#writ1133du

[kenzieking-012-blog]

Practice Run || Primary Research

We began conducting our interviews in front of the Williams tower with the intent of finding out whether passers-by thought the gold on top of it is real. Timmy proposed this question after hearing speculation that the gold was in fact real, and we attempted to confirm this by contacting the University of Denver’s architecture department. The head architect was out of the office, so we continued our investigation by striking up conversations with students and pedestrians who were in the area. We remained outside for about 2 hours, and most people we interviewed were students on their way to class or people who live in the area. We asked each participant 

Whether they have noticed the tower 

If they think the spire was made of real gold

If not, what is it made of? 

Did anyone mention whether the gold was genuine when they toured the school before becoming a student? (This was how Timmy first heard about it.)

How would they feel about the school if it were real? 

Do they think it contributes to the status of the school?

16 interviewees were very certain it was not real. Most of those people said they never really thought about the tower, and no one had ever mentioned it to them before now. One woman was very vehemently convinced that it was only copper, but the others did not have a guess about what material it was made of.

 7 of the people who did think it was real made their guess simply by looking at the tower. Many of them felt that it added to the status of the school and made them proud to attend here. 1 person interviewed was a legacy student whose parents, DU alumni, had told him the gold was genuine. Julian also interviewed a woman who works in the athletics department and was on site the day the gold was put in place. She confirmed that much care went into its installation. Specifically, the installers had to ensure that weather conditions were acceptable due to the specific variables that must be considered in order for the gold to adhere. Timmy also found evidence through an article from the Denver Post [1999] that the spire is comprised of 28 pounds of gold leaf.

 Summary -

16 people claimed they do not ever notice the tower

Those same 16 people did not believe the gold was real

7 people thought the gold was real and believed it contributed to the status of the school

Only the lady Julien interviewed had ever had the tower mentioned to her prior to our inquiries. 

There is in fact real gold on the tower, though it is only gold leaf. 

In conclusion, we discovered that the gold on top of the Williams tower is in fact real, though most students and passers-by have never thought about it or heard it discussed. Our inquiries were confirmed by a woman who worked in the center, but our inability to get in contact with the school’s architect left us without insight into the reasoning behind the placement of real gold on the tower rather than a less expensive material. 

[pbarajas16du]

Homework Post #8

I agree with Bergmann and Zepernick in their findings of students not taking writing seriously because there is this huge notion in college of “I hate writing essays and ughh its 8 pages long and its going to take me hours.” That however is part of college and so to complain baffles me about students. Writing is a part of everything, it can be found in math because you must take apart the problem and analyze what it is asking. It is found in computer science as well because you have to write to code and build programs. Students usually feel that writing classes teaches “them mechanical skills and the MLA citation system, and in which their highest priority should be to achieve the required page length without boring the reader too much” instead of how to critically write or be passionate about something. Successful transfer is able to be done because writing classes give student writers the tools to transfer their knowledge into other courses or area of study. 

There are multiple ways to transfer writing skills to other areas of study especially because you always have to cite and give credit to others and that is what writing classes teach you so that you never get caught plagiarizing. Transfer writing happens almost subconsciously because writing classes drill these ideas into your head of proper writing, so you always remember that and implement it into other works. One example is when I write papers for ethnic studies and I must cite others and have proper sentence structures, I also have to understand the rhetoric being thrown at me. I know writing can be daunting, but writing can be a task easily learned and isn’t as daunting as many students think it is. Also, that subtle sexism thrown in there from the study also got to me because most students believe writing is more feminine which I think needs to be unpacked and faced.

[timmyswritshit]

timmy’s intro

hello, greetings, salutations, and what have you.

my name is timmy and i am the ripe age of 19. oh, and first thing is first i am going to be writing in all lowercase letters, so if that bothers you, i am immensely sorry and will apologize right now.

to be quite honest, i think in terms of writing i am quit oblivious. i know that there are certain ways and conventions that one is supposed to “know” when writing. but honestly? i have no fucking idea, so i guess i’m just along for the ride. 

i mean, being in the ib program they taught you to stay true to your own authentic experience, and that’s what i did. wrote my truth, wrote how i knew how. but i guess i’m ready to learn how to be better, so here i am for your entertainment and viewing pleasure.

yes, the pleasure is entirely yours.

key terms that tend to go through my head when writing:

colloquial

run-on

comma

period(t)

on·o·mat·o·poe·ia (it’s just fun)

the definition of good writing according to timmy: good writing is when the audience wants to keep reading, and genuine interest is ignited. 

nonetheless, so excited to start this writing journey with you all!

-timmy xx

[juliaparkerwritblog]

Research Journal #9

It would be really hard to rate myself in this class out of five stars. I have tried really hard, but my assignments were not always on time and not always as good as they could have been. I did not expect this quarter to go the way it went. A lot happened in my life outside of school which affected my health and my ability to go to class. When I was in class, I tried my hardest to participate as much as possible and get as much out of the class as I could. I was sad I had to miss the scavenger hunt. I believe I completed all of the assignments for this class even though some of them were a little late. If grades were based on effort I feel like I would earn a pretty good grade. Since was not very efficient in completing my assignments I probably will not receive a good grade which is okay. I need to learn how to cope better with my health issues. 

I believe writing is important, but I did not realize how important it is to have a good process for writing assignments. I learned to love writing my senior year of highschool when I discovered how therapeutic journaling can be. I loved writing in my journal, but absolutely hated any form of academic writing. This class taught me how to more effectively write and made writing a lot less terrible for me. 

I always knew research is a huge part of life. Every time I go to a new place, I will look up where I want to eat extensively. My father and I do this whenever we want to try new food. He will always say “let’s do some research on where to get dinner” then him and I will look online for a while, reading reviews, looking at websites, and reviewing social media pages. This is all secondary research. Going to the restaurant and trying the food is the primary research. If we like the restaurant we will go again or tell someone we know it is good. It is important to do research so you are not disappointed. 

It is kind of ironic that I am handing this project in at 2am, because research journals are due at midnight. It was hard to adjust to not checking canvas for my homework, because I am so used to having canvas for all of my classes. I would not even think to check twitter or tumblr, because it was so new to me. I think this was another reason I was not on time for every assignment. I should have checked both twitter and tumblr more this quarter. 

If I were to go back in time this quarter I probably would have tried a lot harder to do things on time. I think the absence of a grade made due dates seem less serious to me for some reason. 

[brittadenver]

Maps Take 3

Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake someone up”.

I chose perseverance because in writing you have to fail in order to succeed. If you work past difficultys and delays in your writing you can be successful. You have to work through drafts in order to better yourself as a writer and produce good content. When you continue to try and better your writing, you have to move past failure.

[timmyjmp]

homework post #8

traokay, to be quite frank, i was the kid (and probably still am) that will use all the “fluffy” words and be terribly superfluous to fill up a word count or make an essay sound nicer. i don’t know what to tell ya, i’m a gay theatre kid which means that i’m an extra ass bitch. and i’m really out here thinking that i’m shakespeare reincarnate when i write papers... which i am totally aware is NOT the case.

but the more that i think about it, it wasn’t really because i wanted the paper to sound good, it was because i wanted my teachers to appreciate it and like it, just as in the reading, i used all this embellishment and “flowery” language, silken terms precise (shakespeare reference lololol) in order to make it seem like i knew what i was talking about, when in all honesty, my answers could have been more terse and direct.

this is what i believe that the paper is talking about when transferring knowledge, i know that perhaps the nature of superfluous language may be applicable to some situations, maybe a creative writing project in which i am trying to describe a fictional utopia. but for projects such as the one in this class, it would behoove me to keep my sentences more direct in order to accurately and effectively make and defend the point that i’m trying to argue, seeing as that my answer is going to be comprised of research done in other people’s work as well as my own primary research. the same goes for something such as a lab report, you wouldn’t fluff up the facts with unnecessary words as it would just fuck with the conclusion that you’re trying to make. 

i do think that this is something that will eventually become more subconscious when you write different papers, like, you will be able to visualize who your audience will be and who you want to address, and this is extremely important in such a context as college because you’ll be writing a FUCK TON of papers, and if you don’t know how to write for the given situation and continue to only write in one type of style using one voice to address various audiences... houston we’ll have a problem. your argument may not be defended, your language may be too colloquial, or you might just make a fool of yourself being unprepared and having nothing to say. 

although we may not think about it all that much, transferring knowledge and previous experiences to a new one is challenging at first, but in no time you’ll become a natural who will know how to take a class, audience, paper, etc. by its balls and execute the fuck out of it.

[jmarkduaccount]

Homework 8

Transfer of knowledge is an interesting concept. In Disciplinarity and Transfer: Students’ Perceptions of Learning to Write, Linda S. Bergmann and Janet Zepernick conduct focus groups to learn about students relationships to writing and how it applies to their scientific majors. I admit I was surprised by the reactions of the focus group. One of their complaints about the first year composition courses was that they didn’t teach skills from high school writing classes. Bergmann and Zepernick describe how the students felt about college writing, that the ���students seemed to be completely unaware that the purpose of FYC might be to help them turn their rhetorical ‘street smarts’ into conscious methods of analysis–of situation-specific audiences, discourse communities, rhetorical situations, and relevant textual models–that they could then apply to writing situations in other contexts”. The students have a narrow minded view of what writing means and how improving the skill can help them certainly in their majors but also in all aspects of life. When it comes to writing, every college course I’ve ever taken has helped me improve that skill, even the ones that were more expressive and creative. I strongly agree with the authors, their teaching methods, and the whole concept of transferability of knowledge. When Bergmann and Zepernick write : ”Such an approach to teaching students how to learn to write would help students recognize that they are making choices, and how to make those choices consciously, based on knowledge about the discourse community and rhetorical situation in which they are working.” This was certainly the most noteworthy part of the reading, because it applies to every aspect of life. I never thought of thinking this way about writing, and now that I have I realize how much more I have to learn.

[gretchenk99-blog]

Homework Post #8

The transfer of learning and knowledge is essentially the ability to effectively apply knowledge obtained from one discipline to a different discipline. For example, although a student may have learned how to structure an academic essay in a writing class, they are able to understand that this technique is also useful when writing a lab report for a biology class.

The reading addresses a common issue with students’ ability to transfer learning and knowledge (especially when it comes to writing), which is perception. Although a student may have learned a skill in an introductory writing class and can identify where it can be utilized in other disciplines, they simply don’t believe that what they learned in the writing class has value in other areas.

College students come in as freshman possessing varying levels of writing abilities, which is why introductory writing courses are often required at institutions. However, the study from the reading found that existing preconceptions don’t allow for such a generalized view of such courses. In other words, students are far more interested in learning to write in their specific discipline (or major, in this case), and have trouble escaping their former understanding of what an English class entails. One way of promoting the transfer of learning/knowledge that was presented in the reading is to make introductory writing courses focused around disciplinarity versus simply how to write. Lastly, the writing uses a sports metaphor to express the nature of students’ misunderstandings. Although certain knowledge may not seem like it is applicable to other disciplines on a surface level view, the student must think more abstractly as to what skills attribute to that knowledge and how they can be utilized in different ways!

[acoosaia]

Homework Post #8

This idea of transferable knowledge is an interesting subject because it is what you make of it. When it comes to the specifics you learn in school for each subject it is more or less a subjunctive subject and Linda S. Bergmann and Janet Zepernick even find out in there study, in doing studies they find that its hard to make general writing transferable because in many cases it is specific to each subject in education. So I guess that is safe to say that there are over arching themes within education that are sure enough transferable such as basic grammar skills and some life skills that you pick up along the way.

I would definitely say the most prominent things that are transferable are the things that we don’t even think about. many of us have probably heard the idea that it is the little things that matters and that is completely applicable here. It is the little things that we don’t pick up on that end up being the most transferable because in the end everyone ends up doing their own thing to get to a final product. Teachers can teach you the way that they think is right but that doesn’t always work for everyone nor can it be considered the correct way because in many cases there is more than one way to get to a final product.   

So with all this and the conclusions that the reading comes too, yes knowledge is transferable it just depends on how you look at it and think about it. Everyone has different opinions and views on how this will work but in the end even if there are certain things that are subjective in some form or another things can transfer.           

[kat-reillydu27]

Conference Part 2:

Part 1: I use writing to express myself, since I was young I have always journaled. It helps rationalize my emotions and to understand the world around me through my personal perspective. One of the most fulfilling experiences I had academically while in high school was a research project I did for a history class during my junior year. With the freedom to choose a topic I was passionate about, I decided to write about the progression of the gay rights movement starting from the Stonewall Riots through the initial stages of the AIDS epidemic. Prior to writing this assignment I always dreaded historical research papers because I always pictured history as just that…historical. Being able to choose a topic based in modern history allowed me to relate more to my topic. As a result, I became a more passionate writer, because I was moved by the topic of gay rights and I found it essential not only to educate myself more on the topic but to share the journey that so many others have had to endure to acquire the fundamental right of the LGBTQ community today. Writing and organizing the paper made me a much stronger analytical writer and made me more expressive in my writing overall. With that in mind I have learned I am a much more effective writer when I connect personally to the topic I am writing about. As far as writing as a college student, I have been a college student off and on for about the last ten years . It’s been a process. Throughout that entire time, like I previously touched on, I have journaled relentlessly. Because it’s my most effective form of personal expression. I have come to understand myself as a person more because I constantly analyze the situations I find myself in. It allows me to work through personal conflicts and feelings I can’t fully understand in the moment and it has allowed me to reflect more fully on how my life has unraveled. I don’t think I have gone more than two days without writing for almost as long as I could write. The topics aren’t always interesting but being able to dissect and remember the experiences I have had allow me to make connections from prior experiences to current emotions. As a writer today, I have found that I am able to articulate my perspective pretty well, but I am more passionate as a free writer than I am an analytical writer. I also know that to get the best writing from me, I really need to enjoy and connect to what I am writing about.

Part 2: When I think about what it means to be a writer, and what writing achieves, it is a way to express an opinion or communicate in an effective way as a means of persuasion. It is a way to communicate information to an audience, fictional or based in reality. Additionally I see writing as a way to express a position and to present an argument to an audience in an influential way. I think in order to be a strong writer, persuasion, passion, perspective and information are paramount.  

[jordynwritesandresearches]

Introduction

I’m Jordyn Merritt, and it���s weird to be using tumblr dot com for academics when I’ve spent a solid eight years on this site sharing nonsense memes and yelling about The Discourse. If one can even call that writing experience, then that would encompass the majority of my social media writing experience. I do have a Facebook account, but I’ve had it for ten years and not made a single post, and frankly I find that too entertaining to break the streak now. Twitter as a media experience always seemed too formal for me to join casually, even when half of this entire website moved there for a bit after the horribly implemented nsfw ban the murdered the hopes and monetary stability of most of the artists I care about.

Outside of social media, I’ve been writing short fiction of various kinds since I was in kindergarden. I still have a box somewhere full of over a thousand loose-leaf lined papers bound together by staples and string, full of kinda awful and nonsensical stories that I nonetheless still smile reading. I’ve kept up the hobby through various media, mostly through documents on my computer of story planning and character driven scenes that will likely never see the light of day, but once through an elevated inside joke on a forum I used to frequent that evolved into a full-fledged story. Through that story, which was originally just two characters going through various in-jokes with sarcastic responses, I ended up developing a story writing style that I genuinely enjoy: pairing dry comedy and emotional tragedy! While this might sound either not genuine or just completely nonviable, the challenge of making a story that could be both genuinely funny and genuinely tragic was very fun for me. Comedy is often used as a coping mechanism, after all. Writing characters with deeply seated issues that they either express or avoid expressing through comedy helped me to think about characters as whole people instead of single ideas, and pushed me towards a style that was in itself dryly comedic but descriptive. At least, in my navel-gazing opinion it did.

As for academic and research related writing, I’ve done very little of that. I grew up in a military environment and moved every two to three years, and as such my formal education could be described as spotty at best. I somehow ended up not being in any science classes for my high school career, and the only writing I did was essays for AP exams and history classes, which I slogged through with all the care and attention of a sloth at gunpoint. My college career has also involved very little essay writing, instead mostly consisting of projects and presentations. When going into formal writing, the key concepts I had in mind for writing were the general idea of the introduction, body, and conclusion, and the idea my AP Literature teacher ground into my skull of never using the words “I” or “you.”

As for good writing, in a sentence, I think any writing which sets out with a clear goal and accomplishes it is good writing. That clear goal can be anything, it can even be to be confusing. It’s obvious when a writer sets off with no goal, however, and it’s far less interesting to read in either academic or casual contexts.

Looking forward for the quarter, I want to learn to write with more cohesion and in a slightly more concise way. Evidenced by this post, I can be a bit long-winded. I also want to experiment with more writing styles outside of my comfort zone of dry sarcasm, and have a more flexible ability to tailor my writing style to the context my writing is in. I also want to try writing less long and comma-heavy statements because oh wow I write almost exclusively in those.

[kenzieking-012-blog]

journal 9

My feet crawl over the railroad tracks, the ones just down the street from the first house I ever called home. They told me I would find treasure here. They said it would be unsightly and ordinary.

“It falls off the train, unimportant. Cast away. But it makes fire and brings light and warms everyone who draws near.”

My hands sift through the pieces. I find one and hold it in front of the sun. Though it is dark, its edges glow just like anything else would.

As I hold it in my hand, I can’t get over the fact that coal and diamonds are the same thing — both made from Carbon, hard pressed under the surface of the earth. Yet, one is given value and the other is trampled on.

______

“We have to ‘leave no trace,’” my dad says, quoting Smokey the bear. Dad would emphasize the importance of making sure we didn’t leave our campfire burning and of always making sure I picked up my trash.

“Actually,” he would pause, “we have to leave this place better than we found it.”

That meant that not only did I have to pick up my own trash, but I had to pick up any other trash I saw as well. My dad was teaching me what it meant to actually be a contributor rather than a taker or a neutral consumer.

______

I have learned I am carbon, and I leave this place better than I was found.

My work is both diamond and coal — equal parts beautiful and simply useful. Both have value. Though not everything I write will be as wanted as a diamond, even the ugly things produced under pressure can still be considered treasure. It will still be useful, helpful, and will bring light and warmth to the other things I create. I have learned it is okay to fail. It is especially okay to write shitty first drafts. Because even the shitty first drafts, ashy, ordinary, and unsightly as they may be, serve a greater purpose. My work is both diamond and coal.

I am walking away better than I was found. Unlike most classes where I often feel as though the aim is to simply “leave no trace” — to get through it unscathed, pass, then information dump, I feel that my brain has been given helpful tools for learning to write across genres. My approach has been refined, my technique has been honed in. I am walking away better than I was found.

I have done my best, contributed what I could, but more than that attempted to love people and see people in the process. And truly that is all I could ask of myself. 4/5. I am, in fact, a solid choice.

[pbarajas16du]

Research Journal #9

     When I started this class I thought of writing as something so technical and overwhelming because it has so many components into it that only the smartest of the smartest understand it and can write beautifully. Research to me was something that only people with PHDs did or scientists in huge white lab coats as they constantly try to find cures for things. That position on writing is pretty much the same in the sense that writing is immensely difficult and takes a lot of time but I now believe that anyone can write anything. My opinion on research has changed because everyone researches throughout their entire lives whether they know it or not.

     I feel like I do actively engage in class, I try not to say too much because everyone should have learning opportunities and because of that one episode of How to Get Away With Murder where Annalise Keating yells at a student for taking a learning opportunity away from a student and so I have been conscious of that since. 

     I do tweet throughout the week even if it is the most random-est tweets about like my directors or crazy incidents that happened to me on campus. I have missed technically two days of class because I forgot to the conference part 2 to that one conference but other than that, it was just the one time. For the most part my assignments have been on time, sometimes I just get them in late because I forget or just life is hectic. 

     Writing is so much more than a grade because you can grow without a grade, like I believe I am growing as a writer and if I had a grade on that then I could be discouraged for growing in the wrong ways that do not meet conventional standards of writing. 

     I am scared of grades, I truly am because they are such a big part of my identity, especially as a first gen student of color who is also queer. I have so many oppressions stacked on me that education is one of the only tools I can use to help myself and I also have to use this tool to be the perfect role model for my entire family as I am the first person in my family to go to college. I would hope I have an A but I don't know what would warrant an A. So let's say I have a B+.

[writingandresearchfall2019]

Dr. Kt’s Intro

Hello again! And welcome to our course. I will be your professor for the next 10 weeks: when I first starting teaching, students struggled with how to pronounce my last name and so I became “Dr. Kt,” so please don’t hesitate to use that instead of my full last name! 

Some quick information about me: Background: I have an undergraduate degree in Creative Writing, a master’s degree in English Education, and a Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Composition, so you might say that I really enjoy writing. I completed my Ph.D. at Florida State and came to DU right after it, so I had some readjusting to the weather! My research interests center on the transfer of writing knowledge and practices which means I examine how students are able to take the knowledge and practices learned in one context and successfully (or unsuccessfully) use it in another context.  My research definitely affects how and why I teach the way that I do, and this means throughout this quarter I’m hoping to teach you rhetorical concepts that will enhance your ability to understand different types of writing and research situations and help to make you more effective in responding to them. The goal of any college course *should* be transfer, but it’s especially important in a writing course … why because so many different aspects of your life involve some form of writing from emails to text messages to writing college papers, writing is essential to everyday life.

Fun Facts: I was a collegiate swimmer and my strokes were the butterfly and IM. I still enjoying being an athlete though now I run, do Crossfit, and yoga. My image is from a Color Run I did this past summer.  I have two dogs – both rescues.  I’m an avid movie watcher and TV show watcher – it’s how I de-stress. I’m a huge comic book fan (only girl among brothers) so I love all the Marvel movies (am actually a DC fan but have been disappointed with most of the movies). Because of my love of comics (and interest in them as a potential learning tool for some types of writing classes), I’ve actually presented at the Denver Comic Con which was really cool! As the quarter unfolds, I look forward to getting to know all of you! Dr. Kt

P.S. You’ll see that I answered most of the questions I asked of you but in a non-Q/A style! ;-)

[juliaparkerwritblog]

Research Journal #8

I have never done a research paper in my life I do not think. I think that is the main reason this course is so important. It took us through every step of the process of writing a research journal. This was extremely helpful, because for someone like myself who has no experience writing research journals, I would have had no idea what to do if we did not go through every step of the writing process. I also think it is really special that we got to do like practice runs for things such as primary research. I know my primary research would not have been as successful as it was if we did not do the little practice run. The practice run made me really think about my questions for the survey, and how I wanted to ask them in order to get the answers I want that will be helpful for my research paper. It was also extremely helpful for the interview, because it made me think very hard about exactly what I was going to ask the people I interviewed. I have always not liked writing at all, so I think it is important that this class is mandatory for graduation, because I would have not taken it if it was not. If I had not taken this class, and I was taking a class later in my college career that asked me to write a research paper, I would definitely not have done as well as I will after taking this class. I also learned that writing is never going to be your best the first time around, so it is really important to have many drafts and revisions to your first writing. I learned that it is ok for a first draft to be terrible, because if it isn’t the final is probably not going to be as good as it would be with a shitty first draft. I also learned a lot about my peers and their important roll in my writing. The class is so small and discussion based that I learned a lot about my peers and got to know them very well. This made me trust them and made me a lot more comfortable sharing my writing with them. It is so special being so close to everyone in the class, because if I am confused about something, I can just text a classmate and they almost always can help. It is also really special the relationship Dr. KT forms with the students. It’s like she’s our peer, but also our professor. This makes it a lot less intimidating to ask stupid questions, and it makes class a lot more fun. 

[seanmcroberts-blog]

It’s Tuesday Guys! 1 Week Left!

As I am sitting here at midnight the day before the first draft of our ePortfolio is due, writing my papers, I’m really jamming out to some music. This music is truly helping me get through the night, and hopefully through the next week. This is my version of Music Mondays, enjoy!