Weebly



Carah FukumotoProfessor Greg McClureWriting 39C26 August 2015Reflection Essay DraftAlthough this course was just a requirement, I did not want to go through the motions of being able to barely pass this class, I wanted to do my best to excel and grow with every assignment and essay that I was given. Writing 39C as a research and argument based writing course helped me expand my research skills through historical and scientific research, and communication skills through social media campaigning. This course demanded the use of many different databases, such as Google Scholar and Academic Search Complete, to research articles and reports on different topics and issues. Knowing how to utilize the databases efficiently made this course a little easier when information was needed. This writing course was very different compared to my previous writing courses, where I would analyze and write about one source rather than research many sources and incorporating those into a text. Although this course had one main topic we were focusing on, which was Loving Animals, we researched different ideas and issues that involved animals, and we used some of the research to advocate a specific issue through social media and websites. Along with the research, came a different way of communicating an issue to an audience through social media and internet technologies. I used sites such as Instagram, Twitter, Wix, and Weebly to advocate and document my Writing 39C experience. Through this essay, you will be able to read some of the struggles I faced and how I overcame them, how I used certain assignments and to help me in my essays, and how I progressed throughout each essay. The link for the Weebly will direct you to my Eportfolio where you can read more about my journey through this course and find my essays.02156460Figure 1. My first research post and thoughts. “Begin Research Activity” on Canvas.0Figure 1. My first research post and thoughts. “Begin Research Activity” on Canvas.With research being one of the main objectives of this course, knowing how to find credible sources and introducing the authors is an important factor. An assignment that helped me dive into research was the “Begin Research Activity” that was assigned early in the course. This assignment required us to develop a certain question and use keywords and phrases on Google and Wikipedia to find surface information on the question we had. After finding some good information on the question I had, which was, “How does animal captivity impact an animal's ability to interact socially and emotionally?", I used the library databases and other information sites to delve deeper into the topic. Figure 1 is my post to the “Begin research Activity” forum where my first thoughts about research were discussed. This assignment made me more curious toward the Loving Animals topic, and it opened my eyes to a new way of discovering information. Another assignment that I felt was crucial toward my research experience was reading the TIMES articles. This article called us to take notes on each of the six articles about the main ideas and names that were mentioned in the text. The reason we were to take notes on the specific names mentioned was to do further research on those names as an exercise to introducing their credibility. Finding historical and scientific literature would be needed for my the Historical Conversations Projects and knowing how to research and introduce sources in a scholarly way is the biggest part of this essay. 02255520Figure 2. Paragraph four along with the Professor’s comment from my HCP Draft. Google Docs.0Figure 2. Paragraph four along with the Professor’s comment from my HCP Draft. Google Docs.The Historical Conversations Project (HCP) is a historical and scientific review of literature on a certain issue. For my HCP, I decided to research the complex social structure and communication of orcas because I knew that we would, later, have to advocate a certain issue, and I wanted to advocate against orca captivity.This essay required a lot of research and analysis to create the conversational concept of this essay, so I used the skills from the two assignments aforementioned to help me get started. Piecing together the different sources and finding their connection to my thesis was a little difficult for me, but the toughest issue I had was creating an argumentative topic sentence for each source that I was going to discuss in my essay. In my first draft of my HCP, I introduced my fourth paragraph, as shown in figure 2, with a factual topic sentence that was not very strong. One of the comments back from the Professor was that “it would be stronger to introduce each paragraph with the study you’re going to discuss along with what it’s trying to prove” (HCP Draft 3). After reading that comment, it made me take a second look at all my topic sentences to make sure I was effectively introducing my sources and connecting them to my point. I, then, revised the topic sentence in my HCP final draft to “Nousek et al., a group of researchers on the Northern resident killer whales, describes in their scientific research, The Influence of Social Affiliation on Individual Vocal Signatures of Northern Resident Killer Whales (Orcinus orca), that the discovery of signals providing multiple levels of social affiliation makes it ambiguous as to how to determine their direct form of communication” (HCP Final 3). Knowing how to effectively introduce a study and credibly introduce an author is very important in providing the reader with reliable information. Not only did we have to communicate to a scholarly audience through a formal literature review, but we also had to communicate to an audience through visuals and social media. An objective for the HCP was to incorporate multimodal elements to support an argument with a new type of media. The important factor in using images, videos, and links in formal literature reviews is to make sure it supports and relates to the argument that is being proved. Instead of using images and videos that appeal to pathos, images and videos, such as tables and informational videos, support the literature review more if it appeals to ethos and logos. This use of media is a lot different from the use of media in the Social Media Campaign because it requires more research and credible sources to prove the point, whereas social media campaigning is more persuasive. The Social Media Campaign called for the use of three different types of social media sites to communicate an issue to different people. It was a lot easier to communicate and advocate a certain issue to an audience through social media because you can persuade people through images, videos, and messages that appeal to pathos. A lot of the images that my group used in the social media campaign showed the pain and sadness animals go through in animal research in experimental labs 114300800100Figure 3. Articles and news about animal cruelty in experimental research. Our Wix site.Figure 3. Articles and news about animal cruelty in experimental research. Our Wix site.0Figure 3. Articles and news about animal cruelty in experimental research. Our Wix site.Figure 3. Articles and news about animal cruelty in experimental research. Our Wix site.so that they will feel an urge to do something about the issue. On our Wix, my groupmates and I combined images and texts, as shown in figure 3, to grab the viewer’s attention to read more about the information and news we found through our research. Using social media to advocate was fun because it allowed me to create and communicate against animal cruelty in a way that needed creativity and rich engagement. My full focus and interest had to be on this issue in order for me to find credible information to strongly communicate against the issue. The last project needed all the elements from the historical review to the social media campaign to advocate and persuade a scholarly audience that there is a problem and a solution for a specific issue. Intertwining the HCP with elements from the social media campaign to create my Advocacy Project (AP) was a little difficult for me because I did not completely understand that the whole essay was an advocacy. I thought that the beginning was more of just the historical review, which was most of my HCP, and I thought the ending was to persuade the reader to make a change. It was not until I got feedback from my professor that I realized this was all wrong. Figure 4 shows the comment that I received from my Professor, which allowed me to understand that I needed to change most of my HCP information and directly contribute it to my advocacy. Peer reviews have been a helpful tool in the revision process because it allows me to receive feedback from other people, but it also opens my eyes to some of the things other people 228600914400Figure 4. Comment from my Professor. AP Draft Grade.0Figure 4. Comment from my Professor. AP Draft Grade.do wrong or right so that I can apply that to my own writing. When I was reviewing one of my classmate’s essay, I read one of the side comments from the professor about making topic sentences more argumentative. I noticed that she and I faced the same kind of issue in our writing, which made me less troubled knowing that I am not the only one who has difficulty with that objective. The essays, peer reviews, feedbacks, and revision processes “teach me to be persistent. To never give up, but to become more confident throughout the process” (Blog Week 9). Through peer review, I have made progress by being able to adjust my rhetoric in different genres and successfully use a scholarly ethos to communicate throughout my whole essay. An area that I have not yet improved on is my organization and arrangement of evidence, which includes well-organized information that flows and topic sentences that guide the reader. I still struggle with using argumentative topic sentences to guide the reader, but I know that I am progressing with every essay.Taking this 10 week Writing 39C course supplied me enough time to analyze and evaluate my work every week through my blog entries. As I reflect over the previous work, assignments, and essays, I can conclude that I have benefitted greatly from the research exercises, video analyses, peer reviews and feedbacks, and essays that Writing 39C has offered me. This course has changed me from a basic creative writer, to learning how to use research as a tool for advocacy and communication. I learned how to better write topic sentences in a more argumentative way, I learned how to research deeper about a certain topic, I learned how to communicate to different audiences in different mediums, and I learned how important metacognition is throughout any process. Metacognition allows one to look back at the work they have accomplished and experienced and compare it to where they are and where they will be in progression. This course called me to reflect upon a lot of the work I accomplished every week, and it allowed me to realize the changes I made and the changes I needed to make in order to improve myself. As I conclude this course, I compare it to life and how there are many things to look back upon and learn from in order to see who I am, and who I will become as a person. ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download