Thlog #4

This week we started looking at WP2 and talked about how people in different majors can think of and understand the same event or concept in different ways. For the journal on Wednesday, we had to write down some questions we could ask based on a scenario of walking down the beach and seeing a bonfire with a half-melted bottle next to it. I thought it was very interesting to see what kinds of questions people asked because I had not even thought of asking some of the ones that other people did. For example, student 13 asked "How hot does the fire have to be to melt the glass?" This is a very scientific-type question, so it does not surprise me that the majors people guessed for this person were chemistry, biology, biological anthropology, and bio-psychology.

We also looked at what elements go into writing a paper by thinking of it as a lab dissection. I found that categorizing what is necessary to have in a paper into higher-order and lower-order concerns makes it easier to ensure that you have taken care of all of these necessities because once the higher-order concerns have been dealt with, the lower-order ones should follow.

I enjoyed the activity we did with the murder scenario because it helped me to see how different people writing in different genres affect how the same information can be communicated. I thought it was interesting that even between similar genres, such as a two news reports, the style and the content of the pieces were very different. The local news report was a lot more personal and involved more details about the victim and his family, whereas the national news report looked at how this specific murder happened and how it affects people on a national level.

PB2A

I was interested in learning more about the possibility of time travel, since I have recently been watching movies and TV shows which involve this concept. When I searched for academic articles describing the concept of time travel, I came across an article titled "The Principal Paradox of Time Travel" and decided that this would be a good way to learn more about the idea of time travel and what would prevent it from being possible. The author of the article wrote it with the purpose of explaining to his audience of fellow scientists why he thinks that the previously accepted idea of the time travel paradox preventing time travel to the past from even being possible is actually untrue. He believes that time travel to the past is possible and that the paradox instead explains why the traveller is unable to change anything of importance in their lives, even if they do travel back in time. The article includes the typical convention of scholarly articles to begin with an abstract, explaining why the author chose to write the article and what they are going to discuss throughout it. This is followed by an introduction, which defines "time travel" and makes use of evidence from other famous scientists--like Stephen Hawking--to explain the author's ideas about whether or not time travel to the past is logically possible. The next few sections of the article discuss what the paradox of time travel is--"if something could travel to an earlier time and prevent the very departure by virtue of which it can stop its own departure to that earlier time"--and how it poses a problem, as well as some potential ways to resolve the issue. The article concludes with a section explaining how this is relevant and important in the "global" context, thus answering the "So what? Who cares?" questions which we have learned are crucial to writing any good paper.

The author makes use of various diagrams to help his readers understand any scientific concepts he is discussing or facts he is presenting through logos that may be difficult for the audience to understand. The article also includes footnotes used to cite any sources that the author uses as evidence to help support his argument and provide him with credibility through ethos. A very important part of this article is the author's use of a scenario in order to explain the possibilities and constraints of time travel to the past and the paradox associated with it. The author uses the idea created by scientist David Lewis, "which is considered by many philosophers as providing the solution to the Principal Paradox." Lewis describes a time-traveller named Tim who goes back to the past in order to attempt to shoot and kill his own grandfather. The author makes use of this concept as a way to exemplify the reasons as to why one can go to the past but not have the ability to logically be able to change anything in the past that has to do with their own future. Thus, Tim could travel back in time and encounter his grandfather, but would be unable to kill him at any time before Tim's father was conceived. Tim would be able to seriously injure his grandfather and could potentially even manage to shoot him multiple times. Yet, every time, there would always be something preventing the shot from being fatal, thus clearly supporting the author's theory of time travel to the past and its paradox.

Riggs, Peter J. "The Principal Paradox Of Time Travel." Ratio 10.1 (1997): 48. Academic Search Complete. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.

Thlog #3

This week we did a peer/reader review in class so that we could get some constructive feedback on our WP1s before turning them in. The fact that it was called a peer/reader review was different than what most of us have gotten used to, but it makes sense. Zack was able to explain to us how important it is to give good feedback and to not just correct grammar and spelling mistakes. In high school I was never taught how to give constructive feedback, and I hardly received any from my classmates. Thus, I used to think of peer reviews as a waste of time, and I now understand why they were never useful for me. In order to give a good review it is important to ask questions of the author and provide reasoning for our critiques. It is also important to praise what they did well in addition to giving them constructive criticism on what they can improve. With this knowledge I hope to become better at giving feedback on other people's papers and hopefully I can get better feedback myself.

We also worked on coming up with solid arguments and writing good thesis statements for our papers. We learned about the "arguability test" and that in order for a thesis to be a good one, there needs to be an opposite perspective to the argument that can be proven wrong. You could write a really detailed sentence about the topic your paper is on, but if someone can't read it and come up with a counterargument for what you're saying then it's not really a thesis. For our journals on Wednesday we wrote down what we liked about our WP1s so far and what we struggled with. Quite a few of us had trouble with our arguments and thesis statements, as evidenced by student 19's response: "I found it difficult to form an argument and continue to stay on topic throughout my essay. I felt like there was a lot to talk about but hard to tie everything together in order to be in favor of my argument." After talking about them in class and discussing the difference between a thesis statement and a "working" thesis statement, I feel more comfortable with my argument and know that my thesis doesn't have to be set-in-stone until I'm done with my final draft.

Thlog #2

This week we worked a lot on preparing for our first Writing Project. Our journal on Monday was all about what we learned while writing our PB1A and how we went about doing it. I thought it was very interesting that student 18 wrote that they learned "it's much easier to write when you put a creative spin on things." This student said that they basically followed the pattern of using first order thinking to get things started, which made the process less dry and easier to get done, and then they moved on to second order thinking when they revised their work. Through most of my schooling I have been so worried about writing well and getting good grades that I never really thought about it being fun. However, I agree with student 18 in that I actually did enjoy writing this time, mainly because I chose a topic that I was interested in for my PB1A. It took me a while to decide which genre to write about, but as soon as I got started it became a lot easier than I was expecting it to be.

I had a bit of a harder time writing my PB1B because the genres we looked at were not ones that I was already too familiar with. It took a while for me to come up with some conventions for each genre generator, and I know I wasn't nearly as specific as I was in my PB1A. I was able to think of more conventions that had to do with the organization of these genres, rather than the content of them. I also found it difficult to write about the possible purposes of each convention in the grand scheme of the genre and what they provide for the audience. I'm usually not very good at analyzing things and coming up with potential reasons for certain choices, but I am hoping that through the rest of this class I can gain the skills needed to improve at it.

PB1B

A research paper produced by the generator begins with an abstract that describes what the goal of the experiment is. This section is then followed by a Table of Contents, which contains an extensive introduction explaining the reasoning behind the experiment and the step-by-step process for completing it. After the introduction, comes the related work section, which is divided into its own subgroups. This is then followed by architecture, implementation, results (also with its own specific subsections), a very short conclusion, and a long list of references cited in a similar style. Another convention is that different diagrams and graphs are often used in order to make the experiment more clear and to easily demonstrate the results of it to the reader.
Conventions of the comic strip generator include cartoon characters (usually no more than two) with short dialogue boxes combined to tell a story. The facial expressions of the characters are often clearly overdone in order to show the audience a specific reaction to something said or done by another character or to lead into what will happen in the next box of the strip. These and other physical actions done by the characters of the comic are often humorous and assist in the main purpose of the strip: to entertain the readers and to make them laugh.
Memes are usually sarcastic and are often used as a quick way to get a laugh. One convention of memes is the fact that they use a combination of pictures and text to get their point across. The picture is often of a famous person or a well-known movie or television show, and the words usually relate to the image on some level. The text of the meme is often written in large, white font in order to stand out from the picture and to be read easily by the audience. The image is usually of a person with a funny facial expression or someone doing something funny that can express how the readers may feel about or react to the what the meme is saying.
Another online genre generator I found is one that creates lyrics for different types of songs, and I looked specifically at the love songs it creates. For these songs, the generator asks you to fill in specific things about your relationship and the person you love. Some of the questions include what you love most about the other person, what your favorite feature about them is, how long you think your relationship will last, what your favorite time spent together was, a description of your past relationships, and what your idea of a perfect date is. With all of this information, the generator is able to fill in additional lines, which include other words that have to do with love and happiness, in an attempt to create a catchy love song.
These generator websites are all able to show easy examples of what fits into each specific genre. They can format the information properly or request details that are commonly found within the genre in order to create a "plug-and-chug" pattern for people to follow. This can help people begin to understand the conventions of these genres, so it would be beneficial for people to look at these websites when they are first learning about a genre in order to get a feel for what they would need to include in it. By creating different examples of pieces within the genre, these websites are able to show the patterns and general conventions of it and give people ideas for what they would need to include in their own writing of the genre.

PB1A

A textual genre we have not discussed in class is that of an Elizabethan-era comedy play, written by such famous playwrights as William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe. These plays were often written for entertainment purposes, especially for the common people. Even though the commoners were usually the main audience in the theaters at this time, these comedy plays were meant to entertain people of all sorts. Queen Elizabeth herself was a fan of these plays, and frequently invited theater companies to perform them for her. The tone of a comedy play is light-hearted and fun, as the purpose of such a play was to amuse the audiences enjoying it. At this time, crimes in England were often met with cruel and violent punishments, which were frequently witnessed by hundreds of people. Thus, going to see a play at the theater became a way for the people to escape their troubles and become immersed in a world other than their own. The written style of these plays was very distinct. They were usually written in a mixture of verse and prose in order to denote the social standing of each of the characters. Common characters spoke in prose, while nobles would use a particular form of poetic meter known as iambic pentameter.
One of the common conventions of Elizabethan-era comedy plays is the idea of mistaken identities, which is sometimes intentionally used by the villain as a part of their evil plot. For example, in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, Don Jon is able to trick Claudio into believing that the woman he loves has been unfaithful through the use of mistaken identity. Another commonly used form of mistaken identity is that of female characters disguising themselves as male characters. This can be seen in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, where Viola pretends to be a young man named Cesario in order to become a part of the Duke Orsino's court. A second common element of comedy plays is the appearance of an extremely silly character. This type of character usually makes the rest of the events in the play seem normal in comparison, even though they are nowhere near ordinary. In A Midsummer Night's Dream this character takes the form of Nick Bottom, an actor who gets turned into a donkey halfway through the play.
Another convention of these plays is that the comedy of them is often conveyed through the clever word play, metaphors, and insults written into the dialogue by the playwright. This can be seen in the interactions between characters such as Katherine and Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew and Beatrice and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing. Throughout each of these plays, the conversations between these characters turns into a sort of sparring match to see who can better insult the other. An additional component of these comedy plays is often a plot that seems very complex and convoluted, but always ends the same. The climax tends to occur in the third act of the play and the final scene usually has a celebratory feel and shows the lovers finally declaring their love for each other. This is exemplified in A Midsummer Night's Dream, in which four young Athenians accidentally fall in love with the wrong people due to a mishap with a magical flower. Due to the twists and turns that happen when the lovers are in the woods, a hilarious adventure ensues, and the play eventually ends with everything being corrected and each character being in love with whoever they are supposed to end up with.

Thlog #1

This week in class we talked a lot about different genres and some of their typical conventions. I thought it was very interesting how when we talked about country music as a genre we realized that quite a few of the conventions we originally suggested could be broadened to be applied to even more  country songs. When we started thinking in terms of more broad characteristics, such as going from banjos and lap steel guitars to string instruments in general, our ideas began to connect with more songs. For the journal responses this week we wrote about which genres we are familiar with, and one of the students wrote that the genres they are familiar with are novels, short stories, poems, research papers, and argumentative essays. A few of the other journal entries also suggested similar categories, and I think many of us in the class did not realize that these "genres" we know are very broad. After the explanation that Zack gave about the Russian nesting dolls, I know that in order to accurately understand and identify the conventions and characteristics of a genre we have to be as specific as we can be. We learned that certain genres can fit within even larger categories in a sort of hierarchy and discussed the example of academic writing being a broad category that research papers can fit into, which chemistry lab reports are then a part of, and that chemistry lab reports about certain topics (such as thermodynamics) is an even more specific genre within the rest. Another topic we talked about this week was the difference between first order and second order thinking. We discussed how first order is much more creative and unfiltered, whereas second order is more structured and controlled. First order thinking is a good way to get your thoughts onto the paper without feeling pressure, and we learned it is a good idea to use this method to brainstorm when starting a more formal paper. This basically goes against what a lot of us have been taught to use in school for most of our lives. We are usually told to use second order thinking so that we can be rationalize and outline a structured paper rather than just using it to review and revise our papers later. I think it will be an interesting change to practice using this method in my future papers.