Thlog - Week 5

At the beginning of this week, I was slightly scared of how complex this next writing project is going to be. Yet, today during class when Zack made us perform the activity of looking through a microscope for specific parts, I realized that for this WP, I have to just take my time and look at each piece as more of a writer than an overwhelmed reader. Then I can begin to evaluate specific parts such as audience, purpose, and conventions that each piece contains. Overall, I’m beginning to see that writing is like building a house (even though I have no idea how to actually build a house). We have to make sure we have a parallel structure (parallelisms) so that the house isn’t crooked and confusing with rooms shaped like triangles. We must use different building blocks (moves) that all help to support each other like wood, brick, and cement so that our house isn’t a Three Little Pigs shack made out of one dull material. And lastly, we build the roof, which can be the thesis as it incorporates and holds everything, but would be nothing without the foundation and structure.

I also have to mention how much the writing process tips have helped me get through times of writers block and being stuck in a certain rut. They are awesome and really help me to get my ideas unscrambled from head and onto the paper.

WP2 - PB2B - I like to Move it, Move it

Part 1: Templates   

 

The same structure of arguments can be found throughout many pieces of writing because they help improve the flow of the paper and create a more sound argument for the writer. In They Say, I Say (TSIS), there are featured templates for structuring different types of arguments, and although they are all not identical, they follow a similar setup across many papers. In the sources “Why Blog?” and “Navigating Genres”, we see different instances of the same set-up that all work to help uphold the author’s points.

             To begin, in “Navigating Genres” by Kerry Dirk, the templates presented in TSIS can be found throughout the text. Many of these quotes aren’t exact copies or identical to the prompt entirely, but they still follow the same structure and serve the same purpose. To begin, the explaining quotes templates in TSIS focuses on ways of elaborating on quotations. Dirk uses this template multiple times on pages 252, 253, and 254 where she writes such sentences as “In other words, Bitzer is saying that when something…” (252). This allows Dirk to clarify what she is trying to say, and clear up any misconceptions that may have occurred while also continuing to build on her argument at the same time. Another template Dirk follows is the capturing authorial action.  This is used on page 255 where Dirk writes, “Devitt points out …” and then proceeds to speak about genres and their different types. This has a different from purpose from explaining quotes, because rather than just explain a quote, Dirk goes deeper and analyzes the quote she was using.

            The article of “Why Blog?” by Alex Reid also follows many of the templates that are covered in TSIS. Firstly, the Introducing of Standard Views that was covered in TSIS is also used in “Why Blog?” as Reid begins the article by stating, “As Malcolm Gladwell and others have observed…” (302).  This allows Reid to state his idea right off the bat and be direct with the reader. Another template followed by Reid is the Establishing Why Claims Matter, which Reid uses on page 319. He begins with “And though blogging may not ultimately…” where he continues to go on and support his claim of blogging and why it should be performed. This helps him sum up his argument and present a final push of ideas to help sway the reader before the article is finished. Lastly, Reid uses the templates of making concessions while still standing your ground where he writes about commenting and first mentions commenting, and then later goes on to say, “Of course, comments also have their drawbacks” (319). Reid uses this as a way to present a topic along with its downsides to show the reader that his view is not perfect, but should be the right choice.

Part 2: The Slides (moves) of Joe

When looking closely into specific readings and actually reading like a writer, we see how writers of all skill levels are able to effectively (or ineffectively) communicate their argument to the audience. In the sources “Shitty First Draft” and “So What? Who Cares?”,  we can see the moves each author uses to help support their argument and get their point across.

            To begin, we see in “Shitty First Draft”, the title itself is a move done by the author to help improve the article. I like to call this “The Informality” which can be anything from profanity, to an inappropriate joke, to anything that isn’t normally said inside the classroom. This is effective here, because most people use fowl language and curse, so this automatically draws a reader in, and creates a relationship that goes beyond the page. Another move that Lamott makes is what I like to call “The Chisel”, in which Lamott takes the pedestal that readers sometimes place authors on, and begins to break it down. She mentions her time writing for a newspaper and how it probably caused a couple readers to cancel subscriptions. Although this joke is probably not true, it makes the author seem down to earth and relatable anyways. This is effective because it helps to show that writing is difficult for everyone and is a process that takes time even for our favorite authors.

            In the article “So What? Who Cares?”, we see the move which I like to call “Reaching Out” which involves the author knowing the intended audience and relating specific events inside the reading to the audience so that the audience can relate more to the author. Knowing this chapter is mostly for educational purposes and mostly students will be reading it, the author effectively relates the topic to students and lectures, connecting with most of the audience. This allows the reader to have a more ‘at-home’ analogy since they experience lectures regularly. Secondly, this article uses the same move as TSIS, which is “The Set-Up”. When using the Set-Up, an author provides templates or outlines for the reader that allows the reader to see how to set-up the technique that the author is describing. This has the potential to help sway readers into finding the information presented in the article more useful which means they may follow what the author is saying more closely than before. Lastly, the move of establishing headers is performed throughout. This can be called “Headers” (clever title, I know), which is the act of sectioning off the paper with subtitles to help establish the flow of the paper and present specific topics for each section. This is effective because it not only helps the reader know what each section is trying to focus on, but it provides a break from the monotony of paragraphs. In the end, moves can be the smallest of word choices, to the way a paper is set up, but each move must be calculated and must help support the argument in the end.

Thlog # 4

My main thought today after leaving class is how I can begin to look at how my moves in writing affect whatever it may be I’m trying to accomplish. I’m beginning to see writing more as a collection of steps we take that allow us to accomplish our goal on whatever we set out to write about. In a sense, I can see why Zack is so passionate about the activities we have been doing throughout class. The in-class activities aren’t done just to make us write just to write and reach some quota that is placed by the department, it is to help us practice and become stronger in all the smaller aspects of writing that we didn’t notice before. Like the MJ video we watched, or the AI video that I went home and watched, the first move sets the tone for everything. Having a plan, and beginning with a strong first move can make all the difference in the long run. The same goes with writing. Writing can be like basketball, where I must know what I’m trying to accomplish (should I score, draw a foul, pass, or even run out the clock), I must figure out a way to accomplish that (create a play, maybe do some crazy Allen Iverson dribbles around dudes), and ultimately I must use other skills that I have picked up to help me reach my goal (perform some crazy crossover, use a pick-and-roll, even flop) so that my writing can be complete as possible.

P.s. Stone Cold Steve Austin > The Rock

PB2A

The source that I chose to compare to the SCIgen generator is entitled “Effects of the freshwater aquarium trade on wild fish populations in differentially-fished areas of the Peruvian Amazon”. This article focuses on the many effects that occur from fishing in different locations along the Amazon River, and compares how much fishing is tolerable for the environment versus what would be too much. Compared with the SCIgen, both at a topical level look like they could be published side by side in a scientific journal, yet when diving in deeper into the text, the differences between both become more and more apparent.

To begin, each article has a title at the beginning of the paper, which is then followed by the names of the authors and those who worked on the paper. Although the titles may not make sense at first glance, they serve as an introduction to the papers and give the formal feel that is expected within this genre. Each of these papers also has sectional titles that separate specific parts of the paper, and each are almost identical in the way they present their information. For example, each paper has headings such as “Introduction”, “Results”, and “References”, with each paper having the subheadings following the same order. Also, both papers contain many diagrams throughout the text, which serve as a way to help showcase the data being analyzed. Finally, both papers have citations that are located throughout the writing, along with at least 12 accompanying sources. These sources and references are a huge part of the genre of research papers, and serve as an important tool in fitting inside this genre.

On the other hand, one of the main difference between the two papers is the obvious difference of one saying complete nonsense (SCIgen), while the other explains, in rigorous detail, a long process of observations and experiments that were performed in order to learn about fish in the Amazon. Also, after looking through dozens of papers through the Library Website, you can begin to notice the length that many of the publications have and the enormous amount of detail that everything is presented with. The SCIgen has none of that, and mostly produces a large amount of nonsense jargon, which results in that paper being a much shorter length than almost every publication I saw. Overall, the SCIgen papers are able to be effective in fitting in while actually saying nothing, because they follow the conventions that are present within the genre.

In regards to the Fish Article and the most important components of it, one main focus can center on the citations and how frequently any paper of ‘scholarly’ standards uses references to help build its argument. It can potentially be considered to be a form of ethos in the way that the author can build off the information presented by other authors who have reputations and credibility from their earlier works. By building off these other, more-credible authors, an author using the citations can seemingly ‘ride’ the reputation established by the first author, and can begin to steadily increase their own.

The SCIgen papers also showcases how important citations are within this genre of papers. A SCIgen paper’s main goal is to emulate and look like an actual research paper, so it must therefore use actual conventions that are common within the genre it is trying to fit in. Although other conventions are used throughout the SCIgen papers, those are mostly structural and the structures between papers may slightly vary between each, whereas citations will almost always be there and be a way to help build on what is trying to be said. In the end, citations and referencing— the building off other’s people’s ideas—is one of the basic and most important components of a research paper and research in general.

Thlog #3

This week we focused heavily on our Writing Project 1 and all the steps needed to have a thorough revisions process. I really like this part of class, because I am normally the type who works on a paper once and hardly ever returns to re-read or revise on my own. The activities done in class helped/forced me to do this and although I still think it’s a long and boring process, revision is a necessary step in the writing process. Shoot, I even re-read this Thlog and this isn’t nearly as stressful as the WP 1 we just worked on. I also am really looking forward to the ‘Murder!’ activity that we have coming up, I found it a lot of fun to work on with my group-mates.

Thlog Week 2

At the moment, the main thing on my mind is this first Writing Project. I really have no definite idea on what kind of topic I want to write about, or even if any small ideas of mine would be academically acceptable. One topic I was thinking about covering is the MLB Playoffs that are going on right now. Reddit has a plethora of baseball-related subreddits that could possibly function as my three platforms. Yet I feel like this may be a little too specific in terms of my genre, and the conventions for each would be too closely related to analyze closely. I could also look at the way different sports pages or websites handle certain topics like maybe the Tom Brady Deflation scandal or any other major event that has been covered heavily in the news. On a different note, I feel like this class is helping my visual literacy in terms of analyzing genres and seeing conventions where I didn’t before. As I browse the internet in-between these sentences, I see why certain tweets are more popular than others (follows the conventions), why some Instagram posts get more likes (follows the conventions), and why some comments of Reddit get down-voted to the pits of internet hell (follows the conventions). I am now going to become famous after exploitation of these conventions. Just kidding, what I am actually going to do is watch this Playoff Game and analyze the conventions of the genre of Sports Broadcasting.