WP3: How Students Use Prior Genre

Summary:

My scholarly article is “How Students Use Prior Genre” by Mary Jo Reiff and Anis Bawarshi. The goals of this experiment were to determine what genres students already know, to observe how students use this prior knowledge when presented with new writing assignments, and to understand student’s methods of transferring genre into new ideas to fit their needs. Reiff and Bawarshi also endeavored to determine how one may predict if a student would be a “boundary crosser” or a “boundary guarder.” Reiff and Bawarshi defined boundary crossers as “students who engaged in high-road transfer as they repurposed and reimagined their prior genre knowledge for use in new contexts”, and boundary guarders as “students who seemed to guard more tightly and engage in low-road transfer of their prior genre knowledge, even in the face of new and disparate tasks.” They identified these two types of students based on their answers to set questions that answered the research question presented above. Reiff and Bawarshi categorized students who were less confident in their abilities to identify genre, and were more open to new ideas of genre as boundary crossers. They categorized students who were confident in their ability to define and identify genre, and therefore more set in their ways as boundary guarders.

One specific question that was asked of students participating in the experiment that Reiff and Bawarshi conducted was about what genre students used when writing an assigned essay. The students were asked to list the genres that the paper reminded them of and the genres that they were able to use to help them complete the assignment. The researchers noted that some students appeared less confident in their definition of genre and provided more rhetorical strategies than genres when asked. This was another indicator of a boundary crosser. Other students were far more confident in their abilities and listed more genres than rhetorical strategies when asked the same question – an indicator of a boundary guarder.

Younger:

Dearest Parental Units,

It is I, your beloved child. School is going pretty well so far; it’s really weird to be so far away from you guys. I already miss the animals! My roommates have been really nice so far, luckily. I’ve already heard some stories of people trying to get roommate changes. I think I’ll be fine. Campus is absolutely beautiful, but of course you guys know that already. I really think I need to start stocking up on school gear! Guess what everyone is getting for Christmas this year!! Lucky you guys!

Haven’t really made too many friends yet, but there’s time, right? There’s a few clubs that I should probably join, but meh. That means leaving my room! Where I have a bed! And blankets! One of my roommates goes out a lot more than the other. The one who stays in more is a lot more my speed. I think I can become pretty good friends with her. I shall keep you updated. Hopefully next time I write I’ll have made some friends from some class or another.

Even though we’re only in the first week of school I have a midterm next week for Calculus! That’s just ridiculous, right? I think I’ll do pretty well on it – it’s just supposed to be basic algebra review and we’re allowed a note card. The professor is weird; he’s way to energetic for an 8am lecture. He bounces all over the stage while he’s lecturing. I wonder what kind of coffee he drinks… Anyway, Chemistry has been going well so far. It’s all just review of high school, so I’m good! I think this class will definitely be interesting! The professor is pretty funny but his jokes are almost as bad as dad’s. My other class is this writing class. I guess it’s okay. It just seems so repetitive of AP Lit last year. The only really different thing is we’re actually talking about genres. The idea of genres is pretty interesting – they’re basically just how you classify things. Like our sci-fi movies, topic within a genre right there. Movies are a genre and sci-fi is the topic. Or sci-fi is a genre and you can use it for movies or books! I’ve never actually thought about using genres when I was writing, but here we go. They’re asking us to think about it.  There are actually people conducting a survey on some of us. They ask us what genres we think of or use when they give us assignments. It’s interesting really. I mean, the essays were pretty easy to write, they really reminded me so much of AP Lit last year. Of course there were a few differences, but using different genres to write is quite easy. Ah well, hopefully the rest of the writing is as straightforward as this genre nonsense.

I should probably go and study for that midterm, huh? I’ll send some pictures next time, just to make you guys jealous! Love you guys!  I miss you already. Be home before you know it! Talk to you soon. TTFN.

-          Your loving daughter

Older:

Can You Guess It? Manuscript

Camera pans in to Can You Guess It? studio

Camera pans the audience, then focuses upon the stage where the host is standing. To the side are 3 people standing behind podiums.

Host

Welcome back to another episode of Can You Guess It?!

Crowd applauds wildly.

Host

Today we have with us 3 new contestants. Hailing from Sacramento, California we have Arnold Jones. Arnold, tell us about yourself, who did you bring with your today?

Camera pans to each new contestant as they are introduced and their family in the audience.

Arnold

Hello, Bill. I brought my beautiful wife as well as my mother and mother-in-law today. They all love this show and were so excited when I made it on!

Host

Well that is just wonderful! And what is it that you would like to do if you won tonight?

Arnold

Well, my twin daughters’ birthday is coming up and if I win I think I’d like to take them to Disneyland for their 11^th birthday!

Crowd cheers and applauds

Host

What a magical birthday that would be! We wish you luck tonight Arnold. Now for our next contestant, Brianna Yu from Twin Falls, Idaho. Brianna, how are feeling?

Brianna

I’m feeling great, Bill, thank you! I’m ready to get this show on the road!

Host

That’s the right attitude! Tell us, Brianna, who did you bring with you tonight?

Brianna

Tonight, I brought my father and little brother with me tonight. My mom would have loved to come, but she was assigned overseas a few months ago.

Host

That is truly unfortunate. Are you trying to win for her tonight, Brianna?

Brianna

Yes, I am, Bill. I want to make her proud tonight.

Crowd cheers loudly.

Host

That’s a beautiful thought, and good luck Brianna. Our final contestant tonight is Amelia Johnson from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Amelia, who did you bring with you tonight?

Amelia

Tonight I brought with me my parents and my adopted daughter, Anabelle.

Host

How lovely! And what are you planning to do if you win tonight?

Amelia

Well, Bill I am going to take my parents on a Caribbean cruise if I win tonight, heaven knows they deserve it!

Audience applauds loudly

Host

Don’t think you’d take me too? [laughter] I’m kidding, of course. That would be a wonderful trip! Good luck, Amelia!

Camera focuses on Host to begin the game

Host

Well ladies and gentlemen, you know the drill. These fine contestants are going to be given 3 conventions or other rhetorical strategies that describe one genre and the first contestant to provide a suitable genre for those conventions will get 50 points. The first 2 contestants to 100 points advances to the final round where the genres will be harder to guess. In the final round, each correct answer will be worth 100 points. The first contestant to 300 points will advance to the bonus round where they will be given 4 conventions. They will have 10 seconds to tell me the genre that fits the strategies. If they get it correct, they win $20,000 and a weekend get-away to the Bahamas! Let us begin the game!

Host moves to stand behind his podium and pulls out an envelope.

Host

Contestants, are you ready? [contestants nod] Let us begin. The first three conventions of this genre are: it is usually a 5 paragraph essay, it contains an argument, it references multiple sources.

Amelia is the first to hit her buzzer

Host

Amelia?

Amelia

Is it an essay?

Host

I’m afraid that isn’t specific enough Amelia.

Crowd sighs as Amelia shakes her head.

Arnold was the next to hit his buzzer

Host

Arnold?

Arnold

Is it an argumentative essay?

Host

Correct, 50 points to you. We would have also accepted a compare and contrast essay or a pros vs. vs cons essay.

Cheers from the audience

Host

The next genre has the following conventions: it uses multiple references, it is written in a very formal tone, and it has multiple sections.

Brianna hits her buzzer

Host

Brianna?

Brianna

Is it a research paper?

Host

That it is, 50 points to you.

Applause from crowd

Host

Our next topic is used to excuse oneself from something. It requires a signature from a person of the proper authority and it frequently contains the dates for which someone is excused from something.

Brianna is the first to hit her buzzer

Host

Brianna?

Brianna

Is it a doctor’s note?

Host

Correct again! That makes you the first person to advance to the final round, we will now inactivate your buzzer so that you will not compete with the remaining competitors.

Raucous cheers and applause as Brianna’s buzzer is inactivated and her podium’s spotlight is turned off and her point tally is wiped clean.

Host

Arnold, Amelia, one of you will advance to the final round with Brianna, and the other will go home. Prepare yourselves. Here is the next genre. The exigence of this genre is personal loss. This genre is frequently about life and family. It is also usually sorrowful.

Amelia repeatedly hits her buzzer

Host

Amelia?

Amelia

Eulogy! I mean, is it a eulogy?

Host

Correct! You’re back in the running!

The crowd cheers as Amelia applauds herself.

Host

Here is the final genre of this round. Good luck to the both of you. This genre tends to rhyme. It is considered an art form, and similes are frequently used throughout the works of this genre.

Arnold hits his buzzer first

Host

Arnold?

Arnold

Is it poetry?

Host

Right you are, Arnold! 50 points to you makes you our second contestant in the final round.

Cheering for Arnold as his point tally is wiped.

Host

Amelia, I’m sorry, but you didn’t make it to the final round. As a parting gift, we’d like to give you $1,000! Thank you for joining us tonight!

Audience applauds as Amelia exits the stage. Camera follows Amelia’s exit. Camera returns to Host as the final round begins.

Host

Brianna, Arnold, you are our final two contestants. In this round, you need to provide the genre for three sets of topics. Each correct genre given is worth 100 points. The first one of you to 300 points will advance to the bonus round and have the chance to win $20,000 and a trip to the Bahamas!

Crowd cheers and contestants applaud.

Host

Alright then! Let us begin the final round. The first conventions are: this genre is personal, informal writing, the works of this genre contain expressions of gratitude, and are frequently handwritten.

Brianna hits the buzzer

Host

Brianna?

Brianna

Is it a Thank You note?

Host

Correct!

Applause throughout the studio

Host

100 points for you, and let’s get on to the next genre. The conventions of this genre are that the writing of this genre is very formal. It frequently contains expressions of regret, and it also expresses appreciation for time spent and opportunities provided.

Arnold hits the buzzer

Host

Arnold?

Arnold

Is it a letter of Resignation?

Host

Precisely! 100 points to you!

Vigorous cheers and applause as the points are added to Arnold’s podium.

Host

Our next genre tends to contain contact information, a schedule of events, due dates, and required materials, and it is frequently handed out in schools.

Arnold hits the buzzer

Host

Arnold?

Arnold

Is it a work schedule?

Host

Ah, I’m afraid that is not correct, Arnold, we are looking for something that is handed out in schools, as well as containing contact information, due dates, required materials, and a schedule of events.

Crowd laments as Arnold sighs.

Host

 Brianna? Do you know?

Brianna

Is it a syllabus?

Host

Yes, it is! 100 points headed your way.

Crowd and Arnold applaud Brianna’s success.

Host

 On to the next topic with Brianna in the lead with 200 points. If she can get this genre then she advances, but Arnold still has a chance to make a comeback and even the playing field! Let’s continue, shall we? This next genre is a work that is rewritten many times in your life. It is highly structured, and contains important information about your prior experiences, education, and skills - including your contact information.

Brianna hits the buzzer frantically

Host

Brianna?

Brianna

Is it a résumé?

Host

Correct again! We have our final contestant! Brianna, you will be advancing on to our bonus round in just a moment. Arnold, you played a hard fought game, so we will be sending you home with $2,000 as a thanks for your effort. Tell your daughters to have a Happy Birthday!

Crowd applauses and cheers as Arnold shakes hands with the host and exits the stage. Camera refocuses on Host and Brianna.

Host

Alright, Brianna, are you ready for this bonus round?

Brianna

As I’ll ever be!

Crowd chuckles

Host

Then let’s get on with it! I will give you 4 conventions this time, rather than 3. You will have 10 seconds to tell me what the genre is. If you are correct then you head home with $20,000 and a Bahama vacation.

Cheers of encouragement from the crowd

Host

I must ask that the audience remains silent so Brianna has a fair chance to provide us with the correct answer. Here we go. The conventions of your genre are that it is an impersonal work. It contains an offer of congratulations, a schedule of future dates to keep in mind, or other similar information, and it occasionally includes some type of paraphernalia – such as confetti – to represent the authors of such a work. Your time starts now.

Brianna

It’s a, uh, it’s… Is it an acceptance letter?

Confetti and balloons come from the ceiling. Briana’s father and brother swarm the stage as the crowd erupts into cheers and applause.

Host

You’ve won! Congratulations Brianna, you have won this episode of Can You Guess It? And a Bahama get away for two as well as $20,000!

Camera pans out and scans the cheering audience, then going back to the stage as Brianna and her family celebrate. Credits roll.

Self-analysis:

Some of the steps in identifying if a student was a boundary crosser or a boundary guarder came from asking what genres were drawn upon by students to perform a task. It was noted that many of the students who were considered to be boundary crossers listed more rhetorical strategies than genres in the areas that they drew upon to write their papers. This topic led to my idea for the transformation of my older genre. The idea of drawing upon genres or other rhetorical strategies to build upon a previously established genre or domain made me think of how conventions relate to genre. Rhetorical strategies used within genre can be conventions of that genre, so I decided I could use that connection to relate my idea to “How Students Use Prior Genre.” I tried to think outside of the box for this genre transformation. I knew that we had to use a written genre, but I didn’t want to do a magazine or book like so many other people. I realized that I’ve seen movie scripts that contain dialogue and action descriptions, so why not make my own? I knew a movie would be ridiculous – who has time to write a movie script?! – So I figured I could write the manuscript for an episode of a game show! Even though I wasn’t able to use a visual frame as McLoud does (164), I was able to frame my work by describing the actions in italics and aligned to the left hand side of the page. My rationalization for a game show for an older audience is that game shows are generally on during the day. The only people who have time to sit down and watch TV during the day (who aren’t toddlers) are retired people or students on break. The goal of my game show was to make it similar to those that you would watch on TV. I based my gameshow on Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy because I watch both of these shows with my mom when I am home. The goal of my gameshow is, obviously, to win by getting more responses correct than your opponents. The contestants are tasked with providing a response in the form of a genre that utilizes primarily the conventions given by the host of the show. I would imagine an audience would expect there to be a major prize for winning the show, so I included a pretty amazing prize for the amount of work required to win. I also included participation prizes similar to what is done on Wheel of Fortune.

My idea for the younger genre was even more abstract. I decided to take the place of the younger audience and write to my parents. Given that my article contained an experiment conducted on first year college students, I determined that I could adapt the persona of one of the students involved in the study. Since I planned to adopt the persona of one of the students surveyed for the experiment, I had to decide how I could be one of the students and talk about the experience. I realized that whenever I have something interesting to talk about, I talk to either my boyfriend or my parents, so why not write a letter home talking about my first week at school! In order for this to actually be something that a student would write home, the entire letter couldn’t be about the writing experiment. I do that occasionally to my parents, but it’s when I call them to rant about it, and even then there is still outside discussion. My letter home talks about the new college, friends made, and classes so far. I focus more on the writing class than I do on the other classes discussed. It was really quite difficult for me to write as one of the test subjects when I’m not supposed to know what it is that the experimenters are looking for. I tried to give off the overly confident persona that describes a boundary guarder by talking about how easy the task was, and how I really didn’t have to venture out and try anything new. I also focus on my wording because as McLoud wrote “Words can be a powerful ally in the struggle to communicate.” (167) I described the experiment about genres as “straightforward” and “nonsense” to emphasize that I didn’t think of genre any differently now than I did prior to this survey.

“Writing means always changing – changing to meet the needs of different audiences!” (Losh and Alexander, 144) This project was about transforming an academic article on writing into something completely different but still closely related. This could have been as easy as changing the frame in which the work is presented. I changed the experiment into a gameshow. It could have been transforming the image. Instead of being the experimenter, I became the experimentee. The academic article would have only met an audience of scholars. By manipulating it as I did, I transformed it into works that could be seen by a much larger variety of both older audiences and younger audiences than the intended audience.

PB3A: Shakin' Things Up

My scholarly article is titled “How Students Use Prior Genre” by Reiff and Bawarshi; the goals of the experiment were to determine what genres students already know, to observe how students use this prior knowledge when presented with new writing assignments, and to understand student’s methods of transferring genre into new ideas to fit their needs. Reiff and Bawarshi also endeavored to determine how one may predict if a student would be a “boundary crosser” or a “boundary guarder.” Reiff and Bawarshi defined boundary crossers as “students who engaged in high-road transfer as they repurposed and reimagined their prior genre knowledge for use in new contexts”, and boundary guarders as “students who seemed to guard more tightly and engage in low-road transfer of their prior genre knowledge, even in the face of new and disparate tasks.” They identified these two types of students based on their answers to set questions that answered the research questions presented above. Reiff and Bawarshi categorized students who were less confident in their abilities to identify genre, and were more open to new ideas of genre as boundary crossers. They categorized students who were confident in their ability to define and identify genre, and therefore more set in their ways as boundary guarders.

My idea for transforming this article into a new genre for a younger generation, is fairly simple. I am going to adopt the persona of a “boundary guarder” in this experiment and write a letter home to my parents telling them all about my first few weeks at college. This letter will obviously try to depict a first year student writing home to their parents for the first time, so it will not be entirely about their first year writing class, but their first year all together. A good portion of the letter will be how I would envision a “boundary guarder” answering some of the questions presented in “How Students Use Prior Genre.” I will probably exaggerate the confident persona that is indicative of a “boundary guarder” to ensure that my ideas are clear. I am concerned, however, about the length of this letter. I know that I will need to keep it realistic, and therefore can’t be more than a page and a half (what can I say? I’m a bit wordy). I might make the letter longer than realistic to ensure I present as much information as I need to.

I’m fairly concerned about my idea for transforming the article for an older audience. I decided that I’d like to write the script for a gameshow, similar to something like Family Feud. I have absolutely no idea yet what I would call it, but I’m going to try for something really witty. I think that this genre would be appropriate for an older audience because game shows are only on during the day and the only people who have time during the day to watch game shows would be a much older audience consisting of retired persons. In the game show, the contestant will be given a genre and they will have to imagine different ways that some strategies of that genre could be used, for example the genre of “compare and contrast essays” has strategies that could be used to convince your spouse that it really is a good idea to go on that Alaskan cruise, or to persuade the CEO of a company that your product is better and more efficient than the competitors. I am definitely going to play around with this idea and figure out how to make it less complicated, if anyone has any input on that I’d love to hear it! Any other feedback on any part of my ideas would be most welcome! Thanks J

The Thlog Awakens

Okeydokey, thlogging time. Let's see. This week wasn't too busy at all, which was a welcome break. I mean, yeah the WP2 was due on Monday, but I turned it in before then. It turns out I really enjoy not having things due! I'm a bit nervous about WP3, mainly because it requires being artsy as well as fartsy. I’m not so great at that! I have ideas, but I really need to figure out how to think outside the box on this one. The readings that we had this week really helped with getting a handle on the level of artsy going on. In general I prefer the comic book style reading better than just reading a text because I am a visual learner and pictures are awesome. I preferred Losh and Alexander’s work over McLoud’s because I felt it was easier to follow. McLoud did refer back to the same strip (finding the key, opening the door, and getting eaten by the lion) multiple times, but he also introduced different story lines that I expected him to use throughout the rest of his paper. I thought that he would use the A, B, C, D person storyline to help elaborate on all of his other goals of writing. Of his goals, I had a difficult time grasping what exactly is meant by image. What I understood of McLoud’s examples or explanations for image were simply how you chose to depict your characters, and I’m sure that’s entirely too simple. Although, that could make sense and it could correlate with what was discussed in Losh and Alexander’s work about the style of dress and how that represents you. Interesting. I’m still not sure about how I would find an example of that. I need to sit and think about what I can do with my WP3 and how all the ideas from our readings will affect how I write and what I write about in the self-analysis. Oi vey. Alrighty, time to go work on PB3A. TTFN.

Revenge of the Thlog

This week was another short week, so there is only one day’s worth of class to discuss. We did a lot today, but at the same time, not too much. One of the things that we did today, I wasn’t really that big of a fan of. That was the thing of socrative.com where we each submitted out first few sentences of our papers and voted on them anonymously. Although it helped me realize some flaws in my intro, I thought it took too long to get everyone to submit their own intro and then to vote on it. The time that was spent on voting for the best intro could have been better spent on more in-depth peer review – in my opinion. I think it would have sufficed to give a sample of 4 or 5 intros and then have the class vote on those – it would have save time while still achieving the goal of having us identify what moves make for the best intro.

Even though I didn’t enjoy the voting thing, that doesn’t mean I hated class today. I enjoyed reading over my peer’s papers and asking them questions to help them improve their work. I appreciated the thought and effort that my partners put into reviewing my paper. They helped give me ideas of where to break up my paragraphs to make them a more reasonable length (because that was one of my questions for them), and they questioned how I could make certain aspects of my paper easier to understand. I can always ask for friends or family to help me edit and review my papers, but I would prefer for my classmates to help edit and revise my paper with me because they have the context to understand what exactly it is that my paper should be discussing. They can help me get back on track where friends and family could not, even if they had the prompt. That’s all for now. Time to go work on editing that WP2. TTFN.

(P.S. I really hope you noticed my Thlog titles and appreciated them, because I don't have many left in me!)

Attack of the Thlog

This week was a crazy week for me. I had 3 midterms spanning 2 days with 2 midterms on Wednesday. You can only imagine how grateful I was that our WP2 rough draft wasn’t due Wednesday, like I thought it was when I glanced at the syllabus. Thankfully this week has just been a lot of help and clarification on the ideas and concepts that can be used in our WP2. I am pretty sure I’m going to be a bit hesitant with including brackets into my WP2, even though we have to, because I’ve never used them for anything other than equations. I think I’ve always thought it was customary to italicize actions and although I’ve seen it used I have never personally used brackets to modify a quote. Figuring out a way to do that smoothly will be interesting and useful to understand how to do.

I really enjoy going over grammar ideas or concepts – even the basic ones – because they always refresh my memory and give me new ideas to make my papers stronger or more creative. I have always enjoyed parallelism for the main reason that it just looks right. I try to write with parallelism (unless I’m meeting a word countJ) because I really feel that it helps ideas flow and appears more put-together than just writing down whatever comes to mind, as I’m doing now.

I’m actually looking forward to writing the WP2 because I’ve got so many ideas for how it should go, and I really want to prove that I can write a good paper. I’ve already started a very basic outline and am going to really try to just get every idea that I can onto the paper and make my very own shitty first draft. I usually try to write the final draft of my paper while writing the rough draft – a really terrible habit. Hopefully this paper will turn out much better than my last one.

PB2B: Moves Like ...An Author?

The idea of “moves” is an interesting one. It covers such a broad topic of life that it makes an exact definition difficult to come up with. I choose to think of moves as someone’s decisions, either once or repeatedly, that have an effect on how something is presented and/or received. Every writer has their own preferred moves; one writer may prefer commas over dashes to insert a thought. You may prefer to use italics to show emphasis while someone else may prefer to change up the font of the word they wish to emphasize. Our readings over the past few weeks contain a plethora of moves to dissect and contort for our own uses.

They Say, I Say provides us with examples of specific moves that are common amongst writers. Looking over these moves, I recognized a few that I think are very common in writing, at least for me, so I decided to search for examples of them in our course text. I looked for not only phrases and expressions, but also introductions and transitions.

• Capturing Authorial Action contains commonly used moves for expressing another’s ideas or opinions. I found an example of one template in Dirk’s Navigating Genres when he begins a paragraph with “I further acknowledge…”(19) This type of move is authorial action because the author is presenting an idea that they agree with and believe to be relevant and necessary for their audience to know. Another Authorial Action template was used in Reading Like A Writer when Bunn stated that one Professor Moran “urges us to read like writers…”(84)
•  Introducing Quotations is a common place to use generic templates to ease into the quotation. Dirk uses one such template to quote Professor Reiff on teaching composition. The template used in this instance is “X writes” on page 19. This move is safely neutral in arguments because it neither shows agreement of condemnation of an author’s words and opinions, just simply states that they wrote something.
• Introducing Objections Informally is a subtle way to acknowledge possible problems with your argument. Elbow uses this move in Teaching Two Kinds of Thinking by Teaching Writing when he says “But does freewriting or uncensored, generative writing really enhance creative first-order thinking?”(33) Elbow’s use of this objection at the beginning of a paragraph is a move that allows him to cut down opposition to his argument while proving his point even further.
• Commonly Used Transitions are useful to know as they provide you with the ability to move smoothly from one topic or idea onto the next. There are many types of transitions and the one that I found an example of was a concession in Dirk’s Navigating Genres. Concessions are another useful way to acknowledge counter arguments or to acknowledge something that may be slightly odd or unusual, which is how Dirk uses a concession in his paper. “I further acknowledged that it is quite rare that teachers of writing get to write so directly to students in such an informal manner.” (19) This move was used at the beginning of a paragraph, which is in fact a mighty fine place to transition topics.

While searching for some common moves from the index of templates, I couldn’t help but notice a few common moves that were not acknowledged in the index. Some of these moves were so common that I observed them in more than one article. Please don’t mind my names, I promise to try to not make them too corny.

• The Tour Guide: Some authors like to tell you what exactly they’re thinking and how it will affect you through the paper. “Johnathan and I are here to serve as your guides – to lead you through the process of becoming a more effective communicator.” (Spaces, 8) Spaces for Writing is not the only place that I noticed the author telling their audience what the purpose of the paper was. Dirk also used it in his paper “My purposes are…”(18) This move tells the reader exactly what they are supposed to be getting out of the article that they are reading.
• The Philosopher: Authors, it appears, enjoy asking questions to focus your reading and understanding of what they are trying to tell you. Nearly every assigned reading we have had has multiple guiding questions, generally towards the end of their paper to get you to think objectively about writing. Bunn is a very obvious example – He teaches you the questions to ask yourself so you may read like a writer and then applies them to his own paper.
• The Blockhead: Not too many authors do this one, probably because it tends to not leave room for your own analysis. I consider the blockhead to be when an author, Bunn in this case, uses 9 block quotes in 14 pages of writing. This move provides your paper with a lot of evidence, but can be seen as just fluff if much of your evidence is repetitious.
• Notice Me!: I noticed (please don’t hate me) that when an author want to ensure you are paying attention to and thinking about a specific idea they may say “Notice that…”(54) or “Notice how…”(74) as both Birkenstein & Graff and Boyd used in Saying Why it Matters and Murder! Rhetorically – respectively.

The Phantom Thlog

A new week, a new thlog. This week has been really helpful in preparing for the WP2. I definitely think I have a better handle on this one than I did on WP1. I’m worried because I’ve got a lot of midterms next week to study for, so I’ll need to write PB2B and WP2 rough draft over the weekend just to make sure it’s done in time. Thankfully, I’ll be done with midterms next Wednesday, so I will have time to edit the crap out of my rough draft and get it into a nice pleasant, easy to follow and concise WP2.

 I really enjoy having to come up with names for all of the “moves” we find, because that really makes it more of a game, and I’m a bit competitive so I enjoy a challenge to have the wittiest name. Being able to be more creative with simple things (like naming something as opposed to being creative in a whole paper) is rather fun for me; it’s just challenging enough to make it original that it keeps me thinking, but it doesn’t make me want to throw something at a wall.

I also enjoy trying to think of a topic to write WP2 on. I’d like to write on something original and slightly out of the box. I suggested vaccines in class, and I’ve already thought of the disciplines I’d like to find for it – I’ve even already spit-balled a few potential arguments (even though we aren’t really supposed to) that I think I can work with easily – but I don’t know if I will stick with that idea. (Is it grammatically correct to have parentheses inside dashes?)

RLW was an interesting piece and it got me thinking about how I should read works. The way that Bunn suggested reading really breaks down the thoughts and ideas of the paper – and by extension the writer – into easily digestible chunks that can be expanded upon and used to formulate a great essay! 

PB2A: Scoping Out Scholarly Sources

I cheated a bit with this PB by using a scholarly article that I have studied for the purpose of Biology Lab. The paper is Golden eagles, feral pigs, and insular carnivores: How exotic species turn native predators into prey. An interesting thing about scholarly peer reviewed papers is their lack of truly clever and inventive titles. Scholarly papers generally explain the basis of the paper in the title.

The paper I chose discusses how exotic species turn native predators into prey, as is clearly stated in the title. The exigence for most scientific papers is for the pursuit of knowledge; the desire to understand why the world works in the way it does. Papers such as this one – Scholarly, scientific, peer-reviewed papers – Have many conventions of their organization that allows a reader to glance at a few sections of the paper and know what the paper is about. Just skimming over one or two sections of a scientific paper can tell you the background of the subject in question, what questions the paper will be answering, how the experiments will be conducted, and the results of those experiments.

Golden eagles, feral pigs, and insular carnivores: How exotic species turn native predators into prey is organized according to these conventions. The title tells you the subjects involved in the experiment and the main idea of the experiment. Below the title the authors are listed and below the authors’ names are footnotes that list the authors’ credentials and their work place. The first portion of the actual paper is a small bolded section called an Abstract. The purpose of this Abstract is to give the reader background knowledge of the exigence of the experiment. In this case, the Abstract informs the reader that the introduction of a non-native species led to the presence of a different exotic species that began preying upon the island fox who had been the major predator up until that point. “The presence of exotic pigs led to major ecosystem shifts by indirectly causing predation to replace competition as the dominant force shaping these island communities.” The last sentence of the Abstract summarizes the Abstract while also acting as a bit of a thesis statement. After the Abstract is the introduction which is a more in-depth explanation of the exigence that led to the experiment. The introduction also explains the question that is to be answered in the experiment. Once the Abstract and introduction are done, the actual experiment begins.

The rest of the paper is sorted into two distinct portions; Methods and Results. Methods is sectioned into five portions that explain the various methods used to conduct the experiment. The study area, type of capture, type of analysis, competition estimates, and the model used are all discussed at length in the Method portion of the paper. Evidence is used throughout the paper in the form of graphs to show a correlation between the number of eagles and the success of researches in capturing the native fox and skunk. The graphs show that as the number of eagles over time increases, the researches’ success in capturing the native species decreases which suggests that there is a smaller population available to be captured. Results contains numerical evidence to support the conclusion it presents. The result is also combined with a discussion, making it quite lengthy. The results verify the assumption that an exotic species can turn a native predator into prey. This was devastating to the native fox population – it nearly went extinct from predation as it shown in various graphs.

This experiment was conducted on the California Channel Islands. It was primarily observational, although interference was necessary to obtain an accurate count of the indigenous species. The researchers took samples from the Golden eagles to determine the species they primarily consumed to prove that the sudden decrease in native fox population was due to the appearance of the Eagles.

I feel that the results are the most important aspect of any scholarly piece. If I am reading a paper it is likely because the question intrigued me and I wish to see how the experiment will be conducted and what results it will produce. 

Return Of The Thlog

This week was pretty educational. We discussed a lot in class pertaining to WP1 throughout the week, and began to touch on WP2. I was unfortunately really only able to use a brief amount of information from Monday’s meeting towards my WP1 because I submitted my paper shortly after class. It wasn’t until a few hours before the deadline of the paper being submitted that I received the email about the extension, which upset me a fair bit. I had forgotten to attach the feedback matrix to my paper so I had already sent out 2 drafts of my final paper, and I felt a third would be obnoxious. So, this is a bit upsetting, but I know that I will be able to improve the paper before it is resubmitted in the final portfolio. I’m a bit nervous for the final portfolio; I’ve never been huge into English – I’m a Biology major – so I am unsure about the whole portfolio. I also just like to stress about everything, so that could be it too.

As for what we actually did in class this week, I appreciated, as usual, the writing tips. I used to just use whom wherever it sounded best or where I knew it usually went, like in a letter title, “To Whom It May Concern.” Funny enough, later that night after class I was watching one of my favorite shows (NCIS) and one of the main characters, Dr. Mallard, explained the proper use of whom while correcting someone’s grammar. It was nearly word for word what we were told during class! Something else that I really enjoyed this week was the Murder! Rhetorically exercise. I really enjoyed the imagination and creativity we were able to use to make up the statements or “paperwork” and it really demonstrated our innate understanding of genres. Just one more thing to throw in – I really enjoy the chance to give feedback during class on certain activities that we do. I really enjoyed the peer review that we did and hope that the period of time for it can be extended for the next paper!

The Thlog Strikes Back

Okeydokey. This week. The thlog. It is time. So, …yeah. We had one class and used a lot of the period to do the peer review, which I really appreciated. I wish we could have had more time to work with our groups on our papers and discuss ways to make them better. I mean, since we’re on the topic of genres, it was really interesting to see how different each of our papers were even though we were all following the same prompt and have read the same material discussing this topic. Each person in my group had different approaches to this paper. I will definitely be glad when this is done, writing stresses me out. I’m never sure if I’m writing what the prompt calls for, and that makes me worry about it. I realized that I forgot to reference our text, so that’s more reviewing I need to do. I really did appreciate the peer review. I always enjoy receiving constructive criticism on my papers, it always helps to improve my paper. My group partners were able to help me see what could be added and/or taken away from my paper. They helped me figure out how to shorten some of the lengthier quotes I included without losing the meaning that I wanted them to have. I had a quote that was about a page long, and I included it because it demonstrated the imagery that is common to fantasy novels. My group gave me ideas on which parts to remove from the quote because they didn't serve much purpose. I was able to help them with some grammar and just general ideas on how to make their papers more easily readable. Time to actually go fix those things in the WP. TTFN

A New Thlog

Ah, yes. Well I hope this will still be accepted seeing as I forgot to do Thlogging Thursday and just completely forgot about it for the rest of the weekend. This week I realized that this class is actually going to be a shit-load of work (I used a hyphen there, please notice it.) I wasn’t expecting this class to be a walk in the park, but I didn’t think it would be nearly as time consuming as it is. A lot of the assignments require actually comprehending the material we are writing on which means I can’t just BS my way through this, which would have been so much more fun! Oh, well. Life will go on. I feel like I’m pretty solid on just about everything we’ve covered. I do however need to go over vocabulary words and make sure I have the meanings down completely. I’m fairly certain I can find a genre in just about anything. I was thinking about that instead of writing the WP1. I realized that food can be a genre. Like oh hey, I enjoy the Italian genre of food. And that is totally obvious to me now, but I hadn’t really processed it. Bus seats can be a genre – they all look basically the same (see that?? That was a dash right there.) I actually really appreciate the writing tips in class. Some of them are old hat, but others are nice refreshers or ideas. Thanks Z. I’m not too excited about this WP; I’m actually a bit concerned that I just wrote the rough draft completely wrong, but at least we will have next weekend to tidy it all up before the final draft! Alright. Enough thlogging. TTFN.

PB1B

“Genre Generators” are able to exist because of what a genre is. Something can fit into a genre due to its structure and conventions used. Determining genres is as simple as identifying patterns. There are patterns everywhere, and when a specific group of works follows the same patterns over and over with little deviation, you can say that that work fits into a genre. The simplicity of genres has allowed for various websites to be created that will create a work of a certain genre for you with little to no effort on your part.

The most worrying, to myself at least, of the prompted genre generators was the scientific paper generator. You don’t have to be a practiced researcher to know what a common research paper looks like. If you see a paper that contains certain conventions or styles, you might think to yourself, “Oh! That looks like a research paper!” and frequently, you would be right. That’s because you recognized the pattern in research papers. Some people decided to take this pattern recognition to a whole new level and make some software that will create and mimic the conventions of a research paper. The website prompts you to enter the “author’s” name and click “Generate”. You are then shown a very authentic looking research paper with your name at the top. This patterns that allow this program to be created are fairly obvious; there is a title front and center, bold and big, the author’s name(s) is(are) below the title in a smaller text. The paper itself is segmented into multiple sections. There is an “Abstract” section that acts as a thesis to the paper. After the “Abstract” there is a Table of Contents, followed by the Introduction. The Introduction is numbered with a 1 to begin segmenting the paper into orderly sections. From what I observed the website generates only 6 segments with the 6^th and final being the Conclusion. It is important that the conclusion is included because presenting evidence in an organized and logical manner and then drawing a conclusion from it is a must when writing a research paper. After the Conclusion there is an extensive list of resources used which lends a decent amount of ethos to the generated paper. The paper appears even more credible due to multiple graphs, charts, and diagrams that are located within the Results section. At a glance there is absolutely nothing wrong with this paper, and it includes everything that a well-planned paper should, all thanks to genres.

The generator that required the least amount of effort was the comic strip generator. You simply clicked the “Generate” button and you were presented with a new comic. These comics frequently did not make sense, which proves that the entire comic strip was randomly generated. This can be done very simply with only 3 frames to fill. The first frame generally offered and opening and/or context to the comic. The middle frame generally had some type of action happening, or an opinion being expressed. The last frame would fit into the category of resolution. It was usually the punchline to a joke or a reaction or comment. The humor in this generator was on the juvenile side because juvenile humor is easy; it’s cheap laughs. People always get a chuckle out of someone else’s awkward situations or mild pain, because we’re all pretty messed up.

The last generator was perhaps the most peculiar when you really think about it. The meme generator requires its audience to have a working understanding of memes, their function, and their components. You have to understand the connotation to certain images, and it helps to know the common phrasing that might go with some of the common images. This generator was perhaps the best representation of genre because it allows for personalization. If you so choose, you may create your own meme using your own picture. Even if you don’t want to use your own picture, you can add your own text onto a known image. The personalization that you were able to do fit within the common conventions and layout of a meme while still allowing for differentiation.

My bonus generator site that I found is not for delicate sensibilities. When you first go to the page, http://www.sickjokegenerator.com/, you are asked to confirm you are over the age of 18. If you don’t appreciate extremely juvenile and frankly disgusting humor, then this site is not for you! It generates simple jokes at the click of a button. The jokes all fit into the genre of jokes that we described in class, short, easy to follow, and, in my opinion, usually funny. Some are question and answer jokes, others are short stories or anecdotes; they’re all different while still being similar. Of course there are some just awful jokes, but they all fall in the same genre. Enjoy!