In my past writings I’ve learned quite a lot about myself and how I think. I have
come to the conclusion that I think way faster than I type. My words never come out
right on paper, as they seem to do in my head. My writings are always too wordy
and confusing. I have a major problem with flow and communication with the reader.
Because of this I feel I lose the reader right away in my writings. Academic writings
in my past have been very structured with no room for wiggle. They were very rigid
and harshly graded, and I never seemed to do well. Because of this I felt the need to
add more words to help explain what it was I was trying to say. This did not help the
situation. The introduction, body, and concluding paragraphs were all composed of strict
guidelines in sentence numbering, content and word usage. My school tried to keep
writings strictly academic with no opinions or “voice,” added. This way of writing made it
very hard for me to understand what it was to keep your feelings out of your essays.
I am excited to see that in this class there is a lot of voice and opinion added into
our writing. The commentary and assessments we give help me to voice what it is I am
trying to say in my own words rather than just using sources from the articles. Hopefully
this all will then help with my wording issues in my essays. I used the MLA format in the
past, so I am familiar with it, my citations are not always completely accurate but are
pretty close.
As for research and source use, I was nowhere as educated about the subject as
I am now. Before I was a big “Googler”. The Google search engine was my best friend,
I didn’t know of any other research basis to use. Credibility wasn’t a huge issue with
my past writings. My sources were mostly online sites with information that could have
been completely made up. Articles seemed to be the majority of my citations because
they were the most legitimate resources I could find through Google. Citing sources
was never a big issue as well. Easybib went hand in hand with Google in my writings.
Plugging in the URL and getting the citations out was an easy as copying and pasting it
in my bibliography. I’ve now discovered that’s not how it’s done. I’m sad to say Google
has now been replaced. The online Albersens Library is my new best friend forever. I
now can access articles that are peer reviewed and academically accepted.
I’ve learned now almost all I have learned is not correct. Luckily I have
the help of peer advisers to correct my flaws. Tiana mentions in my first extended
bibliography that I should “Use Quote”. This was very helpful to me. I went a whole
writing without one quotation! I talked about the authors list of many factors that low
income families struggle with” and quoted none of them. I then used the comments to
motivate me and quote how it’s the, “low-cost housing, primarily funded by the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development (Pratt, 4)” that the people struggle with
because, “there are long waiting lists for these programs (Pratt, 4)”
It was suggested to me that I go “more into detail about whether you thought
it was bias or not” in my assessment of the article. I used the, “THREE TOOLS TO
IMPROVE YOUR READING (Rossenwasser, 3)” to help me with my improvement of
this. My problem with not going into enough depth with the bias issue of the article was
because I did not know whether or not it was bias or was not bias. The steps improve
my reading helped me to understand what it was the writer was trying portray and
then allowed me to assess whether or not I found their opinion to by bias or not. With
these readings I then discovered that the author was not being bias in his writings. The
document was full of facts and numbers that helped support not just his hypothesis but
what really goes on in families with social assistances.
It is very helpful to have such easy access to the online text to refer back to, to
guide us through the process. Having learned to write the way I did, the understanding
of the reading was not as important as just getting the quotes you needed to prove
the point. In this class we have to understand every aspect of the reading. We are not
writing to just prove a point, but to analyze reflect and conclude. If you have problems
connecting with the author on what they are writing your going to have problems trying
to write the extended bibliography. This has been a very good learning experience
for me in that way. By finding whether or not it is bias you have to look at the article
from every angle and through different a “lens’” as Rossenwasser explains. This lens
idea is that to, “fully explore its usefulness for explaining features of your subject”
(Rossenwasser, 9). Your using the whole article when your doing your writings, not just
a couple quotes but the mood and tones of the author and readers as well.
Overall I feel so far I’ve learned to access databases and methods never
presented to me before. These will help me to clear up my writing and make it more
fluid. The “lens” and “tools to improve reading” focus my thinking on the writing as a
whole and making sense of it all. The extended bibliographies really opened up my
mind too new ways of analyzing everything I read and incorporating it into my writing.
CITED
Rossenwasser, David, and Jill Stephen. Reading Analytically. Print.
come to the conclusion that I think way faster than I type. My words never come out
right on paper, as they seem to do in my head. My writings are always too wordy
and confusing. I have a major problem with flow and communication with the reader.
Because of this I feel I lose the reader right away in my writings. Academic writings
in my past have been very structured with no room for wiggle. They were very rigid
and harshly graded, and I never seemed to do well. Because of this I felt the need to
add more words to help explain what it was I was trying to say. This did not help the
situation. The introduction, body, and concluding paragraphs were all composed of strict
guidelines in sentence numbering, content and word usage. My school tried to keep
writings strictly academic with no opinions or “voice,” added. This way of writing made it
very hard for me to understand what it was to keep your feelings out of your essays.
I am excited to see that in this class there is a lot of voice and opinion added into
our writing. The commentary and assessments we give help me to voice what it is I am
trying to say in my own words rather than just using sources from the articles. Hopefully
this all will then help with my wording issues in my essays. I used the MLA format in the
past, so I am familiar with it, my citations are not always completely accurate but are
pretty close.
As for research and source use, I was nowhere as educated about the subject as
I am now. Before I was a big “Googler”. The Google search engine was my best friend,
I didn’t know of any other research basis to use. Credibility wasn’t a huge issue with
my past writings. My sources were mostly online sites with information that could have
been completely made up. Articles seemed to be the majority of my citations because
they were the most legitimate resources I could find through Google. Citing sources
was never a big issue as well. Easybib went hand in hand with Google in my writings.
Plugging in the URL and getting the citations out was an easy as copying and pasting it
in my bibliography. I’ve now discovered that’s not how it’s done. I’m sad to say Google
has now been replaced. The online Albersens Library is my new best friend forever. I
now can access articles that are peer reviewed and academically accepted.
I’ve learned now almost all I have learned is not correct. Luckily I have
the help of peer advisers to correct my flaws. Tiana mentions in my first extended
bibliography that I should “Use Quote”. This was very helpful to me. I went a whole
writing without one quotation! I talked about the authors list of many factors that low
income families struggle with” and quoted none of them. I then used the comments to
motivate me and quote how it’s the, “low-cost housing, primarily funded by the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development (Pratt, 4)” that the people struggle with
because, “there are long waiting lists for these programs (Pratt, 4)”
It was suggested to me that I go “more into detail about whether you thought
it was bias or not” in my assessment of the article. I used the, “THREE TOOLS TO
IMPROVE YOUR READING (Rossenwasser, 3)” to help me with my improvement of
this. My problem with not going into enough depth with the bias issue of the article was
because I did not know whether or not it was bias or was not bias. The steps improve
my reading helped me to understand what it was the writer was trying portray and
then allowed me to assess whether or not I found their opinion to by bias or not. With
these readings I then discovered that the author was not being bias in his writings. The
document was full of facts and numbers that helped support not just his hypothesis but
what really goes on in families with social assistances.
It is very helpful to have such easy access to the online text to refer back to, to
guide us through the process. Having learned to write the way I did, the understanding
of the reading was not as important as just getting the quotes you needed to prove
the point. In this class we have to understand every aspect of the reading. We are not
writing to just prove a point, but to analyze reflect and conclude. If you have problems
connecting with the author on what they are writing your going to have problems trying
to write the extended bibliography. This has been a very good learning experience
for me in that way. By finding whether or not it is bias you have to look at the article
from every angle and through different a “lens’” as Rossenwasser explains. This lens
idea is that to, “fully explore its usefulness for explaining features of your subject”
(Rossenwasser, 9). Your using the whole article when your doing your writings, not just
a couple quotes but the mood and tones of the author and readers as well.
Overall I feel so far I’ve learned to access databases and methods never
presented to me before. These will help me to clear up my writing and make it more
fluid. The “lens” and “tools to improve reading” focus my thinking on the writing as a
whole and making sense of it all. The extended bibliographies really opened up my
mind too new ways of analyzing everything I read and incorporating it into my writing.
CITED
Rossenwasser, David, and Jill Stephen. Reading Analytically. Print.
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