WP3

Summary: Michael Bunn’s “Motivation and Connection: Teaching Reading (and Writing) in the Composition Classroom” mainly talks about whether teaching reading in terms of that its connection to writing can motivate students to read and increase the likelihood that they find success in both activities (reading and writing). The article uses many academic evidences and research examples to prove that teaching connection between reading and writing indeed can encourage students to read more and help them find success in reading and writing.

Click here for younger audiences.

Click here for older audiences.

Self-Analysis: For younger audiences, I choose to write an interesting and attractive story. The story can be that: “There are two children, Eric and Bill in a village, and both of them want to be writers in the future. In order to achieve their goal, both of them choose to take writing classes in school. But, they have different teachers for writing classes in school. In the first writing class, Eric’s teacher tell him that reading and writing have closed relation. By reading articles, readers can know how writers think when they write the article and why writer write in this way. In the process of reading, readers actually are learning how to write. And Eric’s teacher concludes that reading can improve writing. To be a writer, it has to be a reader first. However, Bill’s teacher does not tell him the connection between reading and writing. His teacher just claimed that reading is a crucial part in this writing course. He will check reading notes in the beginning of each class. If someone does not finish reading, he or she will loses some participation points. Gradually, there are many creative and attractive words, phrase, and sentences in his essay. His essay becomes more and more comprehensive, has fewer and fewer mistakes. However, Bill still write what he wrote before. In other words, he has no improvement about his writing. … Time goes quickly, Eric and Bill have finished a whole year’s writing course. When it comes to how many books they read in whole year, Bill says that he just finish what teacher asked to read, but Eric claims he has read thirty books more than teacher required. When it comes to what grades they get in the writing course, Bill gets a solid B but Eric has an A+. The gap between Eric and Bill has appeared in this year. Finally, Eric achieves his wish and becomes a famous writer, but Bill does not become a writer because he write like before and does not improve anymore.”

For older people, I choose to write a news report to them. The news report can be like this: “Recently, whether teaching students connection between reading and writing will motivate students to read more articles and books and increase the probability to find success in reading and writing triggers many professional people’s arguments. According to Michael Bunn’s research, many educational experts’ observation and research have proved that teaching students the connection, reading is a method to learn how to write, between reading and writing can encourage students to read much more and increase the probability that students find success in both activities. Thus, parents also need explicitly tell their kids the connection between readings and writings in order to motivate their children read more books and write better articles.”

Self-analysis: Michael Bunn’s paper, “Motivation and Connection: Teaching Reading (and Writing) in the Composition Class,” is a scholarly academic article, which has many features, such as: having a large amount of supporting examples and evidence to support its argument to persuasive; so long that has over twenty pages; and the tones are serious and languages are academic and scholar. In this case, the audiences of this article are limit to some small group of people, such as educational experts, teachers and professors, due to its features. Except these people, no one is willing to read such a long and boring paper. If author of this article wants more people to know the importance of teaching the connection between reading and writing, he must change the genre. If author wants to attract younger students and older audience, such as parents, to read his article, he must write his paper by considering their habit of reading. However, author should change the focus and meaning of the original article. If author change the focus and meaning of essay, what is the connection between new article and original? They will be totally different articles in this way. Our goal of changing genre of essay is to attract different group of audiences and tell them the importance of teaching connection between reading and writing.

When the audiences become to younger people, it has to consider what younger children like and do not like. To be more specific, younger children like reading stories and comic books but not research papers. Thus, we can make a story to attract younger children’s attention. Also, younger children do not have as much professional knowledge as these experts have, thus it should not use too complex words and sentences in new genre. Not only younger children cannot understand such boring language and professional words in academic paper, but they either even do not care what the paper talks about. What they like to read is vivid stories which are easy to understand and interesting, comic books which are relaxed and humor. In addition, to attracting younger readers, the tones should be interesting; the language should be simple and easy to understand; pictures can be inserted if it is possible. Thus, I choose to write a story to younger students. After reading the above story, younger students can get some crucial conclusion, which should be similar as the academic article claims, by comparing Eric and Bill’s experience. However, I believe younger students, especially primary school students prefer to read such story, because the language of story is much easier to understand than that of academic paper, and the tones of story is more attractive than that of academic paper too.

When the audiences become to older people, such as our parents, it has to consider what they will read and interest in daily life. They like to read daily news and magazines which is relaxing to read and also need not too much time to read. In addition, why would older people care about whether teaching connection between reading and writing can improve students read more and write better? The most direct and important reason should be that they want to know the right way to improve their kids’ reading and writing. So, the new genre can involve some instructions to parents, which tell parents what they can teach their kids about the connection between reading and writing. In addition, the article that for older people to read should be brief and persuasive, since older people do not have so much time to spend in reading like over twenty pages academic paper, and they either will not believe any unwarranted argument. If author want to attract most of older people, his article has to be brief and persuasive. When the new genre can satisfy above requirements, it will attract most of older people, especially most parents. Thus, I think news report is the best method to tell older people about this argument in that news report will not waste their time and also be persuasive to them. This above news report is so brief that most of parents have time to finish reading it, and it also persuasive because many experts will not make a baseless conjecture together. In addition, it also tells older people “So what”, which is helpful to their kids for finding success in reading and writing activities. Thus, I believe such a brief and persuasive news report can attract most of older people, especially parents.

Like stories for younger children and news report for older audiences, different genres of a similar topic is suitable to different group of readers. In order to attract different kinds of audiences, writers can make different genres with similar topic and focus on the basis of features of different kinds of audiences. 

Thlog 9

Thlog 9

       It’s ninth week, which means that we will finish this quarter in a week. In this week, we were talking about the writing project 3. First, we have written PB3A, which is to talk about the proposal of Wp3, what our ideas about WP3 are. In the process of writing PB3A, I have decided what I should write in WP3, and it is a well process to prepare for writing WP3. In addition, we have wrote a draft of WP3, we also had a peer editing of WP3. In the process of peer review, I found many interesting and creative genres, such as pamphlet for younger audiences, and a cover letter applying to become a UCSB Writing 2 teacher for older audiences. Through reading other classmates’ essay, I have more choices to write my own genres, and what I can improve next. And I also found that the genres of my classmates are all better and harder to do than mine. I really appreciate their creative ideas for their new genre. Let us finish the WP3 successfully.

       Except talking about the WP3, we also have talked about the final portfolio, which is the important assignment for this course. I found that the portfolio is also and large and hard assignment, which I should prepare for a long time. Through see other people, who have taken this course before, portfolio, I am shaken by their portfolio. These are the most perfect portfolio I have seen. If I can make the portfolio like theirs, I will be excited to do it.

       We have only one week’s class remaining. Through a quarter writing class, I have to claim that my writing has improved so much. I am glad to have such a nice writing course. 

PB3A

PB3A

       For WP3, my topic is whether teaching explicitly connection between reading and writing can improve students to read more. By reading Bunn’s “Motivation to Reading”, which is a scholarly academic paper, it proves that teaching reading in terms of its connection to writing can encourage students to read more and increase the probability that they find success in both activities. But it is too scholar to most people, because it has over twenty pages, and a large amount of evidences and examples. Except a part of people who interested in such research, few people is willing to read such a long and boring articles. Thus, if the audience of paper changes, it has to change the genres in order to attract the specific group of readers.

       If the audiences of this paper are younger children, it has to change genres. For children, most of them like to reading comic instead of thousands of boring words. They also cannot understand such scholar words or sentences in their age. The most efficient method to help them understand the truths is to combine words and pictures. These pictures are easier to them read and understand compare to words. They also are more willing to look pictures rather than read articles. Thus, my first idea, when the audiences change to younger children, is to transform the academic article to be an essay with illustrations and pictures. However, the only drawback of this idea is that pictures, which can conform to my thesis closely, are so hard to find.

       In addition, younger children like to read stories but not academic articles. Then I have another idea when the audience becomes to younger children. I can transform such scholarly academic paper to an interesting and attractive story. To be a story, the language should be easy understand, the tones should be relax and hooked. In general, it has to attract children’s attention. The main idea of the story can be like this: there are two young children in the village, and both of them want to be a writer in the future. When they go to school, they have different teachers. One of them is told that reading is relative to writing closely and reading can improve writing too. The other one is not told the connection between reading and writing, teacher only ask him to read as much as he can. When they graduate from school, the one who is taught the connection between reading and writing read thousands of books and write just like writer. But the other one only read several books, and write articles just like before. To extend the story and make it more interesting, I believe it can attract most of younger students.

`      When the audience changes to older people, academic paper and stories neither can attract them. They do not have so long time to finish reading such a long academic paper, and the story is too babyish to them. For older audience, it should be a short essay which also is reasonable and persuasive, since older people will not believe a baseless conjecture. I believe changing the academic paper to be a news report is the best way to older people. The main idea of the news report can be like this: According to expert’s research and proof, teaching connection between reading and writing can encourage students to read more and increase the probability for student to success.

       These are my current idea for WP3. I hope I can have more and better ideas before I write WP3. And I also hope I can finish it successfully. 

Thlog 8

Thlog 8

            It is week 8 of Winter 2016, and we have two week left in this quarter. In the eighth week, we mainly talked about WP3. In the first class of week 8, we learned what is transformation, what is difference between transformation and translation. Since our main goal of WP3 is to transform one genre to another one. In addition, we looked into children’s book in order to know what kind of genre is suitable to children. Also, we discussed the uncounted different genres to older and younger audience. To different audience, articles will have different kinds of genre in order to attract specific group of readers. In genre, in the first class of week 8, we talked about different genres to older and younger people, which are prepared to write WP3.

            In the second class in this week, we also discussed some important materials that are prepared for WP3. Also, we are assigned which article should read in order to be the background of WP3. There are not allowed that more than three people write one topic. After assigning the reading for WP3, we have to revisit the reading, and read more specific in article. I chose Michael Bunn’s “Motivation in reading”, which talks about whether teaching connection between reading and writing would encourage students to read more than before. The essay uses scholar method and academic evidence to justify teaching the connection between reading and writing clearly to students indeed can improve students to read more. But, the genre of this article is too academic, which cannot attract younger people to read. In order to attract younger people to read, it has to change the genre of this article. That is what WP3 asked us to do. And I hope I can finish my WP3 successfully.

Thlog 7

Thlog 7

We had only one class in this week due to the long weekend. I went to San Diego, which is a beautiful and comfortable city, in the long weekend. And I visited the San Diego see park, where is the most amazing place I have been, and I saw many animals, which I have not seen before.

         Let us talk about our class. In Wednesday’s class, we submitted the WP2 draft, and we mainly modified our WP2 draft. Firstly, we are asked to point out what is improved most in the WP2 comparing to WP1, and what should have do better. I believe I did better in the outline part. I write what I want to write in the outline in the beginning, then I will not forget what I was thinking in the process of writing. In addition, I think I should have to write more specific and give more evidence in WP2. That is my own feedback from writing WP2.

         Then, we have peer editing part. We are divided to three person group. Each person should read and give advises to others’ essays. One of my groupmate suggested that I should connect paragraphs more connected since my paragraphs are not so connective that like two separate things. Maybe I can write some transitive sentences between paragraphs. And the other group mate pointed out that I have several grammatical mistakes in essay. It indeed is my writing problem. I should have to revise those grammatical mistakes before handing the draft in. Both of my group mates gave precise advice to me. I can revise my draft according to their draft. I believe I can do better in the final draft. 

Thlog 6

Thlog 6

Yeah, week 6 is over. This quarter has pasted more than a half.

In this week, we mainly discuss about some materials to prepare for WP2. Also, these knowledge do not only prepare for WP2, but also can help me write articles in the future. For instance, I have learned that there are so many words can replace “say”, such as “assert”, “claim”, “maintain” and “suggest”. I always use “say” in my essay when I want to express similar meaning of “say”, which makes my essay sees mediocre. After I learn these words, I can use such a word in various kinds, which will make my essay more versatile. In addition, “parallelism” is also important whenever we read or write. When we read articles, “parallelism” can remind us which is important in the whole essay. When we write articles, we can use “parallelism” to make article more perfect and notice readers what is important in the article. Thus, I can learning the usage of “parallelism” is useful and helpful to us.

What’s more, we also talked about “moves” in this week. “Moves” is the special method used by author in his or her article to show some special function. We take Sandy’s essay as an example, and we find several Sandy’s “moves” in her essay and discuss why she used such “moves” in that place of her essay. Through discussion, we can find each “move” of author has special function to whole essay, and we can compare “moves” of two essays to know what is the differences of essays’’ focus between these essays.

After discussing these materials in class, we have to prepare to write the draft of WP2, and I hope I can finish my writing project two efficiently and successfully. Let us go together. 

PB2B

PB2B

“You are reading to learn about writing.” Mike Bunn claims in the article “How to read like a writer.” To understand an article better and to be a better writer, it is necessary to trace writers’ moves in their essay.

Most of writers’ moves in articles are purposeful. For example, let us see a sentence from Kerry Dirk’s “Navigating Genres”, “In other words, Bitzer is saying that when something new happens that requires a response, someone must create that first response.” It is an explaining quotation, which is said in “They say, I say,” since before this sentence there is a long quotation from Bitzer. And this short sentence is for summarizing and explaining what Bitzer talks about. This explaining quotation makes readers easier to understand the quotation.

There is another typical move, capturing authorial action. Here is an example from “steps toward rhetorical analysis,” “Aristotle articulated three “artistic appeals” that a rhetor could draw on to make a case – logos, pathos, and ethos.” Author using Aristotle’s three “artistic appeals” is for attracting readers’ attention, and make the article more interesting.

Let us see another interesting move that writers always use in article, agreeing and disagreeing simultaneously. This move can be used in different way, which has different function to whole article. In “So What? Who cares?” there is an example for this move. “Although answering the “ who cares?” question is crucial, in many cases it is not enough, especially if you are writing for general readers who don’t necessarily have a strong investment in the particular clash of views you are setting up.” Through reading whole article, it is not hard to find that this sentence is to derivate a new statement, “So What.” And this sentence relates two parts very well.

Also, if author wants to emphasis someone’s statement, he or she will use another move, signally who is saying what. Here is an example from Mike Bunn’s “How to Read Like a Writer,” Charles Moran, a professor of English at the University of Massachusetts, urges to read like writers because…”

“Making concessions while still standing your ground” is another important moves that mention in “They say, I say.” There is an example in “So What? Who Cares?” “Though this statement is clear and easy to follow, it lacks any indication that anyone needs to hear it.” It shows that this move emphasis the importance of “indication that anyone needs to hear it,” and it successfully transit the focus of essay from “clear” to “Indication that anyone needs to hear it.”

In Mike Bunn’s article “How to Read Like a Writer,” there are more moves for various reasons. First, he uses a very interesting introduction, which writes his experience seems like a novel. He could choose to use another way to write this beginning paragraph, but it would be not as good as this introduction. I would like to call this introduction “attractive experience,” since such interesting introduction of an article can attract more readers to read.

Second, he use one short sentence to be an separate paragraph, which is “You are reading to learn about writing.” I would like to call it super short paragraph. Here, this super short paragraph is to emphasis this sentence and tell readers the main goal of reading, which is to learn about writing. Also, this short paragraph can transit and relate adjacent paragraphs (the paragraph before and after this super short paragraph) better.

Third, he contacted students’, who just graduated from college, ideas and experiences bout writing rather than his. I would call it “survey to former students.” The reason he did this survey is to create credibility because he thinks that the experience to writing of students is more true, persuasive and former students are better qualified to help us comparing to his opinions.

Forth, Mike makes a list when he mentions the contextual factors people should consider before start reading. Also, there are several such lists in whole article. I would call it “emphasis list.” He gives two main factors that people should consider, which are “Do you know the author’s purpose for this piece of Writing?” and “Do you know who the intended audience is for this piece of writing?” The purpose to make these two factors be a simple list is to emphasis the importance of these factors.

Finally, he divides whole article into several separate parts using dash line. I would like to call it “National Border.” The “Border” divides article to several parts, and each part he mainly talks about one thing. This separation is easier for readers to read and understand article. In addition, the separation line makes whole article looks ordered.

In summary, each author has his or her own moves to use in his or her article. Although, each move has different function in different background, all moves are to make article more perfect.

Thlog 5

Thlog 5

Time goes quickly; week five has finished. In the week five, we mainly discussed reading for writing, author’s moves in article and the thesis of WP2.

First, we have found that there are so many moves in each article. Each move in article has different function to whole essay. The main goal of such moves may be attracting more readers, making article easy to understand and impressive to readers. Through other authors’ moves in articles, we can learn from them and use similar moves in our own essay and make our essay more perfect.

In addition, we have read an impressive essay which named “How to Read Like a Writer,” which is helpful for us to read. It also can notice us that which way is best to read. The most impressive content in this article is that “You are reading to learn about writing.” Sure, reading is the best way to improve writing. In short, this article is so helpful to me that remainder what I read for.

Also, we have begun to discuss the thesis of WP2. We need to find two academic and one non-academic source for same topic, and compare authors’ move in these articles, find similarity and difference from these articles. Initially, I am confused about the topic of WP2, and I have no idea about what should I write. But, the examples in class gave me a large amount of information and inspiration. After discussing in class, I suddenly had my own topic for WP2. I have to thank to these examples in class.

Finally, I hope I can successfully finish my WP2 in next week and have a satisfy grade.

Oh, Happy Chinese new year to everyone!!!

PB2A

In the past several weeks, we mainly talked about genres for non-academic contexts, such as advertisements, movie reviews, and sport comments. But, how about the genres in the scholarly academic paper? What is the difference between non-academic essay and scholarly academic paper?

I have read an academic paper about climate changes, “Changes in North American Spring,” which mainly discuss whether the spring in North America is earlier and earlier arrival due to global warming. After simply glance the paper, I can point out several special features of it. The constitution of the academic essay is so special that divide to separate part; there are large amount of data and numbers in the context; and the reference of the academic essay is much more than normal essay. First, the constitution of this paper is unique comparing to others. This paper divides whole article to several parts: Abstract, Intro, Data, Methods, Result and discussion, and Acknowledge, note, reference. The constitution of the paper is similar to the process of an experiment. In other words, such an academic paper jus is a specific record for an experiment, which is to testify an argument. Even we have written some essay to proof an argument, we did not write as specifically as the academic paper did, not include as many data as it did, and either not show as specific process as it did. In the “ Changes in North America Spring,” the first part is “Abstract,” which uses a short paragraph simply tells readers what the article is for. (Whether the arrival of earlier spring is true.) Then, “ Intro” part introduces phenology data of spring plant are very useful to show the climate changes in particular aspect. Here, the writer has hinted the main method to proof the argument. After that, “data” is very important in such academic essay, since it is the most important and direct evidence to proof the argument. In this paper, it gives specific the first leaf and first bloom dates of lilac, which can show whether the spring arrives. Only data is not enough to clearly proof the argument, so the “method” is needed. In this part, it introduces how to use the data of the lilac, and how to compare them with each other to proof the spring is earlier arrival. Also, there are some data graphs, which can shows the result more clearly and directly. From the “method”, “result” is obvious to readers. The next part “ result and discussion” is the most important part of the paper, since whole paper is evidence to get the result. Like this paper, the author gets more than one result from comparing different years and different places data of lilac first leaf and first bloom. The last part may be common to see in most essays. However, other normal paper do not have so many references as such academic paper, in that whole paper use as many evidence to proof the argument as author can. It can say in other way, the more reference the paper has, more persuasive the paper is. The above parts necessary to constitute a complete scholarly academic paper, especially research paper, since each part has its own function to show persuade readers to believe the paper’s argument.  

From the discussion to the construction of “ Changes in North American Spring,” we can find many differences between non-academic essay and academic paper, and we also can find most genres of academic paper, which divides the whole paper to separate parts, has thousands of specific data and method to compare data, shows the most persuasive result for the argument. The degree of specific and persuasive of the academic paper makes people cannot suspect the result in the paper and I believe that such academic paper is the most persuasive article I have ever read.

“Changes in North American Spring”

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mark_Schwartz2/publication/227960215_Changes_in_North_American_spring/links/551ab3b20cf2bb754076cdc5.pdf

Thlog 4

In the week 4, we mainly discussed the WP1 and made some modifications for it.

On Monday’s class, I learned a new way to modify essays, which is to draw out the thesis statement of essay, main idea of each paragraph, support evidences and examples in each part. After pointing these important factors of an essay, we can easily find that what lacks in each part of essay. For instance, after highlighting these features, if I find that I write few support ideas and examples in the first part of essay, I can add more examples in that part. Comparing to reading whole essay and finding drawbacks, this highlighting method is much easier and more efficient. Thus, it is my pleasure to learn such a perfect way to modify essays. In addition, I also found that list outlines is the most important part before writing essay. First outlines can record one’s thesis statement, main ideas and evidences for an essay, we will not forget what we are thinking in the process of writing. Also, after writing essay, we can modify essay according to its outline.

The other important thing in week 4 is we slowed down progress of class. To be honest, I think it is a good idea to slow down when we modify essay. Since we always can find many writing problems in the process of modifying essay.

What’s more, we had a murder activity in the class. We are asked to write some materials, which also have genres, about the murder event, such as the police report of the murder, the letter people write to the manager of garage and eulogy to the victim. Through this activity, we can find that genres, which we mainly discussed in the past weeks, are everywhere in life.

Whatever, I am glad to finish my WP1 and happy for the changes in syllabus. 

Thlog 3

In the week 3, we only had one class since we do not have class on Monday (Martin Luther King, Jr.Day). In the Wednesday’s class, we mainly talked about the WP1.

In the beginning of class, we discuss whether a thesis of an article is correct and suitable. Here, correct means that whether the thesis statement pass the standard to be a thesis. From this part, I find that facts cannot be a thesis statement whatever, and thesis must be an opinion or argument. And it is so helpful to me that I can judge whether my thesis statement is right and suitable for specific essay.

After that, we constructed three person’s group and discuss each other’s essay specifically. In the group, I read two classmates’ essay. I found that both of their essays were perfect and I also found that they had many merits I could learn. For instance, they have beautiful hooks in the beginning paragraph, which I do not have. And they also have specific sources but I do not have. After reading each other’s essay, we gave opinions to each other about their essay. I have to say that these opinions are the most important in the process of discussion. For me, my groupmates helped me find several grammar mistakes and some sentence constitution problem. In addition, they also gave me their opinion about my thesis statement; they thought I should shorten my thesis statement sentence and make it clearer. When I should comment their essays, I had few opinions about their essay since I did not comment other’s essay before and I either did not know how to comment other’s essay. Therefore, I told myself I should practice and learn how to comment other’s essay.

In summary, in the process of commenting classmates’ essay, I got many useful comments to my essay, but I also found my drawback in commenting other’s essays. 

Thlog 2

Time goes quickly, two week has gone after the quarter began. In the second week writing 2 class, we also have learned so much.

In the Monday class, the most impressive thing we discussed is the oxford comma. We could find largely difference through reading the sentence with or without comma before “and.” The comma can separate two items and make sentences clearer. It is a common question we would meet when we write essay, thus I think this question is so important that we should focus on. Not only talking about the usage of Oxford comma, we also discuss the usage of the difference of “Hyphens” and “Dashes” in class. Hyphens are always to explain the word or phrase, and make readers understand the article better. Dashes always connect two words together such as “five-year.” Also using hyphens will make sentence that after hyphen be important. The discussion of the comma and hyphens are help me a lot in that I always meet such situation when I write essay.

In addition, we browse three genre generators websites and find the common features of each generator, then we write the PB1B. From these website, I find that each kind of things always has common features and genres whatever is academic essay, comic or meme.

What’s more, after reading “Who cares?” I also learned many skills for writing. The writers should not assume readers will know about some words or phrase they use in the article. Writers should explain each unclear world clearly. Also, writer should tell readers what the topic does matter. “So what” always can attract reader and make the article interesting. These points are so important that I should concern when I write my essays.

After two weeks’ writing class, I feel that it is the one of most interesting and relaxing class I have had. What the most important is that I also can learn so much now thing from class. I am glad to have it.