Graffiti

Grafitti can be expressed in many different forms. Some people considered graffiti as a form of art and some people consider it as vandalism. Graffiti is a public marking that usually appears as words to express wall paintings.

I personally think that graffiti could be considered both vandalism and art. Some forms of graffiti can tell stories about life and personal situations. In other conditions, such as graffiti on school desks, I consider it vandalism.


Chrystal Eady

The Importance of Proofreading

Although this topic hasn't been explicitly discussed in class yet, it's one that I have always felt to be important as a writer. We have all discussed how vital engaging one's audience through accurate factual research can be, but haven't addressed how credibility can be forfeited when a writer chooses not to proofread their work. When a writer publishes a piece, they of course hope to be taken seriously, whether the piece is a work of fiction or an academic article.

However, when a writer publishes their work and a reader notices obvious grammatical errors or evidence of poor spelling skills, the reader will automatically assume the writer doesn't fully understand what they are talking about. This may be a false assumption, but when presented with sloppy writing, it is an easy assumption to make. A researcher may spend hours finding credible evidence to support their claim, but if they don't spend the same amount of time editing their draft, all that time and energy will be for naught. This is why I always re-read my drafts several times over, and even ask others to read my drafts for me in case I let anything slip by. I'm not trying to imply that everyone need be an exceptionally skilled writer. Everyone has their own talents and interests, and writing research papers is certainly not everyone's forte. That doesn't mean that as writers we should all be satisfied with producing carelessly proofread material. Try your hardest to produce the best papers you can every time, and as you practice honing your writing skills, you will become that much more trustworthy as a writer and researcher.

Emily Manno

The Use of Research Headings

Why shall the researcher include sub-headings while conducting and forming a research paper? As Professor Mohamed Ahmed declared earlier this week whenever the class discussed Paper 2, it is very professional and formal to include headings when conducting a research study. Certain headings which may be included in one’s paper include introduction, methodology, discussion, limitations of the study, implications for further research, and conclusion. This qualified form of research is critical because it provides the paper with clarity. As a researcher, you are expected to clearly and explicitly state headings as well as elements in your paper. Remember, what you think is clear may be vague to your readers. You do not want your readers to guess which section is which because guessing wrong may lead them to misunderstand the argument you are trying to claim. The main accomplishment through any research is to connect with your reader, providing them with a clear understanding of what is being addressed.

For example, discussed in the rubric for Paper 2, the introduction was required to include, in addition with the researcher’s thesis statement, the research problem, significance, and research questions, which were expected to be clearly and explicitly stated. Throughout our high school years, we were familiar with generating research papers without headings. As a class, including headings in our papers threw most of us off, while confusing the way we, as researchers, generated our papers. Our writing techniques had to be adjusted in order to effectively meet the requirements, and it made most of us feel as though the paper was not a “real” research paper. Headings provide clarity, allowing the reader to clearly understand issues, as well as important points in which the researcher is trying to address.

-Jeffrey Fyock

Acknowledgments and Responses

In today’s class we discussed chapter ten in Craft of Research. The chapter dealt with Acknowledgments and Responses and how we as researchers must acknowledge and respond to our audience’s point of view. We then broke up into our five individual groups and discussed the importance of each part of the chapter to clearly explain acknowledgments and responses to our classmates. Group number three explained answering questions you can’t answer.

Group number three felt that not every researcher has the answer to all unanswered questions. Stating that it’s better to redefine or rebuild your argument or problem. Rather than discount your problem hoping that your audience will not notice. Another way to tackle this was to turn your disappointment into a victory. It may sound a little farfetched but you can turn the claim you at first desired into a hypothesis that your audience might think is sensible. Lastly every experienced researcher and professor will understand that everyone’s version of the truth is a confusing one, but they will acknowledge you for understanding your limits.

By Joseph Givens

The Top 10 Inventions of all Time

In today’s class, each group made a list of what they thought were the ten most important inventions of all time. Group one’s list included: 1) Electricity2) Communication lines3) Traffic lights4) The wheel5) Airplanes6) Matches7) Cell phones8) Cars9) Stove/oven10) Facebook

Group one felt that electricity was the most important invention of all time, because you use it every day. Another reason we discussed was that a lot of inventions on our list would not be possible without electricity. Each group could reasonably argue if the top picked inventions were critical or not. In each group there were different ideas and opinions pertaining to the most important inventions. Possible research questions: How do I keep electricity going?How do I transfer electricity?How do I make different forms of it?How do I experiment with electricity?

Kristi Eileen Quinn

Josh Readshaw said:
I really liked the point made about writing a research paper is being liek having a vebal argument with friends or family. In a verbal argument, you try yo persuade your opponent to believe that you stance on an issue is right and thier privious stance was wrong. This is what you do in a research paper except you don't get to see your opponent face to face. You have to try to convince them to believe your stance without you ever seeing them or them ever seeing you.

On assembling reason and evidence

Our text The Craft of Research in chapter nine discusses assembling reasons and evidence. Every good research paper has reasons and evidence, right? Well the authors duly point out that it is important to order reasons in a logical way and to distinguish evidence from reasons. Readers or an audience that seek out research for answers to their own questions will be skeptical readers. So even if your research and conclusion are “correct” if you have no bedrock fact to back up your claims/arguments say your research will be dismissed as unreliable.

The same is true when having a verbal argument with friends or family. If you have no factual backdrop to support your claims you will lose and look like a fool. We can think of research and writing our papers as a matter of winning or losing an argument. The more evidence you have for your reasons makes you a much more persuasive person. Or in terms of writing, you will be able to prove your point (thesis statement) in your paper.

William Coyle