A&B Chapter 17 skill 5 and 6

When writing a longer paper, it is important to be aware of the fact that you are taking your reader on a journey.  As with any journey it can be incredibly easy for one to get lost without a proper guides or signs to help them on their way.  One of the most basic signs that you can give your reader is the placement of the topic sentence.  When the reader begins their journey into a paragraph on your paper the first thing that they see is what they will be expecting to read about or discover as they continue on throughout your paper.  If you don’t clearly state you audience what each paragraph is trying to convey then the reader could receive an entirely different message from that paragraph.  Another way to make sure that your reader stays on topic is by carefully managing the old and new information that you present to the reader.  As you explain each part your argument or information start by bringing up the familiar information that they have already encountered.  Finally a way to make sure that the reader stays on the carefully laid out path that you have set up, you can use specific “signpost” words to show them what to expect.  These words such as “first” “for example” “therefore” “however” etc. make your reader expect a twist or turn in the path, they are expecting it and it will you as the author to make your point more clear.

A&B Chapter 17 section 3 and 4

When beginning an essay or a persuasive paper of any kind, making sure that you have a good solid knowledge of how you want to write your paper and where you want to go with it will make the entire writing process significantly smoother and will help you write a better paper.  When starting your paper a very important decision you want to make is what to title your paper.  Your title should give the reader, at a glance, what you are going to be writing about.  It may not show your argument but it should let the reader know what they should expect to be reading about.  After you have decided on an effective title you can move on to how you want to structure your introduction and conclusion.  An important decision you need to make here is when you want to tell your audience what your personal stance is.  If you state your stance early on you give your audience a clear understanding on what this paper is going to be about and what you will be arguing about.  You could also place your thesis at the end of the introduction, allowing the reader to think about the topic at hand and make a decision for themselves on what point they agree with before knowing your point of view.  Finally if you want your reader to have as much information as possible and to be able to see all sides of the argument before making your side clear, you can wait till the conclusion to state your position and argument.  Each of these methods have different effects and deciding on how you would like your audience to react to them will shape the rest of your paper.

A&B Ch. 15 Skill 1 writing a proposal.

One form of rhetoric that is commonly is known as a proposal.  A proposal, as it may sound, is presenting an idea to a group with the goal of getting people to change and take action on some topic or with some part of a group’s life.  When pondering about how to go about this proposal there are many factors that should be considered.  First is you need to show your audience that there is in fact a problem that needs to be brought up.  This can be one of the hardest parts of the proposal as most people are naturally evasive of change and when they hear that there is something with the way that they have always done something, they tend to want to fight back.  Your goal is to make sure that they understand the problem as clearly as possible.  Once you get your audience convinced that something needs to be changes you can move onto the second thing: presenting a solution.  Whenever a problem is pointed out it is always key to provide a solution.  If you have a person who is constantly saying that there is something wrong but have no idea how to fix the problems then all they will accomplish is annoying people.  You need to show to people that you know what you are talking about, how to fix it and that it’s the best solution out there.  In this portion you could also bring up other people’s proposals for solutions and show either why yours would be more effective or why theirs wouldn’t solve the problem like yours would.  And third, you need to show the people that this will not cost them too much, whether it be time, money, or effort, you need to show to the people that this is be better for them or people in general in the long run.

A&B Ch. 7 skill 4, annotated bibliography

An annotated bibliography is a list of sources for a given topic, to make it easier for a person who has done research or will be doing research to organize and cleanly present their information.  This bibliography is generally organized alphabetically listing each of the sources that the author used in a particular set of research.  There are two main ways to go about an annotated bibliography, first is a summary-only annotation.  This form is where when creating the bibliography the author will focus strictly on presenting the information that the source provides.  It shows the authors use of rhetoric and simply tells you what is in each source.  The other form is called an evaluative annotation.  In this form the author will not only provide a summary of the various sources but will also give their own personal evaluation of the article or the source, writing how they personally feel on the effectiveness of the article.  No matter the style the author chooses, the annotated bibliography shouldn’t exceed 150 words, it should be clear and concise allowing any readers to understand the information clearly.  When writing the bibliography, the author should pay special attention to three topics.  First the rhetorical information, show how the rhetoric was used and how well it was used.  Second, summarize the content of the source.  Tell the reader what is there.  Finally evaluate the source, if the author were doing a summary they would focus on how they would use it in their article or research, if it was exploratory the author would also talk about its strengths, weaknesses and how useful it was.

A&B Ch.1 skill 1 and Ch. 20 skill 1

One of the keys to writing a good research paper is having a good topic or a good question to write about.  If one were to choose a bad question they may find themselves stuck in a trap of having too much information to research or no particular aim.  When deciding on a topic, one of the most important things that one can do is make sure that you are personally interested in the subject.  Look around for things in your life that make you question the method or execution of something.  This could be when talking to friends about sports, when in class discussing a topic or on your free time relaxing on the couch.  Once you find a topic that you are interested in it is good to start thinking of questions about it. For example you could ask “Do kids have access to cellphones too early in life?” Are kids spending too much time on their phones or computers?  Does increased time on computers cause kids to be less patient?  There are many questions one can ask on even a simple topic that can help narrow it down and make sure that you have a good focused topic to research.

When a topic and a question are finally picked out, you can ask yourself some follow up questions to verify to yourself that you have a good topic.  You can ask are you personally interested in this question.  Is the question both problematic and significant? Is the question limited enough for the intended length of your paper?  Is there a reasonable possibility of finding information on this question based on the time and resources you have available?  Is the question appropriate for your level of expertise? If you can answer yes to these questions, you are ready to begin you research paper.

There are various methods to writing a summary of a specific paper.  How you read the paper, the ideas you want to focus on, and how objective you want to be all play crucial roles when writing a summary.

When reading the paper it’s important to know the authors point of view and what kind of audience you want to be.  The two methods of reading a paper are referred to as reading for the grain and against the grain, reading for the grain means acting as the ideal audience for the writers purpose, to be for the idea that is being presented and maybe even thinking of supporting ideas to improve and build upon the idea presented by the author.  Reading against the grain is challenging the author.  For each idea presented you think of a counter or rebuttal, you want to challenge the author and think of all the angles the author doesn’t want the reader to notice.

After reading with and against the grain your next focus should be on the vocabulary that you use, there are many different approaches to the vocabulary but one should be aware of the differences between “The author presents” and “The author argues” making sure that you stay objective is the largest goal when writing a summary.

A&B Ch 3 skill 3.1 and 3.2

When reading a paper, one thing you should look for is the author’s use of rhetoric, or his use or persuasion.  Every paper will in one form or another try to persuade you to think or act in the way that the author wants you to.  Being able to know what tactics the author is using, as well as identifying what he is trying to persuade you to do is key in analyzing any paper.

One of the more basic of tasks that the author will do to curve your thinking in using a very specific angle of vision.  He will put you in the perspective that most effectively conveys his point while masking as much of the opposing view as possible.  This can be done in various ways.  Through effective use of imagery the author will specifically describe things in only the way that he needs you to see them.  In the book it mentions two views of a tundra plain in Alaska.  The first focuses on a company’s point of view, mentioning the temperature, the length of time that it is cold and the flatness of the area.  The opposing view would describe the same area as booming with life, tons of animals as well as other creatures that happily thrive in that area.

A&B Ch 18 Skills 18.2 & 18.4

When writing any form of paper, the vocabulary that you choose to use is of utmost importance.  For example when you are writing a persuasive paper you would choose to use as clear and unambiguous language as possible to make sure that the reader does not get confused and does not lose focus on the topic at hand.  When writing a more open form paper however the vocabulary that you choose to use will be quite a bit different.  Choosing your vocabulary in an open form paper is meant not to convey a point, but a feeling, you want the reader to think about various related topics when you are writing your paper and you want them to think about why they care about your story or experience in the first place.  In a closed form paper you would use a short sentence to quickly and clearly get across a message.  In an open form paper you will be more inclined to add much descriptive language to add another sense to the information that is at hand.  One example that I really like in the A&B book was describing wild Iguanas.  The message that the writer is referring to is that when an Iguana dies the color in its skin goes away.  However the way he describes the iguanas, comparing them to stain glass windows or a heap of precious stones, then how he describes how the color goes away when the iguana dies using words like “the flame is put out” and “dead as a sandbag” adds more of a sense of how it feels to see the color drain away from the iguana.

A&B chapter 18 skill 8.1

When writing a good story, its good to make sure that you know the difference between an effective story and an “and then narrative” and how to make sure that your writing is an effective interesting narrative, one good way of doing this is to follow these 4 rules

1) It must have a depiction of events through time, in short you must have an event that you are trying to convey. This can be a significant event in your life, a lesson that you learned, a fictional tale that you came up with, but you need to be telling your audience something.

2) The story must have connectedness, when writing your story you need to think of what are the important points, how did you get from one point to another and what information is relevant. For example if you were writing a story about preparing in the summer for the next season of football, you would mention the things that you did for that training, but you probably wouldn’t mention the vacations that you went on.

3) It must have tension or conflict, If you are going through the story without some sort of event that you are leading up to, then it doesn’t draw the reader in, it becomes simply a tale to let someone know, when you add tension or conflict, it helps the reader know what it is that they are reading for or what to expect.

4) Resolution, Recognition or retrospective interpretation, One you finish the tension or conflict you need to wrap everything, fix the conflict, come to terms with the ordeal or learn something from the event.

A&B chapter 6 response

Writing a personal narrative is a lot different than writing a persuasive paper in school.  Where the persuasive paper is closed form and driven by the thesis, the personal narrative strives to express its purpose throughout the story interwoven with the story.  When writing the personal narrative, you must also be aware of the flow of the story.  A good story should have a clear beginning slowly rising to the climax of the story, an overarching event that brings out the lesson or the story that the author learned, then lower back down while reflecting on the lesson that was learned.  When writing the personal narrative, it can be really easy to fall into an “and then” trap where the story moves from point to point with little or no clear topic or lesson that the author had learned. 

If you don’t know how to start or don’t know what to do there are 7 easy steps that you can follow to make a quick skeleton of the story.  First you must choose a story that you want to share or an experience where you learned something.  Next you need to determine what your reaction to the story is, what do you want to convey to the reader.  Follow that with questioning that reaction that was biased to the emotions at that time, and focus on what changed with the passage of time.  Next answer the question that you have asked or respond to the reaction.  Fifth analyze the reaction, and question and have different views and other things that were learned.  Finally show what you have learned and the epiphany that came with it, and come to terms with that epiphany.

A&B Ch. 1 section 1-3 Open and closed form writing

In school we are commonly taught proper rules on how to write, what to think about when writing a paper and how to convince people of a certain idea.  This from of writing is commonly referred to as closed form writing.  While it is a good form of writing to learn, especially in formal settings or is various business settings it is not the only method.  There are two general categories for writing, one as we discussed is closed form writing which is a very structured form, usually having a concrete topic and when writing has very little if any deviations from that topic.  The other category of writing is known as open form writing.  This form has less of a concrete structure to it, when reading open form papers some of the style differences will be immediately apparent.  First it will sound more like a story or more creative with its descriptions, trying to get across its topic by utilizing your senses rather than providing a convincing argument.  You may also notice that an open form paper is either lacking a thesis statement, establishing your expectations for the paper, or if there is one it is only there to get you in the right mindset.  When writing a paper there is no wrong on right on what form to use, but rather there is only the message you want to get across and how you want to express it.

A&B Concept 2.1 and Generating and exploring ideas

Perhaps one of the most influential decisions you can make when you are writing a paper is what the paper should be about or the topic.  If the reason for the paper is given to you, for example you feel like a store is treating you unfairly or if the topic is provided like most school assignments, this part of the writing process can be quickly forgotten.  However there are times when a papers subject is not readily apparent, or maybe the subject you initially chose carries little meaning for you.  There are various methods with which you can use to effectively choose a topic that not only will lead to an effective paper, but will also lead you to enjoying the writing of said paper significantly more.

One method you can use to help you more clearly understand the topics in which you will enjoy writing about is free writing.  This method involves sitting down for a length of time and constantly write (or type) constantly, not worrying about spelling, punctuation or of the flow of the document you are writing and simply write what you are thinking.  These sessions ideally would last for at least 10 minutes, which would allow you to not only write what is currently on your mind but also things you are thinking deeply about and things which you can expound on.  This is a method that I personally have seldom used however the few times I have done it have proven to be quite interesting and enlightening on topics that I find interesting.

A&B Chapter 16, skills 16.1, 16.2 and 16.3

One of the most important skills a writer can develop is the ability to revise a paper.  Not only is this a skill that beginning writers utilize to check for spelling mistakes or repeated words but expert writers rely on this technique as a means to organize their thoughts and to improve their papers exponentially.  As one masters this skill the quality of their papers will increase significantly.

First and foremost when revising a paper is knowing the difference between local changes and global changes.  Local changes would be smaller changes to words or sentences that would make that sentence or that paragraph make more sense or to clear up a thought or point.  Global changes often include making changes to entire paragraphs or pages that will affect other parts of the paper and change the overarching construction of the paper.  Whether this is changing and argument in a persuasive paper to have more of an impact, to bringing up a different feature in a technical paper to really “wow” an audience, knowing when and how to make these changes will help one to make more clear and more interesting papers.

Other skills a person should develop when working on revisions is to make sure that you have plenty of time for your paper.  If you have time to sit down, think about what you want to write, revise, have others look at your paper to make sure that you are clearly explaining your meaning then make more drafts and repeat those steps multiple times, you are probably doing alright.  If you are sitting down the night before you need to present your paper (or turn it in) and are just trying to crank it out then chances are there are going to be a lot of missed mistakes and the quality of your paper will suffer.

Chapter 1 Concept 1.1, 1.2

Whenever a person is writing a paper there are various items that person must consider before the pen ever hits the paper.  How are you going to write this paper?  Is it a casual paper or a professional one?  Who is going to be reading my paper?  What kind of language should you use on the paper?  All of these questions will lead a single topic to hundreds of different kinds of papers. I will focus on one of these questions for this post, audience.

The audience that you are writing the paper to is one of the most important things when starting your paper.  Say you are writing a paper to a group of scientists.  When writing this paper you would speak very plainly using any technical terms that you might need to explain your point.  You might even try to use slightly better language then you are used to, to try to impress them.  On the other hand if you were writing the same paper to a general audience you would probably reconsider that idea as your audience may not understand some of the more technical terms, you would try to find a simpler way to express your meaning to help your audience stay involved and stay tuned in while reading through your paper and be able to effectively respond to any of the points that you might have brought up.