Chapter Nineteen

Chapter nineteen had gone over quite a bit of information when talking about designing documents and presentations.  On the first couple pages, it just went over the basics pretty much for what your instructor expects of you.  A little more into it, multimodal essays came up.  Multimodal essays are characterized by their essayisic form and use of multiple types of illustrations.  Multimodal documents combine text with images, animation, sound and video to establish a line of argument.  These types of essays require careful selection and organization of sources.  They have started emerging as a distinct genre.  The design of articles and the purpose they are written for varies.  As you consider potential design choices, keep your purpose in mind.  Most articles are written for a specific publication.  With that being said, writers usually have a clear picture of their readers and can develop a line of argument that meets their needs and interests.  To gain an understanding of your readers' expectations, scan other others in the publication to give you a better idea with how to go about things.  Web sites, which a lot of us already know by now, consist if linked pages, organized through a home page and navigational devices such as menus, tables of contents, indexes, and maps.  Web sites are able to engage readers in a way that print documents cannot.  The ability to present your ideas through an oral presentation is an important skill that you will not only use in other colleges course, but life itself.  Designing an effective oral presentation involves more than taking what you have written and reading it aloud.  You want to make a personal connection with your audience such as eye contact for example.  Engage with them, keep your audience interested throughout your presentation.

Chapter Eighteen

In the reading of chapter eighteen, it went over understanding design principles.  The design decisions you make will play a critical role in how your readers understand, react, and work with your document.  Design opportunities ranging from the font chosen all the way up to the charts chosen and tables chosen for your document, can have powerful effects on how you shape and present your ideas.  Before you begin formatting text and illustrations, consider how the document design principles of balance, emphasis, placement, repetition, and consistency can help accomplish your goals.  Balance is both the vertical and horizontal alignment of elements.  Emphasis is the placement and formatting of elements, such as headings and subheadings.  You want to be able to catch your readers' attention when doing so.  Placement is the location of elements.  Repetition is the use of elements, such as headers, footers, and page numbers in your document.  Consistency is the extent to which you format and place text and illustrations throughout your document.  When going about writing your paper, you want to be sure to define for a purpose in a sense.  A well designed document presents information, ideas, and arguments in a manner that helps you reach your purpose.  Your readers should be able to understand the organization, locate information, and recognize the function of parts in your document.  As said before, shoot for "catching their eye."  How may you design elements you may ask?  Use fonts, line spacing, alignment.  Page layout strategies may include, color, shading, borders, and rules.  Most importantly, the use of illustrations contributes quite a bit towards your document.

Chapter Twelve

Developing your argument was the main point in the reading of chapter twelve.  Developing your argument involves identifying reasons to accept your thesis statement, selecting evidence to support your reasoning, and deciding how you will go about appealing to your readers.  It requires the development of a strategy to support your thesis statement.  Not only should your strategy reflect your purpose and role, but your readers' needs, interests, values, beliefs, and knowledge.  There are three steps to go by when supporting your thesis statement.  Choose reasons, which varies according to the type of document being written.  Select evidence to support your reasons, such as details, facts, observations of your own, and expert opinions.  In the last step, decide how to appeal to your readers to accept their ideas as reasonable and valid.  You can persuade your readers to accept your argument by appealing to authority, emotion, principles, values, beliefs, character, and logic.  To ensure the integrity of your argument, acquaint yourself with common logical fallacies.  Look for fallacies based on questionable assumptions.  Search for fallacies based on misrepresentation, and locate fallacies based on careless reasoning.  Chapter twelve was helpful when explaining how to go about developing your argument.  The reading gave me a little more confidence for my next step towards my writing process.

Chapter Eleven

Chapter eleven goes into detail on how to develop your thesis statement.  In the past, I've struggled on making my thesis clear in the beginning.  I plan to eliminate that problem this go round and have my readers understand m argument and where I am coming from.  Your thesis statement provides a clear, focused expression of the main point you are aiming to make.  As you begin the process of deciding what you hope your readers gain from your paper, reflect on your position on your issue.  In order to draft a position statement, it is helpful to brainstorm, loop, and use other strategies as read in a previous reading, back in chapter one.  With your position statement in mind, review your notes.  Reviewing your notes will help you deepen your understanding on the issue.  Ask yourself questions through the process to help guide how you think about your thesis statement.  If you come across your main point not aligning with your readers' concerns, revise and edit your position statement.  An effective thesis statement can invite your reader to learn something they didn't once have knowledge about before.  Depending on the document, your readers will have different expectations on how you go about presenting your thesis statement.  A broad thesis statement doesn't allow your reader to learn anything.  In the beginning process of me exploring my topic, I struggled at first with how to narrow my topic down so it wouldn't be all over the place.  Looking through different sources, I was then able to narrow my thesis statement down.

Chapter Sixteen

The reading in chapter sixteen went over how to write with style.  For starters, good style begins with an understanding of your writing situation.  When writing, it is wise to keep your words to a minimum for the sake of saving readers time and energy.  I learned that removing unnecessary modifiers as well as introductory phrases and eliminating stock phrases will help better my paper.  As said at the beginning of the reading, readers don't want to work any harder than necessary.  You will just end up losing their attention if you do.  Stock phrases consist of phrases such as, as a matter of fact, at all times, in order to, etc.  In your document search for phrases that you can replace with one or two words.  Use active and passive voice effectively.  Active and passive refer to two distinct types of sentences.  Jargon, known as specialized language can allow writers and readers to communicate both effectively and efficiently.  Variety is very important towards your paper.  In fact it is the key in an effective document.  You can improve the overall quality of your document by varying your sentence patterns to produce an appealing rhythm, creating effective transitions, varying your source attributions, avoiding sexist language, consulting a handbook, and reading widely.  There are four types of sentences.  Statements, questions, commands, and exclamations.  In addition, there are four sentence structures distinguished by the types and numbers of clauses they contain.  A clause is a sequence of words containing a subject and a verb that can be either independent or dependent.  Creating effective transitions helps the reader understand the relationships between sentences and paragraphs in your paper.  I intend on using all these helpful tools towards my paper.

Chapter Eight

Chapter eight starts off with how you'll want to first prepare to search and gain more positive feed back when doing so.  Basic searches in tell just one or more words/phrases in the search field.  Simple enough, right?  I have already used this tool when searching for key points on my topic using my school library.  Once you begin to finalize your plans, you will then want to get feedback from multiple people.  It's smart to get feedback from your instructor because then he or she can be helpful and then discussion will be created, leaving you with even better feedback.  Ways to search through library catalogs is searching by keywords, authors, and titles.  Sources for databases are a bit different though.  You'll want to search news and information, bibliographies, citation indexes, and media databases.  The Web has become the largest "library" in the world.  With that being said though, it is also the most disorganized library since it has been built by millions upon millions of people who have failed to communicate with one another and come up with a plan.  To locate sources, researchers usually turn to Web search sites.  Web search sites allow you to collect information faster and more easily.  You can search for news on the most major Web sites such as Bing, Google, Ask and Yahoo.  On a reference search site you can search information that has been collected in encyclopedias, almanacs, dictionaries, and more.  These are ways I can search for information with digital resources to further help my paper.

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter fifteen was on using sources effectively.  Your sources help you introduce ideas, contrast the ideas of other authors with your own, provide evidence for your points, define concepts, illustrate processes, clarify statements, set a mood, provide an example, and amplify a point.  There are several ways as to how you can present information.  Information can be presented as a quotation, paraphrase or summary, as numerical information, as illustrations such as images, audio, video and animations.  depending on the point you want to get across, some types of evidence may be more effective than others.  The key is readers will react to the information provided.  As you are drafting your document, consider consider how your sources can lead your readers to agree with your points of view on the matter.  When you want to indicate that disagreement exists on an issue you can use source information to illustrate both the nature and intensity of the disagreements.  Providing evidence to support your assertions gives you a higher outcome of your readers accepting your argument.  A striking quote that catches readers attention, can really arouse a certain mood for your readers.  There are several reasons as to why you should identify sources of information in your document.  For starters, doing so fulfills your obligation to document your sources.  It allows both you and your reader to recognize the boundaries between your ideas and the ideas borrowed from other sources.  Your document can then be strengthened by calling attention to the experiences of the person whose ideas you are incorporating.  Whenever quoting, summarizing, or paraphrasing of any sort, you want to distinguish your ideas and your sources by using attributions which are brief comments.  For example you can go onto say "according to" or "the author pointed out"that way your readers are then able to tell apart from what is your work and what is your sources.  You want to strategize how, where, and what quotes you will carry onto use in your paper.  Reason being is quote(s) can have a powerful impact on your readers perception of your argument.  You should cite your sources as well as provide publication information for each source in order to achieve your purpose.

Chapter Nine

Chapter nine listed key points as to how you can use your library and the process followed when searching for information involving your paper.  The beginning of the chapter explained how you can locate publications which is done by browsing the stacks and checking works cited.  Once you have found a source relevant to your topic, your proceed to check out.  Periodicals are newspapers, magazines, and scholarly journals which we will need at least ten scholarly journals for our paper.  A periodicals room consists of recent issues for library users, such as myself to browse.  Majority of the articles found in the library's periodicals room will contain works cited or reference lists.  Once I begin to find an article relevant to my argument, I will then want to check the list of sources for related sources.  As I come across new sources, I will then want to check for authors whose work is cited frequently.  This becomes helpful because key voices in the conversation can be identified.  Print resources which are found in reference rooms, consist of bibliographies, indexes, biographies, encyclopedias, handbooks, almanacs, and atlases.  Bibliographies list books, articles, and other publications.  There's variations when it comes to bibliographies.  Some bibliographies only provide citations, while others include abstracts which are brief descriptions of listed sources.  Complete bibliographies on the other hand try to list all the sources published about the topic, while selective bibliographies try to aim for just the best sources published.  Several types of bibliographies can be found in a library's reference room or stacks.  trade bibliographies allow you to locate books published about a particular topic.  General bibliographies cover a wide range of topics.  Lastly, specialized topics provide lists of sources, majority of the time annotated about a topic.  Indexes provide citation information for sources found in a particular set of publications.  Many indexes can help you determine whether a source is worth locating and reviewing.  Different forms of indexes include periodical indexes, pamphlet indexes, citation indexes, government document indexes, and indexes of materials in books.  These steps in searching for information in the library can become quite useful towards your paper.

Working Bibliography Draft

Atwan, Robert.  America Now.  Ghuman, Shawn.  "Is Technology Destroying Social Bonds?" 2013 Issue.  Tenth Edition.  Print.  22 Feb.  2012.

In Shawn Ghuman's reading, he goes onto tell the drastic change over the past decade regarding technology.  Social media has it's own new meaning now.  It was once something fun and has now become an addiction.  The excessive use of technology has created many issues in today's society.  You can't seem to go out to dinner without seeing people glued to their phone.  Conversations become awkward because people just aren't use to having a face to face discussion with someone.  Technology as we know it, is taking over.

Atwan, Robert.  America Now.  Kutcher, Ashton.  "Has Texting Killed Romance?"  2013 Issue.  Tenth Edition.  Print.  Jan.  2011.

Actor, producer, and co-founder of Katalyst Media, Ashton Kutcher shares his thoughts on how cell phones and texting have become at an all time high.  Kutcher goes onto say that it used to be a boy and a girl met, exchanged numbers, anticipation built, call was made, had hours upon hours of conversation over the phone, then a date was arranged and went from there.  Now instead of calling, we text because silence over the phone is eliminated.  Instead of going over and comforting the person you care for, you send a sweet touching text or write on their Facebook wall, etc.

Atwan, Robert.  America Now.  Rosen, Christine.  "Electronic Intimacy"  2013 Issue.  Tenth Edition.  Print.  Spring.  2012.

Writer and editor, Christine Rosen shares her feelings on the pros and cons of social networking and what an addiction it has become.

Angwin, Julia.  Wall Street Journal.  "How Safe Are The Social Networking Sites For Teens?  We Take A Test Run For Them."  Dow Jones and Company Inc.  Web.  24 Jul.  2006.

In The Wall Street Journal, this article informs its readers on all the different sites located online.  Majority of them weren't safe to go on, especially for young teens and could find themselves in danger on certain ones.

Hanes, Stephanie.  The Christian Science Monitor.  "Texting Caused Total Distracted Driving Deaths To Rise, Study Finds"  Proquest.  Web.  15 Oct. 2014

This article goes onto talk about the dangers of texting while driving and how it has now become the most cause for accidents here in the U.S.

Halsey, Ashley.  The Washington Post.  "U.S. Teens Frightening Levels of Texting While Driving"  Proquest.  Web.  17 Nov.  2009.

Another texting while driving article.  Studies show it's the new "drunk driving."  A quarter of teens say they text while driving and about half ages 12 to 17, say they've been in cars with someone texting behind the wheel.

George, Donna St.  The Washington Post.  "The Silent Weapon In Dating Violence: Texting"  Proquest.  Web.  21 Jun.  2010.

This article in The Washington Post, had a little twist to it in regards of my topic but still managed to get the point across with the cell phone addiction.  It goes onto talk about the harassment that some couples face with their significant other and their reactions when they don't receive a text back.

Lupsa, Cristian.  The Christian Science Monitor.  "A Campus Fad Becomes A Campus Fact..."  The Christian Science Society.  Web.  13 Dec.  2006.

The famous social networking site; Facebook, doesn't seem to be having a rapid growth like how it once was because everyone seems to already be on it.

Chapter Three

In the reading of chapter three, it starts off by explaining what a research question is.  A research question is a brief question that directs you to collect, critically read, evaluate, and take notes on your sources.  An effective research question focuses on one specific issue, reflects the writing situation, and is narrowed down enough to where you are able to collect information in enough time to meet your standards.  Important questions to start off asking begin with the five who's and how.  Reflecting on your writing situation is the first step.  After reading though your sources, you should have gained some sort of understanding on the information, ideas, and arguments that form a conversation.  It's common if your your initial thoughts end up changing on your topics.  if that's the case, you'll want to ask yourself if what you've learned has changed your understanding on your writing situation.  Next, ask what you would like to learn next.  Lastly, ask yourself how strongly your initial understanding has shaped the exploration of your topic.  Your next step includes forming a list of questions that you have decided to address.  Those may include information, history, assumptions, goals, outcomes, and lastly policies.  Questions followed by that contain definition, evaluation, compare and contrast, cause and effect analysis, problem and solution analysis or advocacy, and so on and so forth.  Chapter three had also covered compiling a working or annotated bibliography.  A working bibliography lists the sources you've collected so far.  An annotated bibliography is a brief description on each source which they will then be used in whichever format is assigned.  In my case, it would contain MLA Formatting.

Incorporating Sources Effectively

                                                                       Images Cited:

http://www.dailycal.org/2014/10/01/unnecessary-moments-use-cellphone-sofia-gonzalez-platas/

http://www.bibleprophecyandourworld.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Cellphone-etiquette-pic.jpg

http://www.topuniversities.com/blog/how-prepare-exams-meet-assignment-deadlines

http://carolinaconnection.org/2011/10/01/students-warned-not-to-walk-distracted/

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/20/us/20messaging.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Incorporating Sources Effectively

In his article “How Cell Phones Are Killing Face-to-Face Interactions,” Mark Glasser goes onto say “For young people especially, having cell phones or iPod in hand and at the ready default mode while walking the streets.”

On the Elite Daily, Yasmine Hassan stated “We need to be connected every minute of the day, every day of the week, and the minute something goes wrong in our perfect technological world, we lose it because the thought of being alone with ourselves is terrifying.”

Mark Glasser is an executive editor of PBS MediaShift and Idea Lab where he is a freelance journalist writing columns, reviews, and travel stories.  In Glasser’s article “How Cellphones Are Killing Face-to-Face Interactions,” he states “For young people especially, having cell phones or iPod in hand and at the ready default mode while walking the streets.”  Citing similar alarms from a different sector, writer Yasmin Hassan noted, “We need to be connected every minute of the day, every day of the week, and the minute something goes wrong in our perfect technological world, we lose it because the thought of being alone with ourselves is terrifying.”

Works Cited

Glasser, Mark.  MediaShift Your Guide to the Digital Media Revolution.  “How Cell Phones Are Killing Fact-to-Face Conversations.”  PBS Publications.  Web.  22 Oct. 2007.

Hassan, Yasmin.  Elite Daily The Voice of Generation-Y.  “How Technology Continues to Destroy A 

Social Generation.”  Web.  25 Oct. 2013.

Alleyne, Richard.  The Telegraph.  “Mobile Phone Addiction Ruining Relationships.”  Telegraph Media Group Publications.  Web.  30 Nov.  2012

Piper, Robert.  Huffpost.  Your Cell Phone Is Not A Part Of Your Body-You Can Let It Go.”  The Huffington Post Publications.  Web.  24 Sept. 2013.

Chapter Seven

Chapter seven was probably one of the most important chapters we will have read in The Bedford Researcher.  Both high school and college especially experience a lot of plagiarism in their papers.  When writing my paper, I am going to want to make sure to stray far away from any sort of plagiarism.  This is where citing your sources come into play.  Your readers won't be able to determine which is your work and what was pulled from your sources.  If your readers suspect you are failing to acknowledge your source, it is likely they may not only doubt your credibility, but stop reading your paper as well.  Majority of the time, plagiarism is unintentionally done.  If you quote a passage without quotation marks or paraphrase the piece or aren't clear on distinguishing your own ideas from your sources, those are all forms of plagiarizing and can get you in serious trouble.  Now intentional plagiarism on the other hand includes creating fake sources, copying an entire document and using it for your own, buying a document online, and patchwork writing which is piecing together information from multiple sources without quoting them.  A lot of the times writers who plagiarize will say "it's easier" or "oh, I ran out of time" or "everybody cheats" or "I'm not a good writer" and so on with the excuses.  There are ways you can avoid plagiarism by conducting a knowledge inventory, taking notes carefully, distinguish your own ideas and the sources, and citing your sources.  When conducting a knowledge inventory, it is important to ask yourself three questions: What do you already know?  What don't you know?  What do you want to know?  Whether it's intentional or unintentional, it's not worth all the trouble you could get in for it.

Chapter Five

When evaluating the source you want to examine its relevance, evidence, author, publisher, timeliness comprehensiveness, and genre.  What is relevance?  Relevance is the extent to which a source provides information you can use for your research paper.  You want to ask your purpose when determining the relevance and who your audience is.  As said back in chapter eight, evidence is connected through appeals to authority, emotion, principles, values, beliefs, character, and logic.  The saying "more is better," doesn't necessarily apply for this area.  When you evaluate your source you are going to want to make sure what is both appropriate and useful towards your paper.  All authors can make themselves sound knowledgeable on their topic or certain field they are talking about.  The Internet is a big attribute to this cause.  You don't always want to believe everything read off of it.  A way to prevent using false topics are to look for the description of the author.  Evaluating timeliness, in other words, a source's publication date, varies according to the writing situation.  If you're topic is on current events, then sources around the 60's-70's wouldn't be smart in spending a lot of time on those.  Same goes if it was vice versa and you were writing about a historical event, you wouldn't want to spend your time on today's current events.  Evaluating the genre gives you a better understanding on its intended reader, kind of appeals and evidence used, as well as the argument likely to be made.  Just a small idea on how to evaluate each source.

Chapter Four

In chapter four, the reading had started off with listing a few examples on what reading actively in tells. Reading actively means, skimming, reading for meaning, and rereading passages that leave you with questions.  Once questions come about, you are going to want to highlight and underline the text.  Taking notes will also give you a better understanding with what was just read.  Now reading with an attitude, is different.  When reading with an attitude, you'll want to ask questions, make inferences, and connections to other sources.  A great example of making connections with other sources is evaluating each one of your sources one by one.  It's wise to approach a source with a situation already set in your mind.  There are two forms of sources.  First would be your primary source which includes poems, essays, recordings, journals, autobiographies, interviews, speeches, letters, reports, photographs, etc.  Your second type of source would be secondary sources which comment on an event which then use primary sources as evidence majority of the time.  Identifying main sources is a big key when reading critically.  You'll then want to follow up with key points that make a main idea.  Authors very often use appeals to connect supporting evidence.  Appeals to authority which asks a reader to accept a reason.  Appeals to emotion which is used to form an argument.  Appeals to principles, values and beliefs.  Appeals to character which are sometimes referred to as the "trust me" strategy.  Then lastly, the appeals to logic which are often presented with propositions in hope of acceptance.  This reading gave an abundant amount of information as to how important reading critically is.

Source Evaluation

1.  http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-your-cell-phone-hurts-your-relationships/
2. This source includes the affects on how cell phones are now damaging relationships with others around you.
3. Yes, this line of argument is well supported.  This source provides me with ways on how I can argue that cell phones are taking over.
4. With this source, I would be agreeing with the author.  She used a perfect example on going out to have a meal with a group of people but rather than having a conversation with the ones around them, they're glued to their phones.
5. The publication date is still fairly recent meaning it is relevant today.
6. Pretty much nails my topic.
7. Source being off the Internet could make you question its reasoning, but brings up interesting points.

1. http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2007/10/how-cell-phones-are-killing-face-to-face-interactions295/
2.This source nails my topic right on with how cell phones are now affecting face to face conversations.
3. Yes, both well supported and useful.
4. Glasser's article, provides me with facts such as... people of all ages are becoming addicted to the use of their phone.
5. The publication date of the source is only a few years old which shows how much more of a problem technology is now causing in today's society.
6. This article provides the authors own thoughts as well as experiences.
7. Source being off the Internet could make you question its reasoning, but brings up interesting points.

1. http://elitedaily.com/news/technology/technology-is-destroying-gen-y/
2. This source is another nailing on my topic.
3. Yes, both well supported and useful towards my topic.
4. In Hassan's article, as I was reading, I caught myself catching a glimpse of myself in some of the things being said.  The constant checking of our phone has taken over us more and more each day.
5. The publication date about a year old, leaving it to be relevant.
6. As said before, I caught glimpses of myself in the reading.  It leaves me with quite a bit to talk about.
7. Source being off the Internet could make you question its reasoning, but brings up in interesting points.

1. http://elitedaily.com/life/why-your-cell-phone-is-ruining-your-life/
2. This source really illustrates today's society on the problems that have come about with technology.
3. This is again both well supported and useful for my topic.
4. Hudson illustrated a nice point.  He had said even in the busy streets of New York, it has now become quiet due to the use of cell phones.  Although he enjoys the peacefulness, it's rather strange that a busy city such as New York has become quieter throughout the years.
5. The publication date of the article is a little over a year old, keeping this source relevant to today.
6. This source is thorough in all that's said.
7. Could have been organized a bit better, but still brought up some great points.

1. http://www.home-remedies-for-you.com/articles/1769/wellness/brave-new-world-how-technology-has-come-to-take-over-our-lives.html
2. This source is quite useful to my topic.
3. Brings up a lot of supportive points to further in my topic.
4. Myers came up with some good points as well as providing stats in his work.
5. The publication date is recent and relevant.
6. I enjoyed the stats because it can be useful when writing my topic.  I also had enjoyed the points he made when saying technology has become a part of life to the newer generation.
7. Wasn't my favorite source but still agreed with the things said.

Chapter Six

Chapter six not only gave the basics of note taking, but provided useful information on a more in depth basis.  In the reading, ways on how notes should be taken were provided as well as different ways the information found can be saved.  Saving information benefits you and is found to be easier as your document is planned and and drafted.  Smartphones can be a great attribute when recording conversations you have with other sources.  You then have the ability to go back and listen as many times as you want.  A smart suggestion in the reading was to keep all your notes in an organized layout.  For example, you don't want to have your information all over the place having to flip from one thing to another when searching for the specific information needed.  It's helpful to have it all in a notebook or on your phone, etc.  You want to look for both the similarities in differences in your sources.  When looking through the disagreements, you'll then be able to decide which sources may provide support and which will best serve as an illustration in alternative approaches.  Reading this chapter has given me a better feel on how I will take notes throughout my paper.

Rhetorical Analysis of an "A" Paper

1. What are some things that strike you? 

Nice visuals that catch your eye, good organization, informative titles, cohesive layout (spacing etc)

• Their own work -4
• Meets word requirement -4
• The citations are not grammatically correct, sources could use more detail within the paper. For example, the citations come after the period when they should come before. "...lacked details such as a timeline and financing. (California Legislative)" -3
• Lacks signal phrases, sentences are choppy and could be smoother. On page two, the student lists about five opinions that seem to kind of stutter along. -2.5
• The student definitely accurately addresses all points of their thesis, and paragraph contents match titles. -4
• As mentioned before, the titles help organize the paper. However, the author seems to drop into the issues straight away without introducing the benefits in a smoother fashion. Also, some bias seems present.  -3
• Author has about 6 pages of works cited, definitely meets the minimum requirement. -4

Chapter Two

Chapter two gets a little more in depth with your research process.  Being able to explore your topic involves throwing out ideas with others which can be helpful in furthering your process.  Once you have explored your topic, you can then identify conversations about issues in your topic, assess your interest in the issues and choosing one issue from that.  I liked how they compared attending a public meeting to the strategies used in the process of exploring your topic.  In order to explore your topic, it's smart to create a plan, discuss topics with others, conduct observations and find and review sources.  Step one in chapter two goes onto give bullet points on how to create a plan.  The different steps are helpful to me and how I can now begin exploring my topic.  Find people whom I can discuss my topic with, come up with a list of questions to ask people who can help explore my topic, a list of settings that I may observe to learn even more about, a list of resources and a system for keeping track of the different information collected.  Once I talk to others about my topic, it's smart to find people who know a great deal about the topic I'm exploring.  Reason being is because I am then given insights that aren't available through other sources.  After assessing all the issues, it's best to pick the strongest candidate and the one that is the most interesting.

Chapter One

Here in Chapter One, you are given key points and tips on how the process of writing a research paper begins.  The first chapter went onto point out that in order to boost up your confidence even more, you can use two important tools, genre and design.  Genre, being types of documents and design, being the appearance of the documents.  As you distinguish one document from another you can look at the use of columns, headings and photographs in a newspaper article.  When asking yourself questions, you want to focus on important ones that will help your paper succeed in the long run.  An appropriate topic includes a subject of debate, discussion and discovery.  I want to be sure to choose a topic that will interest me, keeping me motivated for a successful paper in the long run.  Making a personal connection will also engage not only my interest, but my readers as well.  Additional tips that will be useful to my paper is brainstorming, freewriting, looping and clustering.  Looping is an alternative form of freewriting.  you set a time amount, doesn't have to be too long, then read what you've written.  One key idea should be identified when reading, then create a new one once you start back up on writing. Now clustering on the other hand, is a bit different but has some similarities in a way.  Clustering involves you presenting your ideas in a graphical form.  You are then able to map out the relationships among your ideas and then further help you come up with new ones.  These tips are just a few helpful ways on how I can begin my research paper.