Reading Response - Research: More than Detective Work

Emily Baker

Professor Zukowski

English 121

3 Feb. 2016

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Reading Response: Research: More than Detective Work

            I thought the layout of this packet was really cute. It was every entertaining for me because I am a very visual learner. It is a nice change of pace from our text book. I also really enjoyed the fact that it wasn’t just listing the information out, but rather incorporated into a story. One of the most helpful things from this packet for me personally was the explanation about primary and secondary sources. Last semester in history, my professor required us to use primary sources when writing our paper. I kind of had an understanding of what it meant but still ended up having to ask him if a source was primary or not. This packet did a good job at clarifying the differences between the two.

            This packet is a good source to give writers a boost to help them start out writing a research paper; however, I think for it to be truly beneficial the writer would need to have some prior knowledge about writing research papers. I thought that much of the packet assumed that the writer has already written a paper before and is just reminding and reinforcing the key concepts to writing a solid paper.  With a combination of the information from this packet and from the textbook a writer will be well prepared for writing their next research paper.

Chapter 14: Argumentation- Reading Response

Emily Baker

Professor Zukowski

English 121

March 1, 2016

Chapter 14: Argumentation

          

            To start off, the fact that an argumentation and a persuasion have two different meanings really surprised me. I definitely was on the boat that would use the two words interchangeably. However, I still am a bit confused on the difference between the two. The author states, “To persuade an audience, a writer relies on various kinds of appeals… Argumentation is the appeals to reason.” Yet in the very next paragraph it says, “… however, most effective arguments combine two or more appeals (524).” This sounds more like a persuasion according to the definition given earlier above.  

            

           The rest of the chapter was a lot to digest. There was a lot of information presented in only a few pages. The chapter was still clear and well presented in such a way that was understandable. Another interesting point that caught my attention, was the idea of choosing an argumentative topic that appealed to an audience that would disagree with your stance. I especially liked the example the book gave about the tuition and higher pay for teachers. Although technically it could be argued, it has no appeal because it would already be telling the reader what he or she already knows.

           

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 The most interesting section to me was the fallacy section. It really gave me insight on different ways an idea can seem true but in fact, the evidence that supports it is faulty. I’m starting to recognize how much the media can twist our perception on what is true through its logical fallacies. Especially during election time, it seems like the only thing that comes out of the media’s mouth is fallacies. One I often see is the ad hominem, especially during the debates. Yes, the candidates may not have a whole plan laid out for solving some of America’s greatest problems, but it seems like if they cannot provide a solid answer the revert to attacking the other candidates character.

         
         Overall this chapter provides some very helpful and key points to help writers create a argumentative essay that has enough support to back up their thoughts. Although, it offered many ways in which one can present their supporting idea, some of the examples were not very clear. For example, the section about inductive reasoning seemed to only provide situations where the inductive reasoning was incorrect or not valid enough. There was nothing about the correct way to include inductive reasoning into a paper. Other than that, this chapter was well structured for preparing students when writing a strong argumentative essay.

Chapter 8 Reading Response

Emily Baker

February 9, 2016

English 121

Reading Response

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Chapter 8

Chapter 8 of Patterns for College Writing was very informative and helpful to me personally. I wish I had known about exemplification essays in the past. Often times, especially in my History classes, the teacher required that we wrote exemplification essays, without actually stating it. Whenever receiving papers back, I would often get the comment that I am being to general and I do not have enough data to support my thesis. After reading this chapter, I realized that teachers were looking for specific examples that better support my thoughts and ideas. I hope that since I now have a better understanding of exemplification essays, I will be able to write stronger essays with a thesis that is well supported.

I believe one of the most important points of this chapter is the planning for an exemption essay. Before anyone starts writing I believe that it is important to create an outline, first starting with a thesis statement. I liked the way that the sample outline is set up. It begins with the introduction and the thesis statement. Below the outline has the body, which is composed of the support points. Under each support is very specific examples. I believe that setting up an outline in such a way makes writing way easier because your thoughts and the backbone of the essay is already laid out. From there, it is just putting it into coherent sentences.  As always I find the checklists in each chapter very helpful. The checklist for the exemplification essay, just asks a series of questions that makes sure your essay is structured in such a way that there is enough examples to support the thesis statement. Overall, this chapter offers insightful information on developing a stronger argument that better persuades the reader.

Chapter 3 Reading Response

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Emily Baker

January 26, 2015

English 121

Reading Response

Chapter 3

      Chapter 3 of Patterns for College Writing is one of those chapters that I know I will be referring back to often throughout my English 121 course.  I always find that the hardest part of writing for me is figuring out how to structure my essays in a clean and coherent way.  This chapter easily explains the different parts of an essay and what is necessary in each part. I especially found the section about conclusions very helpful. I have always struggled trying to figure out how to wrap up the end of the essay. I appreciated the fact that they give examples of different ways to write a conclusion. This way I’m not stuck writing the same old boring conclusion for every essay, which I essentially did for my history papers. It was also very useful that the chapter adds what not to include in each section. I bet if I went back through every paper I have written throughout my lifetime, I have included at least one of the items in the list to my papers. Now knowing how to properly structure an essay, I am hoping that my writing will greatly improve throughout the semester.

      For any student struggling with writing their papers, I’d strongly recommend reading this chapter and memorizing it. This chapter explains the different types of essays and how to structure them. I like the fact that it has a helpful checklist to help you identify what type of essay you need to write. However, no matter what type of essay you need to write it has 3 basic parts, an introduction, a body and a conclusion. This chapter gives multiple examples of ways to start an introduction, which I believe is important to know so all your essays don’t start sounding redundant. This chapter also puts an emphasis on the idea that everything beginning with the introduction, the meat of the essay (the body) and the conclusion must flow coherently. It gives a page full of solid transition words to use to help keep the essay flowing nicely. One thing that this chapter lacked was explaining what a thesis statement is. It mentions the word thesis statement, but never mentioned the purpose or how to write a thesis. Other than that, this chapter is a very useful chapter for those beginning to learn how to write a good essay.