Final Learning Blog

When coming into this English class, I figured I knew what was already expecting of me. Simply because I was used to writing formal, academic, 5-paragraph essays. Then being graded on my grammar and punctuation, instead of on my content. I followed the rubric because my teachers in high school always told me that upon entering college english courses, my professors would be expecting me to write extremely formal, precise, informational, correctly cited and formatted papers. That is why I feel that these classes did not at all prepare me for this English class.

For Unit 1, I think that I struggled the most with analyzing and creating my own rubric. I didn't even know what to analyze something meant. Upon choosing my topic, I decided to do a lot of independent research on defining the terms "analyze" and "genre." I was always used to having definitions handed to me directly and to be reinforced into my written work. Working with the genre of a news article was new to me as well. I figured that news are always very reliable and informational, as well as head on in the information that they provide to the public. After extensive amounts of research I learned that analyzing a piece of work means to taking the information from a piece of written work and breaking it down into further detail in order to further understand what the content is trying to push forward. Another thing that I learned in regards to this unit, was the creation of rubrics. In the past, I was used to getting an outline to follow a rubric for my papers. Building my own for this unit, seemed nearly impossible for me to do! What helped me feel confident about my rubric was the peer review group sessions that we had twice. I was quite nervous about showing my rubric to my peers in hopes that it was wrong. I seemed to have the problem that throughout this entire unit, we were essentially creating everything on our own, which made me feel like I was doing everything wrong. This has helped me instead, boost my self-esteem in this class and improved my writing significantly.

For Unit 2, I did not struggle much at all. This experimental design concept was very new for me. I also enjoyed this experiment because I am a biology major, and this is what I enjoy doing! I learned a lot from this unit as opposed to the rest of these units. I learned that breaking a constraint, such as language in an informal genre, could cause reactions that are usually expected among my peers. This English class has greatly developed my skills as not only a writer but as a critical thinker. But the only downfall with this unit project was that I didn't get as many of the expected results as I was hoping for. Which comes to say that changing constraints, like language, in a major part of social media in our society, doesn't always make a difference to most people. In other words, it is not always seen as out of the ordinary.

Unit 3 was by far, my favorite project to do this semester. I liked being able to write about my actual new experience in this new environment of an English class. I felt that I would not be judged on my content as well as HOW I write my article because I learned that there isn't a correct way to even write anything. I took everything I had learned throughout the semester and related this to how it would help me become a better thinker, writer, and observer. The conference with Nicole in person also helped me a lot. I was used to turning in rough drafts and having them graded with red marks all over, that in turn made me feel like a poor writer. I learned that I had trouble with staying organized in my work. I have one great idea then back it up with pointless information. I also had ideas that didn't coincide with the idea that I was talking about and then I would just not skim on where to put it and stick it right after the last idea I previously had. Among this, I had the tendency of not focusing attention on my audience. Meaning that I know that they aren't always going to know what I'm talking about. I seem to always lack detail and expanding my thoughts. I learned from this for my final article, that I had to take out useless information and replace it with more information for my audience to thoroughly understand what point I am trying to get across.

GWRJ Proposal

1. A general topic description.
-There are always wanted ads or classified ads, such as in our local newspaper that I constantly read, "The Pantagraph." I want to explore how people view these ads not only under 2 pages of the paper, but all over the entire paper in separate sections. Also, overall, I would like to research how exactly the writer of these ads write them and how people reply to them.

2. Describe the specific genre(s) that your article will explore (if any)
-Ads (wanted, classified, or personal). 

3. An explanation of the author's perspective (i.e. are you planning to creat a personal narrative of your own experience, or to research how other people writer, or what?)
-I will research how other people write and view classified ads. I think that it might be easier to hopefully research online ads and review the comments, or research how online ads differ from newspaper ads. 

4. Potential use of visual elements
-Web shots, pictures, or maybe even charts for examples. 

5. Discuss your plans for citing research in your articles

-I will most likely use in text citation with the references placed at the end of my article, it in text quotes if I interview or use direct quotes from a reference or person. 

GWRJ 10 Characteristics

1.McDuffie spilt her journal up into different sections, while Shapiro wrote one long journal.
2. Each had visual references.
3. Discussed importance of English and writing into research for Master's or career in Biology.
4. Interesting titles that catch readers attention.
5. Discuss weaknesses and improvements made in English.
6. Give specific examples.
7.Very detailed experiences during college experiences.
8.Cited sources in text.
9.References at the end.
10. Both discussed the difficulties of learning a new genre that sometimes someone isn't comfortable with.

Final Learning Blog Unit#2

Choosing the popular  genre of Facebook to do for my groups research project seemed like a very easy one to perform an experiment on. Considering the fact that it is widely testable, and widely used in our society by almost everyone! I was very positive that making two "out-of-the-ordinary" groups and inviting our peers to it will cause an instant reaction. However, I was shocked to notice that there were almost no reactions! I also learned that there are always going to be limitations to everything. We then made a status after the week of research on each of my two group members' Facebook pages, that wanted the opinion of the use of language on Facebook. We only received input on one of them which was the more formal event member. Throughout our project overall, I have realized that our society in little aspects to intently react to change but not too drastically as we expected.

1/2 Way Learning Blog Unit 2

This project for unit 2 has made me realize how I can now apply what I have learned from unit 1. For example, learning about different genres, in particular what exactly genres are. I have learned that genres are not just written down on paper stating a specific topic. They come in many forms such as blogs, diaries, chalk, and even the thing I use most today, Facebook. Now that I know what genres are it makes it easier to set up my project about Facebook groups with my group. Understanding how to break a constraint, such as informal and formal writing on Facebook like on my group project will lead to different reactions among our peers. I learned that language on Facebook is an easy thing to break because the overall idea of breaking a constraint is doing something, a drastic change to a written genre, out of the social norm. I also think that this project so far has helped me understand aspects that I was confused about like even where to start! At first, I didn't know what genre we should use, but then I realized that Facebook would be an easy one to perform an experiment on since almost everyone has one. The hardest part was to actually break a constraint. As an active user of Facebook, I thought about the formation of group invites and how they are usually written. Not so detailed or precise, just stating the info that people want to know about short and simple.

Research Proposal

Alexandra, Damian, Matt. 

Children’s Workshop For Reading

1. Statement of the “Problem.” 

Facebook’s overall structure and language is that of an informal genre. For example, groups have always written very informal, depending on the event taking place. The need for groups on Facebook are usually for invitations or just unspecific groups there to spread awareness. These groups are designed with as little detail as possible, and solely stating the basics. Among friends of people, this invitation to attend is then distributed. The person must then decide to attend/accept, decline, or even maybe attend. For our genre juxtaposition piece, we are using Facebook groups. 

1. Purpose of the Study.

We are creating two similar groups (one experimental, one control). We are trying to figure out whether we would expect our peers to attend a children’s workshop for reading tutor session overall. We are creating two groups, being sent out to two different populations. One will be informal language as Facebook’s structure is, while the other will be formal because this is a formal invitation to an event, unlike a party. The formally written group would also have to be described in as little detail as possible. We would then measure the number of likes, comments, acceptances, declines, and maybes. Overall, we want to test the reaction of our peers on the language of Facebook. 

3. The Research Question.

Does the change of informally/formally written language to formally/informally written language within Facebook genres, change people’s perception of joining a group?

1. The Research Design/Method.

Our group plans to take two of our three members with Facebook accounts, and create two different groups each, with the exact same event. The event is a tutor session entailed to help children practice their reading skills. One group member will make a group about this, but will make it written formally as it should be with a lot of detail. The other group member will design their group with as little information as possible, informal, and differentiate it from the formally written one, in order to cause the anticipated reaction of our peers. This is changing the language of Facebook. We then would measure the amount of likes, comments, and most importantly who attends and who declines.

1. Significance of the Study.

This study will not only get people on Facebook to understand the idea of breaking a constraint, such as language of a written genre, but how it affects the people’s conception of how they perceive something is supposed to be. For example, we are testing the people’s reactions to a formal event, while changing it to informal text. It is surprisingly interesting because Facebook is an informal genre. People expect a certain type of formality in writing, so breaking a constraint will show what effect it will have on them, as well as what reaction. 

Breaking the "Rules" Notes

Facebook:
-Making an out of the ordinary facebook group.
-Control and experimental event. (create one group that "expects" people to come for a huge party/event, and create another group that is just a friendly get together."
-Hypothesis: We would expect more of our peers to attend the actual party.
-Testing number of likes, comments, attendances.

Cards:
-Giving a birthday card, not giving a gift card or money along with it.
-Anniversary: Not ending it with "I love you."