That was a quick 2 quarters. That’s 6 months. I can’t believe it.

Even crazier, I’m already finishing my first year. Unbelievable.

Last post of the quarter so obviously time to drop the first gif of this entire blog. (I’m going to regret this decision later…)

So what did I learn in this writing class these two quarters? I don’t even know where to start. This was my first English writing class ever in my life; in Japan we never did English writing and I was pretty much home-schooled in terms of my writing. So I was actually pretty nervous when I first started this class. Looking at where I am now, I can say that I am just a little proud of myself. (maybe more than a little…)

I think the technique I learned the most was the art of meta-commentary. Since much of my writing came from college essays, it was all about “talk less show more.” That changed 180 degrees. By turning an essay into a conversation with my audience (which of course changes based on rhetoric) I was able to make my points clearer and more effective/persuasive. IN OTHER WORDS, “explain more less miscommunications!”

To anyone in next year’s Dr. Lueck’s class: Use this magical phrase and get an A!! (Source)

Also is the mindset that “writing is a process.” I always would get caught up in the idea that writing was a mere product of research, or even worse only an assignment. Tackling so many different kinds if writing styles, research methods, and rhetorical consideration, I now can confidently say that writing is definitely a process. Every time I re-read my essays there is something I can change, and I’m never actually FINISHED writing. It just means that I had to stop somewhere.

So all in all, we learned a lot about methods and concepts to improve our writing, but my main take-away is that in fact I don’t dislike writing; I even kind of like it. It may be tedious at times, but after all, I really like talking to people, and through this class I learned that writing is just talking to people over pieces of paper.

Happy Writing!!

– JJ

(Source)

Special Thanks To:

Dr. Lueck, the best writing teacher ever!
Kelli, the best peer editor in the country!
Cory, for basically coming up with my entire multimodal project plan!

You all are the best! Can’t thank you enough.

(So in my fourth assignment, a 10 page research paper, I argued about SCU’s on-campus programs and centers, and how they could become more effective in engaging students. Keeping that in mind…)

This is my inner-brain vision when I heard “MULTIMODAL translation” (Source)

Our fifth and final assignment was a “multi-modal translation.” This meant expanding our claim we made in our researched essay into something substantial which could address/back up/enhance the main argument. In addition, it is “multi-modal” meaning it must use some sort of electronic technology, but what isn’t online now days anyway?

I argued how there was a gap between students and administration in the centers for SCU. Through my research, I found that students are most engaged and active when they are involved directly with programs that are close to their identities are backgrounds. Therefore, SCU’s different centers, which all have various focuses and topics, must align their programs so they can invite more students who have interests in the topics these centers cover. In other words, they must listen to what the students want more to improve engagement and the overall undergraduate experience.

SO what “translation” could I do? The first thing I thought of was an infographic. Yes, part of me just always wanted to make one since they look so cool. But also, by creating an infographic about the different centers and showing the data of students currently NOT getting involved in them, I assumed that it could get students who see it to become motivated to learn more about the centers. It could circulate easily on Facebook on Twitter where many students will look, and I could add direct links to the programs.

Aren’t these so cool? (Source)

But then my friend Cory came up with a genius idea; I could make a quiz. One of my main conclusions in my paper was that all on-campus centers should do a reassessment of their programs to understand student interests. But if I made a quiz which directly asked students what their interests was, I could guide them to a specific program, maybe even before students arrive on campus for their first day of college. So this is what I set out to do, and I will explain more on my next post!

PS A huge shout out to Cory! I probably should give you half of my credit for this assignment……

I sure did not expect this coming into college. A third if our writing classes would be in the library, not out regular classroom? Isn’t the library a place to borrow books (not many students even do this anymore) and study until 2 AM? Apparently not.

Our “Award-Winning” Library, also known as the Learning Commons.

We had multiple classes in media labs in the library, with a specific educational librarian teaching us specific skills for academic writing. Most notable was how to find sources. Yes, you might think. “go to google and look up whatever you need!” That might work if you are really lucky, but it is rarely that easy.

In academic writing, professors often ask for citations from “academic sources” or “peer-reviewed articles.” These are articles which are published in academic journals of all kinds, but often these do not circulate in public. Why? Because you need to pay to access these journals. As a university, the library is the one place that has purchased all of data bases which contain these subscriptions, meaning a search through the library website is necessary to get through the pay wall.

These databases aren’t that easy to use at they seem either. You need to know specific techniques such as using “” marks for terms you want to see exactly matched, the difference between AND/OR, and truncating words using * for maximum results.

I did not know that I would be taking classes in the library, but even more important, I did not know that I would learn so much about skills for writing! Some of the simplest process often are the most overlooked, and I ma so glad that I was forced to start by learning the basics again.

This might strange, but I had to FIND my argument.

When we are writing research papers, most often we have the mindset of proving something. Maybe you feel strongly about a specific claim, taking one side of a debate, or compiling evidence around a single topic. Whatever our goal is, we come in with a specific objective, and aim to support or validate that with proof.

Proving your point like…(Source)

Our research paper was different for me. We had just finished an annotated bibliography, so I had compiled many different sources to understand the conversation surrounding what I was interested in, which in this case was on-campus programs. I had a pile of articles in front of me, but that doesn’t mean I had a specific argument. So I had to find one.

The first step to finding my argument was what we called in class “finding the territory.” This meant synthesizing the sources I had found and understanding the general sense of what previous research addressed. My “territory” was many articles that concluded that hands-on experiences is useful for the undergraduate experience, and many case studies that back this up by showing programs could enhance student engagement.

Second, was “finding the gap.” What is a niche in the territory which hasn’t been covered, or is there anything I could add to the conversation? When I thought about what I could personally contribute, I imagined my own campus. What can SCU improve in regards to their programs. My survey clearly showed that students aren’t effectively getting involved on-campus. Is there some connection I can make to the theories and case studies I have read in the sources I have found?

Where is my gap?

Applying the information I have found to improve SCU’s programs; that is the argument I found.

In an age of new ideas, and living in the liberal bubble of the Bay Area, I often hear talks surrounding women’s rights. Here at SCU we have a specific department on women in gender studies, focused on addressing and discussing gender inequalities which is prevalent in society. It’s great that my school is taking initiative on a sensitive but important topic and I am extremely proud to be a student in a school which represents that.

Gender stereotypes…think about it. (Source)

This is why I was surprised when I came across this article. A Center for Men’s Leadership? I never thought of such an organization. Women have always been the ones placed below men in society, and this system called for the need to empower women’s rights. But men were never the ones at a disadvantage. What is the need for this center?

Turns out, the program is part of St. John’s University, an all-male liberal arts college in Minnesota. Context, right? It makes a lot more sense that there is an institution just for men at a men only school! By embracing their gender identity this program aimed to create a safe space for men to come together and expand their conversations into actions to help out the community. According to the article, students involved saw higher academic achievement and developed leadership skills, and it led to community service projects too. Here’s the vision statement of the program, now called Men’s Development Institute.

To develop and foster an environment where men are encouraged and empowered to reach their full potential.To provide a community for men to recognize and celebrate a variety of masculine identities while also acknowledging the issues of male privilege in our gendered culture.

So two take-aways from this:

1) Context context context! Always understand the context surrounding something. Never run to judgement, it is not necessary anyway in my case of writing a research paper. Careful consideration of rhetoric can lead to deeper insights.

2) Safe spaces are important! By purposefully creating spaces where students can come together and share their identity without retaliation, universities can engage students with the community. Networking leads to more opportunities as well. This shows that programs based on student identities can be extremely effective!

As my assignment for class is gathering journal sources and reflecting on the academic conversation which is already being discussed. One important factor to consider when looking at sources is the rhetorical context. This is, to whom is the author attempting to talk to? What is the purpose of the article in the first place?

Wait…who’s talking to who?? (Source)

To understand this concept, we were assigned a reading by Margaret Kantz, a English Professor at Central Missouri State University. This article, which aims to be a guide for students to “use textual sources persuasively.” She explains that we can did this by drawing meaning from the text based on context, not just from the textual information. We need to understand why a argument is being made, not only what the argument is.

I tried to incorporate this strategy closely as I was compiling more and more sources and creating annotated bibliographies for each of them. When describing each of the sources, I not only listed the author’s main points, but also the audience of the articles. I often looked at the journals the articles were published in to see what the targets of the papers were. I also researched the authors themselves; a lot of times they were college professors in specific fields, revealing the purpose of their research.

Anyhow, through Kantz’ article we can see how it is necessary not only to understand the textual information of articles, but all other information surrounding it. This could be the authors, the journal it’s published in, when it was published, all of the other factors which can change how the claims were perceived. By understanding all of this we can finally make sense of these articles as a comprehensive information source.

When I think of sources I think of citations...

So I finished my survey essay…phew. Next up my assignment is to find sources which are related to what I want to research, and enter a conversation of academic writing which has already been established. After my survey report, I decided my topic question would be some think like this:

How can universities take effective approaches to get students more involved in themed centers/programs to maximize the undergraduate experience?

To see if there were some previous research related to my topic, I went to my university’s library website and accessed some databases which I thought would be applicable. (There are so many!) I first took a look at ones which we had sources from educational journals, since I am looking for research related to programming but especially in a higher education setting.

My early searches were struggles. Database searches are not as easy as Google, and I had to refine my searches countless times. I tried combining “higher education” with “centers or programming” and tried adding “effectiveness” or “perceptions” or “involvement,” many terms that I thought could be related. I just kept going and going until I found some research papers that had titles that seemed promising.

The first one was called The Role of Project Activities in the Study of Course “Social Advertising.” Why this one? It has three key words that stood out to me: Project activities (programming?), study (related to education!), and advertising (maybe about how to reach out to students?).

So how useful was this source? Well, I could say that it was somewhat helpful. The topic was about how to create an educational curriculum for students which is program-based and hands-on. This is not necessarily exactly on topic since I want to see how specific programs could effect people and education, but nonetheless there was still some useful insights.

1) The more active, engaging, creative, and self-starting the better! By not just telling students what to do or study but letting them experience it themselves, studying becomes much more meaningful. For my case, if the centers can advertise their programs as hands-on experiences, or brought such events into classrooms, maybe they can expand their outreach on campus.

Creativity is power! (Source)

2) There are a lot of talk about educational curriculum, but not about specific institutions! As I continued my search for related articles, there were many about educational curriculum. This is understandable; you have to change the system to make education more effective. But why aren’t there more research on more specific programs, ones that have themes? Wouldn’t that be a better way to spread a specific cause, or gain actual experience in a field??

This first source led to a hint but also a big question? I am excited to see what other sources will tell me on the same topic……

Hi and welcome back! Finally time to talk about the results and what I found!

To start out, I got about 30 responses, so I didn’t get too many but it was enough to make it fairly credible for the specific demographics which made up the answer pool. Most of those who responded were freshman, so my take-aways are largely based on this assumption.

My sample is perfect for me! (Source)

1) A lot of people know about these centers!
– A good percentage of the people who answered knew the three centers (just in case you forgot they are Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, and Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship). The Ignatian center got over 70% recognition, so students know the name of them.

2) The Markkula Center wasn’t as popular as it seems.
– I compared the percentages of students who said they know  each of the centers, and the percentage of students who chose each as their NUMBER 1 choice in terms of how important they are for the students. Markkula Center, which was more known then the Miller center in table 1 lost to the Miller center in table 2. Maybe this could be the difference between the amount of advertising (people know it but don’t actually participate) and good programming (more people care).

3) People aren’t doing things they are passionate about.
– When I compared the terms students choose as what mattered most to them, it often did not match up with the centers’ values. (Look at question 5 in my last post to see the exact question) By comparing these answered to the mission statements of each program, we can say people are not getting involved with the centers which they share the same values with. By changing this, the student experience could be dramatically improved!

4) People aren’t interested at all!!!
-My final finding was a sad one…students are just not getting involved. Overwhelming people showed disinterest in these three centers, although they all do amazing work here at SCU. So that leads to my project for my next essay!

How can we improve programming and advertising at SCU to maximize the undergraduate experience?

Until next time…