♡ Pam ♡

University of Texas at El Paso RWS 1302 E-Portfolio

[pmalegria-blog]

W. 11 Reading Response

Here comes the chance to redeem myself…

Yancey’s article talks about how outdated the writing definition is, and the discrepancy between what is taught in the classroom vs what students actually use writing for/in. Seems like the institutional setting has failed to keep up with the fast-moving pace of genre creation and technologies.

My favorite part about this article was the emphasis they placed on how most writing is done outside of the scholar setting. Outside of situations where someone “forces” you to write. Words come easier when you have the freedom to choose when, how, and why.

My second favorite part was learning how the 19th century public readings are still a thing nowadays. Personally, I enjoy greatly going to slam poetry events. Or poem readings in general. Now all I’m going to able to think about during an event is a 19th century reunion. In general, realizing that most of the writing skills I’ve acquired, I’ve done so extracurricular makes me feel at ease. I do not have to be a great scholar writer in order to be a great writer.

(This gif is from one of my favorite performances. Check it out here x)

Marketing is as fast-paced as writing.  I believe it’s because both are greatly influenced by the genre creation and usage in social media. So, knowing that the rhetoric strategies I’ve learned so far, are going to be useful as long as I adapt them to my choice of genre. When she described her presentation at Chair’s Address, I can totally imagine a dramatic presentation like that for a product launch.

(Product LAUNCH anyone? no?)

Now I understand better that writing is something we do, naturally, without being prompted in our everyday life and for our own enjoyment. And that type of writing is just as valid as scholar writing.

I would still like to know if the trend to believe that English, and higher education, is good for the individual not for the country will continue, or if we might see a change when we realize that classroom knowledge is only a part of our education, and that it benefits the country as a whole.

[gustavorodriguez89blog-blog]

Week 15 Reading Response

This week’s reading response was on Gloria Jacobs paper titled Developing Multimodal Literacies Among College Freshmen. In this study college freshmen are asked to use multimodal texts along with traditional text as well to see if their academic writing skills were deemed better. This author argues that both the new multimodal and traditional text should be taught in college as they are now both equally as important. The findings were deemed a success as students were not only implementing traditional skills but also applying them to new multimodal available to them. This gave the students the creativity they needed and they felt they were more free to do what they wanted while still sticking to the guidelines given to them. The author concludes that emphasizing how this new era is moving towards a media rich society and therefore students have to change to adapt to it. I personally like this idea as every day social media and blogs become a bigger part of our news, this is how people communicate now, rarely do you see a young person reading the newspaper anymore. As society changes we must change with it, this has always been the case with anything and academic writing shouldn’t be any different. Earlier this semester we read about how people write more often than they realize through the use of social media and this is why its important to adapt to this new age technology. To be successful writers we have to attract readers and win order to do that we have to conform to the technology that they are using. Refusing to do so will result in much of your work going unnoticed or forgotten. This connects with my major of History as I will be required to present my findings in the future, in order to do this I have to do it in a manner that is deemed appropriate at the time. I have to conform to new technologies to make myself look like I’m moving with the times and to be taken seriously as I move forward in my career as a historian. To attract readers and audiences to my findings I must also show my findings in a manner in which people will actually see them. This is why this multimodal age relates to my given major. As a future educator I must also learn to use what the current students use as well, I’m sure professors in the 1980s or before weren’t to happy about using blackboard at first but like everyone else they too had to conform. This multimodal age will help me understand how newer generations are learning and will force me to implement them in my teaching ways. This paper did make me ask myself, is there other media that I am not aware of? How will I implement this new technology once I’m a teacher? How much will I have to implement and how do I find the right mix between traditional text and new age technology? The bottom GIF shows how I feel when thinking of how I will be teaching my class in the future with this new multimodal age.

[pmalegria-blog]

You have a big challenge ahead of you. How to use modern techniques to teach history... In my eyes you have to options: get really creative and give your students an amazing learning experience, or think that a history channel video is the coolest thing ever to show instead of a lecture... Let’s hope you go for the first one!

There is just so much to do nowadays! So many innovative ways to present information! Could you imagine if you could get a 3D recreation of a battle? Or have an online tour of a museum? The more interactive the better!

I am not going into the educational setting, but as a marketer, the world of opportunities to be creative excites me and scares me in equal parts!

(me on the inside.)

[hellorebeccathings-blog]

TUMBLR REFLECTION

Going back memory lane, my post for week one shared my opinion on rhetoric as “the ability to be able to communicate with audience such that, the audience would be convinced without further research”. The reading for that week made me see rhetoric as a skill that could be developed and since then I was determined to maximize the opportunity in this class to better develop my communication skill, even if am not rhetorically gifted. As the class goes on, my thoughts about rhetoric did not change in anyway but rather, it expanded because various reading and assignments exposed me to the appropriate ways to convey information. I remember my first post on Tumblr which was done in class. At that time, I knew nothing about Tumblr plus I am not a social media person. I was nervous and I could barely understand what the whole thing was all about. For the first two to three posts I did, I did not get full credits because I was always not doing it to perfection. but as time goes by, I became familiar with all the rules and my post improved as well as my grades. After summarizing readings on Tumblr, one thing that removes the stress of reading too many pages is the gif I use. I do my best to look for gif or pictures that best describe how I feel at that moment and it feels like I just poured out my emotions on the internet, and I immediately feel relieved. The use of multimodal on my posts all through the semester made writing a bit fun for me and in most cases I always want to look for something funny to make my post as fun as chatting with my friends on snap chat. Even though the reading for week one made me realize how multimodal are part of writing, I never view it in the way we present it on Tumblr. Using text and images/gif on Tumblr to represent our understanding of materials has definitely expanded my understanding of rhetorical.  Having said all that, my best top three post on Tumblr would be week one, week three, and week six. I choose week one because it reminds me of the way I started in this class. Anyone would have thought I would probably drop the class because I literarily could not figure things out and it reflected on my post going by my grade and my professor’s comment. Week three is a symbol of perfection because I read, I understood, summarized, expressed all instructions, attracted more response from classmate than any other post and even the best comment from my professor. This was the post that brought me confidence on Tumblr. Week six is on my list because it made me scale through the biggest assignment in the class. By completing the reading response for week six, formulating my research question was pretty easy and as soon as I was able to get the approval of professor Jasmin, the so called “biggest assignment” became the easiest for me. Using Tumblr to complete classroom assignment feels like the easiest way to learn because, it took away all the usual seriousness attached to writing. At a point, I began to see these assignments as nothing because once am done reading the assigned pages, I could just complete the post even in the school shuttle, get notifications and respond immediately to classmate posts. Compared to using blackboard where u cannot immediately get notifications when classmates post something and you need to respond. Overall, I had a wonderful experience using Tumblr as it helps me simplify my assignment by appearing in form of social medial and also allows me to keep a better relationship with my classmates. And if there is anything I would want to change about my Tumblr experience, then it will be my first post because I did not do it myself. It was difficult for me to figure things out then.

Top 3 posts http://hellorebeccathings.tumblr.com/post/149455113372/introduction

http://hellorebeccathings.tumblr.com/post/149934904902/week-3-reading-responds

http://hellorebeccathings.tumblr.com/post/150922753032/week-6-reading-response

[tonykwan-rws1302-blog]

It’s funny that you say you’re not a social media person yet you know what snap chat is. I still don’t!! I tend to keep away from the popular platforms, unless there is a purpose to it, like academic and professional reasons.

I agree that the instant feedback, the interaction with classmates and the professor helped to shape me as a writer. The first post was kind of testing the waters. But it got easier over time, more fun, and I became more expressive…in my own way.

You definitely seemed to have figured things out. I always enjoyed your use of GIFs. They always hit the mark with a humorous spin.

(Nailed it!)

[pmalegria-blog]

Anyone else used gifs as the perfect tool to come up with a pun? I did. You did. I enjoyed it. 

Unlike Rebecca, and yourself, I do consider myself a social media person. If you enjoyed Tumblr, I encourage to create a blog and be part of any community you wish. As we read, play is an important part of the course too! You might also like to check out Reddit, it has a lot more real life tips, communities, and the demographics are older so you might find it interesting.

I an still thankful we didnt have to deal with Blackboard this semester, I would have really struggled then. It looks like both of you got the hang of it fairly quick.

(Gimme five) 

[pmalegria-blog]

W.15  Reading response

This weeks text description of a class project and how multimodal literacies should be taught alongside academic literacy because they together they create a more competitive writer in the modern world.

I finally see online fanfiction mentioned in an academic article! So many great stories are created every day on archive of our own. The tags are filled with talent, and the feedback and growth authors get from their community is incredible. Being able to explore your abilities and yourself as a writer in a supportive community, developing writing skills while working on a topic you enjoy, is priceless. I’m so happy it was mentioned in multimodalities. I am part of an online community, as a reader mostly. A few years ago, I would write fanfiction and I can say with certainty my spelling, and grammar improved vastly because of the constant practice, and feedback from my peers.

(Fanfiction counts people. About time it was recognized)

Marketing, and specifically online marketing relies heavily in multimodal literacy. Social media campaigns, from illustrations posted on Facebook/Instagram, to ads, and newsletters, all of them are designed to get a point across by capturing your attention. A newsletter will have images/graphics/colors/fonts that will get your attention, while the structure and information within it will tell you about promotions, coupons, and what things you need to buy with x company. This is far more successful than if a plain text e-mail was sent.

This is what we did in class!!! This is the reasoning behind the curriculum, and our reading reports, and the projects we did. The explanation after the experiment, feels like.

I am really interested in which other multimodal projects we could have worked with, besides poster, video, website. If anyone has any ideas I would love to read them!

[pmalegria-blog]

Tumblr Reflection

Ha. The prompt for this reflection asked to go back to week post 1. Post which I did not submit. Hilarious. I’m going to try my best. My thoughts on writing and rhetoric changed since the beginning of the semester. Turns out rhetoric is not only writing a good argument and backing it up with good sources in an academic paper. It’s in communication in general. And, in all honesty, it still blows my mind that even the placement and intention of a gif is important. this course has made me more conscious on how I write, my intentions and goals, more than focusing only on the content of my paper. Both equally important, but I had never really paid attention to structure and the other resources.

Next I would appreciate it if you checked out my Top 3 Posts of the semester :)

Week 3

Week 6 

Week 7

I loved the idea of using Tumblr for the class, I’ve been using this platform for about 5 years now so I had the experience and confidence that I could edit my theme and keep my blog organized. I love the freedom of editing entries and adding visual elements to a post. It made writing the reading reflections a lot more enjoyable. I think it would have been easier to just comment on someone’s post instead of reblogging it, after 2 or 3 classmate responses the posts get too long and it’s a hassle to scroll through them.

[hellorebeccathings-blog]

ADVANCE VISUAL ARGUMENT OUTLINE

I will be doing an advocacy website using weebly.com to advocate the implementation of a cashless policy on the UTEP campus. The website will consist of four different tabs which includes home, purpose, solution and about.

Home- The home page will have the UTEP campus image as its background since my topic specifically address college campus. The Topic will be written in white font to ensure visibility on the image. The reason for creating the website will be written right below the image.

Purpose: The purpose section will include image of dollar bills and a point of sale machine. It will contain reasons why the UTEP campus should adopt a cashless system. This page will compare and contrast a cashless system and a mixed system (cash and electronic) with backup from some of the articles I used for my Literature review assignments such as, A necessary evil, and Are Small Businesses Really the Backbone of the Economy. I have chosen these two articles and some others because they analyzed the relationship between electronic/cash payment and small business like the ones we have around campus. I also hope to interview student, small businesses around the campus and the Miners Village staffs to gather enough evidence to support my claims in this section.

Solution: The solution page will have the image of various forms of electronic payment such as debit card, credit card, PayPal etc. It will discuss the necessity to implement a cashless policy. The response from student and small business owners will also be incorporated to show their preference.

About: The about page will discuss me as the owner of the website, my educational background, my achievement so far, my future aspiration and the circumstances that has motivated me to advocate this topic.

[pmalegria-blog]

I had never thought about how convenient it would be to have a cashless campus. Even for doing laundry at the dorms, using your miner card is more convenient than using cash. This is a great idea, Rebecca! If you would like help contacting people from the other to student housing residencies please let me know as I have some contacts among the RA’s and I’m sure they’ll be happy to help you!

What do you have planned for your visuals? I am really looking forward to visit the website and understand how going cashless improves small businesses profits.

[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.

[sgaucin-blog]

I do not understand how can you feel bad about your outline if it looks really organized. First, I want to point out that to me this topic seems a really interesting issue. I had always question myself of  how come so many veterans are homeless as many people picture their life full of opportunities. I thought that those people  were consider homeless because they might have not completed their years of service that were assigned in their contract and they were restricted from the opportunity of obtaining a job/opportunity, but now after reading your outline it makes more sense. 

I feel that you covered every important detail that can actually helped you advocate your main goal. It is really interesting that you are going to provide links to various program and their basic eligibility criteria. Actually, I feel that doing this is going to strengthen your topic. I was thinking that when you are providing a solution you should keep in mind the economic impact that the solution can bring upon. Also, I feel that whenever you are choosing the song you should keep in mind that music can take away the seriousness of the issue. In my opinion, I agree that providing a picture of a strong working veteran will really help out within the emotional appeals. 

Overall, I  think that you have a strong topic and you have provided a relevant outline that can lead to a really good AVA. By the way, thank you for your comment on my AVA outline it really helped out a lot. 

[hellorebeccathings-blog]

seriously this is a very interesting topic. I really find it hard to belief that American veterans are homeless. Back home (Nigeria) we criticize our government for not taking care of our retired soldiers and we always see the United States military as a set of people that will forever have everything to live a comfortable life after their service. Sincerely, i am so interested in seeing this website when completed. 

You have a very strong outline that is good enough to effectively get your message across to your audience. However, for your video/audio section, a very slow hearth touching song playing to a video of how veterans have risked their lives for the people of America will definitely evoke your audience’s emotional response.

[pmalegria-blog]

As our classmates pointed out above, you have a very organized and clear outline, with a strong argument too. I like that you’re aiming to represent veterans as young people, most of the veterans I know are in their 30′s. It’s good to have representation. Specially in El Paso are, being a military city, I strongly believe that the advocacy/solution, will be a good resource for veterans to go to. I think this could actually have a real impact in someone’s life.

Be careful with your audio/visuals and keep the video short and touching. Do not make it look like a power point, an intrumental version of a patriotic song and short montage of clips would work better than a slideshow.

[pmalegria-blog]

W.12 Reading Response

Chapter 8, Framing Arguments, from WiT. From what I understood arguments do not need to be controversial or polarizing for them to be interesting and worth working on. Arguments are not about winning but about opening up a conversation or discussion regarding a topic so that more points of view get involved and we can learn from it.

All this made me think about my history class, specifically back to the 60’s and Brown vs. Board of Education, not because this was not a controversial matter, but because 13 parents and their small-town school were used as an example to amend the Constitution. A “small matter” was used as an argument to dig deeper and solve an issue, not addressing the issue itself at the beginning. It made a lot more sense in my head. Moving on.

As always, the part I enjoyed the most was the introduction, I love when they use history/geography in the introduction. It really allows me to understand how arguments are not only going to be used in rhetoric class.

(^Me when I can use information/knowledge from one class and apply it to others or everyday life!!!!!)

Framing an argument is going to be a key point in developing a marketing campaign when I have the opportunity to do it. You have to advocate for a purpose and commit to it so that your campaign is successful, but your competitors will also have their own arguments. I feel like this will be relevant when planning fundraising events or charity campaigns, because you have to have a strong argument on your side so that your campaign gets attention and can be considered successful.

This all leads me to ask how many times have I misunderstood a point, or overgeneralized, or made assumptions that weakened my argument before. I truly feel I should revise carefully my outline and reword it so that I can convey a stronger argument.

[pmalegria-blog]

Advanced Visual Argument

The purpose of the website I am going to put together is to compile resources and make then as user friendly as possible for small business owners to consult when creating their social media strategy.

Family-owned businesses and small online stores usually do not have a big social media presence, every like they have is an opportunity to sell and create a relationship with their customers that will translate into future sales and recommendations.

By compiling advice from social media experts and marketers, and putting it together in one place, this website can help the owners increase their sales, and turn one time buyers to fans of their brand. The problem is that owners are not versed in business language, so by using professional material as reference but creating easy to understand graphics and instruction sets all this information will be more accessible to business owners.

It may not seem like a problem, but to small business owners, such as people with Etsy stores, people that sale bake goods on Facebook, artists who get commissioned through Facebook, every like or interaction that they do not have is an opportunity missed to make a profit. With the resources I plan to put together, in a clean, simple to use interface, business owners will not only make their interactions have a higher chance to turn into a sale, but they will learn how to build a lasting relationship with their customers so that they return and spread the word about their service/product.

·        Data will be used to illustrate the profit growth of a business after modifying their marketing strategies.

·        Clean simple graphics will serve as a visual representation of any set of instructions given.

·        Examples of do’s and don’ts will be provided too.

·        Links to all the original articles will be listed.

[kmjimenez2-blog]

Reading Response Week 11

late again i know >.>

“Made Not only in Words: Composition in a New Key” by Kathleen Blake Yanceys talks about the differences of writing between the nineteenth and twentieth century. When talking about the earlier century and now, it’s simple that you can see that there is no way that back then, there would be any kind of technological distractions than what we have today to back her argument, which implies that they read way more back in the nineteenth century. What she says about not barely being able to read, especially in the age of social media, is true. As a multimedia journalism major, we always try to find a way for audiences to read, because they hardly do anymore. So I think what I got from this is that social media is the future now, and if we can somehow get people to start reading within that, it can cause more reading within what we learn, and can help a lot when it comes to that.

[pmalegria-blog]

Absolutely agree with you!!! Social media is full of short articles and images, no one bothers to read full journal articles anymore. But I do think people read more nowadays than they used to before because e-books and articles are more accessible now. I do agree that people barely read lengthy articles and hard copies of books, let alone newspapers. Like you said, we need to find a way to get people back into reading more scholarly articles, or some type of “serious” literature.

[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. 

[pmalegria-blog]

I completely agree with your opinion about literacy in the business world and specifically in the marketing world. Nowadays the visual rhetoric has taken over social media, and as a marketing major it is important that we understand it enough that we are able to use it to our advantage in the commercial world.

It’s crazy how when you see advertisements from the 60′s and compare it to modern ones you can tell how the amount of text in them changes drastically. The visual aspect is now much more stronger than it used to be. That is one of the aspects I like more about marketing, how it has it’s own language but for you to be a successful marketer need to understand the audience and transmit a message in a way they can understand.

(A cute vintage advertisement to illustrate my point)

[hellorebeccathings-blog]

Week 7 Reading Response

The main idea of chapter five of WIT is to correct the widely held idea about summary. The chapter explains the various believe that people have in mind while summarizing, then went further to give various steps to take in writing a good summary. What I like the most about this chapter is “the key questions for determining the occasion for summary” on page 99.  The table gave a list of what to watch out for while reading the material to be summarized and also gave questions that will enable the reader figure out the steps.

Chapter six of WIT analysis synthesis. It explains the purpose of synthesis, questions that shape synthesis criteria for effective synthesis and mode of synthesis across disciplines. What I like most about this chapter is the “Criteria for effective synthesis” on page 131. The line that says “The resulting syntheses should advance knowledge in a powerful way” makes me think about what I hope to achieve at the end of the literature review assignment.

I use this Gif to emphasize one of the purpose of Synthesis which is to make connection between ideas.

Misleading interview and survey questions on blackboard is a guide on how to conduct a good interview and survey. What I like the most about it is its ability to provide questions that should be avoided while conducting an interview or survey in other to get accurate result. This will help me shape my questions for the literature review primary sources.

I used this give to remind myself and my classmates not ask the wrong questions during interview/survey

As an economics major, all the three readings for this week is a parameter on how to understand, analyze and process information. If I can effectively make use of them very well throughout undergraduate, I will not only graduate with a good grade but also, Studding economic situation of any organization and coming up with alternatives will definitely be an easy ride.

Furthermore, the three readings to a large extent has helped me figure out how to effectively summarize the two sources I have for my literature review assignment. However, the question that keeps dangling in my mind is, are there no shortcuts in this assignment at all? Because it seems like you cannot avoid any step lol.

[pmalegria-blog]

I feel you girl! Your major is super focused on analyzing, processing and summarizing info, glad to see this chapter related to you! I love reading about how everyone relates the readings to their own majors, Find it super interesting.

Now that I know what to avoid and how important is the wording of the questions, I keep on going back to my interview questions and modifying them. I want to have a question that will give me an answer I can use. I’m scared my interviewee will respond with something not related at all making me unable to use their answers! But I gotta calm down.

And there are shortcuts for this assignment! But I doubt any of them will get you an A....

(^us accepting the fact it’s going to be alooooong assignment)

Have you thought If you want to do a survey or an interview? 

[jgutierrez22-blog]

Week 7 Reading Response

The reading for this week were a bit different from the ones last week. I found them a bit more broad than the ones from last week, but they are also very good resources for our Literature Review.  The readings were Chapters 5 and 6 from the WIT book, Chapter 3 from the RWS handbook, and the Misleading Interview and Survey Questions which I found to be the most helpful!

Originally posted by eleniciousss

(I used this GIF because we just begun the month of October, and we celebrate Halloween AND we turn in our Literature Review which really scares me)

I’ll begin with Chapter 3 of the RWS handbook because I don’t have a lot to say about it. LOL. This Chapter helps us to do a good research for our questions and where to go at UTEP to find the correct sources. Since I am a junior already, I already knew most of this stuff from past experiences in other classes. I am not saying this Chapter is not useful, because it really is. We have to always keep in mind that articles and readings from the library are more likely to be a better source than just searching the internet. 

Chapters 5 and 6 from the WIT book were helpful in new ways for the Literature Review. Chapter 5 talks about summaries and how they are not objective or “easy to write”. It also gives us some tips and prerequisites that help us to write an effective summary. As we have to write an abstract in our LR, this is a new resource for a different part of our assignment that will really help. Chapter 6 gives us a good insight in how we will use all the different sources we researched and put them together to create the final paper.

Originally posted by dziesiemdziesiat

(This is the face I make when I finally understand something, in this case the readings for this week)

Finally, the Misleading Interview and Survey Questions are really helpful for me because this is the hardest part in the LR for me. The seven examples it gives us are a very good source for us to be sure we do the correct task. Before reading this, I was already thinking of doing some questions that had some of these mistakes. Now I can be sure what to ask and how to do it.

[kmjimenez2-blog]

I can really relate to you response. In the past, before reading these chapters I was a victim to these habits of summarizing and not knowing what im talking about, and etc. But now that I read the chapters, I’m really sure that in our own abstract and good instinct can also help us, much like you said. The past is the past and now we know much more.

[pmalegria-blog]

Exactly! In the past I used to summarize the entire paper thinking I had to condense god knows ho much information in a paragraph. I never stopped to think about why I was writing the summary, which purpose it was going to serve. And now that I do, I do not think it is going to be any easier summarizing information from all the sources we are going to use in the LR, but, at least we are going to make proper summaries that will actually be helpful and informative within our context.

(the lyrics in that gif are from a song called Same Mistakes, and that’s exactly what we’re trying to avoid doing!!!!)

I had also thought of a few questions for my interview and most of them had some type of mistake that I identified when reading Misleading Interview and Survey Questions.

Which are your go-to websites, search engines, when you’re doing research? Besides google. Personally, I knew Encore (within the utep library) existed but I had never used it before, Ch 3 is gonna come in handy if I do decide to use it for the LR.

[pmalegria-blog]

Week 7 Reading Response

Chapter 5 is about summaries, debunking myths about them, and how they serve different purposes (lmao a summary about summaries, there are so many times of summaries!) I liked how early at the beginning of the chapter they debunk myths about summaries, it is a nice way to catch your attention and continue reading one. I had never thought before about how summaries are not objective, but depend on the context and purpose they were written for. I will be using summaries throughout my professional career. In marketing, you write communications and strategy briefs to officially define the job you are going to perform. It is basically a summary of expectations and resources that the client will turn in, or that you will turn in to your supervisor before starting a project. The information from this chapter will be helpful when it comes to summarize information from sources for the literature review and writing the abstract. It is not about summarizing the paper you are reading but the information you need to fulfill your purpose. It prompts me question how many correct or accurate summaries i have actually written  before.

(mythbusters felt like the right choice for a gif after reading about some summary myths being debunked)

Chapter 6 is about synthesis, their purpose, and the criteria to write an effective one. I learned that a synthesis is not only a written thing, Stonehenge is a synthesis because it was multidisciplinary engineered, it was a put together from different elements to make something quite complex. In my understanding, a marketing strategy is a synthesis from different disciplines, some psychology, some publicity, some accounting. I am still thinking about how I might use the synthesis in the literature review assignment, but I cannot come up with something at the moment. Maybe down the road I will find it useful. I did not like to see math as an example, flipped the page real quick. Oh, after reading 2 more pages I realized that the whole literature review is a synthesis of multiple sources! It makes me wonder if we can use different types of synthesis on the same text.

(now everytime I hear the word “synthesis” im going to picture this. Breathtaking)

Chapter 3 from the Handbook, goes on about how to start doing research, primary and secondary, and how to use existing resources, such as the UTEP library to help you do so. I attended a brief workshop last year to get an idea on how to use the library’s resources but it is always nice to go over it again, and keep it fresh now that I am going to be doing a ton of research. Researching skills will come in handy in all majors, research does not suddenly stop after you graduate. I usually use scholar.google.com for all my research necessties but I might give the library’s online resources this time.

(^ us the next few weeks)

Misleading Interview and Survey Questions is an article about the 7 most common mistakes when writing questions. for my primary research I am not going to be doing a survey, but an interview still requires of carefully crafted questions to get answers that can be used in the literature review. I liked that they give more than one example. When surveying customers, or a sample target market, the questions you ask will determine the accuracy of your results, so these tips are a good start, and something I will definitely be using later on.

[gustavorodriguez89blog-blog]

Week 6 Reading Response

Week six readings included chapter 3 of the WIT book that covers “posing meaningful questions”and chapter 4 that covered which texts to read after developing your questions. This week also included the video “Holy CRAPP” that broke down into specific detail how to analyze and find the reliability of a source. 

The main ideas of chapter 3 and 4 of the WIT readings touch up on making smart questions and finding the right sources to answer them. The readings gave us an explanation on how just one topic can have multiple questions to different type of people. The pyramids at Giza attracted many different scholars of different fields to each ask their own questions. Since questions can be so broad it is important we ask ours in a way that our audience knows exactly what we are asking and leave nothing unclear. The book gave us a great example of how to break down questions by breaking them down into 3 categories, specific, refined, and general. After doing this the book gives a good starting point by explaining how to use a general template for making questions knows as a question heuristic. By starting off simple like who, what, where, when, why, and how we can being to begin brainstorming our focal points. Lastly we must transfer questions which leads us straight to chapter 4. Here we are taught to answer our questions while using the proper source for each question. Here we are given some examples of possible sources we can decide to use (library and archives, internet search engines, and research databases) and how to dissect them properly.

The video on blackboard helps us understand the importance  of having reliable sources. The video does this by breaking down the acronym CRAAP, currency, relevance, authority, accurate, and purpose. Currency and relevance touches on how our sources must be up to date and still relevant today. Sources that may be too old for the topic at hand may be considered obsolete. Authority explains the importance of the expertise from the author, the author of your used source must be one in a field that gives him/her the experience to talk about that topic. Accurate is pretty self explanatory as the information must be true in order for the audience to accept it. Lastly the purpose, is it to inform? persuade? advertise? These 5 points are key for us to remember when choosing our sources.

What I liked the most of this weeks reading was that it really helped me understand some of the key points for the upcoming literature review, I now feel a lot more ready for this assignment. This connects to my major (history) because in order for a history book to be published it is important to have reliable sources backing you. One can not simply write things down and expect other to believe it without any evidence. This reading made me realize that my original questions I chose are not specific enough and I pretty much have to start over. It prompted me to ask, are any of my original questions good enough? After this reading the answer is probably not. Despite this it gave me a bigger understanding of the assignment and now I feel like I can get back to it and do a better job this time around. 

[pmalegria-blog]

I feel like we already knew what these chapters were about, we have been working on essays and research for quite a while. But I completely agree with you when you say that you now feel more prepared and ready to do a better job this time.

My biggest concern at the moment is that questions are not as specific as I could possibly make them. And I’ve re-written them 3 times know, it’s been a ride! I’m sad to hear that you have to start from 0 with your questions too. The sources and research questions are SUCh a big part in history! If there is no supporting evidence on whatever you’re stating the credibility of your claims diminishes. Good luck.

(i love the gifs you use btw)

[marineutep]

W6 Reading Response

The main idea for chapter 3 is how to formulate a proper and “good” research question. Chapter 3 gives plenty of examples and teaches one how to formulate a “good” research question without sounding like an uneducated individual. There are several factors that play in what to ask yourself when you intend on putting together a research question.

(This Gif shows how confusing it is to come up for a research question for the first time.)

What I liked most about Chapter 3 is the many different ways it shows you to consider when you’re writing a potentially good research question. The “six questions” you must ask yourself and the many different perspectives and fields in which you can view when taking your research question into consideration. This allows me plenty of fuel to add to my already burning fire.

(This Gif is used to emphasize my fire.)

Chapter 3 connects with Electrical Engineering because there are more than one category of fields in which one can ask how to write an effective research question. It provides me ideas on researching how questions are asked in my field and what potential influence category does my field fall under (which in my case would be scientific category).

Chapter 3 actually prompted me to ask whether the questions I had already submitted to be good questions. Also, it made question to see if others might find interest and if not how I can make it sound like it is of importance.

(This Gif is used to emphasize the questions that WIT reader prompted me to ask.)

Chapter 4 was mostly a detailed chapter 3. Although it is extremely helpful, it did not impact me as much as chapter 3 did.

[pmalegria-blog]

Now that I already have a rough draft of my research questions I am too wondering if what I find worth asking will be interesting for others.

(everyone when they read my research questions)

I agree that Chapter 3 was a bit more interesting that Chapter 4, which felt like it was just adding on to Ch 3. The first gif you used is my exact facial expression for the last hour) I truly hope that in a few days we both can grow more confident about our research questions and realize that they are worth asking.

[pmalegria-blog]

W6 Reading Response

This week’s reading response was about Chapter 3 & 4 from Writing in Transit, and the video Holy CRAAP A Writer's Holy Grail to Analyzing the Validity and Reliability of a Source.

The video focuses on how to find good reliable sources for rhetorical analysis. It goes straight to the point and using the initials gives it a hint of humor that makes it easier to remember, and thus apply, when you’re in the search for sources.  This is going to be great help right now that I am looking for sources that could contribute to the answer of my research questions. And later on, when it comes to writing a marketing plan, having valid sources will help back up my strategies.

(My lights are flickering right now, so... also you should take your questions into consideration before you start your research so that your sources are appropriate)

Chapter 3 was about, us students, asking the correct questions that will start a conversation from a different point of view. Not only answering them when we’re prompted. I can see how being curious and coming from a disciplinary context can help me create new marketing strategies in the future. I liked that I felt encouraged to questions things, which is something I have not been fully allowed in the classroom. A lot of what I want to do is based on finding the best innovative approach to meet a need. I still struggle with taking a long time to come up with my own questions, but that is the only way I can really make a contribution. So, what I would like to know is how long does it take you guys to come up with questions without being prompted?

Chapter 4 was about figuring out which material is the most appropriate to get our information from depending on the context and the type of writing we’re doing. It explains the different types of reading one can do, the differences between them, and how they’re useful in different contexts. I enjoyed the introduction, talking about the Mayan civilization will always get my attention. Primary sources are fundamental when it comes to analyzing market trends. Surveys are a big technique used to quantify customer demand and satisfaction. The knowledge I gathered in this chapter will help me choose my sources wisely for the Literature Review assignment. It makes me ask myself which will be the best sources for my topic.

(I hope that is not the reaction of the poeple at the Writing Center when they read my research questions....)