Girl With a Blog

In my CTW class we emphasize the rhetorical triangle. It is important to build your credibility in order to get your point across to the appropriate audience.

We have played around with changing our audience, this blog being one example. Instead of writing strictly for my professor, this blog can be seen by anyone (yeah, I’m talking about you). If I want you to continue to read my posts, I can’t bore you academic writing. It’s not fun for you to read and academic writing is targeted towards my professors anyways.

Enough boring writing; here is one of my favorite scenes from Despicable Me, just for fun! credit: Universal Studios

Same goes for research. I have learned that it makes it so much easier to pick an audience so that I know how to guide my key points. Although I am still in the process of writing my archival research paper on Greek life, I am thinking that I am going to gear it towards current students at Santa Clara University. I have found that not many people know about the history of Greek life, so it could be more interesting to focus it that way.

This will help me create a clear and concise message. If I know who I am talking to, then I will have a better understanding of my goal in writing the research paper to begin with. Bottom line: my goal is to demonstrate how Greek life has changed over the years to current students.

All this will not be possible unless I develop my credibility as a speaker because I need my audience to trust the information that I am giving them. I can do this by citing appropriate sources related to my topic. I also think that my status as a current student and member of the Greek community could play an interesting role in developing my credibility since I have first hand experience on what it is like today.

In the end I hope to utilize the rhetorical triangle to craft an informative, accurate, and engaging archival research piece.

Hello again! Earlier I talked about whether or not I would need the research skills I have learned in the future. I wanted to revisit this topic because I have found that these skills have extended to my other classes too. When I wrote the other blog, I was thinking more about the future, but I realized that I was unconsciously implementing these tools now.

In my communication class, I am researching whether or not we should subsidize access to telecommunications for underserved people. Throughout the quarter, we have been collecting sources to answer different research questions. Similarly to my CTW class,  in my communication class we start research more broadly then work our way into more specific questions. My communication professor calls this the funnel strategy. The goal is get an initial understanding of your topic and from there develop questions that can be answered as you explore a variety of sources. This builds a foundation for your research.

Professor Raphael’s funnel research strategy

Using this funnel strategy and lessons I learned in my CTW class, I have been able to focus on higher quality sources. I have been particularly attentive to who wrote the article and the credibility of the source. Like I mentioned in my other blog post, a source may seem legitimate at first glance, but once you cross reference the author and/or associated organizations, it may be completely made up or very biased. My CTW class has taught me to be on the lookout for these red flags.

Red flags during research are important to look out for, however, they might not always be as obvious as you hope.

Ultimately the research skills I learned in my CTW have set me up for success in my other classes. I have become a more attentive hunter and gatherer when it comes to finding new information.

Sigma Chi Derby Days 2017

After all this research on negative impact that led Greek life off campus, it was nice to see that sororities and fraternities are currently setting out to make a difference in the community.

With spring in bloom, the sororities and fraternities at Santa Clara are gearing up to give back. Every year Sigma Chi hosts Derby Days, a multi-day competition between sororities featuring poster decorating, lip-syncing, and a fashion show. The purpose of this event is to raise money for the John Lester Foundation, a non-profit that supports funding reconstructive surgery for children with deformities. Below is a video explaining more about Derby Days and the John Lester Foundation.

Sigma Chi isn’t the only fraternity that has been giving back. TKE hosted a fashion show benefitting St. Jude’s; Kappa Alpha Theta hosted Theta Dodgeball benefitting CASA which helps provide court appointed special advocates for foster children around the country to offer them the support they need. Alpha Delta Pi recently held a capture the flag tournament, Battle of Bellomy to raise money for the Ronald McDonald house, ADPi’s nationally supported philanthropy. In the winter Alpha Phi hosted Star Search, a singing and dancing competition to raise money for the Alpha Phi Foundation.  Some upcoming events include Delta Gamma‘s Anchor Slam and Kappa Kappa Gamma‘s Kappa Carnival supporting their respective philanthropies. All sororities and fraternities host philanthropy events throughout the year.

It is nice to see that these groups are actively engaging the community to support a good cause. This indicates a positive turn in behavior from what I have been researching. This could provide an interesting insight into my paper since it demonstrates what Greek life is like now vs. in the past.

So far I have finished all the heavy lifting ?? to get started on my archival research paper, so I thought that I would give you an update on how the process has gone so far.

I started out by thinking about topics that would be interesting enough to dive into for a full quarter. Last quarter my friend, who’s an upperclassman, presented a project in the archives with her class and one of her classmates had an exhibit on Greek life at Santa Clara. It caught my attention immediately since I am involved in Greek life. I always found it kind of odd that it is no longer on campus and I was hungry to learn more. This exhibit provided me with a basic understanding of Santa Clara’s Greek life and sparked my curiosity. However, this idea faded into the background because I didn’t really have the time or opportunity to dig into it myself.

photo credits to Santa Clara Alpha Delta Pi

Flash forward a couple months and my professor announced that we would be working with the Santa Clara archives. BOOM. I had my topic immediately and this interest was sparked again. I was eager to investigate for myself what really happened to Greek life. There are all sorts of rumors on campus as to why it disappeared, but I was determined to get to the bottom of it by myself.

When we got to the archives I was rather unimpressed. Information on Greek life was shuffled into a single folder contained in a box of various other topics. Hmmm I thought I was doomed! How could there be so little information on this when it seems to be so involved in student life?

WRONG

That tiny folder actually contained hundreds of papers ranging from flyers, to emails, announcements, and newspaper articles. It was rich in history ranging from the 1980s (when Greek life came to SCU) up until now.

By the time it got to drafting my paper, I was extremely overwhelmed. I wanted to include everything, but it would make my paper too broad. Using Tirabassi’s tip (as mentioned in my previous post)  of knowing when to stop, I was able to create more of a focus.

Now that I have more of a focus, I am in the process of doing some of my own research. I am creating a survey on what current SCU students know about Greek life. If you’re an SCU student and you’d like to give it a try, follow this link.

There you have it, the most up-to-date overview of my process thus far.

With a daunting archival research project ahead of me, I wonder if college will be the last time I do research. Is it necessary to do research in college if I’m never going to do it again?

My friend, Micaela, got me thinking about what I’m learning now and how it could be utilized in the future. She refers to it as “Just-in-Time Learning” and “Just-in-Case Learning.”

Just-in-Time Learning: when you learn things in the moment you need it

Just-in-Case Learning: when you learn things or you are taught things just in case you may one day you need that information

When it comes to this research project I think it entails both types of learning. This applies to Just-in-Time, because I need to know how to research or I will most likely fail my CTW (yikes!). I learned how to do research particularly to help me with my archival research project, but the lessons I am learning right now can extend  wayyy into the future.

Although I will most likely not be doing big, fancy, official research projects after I graduate, I can still use these skills in everyday life. Our professor taught us how to pick out the valid sources from ones that might have a little bit of bias. So that article that seems to thoroughly cover Martin Luther King? Probably not the best source to believe since the rest of the website contains pieces from KKK supporters among others.

Learning how to pick out small details like this will help me be a more active and informed member of society. I might not have to write a 6 page paper every time I look at a newspaper, but I will have a better understanding of how to detect bias and good sources from bad sources.

functioning adults in society

Research. The one word that all students dread because it implies sorting through articles upon articles, synthesizing, and creating a bibliography to show that you didn’t completely make this stuff up. During the process of research it seems never-ending, but once you finish the last sentence of your paper, a burden is lifted from your shoulders after the intensive work to get there.

We can’t become expert researchers over night. It takes some practice. Michael Kleine, author of “What is it We do When we Write Articles like this One,” explains the difference between a professor’s research and a student’s research.

When talking about the way students research he says, “I detected no searching, analyzing, evaluating, synthesizing, selecting, rejecting, etc.” When I first read this, I was kind of offended. I’ve been taught to search for reliable sources, analyze them, evaluate to see if they fit in with your thesis, and so on. Was I doing this all wrong?

The answer is no. I was not completely wrong, I just did not have the experience and thoroughness of a professor.

“professional writers develop a sense of rhetorical purpose as the process unfolds, not strictly before the acts of researching and writing”

In other words, professors take what Kleine likes to refer to as the hunting and gathering approach. Hunting is the act of basic searching for things using strategies and tools given to them. Essentially looking for facts that are in line with the point of your research.

hunting for resources

On the other hand, gathering is when you think about how information will be utilized in the most efficient way possible when writing your paper. It goes hand in hand with hunting because first you determine what you need and then you evaluate what would be the best way to use it once you obtain it.

Here are Kleine’s steps of the process:

1. collect data
2. sift through data rhetorically
3. seek patterns in the data to make or confirm hypotheses
4. translate findings into writing

It slowly refines what you have discovered to neatly fit into a question of interest.

Research is more than just finding articles that fulfill the requirement. It is about learning throughout the process in order to learn something more about a question on your mind.

As part of my Critical Thinking and Writing class, I get to put on my investigator hat and research something about our school. You might ask, “well, what is that something?” That, my friend, is a very good question.

It’s not easy to pull research topics out of thin air. It takes some time and a well thought out idea of your interests. Who wants to spend hours pouring over documents on a topic they have no interest in? No one. So that is where I started. What am I actually interested in? What more do I want to learn about this school? That’s when it came to me.

Greek life!

Better question, how did I get here and how am I supposed to proceed? With the help of Tirabassi, I was able to build a roadmap of what my research journey would look like (no, she did not personally help me, she just wrote a really neat book about research. Check it our here!). She created these points:

1. Principle of Selectivity: the researcher’s understanding of how archivists select and omit artifacts for a given collection.
2. Principle of Cross-Referencing: the practice of searching across documents for contextual traces that clarify an archival document’s rhetorical situation or that confirm, corroborate, clarify, or contradict a fact or point cited in a given document.
3. Principle of Categorization: the development of keywords and finding aids that help researchers access information in the archive.
4. Principle of Closure: the researcher’s understanding that there are inherent gaps in archival records and that while the archive is complex and rich, it cannot be searched exhaustively. Finding the endpoint or knowing when to make an exit is an essential part of archival research.

When I begin the research process I like to start generally and work my way into more specific questions. I start with a broad, over reaching question and then I create sub questions that fit along with bigger picture. I bet you’re thinking “where do you come up with the big picture question if you don’t know anything about the topic?” My answer is Wikipedia. Yes, I know it’s not an “official source,” but it is a useful tool that provides insight and background on your topic, kind of like a launching pad if you will. The references from Wikipedia can then be used a starting point for research.

Wikipedia, a launching pad for ideas

It is also important to consider the rhetorical situation when evaluating a source. In the article, “BEAM: A Rhetorical Vocabulary” it explains that we should take thins into account rather than just categorizing sources as primary and secondary based on our own rankings. This will help us to become better at analyzing sources and becoming experts at using them effectively. Using rhetorical terms in research will help writers organize their research in a better way. It will also help writers determine if they actually need that source to fit their argument.

After spending hours crafting an eloquent synthesis of blending education and technology, it was very puzzling to me that I would be condensing it into a concise blog post. No one wants to read an essay online. That’s just boring. However, I had a hard time thinking about what to cut out of my essay while still having a clear argument for my blog post.  My goal was to make an easy to read and follow blog with facts followed by explanation. As a very visual learner myself, I find it more convenient when pieces are organized in a way which focuses my attention on bigger topics and then provides greater detail below, almost like a funnel. It also doesn’t hurt if there are a few funny gifs thrown in here and there – it keeps the mood light. I’m not the type of person who likes to get lost in never-ending paragraphs. Basically, if all textbooks were blogs, I would be a happy camper. Short and to the point is the way I like it.

source: http://wifflegif.com/tags/56180-shrink-gifs

My initial blog post started out as a copy-and-paste of the quotes I found most interesting from the original assignment. From there I built my arguments around the quotes so that it was more condensed than the 6 page paper. At first it was hard to pick and choose which arguments I wanted to keep and which ones were better left in a more academic setting. I deconstructed the academic tone to make it friendlier. Ultimately I wanted my post to sound like a conversation I would have with my friend about the different roles technology can play in education. I wanted my blog to be relatable.

source: http://cf.ydcdn.net/1.0.1.67/images/computer/_WDCUT1.GIF

This was a unique opportunity for me to showcase a different type of voice and style that is not always considered formal. First off, the addition of gifs and other links and add-ins create an interesting flare. Pictures in general drive the mood and tone of a piece. They can be a lighthearted relief in what would otherwise be a lengthy and boring piece. Having articles linked makes it easier for readers to navigate original sources and find more information if they would like to without clogging up the writer’s work with annoying citations. Hyperlinks are concrete pieces of evidence that add even more context to an argument since multiple sources are engaged.

source: http://giphy.com/search/brad-pitt-laughing

The greatest challenge of this piece was coming off as colloquial while also being taken seriously in an academic environment. It’s rare that a professor will ask you to let loose a little bit and let your true voice shine. This piece was not only written for my professor, but it was mostly meant to be shared with a wider audience. A wider audience can be harsher critics because once they lose interest they will simply stop reading. I only get one shot at impressing them, but my professor on the other hand has to read it in order to assign a grade.

In the end I learned a lot about tone, being concise, voice, and audience through this assignment. It was a neat opportunity to bring academic writing to a real world setting, something that I don’t have the chance to do very often.

With the rise of technology, the world is becoming a drastically different place than it was one hundred or even fifteen years ago. I wouldn’t even be blogging here if it weren’t for technology! You’re probably reading this on some new fangled, shiny piece of equipment. Hey, guess what! You wouldn’t be reading the best blog post ever without technology either. We’re in the same boat.

“My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles”

– Nicholas Carr

Technology literally puts information at your fingertips and it allows for quick and easy access to A LOT of information. A book could never contain every. single. page. from the Internet. It’s simply not possible! So to the people who argue that books are they way to go, there’s no competition. Technology hands down wins because an answer to your question is bound to be somewhere.

You don’t believe me? Check out the World’s Longest Books and the number of pages on the Internet (hint: it’s 13,095 pages vs. at least 4.49 billion pages)

“Because students are not able to communicate emotion effectively through texts, some teachers worry, they might lose the ability to do so in writing”

– Michaela Cullington

Although I agree with the fact that emotion is lost through texting, I disagree that it carries over to academic writing. As a student, I tend to adapt to different writing situations. In a more formal environment, I am aware of grammar and how ideas can be viewed. Losing grammar points on a paper you spent hours on sucks. This is why I shift my writing perspective in an academic setting vs. a more casual setting. When I text, it is usually on the fly and not thought out all the way because I know that if there is confusion, I will clarify with the reader when I catch up with them later to avoid an angry catfight.

source: http://meowgifs.com/1991

Students basically created a new language “ideal for communicating in a high-tech world”

– David Warlick

Onnnn the other hand, the students who are the ones texting and using new forms of technology are the ones who will be best prepared for the future. With all the new innovations popping up, it is important for students to be able to think on their toes and be ready to try new things. Props to millennials for helping us be short and to the point.

source: http://pix.iemoji.com/images/emoji/apple/ios-9/256/olive-toned-clapping-hands-sign.png

^ on that note, to all the h8rz complaining that (**insert snooty accent here**) our lovely babies cannot write long poetic pieces with lots of imagery, last I checked pictures are worth a thousand words. So that text to a friend last night is actually worth 88,000 words. And by the way, it only took 8 minutes to write instead of weeks or years. And look at all that imagery.

Source: http://cdn3.teen.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/signs-you-found-your-best-friend-forever-10.jpg

“Schools and colleges are missing an opportunity when they do not encourage students to take their nonacademic interests as objects of academic study”

– Gerald Graff

When academics and nonacademics collide, it can create a powerful learning experience for a student. This combination makes it easier for students to relate to complex ideas taught in the classroom. Learning does not have to be as conventional as it used to be. Learning can happen anywhere: in the classroom, on the field, in the grocery store, at the mall, playing video games. The opportunities are endless! So why not use them to our advantage? Teachers can capitalize on something that might be more engaging to a student rather than strictly going by lame textbook. Plus, I am better at remembering things when they’re more hands on rather than taking notes.

I’ll let you go on your merry way now. I’m sure you have other sites and apps to visit. Next time you use technology, keep in mind that it took us a billion years to get here and a lot of the pieces of technology you’re using is a result of a domino effect of innovation – one thing leads to another.

source: https://slipthroughmovies.wordpress.com/2015/04/11/unbreakable-kimmy-schmidt-episode-5/