Table of Contents:
Section 1: Cover Letter
Section 2: Key Concepts and Readings
Section 3: Proposal and Outline, First and Final Draft.
Section 4: Peer Review Feedback& Refelective blogs
Section 5: Reflective Letters, Letter to the Editor& instructions for authors from my chosen journal.
Section 6: Anno Bib& Presentation Hand-out
Section 1:
Cover Letter:
Before I started research writing 202, I didn’t think it would have actually had an impact on my career decisions as well as my life. I went into the classroom believing I would be writing a research paper about a specific topic, not realizing I was going to be able to pick a topic that I was actually passionate about. When choosing my topic, I wanted to write something that could eventually raise awareness to younger teenage females and their self esteem about their own body image. I did this because I personally have a lot of issues about my own body image and how I feel, so I wanted to explore how other females felt about their own body image and what may have caused them to feel the way I feel.
To start my research, I had to pick a specific topic in which I wanted to research regarding the female body image. I chose how the media, especially magazines, effect how a female looks at herself. I started out looking through journal articles explaining the media and how they affected a female’s body image; for example, how women that are unrealistically skinny are portrayed as beautiful and perfect. This image is shown throughout my paper. I was surprised about the fact that the government actually has a huge impact on magazines. Finding that the fashion industry wasn’t the only ones putting images and ads into magazines really sparked my interest and made me want to read more about this topic.
Since the topic of body image has been researched and discussed by many, I had to expand my topic in order to narrow it down to what I have researched. After reading about the government, media and fashion industry, I thought that there had to be more ways a female’s body image is affected. What I found out was that females affect females’ body image, along with peers, co-workers and even employers. After realizing that, this topic became much more personal because I’ve always felt judged by other females because of my body image. Realizing this new knowledge, I was able to explore more into my topic. I was also able to talk with other females and find their point of view, which helped me realize I wasn’t the only one with the feelings of being insecure with my own body. Finding this new research, I was able understand my topic more as well as become a part of my topic.
Once I was able to sit down, review my research and make my first rough draft, I realized it was not as easy as I thought it would be. In my first rough draft, I found on pages 1 through 9 that I had a difficulty with repeating my data. It was not because I didn’t have enough, I just felt that the points I was making were the most important. I also had a difficulty with not being very specific with whom I was talking about instead of mentioning him or her I said society, which categorized everyone, not just the people I was talking about. After having my paper peer revised, they were able to point out to me where I repeated the same facts and where I was not specific with whom I was talking about. Another thing that was difficult when starting my draft was finding the right facts and statistics to place into it, along with what to start my paper with. I decided on a fact about Barbie, which can be found on page 1 at the top. The most helpful response that I received was actually being told my paper wasn’t bad and my reviser actually liking the facts and statistics I put into my paper. They would put out facts that they thought were really good; one fact that they said was truly powerful can be found on page 1. Being told my paper was a good paper made me feel a lot better about my writing. Another helpful thing my reviser did for me was give me the advice to make a block-quote, which I didn’t even think of doing while writing my paper. By doing this, I was able to follow the correct MLA format, which can be found on page 5. After doing the revision work shop, I knew that I had to take out some information; whatever I repeated I made sure I took out. I also knew I had to explain more ideas in my paper that not everyone may understand. For insistence, my reviser was a male and did not understand what a size zero model was, so I explained it in my final draft, which can be found on page ( ). After my peer revisions, I knew that I had to work with my paper, especially with repeating the same facts that I’ve already used. I was able to fix those problems along with revising my wording in some paragraphs. I also was able to take out wording that my professor strongly did not want to be used in my paper. An example is the word society, which you can see I used a lot in my rough draft on pages 3 through 7. I feel that by doing peer revision, my paper was able to become more than just a college paper and instead become a scholarly paper with the correct revisions.
I believe that in my final paper my best ability is how I used statistics and quotes throughout my paper. I feel that I am able to keep my readers interested in my paper and my research by throwing in strong, informational facts that many people may not know nor realize. An example of this is in giving facts about a model who died due to an eating disorder on page one in my final draft. By doing this in the beginning, I feel like it sparks an interest in the reader and allows them to realize that people are dying due to eating disorders because they want to have the perfect body. Along with a statistic that I used on the second page of my final draft, which stated that 70 percent of teenagers do endorse beauty and fitness information in a magazine, proves that magazines do have the ability to affect a female’s body image. Another important fact that I put into my paper on page three in my final draft is that girls as young as five and six are starting to worry about their weight issues. I feel that putting all of these plus many more facts into my paper helps it flow together along with adding my own opinion and quotes from other researchers.
I was able to show connections to my research throughout my whole paper. I did this by adding in more facts and statistics that prove my point. I was also able to look back into my research when writing my results and conclusion and restate some information, which ensured that my research is supported by other researchers. While reviewing my focus group, I was able to connect those ideas that were brought to my attention from my participants and also ideas from other researchers, which proved that many females feel the same way about their body image and how the media affect them. I feel that I was able to work well with citing each piece of information that I collected. I explained some examples above on how I was able to put information and statistics into my paper. I found a rather large quote that I had to block quote for my paper because I used the MLA format, which you can find on page five on my final draft. I felt this quote was an important piece of information because it stated how models represent a fantasy world for many, which is very true because a models body size is very unrealistic to more than half of our population. I think that I performed well when doing my works cited page along with my anno bibliography, which was one of my favorite parts because it sculpted my research paper from the beginning.
Section Two:
Instead of looking up the definition or research writing I found a website that more along the lines described research writing. Stating that research writing is a very essential part of an academic career, which I find true since we are all in research writing 202. I favored this website more than the others because it didn’t just state how research writing can be complicated and frustrating; instead it stated that research writing will be one of the more rewarding experiences students will meet during their academic career. I found that “research writing has many steps to it unlike other types of writings, with research writing you have the process of the research, critical thinking, source evaluation, organization and composition”(purdue). According to this website being a “research writer takes discipline and a great deal of practice along with a lot of patience.”(purdue) This website also stated how to pick a research questions with two scenarios, one being the teacher gives a list for the students to choose from and the other being what we have to do and that is picking your very own topic. Of course when the teacher gives a list it will help the student become more confident in their pick because they know their teacher already approves, unlike when a student has a million topics to choose from. One last thing I thought was really great about this article was that it said “you can brainstorm for your paper all day, you can see anything related to your topic in the real world, ask people questions and even browse the internet in between classes to help with writing your own research paper.” (purdue)
I really liked this statement I found on my webpage:
research paper as a living thing, which grows and changes as the student explores, interprets and evaulates sources to their specific topic.
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/658/01/
The Purdue OWL. ” Writing a Research Paper.” Purdue U Writing Lab, 2008. Web. 27 Dec. 2008.
I believe research writing in a nut shell is hell. I also think that after researching your topic and finding out all new information it is very rewarding and during the process your learning so much on what topic that you become an expert on that topic. I also think that research writing is a very powerful tool to many students, it can help you learn and grow so much as a person without realizing your actually learning something, instead you just think your writing a paper. I also think that everyone is a research writer because whether you wrote a book report, a poem, a love note, short essay, really anything you write you have to research even if it’s about yourself. A book report you have to write about the book, research the book. If your writing a love note you have to know what that other person loves and how you feel about them, you may even have to research your anniversary incase you don’t remember. But a real true research writer to me is a writer that takes it to the next level to make their work stand out more than others. Lastly I believe research questions are developed through personal experience, something you want to learn more about, something you can devote hours to and never get bored and when you know what that thing is, then you have the perfect research question.
My research philosophy is simply to discover something more about and idea. I want to answer all the questions I ever had about a topic. I want to be able to write a paper and have someone with the same questions as me be able to read it and learn more than what they were hoping for. With that said I am going to approach this research project as if it was my career, and I will find out everything I need to know about my topic and learn more than I could hope for because if I didn’t then I would have wasted four months of my life looking up information on a topic that I could give two shits about.
Genres of Research Writing:
My website stated that there are two different types of genres of research writing, those being, argumentative and analytical.(Purdue) An argumentative paper being more of a persuasive paper, one were the writer is trying to get their point across so that they can change the reader’s mind about a topic. Because an argumentative is a persuasive paper you have to make sure that you pick a debatable topic, one where you don’t already know the answer or there isn’t already a set answer, so it will be easier for the writer to get their point across. (Purdue) An analytical paper on the other hand is more of an original research paper, one where you are asking a question about a topic and then using resources to answer that specific question.(Purdue) An analytical paper does not try to pursued the reader but instead it is an evaluation of a topic.(Purdue) After reading about these two topics I’ve realized that my research paper will be an analytical paper because I am researching domestic violence and also telling my story about it, I won’t be trying to persuade anyone into agreeing with me on any of my opinions.
The Purdue OWL. “Genre and the Research Paper.” Purdue U Writing Lab, 2008. Web. 27 Dec. 2008.
I know the homework says to narrow my topic down to two and then write about both of them, but I already have my topic so instead of two I’m going to tell you about the topic I will be doing. Stated in my last entry I am very passionate about domestic violence, which is why I have decided to research that topic. Because I want to learn more about domestic violence my genre type will be analytical, I am going to be evaluating the topic and researching statistics so I can fully understand everything. I want to research why there is domestic violence, why people choose to beat on other people and also the after effect the affect left on the mother or father and also the children. I really feel like I will be able to do this type of research better as an analytical paper then an argumentative paper because I am not trying to persuade anyone into thinking differently about domestic violence I am just trying to educate people about it. I want to be able to come away with something after writing this paper, and I hope who ever reads this paper will also have a better understanding and feel more educated on this topic.
Reading Critically & Evaluating Sources:
The first article titled “Critical reading towards Critical Writing,” Written by Deborah Knott, discussed how critical reading is vital for critical writing. This article stated the first couple judgments we make about a text is the first couple steps in formulating our own approach to the reading(Knott). It also mentioned that instead of asking yourself “how information can I get out of this?” ask “How is this information about my research?”(knott). By doing this it will help with picking which journals or articles to use and or read for your research. Instead of reading the article at first you can skim through it get the main ideas and see if any of those are on your writing. While critical reading you also want to look at which audience was this text made for?, how the text is organized, the evidence and supporting facts to all information given and also evaluation, do the arguments have strong enough information backing them up or is it more middle school writing than college? This article also gave some tips to better your critical reading skills, it states to highlight arguments that the author might make about a concept, so you can fully understand what the author is trying to get across.
The next article I read was titled, “Critical Skill 1: Strategic Deep Thinking,” written by Liz Strauss. This article was a little different because instead of talking about how to critically read it states how to critically think, Which I think is just as important specially with writing a research paper. This article gave tips for how to think deeper, some being, don’t use your first answer go beyond that and keep coming up with more answers(Strauss). Another tip being if you get stuck on a topic put it in the back of your mind and subconsciously think about it through the day and night, that way the next morning you should be able to come up with new ideas related to that topic(strauss). Another tip that I favored out of all of them was to discount the obvious and look at the invisible, meaning ask yourself “what am i missing” instead of what do i already have?, Than fill in the gap as you go along for what your paper is missing(struass).
The next article we had to read was “Writing for your Audience,” written by Linda Flower. In this Article the author mentions how people see things differently, to me a lake could be a sunny, warm fun place but to others it could mean fishing or even a scary place. Which is why the writer should know how the reader will picture what the writer is saying. The writer is meant to adapt to the readers view, instead of giving facts about a subject the writer should explain the facts but in his or her own way so that the reader can better understand what each statement is actually saying. Overall this article summarizes how the writer needs to teach the reader everything they need to know about the topic they are reading.
The second Article that I choose about writing for an audience is titled, “Writing for an Audience,” In this article is states similar advice to the first article I read. This article gave an example with a car accident and how you are going to explain what happen differently to your parents, friends and of course the car insurance company. It stated that knowing your audience helps with how you should arrange the information, and also with set the tone of your paper(Maryland). This article also mentioned to act as if your reader is less knowledgeable than the writer, so the writer can then better explain themselves in each argument or situation(Maryland). Lastly this article stated that the best way to efficiently plan your assignment is to figure out who your audience is, and what specific needs they might have.
references:
Strauss, Liz. “Critical Skill 1: Strategic Deep Thinking”. Sucessful Blog. February 8, 2010 http://www.successful-blog.com/1/critical-skills-1-strategic-deep-thinking/>. Copyright © 2005-2010 ME Strauss
“Writing for an Audience”. University of Maryland University College. February 8, 2010 <http://www.umuc.edu/ewc/students/writ_aud.shtml>.
Evulationg Sources:
Evaluating a source:
Some skills I’ve learned from the two articles I read were very helpful, they mostly had the same information. The first article that was given to us i felt gave a more broad spectrum, not just focusing on one thing. My next article which had the same information but went more towards things being bias and even had a little section on evaluating bias, which is very important when writing a research paper because you don’t want to favor one subject. One thing that they both did have in common was their basic criteria for evaluating a source, which were checking out the author, publisher and title. Find out if the author is creditable, look at other work he or she did, even ask your professor if they’ve ever heard of them before. Find the publisher and take note to where it was published if it is by a university press that usually means it is scholarly, also take note if they are reputable. Lastly look at the title, does it even come close to your topic? Now knowing how to check sources better I will be able to find good sources faster instead of wasting my time with pointless sources, also I know now that I should really look for bias in my sources because that can really influence me to write my paper in a different way then i planned.
Three Sources:
My first source is about depression and how the media is involved with that, there is also a study done in this research with adolescents with major depression disorder. This Article was done fairly recent and also the information as of where they found a lot of their research was also published in 2008 which is very recent. I thought that this is a great article because there was a study done which proves the research which shows it is reliable.
My second source also had a study done with the article but this article was about women and eating disorders. Mentioned before because there is a study done with the research i can tell that i will be getting accurate information. This study and article were also done in 2008, which makes me reliable because it will be focused on women in the last couple years, not women from the 50′s.
My third source is about surgery and the media, which shows how the media is affecting a womans discussion to get plastic surgery. I found that with this source my author did more than one article about this type if situation which shows they are probably well-educated in this field, which helps me think that it will be very accurate. Another thing like my last two articles this was published in 2008, and also had a survey to help find out more information from real world people.
Understanding Formatting (MLA/APA/CMS):
MLA: Modern Language Association
- First start off with a tentative thesis statement. Which will usually appear at the end of the introductory paragraph
- Organize your evidence, Bring out main ideas that the writer will use in their paper.
- Use sources to support your argument, using supporting evidence it can help orovide background information, can help with explaining terms or concepts, helps support your claims, leading authority to your argument and lastly using countering objections.
- 3 Main acts of plagiarism: failing to cite quotations, failing to enclose borroeded language in quotation marks, and failing to summarize in your own words.
- To use in-text citation you first need to source the authors name in the beginning of the paragraph, then at the end of the material cite the page number you found it on or a last name and lastly at the end of your paper make a works cited list (alphabetically) giving full publication info.
-Only use quotations when the language is vivid or expressive, exact working is needed or if language of a source is the topic discussion.
-MLA is used for most english instructors also some humanities instructors.
- When using long quotations, set them off from the text.
- Any source with an unknown author is cited by a shortened title.
-First line of each entry for works cited is at the left margin, extra lines are indented 1/2′ or 5 spaces.
-Double-spaced
Hacker, Diana. “MLA Papers”. A Writer’s Reference. Bedford/ St.Martin’s: 2009.
MLA internet Source:
-Do not right justify
- Set margins at 1 inch for top bottom and sides.
- The body of the paper should start below the title on the same page.
-Put page numbers in the upper right hand corner a 1/2 inch from the top and flush with right margin.
-Use your last name before the page number.
http://www.calstatela.edu/library/guides/3mla.pdf
All the information I gathered was very helpful because now I know how to do an MLA paper, I still feel like i need help getting all the information to cite my work but that will be easy once I start going and finding my articles. I now know that i need to put my name infront of the page number which i didn’t know before which is very helpful. I know that we need to cite our work because if not we would be stealing words that other people spoke, and that is plagerism and of course you can get kicked out of school for that. I know the importance of citing my work, i just dont understand why citing ever came about, i just dont understand what gives authors or whoever the right to there words, when they are just words. But that is how i always was so I know i will never understand that. I think
Creating a proposal and outline for a research paper:
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~matt/proposal.html
A research proposal is a contract stating what you will do, how you will do it, and how you will interpret the results.(McGranaghan) If you are able to write a good, meaningful research proposal it will then later help the writer when they are ready to write their thesis statement.(McGranaghan) It was also stated in my link that a proposal can help decide how long your research paper will be, it stated to shoot for 5 well thought out pages that make it look like the writer has done their research and are able to explain what they need to say in 5 pages.(McGranaghan) Then when it comes to writing the paper the writer will have all the solid information he needs to prove his point and will be able to go off of all the research he has already gathered. This link also gave an outline of what a proposal may look like, starting with the introduction it has a topic area, a research question and significance to knowledge section.(McGranaghan) Then it goes on to the literature review which is pervious research and unanswered questions, after that it goes into the methodology which is the writers approach and the writers data needs, then you end with your expected results.(McGranaghan) I think this is a really great website to learn how to do a research proposal and hopefully it will be able to help me once I write mine.
A Research Outline:
A research Outline is a way of helping you organize your paper. It can help with the ordering of the writers information, also helps keep track of all the information the writer wants to put into their paper.(Purdue) When making an outline it can really help show the relationships among all of the writers ideas, define boundaries in the writers groups, and present the writers material in a logical form.(Purdue) To create a research outline the writer has to first figure out the purpose for their paper, then figure out the audience or age group for their paper and lastly come up with a thesis statement.(Purdue) Once the writer has completed the last steps the writer then may start with their outline, meaning the writer gets to brainstorm tons of ideas. Once the writer is done brainstorming the writer will group all of their ideas into specific groups so that the same ideas are alike. Then the writer will order them in which way they want their paper to go from start to finish, while doing this the writer can label each topic with main and sub topic labels.(Purdue)
The Purdue OWL. “Why and How to Create a Useful Outline.” Purdue U Writing Lab, 2008. Web. 27 Dec. 2008.
Writing an Annotated Bibliography
What is an Annotated Bibliography:
I found a short statement describing an annotated bibliography, it stated that an annotated bibliography is a list of citations followed by a brief description of each one. It is used to tell the reader about your sources and show the relevance, accuracy and quality of each source. In your brief description you should comment on the author the background of the author, Intended audience, compare and contrast to other articles and lastly explain how the article will go along with your topic.
Engle, Michael. “How to prepare an Annotated Bibligraphy”. Cornell University . February 15, 2010 .
http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/skill28.htm#what
http://marlenharrison.com/images/flower_writing_for_an_audience.pdf
This article was very helpful with giving me the knowledge in which i needed to succeed in writing for my audience. Since my audience will be at the age range where body image is important and is taken seriously i was able to relate to my readers. I didn’t use too much here say with my writing because i wanted my readers to see facts, I also related to them by doing a focus which females, showing that eveyone can relate to my paper.
Drafting and Revising:
http://marlenharrison.com/images/sfds.pdf
This article was a great help in which it calmed me down very much once starting my first draft. It explained that even the best writers have shitty first drafts, which in returned gave me a calm feeling once starting my own first draft. Another thing which helped was the advice given in this article.
Peer Review and Feedback:
This article helped greatly when I was in the shoes of a peer reviewer, this article reminded me that I was just a student and not an actual professor grading this paper. Knowing this I wanted to review my peers paper in the way that I would want them to do with mine. I made sure to give good comments along with giving them knowledge on how I felt they could better there paper, without going over the line with the author.
http://marlenharrison.com/images/straub.pdf
Publishing Research:
After doing my first peer review I found that reading another persons writing helped me realize how I want my paper to look and how I want my readers to feel after reading my paper. I learned it is much harder to edit another students paper, merely because I’m not interested in the same things as my classmates, so it was a little difficult to get into some readings. I have to say that I actually do love writing though and this class really pushed me to my limit with that, I enjoy learning about new things and bringing awareness to causes that I believe are very important and need to be researched, even if they were already researched a million times, there is always a way to do it differently. I do enjoy editing also, I believe I enjoy editing my own paper more though because I see the mistakes that I made and I am able to fix them because others do. My research project has grown so much since the first day I started it, at first I was writing a 15 page paper about how the media effects a female college students body image. Even though my research question is still the same I am looking at it from a whole different perspective, I want to know how women look at other women because of media, specifically magazines because a magazine is what tells us who we need to look like and how we need to dress ourselves. So overall I am very excited about my research and am so ready to do my focus group with a group of female college students and really open their eyes to see that even though they be told by magazines they aren’t beautiful, I’m sure another girl if not all of them will think in some way that she is a beautiful girl.
