Winsor

The article "Joining the Engineering Community: How Do Novices Learn to Write Like Engineers?" was written by Dorothy Winsor. She from Iowa State University, where she had focused on the writing and grammar of engineers. She studied carefully people writing and believed that if you wanted to understand how writing and texts supported or mediated a activity, you just have to pay close attention to what the texts actually do in making the activity. The article touches on how people learn to write. It puts the thought out that that if people learn to write by copying someone else, thus learning how to write, when will they be able to put forth they own original work, if at all? The article starts off with her preliminary study of students who alternated in 3 month cycles of full time work and school. She studied their writing and found that it seemed like a lot of their learning and experience had come from "Sink-Or-Swim" situations. They went spoon fed through their process, instead they were giving the tools and told how to do it, then they were completely on their own.
After this, she gives some of the students comments. It seemed like the students were in favor of the models, because they were used to seeing it or something similar to it at their own work. Next, She goes over the implications of her study. She felt, although the comments and statistics were interesting, that they raise more questions than they answered. The article talks about H.M. Collings and how he feels that skill like learning cannot be taught through a strict set of rules. Instead, he believes that such knowledge is gained through contact of the expert and the novice. Basically, He's saying that if you take a person who has only read about working on cars and a person who was trained by a expert on working on cars, the person who was trained by the expert will have more skill.
After this, She ends the article. But before she does, she throws a couple of the un answered questions out there, saying that she hopes to answer them, eventually.

WORD COUNT: 362

Mapping The Writing Lives of First Year College Students

A group of 2,110 college freshman were surveyed. Of the 2,110 that were surveyed, 1366 completed the survey. The survey tried to figure out how they wrote and studied what motivated them to write. A majority of the students said that texting was their most used form of writing. Only a very small few said they used email as their major form of writing. I feel this is still true if not more true, now. I text my friends. I rarely call because it takes time and the right environment where as a text can be sent at anytime. And obviously I'm not going to write them a letter and mail it to them. The only time I really use anything other than texting is to talk to my Professors. I can't text them, so email has to be the way of communication. But, most students have their email linked through their phone or maybe through a more frequently used email than their school email so in a way, it's kind of like texting. This is a good research paper to look at going into our next paper. It shows another way to write a research paper, it even points out why the answers could be a bit biased at the end.

Texting and Writing

This was an interesting article because it's relevant! Almost everyone texts nowadays. It's the easy way to communicate quickly and efficiently. This article talks about if texting has an impact on how kids write. I believe that texting used to be A LOT worse. I remember when I first got my first cell phone everything was abbreviated. "How R U" and "Wats up?". Stuff that isn't even that long to begin with! But now that I'm older it seems like that has dissipated a bit. Atleast everyone I text now form complete sentences and (Thanks to Autocorrect) have correctly spelling. You could say this is because I'm older, but even my twelve year old sister uses proper grammar when texting, as well. So, I'd say that texting can definitely have a effect on our spelling, because spelling needs to be practiced or else we get rusty and become bad spellers. But overall, I don't think it really changes the way we write, necessarily. Even Cullington found in her research of college and high school level students that although they did use abbreviations quite frequently they did not use them in formal writing. This is important to point out, because it shows there is a distinct line between texting and writing and it is understood that some things are acceptable in Texting but not in Writing. I feel that maybe the younger kids, who are getting their first cell phones are the most likely to write improperly because it seems cool to them above all else. But, like everything if they grow up a bit they'll see theres really nothing cool about it and then it will be cool to fully form the sentences because they'll soon encounter... The Grammar Nazis.

Baron

Most of the articles we've had to read for this class have been slightly boring. Maybe Boring isn't the right word.. they were just hard to get through. If you started off motivated to read the article, a couple paragraphs in that feeling was gone. Atleast that was my problem. But this article was pretty interesting! It basically talked about how writing started off, and the steady evolution of how we write up until modern day with laptops/computers. One of the last things he touched on in his article was spell check. He said that at first teachers didn't tell the students about it, in fear that they would forget how to spell. Once the hackers found it and how to use it, nowadays teachers get mad if you don't run spell check on your finished paper. While I agree there is no reason not to use it, it's there, it's gonna be there regardless of how YOU feel about it, so use it! But at the same time, it does cut down on the practice we get when it comes to spelling. It's kind of like if someone was taught how to drive, then after learning and becoming good at it, was driven around for years without having to drive again. Ofcourse they are going to be rusty and maybe even downright terrible. A lot of people seem to think it's going to get to the point where spell check and auto correct will be put aside to help people become better spellers, but I think the exact opposite. I think technology will continue to make mankind more and more lazy. Speech to Text is a big thing at the moment,  maybe in the future we won't even write anymore? Maybe we'll just speak it and the computer or whatever will do the rest. And with the was touch screens have blew up in the past 10 or so years, it could all be typing on a touch screen device, which I can only speak for myself, but I don't consider that writing. Then again, it's actually not too different from typing it out. But what do I know?Honestly, if I don't know how to spell a word, 9 times out of 10 I don't have to worry because I have auto correct on my phone and spell check on my laptop. Worst case scenario: I google it.



Word Count:400

My Writing Process

My writing process is very flexible. I can write in my room, in class, or at work. I prefer to be at home though. I usually sit in my bed with my laptop in front of me and I usually have something going on through YouTube which plays through my headset. I like music while I write, it helps me not get distracted. Classical music is the easiest to write with but sometimes I mix it up with music from the 60's (The best music of all time). I don't usually eat when I'm writing so I won't get my laptop dirty or greasy. I usually have something to drink nearby, most of the time sweet tea. For some strange reason I prefer to have my fan on while I write. If I'm not on YouTube, I'll just have my T.V on. Some random comedy most of the time such as Pineapple Express or South Park. But I can never under any circumstances have on Beavis and Butthead while trying to write. It is hands down the easiest way for me to get distracted and I try to stray away from it when I'm even thinking about writing.  I typically write late at night sometimes early into the morning. Somewhere around 12:30 AM to 4 AM. I find this the easiest time to write. I think it is because everyone in my house is asleep and the neighborhood is quiet except for the occasional police siren (Well, more than occasional we do live in Memphis after all). My tool for writing is the Pages program on a Macbook Pro laptop. Before Pages and Mac I used a windows computer and Microsoft Word, but I definitely prefer Pages and the Mac. I think would reason I like it more is because the keys on the keyboard are backlit. Pretty far out. I don't have any specific way of writing my essays. I basically just write what comes to mind for the first draft then I edit and revise until I get the rough draft finalized into what I originally wanted/needed.

Rose QDJ 1,2 and 4

1. "A good essay always grabs the readers attention immediately"- This is the one that I get hung up on. I'll spend too much time trying to figure out what someone else would find interesting and end up getting bored and my mind wanders off topic.
2. The Blockers are more strict where the Non Blockers are much more relaxed. The blockers are strict by going by the books and the Non Blockers is more "Go with the flow".
4.Not being overly strict would be the most important to me. If it is really strict and I'm constantly checking for errors it will be a lot harder than just writing what comes to me. Going with the flow keeps things steady and Checking everything while doing it can clog up the process.

Childhood Reading

        My favorite book to read as a kid when I was first learning to read was probably "Hank The Cowdog". It was easy to read and it was all about a dog who solved crimes. The older I got, the more I realized how absurd it was, but when I was younger I never thought about it. Hank considered himself  "Head of Ranch Security", but in reality his bark was bigger than his bite. None of my friends read this book but most of my friends didn't read at all. The Hank the Cowdog phase was an important one in my development of reading skills because it showed me that books didn't have to be boring like I thought all my school text books were. It showed me that books that interested me could be Funny, Scary, Sad, Or Suspenseful. It always showed me that I could receive the same entertainment from reading that I could from watching t.v, while educating myself more at the same time. While other kids were watching some pointless t.v shows, I could further my reading ability while getting the same enjoyment out of it that they were, but also benefiting in more ways than one. The setting was similar to that of which I lived, so I could look at nearly any mutt that I saw and could picture it being Hank undercover. The books were a stepping stone to the bigger and more complex books that would come later in my life. The Hank the Cowdog books taught me not only to read, but to read proficiently and to love reading. I believe most people who love to read have this kind of milestone book. The Introductory Book. Although I don't read books anything like this now, No westerns or Crime books at all, I still think about this book as the book that opened up my love of reading and my ability to read.

"Bootstraps: From an Academic of Color"

    I believe he switches the perspective to describe different things. The third person perspective seems to deal more with the setting and the outlook on situations. The first person perspective seems to deal more with personal things and his feelings about people and his college work. I was taught that is in incorrect to switch back and forth in perspective in writing. You wouldn't write a paper and continuously switch up your stance on an argument. My teachers always stressed continuity. 

Villanueva defines Rhetoric as the conscious use of language. He says that Rhetoric would include everything that is conveyed through language. I've never tried imitating the writing moves of others, but of course I've observed them. In order to do the kind of imitation Villanueva describes you would have to study a writers work and see how they write in order to be more like them. He talked about doing this with professors, because he felt if he wrote like them maybe they would like it more or understand it easier. I understand completely where Villanueva is coming from about the writing just coming to him. I find it much easier to just start writing about a topic then go back through and edit things out or in, rather than go through all the phases. I can write whatever comes to mind, then go back and put things in or take things out as I see fit. This way I write the first thing that comes to mind while the topic is still fresh and I can always come back to it when new ideas emerge. I suppose it isn't too different from just going through the steps of writing an essay, but this way has always just seemed easier to me. I guess it depends on how you're taught to do it and also just what you feel more comfortable with. 

"Skills to be learned"

There are many skills that I need to work on when it comes to my writing skills. I'd say the first is sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, spelling and appropriate documentation(MLA). I've always had trouble remembering the rules for writing and never have been very good at writing essays. Seeing as writing essays is a very big part of College this will be a very important skill for me to become more familiar with. The second skill I need to improve on is the ability to critique my own and others writing. I have a hard time critiquing my own work much less others. I didn't really have any classes in high school were writing essays happened often and we never compared essays or worked in groups. So, this skill is another I could definitely use some improvement in. The third skill I need to improve on would be how to compose a effectively organized essay that focuses on a clear focus and that develops major points that support its main idea(s) in reasonable effective ways. I had a bad habit of getting very off topic very quickly and seeing this carries over into my writing this could have a very bad impact on the overall merit of my essays. Also like I said I never had a high school class that focused very much on writing so I need to improve my essay writing skills in any way possible. The fourth skill I need to improve on would be Adopting appropriate voice, tone, and level of formality. This skill is one I know almost nothing about. I understand that different writing has to be tackled in different ways, but I've never done this before.  The Fifth and final skill I need to improve would be the ability to discover, develop, and explain ideas through writing processes that include generating, planning, revising, editing, and proofreading multiple drafts of text. This skill would be important to improve upon because the stages of writing a essay are each important to the final product. These are the skills that I need to and look forward to improving this semester in English 1010.