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Maps: Take

Writing is the best way to express our thoughts and ideas, and because we are all so different, our writing also varies greatly from person to person. My understanding of writing has changed a lot these past 10 weeks; for starters, I realized that our writing can change dramatically with active thought and practice. I used to think some people were good writers and some just weren’t, but after a lot of our readings on transfer of knowledge and threshold concepts, I have a new understanding of the extent we can make our writing better - we can essentially practice to communicate as effectively as possible. I’ve also started to understand how to write better from the get-go; I used to jump into an essay or writing piece without much initial thought and preparation. Now, I try to think about the rules of the genre I’m writing in and the intended audience. By being more analytical as I approach my writing, I require less revisions and overall write with more purpose and efficiency. 

My first map is basically just an analysis of the writing process, while my second map deals with transfer of knowledge and the importance of revision. I think my three maps put together would represent my theory of writing now; I better understand the individual pieces involved in the writing process, and also now understand the importance of being introspective and revising one’s work. The maps are a good way of seeing how my understanding of writing has changed throughout time. They show that my vision of how writing should occur has definitely changed for the better, as I try to be more mindful about each piece of writing and their goals/audiences. By thinking about the key characteristics involved in effective communication before writing a piece, I can make sure that my final result is accomplishing everything I would want. My last map is a cube (6 sides) and each of its sides is one of the key aspects that I now try to think about while writing: style, situation, emotion, audience, genre, and language. 

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Maps: Take 2

Before we drew our doodle maps out in class today, me and @carsongreggdu99​ were talking about how the process of writing the #litReview actually helped us understand our sources better and how to use them in our Inquiry-based essay. There is something about the process of explaining something to another person that makes us learn as well; I think having to form actual sentences and express the information to get a point across makes your brain synthesize and interpret the subject matter further. So when Prof. KT said that we were going to spend the second half doodling about anything that sparked thought about what we are (really) learning through our research writing, and what it means for our writing self - I was pretty sure about what I wanted to express with my phrase and doodles. 

I was thinking about the idea me and Carson were talking about and how it actually is very true in my case: when I explain things that I understand, like an argument I’m trying to make in a paper or a sentence structure for Chinese, more often than not I feel like I’ve gained some sort of added understanding (or just remember how to form a sentence better). I think our Perkins and Salomon reading about hugging and bridging(low road and high road learning), especially a part of their conclusion - that the best type of teaching is one that finds a balance between these two types of learning and maximizes transfer - also applies to the actual teacher. If you’re explaining something to someone you are in a way revising the information your brain can access about that topic, so that’s a little like hugging and its base on repetition.

 But I don’t think that the process is only repetition; explaining a complicated topic to someone requires a mindful exertion from our brain in which we quickly decide how to put our stored knowledge into a cohesive explanation. Perkins and Salomon wrote: “[high-road learning] depends on mindful abstraction from the context of learning or application and a deliberate search for connections… it demands time for exploration and the investment of mental effort”, although the topic remains the same, I really think that the process of verbalizing our own understanding does all of those things to some degree, and thats why I feel more comfortable with the initial material. Combining both hugging and bridging, it makes sense that the process of verbalizing our thoughts - or in the Lit Review’s case writing - makes us learn a little. 

The phrase I chose for my drawing is “I understand better when I explain, and I explain better the more I understand.” I came up with it when I was trying to find an example for our discussion, the arrows that surround it was how I thought information works in our heads when we’re trying to put a bunch of thoughts together, and every time we do it the jumble gets a bit neater. Kinda like Doug Downs said in our reading on Threshold Concepts in regards to revision “using language not only represents one’s existing ideas, it tends to generate additional language and ideas.” (66) 

For my writing theory, this is what I posted for the first theory of writing assignment: 

“Writing can generate any feeling and communicate any thought, good writing does so with seeming effortlessness, whilst creating interest and entertainment for the reader. To achieve this, the author has to be invested in the process of generating a line of communication with his reader; soon enough, through his/her own musings, the reader will be invested in - and entertained by - the exchange as well.”

Because its aimed at writing that is meant for entertainment, it doesn’t really apply to transfer of knowledge that occurs while writing a Lit review, but I would add that writing can also help create additional thought and connections for the author as well. I guess thats why we did the #LitReview. My one sentence theory of writing in regards to improvement is: “Writing more can lead to better writing, explaining thoughts with writing can lead to better understanding”

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Reading Response: “Transfer of Learning”

This week’s reading by Perkins and Salomon on the Transfer of Learning helped me understand our last Threshold Concept reading better. Last post was about how we can become entrenched as writers if we stick to the same genre of writing. It was interesting for me that we could become better writers just by writing in different styles, and that is what this reading helped clear up for me. This idea, what Perkins and Salomon better hinted at: “...metacognitive reflection on one’s thinking processes appears to promote transfer of skills.” (6) is huge; if we can learn more by thinking about our learning objectively, different methods of teaching should have different results as far as amount of transfer that occurs. 

At first I was a little confused as to how just thinking about how we learn makes it actually easier for us to incorporate knowledge. Mindfulness is a concept that I first heard of in high school english class, but I didn’t really understand the whole point of it until now: “sometimes transfer is stimulus driven, occurring more or less automatically as a function of much and diverse practice.” (7) According to Perkins and Salomon, there are two different types of transfer connections: high road and low road. Essentially, low road are the connections we make from doing processes that are similar to each other; these connections are created more when we learn by hugging - close and repetitive action that prepares us for a similar task. Like practice math problems and a baseball or golf swing. High road connections are different, they: “depend on mindful abstraction from the context of learning or application and a deliberate search for connections... it demands time for exploration and the investment of mental effort.”(7) which means that “people more inclined to mindfulness or metacognition are by definition more likely to  make them”(8). So the more we think about these connections and try to consciously make them, we learn better. 

According to P and S, Hugging isn’t the best way to foster high road connections; but a different method of teaching called bridging; “...bridging exploits the high road to transfer. In bridging, the instructor encourages the making of abstractions, searches for possible connections, mindfulness, and metacognition.” (9) Unlike the concrete nature of hugging in which I would just practice a similar task over and over again in order to prepare for a test, bridging attempts to find strategies from any past experiences or learning and further them towards the current situation. This doesn’t mean that either of the both is better, different situations require different learning strategies. The best type of teaching is one that finds a balance between these two types of learning and maximizes transfer.

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Reading Response: Threshold Concepts 2

“Writing in different genres is necessary for a writers correct development.”

During both of our threshold concept readings, the idea that different genres produce different writers stuck with me. It makes sense as well, genres usually carry with them a particular mood: a mystery novel is typically filled with suspense and/or surprise, while a romance novel carries warm language and a conflict/plot very different from that of a thriller or adventure story. As someone who has never written any stories in these genres, it is interesting to think that I am not the same type of writer in these fields than I am in analytical or comparative writing. My secondary school education has only really equipped me for a very specific type of writing, which is a real shame in my opinion. This threshold concept is then really important to understand as a writer because it implies that as a writer one should always try to expand on our knowledge of writing, if this knowledge is genre-specific - someone who wants to become a better writer should rotate the genre they choose to write in. A thought expressed by Dylan Dyer in our second reading really captures this idea: “...writers constrained to “repeated practice of the same genres” may, as explained in 5.3, become “entrenched” in particular approaches or conventions.” If we work on the same genre all the time, we risk falling victim to repetitive writing. Because, as students, we have been taught to produce writing that satisfies the standard SAT test, we aren’t really equipped to use strategies that work in different genres. Which can lead to some trouble: “Placed in a new situation where the audience, purpose, genre, and other aspects of writing may be very different from those required in five paragraph themes, such writers may resort to their habituated practice and fail to meet the expectations of their new rhetorical community.” (Anson, 2008) So, it is important to remember to push our borders and try out new genres in our writing!

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Week 5: Research Journal

After working on the practice run project with Josh and Erin, I realized that, although my secondary research is going to be important in exploring my topic , primary research is going to be the most effective method for me to understand how different generations think about tattoos. For my observation section, I’ve decided to go to a tattoo parlor during a Saturday and take note on the demographics of people that enter to get tattoos made. Unfortunately, the Tattoo Convention in Denver takes place in September so that isn’t an option. Another option for me during my observation section is to walk around Denver and look for visible tattoos, also recording the demographics of the people that have them. I think it would also be interesting to record what the tattoos actually are, if they are artistic pieces or serve another purpose. For the interview section of my primary research, I think having an interview with a tattoo artist who has been in the field for some time. It would be interesting to see the perspective of someone who is surrounded by tattoos the whole day; someone who has been in the industry for some time could also shed some light on how tattoos are changing: the amount and type of people that get them, as well as the types of tattoos that have been popular over the years. I still haven’t decided who’m to interview yet, but have talked to a couple of artists nearby campus and none of them have been against an interview. (Who knows maybe I’ll get a tattoo in the process) After our practice run, I’ve also realized how important surveys can be to collect useful information. Because my project is based on opinions, a good survey will really help me be able to further my understanding on what people think about tattoos. I will ask several questions to understand the demographic of the people that are filling out my surveys; the opinions of my 75 year old Argentine grandmother and that of a 19 year old college student from Colorado are very different and that should be reflected in my research. 

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Practice Run with Primary Research

Methods:

We had three different methods of primary research: an interview, survey, and an observation. Our observations were broken up into two sections: The lacrosse tailgate from 11:30 am to 12 p.m and a fraternity Chapter meeting from 6:00 pm to 6:30 pm. The survey was conducted on surveymonkey.com with 5 questions concerning the social perspective of fraternities from fellow DU students. 15 responses were obtained for this survey. The last primary source conducted was an interview, in which 5 questions were asked and answered by a member of a fraternity expelled from DU’s campus.

Survey Results:

Question to answer: “What is the impact of greek life on DU’s social life on campus?”

We created the survey on SurveyMonkey to expedite the process of getting answers as well as how quickly we can analyze the data we get from them. Our survey consisted of 5 questions: 4 multiple choices and 1 comment box answer. Our questions were:

Are you affiliated with Greek Life at DU?

If you're involved in Greek life, do you have friends that aren't involved in it? If you're not involved, do you have friends that are part of Greek life?

Would you say that Greek Life has an overall positive or negative impact on your life at DU?

Do you think Greek life incentivizes alcohol and/or drug consumption on campus?

What do you think of when you picture Greek life at DU?

For question 1, 9 people said yes and 6 said no, a 60/40 split.

For question 2, only one person in Greek life had no friends outside the greek sphere, and only one person not involved with Greek life has no friends that were.

For question 3, the responses to the question were that 73% of the participants, being 11 people, believed that Greek Life has had an overall positive impact on their lives at DU.  2 people said that Greek Life either had a negative impact on their life or no impact at all.

For question 4, responses were split evenly, with 5 saying yes, 5 saying no, and 5 stating they were unsure. This was surprising to us, thoughts on fraternity drinking seem to be more conflicting that we initially believed!

For question 5, we had differing answers, but 11 out of 15 people mentioned friendships as the main thing they think about when they thought about fraternity and sorority life. Across the board, the biggest impact Greek  life seems to have on campus is in regards to friendships and new acquaintances.

Observation:

At the lacrosse tailgate on Saturday, our team observed from the grassy hill located across from where fraternities set up their tailgate trucks. At this angle, we were not directly in the tailgate but close enough where we could both see and hear what was occurring. Out of the 7 trucks at the tailgate, all of them had multiple people sitting and standing on the bed of the truck. Without going up close to the vehicles, we could blatantly see 5 kegs inside the trucks and all the trucks had what seemed like endless blue solo cups. Music was super loud, and everyone seemed to be having a really fun time. We were able to spot known athletes and friends that we knew weren’t involved in Greek life, but they seemed to be having a great time with the fraternity crowd.

At the fraternity meeting, there were speeches by both of the vice president/president couples running for student body president. The first couple went into extreme detail of how they were going to change rules regarding greek life and how the university would be different if we were to vote for them. A lot of the information that they said was strictly regarding greek life, creating interest for the participants in the room. The second pair that spoke did not have any details regarding how they would affect the University of Denver but did mention that they were both in greek life. They then went on to mention that the other candidates were not as qualified on the issues they were trying to tackle and how they would be better.

Interview:

Unfortunately, Lauren Utley did not respond to our interview request; so we had to turn the tables a bit. With Lauren’s help, we would’ve been able to understand the perspective of someone who is in charge of the safety and wellbeing of Greek life members on campus. Because of recent fraternity dismissals, we were thinking that her professional opinion might provide some contrast to what students - especially those who are involved in Greek life - had to say. Instead, we started at the bottom of the pyramid, and interviewed a non-greek student, who has friends that are active in the Greek community. We thought his opinion might be valuable in our research because of his inside-but-out nature in regards to Fraternities and Sororities.

These are the questions we asked him:

What do you think the objective of fraternities are?

What do you think are the positive impacts of greek life on campus?

What are the negative aspects of greek life on campus?

What do you believe have been the positive impacts of having less fraternities on campus?

Do you believe that making Greek life smaller on campus has an overall positive or negative effect on the amount of applications that DU receives?

For the first question, our interviewee believed that the objective of fraternities is to develop a network of people that know each other well and can help each other over their four year in college. The ultimate objective is for the fraternity to form groups of friends and partners that should last a lifetime. As far as negative and positive effects, he thought that Greek life has both of them; they create lots of friendships and social events for people, but they have also been known to foster drinking and drugs. On campus, he thinks that fraternities aren’t an overall negative force, but positive - and that the removal of fraternities has no benefits for DU. Not only did he believe that making Greek life smaller here has a negative impact on the amount of people that want to apply here, he also thinks that smaller Greek life is negative for the people that are already members of the DU community.

Conclusion

With our survey results and interview question answers, it seems as though Greek life has a better impact on people on campus that we initially thought. Although drinking and drugs are still attached to sorority and fraternity life, the biggest impact Greek society has on the people we worked with is the friendships and network building it allows, for many incoming freshmen, rushing Greek organizations is a great option to meet new people and create new connections.

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Practice Run for Primary Research

We will be creating a survey to ask the students at the University of Denver how they feel about greek life on campus, as well as a variety of questions to determine both its popularity and its effects.

*What is the impact of greek life on DU’s social life on campus?*

Observations: (What we are planning on observing/finding)

For the first 30 minutes of our observation time, we’ve decided to carry out our primary research in the Lacrosse game tailgate that will take place on Saturday, April 22nd. Because fraternities tend to rent out parking spots, it would be interesting to see how many people at the tailgate aren’t involved with greek life; and how much involvement greek life members and non greek life members have within each other.

For the second 30 minutes, we’ve decided to observe this dynamic at two different sorority events: Alpha Phi’s and Delta Gamma’s formals on April 21st. There, we would also observe how many people at the event aren’t involved with Greek life, to shed some light on involvement between greek sorority members and non greek life males.

Survey: (Questions we will ask)

Making sure to create locations without biases is a very important part of the survey portion. By having a lot of the sorority/ fraternity houses being close together, we are either not asking greek life participants at all or an equal amount between participants and nonparticipants, to create a fair assessment.

While asking the questions, there cannot be any guidance or leeway, pressuring individuals to say what is not true. While keeping all of the above in mind, we also have to be active and reach out in order for this assessment to be valid. This would start with locations, being where we are asking students these questions. We will plan on setting up 3 locations throughout campus (Ex: middle of campus, end of campus, off campus) to get a fair survey.

Interview:

For the interview part of our primary research, we’ve decided to conduct an interview with Lauren Utley; the assistant director of student engagement. She was the staff member in charge of both Kappa Sigma and Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s investigations that ultimately led to the withdrawal of both fraternities chapters on campus. We believe she would have an interesting and somewhat contrasting (in comparison to student) perspective in regards to the impact that greek life has on social life on campus. The questions we would like to ask her are:

1. What do you think the objective of fraternities are?

2. What do you think are the positive impacts of greek life on campus?

3. What are the negative aspects of greek life on campus?

4. What do you believe have been the positive impacts of having less fraternities on campus?

5. Do you believe that making Greek life smaller on campus has an overall positive or negative effect on the amount of applications that DU receives?

6. What is the culture difference between fraternities and sororities that has resulted in several fraternities being dismissed, but no sororities?

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9: Research Journal 2/4

Although I discussed my newfound consciousness regarding the importance - and benefits - of secondary sources in my previous Research Journal, I didn’t address the concrete impact these sources have already had on the strategy I’ll utilize when putting my project together; and the repercussions this change in my plan of action will very likely have in regards to the final product I manage to attain. 

My first reaction after our library session in the Herald Classroom was one of happy surprise; I realized that the amount of scholarly writing on tattoos and their evolving social implications was extensive to say the least. In about fifteen minutes I had pinpointed eight peer-reviewed sources that were all directly relevant to my topic in varying degrees of usefulness. Although they are all probably helpful, in some extent, towards my search for arguments and their germane evidence pertaining tattoos; trying to create an argument and then blindly searching through hundreds of densely packed academic pages in pursuit of corroboration is both highly inefficient and extremely demoralizing. After going through my secondary sources, I realized that most of the questions I wanted to research - the questions that I as a reader would be interested in reading about - have already been asked about and scrutinized. It isn’t to say that the truth behind these issues has been revealed and ascertained; besides the fact that all of these questions are impossible to answer with complete certainty, both secondary sources I looked into had claims that were backed up solely by the presence of a source. 

For example, this an excerpt from Annie Singer’s “Tattoos in the Workplace: The Research Forbes Was Too Lazy To Do” Posted on The Huffington Post in 2016.

“There were also findings that tattoos still may be limiting in the workplace. Researchers also revealed that:

Visible tattoos had a predominantly negative effect on employment selection, driven by the hiring manager’s perception of customer expectations (source)”

As you can see, there isn’t any explanation that the author provides behind her assertion, just a source hyperlink where one can access the primary research someone else conducted that led Singer towards that conclusion. My intention behind secondary sources is to use them as starting points for my own exploration. Instead of asking a question and hoping to find data in the maze of scholarly sources available to us, I plan on expanding on and better explaining the conclusions that these articles have already put forth. By initially using the sources given to me by these previous authors, and only then utilizing additional primary documents and my own survey/interview findings to fill the holes in logic that are still left to be explained. I am by no means suggesting that I will exclusively answer the questions that have already been researched; my intention is to create a roadmap using secondary material that will make it easier for me to then build and expand upon. Of course, the possibility that I’m lead by curiosity towards other questions that are either too specific or broad for feasible research to be conducted still remains. If that’s the case, and a question of major significance exists that lacks evidence necessary to support explanation, I will include it in my project under questions left to account for in the future. 

In general, my goal with secondary sources is to make them guides in my selection of issues and collection of data regarding tattoos. By narrowing down the amount of primary information I make use of to that which is exclusively pertinent to a set of already-researched questions, I reduce the likelihood of losing both valuable time with dead-end sources, and crucial emphasis on primary documents that are effective in propelling my foundational thoughts towards well supported explanations. I’m confident that by using secondary sources in this manner, I will not only better utilize research hours while concurrently gaining a clearer sense of direction; but will also manage to focus my energy on a more pragmatic set of attainable objectives. Let’s see how it works out! 

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8: The Writing Road Map

I like to think the process of writing an essay is very alike the system behind creating a good painting. 

You begin with yourself, the experience you possess, and the technique you’ve acquired over hours of practice. To start the journey through completing a piece, an idea that interests you and has the potential to be attractive for eventual observers is necessary. When that occurs, you mentally picture the best way you could capture and express that image. With this hypothetical piece visualized in your mind - much like writing a rough draft or a research proposal - you begin to transfer thought to paper by loosely sketching out your composition on a loose piece of paper. Similarly to analyzing the components of a paper like quotations and one’s arguments, you think about the individual elements that could be present in your masterpiece and how these affect the overall quality of your work. 

With a studio (or brain) full of possible options, you consider which color schemes and mediums best lend to the general mood and sensations you are trying to convey towards your final audience. Once pleased with the individual elements of your piece and their collaborative role in the compositions’ overall feeling (both metaphors for the authors voice and his/her final audience) you begin working on the final edition.  

You begin by working on the background and first layering; blotting in color and achieving adequate spacing between the primary components of your painting. Like any writing process, tiny changes and corrections when completing a final piece are largely unavoidable and occur naturally. Once satisfied with lighting, color scheme, and positioning; you start to focus on - equally important - delicate nuances that still substantially affect how one perceives the final work; tiny highlights and subtle lighting contrasts that can ultimately make or break a piece. When these final adjustments are in and a piece is set to dry, you take one final look and decide if your final product is what you imagined in the first place; if the message you were trying to convey has been effectively captured for your audience and if the painting carries the personal hallmarks that differentiate your piece from that painted by others. 

Although the end product is very different, the general process one takes behind creating a work of art and a piece of writing are more similar than not!

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Week 3: Research Journal - Secondary Sources

At the Herald Classroom earlier this week, just twenty minutes of looking through scholarly material on tattoos has left me with more useful and relevant primary-source information that I thought I would encounter in the entirety of my research time for this project. Surprisingly enough, the interwebs aren’t riddled with as many secondary sources on this topic that I initially thought; but after a little bit of digging I came across two sources that especially interested me. Very different from one another, both pieces helped me understand a multitude of interesting questions that my project has the potential to explore; as well as presenting me with easily accessible (and very relevant) primary sources that will undoubtably help me out when supporting the claims I’ll make in my project. 

The first article I was looking into was posted in by December of 2015 by Theo Priestley, a contributor for Forbes.com.  Theo, whom starts his piece with the title “Industry Perceptions are Changing” bases most of his claims with information provided by a in-depth survey conducted by Salary.com and several other simple poll surveys. The first paragraph of his article reads: “In a survey by Salary.com, they found that the older you are the less tolerant you become regarding tattoos.” This correlation between generations and tolerance constitutes the crux of my exploration into societies’ changing perception on tattoos.  His piece is a little different from mine in nature because he doesn’t really explore the reasons behind this change in popular acceptance; except for the impact technology, with improved equipment and television time, has had on improving tattoo quality and fueling social change towards the visualization of tattoos as genuine art work and personal expression; opposing the historical perception of tattoos as emblems of clandestine involvement or the trademark of social outcasts. Although the detail and level of investigation behind our writings don’t align perfectly, Priestley’s article is an awesome place for me to picture how my project might turn out looking like. Aside from that, Theo provided me with a bunch of new and useful primary sources that lend to my research perfectly. Super pumped about this find!

The second article I put some time into was posted by Annie Singer on February, 2016 in the Huffington Post Blog section. The article, titled “Tattoos in the Workplace: The Research Forbes Was Too Lazy To Do” criticizes an article posted on Forbes in 2011 by Larissa Faw - an article that has since been removed; and possibly replaced by the article I discussed above. After condemning Forbes and Faw for the laziness behind her sources and research, as well as the inadequate amount of investigation supporting the brazen claims she made; Singer actually brings forth a list of super daring claims - but with sources to back them up! Claims like:

86% of young professionals did not think piercings and tattoos reduce the chance of getting jobs 

Grooming and business attire were more important indicators in the hiring decision than tattoos and piercings 

These are two of the claims that I thought were most applicable and interesting. The whole article, although short in comparison to the first one, is a gold mine of primary sourced information that should help a lot in my research - especially because she points out the theses! That should reduce total amount of reading time exponentially. The article was also cool to read because it displays how high standards are in the world of journalism. Even with the Forbes.com editor credential that Larissa Faw held, her article was not exempt from the evaluation and commentary that came from a Forbes blog columnist; so much so that Larissa’s article was even taken down!

After going through the first two of my secondary sources in detail; I’ve realized that although not as academically recognized, secondary sources can still be of great help when trying to understand what the general social consensus on one’s topic is. In addition, by reading and carefully scrutinizing other’s articles on the same core subject matter; secondary sources become a fantastic roadmap that allows one to comfortably visualize a hypothetical final product, and an invaluable tool when trying to find relevant primary sources: all of which are super important when attempting to create a cohesive and pertinent research project!

PS: This is a quote from the second article, in which Annie Singer absolutely wrecks Forbes and editor Larissa Faw for her lethargic effort in gathering effective sources for her article on tattoos:

“For a topic that affects millions of people, top news sources are pumping out article after article on the same pathetically thin research sources that they’ve been using for years.” 

Pretty brutal stuff!

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7: Theory of Writing

Defining the most important terms in writing is pretty hard. After a lot of thought, I have managed to decide which terms - at least when I approach writing - carry the biggest significance. These are purpose, voice, and context. When thinking about what is necessary in writing, one has to think about why one is writing in the first place. Whatever that reason is, that is the purpose of beginning to write in the first place. No matter what is being written, an initial purpose is necessary; I believe that achieving this purpose whilst captivating your audience in the process is the goal of all writing. Voice has a huge impact on the way readers approach text. The reason I didn’t list audience as a term is because audience really doesn’t have a direct impact on writing; knowing one’s audience is important; but adjusting voice accordingly is ultimately imporanter. 

My third and final term is context. To understand audience and adjust voice and purpose, context is necessary. I like to think of context as the set of circumstances that surround and/or cause the initial purpose in our writing. Context is the mutual understanding between the writer and reader of a piece; it is not only the information that gives effective transfer of knowledge possible but also the foundation that gives the purpose significance. I think that if a writer understands the purpose of his piece, and can manage to utilize context (including audience) to modify his/her voice accordingly; great and effective writing is sure to be produced. 

My writer identity is the product of most of my English knowledge being absorbed from fictional adventure books as a middle-schooler. When I first moved to the U.S, my parents had the absolutely genius idea of barring me from most technology.  Having lived in downtown Buenos Aires for most of my life - I wasn’t an avid outdoor person. In fact, if I wasn’t in school or playing soccer with friends, I was playing video games or watching TV. Being new to the one-mile stretch that is Historic Deerfield, I didn’t have many friends to play soccer with; the neighborhood kids played lacrosse and hockey - two sports I didn’t even know existed until I moved there. So, being unable to talk to my friends from home with a cellphone (only weekends) or watch TV and play video games, most of my free time the first couple of years in Mass were spent reading adventure books. A little homesick and afraid of the future years to come in the challenging boarding school that is Deerfield, I turned to the life of fictional characters as a temporary escape from my own. My parents initially pushed me in that direction by offering $5 per book read - I made almost $500 during my 8th grade year; around a book read every 3 days. Since then, fiction has always been what I have preferred reading, and therefore writing. As someone very familiar with the comfort and excitement that one’s empathy towards a fictional character can provide, the power of fictional writing seems greatest to me. 

how is this years writing different from the writing you’ve done in the past?

This years writing style is super difficult for me. In high-school, most of my writing was either analytical or creative. I have never been asked to express my thoughts and/or arguments in a casual, almost nonchalant manner before and it is a lot harder than I initially thought it would be! Years of SAT-prep writing scholarly analysis have left me with the tendency to over-use elaborate or academic words. This is a very welcome change! Funny thing is that all throughout high-school, teachers emphasized the importance of smart-sounding discourse under the pretense that it was expected in college level courses. Hear that Dr. Brozovich?! I’m using Tumblr banter and 140-character Twitter posts almost exclusively now, if only we had kept a notebook for personal musings I would be whole lot better at not sounding like an 19th century pedagogue when trying to get my thoughts across!

Here goes my personal theory of writing:

Writing can generate any feeling and communicate any thought, good writing does so with seeming effortlessness, whilst creating interest and entertainment for the reader. To achieve this, the author has to be invested in the process of generating a line of communication with his reader; soon enough, through his/her own musings, the reader will be invested in - and entertained by - the exchange as well. 

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6: Threshold Concepts - I’m not that bad after all!

The threshold concept that appealed the most to me was best expressed in Doug Downs “Revision is Central to Developing Writing”. Like the title suggests, this threshold concept expresses the role and importance of revision in the development of writing skills. I come from a Spanish-heavy background, and didn’t get the chance to really develop my writing skills before moving to Mass in 2011 for freshmen year; so I am very familiar with the struggle of transitioning from mostly verbal conversations in English to the conventional writing syllabus in American high-school education, consisting of a lot of creative and analytical writing pieces. When making this transition, I found that analyzing my - and others - pieces was particularly helpful in developing the extent of my English understanding, and also key in improving my capacity to cohesively convey meaning when trying to analyze content or justify arguments. What really resonated with me in Down’s piece was his claim that “using language not only represents one’s existing ideas, it tends to generate additional language and ideas.” (66) I have found time and time again that the most significant changes that spring from revision aren’t usually grammatical or structural, but ones pertaining to the argument that I’m trying to get across. Self-criticism when objectively reading one’s own work tends to lead to a shift in perspective that -more often than not - results in changes and alterations of larger importance. Another aspect of Down’s writing that stuck with me is the incorrect view most students (including myself) take in regards to revision. At first, it seems counter-intuitive that revision is something all writing calls for. One would think that if a paper requires more revision, it is generally of worse quality than another which requires less. In fact, they have no correlation what so ever. Doug puts it better than I could: “...revising, or the need to revise, is not an indicator of poor writing or weak writing but much the opposite - a sign and a function of skilled, mature, professional writing and craft.” (67) Understanding that, when writing a paper, revision is as important - if not more - than the initial composing is crucial to the development of our writing ability! 

The second piece that I enjoyed seems a little obvious. “Writing Involves the Negotiation of Language Differences” by Paul Kei Matsuda is easily understood by someone who grew up juggling several languages. First and foremost, the amount of times I was laughed at (in a friendly way of course) by teachers or classmates for directly translating Spanish sayings or idioms would exceed most estimates. The way we think is greatly affected by the language we speak, after all, we think in the language we are most comfortable with. The concept of negotiating language differences is of great importance to me because I (generally) think in a different language than most people I converse with; and therefore fundamentally structure thoughts differently. The idea that “we are all participating in the process of negotiating language differences.” (69) is super cool because it means that my way of speaking and writing has an impact on others that no native English speaker could imitate. Although entirely subconscious, this impact on others makes me feel as though my lack of english experience during high-school, and even now, is more of a benefit than a set-back - reading Matsuda’s paper made me realize the importance of understanding how much language impacts the way we put thoughts together is key “in facilitating the development of communicative competence among writers who come from non-dominant language backgrounds.” (69) If we approach language differences as a asset rather than a obstacle towards communication, we can learn things that are otherwise unreachable amongst speakers of the same language. 

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Log 5: Adam Smith loves Survivor (especially season 6)

It is super lucky that I have done both Log 4 and 5 back to back, because they feel tied very closely together - almost in natural succession one after the other. While the Vatz reading explored the sources of meaning and the role we play when conveying or assimilating information, this reading by Henry Jenkins delves into the impacts that sharing of knowledge can - and will - have on our society in the future. 

I have declared my major as International Business, so I’m required to take all of the intro Economics courses. Also very fortunate for me - surprisingly, the workings and effects of a knowledge community and the reasoning behind Adam Smith’s pre-Industrialist writings aren’t too distant from each other. I am going to focus mostly on the first pages of Jenkins’ reading because the relationship between Survivor watchers and the show isn’t as interesting to me as what it reflects about our human nature, and where it might lead us in the time to come. 

Pierre Lévy’s (a French Philosopher, pretty awesome dude!) initial thoughts really resonated with me: “people harness their individual expertise towards shared goals and objectives”, and “collective intelligence refers to this ability of virtual communities to leverage the combined expertise of their members. What we cannot know or do on our own, we may now be able to do collectively.” This notion about collective intelligence is fascinating to me because it encapsulates how the human collective has exponentially advanced every field of study in such a relatively short period of time. The progress we have recently accomplished as a species - especially in the past 100 years - exceeds that of all the previous thousands; primarily because of methodical scientific and exploration made possible by accrued collective knowledge and cross-field collaboration. This decade’s access to knowledge is beyond comparison; access to the vastness of combined human understanding has never been as high as it is today, when approximately 90% of all data available to us has been created in the past two years. This seemingly limitless collection of resources is an invaluable tool that no other generation of intellectuals in history has had access to, and will only keep expanding - alongside our species - in the coming years. If access to information and human progress truly do run analogous, what is to say about the future of human discovery in the remainder of the 21st century?

The presence of public discussion threads and internet-wide user input also introduces the prospect for a reconstruction of our age-old social relationships. With high-definition communication available worldwide at a moment’s notice -geographically based relationships don’t carry with them the same importance they have had in the past. Teaching-to and learning-from anyone on the globe is now a ceaseless possibility for anybody with a router and time - what impacts will that have on what we consider to be an expert? How can we possibly discern what is truth and isn’t, especially in a time where fake news and alternative facts run unobstructed? Jenkins also mentions the creation of “brain trusts” in the later stages of the Survivor spoiler community. These exclusive information clubs present a frighteningly-plausible direction the entire human knowledge collective could take in a near future. Like the wealth gap created during and after the economic boom of the Industrial Revolution, what would happen if newly discovered knowledge was protected and monetized for personal or political gain, instead of shared with the masses for everyone’s collective advancement? 

“It is at moments of crisis, conflict, and controversy that communities are forced to articulate the principles that guide them.” - Henry Jenkins

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Log 4: Does a tree?

*Because the Vatz reading seems to be a little heavy on the SAT-worthy vocabulary, I’m going to write this log and read the article simultaneously! 

After finishing the first section in the reading, I now better understand the dilemma that we are exploring alongside Vatz. The Rhetorical Situation is in itself somewhat of an obscure and misleading concept; at first I thought that rhetorical meant fictional, but the Oxford dictionary convinced me that “rhetorical” actually stems from “rhetoric” (makes sense!) and refers to the act of speaking or writing. So a Rhetorical Situation is just referring to the process of communicating a set of circumstances and doesn’t have to be fictional; but then should be inherently subjective - because it is being narrated by someone to someone. So any situation, according to Bitzer, has to have at least 3 parts: exigence, audience, and constraints. (Thanks to Oxford again, I learnt that exigence means “need or demand”.) “Rhetorical Situations” are then only achievable if a need, an audience, and some limitation towards that initial need are present. This is super important because Vatz’s goal in this commentary is to discern where meaning is generated in a situation; Bitzer argued that meaning came from the nature of the context of a situation - by the elements and circumstance that create exigence. Vatz contends that meaning isn’t produced in direct accordance to a situation's reality, but in turn fabricated by the rhetor's arbitrary choice of characterization. Suddenly, the exigence of a situation isn’t an immutable reality that is strictly communicated by a rhetor; but an intrinsically alterable component of rhetoric that is inevitably shaped by the rhetor’s collective experience - and then absorbed and re-shaped in similar fashion by the audience.  

This article couldn’t have come to me at a better time. Although somewhat obvious to me now, Vatz’s commentary was critical in my understanding the impact that ideals and notions have on the way we all assimilate “reality”. In the midst of the “alternative fact” epoch, understanding that “facts” often become mere accessories in conveying predetermined truths; as well as recognizing that the rhetor is oftentimes of greater consequence to our acquisition of meaning are both paramount in the pursuit of impartiality and fairness. In the present social and political climate - characterized by seemingly un-prosecutable fake news, unsubstantiated scapegoating, and the nation-wide fomentation of fear culture - unraveling information with careful heed towards politically-motivated prejudice is fundamental in the preservation of unbiased truth and - fundamentally - the pursuit of human development towards the future to come. 

“No situation can have a nature independent of the perception of its interpreter or independent of the rhetoric with which he chooses to characterize it.”

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Log 3: Walk, Talk, Cook, and don’t Plagiarize.

Lucas, a college student at the University of Denver, opens his laptop and emails his Professor regarding sourcing in his upcoming essay about Economics in Third World countries. 

Lucas: Hello Professor! I was finishing up my paper on the economics of Sub-Saharan Africa, and was having a little trouble with my sources. Could you help me out?

Professor:  Hi Lucas, what where you having trouble with?

Lucas: I’m looking at my sources cited, and even though I have correctly sourced my direct quotations and research material, there are still a lot of facts that I mention that I didn’t learn during my research, but in class during lecture time. Do I need to source those, and if so, how do I go about that?

Professor: Great question Lucas, and thank you for asking me for help! It is always better to ask your Professor when in doubt about these things. Unless you have permission to emit lecture quotations, you must cite where you got those facts as well! So, be sure to include any in-text citations for class notes on your bibliography too. Begin with the last name of the lecturer, a comma and then the first name. Within quotation marks, put the title of the lecture and a period. If there is no title, use "Lecture" without quotation marks, and add a period at the end. Follow that with the venue, city, and date conducted. That should be all!

Lucas: Thank you Professor, sure glad I won’t be getting in trouble for academic dishonesty!

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Log 2: Week 1 - Research Journal

I am sitting in the library deep in though about tattoos. It seems as though people in the class were pretty interested in my proposal; exploring social perception towards tattoos between generations, and the way these perceptions are changing. Personally, I don’t have any tattoos. Mostly because my older brother, Ramiro, got one back in 2013 and my parents nearly crucified him. They were furious because - in their 20th century opinion - a tattoo looks bad in job interviews, and is a trademark for the conventionalized rebellious youth. They also had a hard time comprehending how someone would want the same image inscribed in their flesh for the remainder of their life - they were convinced that Ramiro would inevitably regret his decision later in his adult life. My grandparents don’t know to this day, and I’m certain than when they do (if they do) they will be heartbroken. In their eyes, a tattoo is a brand for the criminal, reserved solely for gang members or drug addicts. Personally, when he revealed the still-inflamed masterpiece occupying his right arm I thought it looked pretty neat. A quill and ink pot elegantly embroidered in his tricep didn’t seem like the biggest deal; frankly, it was a beautiful symbol for my brother’s life-long passion for writing and made him happy, so the consequence of it all went a little over my head. I realize now that there has to be some reasoning behind this change in perspective. That is the goal of my research project; attempting to shed some light on the social tattoos; if there really is a discord between generations, and what factors might cause it. I understand that perceptions are different by nature, but I believe an overall trend exists and exploring it would prove to be very interesting! There is a good amount of thought I still have to invest in regards to data collection and making sure my research isn’t biased. I think interviews are probably the best way to understand the reasoning behind individual’s thoughts; as far as confirming if a trend does exist or not, survey’s should suffice. Excited to get going!

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Log 1: Driscoll Primary Research

After reading Dana Lynn Driscoll’s “Introduction to Primary Research” I understood how detrimental bias can be for any type of research; it seems as though one has to be very careful when recording data and making observations. Failure to do so can result in the entire research being tainted and essentially an opinion. It makes sense for the scientific community (or any academic collective) to be extra rigid in this regard; if every research conducted were to be influenced by the bias of it’s creators, how could we tell what facts are as opposed to an opinion backed with inaccurate data? Scientific communities have suffered from this lack of legitimacy; I remember reading about Chinese studies that had ended being mostly fabricated (or overwhelmingly influenced by confirmation bias) and the negative impact it had on the repute of all studies conducted there. When we conduct our own research, I will make sure to check for possible bias in all stages, hopefully I will be able to approach the research bias-free! Aside from that, it was interesting to see how many decisions one must take when deciding how and where to conduct data collection. Excited to see how my research ends up!