Thoughts of a College Student

For my CTW class, we had to design a survey and distribute it to students attending Santa Clara University. I decided to make my survey about women’s equality on campus. Now that I had my topic, all I had to do was create the questions, right? Well…there’s a lot more involved with the design of a survey than you think.

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Some things to consider…

Types of Survey Questions

Are your questions going to be multiple choice or free response? Will there be a range of answers or simply “yes or no?” This is a very important concern to address when designing a survey because people might may or may not fill out your survey based on the style of questions you choose. I know for me personally, I would rather fill out a multiple choice survey than have to input my own responses. Call it lazy or a lack of thought, but I feel that most people would think the same as me.

So for my survey, I chose to have multiple choice and Likert scale questions. I used the multiple choice for when I wanted to know a specific answer, like whether you were a female or male. I used the Likert scale questions so people could voice their opinions over a wider range of options.

Survey Length

The length of your survey is also an important factor to consider. No one wants to take a survey that will take them 15 minutes to fill out, especially if there’s no reward.

For my survey, it took a maximum time of 3 minutes to fill out. A short survey increases the chances that someone will complete all of the questions and take the survey.

Audience

Who is this survey talking to? Are you directing your survey towards a specific audience?People will more likely fill out the survey if it applies to them. Otherwise, what’s in it for them? Taking your audience into consideration, it’s also important to know how you will distribute it and to whom.

My survey focused on women’s equality at SCU, so I made sure to distribute my survey out only to people who currently attend Santa Clara University. I sent my survey out as a Google Forms to other people in my CTW class and to people in my dorm. However, my distribution system was flawed because only freshmen and a few sophomores completed my survey. Therefore, I can’t say that my results accurately represent the entire SCU population.

My Results

For my survey, I received a total of 27 responses! This was a great number to receive considering the amount of people I sent my survey to. All of my questions were answered and I was able to analyze my data effectively.

If you want direct data straight from the source, I highly recommend creating a survey! It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3

Done! (Source: Giphy)

This week, I had to start researching for my CTW project. I wanted to use the results I found from my archival research and my survey to lead me into my topic for this project. I decided to try and enter a conversation around the idea of women’s inequality, specifically in college.

I started researching through an online database using the keywords: “gender inequality,” “higher education,” and college*. I received a total of 54 hits and started scrolling through the articles and journal entries. I saw a lot of your typical boring headlines and found nothing that interested me.

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After some digging, one article in particular caught my eye and it was titled, “Gender equality: universities are still all talk and too many trousers.” I thought that the title was funny and creative, so I got curious and took a deeper look into the article.

The author performed research on the gender equality seen within the universities in the UK and Europe. Interestingly, she found that there was a lack of respect for women’s expertise, less valued roles were directed towards women, and that motherhood must end any interest in career progression. Like seriously?

Source: Pinterest

I knew that women still faced inequalities in the workplace, but these findings surprised me. I wasn’t aware that this much inequity was present, especially at the college level. I figured that since attending college is a big deal, women would be equally represented among the men. Guess I was wrong.

This article inspired me to look into this issue further. For my research, I decided to focus on the opportunities and respect that college students and faculty members receive and also compare this between males and females.

When I say hunter gatherers, I’m not referring to the tribes that hunted animals and gathered berries. I’m actually referring to research and writing.

Whaattttt? (Source: Giphy)

In an article by Michael Kleine, “What Is It We Do When We Write Articles Like This One—And How Can We Get Students To Join Us?”, he discusses his own method that he created for researching. Many students can probably relate to this, but Kleine was bothered by how students wrote their research papers when he was working in a college library. He watched people sit down and practically “copy and paste” their encyclopedias into their papers. In order to combat this behavior, Kleine came up with a research process of his own using the ideas of hunters and gatherers.

Hunters were the ones that found what they were looking for, while gatherers discovered things that might be of use. In other words, being a hunter is more strategic and being a gatherer is more heuristic. Within these two categories, Kleine broke up the process into even more steps. He added collecting, rhetorical sifting, pattern seeking, and translating. At the end of the day, you end up with something like this:

Source: Michael Kleine, “What Is It We Do When We Write Articles Like This One—And How Can We Get Students To Join Us?”

Now, I both agree and disagree with Kleine’s research process. Let’s break it down a bit.

Pros

• Organized way to research
• Challenges you to find something that fits in every category
• Forces you to really research and look at a number of sources
• Allows different perspectives

Cons

• There’s a certain order to it that you need to follow
• Defined; doesn’t open up to other possibilities
• Very structured

My research process is nothing like Kleine’s, however, I think that it might be worth giving his hunter/gatherer model a try. It seems like a challenging way to research, but it would be worth it in the end. Filling out his chart would produce a lot of valuable information and unique perspectives for your research.

So maybe instead of cranking out a research paper the old-fashioned way, Kleine’s model could help you produce an insightful and well-researched paper. Plus, his model would probably force you to start your research early instead of the night before the due date (because we all know how that ends).

Now it’s time to get back to work!

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Source: Cartoonstock

Looking at this image, I thought back to my research topic in the archives. I was researching the reactions and thoughts of the male SCU students when women arrived on campus in 1961. I also wanted to look at how that experience shaped Santa Clara into the university it is today.

Clearly, this photo is meant to be funny. The man in the comic is saying that no one will treat you differently based on how you look, however, looking at the other people in the photo, everyone looks the same. They also all happen to be white men. No diversity whatsoever.

So what does this mean to me?

Applying it to my research, this comic raises this question: has women’s equality truly changed since the 1960s? Or frankly, even equality among different races?

There’s always talk of men and women becoming more equal, whether it’s through pay or even respect. However, I feel that most of it is just talk. Sure, some things might actually be changing, but I still feel like minority groups are secluded and their struggles aren’t brought into the light enough. In some ways, I feel like we behave similar to people from the 1960s, except now there’s many ways to keep it hidden or anonymous through resources like social media.

The student newspaper that I found in the archives shows me how much we’ve changed socially as a society. You never hear people publicly talking about women or other races the same as the SCU newspaper from the 1960s. We know that it’s wrong and disrespectful. However, I believe that the language used in the newspapers helped to create SCU’s diversity program and values we see today. However, I don’t think the same can be said about the rest of the world.

It’s important to look at out past, no matter how horrible, in order to do better in the times to come. Here’s to a brighter and more equal future!

So I’ll admit, I’m guilty of Facebook stalking. You know that I’m not the only one. We’ve all done it at some point. I just so happens that the other day, I was looking at my Aunt’s profile. She runs her own marketing company and posts a lot to her timeline about PR, marketing, and writing (as well as all the other fun stuff). I was scrolling down her timeline and found this post:

Source: Facebook

I was first shocked because I didn’t think of my Aunt having any writing problems. She always writes well-composed articles and announcements, and I always assumed she did it with ease. Curiosity got the best of me and I followed the link.

Looking through the article, I realized that it was a blog post very similar to ours in CTW! The author uses all the same elements we use in our blog posts. There were short, concise sentences and the writing was very broken up. The blog inserted hyperlinks and used a variety of colors and bolding to address certain points made in the post. Along with the visuals used, the post made me want to continue reading.

The 21 Fears

I found myself connecting a lot to this list:

Source: Enchanting Marketing

Number 10 made me think of my CTW class. We’ve been working on recognizing who our audience is and how we can make our writing appealing to them. It’s such an important aspect of writing because it helps to frame the argument or point you’re making in your paper.

Number 14 reminded me of the importance of metacommentary. If you have nothing else to write, use metacommentary to find other ways to restate the same things. It can also be used to clarify your points and lengthen your paper.

Number 21 made me reflect on my own writing. I think it’s important to form your own voice as a writer and to make yourself unique.

Reflecting My Writing

I realized that I have some of the same struggles as other people when it comes to writing. At the beginning of the year, I felt insecure as a writer; I felt that my writing wasn’t as good as it should’ve been. Luckily, my CTW class and this blog have helped me become a more confident and skilled writer. Now I know that not all papers sound sound the same or address the same people. I’m more aware of the skills and strategies I can use to make my writing more appealing not only to my audience, but to myself. I think that it was also important for me to see that other people, including my Aunt, have the same concerns as me about writing. I hope to keep jumping the hurdles my writing has been throwing at me and to make myself a better writer.

Hopefully this doesn’t turn out to be me (Source: Giphy)

When we were first told that I would be researching in the archives, I’ll admit, I was a little apprehensive. I wasn’t sure how the whole experience was going to go or what I would find.

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My Worries

Entering the archives, I didn’t have a solid topic to research. I thought that this would be a disadvantage and would cause me to waste time looking at sources that I didn’t need. I feared that I wouldn’t be able to find enough sources to support my claim. I was also worried that by the time I found a topic that interested me, time would be up and I would’ve gotten nowhere with my research. So in other words, I was already against our trip to the archives.

What I Found

I ended up spending most of my time looking at the Santa Clara University newspapers from the 1960s. I ended up discovering that SCU wasn’t always a co-educational university! This interested me and I wanted to observe how the students reacted to the first group of women enrolling at Santa Clara University. Obviously I won’t be able to know the exact thoughts every student had at the time, but the newspapers in the archives definitely allowed me to see the language and the viewpoints of most students.

Let me just say: the male students at SCU were very unhappy with the new transition. Women were enrolled at SCU in 1961, which happened to be during the same time as the women suffrage movement. It’s important to notice this timeframe because it probably influenced a lot of thoughts about women, especially men. Looking at the newspapers, the male students were heartbroken to hear that their 110 year tradition of being an all-male school was about to be broken. Some of the faculty members were even against this transition. The opinions of these SCU members surprised me and I wondered how this helped transform SCU into the school it is today. I think that it’s also important to note that these are just the thoughts that were published; I’m sure that there were many other negative and harsh comments made about women coming to SCU, but there’s no way to know.

In Conclusion

The archives aren’t that bad! It can actually be a very cool and interesting place to find sources that you can’t search on google. It offers a unique perspective on researching and I highly recommend others to try it. Now that I found an interesting topic, it’s time to continue digging!

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So I did some research on the archives at Santa Clara University for my paper. To my surprise, there was a wide range of topics that I could choose from. In particular, I became interested in the University’s history, women in religion, and the history of science. I hope that once I get to the archives and actually see the sources, my mind will lean towards one of these topics more than the others. For now, I’m not sure what my topic will be, but thanks to a passage by Lynée Lewis Gaillet, I have an 11 step checklist to examine the archives I do find.

Check Them Off!

1. Develop a question about your archive and what you hope to find
2. Describe what the physical archive looks like
3. How is your archive documented?
4. Find out what kind of society and norms your archive came from (time period)
5. Consult other sources to help strengthen your claim
6. What is the significance of your archive?
7. Who created the archive and why?
8. Who was the original audience?
9. Determine the effectiveness/purpose of the archive in its time period
10. Did the archive have a good reputation? Was it influential?
11. Tell your story using what you find in the archives

Even though I haven’t narrowed down my topic, I feel much better about walking into SCU’s archives tomorrow. I have a sense of what to look for in a source and the questions I should be asking about it. Wish me luck!

How I hope to come out of the archives… (Source: Giphy)

Instead of preparing for my upcoming biology exam this week, I decided to go on Facebook (because what’s studying without a little procrastination?). While I was scrolling through the friend updates and food videos, I came upon this post.

Source: Facebook

To keep this person anonymous, I cropped out their name and the site to their blog. All you have to know is that this person is 19 and a freshmen in college, just like me.

So I got curious and clicked on this person’s blog link. I was intrigued, because as you know, I’m also writing and updating my own blog page. I wanted to know how similar my academic blog was to this person’s identity blog.

My Initial Thoughts

When I first clicked on the link, the first thing I saw was a picture of this person at graduation with their siblings. It filled up the whole page and towards the bottom, it said “Love God, Love People #OneOneSix.” As I scrolled down to the actual blog posts, black text filled up the white background. There was background information, an introduction post, and a sports post.

Taking It All In

As I was reading this person’s blog, I felt like there was something missing. I realized that this person decided not to add any photos or color to their blog at all. I felt that this created a completely different atmosphere than my own blog. For my blog, I wanted to use colors, GIFs, and pictures to create a lighter and more enjoyable mood for my academic focus. I also wanted to use a more relaxed tone, so my writing doesn’t sound like it’s coming from a drilling manual. So is it ok that this person didn’t include any visuals?

Yes! Not all blogs have to look the same (Source: Giphy)

This person’s blog has a completely different audience than mine, which will result in a completely different mood. You can tell from their background information that they want to use their religious beliefs to help them shape their blog. This will also influence the mood they want to create throughout their posts.

This person’s blog made me think all the way back to CTW 1 and how much the audience plays a role in your writing. Writing shouldn’t be the same for every assignment or situation; plus, it depends on how you want your audience to perceive you as a writer. Thus, the beauty of blogging.

So to my friend on Facebook, mad props to you. Go show the world what blogging is all about!

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Everyone knows how to find a reliable source, right? We were taught from a relatively young age which sources look true and factual. In fact, we can identify credible sources just from the URL: .org, .net, .edu, .gov, and so on. We can tell from the look of a website if it was a site run by a university or a blog site run by a mother. Scanning the text, we should be able to pick out if the information was knowledgeable and written by someone who knows what they’re talking about. Simple enough?

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That’s what I thought too…until an exercise in class proved me wrong. Our professor gave us a list of websites that were paired based on the same topics. I breezed through the worksheet circling all of the obvious choices. It wasn’t until we went over the answers that I realized the reliable websites weren’t very obvious at all.

Specifically, one of the website pairings was about Martin Luther King Jr. You had a choice between Wikipedia and a “.org” website with a nationally published columnist. Based on first looks, the choice is clear, right? In fact, if you do a little extra research, you will learn that the “.org” website was written by an obscure author and was hosted by Stormfront. Who is Stormfront? I’ll tell you, drum roll please…a white nationalist, white supremacist and neo-Nazi Internet forum that was the Web’s first major racial hate site.

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Don’t worry, I was cringing too. Let me just say, this class exercise definitely opened up my eyes. Just because a website has a credible URL doesn’t mean that the site is automatically reliable. Especially if you need to pull quotes from a site, you want to make sure that the website is the correct speaker to be talking about a topic. Imagine writing about MLK Jr. only to realize you quoted from a white supremacist group. Embarrassing. Don’t let that be you. Do the extra work and dig a little deeper to find reliable sources. It’ll be worth it, believe me.

I was first introduced to the idea and process of research when I was in middle school. It was a requirement to complete a basic National History Day project for my class in seventh and eighth grade. However, I wanted to go above and beyond. I participated twice in the National Competition for National History Day (embarrassing, right?) As a result of going the extra mile, my project had to look impressive and include almost twice as many sources. To this day, I still question why I decided to put so much extra effort into one of my least favorite subjects.

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In the end, my history project proved to be a huge benefit towards me. This long and tedious project not only taught me about our chosen historical figure, but forced me to enhance my research skills. It forced me to research online sources, books, magazines, pamphlets, and to occasionally visit the library from time to time. By competing in National History Day, it allowed me to practice my research skills and develop my own system for researching.

When I have to research for an assignment, I first start with Google and search my topic online. I like to scroll and breeze over the websites that pop up in order to see as many sources as possible. Once I have a broad sense of my idea, I like to narrow down my Google searches into more specific ideas; that way, I can find sources that are best suited for what I’m looking for. When I actually decide which sources to use, I check to make sure the resource is credible and make sure it effectively supports my research topic.

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BEAM made me think of my own research process. What exactly is BEAM? To put it simply, it’s an acronym that stands for background, exhibits, arguments, and methods. BEAM allows the researcher to recognize the different elements they should be looking out for when constructing a research-based paper. When I thought of BEAM in my own research process, I realized that I don’t properly address all of these important points. I hate to admit it, but I tend to find the minimum amount of sources required and pull just enough information from them to support my topic. Now that I’ve read about BEAM, I realize that I need to focus more on the success and strength of my project, rather than fitting the requirements. BEAM has encouraged me to reflect on my own research process and think about how I can change it in order to effectively create a great research paper. Here’s to hoping!

Source: Giphy