Thlog #5 - Halloween! TU TU!

Sometimes I hate writing and seriously struggle with it, because I'm not good at the whole transferring thoughts onto paper thing. Sometimes though, (usually once a year like Halloween or Christmas lol) I like writing and I totally get it. This was week was one of those weeks. I liked that we did the whole moves activity and incorporated it more into PB's. I always notice when I use the same kind of words/phrases when I'm writing and I never knew it had a name. Now whenever I write anything I'm just like oh yeah total Jas move. 

Alsoooooo. Totally didn't like 'learn' it but it comes up in class occasionally. I've been structuring my writing differently and trying to not clump it all together. Reading other people's writing I notice how big of a difference structure makes. If its a shit load of paragraphs or info all clumped in one giant paragraph...I don't wanna read it. However, those dainty paragraphs with sprinkles of meaty paragraphs pieces of writing I'll gladly read over. 

I like that Zack (despite the whole 'be resourceful' thing) tells us tips and tricks in class. The brackets one? Definitely didn't know you could use them in quotes to make sense of it to the reader. I honestly thought they were just for if you put stuff in parentheses that already has parentheses. I think that'll be an effective tool for me to use and help slim down my paragraphs a lot.

The most important thing I think we're learning though is the audience bit. I'm starting to think that mainly everything you do when writing anything is for the reader or your audience. You use quotes, or explain things, or structure lists in bullet form instead of sentence form all. So many different things you do when you're writing and it's all really to help the reader better understand and read your writing. The audience really sets the whole paper from the tone or font to the information you're putting in it. Knowing who you're writing for will give you the basis of an idea of how to start writing. I think overall this will help me better any kind of writing I do from here on out.

PB2B - What'd The Farmer Say To The Cow In The Road? MOOOOve Out The Way!

My last move was called ‘Lemme tell you' and was once again, found in Navigating Genres. Dirk writes, “Although textbooks are directed at students, they are often more formal affairs meant to serve a different purpose than this essay.” The cause behind Dirk’s implication of this move was to eMoves are everywhere, in all kinds of forms. Famous athletes have signature moves they do in games. The White House make moves towards peace with other countries. Dancers perform moves at concerts or recitals. Writers use moves—both big and small—that are meant to have some sort of impact on their reader. Moves are everywhere.

First I’m going to start off with stating which moves I found in the readings from the They Say, I Say appendix.

One of the first moves—and most common among all the readings—I came across was from Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps toward Rhetorical Analysis by Laura Bolin Carroll. Carroll writes, “In other words, the audience should be able to help address the problem.” In this case Carroll was elaborating on what she meant when she said, “The audience should be able to respond to the exigence.” Some readers may not know what the word exigence means, so Carroll uses this move to help her reader comprehend the point she is making. This is an incredibly effective move because it makes it easier for the reader to understand what the author is saying.

            In Navigating Genre’s by Kerry Dirk, Dirk also used the “In other words,” move. Dirk says, “In other words, knowing what a genre is used for can help people accomplish goals, whether that goal be getting a job by knowing how to write a stellar resume, winning a persons heart by writing a romantic love letter, or getting into college by writing an effective personal statement.” Dirk—just as Carroll did—utilizes the “In other words,” move to explain something. Preceding the move, Dirk quotes another writer and he explains in his own words what that writer is trying to say. The effectiveness of this comes from Dirk guiding his reader through the evidence he uses—some readers may not understand the language used by the author Dirk quoted.

Another move I noticed from Navigating Genres by Kerry Dirk was, “Devitt argues that “people do not label a particular story as a joke solely because of formal features but rather because of their perception of the rhetorical action that is occurring” (Writing 11).” The move implicated here was “X argues…” and its used to help support a claim. Dirk is trying to convince his readers that when applying certain genres to their writing they did more than just fill in the blanks. The use of this move is effective because Dirk’s utilizing outside sources to support his own claims, which establishes credibility with the reader and makes them more apt to listen to what he is saying in the text. 

In addition, I found a move in Why Blog? Searching for Writing on the Web by Alex Reid. Reid states, “According to the 2008 National Survey of Student Engagement, the typical first year student writes 92 pages, while average college seniors write 146 pages (21).” Reid applies the “According to X,” move to argue against a claim he quoted, to help explain the point of the text. Reid’s move is effective because like Dirk, Reid is trying to establish credibility with his readers by providing a factual statistic that disputes the claim he quoted as well as supports his own claim. 

The last move I noticed was my favorite because it didn’t happen in the beginning of the sentence, and it comes from How to Read Like a Writer by Mike Bunn. Bunn says, “As one former student, Alison states: “The reading I did in college asked me to go above and beyond, not only in breadth of subject matter, but in depth, with regards to informed analysis and background information on context.” Bunn exercises the use of the “X states…” move in his writing. The purpose of the move was to provide student examples to his readers, to make it relatable in order for them to actually process what he was saying. The use of this move is highly effective to me, if a reader can relate on some personal level to what a writer is saying they are more inclined to be attentive and comprehend what the author’s talking about. 

Now I’ll discuss which “moves” I chose out of the readings and what they’re purpose/effectiveness is within each piece.

The first move I picked I called ‘Reasons’ it is from Navigating Genres by Kerry Dirk. The move is “My purposes are to expand your definition of genre (or to introduce you to a definition for the first time) and to help you start thinking about how genres might apply to your own writing endeavors.” I think the author chose this because he wanted to explain to his readers clearly what the purpose of him writing the piece was. I think this is effective because it gives the reader a direct sense of what they’re about to get into.

Another move I chose was also from Navigating Genres, called ‘Examples’. Dirk states, “For example, I recently needed to write a letter about removing a late fee on a credit card.” I think Dirk uses this to provide samples to his readers of what information he’s giving them. Evidence or examples are very effective because it helps guide the reader and enable them to comprehend the information on a different level.

The third move I chose was called ‘Evidence’ from Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps towards Rhetorical Analysis by Laura Bolin Carroll. Carroll articulates, “In fact, the more art kids get, the more smarter they become in subjects like math and science.” Carroll’s reason for using this move was to provide a fact relative to what she was discussing. This move is effective because evidence provides a bond of trust between the author and reader, in turn making the reader really believe what the writer is saying. 

One of the other moves I chose called ‘Basically’ was also from Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps towards Rhetorical Analysis. Carroll says, “In other words, most of our actions are persuasive in nature.” The purpose of this move is to further explain to the reader’s something being discussed in the text. Carroll’s use of this is effective because it leaves the reader understanding what they’re reading and not confused and uninterested. 

xpand on a previous thought he wrote. Before the quoted move, he is discussing how unusual it is for teachers to write so directly to students. The effectiveness of the move is for Dirk to acknowledge that even though some teachers write to students, his writing to students is from a different level. 
Once I analyzed all of these moves—some writers using different moves, and some using the same—I realized all the various ways they can be implicated. Two writers can use the exact same move and it be for different reasons and effects. Some moves are miniscule, and some are vital to the writing. However, all moves in writing are important to the text in some way.

Thlog #4 - Bust a Move!

This week in class our main focus was "moves." I know what you're thinking, how the hell does something like "moves" correlate with reading. Well it was pretty eye opening. Moves in writing are things a writer does, and usually does often. They don't always have to be big things or little things, but they're like a signature thing that that someone does. At first I totally didn't get what the hell that meant but then I started to think about it in different ways. I use "moves" when I write all the time. I always catch myself using the same phrases or word choice—depending on the audience— when I write, which I guess are a kind of "move." I think the whole point of moves though, are to connect to the reader whether it's on a deep level or a surface type level. I think writer’s have their moves that make the particular piece. I can see how moves would also differ depending on genre and rhetoric. A writer will use different types of moves for a scholarly piece intended for a dean, then they would for their best friend’s birthday post on Instagram. All in all, I guess moves are important to writing. I have a feeling I’ve come across them a lot, but never noticed. I’m gonna be on the look out though.

PB2A - FWB or SCIgen?

Who knew that research paper’s about Feminism and Emerging Sexualities would have so much in common with research paper’s about Development of Expert Systems?
My SCIgen research paper and the paper I chose about Feminism and Friends with Benefits Relationships covered more of the same conventions than you’d think. The SCIgen paper starts off with an abstract and introduction, and follows through with a basic structure¾related work, design of the experiment, implementation, results and analysis, a conclusion, and references. The Feminism research paper followed a structure almost identical to the one from SCIgen. The Feminism paper uses more modern and sophisticated language and tone, while the SCIgen paper takes on a more advanced and technical voice. In the Feminism paper the writers seem to aim for more of a young adult type of audience, where the SCIgen writer aim’s towards an audience of inventor’s or “super nerds.” Both paper’s conduct some type of experiment based on research, and write about their results, but the way the information is presented comes across differently. These papers’ both have graphs/charts and plenty of analysis based on their experiments and results. Overall both papers depict all the conventions you’d expect to get out of a research based paper, yet they differ in the way that they emanate these conventions to their reader. However, the Feminism paper comes across more realistic and indulges in information about current real life situations and relationships. The Feminism paper differs from the SCIgen one in the fact that it reads and relates like it was written by real people. It’s clear in the tone and topic that the Feminism paper was not generated by a computer system about a random topic. It has depth and meaning behind the experiment and information it provides, where the SCIgen paper is about whatever the generator conjured up.

In reading this paper on Feminism and Sexuality, I came across a few things I deemed important. The writers of this piece dedicated a specific part of the paper to discussing “Sexuality in Third Wave Feminism.” The writers talk about how women are unable to seek sexual agency because they are repressed, and how casual relationships or ‘friends with benefits’ are becoming more and more common among young women. It touches on how these relationships “aren’t problematic,” but they may be “evidence of young women’s sexual autonomy and independence.” This shed’s light into the writer’s views on the subject they’re covering and how they feel about the issue. It also provides insight on their experiment and what kind of research they will be conducting.
In addition to this, I think it’s important that the writers are covering a topic that can be relative to it’s readers. It’s incredibly common for people of our age and even older to enter into ‘casual relationships’ with one another. Reader’s will convey interest in reading a paper if they are hooked, and this subject is one of great interest among college students. Like I said previously, it also shows the writers are invested in their research. 
The last thing I noticed that was that they conducted the experiment with college students from age 18-25. This is a pretty typical age for the ‘hookup culture’ and ‘friends with benefits’ relationships to occur. The people the writer’s used in their experiment are important because it demonstrates accuracy. They used the age group and type of young adults that would typically engage in one of these relationships to measure their thesis. This is vital in any kind of research, because an experiment is pointless if not conducted with the most precise components.

Thlog #3 - I love Halloween...but not WP's.

This week in Writing the main thing we worked on was our WP's. We learned kind of the do's and don't's of peer edit and then worked on each other's papers as well as our own. We learned cool tricks to see how our paper ties together and how things match up. We learned the reverse outline to which is pretty cool. I like that way better than regular outlining because I'm more of a just pick a topic and start writing kind of person. I learned a few writing tips, when to use what words, and stuff like that. I like the writing tips we learn because they are things I always messed up in my writing but was never taught the rule to correct the mistake. This week though was interesting. The WP had me stressing majorly because the vagueness of the prompt had me stumped. I wasn't sure how to write my paper, and what specific things to address and it frustrated the hell out of me. Usually I'm pretty good at figuring out prompts and deciding exactly how I want my paper to go. I really struggled with this one though and it was kind of discouraging. I'm hoping that this first WP was kind of a guide for future WP's and that my writing abilities improve within the rest of the quarter. 

Thlog #2 - SpongeBob Yak's

I learn more and more every time I go to Writing. It’s starting to become my favorite class. I learn more about academics and myself in that class than any other class that I have. This week we touched base on a few things. We went over rhetoric, and how that plays into our writing. I think it’s important to understand rhetoric (purpose, audience, tone, context, etc.) because it can help guide you through your writing. If you know (sorry for the cliché) who, what, and why of you're writing then it’ll be easier to get a sense of what genre you’ll need to write for and what you’ll need to say. We also went over the hyphen vs. dash and when to use which. I tend to run my sentences and pack as much in each because they don't make sense to me without all the certain pieces, so I was actually excited to go over that. I know when and why to use which in writing, and hopefully it’ll help improve my long ass sentences. We went over WP #1 and it confused the hell out of me. I totally understand WHAT our writing assignment is, and how to execute it. I just have no idea what topics are gonna end up in my final rough draft and which sources I’m gonna use. This whole first big writing assignment is kind of intimidating and it’ll probably set the tone for the rest of my quarter so hopefully it works out. 

Also you're probably wondering what's up with my title. There was a ton of spongebob pictures and jokes on yik yak the last few days. In case you don't know what yik yak is, it's an app that shows you others post in your location (so for me its like IV and Goleta aka a ton of UCSB students) and its all anonymous. Super entertaining app, kinda similar to Twitter but no one has any idea who posts what. Anyways. Like the ENTIRE yik yak was full of them, they were hilarious. HEY! Maybe I can use yik yaks in my WP. We'll see. 

PB1B - Generators Schmenerators.

Usually when you set out to write a text message you just say whatever you need to, right? So what about the times when you need to write an essay or an article. Sometimes we’re given things to write about or write in a certain form and we don’t know how to go about doing so. There’s a solution to this mind boggling problem. Genre generators. If you're not too sure what in the world a genre generator is, it’s a website that you can enter information into and it will randomly give you examples of the textual genre you're looking for.

SCIgen genre generator typically produces formal, scientific, reports or papers. These are in fact their own kind of genre. The viewer can enter in an author of some sort, and the generator will put forth a well formulated fake essay. The paper’s I came across all seemed very research based. Most of them started with a long complicated title. Following this was some subheadings, and observations or experiments that the author “conducted.” Then they included resources or a sort of bibliography. The papers produced to me, greatly resembled the key conventions of a science project. Nonetheless, it had important aspects of a good research paper.

Pandyland genre generator was mainly outputting comic strips. These were crude and poorly done comic strips, with basic conventions. They all contained mainly pictures or drawings somewhat relative to the joke of the comic. Then they had speech bubbles containing the punch line and characters dialogue. Despite the fact these are basically pictures with minimal text in them, they are still their own genre. Those are your standard comic strips wherever you see them, whether it’s the internet or the Sunday paper. 

Now the Memegenerator website had a genre of text that was incredibly similar to me, with the comic genre generator. Meme’s are pretty much a fancy word for funny pictures with clever or popular sayings on them used for arguments or laughter. Oh the irony. Back to the point, meme’s start off with pictures, usually funny. Then the writer adds words onto them, it can be a quote, joke, something mean. You can put whatever you want to see on a meme, but most of the time people make supportive or humorous comments on this one.  

The three generators we were told to play around with on the internet dispersed three very different types of textual genre’s. The comic strips and memes shared the conventions that each  would be constructed using pictures, as well as jokes written on them. Some of the memes and comic book strips also shared the convention that the words and pictures didn't always match. The SCIgen generator didn’t necessarily share any conventions with the other two generators aside from the fact that it produces fake examples of the text. 

All in all, as comical as these websites were to look at, they can be very helpful. If someone who doesn't understand the genre they’re writing for, these kinds of websites can be learning tools. The generators work as examples in a way. They can be a little formal or have zero connection between what it talks about in the text; however, when you are stuck with writing a research paper, and have no idea how to execute such a task, generators can help you. These will give someone who does understand genre a general idea of what it is. These can map out how you write for that specific genre, what kind of things to write, and what resources to include. Genre generators can be a good laugh, but they can also be real examples for someone on how to go about writing in a certain textual genre. 

PB1A - or PB & J?

I’ve always loved being in the kitchen. Since I was a kid I was big on baking and making food for people. I’d spend hours making different types of foods or sweets for my friends and family, but making the same things all the time got boring really fast. So I turned to cookbooks. In case you don’t know what a cookbook is, I’ll give you a brief idea. They’re books full of recipes, usually written by popular chef’s. There’s cookbooks for just about any type of dish you want to make, whether its a breakfast, lunch, dinner, or dessert kind of food. There’s also themed cookbooks that are strictly a certain culture’s kind of food. 

Cookbooks generally have a name for whatever kind of food they’re giving a recipe for. Sometimes the name is plain and simple, and sometimes it’s clever. Following whatever the name of the food is, some cookbooks will offer a small description of what it is. It’s usually to hype up the dish, and make it sound enticing. Not all books have this, but occasionally some do. I’m sure you can guess what comes after these part’s of the text. Recipes. The cookbook will have step by step instructions on how to prep what you're making. Depending on what type of food it is will determine the content of the recipe. Baked goods more so than others contain raw ingredients in specific measurements that you’d mix together. On the other hand if you're cooking something like steak, it might say to tenderize and marinade the meat, and give a list of spices to include in the marinade. Then it’ll say what appliances you’ll have to prep in order to actually cook the food. After the prep part of the recipe, the instructions will give cooking directions on how to cook the food and how long to cook it. For chocolate chip cookies, you’d have to preheat you're oven to 375 degrees, and bake them for 9 to 11 minutes. For steak, you could fry it in a pan on the stove, or grill it on a barbecue until it’s done to your liking. Some cookbooks also might provide ways to check if your dish is finished cooking or not. They also include how many people the amount of ingredients in the recipe will provide for, and how many servings each will get. Cookbooks can also have storage information. If you can’t finish the amount of food you made, it’ll tell you the place, length of time, and dishes/bags in which you can store it. 

These are just basic things every cookbook usually has. However, some cookbooks have conventions that other’s do not. You could have one book that’s all about cookies and the different types you can make, but another book might be about all kinds of Thai foods ranging from breakfast to dessert. It all just depends on what you want to make. 

Thlog #1 - Nerdy and Cheesy

The last thing I expected to get out of writing in the first week was that I'd actually enjoy the class. I've always had a love/hate relationship with writing, it's gotten me through some of the worst times and been the reason behind some of the worst times. Nonetheless, two classes into this course and it’s what I look forward to Monday’s and Wednesday’s. This first week in Writing 2 we’ve covered a considerable amount of thing’s already. Zack’s opened my eyes to a whole new meaning of the word genre and what it entails. I used to think there was just the basics and then sub genre’s within them, like horror; drama; romance; comedy; you know Netflix movie genres. There’s all kinds of other genres that don’t just apply to the theme of what you’re writing, reading, watching, or listening to. Get this...every piece of writing belongs to a genre OF THAT WRITING! Kind of confusing I know, but basically from tweets to school essays to the texts on your cell phone, those are all actually genres of writing. I think that’s really cool though, it makes everything you write or read unique. Another thing about genre’s we touched base on is that not every genre has all the conventions of that specific genre, which makes sense. Not every text message you receive is like the average text but that doesn’t mean it’s not a text message. The other subject we started working on was “1st order thinking” and “2nd order thinking.” 1st order thinking is like free writing a little bit, it’s letting the words flow and just writing for YOU. 2nd order thinking is when you formulate and edit your thoughts, and it’s a more formal type of writing. This was the most useful thing I’ve done in class since I started college. Truth time here: I’m kind of a crummy writer. I write using 1st order thinking sometimes, sometimes I write using 2nd order thinking, and it’s all based on how I feel like writing when I do it. So when we learned what exactly those kinds of “thinkings” are, when to use which, and how they affect can your writing process and writing itself I was a little ecstatic. I can see these topics, along with the other things we’ll learn in the next couple months being very beneficial to not only my writing in this class, but my writing in the rest of my academic career and life.