In-class Writing for Thursday, February 19, 2015.
The move from your lit review to your first draft may seem challenging at first because there is not much cross-over between the two, and you want to make sure you aren’t merely lifting chunks of your lit review into your draft.
I want you to begin to explore the differences between the two using your own research as guidance.
What are some central claims you believe you will make in your essay (in other words, what do you believe you’ll be adding to the existing conversation)? How do these claims differ from your lit review? What are things you need to anticipate for your audience? What are things you’ll need to include so that it’s obvious who your intended audience will be? Last, what are some things you, as the researcher and the writer, need to keep in mind as you begin to start drafting your essay?
To conclude this in-class assignment, please generate a tentative outline of your essay.
**Remember that your primary research HAS TO BE completed by the end of Week 8...because the final draft of the essay is due the following week.**
I hope to find out what DU students are dreaming about, and then use the dream interpretation methods found in my secondary research to explain what those dreams mean. My lit review was past research information was past research papers about topic similar, but different from mine. Mine will deal with how many students are dreaming some of the most common dreams, and then answering what those dreams mean. I will NOT be trying to act like Freud and claim that a dream about a cat means that the dreamer is going to be sad and alone forever.
ReplyDeleteThis is an inquiry-based research report, and I am inquiring about what dreams DU students have having. I will be writing to a psychology-based audience. With that in mind, I will need to be careful to focus on the results and the interpretations need to be correct for the psychology field. One of the things I will have to take in to consideration is that it is week 7, almost week 8 and finals are drawing near, so the dreams may be more worried than previous weeks. For my audience, I will have to make clear that the study is very small, approximately 90 students, and only of the DU population.
Abstract: Brief overview of Research
Intro: State the question: What are DU students dreaming about and what do those dreams mean? Are they lucid dreaming?
Establish a purpose:
What do the dreams mean?
Introduce sources that will be used, and state general facts, state some important findings.
Methods: Explain the survey, observational study, and interview questions. What you were looking for, anyhow you found it.
Results:
Tables and graphs on common dreams for the results of the surveys. Results on Dream observations? will be in a report form. Interview results will be listed as facts after careful double-checking.
Discussion: The discussion will complete the paper by collecting all the relevant results and analyzing what those results say about the student at DU.
The claims that I believe I'll make at this point are very tentative, and they correlate with my lit review more than not. I believe that in my essay I will make the claim that thumbs are the best input device, that screen space on the short side of the phone (horizontally for portrait mode) should be appropriated for tabs, and drawers and that content should "flow" along the long side of the device. There may be exceptions that I talk about though. I think that I'll also say that for an app to be good it must have a purpose in terms of where the user is at the time ( the context of the app's usage). These don't currently differ from my lit review very much but I didn't really expect my claims to differ much. For my audience I should anticipate that they may not know much about some of the jargon included when it comes to designing an app and so I should make sure to define terms. I should also make sure that the audience has some idea of how I will be referring to spaces on the screen and sensors that I may discuss. My main audience is those people who are interested in software design, possibly software engineers and software artists. I think that my audience will understand very well who they are once they begin reading and encountering jargon that is pretty exclusive to the discipline. I could also discuss the design of some popular apps in the introduction to get the audience understanding of what the rest of the essay will be about. As I begin drafting my essay I'll need to think about how to connect my sources. As a researcher it's important to see how things connect so that the sources can say one thing together, as opposed to just how they all say one little thing.
ReplyDeleteOUTLINE:
INTRO
--------------------------------------------
-State Question, "How has software design changed across platforms?"
-Purpose, to have people making better apps. To inform.
-Talk about why I want that to be the purpose
-Set up rest of essay, outline.
METHODS
---------------------------------------------------------
-Talk about my survey, online
-Talk about interview, why Dr. leutenegger/whoever
-Talk about observation and what the observation tells me.
Results
----------------------------------------
-Display QUANTITATIVE data from surveys
-Take meaningful quotes from interview
-descriptions of observation
DISCUSSION
-------------------------------------------------------
-REPORT MAJOR FINDINGS OF COURSE DUH (using primary and secondary sources)
-talk about connections to earlier works in software design
-wrap up essay ( remind why important)
One claim I will try to make in my essay is that music can change a person’s mood and mental health in both positive and negative ways. One way this is different from the information included in my lit review is that I did not state a lot of negative effects. Only a few articles say that there is a correlation between specific types of music and putting someone in a worse mood or creating unhealthy or even suicidal thoughts. I need to clearly state that with psychological studies looking at mental development, there are many factors that could have an impact on my results. That said, the conclusions I draw from my primary research still have some validity to them and should not be discarded. My audience will most likely be people who have an interest in music, psychology, or both, and will need to keep that in mind. As I begin drafting my essay, I need to keep in mind that there are a lot of different routes my paper could take, and each makes a different point. I do not want to get off topic or combine many different ideas into one jumbled paper.
ReplyDelete-Asking if music affects mood and mental health, identifying a few sources with strong points to draw ideas from
-Explanation of survey/small sample size but still valid results, interview questions pertaining to music therapy and its effects, survey results on negative effects of music and changes in mood or mental stability
-Involve quotations from interview
-Major findings (that I don’t know yet???)
The general claims I think I'll be making are: that women in america have obviously come a long way, however there are gaps in female equality that are still remaining and important, that the views of women in the media tend to reflect the views of "everyday" women, that the gap equality between men and women in also seen in the way we view both men and women in pop culture as well as everyday differently based on gender. In my lit review I looked at the basics around where women are in terms of equality now and how we view roles of women in the media today. In my actual essay I am going to look more at gender differences and the way everyday women are viewed and how all these topics combine together. My audience will be people who are interested in gender equality information as it pertains to the main stream media.his being said the paper will have to read in an academic way but also in a way that is accessible for people of this age range. I need to keep in mind that the essay doesn't have to have an argument or a final concluding thought. That is something I'm pretty sure I will struggle with because I feel strongly about my topic and I feel like there is an agenda, so I have to be careful to leave that out.
ReplyDeleteOutline:
The intro will focus on the question along the lines of how women are treated in the media vs. everyday women and how that pertains to female equality in modern America. It will outline the basics in terms of women in america, who we see in the mass media today and how women are treated.
The secondary research section will focus on women in america today and how they are more equal than they have been before and where they have left to go to become equal. It will also look at who the women in the media are, what they are doing and the differing opinions on them.
Methods, results etc. will look at the interview with an expert on sex in today's culture, a survey of the younger generation and their opinion on women in the media and women today and an observation that looks at how women are treated in a busy setting.
I think that this is the part where I constantly got tripped up with, between the Lit Review and the actual Research essay. I was confused because I kept putting opinion in to the Lit Review, which you shouldn't do. So, some central claims that I believe I will be making in my essay are showing the connection between future relationships and past relationships. I want to put more of my own opinion into the essay with the specific topic of future relationships and past relationships because there is a lot of good information that I have from both interviews and secondary research. I want to also show how numerous statements through primary research prove many questions that I had asked, previous to actually writing my research paper. Personally, I think that because I am no longer using secondary research, but primary research as well, is what will really make this paper stand out, when being compared to the literature review. I think that having the interviews and surveys will really help out, if they answer the questions how I expect them to, because it will prove that I was on the right track, when thinking of my theory of how past relationships play a role into current and future relationships. These claims will differ from my lit review because I am no longer showing how all of my sources are connected with each other (expressing similar ideas), but will now show how their claims back up my own PERSONAL opinion. Because majority of people have been in individuals, I anticipate the audience to to really seek out whether or not I have a valid statement from sources as well as an uprising question. I think that most individuals already have an understanding of how relationships work, so I want to clarify questions with detailed, and supportive answers. Some things that I will need to include so that it is obvious who my intended audience is are who are the types of people that get in relationships and what type of relationships most individuals have been in. I think that based off of the complexity of the topic, readers will automatically know who my intended audience is for this paper. Some things that I, as the researcher and the writer, need to keep in mind as I begin to start drafting my essay is to never get too attached, to the point where the paper is strictly about me. I know that in the past, when writing a similar paper, some criticism that I received on my first draft was that the paper is dealing with more me, than anything else, which throws off the reader. I will also make sure that I have direct evidence, which will automatically help the reader receive a better understanding of what he or she is reading.
ReplyDeleteabstract: Overview of research that was performed.
Intro: bringing in research from individuals who have been studied before by psychologist, pertaining to relationships. Then state my research question, and what will be discussed throughout the paper.
research/paragraphs: bringing in primary and secondary research. Showing how they relate to my research question and how they answer questions that will help strengthen my paper. I have primary research from friends who were willing to be interviewed. They literally answered questions the way that I hoped the would.
Conclusion: wrapping everything up, and showing connections, and potential bringing up a new point.
Some central claims that I believe that I’ll be making in my essay will connect to both HIV/AIDS and composting. The possibility of if HIV/AIDS can survive in a compost pile a central theme. Another central claim would be asking if there is possible solution if it is a serious problem. A central claim that I’ll be adding is if it will be important enough to become a possible public health concern. These claims will differ from my lit review because in my lit review, I drew from various sources and questioned them as evaluated them as to why and how they helped or didn’t help my research purpose, emphasizing on how my research purpose exists because they have holes. Whereas, these claims will not be challenged, but rather inquired about and in some instances, maybe even explained. Some things that I’ll need to anticipate from my audience would be confusion and already preconceived biases and ideas. A fellow biology student once told me that I was kicking myself in the foot for choosing a research topic like this because I would be going through a lot of work and research only to find that an idea of HIV/AIDS interfering with composting was pointless and a waste of time. That is an example of a preconceived idea and bias. Thing that I’ll need to include so that it’s obvious who y intended audience will be would just be a lot of inquiry and evidence. I suppose my audience can just be a general audience, but as for the language and etc, a more intended audience would be one of a science background, due to the density of scientific content. Scientists love to ask questions as well as gather evidence for those questions. Scientists also love a laid out plan or methodology because “all experiments” must be able to be replicated. Some things that I as the researcher and the writer need to keep in mind as I begin to draft my essay would include a few things. As a researcher, I need to keep in mind the intention of my research, my evidence, as well as strict organization as to not veer off topic at any point in time during my essay. As a writer, some things I need to keep in my mind would include writing formality, and adaptability, and writing out of the box. If I write from the absolute center of the box, the essay will be seemingly boring because all I am doing would be stating facts. As a personal writer, sometimes I tend to add a lot of writing variables that show my writing personality, for example, mild comedy. In a science-type research paper, I should constantly remind myself to write formally and avoid first and second person writing. As a writer, I must also be able to adapt to the mind of a scientist all the while, writing from out of the box ideas and conventions to make the connections and subtopics interesting and thought-provoking.
ReplyDeleteAbstract
-summary of entire research paper
Introduction
-introduce topic of composting
-introduce topic of HIV/AIDS
-raise possible questions of connectivity
-hypothesis?
-why?
-brief overview of findings to be presented
Overview of all the researches
-talk briefly about primary research
-talk briefly about secondary research
Research process
-every detail (okay not EVERY detail), about research and methodology
Results
-talk about results of findings
-analyzation of findings
Conclusion
---wrapping ideas and everything up to end goal (maybe)
Aside from examining the merits of each method of avalanche control, I will add my own insight into what I believe to be a potential method of control/method for preventing deaths related to avalanches. I will incorporate the research I have done thus far and extrapolate on it by adding data from the primary research I intend to conduct.
ReplyDeleteI haven’t had the time to form my own opinions on the methods for avalanche control, but once I sit down and am able to gather my thoughts, I hope that I can come up with a unique method to prevent avalanche related fatalities.
My audience will be mostly concerned with earth sciences, so I need to make sure my sources are legitimate and credible, so that I don’t look foolish or unprofessional. Additionally, I need to be sure to keep my language formal, accurate, and scientific.
In order to keep in congruence with the APA style, I need to keep in mind that I need to include specifications specific to the APA formatting such as an abstract, and references sheet. This will distinguish my paper as scientific based paper instead of a social sciences etc. type paper.
I need to be sure to not just copy & paste my lit review into my paper and call it a day. I know I will struggle with interpreting data from my primary research as that is something I am not as familiar with, but I hope that the information I gather from this process will be guiding enough to send me in a specific direction.
My essay will begin with an abstract, summarizing my paper in a short paragraph. I will then introduce my topic by discussing avalanche control methods briefly, as well as some scientific background on how avalanches are formed. I will then include my research question: what are methods of controlling and attempting to prevent avalanche related deaths in Colorado? I will then discuss the purpose of my paper: which is to raise awareness of the dangers associated with winter sports in avalanche-risk areas, and educate my intended audience on how to prevent further unnecessary deaths. I will then bring in some elements of my lit review by showing what certain authors believe to be the best methods out there to keep people safe from avalanches. Next I will talk about my methods: I intend to conduct an interview next week, and hopefully my expert will be able to share his opinions on what he deems the best way to keep people safe is, as well as conducting a survey that will aim to gauge public knowledge of avalanches and the best way to keep safe from an avalanche. Lastly, I will observe (from videos) avalanche explosives being detonated. I don’t know exactly what conclusion this will bring me to but I am curious. I will then analyze this data to see the differences between the methods, and then I will attempt to understand what this means within the context of my paper.
I will be adding more information about studies and surveys from my secondary sources because it will give more discussion about the data that I will receive from my primary research. Also, I will add more in depth details about certain topics that I feel the readers need to know about. The lit review is not made for going into detail about certain topics, it was meant to gather pieces of information from different sources and compare them. There is more room for details in this paper, and the primary sources will create way more discussion than there is in the lit review.
ReplyDeleteSince a significant amount of people use computers, they should know be familiar with most of the concepts that I am going to talk about. I really need to make sure that I state something along the lines of "daily computer users" to make sure the audience knows that the paper is mainly intended for people who use computers a lot. I need to make sure that I follow the guidelines for this paper and not go off topic. Also, my primary research needs to consists of both men and women so that I can relate to my secondary sources in my draft.
Introduction
-Ask about computer vision syndrome research question
-Bring up some questions about computer vision syndrome and how it affects people
-Talk current situations about computer vision syndrome
Methods
-Talk about how I went about primary research
Results
-Try to sum up the results from primary research
-Have discussion about how results relate to information from secondary sources
A few of the central claims I will be making in my essay will be similar to those already in the field, pertaining to various issues of coral reef sustainability. I will provide additional insight as well as synthesized information on previously conducted research with my primary research, particularly concerning long and short term effects on these fragile marine ecosystems. These claims will differ slightly from my literary review, as in my review I did not include any argumentation one way or another. In my research essay, I will adamantly argue for the protection of our coral reefs, and for a more widespread awareness of the issues they are currently facing. I need to anticipate my audience being slightly hesitant to believe my research is valid, and my synthesizing of information was done in a succinct and effective manner, as I am not a professional in this field. I will need to maintain a professional tone throughout my piece in order to keep my intended audience interested, and in mind throughout compiling my research in my piece. I need to keep in my mind that this is for people in the field, but is also for the general public, in order to spread awareness, so the terminology must be explained, yet not be redundant and confusing to my readers. However, my audience is first and foremost within the discipline of marine biology, so I will write with attention to how they will be reading my research. I think they will find this information that I have gleaned from my primary research interesting, as it may bring up some information they have not been aware of, such as the general public’s awareness levels (as shown in my conducted surveys).
ReplyDeleteAs an outline of my essay;
-Abstract— including a brief summary of what information will be provided and synthesized in the essay
-Introduction- I will ask the question, “what are the ways in which sustainability in coral reefs is most effectively used,” as there is a gap in the research as to how much the general public knows about this subject and these issues
-Methods section- I will introduce the primary research I collected, including the interview I conducted with the coral reefs professor at UCSB, and my survey of a variety of people from different age groups and genders, as well as my observation of a video of coral reef studies.
-Results- I will include a chart of the information I collected from the general public on the information they are currently aware of, how much they want to know, and how much they know at the end of the survey concerning coral reefs.
Discussion- I will be evaluating the data I mentioned above, and remind the professors and academic audience within the marine biology world of how my primary resources are adding additional points of view and aspects of the research.
The purpose of my essay will be to determine what common consensus is regarding how people feel about Tarantino's use of violence in Pulp Fiction, and how this correlates to existing theories on the effect of ultra-violence in Pulp Fiction. Common claims that I expect to find in my research is that violence in Pulp Fiction not only shocks the viewer, but also forces the viewer to come to terms with how they view instances of violence, and what these views are. This differs from the claims made in my lit review because it while it continues to claim that violence does shock the viewer, it also examines how they view violence in response to the film, unlike my lit review which assumes that viewers are either apathetic or strongly disturbed by violence. This also differs from my lit review in that it incorporates the thoughts of the general viewer (surveys), allowing me to examine not only critical examination of Pulp Fiction, but also popular examination on the topic. Thus, in this sense I can cross examine what researchers think, that the average viewer thinks when they see violence in Pulp Fiction, and what the average viewer actually thinks when they see violence in Pulp Fiction, allowing me to apply the theories mentioned in my lit review to real world data.
ReplyDeleteSeeing as I'm writing a research paper based in film, my audience will likely be scholars in literature and film, particularly those that specialize in pop culture phenomenon. However, I also anticipate that because the paper falls under the overarching topic of violence in the media and popular culture, some of my audience may come from psychological and sociological backgrounds. In order to tailor my paper to this particular audience it'll be important to consider theories and conventions of literature and film, as well as the interpretations of the of the data that I gather. I think that one thing to consider in my research is the age of the participants. This is because prior to Pulp Fiction ultra violence was not nearly as common in media as it is today, thus participants who grew up prior to that time may have experienced much greater shock to the violence in Pulp Fiction, rather than those who grew up post-Pulp Fiction. I'll also have to be aware of other demographics in my survey sample, and how these may play into my results.
Intro: Introduce the controversy of violence surrounding Pulp Fiction and lead into the research question: What effect does violence in Pulp Fiction have on viewers? How do viewers interpret violence in Pulp Fiction. Overview the two current theories on violence in Pulp Fiction: that it forces the reader to think about violence or that it numbs them to it, simply being there for aesthetic enjoyment.
Methods: Describe the survey body and the methods through which they were surveyed as well as the content of the survey itself. Describe the observation process: having 20 students watch Pulp Fiction and observing their reactions to it. The manner in which the interview was conducted and what was asked.
Results: Revealing trends in the data, find any overarching points of interest in the survey population as well the observations. Determining what consensus can be pulled from the research conducted.
Discussion: Cross referencing trends in the data with current theory, as well devising potential new theory based on the research. Analyzing what the trends in the data mean and how these correlate with the other methods of investigation (survey, observation, and interview.)