Wednesday, November 30, 2011

good enough getting the writing done and letting it go Blog Post

While reading this article i found myself realizing that i write in a manner very similar to the way the author writes. She is always procrastinating but once she sits down to write the paper, things get going rather smoothly. I learned that writing a crappy rough draft is okay and writing my paper in individual sections could help. We are currently writing our research paper in individual sections. She also talked about writing in her backyard as being one her best times writing. This could be worthwhile to try sometime when the weather gets nicer. Finally i learned that no ones writing is ever perfect and spending endless hours on a paper could end up being a real waste of time.

Monday, November 14, 2011

living sources interviews and surveys

This reading was very helpful to me because i had been wondering the proper way to conduct an interview before i read this.  I learned that while conducting an interview over the phone is more personal and will more likely yield better results, an email interview can also be helpful for writing a research paper.  The list of interview questions was really helpful and i will most likely use some of those.  I think the multiple choice surveys would be great for large audiences to fill out however i do not think i will choose this method. I also liked the tips on questions to avoid asking, such as loaded questions that will make the interviewee uncomfortable or force them to answer in your favor.   I plan on conducting at least one phone interview and a few email interviews and will likely refer back to this reading.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Blog reflection on lit review

1.) I learned writing a literature review is no easy task.  All 8 sources and maybe more must be talked about all while maintaining the tone and opinion of your own research papers argument. Writing in paragraph form is more difficult than listing each source and talking about it.
2.) A research paper needs a literature review because it further validates your opinion and shows other people think the same way you do and convinces the reader the stuff your talking about isnt all made up. 
3.)The research i made fits in with my opinion  for the most part, however some findings talked about a specific piece of land such as a specific park instead of all lands in the U.S.  and some were only concerned with one discipline of OHV such as only talking about snowmobiles or jet skis and not dirt bikes and ATV's.
4.)I want my research paper to contribute to more of why keeping these lands open is so important to peoples health, sanity, and well being and an article anyone can read and try to convince them on my opinion instead of an article written only to be read by OHV users or only by some of the environmentalists arguing this problem.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

quotation

Graff states " Since quotations do not speak for themselves, you need to build a frame around them in which you do that speaking for them." (Graff 2011).  I agree with this statement because in most people writing, a quote will be added and then not followed up with the writers opinion on that quote.  It will usually be left to the readers interpretation.  The reader cannot always correctly interpret one quote becasue they did not read the entire article the quote came from.  That is why when using a quote you must state what the author is intending to say and follow up on your take on the quote so as not to leave the reader hanging.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

They say I say

These two chapters were crammed with useful information. I liked the lists that summarized what the text explained and was easy to find when referencing for future use. It offered good advice about just the right amount of quotations and how to follow up on a quote and how to summarize properly.  A good article i will take many good tips from to use in future papers.