Ortenzioangelinallqp's Blog

I was worried about the work load in this class and being able to keep up with my other classes but once I realized that I could do it my confidence went up in this course.  I am now able to feel confident as a writer.  As a writer I have definitely improved, I am not going to use the words “you” and “society” ever again! haha I have learned to research much better and I am able to cite things without having to look in the book on how to do it.  This will help me in my nursing research classes.  I think the thing that will stick with me most is expressing myself in my writing and Marlen letting us just be ourselves as a writer.  It is not about being the best writer out there but it is about writing to the best of our own individual abilities.  He made me feel confident as a student.

I feel that all the assignments given to us were very helpful and useful because it forced  me to stay on track with my paper and helped me focus on each section with time instead of just blurting out a 15 page paper.  The Journal of Child psychology helped me with alot of good ideas about how to express my feelings in my autoethnography.  The most helpful feedback I received was from my parents and surprisingly from my peers who reviewed my paper.  I thought alot of their ideas and corrections they made helped me remember what we had learned from Marlen.  The most difficult stage for me was to begin my paper.  Writing the introduction and including all the things I wanted to talk about in my paper was difficult.  I have never really expressed my feelings about this topic to anyone other than my family so at times I was very sensitive in writing this.  The easiest was getting the data, because I knew exactly what I was looking for.  The parts of my paper that were not research related and were my own feelings coming out best show my ability as a writer.  I do not think of myself as the best writer or even a good writer at that, but I know that I have learned alot and I proud of myself for completing this specific paper the way that I did.

I learned alot from my peer review projects.  I saw some errors that I did not catch myself, due to the good teaching from my professor that I may have missed I had some grammar errors and I was a little repetetive with my writing at times.  I learned that you must read over your writing before you even think about submitting it anywhere and I have caught errors in my own and the one I graded for that matter.  I need to stop beating around the bush with my research paper and not repeat everything.

Results

The results page should have accessible format whether in a graph, table, or written text.  The graphs and tables should guide the reader to a complete understanding of the point made.  To make results more meaningful, repeating data should be avoided.

Dosch, M. P. (June, 2009).How to write the results and discussion. Retrieved from http://www.udmercy.edu/crna/agm/htresult.htm.

It is important to make sure that the “results” run with everything else in the paper.  The results should answer main hypothesis or research question. Make sure that results are clear, concise, and simple as possible.  This will help the reader to understand better without too much detail.

Discussion

The main purpose of the discussion is to interpret the results.  It always has some relation to the introduction and it will normally give the reader a whole different view on the problem.  Use an active voice if at all possible for this section, and make sure your points are clear and concise. 

Hess, D. R. (October, 2005). How to write an effective discussion.Respiratory Care, 49(10)

Discussion aims to explain the meaning of the results. Keep in mind that the discussion is always for the reader and that the highlight should be on the data. State the major findings and then discuss the importance of these findings and then go on to relate the data to similar findings.  You can also make suggestions for further research.

Conclusion

Conclusions can be one of the hardest parts of the paper to write.  Conclusion is known to frame your thoughts and end the paper in a successful manner.  The conclusion provides a bridge that takes the reader back to their daily lives.  it is your final say on the subject.  It is the final oppurtunity to summarize all your thoughts.

Howela, R. (February 19, 2005). Strategies for writing a conclusion. Retrieved from http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/acadwrite/conclude.html

The conclusion is often what the reader remembers most out of a piece of writing so it is very important to end with the best effort put forth.  The writing should be given a sense of completeness which prior to that the importance of the thesis must be stressed.  The conclusion should leave a lasting impression on the reader with the sum of everything you have discussed in your paper.

I think I did create a cohesive reading experience for my audience.  I was clear and concise with very organized sections of writing.  I think this will make a good first half of my paper.  I made some major changes in the way I ended my paper so it ran smoothely into the next section.  I will still have to make some major changes to my “methods” section in the future.  I need to work more on writing an effective methods section and find out what most importantly needs to be there. I will go on to results and discussion followed by all the data I will collect.  At this point I am feeling good and am confident that it will all run smoothely.

Since I am doing an autoethnography, the research subject is myself even though it talks about my relationship with my brother and how his drug addiction affects me and my family.  I will not need any other research subjects.  There are no dangers to myself, as the participant in my research.  The research is solely about my feelings about my relationship with my  brother and his drug addiction.  My  brother now knows (as of today actually) that my paper is about him and so does my family.  I will safeguard his privacy by not mentioning their names in my research and not mention the place that we live.  I do not really have any other questions about methods because my wonderful professor answered them in class.

english-rubric

Colvin, R. (2005). Preceription drug addiction. Retrieved from http://www.prescriptiondrugaddiction.com/colvin.asp

I. Introductory paragraph

A. In this paragraph the author tells the reader about his own life. He talks about how his brother’s death motivated him and inspired him in his career.

II. Main Body

1. The author, which is himself, known as an autoethnography, tells the reader about all the things he has done since the death of his brother. 

2. The author explains all the committees he has served in to help raise awareness for the problems of drug addictions.

3. This paragraph talks about the different organizations he founded in honor of his brother.

Results

A. This paragraph explains his degree in school and how the different things he has done has made him successful.

questions: The author talks about his personal life story and the lit review is not really contained in here.

The author hooked the readers interest by sharing his interesting story and showing how something bad inspired him to be what he is today.  Inspiration is a powerful thing that could interest pretty much anyone.

The purpose or objective is to raise awareness of drug addictions to people especially the young generation.There is really know research questions or methods like a research journal.  I am doing an autoethnography and this is just someone’s personal account giving their own story to use as my a research option for me for my paper.

Pavlina, S. (January 29, 2006). Understanding family relationship problems. Retrieved from http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/01/understanding-family-relationship-problems/

Introductory Paragraph

A. The author talks about how difficult family relationships can be.

Main Body

1.The author talks about control strategies to fight the problems

2. Sometimes you can’t change someone, so its best to just accept the person as they are.

3. The author basically says you can change yourself in order to solve a problem if the other alternatives don’t work.

4.  The author tries to show that relationships struggles can be a reflection of yourself in your own though processes.

5.The author tries to presuade the reader that your own beliefs can affect you own thinking and habitaute the problem.

Methods

1. The author gives examples and other reasoning to prove his point.

Results

1. The author gives his own personal story about his own situation

2. The author talks about the result of his own personal situation

!) The introduction talks about how difficult family relationships are and the lit review is not really listed. The author tries to hook the reader by talking about examples of everyday life that would make someone interested to read it. The purpose is to talk about difficulty in family relationships.  This is another example of some of the author’s own personal input that I will use for my paper.

The introductory paragraph is one of the most powerful pieces of information put together on your paper.  It is so important because its main goal and purpose is to grasp the readers attention.  You want to interest the reader on your topic and there is no other way to do it then to impress them in the beginning lines! You must procide important key details that describe your topic.

The introductory paragraph ( January, 2010). Retrieved from http://web.presby.edu/writingcenter/guides/intro.html

The author and title of the work are main things included in the introductory paragraph.  Your first paragraph for a paper must contain a thesis statement.  What is the main purpose of your writing and what exactly are you trying to prove to the reader?  These are questions you must ask yourself in order to form an affective thesis sentence or statement. The Introductory paragraph must also contain the order in which you are going to talk about different things in your paper.

Before research begins you can start analyzing books and articles that you do not already have.  It is effective to look at the the bibliographical first so you have a clear idea of what the sources have come from. These citations include author, title and information of publication.  This will help to evaluate the source.  It is important to know the authors credentials and background information.  You want to make sure you are getting information from a reliable source and not just some made up website.  It is also important to know when the information was published or if it is current our out of date.  It is best to stick to recent things, because sometimes information changes.

Purdue Online Writing Lab January 8, 2010. Evaluating Sources: Overview. Retrieved from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/553/01/

There is so much information out there so it is so important to pick out important information from the best possible sources.  You need to decide for yourself if you think some information is useful or not. Make sure something is worth the time to read or not.  Bibliographical citations are the first thing looked at.  The title and publication date is important as well. Timeliness of the entry is also key and the author, title of the work, and summary especially need to be considered. (Purdue Owl, January 8, 2010). 

I went back to my first three entries and evalauated them and some of the websites I have chosen were just the first google site I saw.  I do not think much timeliness was put into the sources of information I chose.