About the process of composing Writing Project #2, I found most surprising the structure and organisation I got since my first draft. Although I was aware that the overall process: invention, planning and drafting, will structure my essay, I never expected a cohesion and steady support I got when writing the ethnographic approach. The composition surprised me because it was the first time that I took time for creating a sketch for writing. When I started to write following the process, it was a challenge; I never believe how pivotal is this process of sketching.
I think the most critical or important part of the writing process is the identification of the audience and the sketching. The first one allows the writer to identify the purpose of the writing, how writer’s idea will be translated according to the targeted readers. Sketching allows organising the ideas the writer wants and needs to translate to the audience. Otherwise, reviewing your writing is important too, but it is not critical because the ideas are already exposed. However, I have added planning, or the sketching writers should do before start drafting, as another topic to be taught about the writing process. This step is very helpful in attempting a good writing because it makes an outline of what the writer aims, the purpose of the writing taking into account to whom the writer wants to transmit his/hers ideas. As I stated above, revising is another important step in the process or writing. Although we, physically, do not write when revising a piece of writing, the reflection made through revision, is part of the overall process of writing. Reflecting on the writing allows us to figure out if the reader will understand the idea the writer aims to communicate. By revising several times the writing, either a self-revision or a peer review, the writer will develop a best final product.
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Reviewing the discussions in the course forum, they reveal both, that the writer can get confused with diverse styles and tones of writings, and the importance of who is the reader, that is to say, again, the audience.
Styles and tones can vary according to what the writer aims. It is totally different to write a novel, an academic journal, a script. Even e-mails, can vary. Then, the style and tone is extremely related with the audience. I think the writer can master the writing and the style when he knows what the audience expects. For instance, I saw how some professors have developed the ability of writing pieces for academic journals. Although they know the structure of an academic article, they are aware of the submission procedures and the format required by the journal. Then, they target to an approval of their paper by taking into account editor’s format and procedures. You can notice that in this explanation, the important (which is really the most important) is not the content of the journal, here the point is the format of the article looking forward to be approved and published. Similarly, the writer can also master the style and sometimes include grammar breaking or, as vanauruviel mentions in the discussion of our English Composition Course, “there are times when it is okay to break the rules.” And this is the point making us, beginner writers, to hesitate when proofreading a piece of writing. It is not easy to notice when allowing a breaking of the rule. I think, if the breaking will emphasise what the writers want to be meaningful, we can accept that. For instance revision and re-vision. This week we learned about how to write an ethnography. By connecting several qualitative data, such as observation, interviews, field notes, we were able to describe values, beliefs, practices, and customs of a particular social group, in which we are immersed. Also, the course aims to strengthen the notion of revision. We practised it by reviewing three drafts of our classmates’ writing journal #2. The course provided us with a rubric, which is an efficient tool to make a reflection about the writing. Besides, by revising others projects, we can realise revision is not only paying attention to the grammar, but also examining the logic flowing of the piece. I like how liyenmok in his/her post, clarifies this step of the process of revising, by asking if he/she will understand what he/she has trying to say. It agrees with DGama’s idea posted in the discussion: revising the writing from the audience perspective. Most of the comments agree that revising ends up in improving the writing revised.
Something that is still spinning in my mind is what Beelte posted. The student argues that revising is an “endless” practice. I have listened elsewhere in other discussions, and it also happened to me when writing some essays. Then, how the writer will notice his/her writing is finished, is a question that I am not able to answer yet. In my Writing Project #2, I will inform how the academia, as a socio-cultural phenomena, understands and defines their community. In my writer’s journal (WJ) # 12, I observed the place and the space. In WJ 13 I described spaces inside an university. Finally in WJ 15 I wrote field notes from an academic event, known as lectures or discussion forums. In the present entry, I reflect about data provided by an interview. Faculty staff as well as students can participate in this process; their names will be kept anonymous.
Interview questions:
Questions 1 and 2 validate interviewee’s participation in the research. Question 3 provides data about what are the roles of the people inside the academy. Question 4 addresses values of the community Question 5 provides data about the different practices, rituals and beliefs in the community. I interviewed a professor at FIU. Here his answers. Since 2013 I am Director of Latin American Research Center, but I became a faculty member of this university since 1990. I have been engaged with academia more than 35 years. I started as a grad student on the 70s, and the University of Maryland awarded me a Ph. D. degree on 1982. Academic career is not an easy task, I started teaching in the University of Baltimore, while I was writing my dissertation. Then, I moved to Alabama, where I spend almost 8 years. Since 1990 I had the opportunity in this University. In my personal history, in addition to teaching, which is one of my passions, I do research and publish. Both are key in academic career. But, to do research a faculty needs funds. Another big issue in this community is how to get your research funded. That is a specialty in academic writing. We spend many hours writing our analysis to publish in academic conferences as well as academic journals. I have also served as Chair of department. Academia provides knowledge, that is its main goal. In pursuing that, honesty is the most valuable attribute of an person engaged in this community. A professor has to persevere in research and publishing. Both are demanding tasks that leave practitioners to long time of solitude. Teaching is the practice I am passionate with, but the most ritual is participation in conferences. A body of experts gathers to provide, discuss, and advice specific research interests. That’s the social aspect of this career. I used to attend at least 5 conferences in a year, worldwide. Now, this office takes me many time in administrative issues, then the last year I attended three conferences. Conferences gather thousands of academics. It is ironic but we have 15 or 20 minutes to present our research, but it is pretty satisfactory how your research grows up. It can end in a book!. This post shows the field notes taken in a Lecture at a University.
In a big space with 100 people capacity, it has chairs and tables arranged as an auditorium. Light pecan walnut color walls, a podium with FIU logo, microphone and audiovisual devices on a desk; a big screen behind the podium, and two smaller screens in front of it. Some people, the organizers of the lecture, are placing laptops and testing power-point presentations and videos. People smiling and chatting get into the auditorium, kindly greeting. It does not smell any particular aroma, but it is cold, most of the people is fitting their sweaters, some women wear pashminas. The dark saddle brown tables are smooth and the blue fabric seats are soft. Very illuminated The auditorium has two entrances. Both are opened for the attendance. People come chatting and smiling. They express familiarity and emotion when they met someone in the auditorium. The moment they get into the room, they see at the podium, trying to find the lecturer’s eyes. Then they look for a seat. Some other people, they look like organizers because they have the same pin in their chest, are testing the audiovisuals. At 12:00 pm the lecture started. Most of the audience took out a notebook and a pen, some of them placed a laptop on the table. The GIF Director welcomes the audience and introduce the lecturer. Applause welcome the lecturer, who starts his talk. Lights turned down, the screen shows a picture. People attentively hear the presentation, while some of them take notes. Two same introductory, welcoming and lecturing ritual. After finishing the last lecture, the discussion started. The GIF Director thanks the lecturer and opens a Q&A (Questions & Answers) Section. In this post I will write down everything I can observe in a picture I selected from the photographs of a bedroom in Mollison’s "Where Children Sleep." I chose the collection titled "Erlen, 14, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil"
I will describe the objects, colors, shapes, arrangement as much detail as possible. These will be notes, so they don’t need to be polished writing. My observation. The screen shows two pictures. On the left side a pregnant teenager. Her belly shows an advanced pregnancy. Most of the belly is not covered by the clothes. She is wearing a pink sleeveless shirt, and a blue jean short pant. . Her face is not smiling while her eyes are without light. She has a pony tail, and some curly hair fell over her shoulders. She is not thin neither fat. Her skin is brown. The picture on the right side of the screen shows a bedroom. The walls are from wood, and protected by some kind of blue flowered sheets hanging like curtains almost from the ceiling. The ceiling is made from zinc panels. The light enters in the room from the door, it has no windows. A bed and a dresser full the room, no space for any other furniture. The bed is covered by a square blue, white and red sheet. It has a yellow used pillow without cover and kind of pink towel left over it. Between the bed and the dresser are some fabrics pilled up, and covered with a light yellow towel. The dark brown dresser has 6 closed drawers. On the dresser are a yellow and white bottle. The yellow one looks like powder talc, like the white one looks like a liquid container. The picture shows the room from outside its entrance. The entrance makes like a framework of the room. The right of the entrance shows a white cable connected to a white electrical plug fixed on the wood. The top of the entrance shows some kind of brown belt hanging from one side to another. In the left side two wood shackles are in the end of this belt. In the bottom left of the entrance, there is a yellow plastic bags hangs. Although the poverty of the room it is clean and organized. Selecting a space: I frequent Modesto Maidique Campus, the main campus of Florida International University. Reading the space: I noticed some new buildings for academic purposes as well as facilities, such as parking, dorms and sports center. Everyday I see students, faculty, and staff. Eventually I see children, who come to visit their parents and spend some time at the lake, feeding ducks and turtles. In this academic environment I find diversity of people. Most are Hispanics, some Asians are in sciences, few Muslims and few from the India walk around the campus dressing their distinctive clothes. All the campus is full of announcements about academic talks, student clubs, and research. The Green Library (GL) and the Graham Center (GC) are the iconic buildings in this campus. They are both located in the middle of the campus, next to one another. GC is the students’ center; many food services are located inside the building as well as student services offices. In the central corridor of GC, flags from most of the countries welcome the people from the south; while in the north entrance, the seal of the university is stamped on the floor. Traditionally, nobody steps on the seal if he wants to get a degree from FIU. While walking through the campus I find the image of Roary the Panther, the FIU’s mascot. Some sculptures beautify green areas. The campus is full of gardens, grass areas, trees and it also has a preservation area. The sport area has a Football stadium, baseball and volleyball fields, gym, and so on. Analyzing the Space: Most of the areas are accessible, however, in Green Library, students can get the elevator in the second floor, first story is prohibited for students. The accounting area, located close to the sports area is banned for students. Sometimes it is not easy to notice who is faculty and who is student. All of them wear conventional outfits, however, most of the students wear T-shirts, jeans and sneakers and a backpack. In the campus most of the people read books or work in laptops while using headphones. Everyone is very respectful and kind. When I started my draft, I was totally aware about rhetoric and ethnography. The comments in my post answering what I will write about targeted both issues on writing project #1. However, my first draft did not reveal any of them! This unconscious omission tells me that I have to constantly review the audience and the purpose of my writing. By saying ‘review’ I am thinking on reading again and again the first structure of the writing, where we respond to questions about audience and purpose. It is easier, for me, to create new topics than translate them to a writing product. It demands me to constantly contrast the draft with the first ideas, purpose and audience.
I completely understand the structure however the dynamic of the process of writing is what I find most critical. I learned it when I was assessing my peer’s pieces, rather than by self-assessing. Here is when my frustration comes out. It is hard for me to critique my own work. At this point, I am thinking on the metacognition topic we reviewed previously. I have work hard on the ability to reflect my own thinking. Absolutely, WPA Outcomes as well as the course highly value and promote this habit of mind of reflective writing along with Flexibility. The discussion forum reveals that most of the students approach drafting as a initial time of writing, when the idea is more important than the grammar. As arcmishler stated in this post, a rough draft shows thoughts on paper, while Bilyana, it discloses sentences, expressions and/or words. But NathalyYC did the most explanatory assertion: “Drafting is to writing, what a sketch is to painting.” This comparison reveals that drafting is a first attempt to write but it has a goal. I understand drafting as writing (or sketching) some guidelines to address the final writing. In this sense, it is not a “messy jumbled version” of the topic as Zoobith expressed in his/her post. The messy version, can be compared with the brainstorming. But absolutely, it is not the draft. This initial version needs to focus on the audience and the purpose of the writing. By the way, few students approach drafting as a reiterative work. How many times we see on the screen of our laptop several doc files named: “draft 1,” “draft 2,” “final draft,” and so on. Then drafting is part of the writing process that underlies mainly in two habits of mind of a writer: flexibility and metacognition. The Framework for success postsecondary writing, defines Flexibility as “the ability to adapt to situations, expectations, or demands,” while metacognition is “the ability to reflect on one’s own thinking.”
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