Jesus Gutierrez

RWS 1302 Fall 2016

[jgutierrez22-blog]

Advice for Future Students

Hey future RWS 1302 students! For this class, I really advice for you to stay focused and don’t forget the assignments! I know it’s only once a week and it might not seem important, but if you don’t pay attention and commit to doing the homework, you are going to have a hard time. That was my mistake at the beginning of the semester and I missed a few homework assignments. But after that I disciplined myself and took responsibility.

Don’t panic about Tumblr! At first, I was really not excited about using Tumblr, but it really is very easy to use and very friendly as it helps a lot to do assignments instead of having another way or using blackboard. Also, it already puts everything together for the final E-Portfolio. 

Attend class and be nice to your respective instructor!

Good luck! 

[jgutierrez22-blog]

Week 2 Reading Response

This week’s reading response talks about the differences between genres. Different genres have a different impact on everything. When analyzing different topics, we can look at an article, online dairy, journal, book, image, website, etc. Emerging personal media genres are a new genre that is being used for certain reasons. Authors strategically place images or certain paragraphs where they do to attract their readers.

(I use this GIF because this is the way I celebrate that the semester is about to end and I get a chance to replace a 0 for extra credit)

We have to be able to recognize the different types of genres and see which one fits better for our different types of assignments and analyzing jobs. An online dairy may be very different from a real dairy. Expressions and types of handwriting will show how different insights of information. 

The readings from Chapters 1 and 2 from the WIT book focus on writing transfer and research and writing as a process. Knowledge and preparation show us that writing is something to take very seriously. We need to evolve as better writers and make sure that we can engage an audience. These Chapters are a very important tool to move forward with the Genre Analysis.

As we look at different genres and looking at research and writing as a process, I evaluate how these tools will help me in the future in my Business Career. These aspects can be looked in a business standpoint to be really important as analyzing different genres and writing about them can be transferred as an evaluative measure for a manager or supervisor that wants to have better performance and quality, always looking for ways to get better and increase profits and productivity. 

[jgutierrez22-blog]

Course Reading Reflection

For this RWS 1302 course, I was expecting a more boring and “not engaging” type of course. I thought the reading would be ineffective and time consuming, but I was really surprised. The reading really gave me some new insights about analyzing, choosing sources, being literate, new writing places and multimodal texts. Blogs and social media are really an emerging medium for writing and reaching readers. The types of analyzing and multimodal texts in blogs or social media are the two main things from this semester that I believe will help me in the future as I develop in my business career. I also really appreciate how the readings helped lead up to the major assignments by giving other perspectives and suggestions for a more effective assignment. As the semester progressed, I started to take a more exciting approach towards the reading because I knew they would really help me out for the major assignments. I don't believe any of the reading were a negative player for our development. Overall the readings were all very interesting and helpful, but my favorite in Yancey’s Article. With Yancey’s article I realized how writing and reading has evolved from the time I was in grade school to today. Teaching really has to change to give students a better understanding of the new ways to be more effective with multimodal texts and use of blogs and social media. (New Technologies). To add to the course, I think it would be interesting to add a certain article or case where an evaluation of every aspect could be created. Analyzing and creating summaries would be interesting to see how students understand.

[jgutierrez22-blog]

Visual Argument Reflection

For my Visual Argument, I decided to create a poster to advocate reflection and create awareness against the corruption occurring in Mexico. I wanted to “reach” out to the Mexican public to create a movement for a better economy and a better country. My sources and knowledge from the Literature Review helped me get the adequate facts for the poster. The purpose of the assignment was to create a research poster, but my poster had minimal information and was more intended for the majority of Mexicans without education. My poster was more rhetoric focused and therefore why I think it could be more effective to really convince the people in Mexico. The rhetorical aspect is something I really want to take with me as my career progresses, for entrepreneurial and maybe even marketing aspects. I did not met the criteria completely because I focused more on being rhetoric. My presentation was very effective as I felt I really gave a good insight of my purpose and intended audience.

[jgutierrez22-blog]

Literature Review Reflection

As the semester progressed, my topic for the Literature Review changed a bit to Corruption in Mexico. I still analyzed this topic from a business standpoint to see how companies and policies in this country work for a potential career destination. Prior to completing this assignment I had a pretty good idea that corruption is a big problem in Mexico and is holding the country back to becoming a more powerful economy. I consider this to be my best assignment by meeting the criteria and fulfilling the purpose. As I mentioned before, this assignment gave me a real insight of how the world of business works in Mexico. The HOLY CRAAP video really helped me to choose sources and answer my research questions more effectively. I think my topic was very unique as I really engaged in my writing process. 

[jgutierrez22-blog]

Genre Analysis Reflection

My Genre Analysis was about the impacts of new Technology in Business. Prior to completing this assignment, my knowledge about this topic was somewhat average. I researched and compared scholarly articles with websites and images. I believe I did fulfill the purpose and met the criteria of the assignment by distinguishing the different genres and acknowledging the ethos, pathos, and logos. I learned how each type of genre is effective in their own way and also how technology has a very important impact in business transactions today. I would like to continue to be able to distinguish what genres work best for different situations as I move on in my career. My writing and revision processes were really effective as I believe I did this assignment to my best potential. The readings on types of analysis for Week 3 really helped me out to complete this assignment effectively.

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W15 - Tumblr Post (Reading Response)

In this article it seems as if they are explaining the advantages and disadvantages of Developing Multimodal Academic Literacies among College Freshmen. They are able to develop it in many ways, and I have pulled two excerpts from the article to show the intent. “ I’m sure we still don’t know everything GarageBand can do! Even with our limited knowledge, we made a pretty awesome beat mix. We couldn’t stop listening to it and although some of the parts are a little rough still, we’re very excited about it….I ended up playing around with the beat for almost 2 hours and came out of it with less than 2 minutes of music…I’m actually not even sure if it’s a minute long. This made me think about how long it must take DJs to make music on actual turntable.” This especially related to me because I am a DJ as mentioned in posts long ago and it is very touching to see the difficulty of turntablism being appreciated. Even starting in college as freshman is really awesome to see skills being developed in that time span. As mentioned in the article, while presented these different types of software for Dj-ing, students learned to appreciate what was going on even more because of the struggle that they were put through for only 30 minutes. Also stated, “academic settings allow students to explore what happens when different kinds of cultural knowledges encounter a range of genres, modes, and approaches for presenting information. As such, the use of multimodal texts within academic literacies may open up ways of thinking not ordinarily afforded by traditional texts.” This exactly sums up the experience of doing something new especially while completing tumblr and implementing gifs to show feelings. This connects to my discipline because in electrical engineering equipment and sound for DJ’s is actually studied in the field, using signal processing and etc. It gains a more robust understanding because we have been using it for a long time doing these tumblr posts. 

This is how most college freshman feel when teachers try to develop skills for them. 

[jgutierrez22-blog]

This article was very interesting for us the read and analyze. The evolution of students becoming more effective writers is very compelling as multimodal texts are the new wave of writing. Being literate is very important for college students and now also being able to manage blogs and social media for almost any field of study. I find it pretty cool that you are working your way to be a DJ. My cousin is trying that too! And with the correlation of how music uses new means and sounds, this is very important for you to adapt to your audiences and make new sounds.

[tonykwan-rws1302-blog]

AK Tumblr Reflection

I’ll admit that when I first learned that we would be using Tumblr as part of the class, I rolled my eyes, and sighed in disappointment and frustration. I have always been a minimal online footprint kind of person, and having to sign up for yet another social media platform was not something I looked forward too. However, upon using Tumblr, I found that I enjoyed it quite a bit (and most important, it was a minimalist design!!).

(OMG! Tumblr is AWESOME!!!)

I feel that Tumblr is a great tool, easy to use, with near instant feedback. Being able to see everyone else’s work helps to expand the thought process. Being a regular platform, it comes with its own app that allows notifications, which is also great. I hate the idea of going through the tedious process of logging into Blackboard, navigating to the appropriate section just to check either for messages, or instructor feedback. It takes too long, and is especially trying when you have no regular internet access. On the other hand, having a dedicated app works great with mobile internet.

(Me trying to upload to Blackboard…with mobile internet)

One thing I would change about the experience is perhaps more guidance on how the writings should be. I think there should be more emphasis on personal expression/interpretation of the readings. It just seemed like everyone was writing the same thing for every assignment, with some exceptions of course. More like Cliff notes than an individual response to the reading.

With regards to my thoughts on writing and rhetoric since the beginning of the semester, I don’t think much has changed. My understanding has grown of course. However, I still believe that rhetoric is in some ways a responsibility. I’ve observed many people, both in the military and civilian context, trying to convey important concepts, but failing because they did not tailor their presentation to the audience or the situation. In the military side, most of this type of training involved life or death circumstances, and so the importance of properly conveying information, whether verbally, or visually, was ingrained in me. It is the difference between making someone a bullet sponge, or a combat effective asset.

The term “multimodality” is a new term I learned for this semester. I never put too much thought on the idea before, of EFFECTIVELY using visuals (gifs, pics, vids) to reinforce the writing. To me, it was more a byproduct of the writing, like a chart to match the statistics you are citing. A picture…for the sake of putting a picture there. But now I understand more how to integrate the two, making the overall message more effective. Of course, this goes back to my comments on being better at teaching people stuff.

The following are my favorite posts:

Intro Post: Who Am I?

https://tonykwan-rws1302.tumblr.com/post/149443392032/who-am-i

This was the first post where I openly expressed myself. I wrote several previous drafts, but decided to break from the traditional template that everyone else seemed to be following and talked about things I felt made me who I was. It also made me realize that sometimes people need more background to understand, and perhaps I should have stuck with the standard template after all. This was a pivotal learning experience.

Reading Response Week 3:

https://tonykwan-rws1302.tumblr.com/post/149962087572/ak-w3-reading-response

I like this post because it’s when I first start to relate my life to the readings, making it more personal. I think if you cannot connect things to your life, then you are either very young, or do not truly understand what you are learning. So this represents another turning point to my writing style.

Reading Response Week 7:

https://tonykwan-rws1302.tumblr.com/post/151255813552/ak-w7-read-response

This chapter was about summary. This one resonated with me because having spent over a decade in the military, the concept of brevity, and being able to convey a lot of information effectively in the shortest time possible, was very important. A flashbulb memory for me was during my first security drill during the 2nd month I was stationed on my ship. My team leader (who would become my best friend) took me under his wing, and showed me how to use an unfamiliar weapon system in less than 10 seconds, while a simulated attack was happening. I didn’t know any of the technical specifications of that particular weapon, but I was combat effective! I realize this means nothing to most of you, but for me, it drastically changed my perspective about how to train and teach others. Also, I know summary in this case was meant to be for a different context, but to me it’s the same.

[jgutierrez22-blog]

I can completely relate to you and your thoughts about Tumblr at first. I was really disappointed with this because like you I really wasn’t looking forward to sign up for a new social media website. Teachers and professors in other classes do this and it becomes a hassle juggling around blackboard and other websites. Once I started getting familiar with Tumblr, everything changed. I realized that it was very easy and fun to use. Also, sharing the links of our posts on Blackboard is not hard at all once you get the hang of it. I found your posts to be really entertaining and well done. Now lets wrap up the semester and try to do our best!

[jgutierrez22-blog]

Reflection Post

I guess we are about to finish the semester and I can honestly say that my perspectives about writing and being rhetoric did change somehow along the way. At the beginning, my writing I believe was strong, but there were still some rhetoric elements missing to it. Now, I see new perspectives in ways to attract readers. I also have a better understanding of the importance social media and blogs are to reach new audiences and have your message delivered no matter your field of study. Multimodality is very important too, and I really didn’t realize this at the beginning of the semester. Images, videos, and GIFs are a very strong way to attract readers and also a very good strategy to be rhetoric depending on the topic being discussed. This method of multimodal texts influenced me a lot for my assignments. When choosing a GIF, I could relate to one that would stand out and make my posts more rhetoric and effective.

http://jgutierrez22.tumblr.com/post/152559797030/week-11-reading-response

I believe this is my top post. When talking about Yancey’s article, I really engaged well in explaining the evolution of writing and being rhetoric. The multimodal strategy is also very attractive in my opinion.

http://jgutierrez22.tumblr.com/post/151295683830/week-7-reading-response

I chose this post because I believe this is the first post I started to use more strategy in being rhetoric with multimodal texts and really understood how to engage in the writing to be appealing to readers. In preparing for the literate review, this post set me up to understand what I had to do.

http://jgutierrez22.tumblr.com/post/153780565495/week-15-reading-response

Finally, I choose the last post for my top 3 posts. In this last post, I feel I now have a very good understanding of how literacy, writing, and being rhetoric works. My effectiveness is higher as I now analyze the article and am able to relate and comment on the study done as I feel I was in a way the same.

The Tumblr experience is very friendly and effective in my opinion. At the beginning of the semester, I was really scared as I had never used Tumblr before and I thought it was going to be very time consuming. I sometimes feel that teachers should use blackboard only because when using other websites, it can get a bit messy and confusing. This time I feel the complete opposite. For this class, Tumblr was really the best option to express ourselves, be more creative, multimodal, rhetoric, and have a good understanding of literacy. 

I like how we can engage in reading other posts from our classmates and relate by commenting on their post and even offering advice to be more effective. As I mentioned before, at first I didn’t like the idea of creating a Tumblr account and having to check it every once in a while, but now I really believe this is the best place to have the assignments for this class. I would leave this method and the class the way it is, because it was very helpful for me to engage and become a better writer and the most important thing for me now is being RHETORIC. 

[jgutierrez22-blog]

Week 15 Reading Response

This week’s reading response is from the article: Developing Multimodal Academic Literacies among College Freshmen by Gloria Jacobs. In the research done, students are required to use multimodal texts along with traditional texts to support academic literacy skills. As we have seen before this semester, both multimodal texts and traditional texts are very important to enhance literacy in students today. The author agrees with this view because as technology advances, we see that multimodal texts are as equally important than traditional texts and they should both be taught in universities. The study was successful as students were implementing traditional skills to their multimodal assignments and they very effective. 

( I apologize for the B word, but this GIF represents the success of students implementing skills and being literate in the multimodal texts)

Students now felt more free to do write and be more creative with the multimodal texts while still sticking to the guidelines they were given. At the end, the article concludes by emphasizing that students and schools have to adapt together to new technologies as the world changes and blogs, social media, along with other mediums are a strong place to communicate. These ideas are very accurate in my opinion because we really have to accept that multimodal texts are taking over now. For example, news used to be delivered only in the newspaper and everyone had to read it in order to be informed. Then, TV came along with news channels and people changed the way they saw news with images and videos and even different perspectives. Now, social media has taken over as people see news in their phones in social media pages in live time. Writers have to adapt to be successful, otherwise their content will not reach their audience and go unnoticed.

The connection with my major is that in the business world, we always have to adapt to the customer needs. In the Marketing view, social media and blogs become very important to reach new customers and attract more people. Businesses today know that they need to have a strong presence in websites and social media to be successful.

[tonykwan-rws1302-blog]

AK AVA Outline: Homeless Vets

I will be creating an advocacy website through Wordpress.com to argue for policy changes when it comes to veteran outreach programs and their housing assistance programs which are funded by the VA.

I have not decided yet on things like what template to use, but I’m leaning towards a more simple, professional look. Some guidelines I am trying to adhere to:

Minimalist: Not trying to make someone read a lot on the main webpage. I want the majority reading to be in the op-ed

Preface statements then links to more detailed information rather than all the details on the page.

Problem:

Although there are many programs to address veteran homelessness, providers do not adequately address those in a guaranteed process of becoming homeless. They simply wait until you are fully “homeless” (by their standards) before they provide assistance even though the programs are designed to also address those who are “at risk.”

Website:

There will be a section that gives the overall background of veteran homelessness, that it is a problem needing to be addressed.

I will point out the unique issues veterans face that make them prone to homelessness.

I will provide current stats on homeless vets, and some ways they differ from the general homeless population. (most vets that are homeless are not hopeless and only need a little help)

http://nchv.org/index.php/news/media/background_and_statistics/

(Maybe I will simply preface the issue with a statement and provide links to the above.)

I will explain the existing programs designed to combat veteran homelessness, and their inadequacies.

Provide links to the various program websites that describe their mission and basic eligibility criteria

http://www.va.gov/homeless/for_homeless_veterans.asp

Issue: program rules versus provider interpretation do not coincide.

individual case-workers decide who they feel “deserves” assistance.

(should not have to fit the “stereotype” of a homeless person to get assistance. Eligible means eligible.)

El Paso shelters require “chronic homelessness” to receive assistance. There is no clear definition of this, and does not reflect program rules established by HUD-VASH.

Advocacy/Solution:·      

Policy changes (still working on more specific change)

make case-workers more accountable to program rules so that there is no ambiguity regarding one’s eligibility for assistance.·      

establish preventative measures for veterans at risk of homelessness. (simply catching the problem early before it becomes a bigger issue)

this is a secondary mission of most vet programs but there is no mechanism in place to administer

this could reduce program costs to provider, meaning more money to help others

address imminent homelessness (homeless in 14 days as per HUD-VASH). This means the veteran “bounces” back much faster, with less assistance. (See previous bullet)

adhere to program definition of “Homeless”§

https://www.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/HomelessAssistanceActAmendedbyHEARTH.pdf

versus personal definition from the case-worker point of view of what a homeless person SHOULD be like. 

Audio/Visual:

I will conduct a short interview with a member of the veteran social services to get her inside perspective of the processes and some of the inadequacies of providing assistance to veterans.

A second interview will be conducted with a veteran who is an active volunteer for different veteran services, and helps other veterans with finding resources including housing assistance.

Depending on willingness, this may be a short video interview that can be embedded on the website.

The stats mentioned earlier will be in the form of a graph.

I would like to find a patriotic song to play in the background, or perhaps an opening photo montage to show the sacrifice made by veterans. This is to help establish having to go through so much in service and come back only to be homeless.

I want to use pictures of younger veterans who look normal, rather than the stereotypical desperate veteran indistinguishable from other chronically homeless people. I want to paint the picture of a strong modern veteran who has simply hit a wall, and needs minimal assistance to get over it. The message is that veterans will not take assistance only to fall back into the same cycle of despair. Also to help combat the image of what a homeless person is “supposed” to be.

 Op-ed

I have first-hand experience going through the various veteran services in El-Paso. I will share my experience and the inadequacies I observed while navigating the different programs, and talking to the various representatives.

[jgutierrez22-blog]

I really believe you have a great topic and a perfect fit for a website. The interviews will really help you out to establish more credibility and pathos too. Here in El Paso, I think you will have a lot of attention and empathy because of all the veterans we have and their situations. If this were a real city or government project, a website would really impact in El Paso as I myself have seen and heard of cases of homeless veterans. I believe you just need to focus more on the solution now that you have everything set and you should be fine. 

[jgutierrez22-blog]

Week 12 Reading Response

The reading for this week is from Chapter 8 on “Framing arguments”. Arguments are defined with the characteristics and we are also shown ways to be effective with our arguments. The myths about arguments include that arguments are about winning, are only for highly debated topics and issues, are based on different opinions, and are only to prove points. One who is framing an argument is taking a specific side on the issue and backing his information with the sufficient information and facts to back up the claim. The purpose of arguments are to be rhetoric and persuade the other party.

(I used this GIF as an example to how an individual should be ready for a debate or argument with the correct evidence, Therefore, “drop the mic” once you finish)

On Chapter 9, we learn now hoe to construct arguments. By looking at the purpose, audience, evidence, assumptions, and qualifications, arguments are built in a very organized and effective manner. Also, learning about inductive and deductive reasoning is very important to have a good argument. Identifying general and particular assumptions and assertions is key to avoid giving wrong facts or losing the argument. 

As a business major, arguments will take place all the time between partners, employees, bosses, and even competitors. It is very important to be prepared and have evidence and facts to convince the other party what you are arguing about.

[vanenessa30-blog]

Yancey

Yancey’s “Made Not Only in Words: Composition in a New Key” the article talked about how there was traditional writing on paper in the 19th century and how in the 21st century there is so many other ways of writing with new technology available including social media and blogs. It used to be that writing was more of a school thing rather than something “fun”. Rather than in Today’s generation that it isn’t something mandatory to do but people see as more in as a way to relaxing (blogs). The author also states that, “Richard Lanham, of course, has argued that with the addition of the digital to the set of media in which we compose, delivery takes on a critical role” meaning that technology has taken a turn for the better.

I used this GIF to show that the printing press has changed

As a political science major there is many things that have to be done as researching articles and current events. The current events and scholar articles it is not only seen in traditional books but it is also found on the internet. There are many articles that are written by various sources and this sources have been written by people who have written used the technology. Technology has given us so many advantages as getting our resources.

[jgutierrez22-blog]

As you mention, social media and blogs have truly made it “fun” and relaxing to write and read for many people. I can see how you can learn a lot from this article in the sense of Political Science. It helps you remember that in today’s society, many components and investigations for your case in the future, will be done in the internet and even in social media and blogs. Technology has really created a world were anyone can write about anything, and it was not this way before. The printing press gave everyone access to read and learn about the news, now the internet, social media, and blogs gives everyone access to write and reach out to many people.

[tonykwan-rws1302-blog]

AK W11 Read Response

In the article “Made Not Only in Words: Composition in a New Key”, the author points to the evolution of how we define the concept of “writing.” It has gone from the traditional “words on paper” to include modern genres such as visual rhetoric, social media, blogs, etc. Writing is also traditionally viewed from the classroom context, but with the emerging technologies, writing has expanded outside the classroom, where people are simply writing for personal reasons rather than for academic requirements. Just as the printing press gave more access to reading material to the masses, technology has given greater access to writing by the public. Each of these things has transformed the landscape of literacy. As such, traditional methods of teaching English as simply reading and writing may be inadequate. The author implies that in order for students to advance in life, they must be literate, and in the modern context, means that they must understand using a combination of words, pictures, videos, and audio to “speak.” So the question presented is how to go about teaching students, what should the writing curriculum focus on, and the like.

In the criminal justice field, being literate in modern communications methods is essential. As an agent of any organization, one must communicate with colleagues, and present information to supervisors. If you are that person who cannot summarize a situation so that the decision makers will understand the problem and actions that need to be taken, then you will not find yourself in that position much longer. 

As a CJ major, I foresee myself having to present information effectively through briefings, and powerpoint. Perhaps I will be garnering public support for a community issue through social media. In each case, I have to be able to use the concepts alluded to in the article to communicate the information.

(With all the new writing mediums available, we must learn to move past Death by Powerpoint.)

[jgutierrez22-blog]

I completely agree with you in every aspect! Technology has given greater access to writing for everyone and this is a very good thing! With all the bad things technology brings in the sense of being trapped in our phones or computers, this is a good thing that came with it. I am also a firm believer in your Death by Powerpoint analysis. I don’t believe Powerpoints are the best method of teaching and if they are being used to present, we have to be aware how to present in order to avoid losing the audience. Hopefully we can to good on the quiz today!

[jgutierrez22-blog]

Week 11 Reading Response

The article by Kathleen Blake Yancey, “Made Not Only in Words: Composition in a New Key”, is a very interesting piece to analyze how writing has evolved over time in good ways. Writing used to be more limited than it is today. It was more exclusive to “writers” writing on paper by hand and the writing machine later on. There is a significant difference when it comes to writing in the 19th century to today. In the past, writing was also thought more of a “classroom” activity were people would only write for academic purposes. Now, with all the new technologies and methods, writing has taken a whole new level. There are now visual methods such as blogs, websites, social media and people today now write about anything for their own fun or satisfaction. (Tumblr). A comparison can be portrayed of the printing press giving greater access to reading for people in the 19th century, and new technologies such as social media, giving access for more writing to the public mass. 

(This GIF portrays a pen drawing out the steps and pieces of evolution to complete the final product: the pen. Just as writing has changed and evolved)

Traditional methods of teaching English and writing are not effective in the world we live today. As most things evolve, writing has changed too, and the need to adapt to the modern ways is imperative for students and teachers. Yancey focuses a lot on the importance for students to be literate to be successful in life. The techniques of using videos, audio, words, and pictures in different and efficient ways to speak and transmit a message effectively. 

(Literacy is a key factor no matter the field of study)

From a business standpoint, being literate is very important especially in modern methods. To be able to communicate with potential clients or partners, the use different communication methods is very important. Also literacy helps us understand the message that other are trying to give us. In a marketing perspective, the use of social media and visual rhetoric is very important to be able to sell or transmit your product to different markets. I completely agree with Yancey’s article and find it very important to be a literate individual too. 

[jgutierrez22-blog]

Ava Topic

For the Advanced Visual Argument I will be choosing a poster. My topic will still be around corruption, making the poster as a tool to inform people to avoid it and let the authorities know if they know someone that is involved.

https://sparknbeyond.wordpress.com/tag/politics-bureaucracy/

This is the link to where I found an image or poster that I believe sends a good message about corruption, especially for emerging economies like Mexico. I don’t know if I could work this assignment in a group because of my topic, but I am still open to do it as a team.

[gustavorodriguez89blog-blog]

Week 7 Reading Response

The readings this week included chapter 5 and 6 of the writing in transit book, chapter 3 of the RWS handbook, and the black board reading on Misleading questions and survey questions.

The black board reading focuses on misleading questions when conducting an interview. As I have personally chosen to interview someone instead of a survey this was extremely helpful for me. This reading gave us seven possible mistakes we can make when conducting an interview. Personally I feel like not asking direct questions might be my biggest problem, I figured that out after re analyzing my lit review questions and finding out that they were pretty vague and not very direct. Before conducting my interview I will be going back on blackboard to look at this list and make sure my questions don’t fall under one of these possible mistakes. 

Chapter 3 of the RWS handbook focuses on how to properly do research, what questions to ask, and finally the resources available at utep to help you out. Personally I didn’t find this chapter to be very useful as I was already aware of the resources at hand from last semester’s RWS 1301 and UNIV 1301 class. Despite this, its always nice to get a refresher and be reminded that they’re is resources available to us that will make life easier for us during research papers. Library sources also tend to be more credible than a google search so its always important to keep that in mind.

Chapter 5 of the WIT reading focuses on summaries, this is important for us as the Lit review requires an abstract which is a short summary of our paper. During this reading the chapter debunks some common myths about summaries like being objective, being easy to write, and how they are not used in college. After the myths it goes on by giving us some pointers or prerequisites for writing a summary. These include careful reading, and understanding the occasion for the summary. The chapter also gives us a criteria for effective summaries, this will be important not only for this paper but any future paper that also requires an abstract. Its easy to think that a summary might just be pointing out specific or key notes but in order to write an effective summary we must take a lot more in consideration. 

Chapter 6 covers synthesis or as the oxford english dictionary puts it, “The putting together of parts or elements so as to make up a complex whole”. It was interesting how this can apply to all sorts of different fields and topics. For our class it will be taking all the ideas we have researched and putting them together in one paper. This is incredible useful in my major of History as gathering information from different sources and putting them together is partly how we determine events from the past. From today and until the day I retire from the history field this will be something I will be doing. I definitely found this chapter to be the most useful as it relates not only to my major put it covers all of the upcoming lit review. It made me wonder, how will I incorporate two or three different sources to come up with one idea? This is something I think we all have done in past english classes but perhaps didn’t think too much into it or maybe didn’t effectively do it. 

Overall I liked the readings, I found chapter 6 of the WIT book and the black board post to be the most helpful to me personally. I liked how it could all tie in not only to the lit review but to my history and education video. Personally I have used the skills learned in english courses more than in any other subject in my time in college. Its great that how I keep learning more and more and expanding my writing skills going forward. 

[jgutierrez22-blog]

I can really relate to the way you basically summarized Chapter 5 which talks about summaries. LOL. I think we should really focus on the misleading questions for surveys and interviews. They are really a guide that will help with the Literature Review in a way to avoid making those mistakes. I felt the same way as you with Chapter 3 in the RWS handbook. Even though we already know about these resources, I still think it was a good idea for students that are not aware. With Chapter 6, I believe we need to really pay attention in how we put all our sources together, including our interview or survey.