Self Reflective Evaluation

TO: Jennifer Stewart, Instructor
FROM: Uzoma Albert, Student
DATE: May 6, 2009
SUBJECT: W233 Reflective Evaluation Assignment

The purpose of this memo is to argue that having taken Intermediate Expository Writing and acquired the knowledge to write with an academic audience in mind. Writing is like a destination, and in order to get to the final destination one must embark on a journey. However, before a journey is started necessary research has to be done to determine the purpose of the journey, the cost of the journey, the desired final destination and what one hopes to accomplish through that journey. If these requirements are not met before a journey is undertaken, one will encounter frustrations, and potentially get lost. In writing, passing information accurately to the target audience is the final destination for a writer.
Rhetorical Knowledge
It is important where one’s purpose as a writer. In other words are you writing to inform or entertain etc, after this has been done it is necessary to select a subject topic which is to be presented to the audience. For this memo the topic is “Writing is a Journey”. It is necessary to develop a thesis statement or sentence, which is something that would be symbolic to the yellow brick road which a reader can stay, focused on in order to still keep the subject in mind while embarking on the journey to the final destination; which is what you want your audience to take away from your writing. My stance in this memo is that this class ENG W233 is a very important one that every student should take in order to help them become aware of the intricacies of writing in any given genre and with various audiences in mind. By taking a stance the first message being sent out to my audience is;
• This is what I believe
• This is why I’m taking my position on what I believe
• And this is what I want you as a reader to take away from it.

It is important to understand one’s target audience in relation to the subject, because this will help in determining the appropriate genre(s) to apply in appealing to them. Assuming my target audience is a group of medical students and I wanted them to understand why drugs and alcohol shouldn’t mix. I would be better off using a descriptive and persuasive genre since the topic is a very serious one as opposed to a topic on entertainment. By applying this genre this will give the students a more detailed and descriptive information which should help them understand the seriousness of the issue and make an informed decision to apply what they have just read. It is also important to apply other genres within the major genre. As it can serves purposes that can be likened to the effect spice would have on food. With the example of drugs and alcohol for the medical students, it may be necessary periodically add this spices so as to help the reader not get bored etc.
Critical Thinking
In the ENG W233 class assigned reading from selected text books was necessary as a form of example for students to see the different aspects of writing. In these text books information such as identifying the different parts of the rhetoric such as audience, genre, stance, organization, tone and style etc were part of the exercise. Another part of the exercise is to see how the different writers incorporated this rhetoric in their writing styles and how their choices could have impacted their audience. By identifying these things in the text book it makes one become a conscious writer. It also gives the student writer the chance to borrow, and incorporate ideas without losing their sense of originality and direction. One important thing mentioned in one of these textbooks that students should know is to keep an open mind so as to see where the writer is coming from and where they are headed in their writing. This is important because developing a bias could affect one as a writer and turn off the audience.
Processes
In the class we had an exercise that was referred to as the twelfth roll. Initially, I didn’t understand what taking different pictures of the same subject had to do with writing a paper. As the process continued I realized that in writing it was important to start from general and then narrow down to a specific topic. The importance of that exercise was to increase our familiarity with the subject and the details that involve that subject. For example my subject on the twelfth roll exercise was a tree. I realized that to write about that tree lots of things can be considered such as the age of the tree, its location and purpose, the patterns on the tree and what causes them, the leaves, its color etc. In writing, drafts are like the different rolls on the pictures that were taken of this tree. Drafts can be revised, discarded or incorporated into a new one until a writer decides to get focused on their topic. For the drafts we had to decide on what topics to write about, and in the process had to go to different sources such as database, journals, books, the internet etc to obtain more information on the topic. These drafts were called the I-search Proposals. While writing my proposals I had to make used of the school’s library website in order to access EBSCO Host which contained different databases which served as search engines to get literary academic resources. The Physical library and librarians were also crucial in obtaining related information. The internet and conducting surveys are also other ways of getting the required information. Another part of the writing process was reading and critiquing each other’s drafts. This helps one to gain insight and multiple perspectives on their drafts before diving into the final paper.
Knowledge of Conventions
In academic writing as with everything else there are rules which must be followed in order to meet the standards. Some of these rules are writing in a chosen style such as MLA, and APA format etc. These styles are necessary for citing sources in order to ensure proper documentation and to avoid plagiarism, which is often viewed as an academic crime. Within the previously mentioned styles are rules that should be followed. For example in the MLA format when citing from a book one has can either use a signal phrase to show that the following words are not theirs originally and then after that the quoted sentence is written, and then the last name of the author is in parenthesis along with the page the information was taken from, and then it is followed by a period. This is just one of the rules that accompany the MLA style. Something else to be considered in Academic writing is genres. There are different genres such as descriptive, expository, narrative, persuasive, poetry and technical genres. For example, the narrative genre deals with storytelling in full or in part, and is made up of the following characteristics which serve different purposes. These characteristics are:
1. Plot structure
a. Introduction
b. Rising Action
c. Climax
d. Falling Action
e. Resolution
2. Conflict
3. Characterization
4. Setting
5. Theme
6. Point of View
7. Sequencing
8. Transition

It is not only important to consider everything above to successfully engage one’s audience I have realized that it is important to learn the use of proper punctuation. This is something I still need work on. Proper use of punctuation helps a writer’s paper to have clarity and credibility; which are keys to effectively reach one’s audience

Responses to paper and Maradona movie

I am not sure what to really post at this point since not a whole lot has changed. So, far I have received numerous responses to my paper; not all of them have been helpful and this is mostly my fault because my paper to date is incomplete. All the same most of the inputs I have received have been helpful. I e-mailed some survey type questions to some people about my topic and I haven’t received any responses yet and that sucks. I was able to take read the examples of the annotated bibliographies and it makes more sense to me now. Anyway, something I wanted to know is…if you interview people or have them fill out a survey; how do you put that in your annotated bibliography. The other question I have is, are we supposed to have two annotated bibliographies? One from before the rhetorical analysis paper and another from the final research paper or were we supposed to compile all of our annotated bibliographies? The reason I ask is because my rhetorical analysis paper although it is about soccer, is slightly different from my research paper.
I was able to rent a movie that had been recommended to me by a Mexican friend. The movie was called “Maradona: The Hand of God” Some years back I had read the book. I think watching this movie was very helpful insight into the life of Maradona. Reading is often I find difficult because that would require making the time and being in one place to read through everything. So, the watching the movie was another alternative I found helpful. The movie was directed by Marco and Maradona was played by actor Marco Leonardi, whom I think did a very good job of portraying Maradona’s personality. They also had a striking semblance. The movie starts out with Maradona as a child running to look for his ball which he had just kicked over the fence on a rainy night and in the process fell into a hole in the ground with water. Maradona was struggling for his life and then the movies flashes forward to his life. I think it was symbolic to show how Maradona started chasing after a ball and then fell into the pit of drug addiction and was fighting for his life. If my paper interests you and you care for soccer you should definitely check out the movie. It is in Spanish but has English subtitles.

Research paper reflections

Ah! Alas I sit here in front of the screen typing away at 3:08am in the morning. A time when all good citizens should be in bed aye? Lol. It feels like judgment day (end of the semester) is creeping up on me. At this point I’m feeling swamped and yet inspired. I have been reading and responding to the research paper assignments that we have been given. I would like to say that so far, this has been a very helpful exercise. While it’s a volume of reading to do, it’s helped to provide useful feedbacks on what I need to correct in my paper. In addition to that I have entered some people’s worlds as writers; and this has helped me to reflect upon my own writing as well. From the structure, tone and contents I see others exhibiting it has caused me to rethink about how to bring across my points. It is also a privilege to perhaps be instrumental in influencing other people’s papers as well. As far as writing my paper goes, it is interesting to find out that some of my readers do seem to have a sincere interest in my paper that goes beyond the mandatory requirements. This is a good thing. For all who may be reading this I just want to say thanks to those who produced constructive criticism of my paper. It has truly been helpful.
When I met with Jen she said that if my audience didn’t care for soccer they wouldn’t really be interested in the person I am writing about (Diego Maradona). I have had time to reflect and while there may be some truth to what she said. I have come to disagree, the reason I say this is because of an experience I had. I really don’t care for baseball as I really find it mind boggling, lol; however during the Barry Bonds incident…the name kept coming up and I kind of got interested (although not in the sport itself). I wanted to know what all the Bond fuss was all about. So, one day I stumble across a sports illustrated with an article on Bonds and I read it. Well, Jen if you’re reading this, this is why I disagree with you in part. Anyway, I don’t know if when we make corrections to our paper, if people are required to give updated comments. Well, later my honorable peers my bed is calling.

My research so far

I have started working on my rhetorical analysis. After met with Jen during our conference, she said that she felt that my initial introduction of my paper was slightly misleading. In my draft I had mentioned the person I would be talking about in my final research paper in the intro in order to make some sort of connection between my rhetorical analysis paper and my final research paper. As I had mentioned in my previous blog I intend to write about Diego Armando Maradona who is an idol in Argentina. His importance has transcended that of soccer which is what endeared him to the hearts of the Argentine public as well as other soccer fans worldwide. I am not going to give away everything about Diego here; all the same Maradona is friends with people like Cuba’s former ruler Fidel Castro, Venezuela’s current president Hugo Chavez. Maradona was an outspoken critic of President Bush’s administration. Some other interesting things about Diego are that he even has a church former after him. I think this is pretty strange but if I were him I’d be feeling honored, lol.
While personally I don’t care about Diego’s political affiliation as I mostly care for him because of his soccer involvement. Currently he’s Argentina’s coach; which in many people’s view is a gamble despite his status as a player. Many people are divided in this matter because some feel he is inexperienced as a coach, which they are right to say so. Others feel because of the respect and adoration he commands in the Argentine players it could all work out. Well, this is just a few things that my final research paper deals with. As far as my rhetorical paper goes, it was helpful looking through some of my classmates’ papers; because it gave me ideas on things to correct in my paper. My rhetorical analysis paper is just comparing 3 different writers rhetoric on why soccer isn’t catching on in America. The fact that a lot of you may don’t know a famous person like Maradona only serves to highlight the issues that soccer despite its progress is still not making any impact in America. Hopefully, you’re able to make the connection between my rhetorical paper and my final paper.

My rhetoric paper so far.

I have started working on my rhetorical analysis draft, and I must say the volume of reading to find some substantial appropriate article to use can be a daunting task. I guess that’s why it’s called research.
Anyway, I am focusing on articles that talk about how factors not directly related to soccer affects the soccer culture. I am an avid soccer fan. So, it still baffles me that soccer hasn’t really caught on locally and that’s what really motivated me into doing this research. The authors I’ve chosen to research talk about these factors that influence soccer. I was intrigued to learn that the founding father’s mission to resist the influence of England is one of the earliest things that caused soccer not to catch on in the country. I am hoping that from the way the authors talk about these factors, such as race that the audience can understand the things going on in the background to influence the soccer culture here in the states. The authors use statistics, use historical occurences that involved and as well influenced soccer. They use a mix of direct approach by listing these factors and how they affect the game. They also tell stories of people who have been involved in the game and these are things that we as audience can relate to. Hopefully, I can put my rhetoric thoughts together in a way that makes sense that show how the authors’ rhetorics are effective in passing across their points.

Soccer: Diego Maradona

At the beginning of the semester we had to select one of three topics. I think it might have made more sense for us to write on three topics instead of spending time in deep research that we would eventually discard leaving only one. This is not to say that I don’t see the sense of it. Especially after the photo journal assignment it made sense; however it’s still time consuming all the same. Anyway, since this is the hand we are dealt I had to pick my three topics. I was torn between choosing from the following topics; (1) Including dating and relationships as a college course, because everything we do as people for the most part centers around relating well with other people and it seems we are oblivious to what the other sex is about (if you take into account the divorce rates etc) (2) Creating a database of Visual communications & Design students’ database. Jen thought this would work if I was writing a business proposal, but I wasn’t thinking business or monetary gain but preserving these select students’ works, promoting the sense of pride of being an artist as well as keeping them in the school’s history and not just another bunch of group the school made money from. (3) Promoting soccer as a culture in America. I chose this topic because I’m a passionate soccer fan and it hurts to see a country with all the resource not accepting of a game that is brings countries worldwide together. If you don’t know what I am talking about then you should watch the next world cup which is being held in South Africa next year and see the harmony of the different cultures on display, as well as the colorful party atmosphere. I think most Americans can relate to parties. Anyway, Jen thought I could write about a certain soccer icon. This led me to picking Diego Maradona of Argentina who is a controversial figure. He is loved and hated. When most people who don’t know too much about soccer think of a soccer icon, they tend think of Brazil’s Pele and England’s David Beckham but for some odd reason not Maradona. I think it might be because Pele played in U.S. at one time when the soccer league had just been created. Maradona is more the bridge between my generation and that of Pele’s.
I know there are lots of resources on Maradona out there some of which I’ve accessed in the past. I now need to decide what is appropriate and best to use. As advanced as this class is I think the concepts are things that should be taught at the earlier levels of writing classes because there’s so much good stuff about the process it’s just packed into a small amount of time.