Reviews for Peers, Questions for Peers

Feb. 7, 2012

Peer Reviews of Informational Reports

Three Reviews for Peers on Their Informational Reports
&
Three Questions for Peers' Reviews on My Essay

Three Reviews

For A.'s essay, I really enjoyed how she integrated her interview with the rest of her material. She let it flow naturally into her paper so that it was easy to see how the two connected. The three things I would recommend for A. to work on were,

1. Her citation. Although A. provided the sources in the test and a good works cited page, she did not include the citation for her “MBA Writing Tips” article in parenthesis. For the rest of her citations, she did not include the date when they were written beside the name of the author.

2. For one of her sentences about phone vs. email communication, I was confused about how this tied into the rest of the paragraph about just emails, and would recommend getting rid of it or starting a new paragraph (it seemed like an extra thought).

3. For her paragraph dealing with reading improving writing, I would love to see an article or citation (such as the interview) which supported this personal thought of hers.

A.'s essay had such a rich vocabulary, so I enjoyed reading it in depth!

For C.J.'s essay, I really liked his thesis statement about writing being required in all fields, especially his field of justice administration. It provided his paper with a great springboard to the rest of his essay.

The three things I would recommend C.J. to work on would be:

1. His citation. I didn't see any citation in parenthesis (i.e., Rawdon, 2008), although he did provide a works cited page.

2. I would recommend clarifying the first quote that the officer made at the beginning of the paper to make it clearer. It seemed to be grammatically confusing for me.

3. To give the paper more depth outside the interview, I would recommend C.J. Perhaps devoting at least one paragraph to one of the forms of justice administration writing he mentioned through an article, such as discussing what “briefing” is defined as from another source.

C.J. definitely made me understand what writing was involved in his field of study.

For S.'s essay, I enjoyed the third paragraph the most about the interview information she gained about writing in dental hygiene. It definitely clarified what fields were involved in choosing it as a major.

The three things I would recommend S. to work on would be:

1. Some of the information in the paper (such as the sentence about suicide with dental hygienists) didn't seem to apply to writing in the field, although it was interesting! I would recommend taking those few sentences out.

2. In the third paragraph, I saw that her interviewee mentioned what types of writing hygienists did---I would love to see the titles of a couple of academic journals mentioned in that sentence as well to support what the interviewee mentioned (“Dentists Today”, etc.?)

3. I'm not sure how S could reformat some of the material, but if she could integrate the interview with the articles she mentioned at the end by tying them together somehow with a common point of interest, that would be neat.

S. had a great interview that seemed to cover so much about her profession, and it showed through in her writing.

Questions for my Peers

The top three questions I would like to ask my peers would be these:

1. How would you suggest citing a website within the text? Have you found any information pertaining to this in your own citations?

2. Did you feel as if the wording I used talking about the use of the template/lesson plans made sense?

3. Are there any sentences in my paper which you feel are too run-on (some professors have told me this was a problem with my writings in the past)?

Advice from a Fellow Student for Informational Report

Jan. 31, 2012

Advice from a Fellow Student, Integrated

For my most recent assignment for ENG 102-42, I was asked to collaborate with a fellow student about the process of writing our Informational Reports. J. read my summaries of my interview and listed sources, helping me to understand what to change.

J. advised me to not simply use one newspaper article, but the two I listed, since together, they would clarify my points in my paper better. Since I was struggling to make things as deep and understandable with only one article, J. agreed with me that it would probably be better to include both.

J. also confirmed that I should stress my interview, since it had provided me with the strongest sense of writing in my profession. She agreed with me that if I structured my paper with an emphasis on the interviewee's answers, it would make my paper better constructed.

Short Summary of Interview/Brief Analysis of Sources

January 26, 2011

Short Summary of Interview/Brief Analysis of Sources

Short Summary of Interview

For my upcoming informational report in ENG 102-42, I have been asked to conduct an interview with a professional in my future career choice. For me, that professional was Nichole Hutchins, a Kindergarten teacher for eleven years and an expertise in my field of elementary education.

Hutchins' passion for children and her profession had been obvious to me in the past, when I had a long conversation with her about teaching before I finally ended up choosing my major of elementary education. In the interview, her enthusiasm for her students---and even for the copious amounts of writing she admitted having to do---was evident in her optimism and cheerfulness about her work. “My favorite type of writing is for the parents and kids,” she shared, “the rest of it is a lot of busywork.” 'The rest of it', Hutchins had explained earlier, consists of a lot of regulatory work that is required by the state for school records, but despite such repetitive and often time-consuming forms to fill out, Hutchins still maintains her joyful attitude about the work, berating very little despite some of the difficulties such required work provides.

During my interview, I gained a deeper and surprising insight into how much writing teaching requires. A fellow student in my ENG 102-42 class shared before the interview with Hutchins, “My sister and mother are elementary teachers, and they do a crazy amount of writing.”, but it was only after my interview that I realized both the amount of writing and the many genres that teaching requires. From notes to children, forms for the district, and other writings, both formality and informality is used. Following the interview, such insights will definitely broaden and solidify the scope of my informational report.

Brief Analysis of Sources

For the three sources I have prepared for my informational report, I had difficulty at first choosing articles that related to my profession---elementary education---and how much writing or what genres teachers utilized the most. To structure my paper properly, then, for the requirements given in my informational report guidelines, I am using different aspects of each source to intertwine with the stronger details given to me in my interview.

Although I may use two newspaper articles, the first I will include will focus on the need for teachers to have strong and appropriate writing skills for their profession (Northeast Arkansas Teachers Explore Writing Development at Summer Institute; Targeted News Service). For this approach, I will also share details relating to teachers' writing included in the academic journal article I found, entitled, Teaching Writing to Elementary Students in Grades 4-6: A National Survey. The second newspaper article I will include will revolve around the written media now being explored that teachers often share in their classrooms (No More Pencils; The Village Voice). Lastly, for my website, I will be using the Kentucky Department of Education's webpage (www.education.ky.gov) to share the standards of writing children are held to, and thus, teachers must have as well. Combined, these articles will give a broader picture of the media, genre, and requirements a teacher must possess before being able to accurately teach themselves. With the combined information from my interview, I will also be able to accurately represent writing in the teaching profession.

Analyzing Two Quotations from an Essay

January 24, 2012

Analyzing Two Quotations from an Essay

Say What?

Analyzing Two Quotations from an Essay

One of the most important steps to take when writing a formal essay is using citation of your sources properly. Whether it's for a college assignment, a publication for a research paper, or an article for an academic journal, the formation of solid citation should be set in place to avoid plagiarism and to give credit to the author of the source.

For a recent essay of mine I wrote while in college, I was asked to share a fair amount of sources. The essay was assigned as an informational paper based around the true events of Napoleon Bonaparte's coronation as Emperor in the French republic.

For one of my quotes, I wanted to use a first hand account of what a fellow commander in the military thought of Bonaparte's skill as an officer before his coronation. I introduced the quote first by discussing Bonaparte's military success thus far; then, after I quoted the commander's opinion, I ended the paragraph by concluding with other information relating to Bonaparte's success in war, to solidify and tie together the truth of the commander's statement. I cited the quote from a book about Bonaparte's life.

For another one of my quotes, I directly quoted Bonaparte himself from another book about his life. I opened the paragraph with a passage talking about how the French people were not quite ready for Bonaparte to be Emperor (several years before his official coronation), and through that passage, quoted Bonaparte agreeing with the people that they were not prepared for his leadership. I used this quote from Bonaparte as a springboard for my following paragraph as I introduced at what time the people were ready.

Through this paper, I learned a significant amount about citation. I look forward to using the skills I was able to foster in future essays as well.

Citing a Resource for my Informational Report

January 19, 2012

English 102-42: Intermed College Writing

Citing a Resource for my Informational Report:

A Brief Description of Genre and Summary of its Utilization in the Paper

For one of my cited sources in my upcoming informational report, I will be using an article entitled, Teaching Writing to Elementary Students in Grades 4-6: A National Survey¹. This article is taken from the academic educational journal Elementary School Journal, which will add relevancy to my topic since it relates specifically to elementary teachers, as opposed to other, higher level professionals in the teaching field. The genre of academic journal articles should have reputable sources, and in keeping with this ideal, this specific article is published by the University of Chicago Press. It was originally published as well by two professors from Vanderbilt University.

To utilize my source to its utmost, I will choose a specific quote or quotes which are pertinent to my informational report. Since the latter majority of this article relates more to the students'---instead of the teacher's---writing, I will focus more on earlier portions of the article speaking about how much writing the teacher does compared to the students. I will also focus on the statistics the article cites about what types of writing the teacher formulates to assign to his or her students. The combination of both of these viewpoints will lead to useful information for my report.

1Gilbert, Steve Graham. “Teaching Writing to Elementary Students in Grades 4-6: A National Survey.” Elementary School Journal June 2010: 494-518.

Rhetorical Analysis on an Informational Report

January 17, 2012

ENG 102-42: Intermed College Writing

Rhetorical Analysis on an Informational Report

A Rhetorical Analysis on an Informational Report

For my most recent assignment from my ENG 102-42 class, I have been asked to write in the genre of an informational report. An informational report is meant to include both the broad picture and some smaller details of the issue the writer is addressing, so I will attempt to include each of these aspects when writing my paper. Since the purpose of this report is to share the different aspects of the profession I am currently pursuing---for me, this would be elementary education---I will begin with a general overview of teaching and then break into smaller details regarding how much writing the profession requires. My audience is a group of college students considering this profession for their own future careers, with an emphasis on needing to know how much writing the profession includes. My stance will be formal and deal with outside sources (such as an interview with a teacher and scholarly articles in the educational department) to present the information with as little personal bias or opinion as possible. My media will be a typed copy for the professor as well as sharing my report on a blog for students in my English class to read. This report will overview both the teaching profession as a whole and the usage of writing in the profession.

Rhetorical Analysis on Essay

January 11, 2012

ENG 102-42: Intermed College Writing

Rhetorical Analysis on Essay

A Rhetorical Analysis on My Second Home, A Narrative Essay

In a recent narrative essay I completed for my last college semester entitled, My Second Home, I discussed my attachment and experiences with a historical village in Kentucky called Shaker Village. My purpose for the piece was to convey to my audience--the professor of my English class---why I held certain fond memories for Shaker Village, as well as to describe the physical attributes of the location.

Since my genre was narrative, I wrote my essay in first-person, which allowed me to convey my deeper thoughts instead of the aloofness of a third-person party. This lead to my stance being poetical and serious, since it revolved around a desire to inform the reader of my own introspective emotions at the time when I walked Shaker Village's grounds. In a passage such as the following, I wanted the reader to grasp both my inner thoughts and understand the context I wrote it in: “I remember sitting out on a bench in the middle of one of the Village's outlying fields[...]Why I had never recognized before that silence could be forgiving and cleansing, instead of lonely, was suddenly a complete mystery to me, and it crossed through me that I would be content to remain in this state of reflection for dozens more sunsets to come, continually lost in the last threads of evening.”

For the media of My Second Home, I used a computer to type and edit it, and then printed it out on a hard copy for the professor to read.

My Second Home encompassed all aspects of genre, audience, media, stance, and purpose in different ways as I shared my personal memories and thoughts on Shaker Village, KY.

This blog is for the specific purpose of submission writings for ENGL 102-42.

Thank you for reading!