Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Ongoing drafting and revision plans ...
To help you focus effectively on completing our current assignment, I’d like you to reflect on Monday’s writing workshop. How do you feel about this assignment? What’s working well for you? What remains challenging? Based on your discussion with your peers and their feedback, what are the top three issues that you think you should prioritize as you continue to draft and revise?
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14 comments:
Monday's workshop was definitely helpful, once again. If it weren't for this, I would not have realized that the whole article I discussed was not qualitative research, but was in fact quantitative!
The two people I worked with were very helpful and provided both suggestions as well as positive feedback. They made some suggestions that I probably would not have noticed to correct on my own. It also helped me to review their work and make suggestions because I was then able to reflect back on my own work based on my suggestions and find problems in my paper as well.
My main priority at this point is to make sure that my research makes the requirement of the assignment and that my research is qualitative and not quantitative. I also feel that I need to better organize my paragraphs and points in a way that flows more easily into my conclusion. I also need to work on correct citations and making sure they are all in proper APA format.
So far, I feel pretty confident about certain parts of this assignment, while others parts are still coming together. I am happy with the main qualitative source I am using. It fits in well with Ehrenreich’s work, and I can contrast and compare the works. Still, organizing this paper was somewhat of a challenge. I chose to do option 2, in which I write a chapter of advice to incoming freshmen. Part of the organization trouble came from wanting to make sure my ideas were very clear. Also, I am having a little trouble determining how to show that I am a credible source as well. Hopefully, my use of the novel and the scholarly article will help. The top three issues for me to prioritize is one, completing the paper based on the outline I have made for myself. My next step will be to read through as if I were an incoming freshmen to make sure my ideas are clear. Lastly, I want to revise the paper and make sure I have effectively used the novel and the source.
This assignment is proving to be a little difficult for me in terms of content to add to the paper. I feel I understand the assignment well enough-contrasting qualitative research methods-however, I see it as a limiting factor in my essay. The assignment could be too narrowly focused for my taste. That might have been why I took the third option, to make the assignment more open-ended. So far, I feel I have a good start. I had to quit in the middle due to time and exhaustion but I think I am on the right track. Right now there are three priorities:
1. Finish the essay
2. Bring in the effectiveness of each method used by each author in getting the message to their audiences
3. Tie back in the 360 degree concept of qualitative plus qualitative research in academics and address the board once more, asking them to reconsider removing qualitative research.
I feel that Monday's writing workshop was very effective because I was able to gain more insight and got solid feedback on my ideas. What still remains challenging it getting a solid definition of qualitative research and incorporting my sources. These are the two top issues that I should prioritize. If my draft, the sources came out of no where so I need to work on introducing them and making sure the language and paragraphs flow together. Another priority for revising my draft would be working on my introduction. I am writing a chapter in the advice manual and need to work on presenting my paper as a section of a one possible type of research they will be doing next year.
I felt that Monday's workshop was very helpful. Reading my paper out loud always helps me to finds structural errors and akward sentences. In addition, Jessica and Margy helped me to see the weak points of my argument and suggested things to help me improve them. Probably one of the biggest issues I have with this paper is using the APA citation style, it is really confusing. Also, I have been have trouble with maybe including too much textual evidence, so that I think it might be overwhelming my paper. Finally, I want to make sure that I am clearly answering the prompt I chose and also answering the two important questions presented in the assignment for the paper. I think so of my sentences could use some reworkiing as they tend to be run-ons. Overall, I felt the workshop was very helpful and will prove valuable when I am revising my paper.
I think that the writing workshop process is always an effective tool for evaluating and getting feedback on my writing. Overall, I have been having quite a bit of difficulty with this assignment, because I am having a difficult time finding deep specific differences between the two writing styles. I think that overall, I do a good job of explaining my positions and ideas, but what I struggle with is adding quotes and keeping the flow of my paper steady. I also never know how much of a quote I need in order to be effective.
Based on the writing workshop, the three biggest things that I need to work on are adding textual evidence, making a more clear definition of qualitative research, and being more detailed in the comparison between the two forms of qualitative research.
Monday’s writing workshop was, once again, a productive experience. Reading aloud to other people really helps me to clarify my ideas and realize what is missing from my essay. I really liked this assignment because thought there was more room for creativity and there was not a single, formal mandated method of writing. I chose to write in the letter format and I thought it made it much easier to respond to this prompt. I still need to work on a few things in my paper. I was confused on how to quote in this essay, so I don’t think that I incorporated enough direct quoting. I think I could also benefit from contrasting qualitative and quantitative research more, in order to make a slightly more convincing argument. The last issue I should prioritize is editing. By reading over my paper a few more times before the final draft, I could probably tighten my language and be a little more succinct. Overall, I was very pleased with my draft of this essay, but I think I could still use a little polishing.
For me personally this assignment is going better than the first one. I don't really know if it is clearer for me, or if it is just easier to compare two styles of writing; especially because the article that I chose had such an interesting method of study. The researchers actually handed out disposable cameras to subjects so that they could photograph symbols that to them signified "American" vs. "Latino" and that way they studied what first and second generation immigrants think of transnational identity; if there is such thing as transnational identity and how it is formed. So the research method is completely different than the one Ehrenreich used but still it is a qualitative research article.
I feel that this writing workshop was a good experience; however I am having trouble really getting into this assignment, and this, I feel, is my biggest hurdle to date. I don’t feel that I’m making a strong point with my paper; I think that I need to find a way to feel more passionate about this assignment. Perhaps I can revise it so that this paper is geared in a more assertive way. The other problem I am having is making sure that I understand APA format and am citing everything properly, especially for my in-text citations. So this is something I really need to focus on.
I would also like to add more sources from the text and include how that relates to what I am trying to say, and the point I am trying to get across. I just feel as though I am not quite succinct enough in this writing, I find it boring for me to read and this is generally not the case. I must find some way to be able to make a statement in this piece rather than a simple explanation. The ultimate goal in all of my writing (personal goal) is to be provocative and get people, even if that person consists solely of me, to think about things differently.
This assignment lies more within my comfort zone; I am experienced analyzing small details in a piece of writing and basing claims off of them. I really enjoyed researching different qualitative research studies, too. I learned some interesting things just by reading the abstracts.
I think one of my main problems with this particular paper is, to be honest, making it interesting. I am struggling to make it more than a formulaic compare/contrast paper. I think your feedback was very useful (to challenge myself to delve deeper--yes, you can write a 5 page paper about the suface-level differnces, but who wants to read it?).
Another issue I have with this paper, as with all papers I write, is time management. I am very grateful that you postponed the deadline; hopefully I'll be able to redraft a couple of times.
My third prole I am having with this essay is probably clarity. I don't know if that is a legitimate problem or just one I've created in my head, but the more I read my essays, the less sense my points seem to make. This is probably an eccentricity of mine, but I am going to attempt to rectify this situation. I will probably just make my paper more structured. That might make it even more boring, though, which was my first problem to begin with! Hmmm.
I really liked the writing workshop that we did on Wednesday. I find reading my paper out loud as being really difficult. since I'm such a visual person, it's also really hard for me to just listen to someone read there paper without having a draft in front of me.
I like the assignment we're doing. I like how we're comparing Ehrenreich's paper to a choice of our own. I need to be able to take my analysis to the next level and start being able to compare the two papers better, and maybe incorporate my quotes more to show evidence.
On Monday's writing workshop, I felt like I could of gotten more done before heading into class that day. For the amount that I did get done, I had to do my research again because the scholarly source that I found was a quantitative source rather than qualitative. I do enjoy recieving peer feedback because it helps everyone know what each person is writing about and how to improve it when editing an essay. This assignment definitely requires a lot of time and hard thinking that one must put into, but it is overall a good way to learn how to do various types of research. I feel that I am able to do well on this assignment as long as I put time in each day and do so effectively. The challenging part about this paper or even working on assignments in general, is meeting the deadlines each time something is due. I feel that I sometimes dont have enough time to work on it, but need to know what I will do each day. After recieving feedback from each of my peers, there are some things I must keep in mind. First, I need to cite my sources and summarize it in order to have an idea of how to start my paper. Secondly, I should have at least a few pages before the next class and have citations that I can use. Lastly, once I get a good draft on the paper, I should get it looked at and have an idea of what to improve on so I can have time to work on it.
Though at first I struggled trying to get a good feel for my essay, I feel like Monday’s workshop helped me focus my paper. As I get ready to complete my draft, my first goal is to obviously complete my essay. I really want to get more specific about methodology and audience of each of my texts. I also want to focus on my concluding paragraphs, which I think will be the strongest part of my essay. In those paragraphs I really think I’ll be able to pull out the details of the differences in the studies.
Here's a comment by Ryan:
I felt that Mondays workshop went well and was pretty helpful. I received some good advice that I will defiantly be adding to my paper to further better it. My only complaint about the workshop is the reading it aloud part. I just think that for me and maybe some others that it would be easier to read and really understand the persons paper better if we each read it to ourselves.
Overall I like this assignment, and the research that comes along with it. (Nickel and Dimed) So far I think my paper is coming along well but does need some revising. I was lucky to find the great second qualitative source that I did, because it is a perfect example of what qualitative research is all about. The top three issues that my peer review group said that I needed to discuss were: adding a stronger conclusion, adding more quotes, and making the overall tone of my paper sound more professional and not such everyday language.
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