Throughout the quarter, I have learned a lot in CTW. I learned how to noticed research gaps, use educational resources to locate sources, and how to argue ideas through using research and analyzing it using metacommentary. My experience in CTW has both been challenging and rewarding. I have learned so much about the research process and the writing process. I wrote educational essays that were complex and lengthy. I synthesized research and learned how to compile multiple viewpoints to establish a conversation between arguments. In addition, I surveyed fellow students and used real life research to build my own conclusion about coeducation and its benefits. I am glad I chose the research topic of coeducation. It was both interesting and related to my life and educational experience. Writing my last blog is bitter sweet, but I am glad I got the experience to learn how to write blogs and use them to talk about relevant information pertaining to my educational experience in CTW. In conclusion, I have greatly enjoyed my CTW class and plan on using the writing skills I learned throughout the quarter throughout my educational future.

While reading through my fellow classmate Matt Haworth’s blog, I came across a post that resonated with me and was similar to an experience I had. In Matt’s post, African American Literature, he explained how his experiences in CTW helped him conduct research for another class. I had this same experience! Last quarter in my C&I class about Islam and the Middle East, we had to write numerous research papers and locate educational sources. I would often use the SCU Library website Omni File to help find research and educational journals. In Matt’s blog, he mentions using Omni File and even clipped in a photo of its complex search bar!

Thanks to CTW class, I was able to understand how to use the Omni File search and it became extremely easy for me to navigate the database. Being able to use a verified database to locate educational sources made finding research for my essays much easier. Because I was using quality sources, my papers often had many different perspectives and authors contributing to my research. My CTW class taught me the importance of research and that the quality of your sources is one of the most important things while writing an essay.

As I began writing my final essay, I discovered the benefits of coeducation and how it prepares students for the future. When male and female students work together and learn to cooperate it helps them prepare for the real world. Males and females must work together in the real world for jobs and relationships. If males and females do not learn to cooperate and respect each other, they will have a difficult time adjusting to the real world.

Same-sex educational institutions do a good job educating their students, but it does not provide a positive learning experience or help foster students abilities to cooperate with the other sexes. I believe same-sex education is a strong idea, yet lacks real world applicability. Although many argue the benefits of same-sex education, these benefits are idealistic and do not work when put into practice in the real world. Coeducation has a much more practical place in education and actually prepares students for the real world. Coeducational institutions are far more successful than same-sex institutions for an apparent reason. The reason being they teach students life skills and prepare their students for the real world in a way no same-sex educational institution could. Coeducation is more beneficial than same-sex education because it creates a positive academic environment, teaches life lessons to its students, and prepares them for the cooperation and collaboration required between the two sexes in the real world.

While conducting the research process I recalled my pet tortoise, Oscar the Third. Many people have dogs, cats, or fish, but a tortoise gives you something that no other animal can, a sense of peace. Interactions with dogs are defined by humans interacting with dog, whether it be through tossing a ball or taking the dog for a run. A tortoise may not be able to retrieve a ball that you throw but it offers something much more beneficial that any furry animal can bring. With that said, this may not be the animal that people who are overweight should invest in because as most people know, they are not very fast.
Though my tortoise may not have speed, he is able to keep me calm more than the soothing voice of Morgan Freeman. For example, if I am ever stressed out about anything, I go into my basement and pay a visit to Oscar. A tortoise is a pet that is meant to be gazed upon rather than touched. Watching the slow movements of a tortoise and thinking about whatever is on your mind allows you to deal with it without becoming anxious. While other pets pester you by jumping on your lap and begging for attention, a tortoise is able to console your anxiety by minding his, or her, own business as well as contribute to a positive atmosphere with its outstanding personality.

After distributing my survey, I received 46 responses, 32 responses from females and 14 responses from males. I wish I received more responses from males so I had a better understanding of both males’ and females’ viewpoints on coeducation, but this is not an issue because the responses to my multiple choice questions were both insightful and eye opening.

The results from my survey surprised me and were not the results I expected to receive. For example, I expected many students to respond yes to the question “would you feel safer living in an on-campus dormitory with only your sex?” Out of my 46 responses, 39 of them answered no to this question. That means 84.8% of the people who took my survey believed co-ed dormitories are a safer environment than same-sex dormitories.

While surveying actual students, they stated they felt safer in co-ed dormitories. This made me further think about friendships and relationships between the two sexes and how they lead to happiness, comfort, and safety. For another one of my survey questions, a similar outcome happened. With my survey question “do you believe same-sex campuses are safer than co-ed ones?”, I received a majority of responses saying that co-ed campuses were believed to be safer than same-sex campuses.

The results from my survey directly go against many of my sources arguments in favor for same-sex educational institutions. After receiving these survey results, I questioned the actual effectiveness of same-sex campuses and wondered why my survey results did not correlate with the data I found in my research about same-sex campuses. My survey led me to draw the conclusion that same-sex educational institutions seem like a great solution to many problems in education, yet are not likely to be implemented or successful in the real world. The survey I conducted made coeducation seem much more beneficial and favorable, while at the same time making same-sex education seem like an idealistic idea that would not have any success in the real world. Before conducting my survey, I had a different view on coeducation that was altered by my survey results. My survey gave me real life research to that altered my viewpoint and helped me better understand the conversation between coeducation and same-sex education.

Throughout the quarter, we have been posting blogs relevant to the work and research done in class. I found the process of writing blogs to be a beneficial way to flush out ideas and write about relevant topics which helps me focus on the important aspects of the assignments we are doing in class. While preparing to write my final essay, I started reading blogs about writing to help me gain tips and advice on how to write a quality research essay. One blog that I read a few posts from was called The Thesis Whisperer. This blog is for college grad students writing their PhD paper, but I found numerous post with advice and tips on how to write better in general.

For example, I found a very interesting post on The Thesis Whisperer titled “How to create ‘authoritative voice’ in your writing”. The blog post goes in depth about how to create authoritative voice and create a stronger argument by being able to state your ideas in a authoritative manner. The blog post states that the best way to develop authority and passion in one’s writing is by using strong verbs to argue their point. In order for your writing to be effective, you have to say your ideas and arguments in a concise and coherent way with strong verbs stringing together the ideas. In addition, building author credibility helps to create an authoritative voice in one’s writing. Overall, it is important to chose verbs and words that create meaning in the readers mind and not just chose words with no meaning that lack description and meaning.

In Matt Haworth’s presentation, he presented about private colleges and public colleges. He created an interesting slide show depicting the data presented by the sources he located. Throughout Matt’s presentation, he showed the different conversations being had between those who favored private colleges or public colleges. His research was varied and had been published by many different authors for credible sources.

His presentation was full of good points and varying viewpoints. In addition to Matt delivering a great presentation, I also really liked his multimodal presentation (pictured above). I believe Matt’s multimodal presentation builds off of the arguments presented by his sources by stating his own beliefs. During the presentation, people do not pick a side of the conversation to side with but in their multimodal presentations chose a side to argue for. In his multimodal presentation, Matt shows the pros of private college and the cons of public colleges. Matt’s presentation was a good way to show the information about private and public colleges. His multimodal presentation worked well in showing his own beliefs and the different sides of the conversation that are argued.

In Graham’s blog post, Music’s Place in Writing, Graham brings up many interesting points about writing and the different realms that writing interacts with. Writing is prevalent in many different aspects of creative works such as music and art. Authors of songs chose every word of songs for a reason and they all have meaning behind the words they sing. In addition, the way that songs sound often get paired with lyrics for a reason to convey a message.

This is similar to in writing. While writing, I think it is important to deliberately chose words that have meaning and power. Using verbs with power and adjectives that have strong connotation make writing have more meaning and helps the writer argue their ideas in a more fluid way. Throughout writing an essay, it is important to deliberately chose the words and how you as an author wants to argue the ideas throughout the essay. Writing an essay is similar to writing a song, every part of the song and essay carries weight and the author must do a good job depicting their ideas in order for the viewer to understand the message they are trying to share.

Over the course of the quarter, I have been pursuing the research question of

“How does an educational institution being co-ed affect the education and campus environment of the institute?”

This research question was intriguing to me because it related to what I wrote my first few essays of the quarter about and I have a personal connection with the question. I attended an all-male high school and am now attending a co-ed university. The all-male high school I attended was called Brophy College Prep and is in Phoenix Arizona. While researching this topic, I brainstormed many questions and ways to view coeducation to help me analyze my research.

Throughout the quarter, I had aspirations to find research about all aspects of college life and how coeducation affects college life. For example, I want to find research on how co-ed dormitories affected campus life and I am wondering whether this is a debated topic in academic field. As I conducted research, I believed there would be a large amount of sources pertaining to my topic, and it turned out I was right. The real challenge with researching would be sifting through sources and finding the quality ones from reputable publications or authors. I would like to find research articles arguing both for and against co-ed institutions. It would be interesting to find a scholarly journal depicting co-ed classrooms as distracting and unbeneficial. While I believe this is not the case, it is important to present multiple viewpoints and analyze all aspects of the conversation. My research question will only be successful if I can find sources that exhibit differences between co-ed and same gender educational institutes through real world cases and research. Throughout the quarter, I tried to find many different viewpoints and arguments about coeducation and tried to keep an unbiased mindset while conducting research.

To acquire more research on co-education verse same-sex education, I plan on creating a survey about education to find out what my peers’ beliefs are. I am going to create a survey using Google Forms and distribute it to my fellow Santa Clara University Class of 2019 students using Facebook. I plan on asking multiple choice questions, creating an easy and universal survey for people to fill out. I anticipate receiving a lot of responses because my survey will be interesting, quick, and easy to complete. I hoped that the research I acquired gave me personal insight into what students thought about coeducation based on their own educational experiences. I have a personal connection to coeducation because I attend a non-coeducational high school. This inspired me to research the differences and similarities between same-sex educational institutions and coeducational institutions.

A few samples of questions I want to ask are:

Would you feel safer living in an on-campus dormitory with only your sex?

• Yes
• No

Do you believe same-sex campuses are safer than co-ed ones?

• Yes
• No

Which do you believe creates a better learning environment: co-ed classrooms or same-sex classrooms?

• Co-ed
• Same-sex

This types of questions will be how I create my survey and acquire data about what students think about coeducation.