"Annoying Ways that People Use Sources"

    This article I found to be more interesting than most with that they talk about how not all readers and writers are going to see things from eye-to-eye. It goes on and on about writers who may sometimes fail to follow conventions which would then make their readers upset. For me, however, I don't mind. I like writers that don't follow the rules and seem to have or make up their own style. That's the best part about writing, there shouldn't be too many rules. If every writer is following the same rules and the same conventions than that's just boring. However, sourcing maybe a different circumstance. There are strict rules that I have always been taught and were always enforced throughout all of my years with education. I never liked writing because if you make one small error with sourcing you were to get so many point docked off. Sourcing is supposed to be met by certain guidelines, although like I was saying before, that shouldn't always necessarily be the case. My only exception would be that the sourcing couldn't be just at random. It should still be clear, neat, and to be easily understood by the reader in where it came from. I really appreciate it when they state that, ".. in the majority of situations, readers appreciate being guided to and led away from a quotation by the writer doing the quoting/ Readers get a sense of please from the safe flow of hearing how to read and upcoming quotation, reading it, and then being told one way to interpret it. Prepare, quote, analyze" (pg. 247). That statement right there explains it all. It is true, when writers follow the guidelines its almost like they provide a safe flow for the reader. I too can appreciate that. However, all in all, I will always stand by my stance that writing should not be so much full of rules and conventions, but more as an opportunity to embrace uniqueness.

Interview Questions With Dr. Kathy Gruver

1. What helped you decide to get into this particular field?

2. Did you expect to be where you are now 10 years ago? Did you expect to be this successful?

3. What an accomplishment it must have been to attend Harvard. Did you attend any other schools that you felt benefited or aided your education more deeply?

4. I understand you did acting for some time, what experience did you gain from that?

5. I also was extremely fascinated that you are working on a program to de-stress the military, could you tell me more about that and what inspired you to do so?

6. Having written a handful of novels, were you always good at writing and what motivated you to do so?

7. What do you personally believe the difference would be between being an ND and an homeopathic physician?

8. Do you have a life motto that you live by?

9. Is there a place or a time in your life that you felt was most inspiring or most beneficial?

10. What kind of life lessons did you learn through your journey?

11. Explain a typical day in the life of Kathy Gruver...

Arguable Assertions/ So What? Who cares?

     Personally, it is quite difficult for me to read comic strips. I love the illustrations, but I found myself so distracted in trying to understand the context in what they were saying. After rereading it a couple times I was able to point out the purpose. In this article the author talks about what makes a good argument. As they state, a good argument is much like a good conversation. They also continue to talk about the history in regarding rhetoric dialogues which have been present arguments about various social, political, and philosophical issues. It was interesting how they states that even Plato would often use the form of dialogue in order to show all positions involved in a debate. In following, they talk about the critical parts of what makes a good argument; What, How, Who, and Why. Then, what I really found interesting, was their statement about how paragraphs are just like mini arguments.

     The second article, "So What? Who Cares?" Saying Why it Matters", talked about how all writing is conversational. They make a great point about the fact that in literature many times those questions are left unanswered because the author assumes that the reader already knows. That is one thing that I absolutely hate about reading. I want to know all the details. I want to know as much as I can to paint the most descriptive picture as I possibly can. That is why I would rather watch a movie with subtitles then reading a book. My favorite statement in this article is when the author boldly states that it is the writers that fail to show that others should care or hopefully already do care about their claims that they will quickly loose their audiences' interest because their claims are left to vague. Additionally, in this article the author brings about points that seem random, but are quite interesting. The author claims that recent experts suggest that spanking can be counterproductive, where as parents believed for so long that spanking was necessary. Now every time I write I will make sure that I am addressing those important questions of "So What?" and "Who Cares?". I wouldn't want to leave my audience hanging and loose interest just like how I do.

Introduction to Primary Research (Discoll)

        

       This article brought to my attention many things I did not know. Driscoll talks about how primary research is actually based of the scientific method, which is a theory of investigation. The scientific method varies from field to field and this method actually enables the researchers to learn more about the world and observable phenomena. Personally I didn’t think of the scientific method as relating to any other subject besides science. Here Driscoll talks about the use of the scientific method.  Specifically, with using the scientific method, researchers are then about to create research questions or hypotheses, collect data on events, objects, or even people that they find measurable, replicable, and observable. Driscoll states, “The ultimate goal in conducting primary research is to learn about something new that can be confirmed by others and to eliminate our own biases in the process.” (pg. 154).

       Driscoll gave some good pointers in regards to the final step in working with a hypothesis or research question. You have to determine what key terms you are going to use and you have to decide how you will use them.

       He continues to talk about observations and strongly notes that “Observations have lead to some of the most important scientific discoveries in human history” (pg. 160). Based off of my favorite, Charles Darwin, Driscoll uses this extraordinary figure as an example to his use of observations on the Galapagos Islands in order to help him form his theory of evolution, which he describes in his novel On the Origin of Species. Such good examples and information from this article I will find very useful throughout my writing in the future. 

How To Read Like a Writer

            

     After reading this article, I too came to realize that all writing does in fact consist of a series of choices. Mike strongly opens the article with a bold stance that I couldn’t agree with more. Of how fascinating it is if you think about it how authors are able to pull words together to make phrases, which those phrases end up making an entire novel.

    For me, reading never came easy and it still doesn’t. But I feel as though the fact that I hate watching movies without subtitles must say something. I think for me I love to visualize things as well read them to have a more concrete and absolute understanding of the material. This class especially, never sparked my interest because of all of the reading and writer. The two subjects I hate most in the entire world.

    I find it interesting how the author states that, “When you Read Like a Writer you work to identity some of the choices the author made so that you can better understand how such choices might arise in your own writing” (pg. 72).  He continues to state that the whole idea behind that is to examine what you read while directly looking at the writing techniques so you can see if you would like to adopt the same style writing. That I can completely relate to, because the very few books that I have read, the one that stood out to me the most was one that was written as if it were a casual conversation. I believe it was the Judy Blume books I read in middle school. The way Judy Blume would casually, yet simply talk about the hardships as a teen growing up made it comfortable for me to read and to better understand. That was a writing technique that I was looking to adopt, yet was halted when going to my college preparatory high school. Writing for me personally was always very strict and expected to be a certain way. Thus explains why I never really enjoyed it. My theory is that, those people who grew up writing in diaries were the ones who enjoyed writing and felt comfortable with it. I was definitely not one of those people.

    Just as Mike states, “You are already an author, and that means you have a built-in advantage when reading like a writer/ All previous writing experiences- inside the classroom and out- can contribute to your success with RLW” (pg. 75). For me, Mike is a positive reinforce that anyone is an author, if you have written anything maybe even just a sentence you are a writer. That right there gives me hope for improvement and future success.

Finding Evidence ch.17

   The article goes into depth of the different forms of evidence. Such as journals, scholarly books, records from archives, personal observations, field work, and also surveys. In addition to evidence, the quality is important too. Questions that need to be asked to ensure the quality of the evidence are how it was collected, the purpose of what is collected, and who was it collected by.

  As stated, it is important to consider the rhetorical situation and to understand that quantitative data can be observed as well as counted. What is observed and counted, also needs to be appropriate for the situation. They also suggest to use library resources such as printed works and databases. Then after gathering your evidence its important to get some feedback and discuss with a professor or librarian about your argument.

  Additionally, it is vital to determine the kind of sources needed for the project. The different types of resources include online, interviews, self collected data, questionnaires, and also resources. Specifically in regards to self collected data, experiments must have control as well as an argument. When making observations it is also key to determine what you want as an outcome. You have to ask yourself what you want to see and also what you want to expect. In regards to observations, they directly need to relate to your claim. It is also strongly states to not let your own biases interfere with your collected data. Now when it comes to interviewing, you first need to determine your purpose of the interview and how the results relate to your claim. Important necessities before conducting your interview include a written list of both factual and open ended questions. While at the interview it is also important to record the full name and title, the date, time, and place in which the interview is being conducted. Also, without hesitation you should thank your interviewee for their time. Now, when it comes to questionnaires and surveys, they need to be easy to understand, Make sure your interview or survey directly relate to your specific purpose. Also prior you should have brainstormed your questions and determine if they relate to the purpose of the interview or survey you conducted. You have to take into consideration the demographics and determine the size of survey as well as the amount of people you will be surveying. The most important thing is to free any biases of the survey you are conducting. The strongly state that proof reading is key to a successful outcome and to make sure it all relates to your purpose. To include your personal experiences will help you relate to your own personal claim.

Understanding Rhetoric~ "Writing Identities"

         This article in particular, contained a lot of important messages. In particular they state, "Writing means always changing", specifically changing to meet the needs of different audiences. It is important as they describe to try out a lot of different aspects of who I am because different communities will find certain identities more or less credible or even reliable. It is also interesting how the article describes professional clothing as a kind of armor, because it gives it wearer authority and they feel less vulnerable.

          Another fascinating point is that they boldly state, assuming an identity does not mean impersonating someone. I was shocked to find out that several publishing scandals have involved people pretending to be someone they are not. In cases as such, it blows my mind that publishers even refunded some of the customers their money.

        In addition to identity, the article states that adopting an identity can be about doing real research because your not just putting on a costume. To sum it up with my favorite quote from the article, "Pretending can be an important part of invention" (pg.126). I enjoyed that quote the most because it is a general statement that is not specifically ties to writing, yet it can relate to it and all other aspects of life.