Chapter 23 RR

Chapter 23 is about strategies for revising and editing our research paper.  A revision should be viewed as an opportunity to refine a paper and make its thesis clearer.  Only the most arrogant or talented person could believe they could produce a great finished product on the first attempt.  With a 10-12 pg research paper, the need for revision is abundantly clear.

This chapter explores the reasons for revision.

• Revise for audience -  We need to make our tone and word choice be appropriate for the audience we're writing to.
• Revising for Structure and Support - Sometimes the data might need to be rearranged to build towards a more logical progression.
• Revising for Emphasis, Conciseness, and Clarity - We do not always talk in the most efficient manner.  That last sentence could also be restated "We often speak inefficiently."  I said the same thing but used less words.  Less is more.

Finally, editing and proofreading are covered.  It's easy to miss a word when writing a paper because one says it in their mind, but forgets to type it.  Proofreading helps and especially if you can get someone else to proofread it, it would help even more.

Revision seems like a waste of time to many students, who are pressed for time, and who's papers are due at the end of the semester when final exams occur, which need to be studied for.  Because of this, revision can take a back seat to other things.  Having just written a 10 page paper, the last thing a student wants to do is to have to go back and edit it.  Even in the professional world, there are writers and their are editors.  Unfortunately, at the student level, we do not have the luxury of an editor who will take our papers and make them better for us.  We must edit our own work and revise it as needed and this chapter will help us do so.

Source

Dustan S

Chapters 30 & 32 RR

Before we begin a research paper, we need to do two things: find sources and plan the project.  Chapter 30 is about planning research and Chapter 32 is about finding sources.

Source

Chapter 30 shows how to turn a topic into a question.  You start with a broad overview, refine it to a topic, and finally develop a specific question.  From that question, you need to determine if it is too broad.  If so, then you narrow it down, but if it becomes too narrow, then you have to broaden it a little.  When questions become too narrow, they become uninteresting because the reader would need to be interested in that very specific topic.  This chapter also talks about how to effectively use search engines and what keywords to use.

No longer are we restricted to just the books in a local library when researching a paper, the internet has broadened our reach, so knowing where to find sources is key.  Chapter 32 is all about that topic and starts out by looking at how to search the internet.  Beyond simple searches you can do through Google, there are peer-reviewed journals that can be queried.

Of course, there is the age old source for research data, the library.  Since libraries contain a wealth of information, one needs to know how to search for the info they need.  This chapter shows how to search a library database as well as describing the various types of resources available in library like encyclopedias, government documents, and bibliographies.

Finally, Chapter 32 discusses field sources such as interviews, observations and questionnaires.  For my paper, this is helpful because I've witnessed some of the things that I'm writing about.  I know how it made me feel and my own thoughts on the subject and I don't have to rely on someone else asking the right question to the right person.

Overall, both chapters would help writers write better papers.  In this day and age, we are all used to using Google to search for something we are interested in, but we need to discern which sources are scholarly and which are not.  There are also some things in the library that I wasn't aware of like bibliographies.  Those kinds of resources can give an idea of where to begin looking for sources for our research paper.

Dustan S

Chapter 35 RR

Chapter 35 is a short chapter that discusses how to write a research paper.  It's helpful since a large portion of our grade depends on our research paper, so we need to learn how to write one correctly.

There are two ways to start a paper, the Thesis Method and the Answer Method.  The Thesis Method begins with a plan and thesis, building supporting points to make your point clear.  This is the way we are being taught how to write the paper.  The second method is the Answer Method.  It lets you just jump in and start writing.  You'll line up evidence and discover your point as you go.  This method requires more revising.  I like a plan, so the first method seems better to me.

The rest of the chapter talks about how to begin, end, and edit your paper.  It says "you might start out slowly with a clear account of an event to draw your readers into the paper."  I don't know if that's great advice though, because if you don't start out strongly, the reader might get bored and not even finish reading.

Source

Dustan S

3 best success of my paper

My success on research paper is my introduction. In my introduction I talk about the responsibility of an animal, law and who are being affected by this act. It is my most successful paragraph in my research paper. After my successful introduction paragraph, my body paragraph is the most successful because In my body paragraph I touch on dogs, cats, orcas, and other animals that are being used for sports and entertainment. Lastly my most success on my paper would be the MLA origination because I learned the MLA format from my English 122 class book.

Nirakaran B. Malla

3 best successes

 After receiving my research paper back I noticed that this time I did a pretty good job with my work citations page, it's in correct format, it's in alphabetical order and it's the correct amount of citations needed. Another good thing about my research paper was my introduction, my thesis is clear and my audience is able to find my F.P. The last success of my research paper is that I am now using in text citations correctly. I still need to improve in all these areas but, they are a lot better now compared to my first essays.


-Yazmin Olvera

3 Things Jenn Will Like

My research paper is about the Flint Water Crisis.  I'm going to examine the socioeconomic history of Flint and see how this developed and what's in store for the future.  The three things that I think she will like are:

1) The Title - "Water we going to do about Flint's water?"
This is a play on words where I'm substituting "Water" for "What are" because they sound similar when you say them out loud.  Jenn is a writer and I think she appreciates puns or clever use of words, so she will like the title.

2) First Hand Info
I've worked in the water purification industry for 10 years and as part of my job, I get to travel to our locations all across the country.  They are typically in poor places with terrible tap water.  Some places have water that comes out of the tap like tea or smells like sewage.  Flint generates the headlines, but there are other places like it that also have terrible tap water, and having seen it first-hand, I should be able to give witness to the conditions there.

3) Details about the health effects on children
I don't know for sure that Jenn loves children, but the fact that they are innocent and trusting and the effects of lead-poisoning are more pronounced on kids is heartbreaking.  The story has been in the headlines, so maybe she has some curiosity about the topic already.

Source

Dustan S

Chapter 35 Response

In this chapter they teach methods on writing and drafting a research paper. They also give advise on using your sources to support your ideas. For example, to write a thesis their method is to start with putting together all the information you found in one sentence. It is also the main point or argument that is the basis of your paper. Revising and editing section stood out the most because I have hard time changing the sentences because it changes the meaning of the sentence in two different ways but in this section  their advise is to organization, strengthen your evidence and if that does not work then drop a section and add a new one. This was helpful and I will use this method on my research paper.

Nirakaran B. Malla