Describe the features, functions, and student activity of a textbook for a single field, such as American History. Write a paper analyzing the genre.
Political Science books are usually very factual, full of history, definitions, and cases. American Constitutional Law is the textbook I have to read for my Civil Liberties class. The textbook is definitely a part of the Political Science genre, according to Charles Bazerman, since it functions to provide history, the structure of the government, and some critical question, such as how U.S. Supreme Court Justices affect these two issues. Maps, graphs, and definitions appear frequently throughout the textbook to better define the features of the book. There are no pictures, which also typical of the Political Science genre. Student activites require students to evaluate the learned history and analyze why or how it happened.
This textbook serves its purpose of the Political Science genre: to inform and encourage critical thinking. The activities encourage me to do more research or question my professor about a give topic.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Sunday, February 8, 2009
The WWF Website
Find a website. Analyze how and how well the site is suited to its aims and audiences.
The World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) is an organization interested in helping people live in harmony with nature. I know this because their website, which is actually fairly persuasive, told me so several times. However, because WWF takes donations and has several financial programs, restating this fact on every page of their website could be a rhetorical statement involving a contextual strategy. Why do they continuously make this point? Because at this point in time, the organization needs money. Another contextually important aspect involves time specific issues, such as energy problems, climate change, and overpopulation. The WWF must address these issues because they are relevant to our lifetime and solutions are needed.
Textually speaking, the arrangement and style of the website is persuasive. The arrangement is general to specific in order to first inform and then direct the audience's interest to a specific topic, such girls education in South America. Readers are then presented with options of action. The main headings are "What We Are", "What We Do", "Places", "Species", "Science", "Climate", and "Act Now". These headings set up the style of information. The inform and then present opportunities builds the credibility of the author because they provide very specific information and relate it to problems in specific regions of the world.
The World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) is an organization interested in helping people live in harmony with nature. I know this because their website, which is actually fairly persuasive, told me so several times. However, because WWF takes donations and has several financial programs, restating this fact on every page of their website could be a rhetorical statement involving a contextual strategy. Why do they continuously make this point? Because at this point in time, the organization needs money. Another contextually important aspect involves time specific issues, such as energy problems, climate change, and overpopulation. The WWF must address these issues because they are relevant to our lifetime and solutions are needed.
Textually speaking, the arrangement and style of the website is persuasive. The arrangement is general to specific in order to first inform and then direct the audience's interest to a specific topic, such girls education in South America. Readers are then presented with options of action. The main headings are "What We Are", "What We Do", "Places", "Species", "Science", "Climate", and "Act Now". These headings set up the style of information. The inform and then present opportunities builds the credibility of the author because they provide very specific information and relate it to problems in specific regions of the world.
Monday, February 2, 2009
A Definition of Commuter Students
Analyze how the article uses, builds on, takes a position with respect to, and adds to prior publications.
The assignment is to find a research or scholarly article that pertains to your field. The text I am analyzing isn't really either, but instead a definition of commuter students according to http://www.answers.com/. I have been using this information for research at my internship. The definition builds on other texts to define what a commuter student is, so I thought it would be interesting to analyze the intertextuality of such information.
Like any other publication, this article uses a number of sources primarily to build information. Indirect quotation, mentioning a person and document, and using familiar language are all means of building this information. Because the purose of the article is to inform, the mentioned sources include reports and studies. For example, the first sentence indirectly quotes two researchers about the definition of a commuter. The author uses this definition to define the topic, and then present his or her position. Specifically, the author presents challenges of commuting.
Another way the author uses other publications to build on the article is using words that would be common in all the sources in order to create a complete definition for the reader. These words are directly related to college life, so readers who have never been to college may not fully understand the corresponding concepts. A few of these words are "off-campus", "higher-education institution", and "residence halls".
Just as the author indirectly quotes a source in the introduction of paragraph in order to define "commuter," the author uses the same tactic to reinforce his or her point that retention for commuters is low: "A study by Vincent Tinto in 1987 indicates that students who have high interaction with their university's academic and social systems are more likely to persist in college." Because commuter students rarely spend downtime on campus, they face more difficulty in interacting with the campus life. Using studies to reinforce information with a factual purpose is an effective to convince readers of your point.
The assignment is to find a research or scholarly article that pertains to your field. The text I am analyzing isn't really either, but instead a definition of commuter students according to http://www.answers.com/. I have been using this information for research at my internship. The definition builds on other texts to define what a commuter student is, so I thought it would be interesting to analyze the intertextuality of such information.
Like any other publication, this article uses a number of sources primarily to build information. Indirect quotation, mentioning a person and document, and using familiar language are all means of building this information. Because the purose of the article is to inform, the mentioned sources include reports and studies. For example, the first sentence indirectly quotes two researchers about the definition of a commuter. The author uses this definition to define the topic, and then present his or her position. Specifically, the author presents challenges of commuting.
Another way the author uses other publications to build on the article is using words that would be common in all the sources in order to create a complete definition for the reader. These words are directly related to college life, so readers who have never been to college may not fully understand the corresponding concepts. A few of these words are "off-campus", "higher-education institution", and "residence halls".
Just as the author indirectly quotes a source in the introduction of paragraph in order to define "commuter," the author uses the same tactic to reinforce his or her point that retention for commuters is low: "A study by Vincent Tinto in 1987 indicates that students who have high interaction with their university's academic and social systems are more likely to persist in college." Because commuter students rarely spend downtime on campus, they face more difficulty in interacting with the campus life. Using studies to reinforce information with a factual purpose is an effective to convince readers of your point.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Development of an Engineering Internship Cover Letter
As I read the materials (which included drafts, skills brainstorming, and audience analysis) for the cover letter for an engineering internship, I noticed two strengths of his writing process. First, he was very aware of his audience. Second, his revisions, particularly the work experience paragraph, really enhanced the persuasion of the final document.
The fact that this applicant took the time to research his audience is obvious. In the audience analysis, he talks about the company seeking an intern who can work hard and wants to learn a broad knowledge of civil engineering. In the final draft of the cover letter, he tunes in to these two points. First, he explains how he was the most reliable intern at Mylan. Working during school is exemplary of a hard working person. Even more company specific is the broad engineering coursework he has already completed. He explains in the audience analysis that the company completes a variety of tasks, so their engineers don't focus on one aspect. He demonstrates his broad knowledge by listing relevant courses and computer software.
The final draft includes a lot more specific examples that make him sound much more convincing. In the rough draft, he spoke of running the family farm and a lawn business. While these jobs may mean he is hard working, they are hardly relevant to his desired position. He changed this information to focus on the completed Mylan internship, in which he learned a lot of company relevant skills such as team work. He could have also mentioned his leadership role in the road design project. I think the examples from his first draft were okay, but because he has relevant experience, it was a good choice to delete those first work examples.
The fact that this applicant took the time to research his audience is obvious. In the audience analysis, he talks about the company seeking an intern who can work hard and wants to learn a broad knowledge of civil engineering. In the final draft of the cover letter, he tunes in to these two points. First, he explains how he was the most reliable intern at Mylan. Working during school is exemplary of a hard working person. Even more company specific is the broad engineering coursework he has already completed. He explains in the audience analysis that the company completes a variety of tasks, so their engineers don't focus on one aspect. He demonstrates his broad knowledge by listing relevant courses and computer software.
The final draft includes a lot more specific examples that make him sound much more convincing. In the rough draft, he spoke of running the family farm and a lawn business. While these jobs may mean he is hard working, they are hardly relevant to his desired position. He changed this information to focus on the completed Mylan internship, in which he learned a lot of company relevant skills such as team work. He could have also mentioned his leadership role in the road design project. I think the examples from his first draft were okay, but because he has relevant experience, it was a good choice to delete those first work examples.
Monday, January 19, 2009
About Jack Selzer's Professional Writer Observation
Although little research has been conducted on technical writing teaching practices, Jack Selzer provides a beneficial case study on an engineer. Kenneth Nelson spends a lot of time on the job writing proposals and other documents. Selzer analyzed every aspect of Nelson's writing process, including invention and revision, and provided a detailed analysis of his observations. The most interesting aspect of Selzer's article is the invention and drafting process.
Selzer found that Nelson spent 80% of his time inventing. To better understand Nelson's invention process, Selzer carefully read notes and any other preliminary writing that shaped the purpose and anticipated audience needs of the document. Nelson carefully plans his writing. When necessary, he researches existing formats of the company for which he is writing. For example, for an airport-development project, he read the company's Request for Qualifications report to discover preferred organization and information. Nelson also looks to similar documents, such as company brochures, to find the appropriate format. Nelson derived half of one proposal from past documents. Drafting only occupies 20% of the composition time. Material is divided into groups and subgroups to better organize information. An example of Selzer's observation is they way Nelson separates groups by writing a heading on a new sheet of paper when he wants to start a new group. Like other professional writers, Nelson spends a lot of time considering the purpose of a document and drafting the document.
Selzer found that Nelson spent 80% of his time inventing. To better understand Nelson's invention process, Selzer carefully read notes and any other preliminary writing that shaped the purpose and anticipated audience needs of the document. Nelson carefully plans his writing. When necessary, he researches existing formats of the company for which he is writing. For example, for an airport-development project, he read the company's Request for Qualifications report to discover preferred organization and information. Nelson also looks to similar documents, such as company brochures, to find the appropriate format. Nelson derived half of one proposal from past documents. Drafting only occupies 20% of the composition time. Material is divided into groups and subgroups to better organize information. An example of Selzer's observation is they way Nelson separates groups by writing a heading on a new sheet of paper when he wants to start a new group. Like other professional writers, Nelson spends a lot of time considering the purpose of a document and drafting the document.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Professional Writers: What They Know and What They Do
As a Professional Writing and Editing student, I've learned a lot about writing. Professional writers can perform a variety of tasks, such as writing, editing, researching, creating brochures and instruction manuals, talking with clients, and many other tasks. However, most writers follow the same principles. Many writers brainstorm and determine the purpose and audience before they begin writing. Another skill is the ability predict the audience's knowledge and to predict what information the audience seeks. Knowing correct grammar and spelling is helpful at this point, but evaluating and revising your own work is an important part of the writing process.
The two aspects of professional writing I most enjoy include editing and visual design. Editing is very audience specific since different documents need different types of editing. I enjoy pinpointing a problem to fix instead of taking on a daunting task. The visual design aspect breaks up the monotony of professional writing. With this task, I have the opportunity to focus on aspects other than topic sentences and punctuation.
I would like to learn more about how professional writers step out of their field. Do professional writers typically stay in one field or do they have the option of variety? If I don't have knowledge about a certain topic, for example engineering, how would I take a job that involved such a topic?
The two aspects of professional writing I most enjoy include editing and visual design. Editing is very audience specific since different documents need different types of editing. I enjoy pinpointing a problem to fix instead of taking on a daunting task. The visual design aspect breaks up the monotony of professional writing. With this task, I have the opportunity to focus on aspects other than topic sentences and punctuation.
I would like to learn more about how professional writers step out of their field. Do professional writers typically stay in one field or do they have the option of variety? If I don't have knowledge about a certain topic, for example engineering, how would I take a job that involved such a topic?
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