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August 29, 2005

first day (kinda)

classes start today.

i'm teaching a T/H this term, so mine don't start until tomorrow, but knowing my students were getting into it today, i went ahead & e-mailed both classes to (a) let them all know that they're supposed to be finding the 3rd edition of the book everybody else is using the 4th edition of, just in case they're overachievers & prowling around the bookstore early, & (b) tell my 9:30 class how to navigate their way (knock on wood) to the beautiful classroom hidden deep in a residential labrynth we're supposed to be meeting in. the instructions go something like this:

if your schedules are like mine, they say the course is meeting in WATSON 147. i was over in watson checking the room out last week. it's a great room--but it's 149, not 147. there is no 147.

to get to 149, you have to come in the main doors of watson hall, cross the courtyard, enter the doors on the right side of the room/lounge straight across the courtyard from the entrance (the building is a square w/a square courtyard inside), & then go up a small ramp or flight of stairs. the first door you'll see labeled 149 is always locked; go around to the lounge in the center of the area & enter through the door by the lounge TV. sound confusing? it gets better:

because watson is a dorm, the front door will not open unless your student ID gets you past the ID scanner. mine doesn't work--i had to e-mail ID services to ask for temporary access, and haven't heard back yet, so you might find me standing outside the building waiting to be allowed in. i'm assuming all of your IDs will let you in the building, but (a) make sure you bring them, and (b) if you're a UC student or live off-campus and aren't sure whether your ID grants you access to on-campus dorms, you might want to call ID services to ask about that--or at least plan to be early so you'll have time to wait for someone to open the door!

i don't know if i'd find that daunting or amusing on my first day at a new school (i'm teaching 2 sections of research writing for transfer students this semester, & really looking forward to having classes at least mostly filled with students not already seeped in SU attitude), whether it would sound more like an impending headache or a "welcome to the chaos--and you're not alone!"; i'm hoping they're more of the 2nd. in any case, tomorrow promises to be an adventure of several varieties.

this afternoon's agenda: get to campus for a while, collect copies of syllabi, make sure nothing else has dramatically changed in the last few hours, then come home again & clean/organize this office so i can find surface, relevant materials, etc. this semester--i've been avoiding my office all summer & keep looking around at the piles thinking i'd like to keep doing that for another term, but that's really not responsible thinking. i'm sure it's going to be easier to impose discipline on this madly amorphous exam-process if i have a neat workspace wherein i can find things--and where the last 2 years' clutter isn't in the way of everything i want or need to find!

good luck to everybody out there getting started on a brand-new year!

Posted by ttobryan at 10:40 AM | Comments (1)

August 16, 2005

out of the mouths of

Comments: Here is my last paper! I wanted to say thankyou for a great semester! I was apprehensive at first I had no idea what to expect from an online class, but it was a great experience and I feel like I can write again! So I hope you have a nice rest of the summer! And great fall semester! ~Julia
***
A day doesn’t pass when I don’t wonder, contemplate, or reason about something. To make a decision, I must research the subject at hand. Research outside of the classroom can vary immensely from calling different auto repair shops to get the lowest price on an oil change to contacting doctors and reading medical journals on how to best treat a heart palpitation. As seen, it can be cost worthy and even deadly if a person simply believes anything or doesn’t bother to look into different options. I realize now that the best choices can sometimes lie in places you would never look. When researching any subject, I will now look in many different places, not just those that are comfortable and agree with what I believe. It is through research that we think the things we do and continue to discover new things everyday.
***
While I do realize after taking this course that research may appear to mean, merely, “citing,” and the inclusion of a bibliography, there is also something more impressive about research writing, as I have found. The idea that even research writers can be creative in their end product is wonderful. The process of researching will be the same, regardless of the content that a writer is covering, but the notion that a writer can now include information that they gather from places far beyond the local library is a wonderful door opened. Research writing was once a very boring, close minded task in my mind. I realize that the possibilities are endless to an inquiring mind. I have hope that this field will be further extended and that I, as a writer will now continue to look at each issue with an intellectual mind open. This is just another tool in the belt of an educated individual, and I appreciate the opportunity to have learned here.
***
I never took time to make an annotated bibliography before this course. I have actually never known what one was before this course. In the past when I wrote papers I would find research when I felt necessary and just add it in as I wrote. This, now, seems like a very inefficient way to go about writing a sufficient research paper. When the first annotated bibliography was assigned I understood that you would like to know that we are making some progress by seeing that we have some sources but I could not understand why you needed paragraph descriptions on each source. I went through this assignment thinking of it as more of an assignment that will benefit you and it would me. I found out later I was wrong. When it came time to actually construct the first research paper, I remembered that I had all these sources already lined up in a Word document that I had already sent to you. This not only gave me the location of my research so that I could easily relocate it, but it also reminded me of what each source included and allowed me to choose which one was more applicable during a specific time. From this experience I quickly learned that the annotated bibliography is a crucial step in the research process. It is obvious to follow my thinking pattern by reexamining my first and second annotated bibliographies. An except from the first bibliography is as follows:

“CrowleyClan.com." 28 May 2005 < http://www.crowleyclan.com/>.

Gives the clan history, origin of the Crowley name and Irish history. These can help build my knowledge and develop my paper on the Crowley genealogy.

You can see that this excerpt is extremely brief, giving the impression that I did not understand why this was really going to aid in my research process. When I look back at this CrowleyClan.com I can see that there is much more information than just the origin and history. I know that it could not just “help build my knowledge and develop my paper” but also allow me to realize my background and compare the characteristics to my primary family to those that are listed on the website, creating an interesting comparison.
An example from my second annotated bibliography shows that I now understand how important the annotated bibliography is.

Johnson, Bridget. “’Tard and Feathered: How Did ‘Let’s Get Retarded’ Turn Into ‘Let’s Get It Started’?” Editorial. The Wall Street Journal Online 7 Oct 2004. 19 June 2005 .

Johnson talks about the popular song by the Black Eyed Peas and how the word retarded was changed to “started” and how she contacted the ARC inquiring about their actions on this word. She goes onto more depth and speaks about being politically correct. The purpose is to raise a point as to what is too far, unacceptable and how can we replace a word and make it acceptable.

As you can see, I put more time in effort into this second annotated bibliography mostly because I understood the importance and how it can really help in planning a successful research paper. Having put more time into this bibliography I was able to save time by truly understanding what each citation included. From the beginning of the semester until this point, I can fully appreciate the need for this step that I never included in my research until this course.
Seeing that I am an accounting major I find no real need to use research in this specific concentration, but I plan on one day beginning my own business, a summer day camp. In addition to taking WRT 205 over the summer, I also was enrolled in EEE 457, an entrepreneurship course taught at Syracuse University. The course is created to teach students how to write a business plan, which requires a large amount of research. I was lucky enough to be able to apply what I learned in this writing course to EEE 457 and I will again apply this skill when I write a business plan for my day camp. During my senior year I will most likely use this skill in any paper or report I have to. This skill aids in a well-planned, clear and concise paper or report.
I have learned more than I had anticipated while enrolled in this course. I assumed that since I already passed WRT 307 that this course would not be any more challenging, but I was wrong. I learned more in this research course that I have in WRT 105 and 307 combined. The hard work I put into this course created skills that will stay with me and help me form stronger papers. I could have only hoped that I took this course sophomore year so that I could have applied my knowledge in the next two years at Syracuse.


***

Comments: This IS difficult to research... but its fun! that's the point of this one, right? It's pretty cool. :o)

***

I have the tendency to think my research stands alone and doesn’t need clarification. I may say why do I need to explain it if someone else already has? Instead I would just weave citations in my paper as it seemed them should be their own entity and that it didn’t matter what they were but that they made sense and that they were there. I realize that citations shouldn’t be speaking for me, but instead with me. It was a habit that has stuck. This assignment made me see the citations separate from the paper for the first time. As soon as I finished each part of the assignment, I could almost hear myself saying “OH!” (as in “I get it!”) as I was forced to show for the first time my citations on their own. It was so clear to me that I wonder why it never dawned on me before yet obviously as you become accustomed to things you stop questioning them somewhat. It’s almost sad to know that I could have been quoting a plumber while writing about the intricacies of medicine. It just clicked! I HAVE to introduce them, although I have done the research, no one knows where it comes from. There needs to be some authority in citations as you transfer them from the source to your paper otherwise they can be seen as weak, and, rightfully so. This directly ties into the idea of thinking that my research can also stand alone sometimes. It’s not that I’m lazy or don’t feel like writing it out, but I just have the tendency to not want to explain my citations because I fear saying the exact same thing. I think that it makes me feel like I will be “dumb-ing” down the reader and presenting them research to children who prefer repetition opposed to variety, and that can be insulting. It seems like both introducing a citation and explaining it are both important yet obvious ideas. I clearly saw this only when I separated my citations from the rest of the paper and said, “so why does this have meaning?” I hadn’t ever done that before. I think that in my upcoming writing I may do that before I even being to include the research in my paper. Additionally, putting the research into conversation is like the spark that lights the fire—everything suddenly fits and is heading in the right direction. Instead of having to make up for not having a spark, it makes so much more sense just to create one from what you have. I feel like as a result my research will be much stronger, more precise, and more sophisticated.

***

After I recoiled from the total failure of my Loser paper, I made prominent changes to my style and applied them with my third paper (Stem Cells). I kept a detailed procedure in my mind, kept my paper organized and clear, and tried my best to stick to my thesis. I really liked the technique of introducing sources. Looking back I can’t believe I have never done that before my third paper! It’s simple, adds a personal touch to the paper while making your data stronger and it just makes your paper more professional over all. I feel like everything I learned in this class seeped into my head throughout the course, but (unfortunately) I didn’t bring it all together until the third paper.
I now see the paper as an analytical problem – I have to propose this information in this way to make my point. The third paper is the first time I did this ‘engineering perspective towards writing’ and I think it resulted in a very successful paper. This course opened this new outlet for my style and I know it’ll be invaluable in my field. I know I can get into a PhD program but I’d like to do an MD simultaneously; with this background I could do vital research on human disease. When I’m in the field doing research, I’ll have to write grants that are poignant and display the work we are doing so our labs can get funded. With the way I wrote before - I would never be able to accomplish this. Furthermore I’ll be writing papers on my results – I’ll have to be able to explain the data in a concise manner that makes sense to other people, I couldn’t have done that before taking this course.

***

Upon finishing research, many drafts and revisions, I really began to understand how to incorporate quotations into my writing style by introducing speakers and their ideas. This attribute of writing really explains sources so as to show why the readers should believe the author of the quotes used. By introducing the authors of the quotes used, it allows me to focus the reader’s attention to what it is I am trying to prove. Not only does it give the writer credibility and trust, but incorporating this information helps to maintain the flow of the research paper.
I saw an enormous change in my writing skills while composing, and after submitting my final paper about animation.

***

I realize that by breaking up a quote and stating how/why it relates to your claim, is imperative to keep the flow. Otherwise you just have long quotes that lead into tangents and leave your reader to fend for themselves as to what the author is trying to say. Hopefully after taking this course I will keep up these new and sharpened skills and continue to reference The Craft of Research. I know now the significance of keeping the readers attention, the small things the author does can really make a difference to the reader. I feel like I learned a secret that will give me power or at least my words in the future, when I’m writing.

***

Before I began this course, every paper I had previously written was perfectly planned out. I always created outlines with detailed descriptions of what I wanted my paper to say. For project 3, we were given complete creativity and control over our topic. For someone who plans everything to the last detail, this was a daunting task. After much brainstorming with friends and family, I finally decided on the topic of beauty. However, while I knew that I wanted to cover the changing nature of beauty, the topic was so broad I just could not get a handle on it. I tried making one of my infamous outlines, yet I couldn’t quite fit in or figure out exactly everything I wanted to include.
With the help of The Craft of Research, I narrowed down my topic to supporting the claim that concepts of beauty change according to the time and place it is being explored. I went to the library and researched the topic extensively, focusing on feminine beauty and beauty found in artwork. I found research that supported my claim that beauty changes with time, and that beauty also changes with respect to location and culture.
After the first two drafts of my paper, I thought I had the topic nailed to a concrete set up with all the supporting details I had been looking for. However, I was thrown a curve-ball. I ended up finding an article on how beauty is considered extremely dangerous in the nation of Islam. I was absolutely fascinated with this point and wanted to incorporate it within my paper. After much editing, I ended up scratching the whole section about Jackson Pollock, finding it to be too off topic, and added in the section on women in the nation of Islam. I absolutely love this section of my paper. Instead of scratching this fascinating article in the name of preplanned essay writing, I instead threw caution to the wind and took a chance on this new piece of research. My paper now flows much better without the Jackson Pollock section, and adding how displaying beauty is not necessarily seen as a desirable trait all over the world backed up my thesis about the fickle nature of this concept.

***

My experiences with Writing Studio One and Writing Studio Two at Syracuse University were, in a phrase, polar opposites. Where, one class challenged me, the other did not really test my mental acuity. Where, one class piqued my interest in a myriad of different subjects, the other was full with busywork. There is no question as to which I had a more enjoyable experience in. However, there is a great deal of irony in the fact that I have enjoyed Writing Studio as much as I have. My decision to take Writing Studio Two over the summer as an online course was the result of my tumultuous experience taking Writing Studio One my first semester at Syracuse. I feel as if I have learned a great deal in the second level of the Writing Studio classes, and this can be attributed to a lot of different reasons. Firstly, I felt as if every assignment that I was given was an actual, credible assignment (to this day, I am not sure if this is because of my mindset at the time, or because the work was actually important). Secondly, the reading material in the second class was much better than its predecessor’s reading curriculum. Lastly, the techniques and methods that I learned in the second class were much more important than that of Writing Studio One.
The assignments in Writing Studio Two seemed to pertain to what we were learning much more than any other writing classes that I have taken before. Many other writing classes had a lot of superfluous reading assignments and assignments that were just for extra grades. However, in this class, I felt that the assignments actually taught me something. For example, the summary assignments were extremely important to my success in the second unit of this class. At first, I felt they were difficult, but as I started to grasp the concepts behind them, I started to understand the book Nigger a lot more, and this in turn, helped me with the construct of my paper.

***

Now that we’re at the conclusion of this course and all work has been turned in, I can safely say my ideas about critical research have been dramatically affected. Rather than weeding out one small aspect, a skill that I have come to see differently is writing. Sure it’s broad, but it’s true. Writing is definitely a skill that needs to be worked on and can always be improved upon. In the past I thought I was quite good at the skill of writing. I was confident in my grammar and mechanics and just felt that I knew the formula involved to construct a well-written piece. However as I reflect back on my comments and evaluations throughout the duration of this class, there were and are areas of my writing in need of improvement.
After our reflection on a derogative term, it was then when I realized that perhaps I don’t know as much about the skill of writing as I was giving myself credit for. I’ve always been prone to problems with run-on sentences, but my punctuation was never commented on so drastically. I was taken back that I should do exercises to improve my comma use. It was especially eye opening to go through my paper again against the comments that were made. I felt like I was placing commas randomly, in most instances where they made no sense at all. This was also apparent in some of my other earlier works.
As the semester began and I received feedback, I can honestly say it was taken more as sharp criticism than anything else. Sure I read the comments, but simply thought back to my other college level writing courses. Maybe for instance my reflection on book Nigger was just a “bad egg.” However when I finally admitted to myself that I could in fact use some help, it was after reading comments on my paper dealing with the term “bitch.”
Throughout the paper on the term bitch I noticed an overuse of commas. From that paper on, I really tried to focus on the grammatical aspect of writing. As I read books I would pay attention to how the author used commas. Anything I read, I would focus on how words were used and more specifically punctuation. Writing as a skill takes a lot of effort, as I believe I was able to show from my first paper to my last.
Writing is a skill and though today’s society writes less physically, emails are easily sent and instant messaging is the new form of communication. Even though these aspects of writing are generally less formal, there have still been a number of instances in which I had to address a professor through email. I believe it’s these two areas we overlook, because they’re so accessible. Though if you want to be taken seriously or are speaking to someone who is not a close personal friend this is how you are presenting yourself. The reader of the email or letter or memo can’t see your face, they are simply reading something you yourself have written. How that piece is written and perceived by an audience will ultimately be a reflection of you as less of a writer and more a person. In future careers it may be necessary to write interoffice memos or perhaps look over memos for errors. From something as little as an email to a professional working environment, to simply helping a future child with homework, writing is a skill necessary in all facets.

***

The research process is one of, if not the most important, skills a college student must be familiar with. Whatever major classes or even required classes you take you will need to know how to collect data about that subject and figure out what facts are important to use in presenting that subject and which ones are not. This class has taught me many invaluable lessons about the research process as well as research itself. However, I feel the most important and productive skill I have learned from this class is to constantly question everything. Good researchers are good researchers not because they find facts about things and report them but instead because they are intrigued and concerned with addressing a specificquestion(s). It is not just about questioning other people but also about questioning yourself about a certain subject or idea which can make for great research.
During this class we have covered many different subjects and assignments where we first had to obtain information, then analyze the information and then write our own opinions on the subject, the whole time questioning. Out of all these assignments the one that really got me interested and excited was the first assignment about the history and meaning of our own names. During this assignment I discovered information about my family that I had never known before. For example, my father (Peter Leo Varriale) did not find out his real name was Peter until he needed his birth certificate for marriage in his twenties because everyone always called him Leo. It really amazed me that for all these years of knowing my father I had learned something new about him from an English paper. I would have never found out about this if I didn’t interview my father and ask questions.
During the begging of the semester I thought I knew how to write a good paper. However, now after this class constantly picking papers and books apart and exercising these long dormant research skills I realize that I probably wasn’t such a good researcher at all. In the beginning of the semester when asked to read a book and report on it I would read the whole book and tried to remember what it was about then throw some quotes in it and call it a report. However, if I were to receive the same assignment now you would find the book marked up with notes as well as a separate page of notes reminding me of each source’s argument and of course an extremely more informative and intriguing final paper than the previous. This would be because I would be asking and answering questions throughout the whole process.
The skill of constantly questioning everything is one that I feel is extremely important to have in life. Whether you are a doctor, businessperson, lawyer, teacher, or even an artist you must always question yourself as well as the people around you. This class, I feel, will not only help me with things pertaining to the standard grammatical English language but more to stimulate your mind to constantly look at things in life from all its different angles and then from there in turn, you will be smarter and able to make better decisions throughout life.

***

I just want to let you know how much i truly enjoyed your class this semester and that i really learned alot. I know that I may not have been the best student in the begining of the semester, but its been a very hectic summer. Do you teach writing 307? i need to take it this coming year and would very much like to take it with you

here's the prompt the students above were responding to in the longer entries (the few short ones were taken from the comments section of the paper-submission interface):
Part II (informal reflection)

• what have you learned about critical research? look back over the assignments and readings i've given you this semester, and the array of writing you've done in response to those readings and prompts. then choose one productive idea or skill that you've either newly encountered or come to see differently over the course of conducting and writing about your research. in 2-3 pages, write a detailed account of your process:
o what did you read or do that started you thinking or re-thinking?
o where in your writing for this course does evidence of your thinking appear? (include specific examples)
o how is your understanding of this idea or skill different now than it was when the semester began?
o what specific applications can you predict or imagine for this idea or skill, in your life, now that this course is over?
(note: if you don't think you can answer all of these questions about the idea or skill you selected, select a different one!)


this is why i do what i do. as the prompt above shows, i didn't ask them to tell me why i was great or why this class was better than any other class; i didn't ask them to blow sunshine up my ass; i didn't ask them to plead for their final grades. i did tell them i wasn't handing these assignments back--so they weren't even writing in hopes of a "thank you." these are just a handful of college students who signed up for a summer writing course, online, probably hoping that it would be easy & require little of their time. 4 of the 21 i started with dropped the class, either for personal reasons or because they found out that "hoping it would be easy" assumption was wrong. the rest of them buckled down, busted their asses, were incredibly valuable contributors to each others' success, and learned a whole hell of a lot, many, as evinced above, surprising the crap out of themselves in the process, & blowing me away.

they didn't all get As in the class. most of them have Bs & Cs, actually. some of them are going to be pissed about that, & the "it's not fair" e-mails will surely follow. but they learned something. they learned a lot of things. so as i sign off because i have to go dig another trench to duck into to outwait the barrage in a newly-developed departmental battle over whether or not i get to keep implementing the policies that let this happen in the first place (they say not, of course, or there wouldn't be a battle), i do it with more than a little confidence. they might win, because they make the rules, but i'm not resisting out of stubbornness. i'm resisting because i'm actually a pretty damn good teacher, & that's just not something i'm prepared to let go of.

Posted by ttobryan at 08:32 AM | Comments (0)

August 01, 2005

205 ego-spur

Citations Assignment
Submitted by: Mxxxxxx Fxxxx (xxxxxxxxx)
Received on: 2005-07-31 9:13:23 PM
Comments: This assigment was really great! It really made me think of citations and quotes in a more clear way instead of just throwing them in.

i know why i'm doing this, anyway.

Posted by ttobryan at 09:46 AM | Comments (0)