Final Learning Blog

Throughout this semester in English 101 I have had many takeaways that I am sure will help me in my many years to come. Some of the takeaways that I will be highlighting are Peer Review/Feedback, Learning blogs, Group projects, Research designs/proposals, and genre constraints. All of these in some way helped me to better myself as well as be more open-minded, especially when it comes to writing papers.

Feedback is something that I don’t like getting all the time and something that I am reluctant about giving to others. Feedback is important because you might not see anything wrong with your work simply because you wrote it. This is where I learned how not to be skeptical to change. In this case change can bring about a better grade.

Peer review is something I really had to get used to. The first time around I wrote one word comments that weren’t very helpful. After I realized how important peer review can actually be I started to read my classmates work and give detailed comments to help them out. This was the outcome of reading an article about peer review in the Grassroots Writing Journal.

Example: I would put comments such as good, nice job, or I would just write I didn’t see anything that needed changing. After seeing the importance of peer review I made comments on things that I thought wasn’t clear and what things could be expanded on.

Reflecting on me was something I had trouble with during the beginning of this semester. I always found myself talking about how the class was structured instead of what problems I had and how I could fix them. By the end of the semester I was able to identify with what I was struggling with and better track what I have learned. I did this by taking more time on my learning blogs to actually track and explain my progress with concrete examples.

Group projects are my least favorite thing to do because I have had bad experiences with this. During Unit 2 I had a chance to enhance my communication skills. By communication skills I mean expressing my ideas clearly and being open to others’ ideas. This made the group project successful. So now I will have a strategy when I have to do other group projects.

Example: When our first group assignment was due we had to rush and finish it in class because no one in the group had talked to each other and no one did the assignment. After that mishap I started to open up and communicate so that we could divide the work and everything was clear.

 One of my biggest obstacles that I overcame would have to be completing the research designs and proposals for my project. This was a challenge to me because I had never done this before I usually just do the project; I don’t normally have to ask for permission on a topic and go into details as to why I chose what I did. From doing these research designs and proposals I learned how to be specific in explaining myself and also just what a research design and proposal entails.

Example: On the rough drafts of my research designs and proposals I had many comments saying that I wasn’t being specific enough. Reason being is that my instructor already knew what I was doing so I didn’t feel the need to go into great detail. During the revision stage I made sure that I went into enough detail so if anyone else besides my instructor was to read my paper they would understand it.

In conclusion, I have learned a great deal as stated in the paragraphs above. The most memorable concept that I have learned in this class would have to be the constraints that are put on certain genres. This was memorable to me because it gave me a chance to work with different genres and also break the rules of those genres. Working with different genres such as post-it notes, sidewalk chalk, and to-do list helped me learn that because something is said to have to be a certain way, doesn’t mean that you can’t put your own style to it. Also I learned that everything is not written the same each genre has its own rules.

Example: For the group project we changed the inside of a children’s book to have the content of a news article. When we showed the book to people they immediately acted as if we had done something wrong. They repeatedly said that it wasn’t supposed to be like that because no one had ever written them like that.

Proposal for GWRJ Article

. A general topic description

·         I am interested in writing on the genre of memos. From my understanding different memos can be written in different ways depending on the content being delivered. I have experienced writing a memo in my Accounting class senior year.

2. Describe the specific genre(s) that your article will explore (if any)

·         My article will explore business memos; talking about the jargon and the form of how the memo is to be written.

3. An explanation of the author's perspective (i.e. are you planning to create a personal narrative of your own experience, or to research how other people writer, or what?)

·         I am planning on writing about my personal experience of writing a business memo and also research how others say a business memo should be written.

4. Potential use of visual elements

·         Potential visual elements would be an actual business memo and also maybe another type of memo to compare and contrast the two.

5. Discuss your plans for citing research in your articles

·         I will probably cite my research by putting the actual URL and title of where my information is from.

10 Characteristics of GWRJ

1.      Introduction of what you are about to read.

2.      Short Biography of the author at the end.

3.      Includes pictures that help demonstrate the story.

4.      Talk about struggles that have been overcome (emotions).

5.      Easy to read.

6.      Detailed.

7.      Cited sources when needed.

8.      Catchy Titles.

9.      McDuffie broke hers up by using different titles when switching subjects while Shapiro wrote one long journal.

10.  Talked about things and people that influenced them.

Unit 2 Final Learning Blog

As Unit 2 has come to an end I am proud to say that I learned a lot and got a chance to do things that I haven’t did before. Coming into unit 2 I was skeptical about working in a group but once I was comfortable it wasn’t so bad and I actually enjoyed the experience. I enjoyed being able to bounce my ideas off my group members and getting their opinion. I also enjoyed not having to do everything on my own. Communication was a vital role in this unit. During the beginning of this unit there was little or no communication in our group so no one member knew what the other members were doing. This was a huge problem because when the first part of our assignment was due no one had done it and we had to put something together so that we can get credit. After this incident I worked on being more open and outgoing. My instructor played a key role in this transformation as well. The more questions the group had for her the more she made us talk amongst each other and come to an agreement. Once all of our kinks were out we then openly communicated with each other and stated which parts of the project we will feel comfortable doing. One of my major accomplishments of this unit would be writing a research proposal and research design. I had never done this before not even in my prior science courses. It was a bit of a challenge because I didn’t clearly know what was asked of me and after I completed it I still wasn’t sure that it was right. When we reached the research design portion I had to do research on my own of what a research design was because I had no idea where to begin. After going thru many different research designs I came up with my own. After a few revisions I finally grasped the concept of what exactly my instructor wanted. Things that I have never done before until unit 2 is actually conduct research in a form that was not your usual academic research paper. After conducting the research I learned how to track my results in something called the research findings. Overall the point of unit 2 was to see how society puts certain rules on genres and how they would react when you change those rules. I think it was very effective for us to see this by actually doing our own research on the genre of our choice. I chose to change the content of a children’s book to that of a news article. From my research I now know that if you change a genre to something out of the norm people will automatically think it is wrong. Just by changing the content in the book to long sentences with big words people thought that the book shouldn’t be given to children. Immediately after reading the book people was able to point out what was “wrong” with it. Although they could say what was wrong about it they could not necessarily tell me why those things were wrong. One individual actually said it’s wrong because no other children’s books are made like that. What I got from my results is that people are afraid to put society’s constraints aside because they feel like its only one right way to do certain things.

Unit 2 Half-Way Blog

Coming into Unit 2 we were informed that we will be completing a project on genre juxtaposition and how it affects certain genres. I had no idea what genre juxtaposition was.  After my instructor introduced exactly what it was and gave us examples I thought how interesting this unit will be. For example post-it notes. When you think of post-it notes you think of short statements, incomplete sentences, personal, and somewhere private you will look. In terms of genre juxtaposition if we changed one of these standards such as posting these post-it notes in public places or writing an essay on them how would people react? This also ties into when we talked about “correct” or Standard English. Standard English is a set of rules that are passed down year after year that alters the way we view writing. After reading an article by Autumn Jackson I learned that just because many people follow certain rules when it comes to writing doesn’t mean that it is necessarily correct. I also learned that sometimes it’s best to stick to what society has named Standard English, but there are certain genres where it’s alright to put your own style and personality in your writing. For this unit we will be working in groups I wasn’t thrilled about this at first. After meeting with my group and brainstorming ideas I felt more open to the idea. I realized that I have to be open-minded because they will rely on me as well as me rely on them to complete the task at hand. The first day we started working in our groups I referred to everything as my work instead of our work. As my instructor helped me realize this I quickly made sure that I include my group members when speaking. Last but not least, the purpose of this unit is to see how people react to things they wouldn’t normally see and I am excited to come up with a specific genre and start conducted research and see if my prediction of the outcome will be the same as the actual outcome.

genre juxtaposition ideas

Jordan, Renae, and Andrew

We are stuck between the genre of apologies and a to do list

• Apologies- Tone and location is what we will change. Usually they are sympathetic and private so we were thinking to put them in a public place and making it not as nice as they would normally be.
• To Do List- We were thinking about putting our own personal to do list on notecards and posting them all over campus.

Evaluating the Standard

Evaluating the Standard

1.     When a person speaks or writes in Standard English, what exactly does that mean?

·         When a person writes in Standard English they are simply following the rules and guidelines to writing. They are making sure that everything they have written is grammatically correct. When a person speaks in Standard English they are speaking in a way that they think is that right way to speak. They are using certain terminology that they feel is correct even though language change throughout different genres.

2.    How do you think this particular variety of English became the standard?

·         I think this particular variety of English became the standard because it was most frequently written and spoken so everyone just assumed that it was the right way to do things so they set these “rules” in place.

3.    Should a student use a dialect other than Standard English (or even a different language other than English altogether) in the classroom? If so, in what particular situations (speaking, writing, reading, use of technology, etc.) are non-formal English appropriate?

·         Depending on the class should a student use other dialect other than Standard English. Most teachers prefer that students use the Standard English dialect because it is easier to grade them this way because there are several books on how a paper should be written. If you have an open-minded teacher I think students should use different dialects to show their flexibility and you might be able to relate to others in this way of learning. This could be in terms of speaking, writing, reading, and sometimes technology. Non-formal English is appropriate depending on who you are interacting with and if they are open to the diversity of language.

4.    What makes someone a good writer? What kind of things do they do when they write? (This can be things like how they organize a paper, what words they use, etc.) List a few.

·         A good writer organizes their paper, are very strategic when it comes to stating their main points, transitions well (the paper flows), and makes the reader see exactly what they are talking about. When a good writer writes they follow the traditional writing guidelines as well as put their own style in the writing, consider the audience who will read the paper, and do not lose themselves in the paper (writing what they think they should write instead of what needs to be written).

5.    You think that someone is a bad writer. What are some things that this person does that make them a “bad” writer in your eyes? List a few.

·         A bad writer does not take the time to spellcheck their work, writes their paper at the last minute, scrambled ideas, unorganized, and does not write a draft first before starting on the paper.

6.    Are there times when a person you meet doesn’t speak “correct” English? What does that person do that is “incorrect”? List a few things

·         Honestly I do not pay attention to if people are speaking correct English when they are talking to me. Long as I can clearly understand what they are saying and the point they are trying to get across, correct English is the furthest thing in my mind.  This is partly because I myself talk different when I talk to certain people, my English change automatically based on the person, event, and situation at hand.

7.    What particular types (or genres) of writing should students be doing in elementary and secondary school to prepare them for college and the work force?

·         I think that students in elementary and secondary schools should be learning how to write particular genres such as business memos, articles, and memoirs to prepare them for college and the work force.

8.    Does Standard English=correct English?

·         No Standard English does equal correct English because you can write something in a different way and it still will mean the same thing.

Final Blog

As Unit 1 is coming to an end I can honestly say that it was not as hard as I thought it would be. I thought that it was going to be a little challenging because I am a structured person and was in fact scared to change something that I’ve been doing for so long. During the first unit of this course I have become more comfortable with working with others and trusting in myself.  All through high school all of my English classes required me to write my papers with little or no error at all. When I first started writing my article I found myself going back to that high school way of writing and I actually disposed of that draft and started over with a fresh look. We made our own rubrics to follow in the article project that we are doing in class. This was a helpful tool that showed me that rules change as the genre changes. Recently, we just finished our second peer review session and it was better than the first. During the first peer review session we had, I did my part in giving feedback, however, I did not go in much detail and was a little reluctant to give my opinion on someone else’s work. Also I did exactly what we discussed in class not to do, which was give one word responses and say that I did not see anything wrong. After noticing this I realized that I had to try and improve this so I can get the concept of what this activity is teaching us. During the second peer review session I made a lot of comments on the papers’ of my peers and I also elaborated more when giving the oral feedback. I learned how to give my opinion in a nice way without trying to change my peer’s paper into what I think would make it a good paper. As a part of this unit I had to interview an “expert” for my newspaper, I was not thrilled about this. In my past when I had to interview people for my papers I always chose a friend. For this article I was completely out of my element because I had to research and find someone who would be able to give me detailed and factual information on my topic. In order for me to effectively complete this task I looked at a post my instructor posted on her blog about good interview tips. After reading the tips I came up with a few questions and I read them aloud to my roommate and got her feedback. Overall this class had taught me that feedback is important because you might not see anything wrong with your work simply because you yourself wrote it. Blogging what I learned in class actually helps me retain the information I learned. In conclusion, when I wrote my half-way blog I talked more about the class than myself. My instructor explained that the purpose of the learning blog is to reflect on yourself and see how far you have come. Being able to reflect on myself helps me to look at what I have learned and what I still might have problems with. The first unit was a success and I expect to only improve as the semester goes on.         

Revision of Half-Way Learning Blog

When I chose the class English 101 I thought that this would be a writing heavy class. Also I thought that we would have several papers to write. Ironically, this class is very different than what I expected. This is somewhat of a paperless class because at the beginning of class everyone had to create a learning blog. Within this learning blog is where we post all of our assignments and can easily communicate with our instructor. So far I think that I am doing alright in this class. I am still not really confident about posting everything through the blog because this is something I haven’t done before. It is taking me some time to get use to but I’m pretty sure that I will adapt and become more skilled at this. I have learned quite a bit about genre from my instructors PowerPoint as well as in class discussions, such as that it is in everything we read even though we might not realize it. Some of these things include Facebook statuses and text messages. I have also learned that different genres have their own jargon, after reading a comment y instructor posted on one of my blogs. For clarification purposes I also tool the initiative to look the word up. When it comes down to working with your peers and revising each other’s work I was not a fan of this. At first I disagreed with this because I would rather the person grading my work revise it, but after last week I have saw how peer work can be very helpful. I felt good interacting with my peers and knowing that their advice to me is just as important as my advice to them. Also this gives you a chance to revise your work multiple times before it is turned in for a grade. The only question that I have is, how are we supposed to track our progress if this class is not posted on Blackboard? In conclusion I believe that I am doing fairly well in this class because the comments I have received on my post are both positive and encouraging me to keep up the good work. I enhanced on my listening skills by being attentive in class when my instructor or peers are speaking, communication skills by asking the necessary questions I have to help me progress and group skills by learning how to take in constructive criticism as well as give it. I have also learned how to successfully analyze articles and make up rubrics/criteria for them. I learned how to do this by practicing on a business memo provided my instructor. After receiving her feedback I knew exactly what to do for the next one. After analyzing three articles for the article I will be writing also gave me more practice.  Last but not least, as the semester goes on I have positive thoughts for my future in this class. I am certain that I will take away some of the information I learned and apply it to some of my other classes.

Final Rubric/Criteria

Rubric/Criteria

o   Overall structure of the text

-Short paragraphs(concise), most important information first, title in a different font from the rest of the article, statistics from the past and present, informal (more conversational and might use some contractions), several credible sources (where I got the information from as well as direct quotes from interviews), Factual (will not incorporate my own opinion), shocking statements (information/facts that most are not familiar with to make the audience see the seriousness of the article), attention getter,  and memorable close.    

o   Language Use: Word choice/sentence choice/etc.

-No large words (words that are easy to understand), minimum number of sentences per paragraph, unbiased, and no run-on sentences.

o   Style/Tone

-Friendly tone (use words and examples so that the audience can relate), somewhat conversational, and settle (no letters in bold)

o   Content 

-Title (national to capture your audience), date, 5 W’s (who, what, when, where, & why), subject (in the title or the first paragraph of the article), author, factual, informative, and concise.

o   Other Visual Aspects

-Graphs (statistics from past and present) and pictures (of the school and money)

o   What technology/media can be used for this?

-Computers and newspapers

o   How do they cite items (if they do,,,)?

-Use the direct links and certain citations such as the person’s name to back up certain statements

o   Trajectory (How does this particular genre/text “go out in the world? What is the location of this genre generally? Who may see/handle it?

-This particular genre goes out into the world by computers or newspaper. The location of this genre is the internet (newspaper cites and local news cites). People who may see/handle this are internet browsers, journalist, and newspaper deliverers.

Half-Way Blog

When I chose the class English 101 I thought that this would be a writing heavy class. Also I thought that we would have several papers to write. Ironically, this class is very different than what I expected. This is somewhat of a paperless class because at the beginning of class everyone had to create a learning blog. Within this learning blog is where we post all of our assignments and can easily communicate with our instructor. So far I think that I am doing alright in this class. I am still not really confident about posting everything through the blog because this is something I haven’t done before. It is taking me some time to get use to but I’m pretty sure that I will adapt and become more skilled at this. I have learned quite a bit about genre, such as that it is in everything we read even though we might not realize it. Some of these things include Facebook statuses and text messages. I have also learned that different genres have their own jargon. When it comes down to working with your peers and revising each other’s work I was not a fan of this. At first I disagreed with this because I would rather the person giving me my grade revise my work, but after last week I have saw how peer work can be very helpful. I felt good interacting with my peers and knowing that their advice to me is just as important as my advice to them. Also this gives you a chance to revise your work multiple times before it is turned in for a grade. The only question that I have is, how are we supposed to track our progress if this class is not posted on Blackboard? In conclusion I believe that I am doing fairly well in this class. I enhanced on my listening, communication, and group skills. I have also learned how to successfully analyze articles and make up rubrics/criteria for them. Last but not least, as the semester goes on I have positive thoughts for my future in this class. I am certain that I will take away some of the information I learned and apply it to some of my other classes.

Assignment Topic/News Story

Financial debt of college students is the topic I am choosing for this project. This topic is relevant to ISU students because it is mainly targeted around college students and this is a topic that all college students can relate to or have close friends that can relate to it. There are many different organizations and places on campus you can go to for help on this issue and this also says that it must be a relevant topic.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/27/politics/obama-trip/index.html?iref=allsearch

http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/02/opinion/vedder-college-costs/index.html?iref=allsearch

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-10-30/news/ct-met-student-loan-debt-20111030_1_student-loan-debt-graduates-borrowers

http://lifeinc.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/11/30/5545875-more-students-getting-a-load-of-debt-along-with-degree

The genre I am working with is newspaper articles.

January 23, 2012

Renae Hutcherson

Paige Frerichs

Hananiah Wiggins

                                                Business Memo

o   Overall structure of the text

-Formal (professional), short and concise (not too wordy), separates the heading of the memo from the actual memo with a line, grammatically correct, Left-justified, single-spaced and paragraph form (not one long paragraph).

o   Language Use: Word choice/sentence choice/etc.

-No large words (simple words that are easy to understand with exceptions to certain business terms), minimum number of sentences per paragraph, sentences broken up by commas to make the idea clear (and not a run-on), written in first or second person (directly stated or one person speaking on behalf of the others).   

o   Style/Tone

-Friendly tone but still business-like at the same time, Settle (sentences are not wrote in all capital letters), Words that everyone can understand, and somewhat conversational.

o   Content

-Title, Heading (sender, receiver, date, and subject), important dates, company signature, organized, most important information first, factual, informative, and concise. 

o   Other Visual Aspects

-Company logos or symbols and bold print.

o   What technology/media can be used for this?

-Computers, letters, and/or company cellphones.

o   How do they cite items (if they do,,,)?

-Key contacts of the organization and certain citations that might be needed to back up certain statements.

o   Trajectory (How does this particular genre/text “go out in the world? What is the location of this genre generally? Who may see/handle it?

-A business memo goes out to its audience by computers, letters, or phones. The location of this genre is typically office setting. People who generally see/handle business memos are employers, employees, and mail handlers (a signature is put on certain letters once received).