me to find questions to write about. The Writing Starts with Answers text showed me a different side to research, which I was never shown. I was always told to follow the structure of research assigned by my teacher but never knew it hindered my writing. Now looking from a different lens, I want a free mind of thinking, in which brainstorming in a list allows me to do. I didn’t think to much on the idea of just finding research online, but I wanted to take more of an interview heavy, primary source approach in order for my data to be more credible. With this, I was able to figure out my question by grouping a new environment and social skills together. My question is, “How does a new environment affect how people act towards other people?”.

October 16, 2021

Analysis

1. What I did:

• Read Official American English Is Best
• Read Grading Has Always Made Writing Better
• Read Plagiarism Detection Services are Money Well Spent
• Read Face-to-Face Courses are Superior to Online Courses 
• Finished the Quarterly Check In
• Finished Revising the Analysis Paper

2. What went well:

• I was able to finish my readings in time without rushing
• I was able to expand my knowledge on why being bilingual is not a bad thing
• I was able to see that grading provides not much improvement to writing, due to teachers mostly following a certain rubric which is going back to the structured writing.

3. What was hard:

• Time was pretty short for completing my English assignments
• I was stressed out with the workload all week

4. To-Do List:

• Look at Week 9s Assignment

5. Where I left off:

• Finished Analysis Paper
• Finished 4 Chapters from Bad Ideas Of Writing

6. How do I feel?

I felt stressed out over the week due to the lack of time I had to finish both my reading and revising my paper. Even though I was able to do the reading, I had to quickly finish revising my paper in order to reach the deadline. I knew what I needed to fix, however it could have taken longer. I’ll look into the next week giving more time to English.

7. In your response, please describe the problem or issue you see at the heart of the chapter you’ve chosen. Do some informal research (Google is great here) and see what conversations are happening around this issue.

The problem I see is that failure is still looked upon as being bad when writing. This leads writers to shy away from making mistakes and being scared to write what they feel is necessary. Two sides of the failure argument is the one side that believes that failure always means something negative which can be represented as the  past generations believing that failure just shows stupidity or weakness of mind. The other side is that failure just leads to you mastering writing, in which this side believes that writing gets better overtime, going towards the 10,000 hour rule. Both sides are filled with writers that have different norms. According to Allison D. Carr, people who believe failure is negative are people who have their writing hindered due to them following a structure of “perfection” and not being able to make mistakes. However Carr believes people open to mistakes will be better off mastering writing them than people who don’t. From my point of view, I believe that failure is an option and that people are open to failure because it makes them a better writer so they don’t fall into numerous mistakes. When avoiding these mistakes it makes their writing better which I want for myself. This issue is still seen in today’s society, people finding it hard to fail in writing so they don’t get a bad grade on an assignment or a pep talk from an employer. I still wonder when all people will find it easier to fail to learn from mistakes.

October 9, 2021

Analysis

1. What I did:

• Read the Introduction in Bad Ideas About Writing
• Listened to the introduction podcast for the corresponding book
• Read Failure is Not an Option in Bad Ideas About Writing

2. What went well:

• Was able to see what the purpose of making the book was
• Reading the chapter allowed me to see how different authors responded to different bad ideas about writing
• Was able to figure out the rhetorical situation of the book, in which would show why it is effective in its display of the message

3. What was hard:

• Having time to finish the assignment was hard due to me being busy

4. To-Do List:

• Finish revising Analysis from last week
• Look at the assignments for week 8

5. Where I left off:

• Rough Draft of the Analysis Assignment
• Done with the readings for this week

6. How do I feel?

I feel tired because I have had a lot of work from multiple different classes. However, I was still able to get the work done for this class before 11:59 PM, which is good. Hopefully the next week is a little less hectic.

7. After reading the Introduction and one additional chapter from Bad Ideas About Writing, chart or record the rhetorical situation this book is responding to. Consider using a visual representation or listing the elements in your response.

From the introduction and FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION in Bad Ideas of Writing, I was able to get what the rhetorical situation is, starting from society and history. Explained in the chapter, and in many other chapters, the bad idea is said to have originated way back when writing became significant. For instance, in the FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION text, it is shown that failure in writing goes back to the industrialization period, in which writing was needed more. It created ranks in a way, in which distinguished the illiterate from the literate, in which the illiterate was looked down upon in society, which is why this notion of failing in writing is bad. Going on to audience, it is generally just writers. It may be people who are accustomed to the old norms or people who have went away from the old norms in order to improve their writing. All in all, the message is the same for both groups. The speaker, Allison D. Carr, is an assistant professor who specializes in rhetoric and writing, which is very credible because her job description fits right into what she is writing about. Just like Carr, there are numerous authors placed in different parts of the book, all with their accolades and job descriptions that fit in with the writing. Now, onto the purpose, these authors are trying to convey or maybe even persuade to readers that they should move away from the old norms of writing in order to improve their creativity and better their writing. The message also being shown is that writing is improving as people move to being different from the norms they were given to follow. And finally, this is during a time where writing is most significant both electronically and just on paper, in which we may still see people following the same old norms, in which is hindering their writing progress.

October 2, 2021

Analysis

1. What I did:

• Finished Analysis Rough Draft
• Read Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps toward Rhetorical Analysis
• Read Bad Ideas of Writing

2. What went well:

• Finished rough draft with a lot of time to spare
• Read the texts and learned about more rhetoric
• Was able to answer all the guiding questions when re-reading my text

3. What was hard:

• Nothing was hard this week, I got most of my work done on time

4. To-Do List:

• Revise my rough draft for errors I may have made when Dr. Salisbury looks over my work.

5. Where I left off:

• I left off with a finished rough draft of my Analysis of the chapter in Bad Ideas of Writing

6. How do I feel?

This week I feel pretty relieved that I was able to make it through. Although I had a lot of work for other classes, I still was able to finish the work in this class unrushed and fairly well.

7. How do you use rhetoric in your daily life? What messages do you try to communicate? To what audiences?

I used rhetoric in my life to persuade my mother into buying me something. When persuading in order to get an item, you have to explain the reason on why you should get it first off. It has to be helpful, but an argument could be made for something electronic wise like a phone or a gaming system. Then comes the occasion, in which there cant be any issues residing prior to asking. Meaning, I shouldn’t be in any trouble before I ask for the item in question. Being in trouble would hinder my message getting across to my mother because you wouldn’t receive rewards for doing the wrong thing, and being in trouble just makes the message entirely ineffective. Going on to background, this is similar to the occasion in this situation in which I am a person of good grades and good behavior asking for my mother to buy me something. My mom will see me as more “giftable” when I’m doing more good than bad. The topic really is just why I should get the item. Its pretty self explanatory throughout me speaking to my mother. And finally the audience. The audience would be my mother so when speaking I wouldn’t speak to her as if she was my friend, but speak to her as a parent. Obviously seeing this as audience shifts, as I explained previously, the way you express your speech or message differentiates. All of these things apart of rhetoric are very important, and when shifted, it shifts the speech in order for the message to be effective. And in the end, when portraying that I should get either a iPhone or a PS5, I will be more likely to get these items based on the rhetoric I used.