SeayENG111Spring2008

Notes on Chapter 8- Writing to convince

2008-04-05T07:38:00.000-07:00

Persuasive writing focuses on an issue and provides enough evidence to convince readers that the issue is correct or at least worthy of respect.
When you write to convince, you need to draw on material from other sources by conducting research
Be aware of the audience- because you are trying to convince, it is crucial to be aware of thier needs, situations, and perpectives
To be effective-you need to acknowledge and deal with possible objections from the other side
If you think that the other side has merit, you need to acknowledge it and conced that it is valid
The goal of persuasive writing is to convince the reader to change their minds about an issue or to give your view serious consideration. Often, you want to get your reader to act in some way.

Leadership... It's not for Wimps!

2008-03-26T18:17:00.000-07:00

Many people believe that leadership is about being the biggest or most powerful. A leader is interpreted as someone who sets the direction in an effort to influence people to follow that direction. How they set the direction and influence people depends on a variety of factors.
There are different leadership styles and leaders carry out their roles in a variety of ways. These examples would include: autocratic, democratic, participatory, laissez-faire, etc.
The leadership style depends on the situation and the organization.
There are many theories about leadership. Examples include: Servant leader, democratic leader, principle-centered leader, group-man theory, great-man theory, traits theory, visionary leader, total leader and situational leader.
Employee engagement is essential in promoting a productive work environment and retention. It has been proven that engaged employees do a better job. It is important to have engaged leaders in order to support this type of environment. Leadership training is at the heart of why employees want to come to work. This is usually why they stay. It's about work environments and their supervisor. Employees don't leave their jobs, they leave their bosses. Employees want to come to a place where they feel they have a purpose, are doing worthwhile work and can truly make a difference. They want to feel engaged, recognized and appreciated.
The Manager or Supervisor holds the key to high employee retention. Results of turnover include:
High turnover rates incur costs that cannot be measured.
The average employee turnover is 14.4% annually, according to the Bureau of National Affairs. Turnover rates are on the rise and vary among different industries
The result of high turnover creates an affect on employee morale and increased job stress for the remaining employees that are burdened with the distribution of the departed employee's workload.
Replacement costs for a departing employee are estimated at one-third of their salary. Even at minimum wage, the cost to replace an employee is $3700.
Often, there is future turnover for employees that leave to join their friends.
The cost to replace a registered nurse is 1.2-1.3 times their salary.

What can be done to drive employee engagement? The top priority action item is "Rounding for Outcomes." Purposeful rounding and talking to staff is essential. Asking questions such as, "What is working well today?", "Is there anyone that we should recognize?", "Is there anything that we could do better?", "Do you have the tools and equipment to do your job?" When leaders round, it is key for the leader to recognize the employee's needs. The most important thing that can be done is to build a relationship with the staff.
Leadership Development is essential in increasing employee engagement and producing an environment for productive employees to work.

References:
"Hardwiring Excellence" by Quint Studer
"Free Management Library"
"Employee Retention Strategies"

Writing response to Chapter 6- Writing to Inform

2008-03-24T16:51:00.000-07:00

Many newspaper articles are examples of informative writing.
The goal of most informative writing is to be as neutral as possible. (espec in college)
It is the writer's responsibility to present the info in an impartial manner.
Consider what your reader's might already know about the topic, as well as what you have learned through research. Decide what genre will help you get your point across.
Info needs to be presented clearly and accurately, so that it is easy to understand, for those readers who do not have any background knowledge of the subject.

Synthesize- explain to the reader the most important points and how the info in one text agrees/disagrees with the info in the others. Compare/Contrast and relate various pieces of info to another.
Most writing done in the professional setting is to inform and to teach.
Civic writing- designed to provide info to residents, voters, neighbors and other citizens to help them decide on issues or to take advantage of programs/resources.
Personal writing- notes to family members or email conversations.
Informative writing- purpose is not to convince readers about your opinion, but to inform them in neutral terms. Qualities: a strong focus, relevant, useful info that is provided in an efficient manner, clear, accurate explanations that enable reader to understand the info easily.
At the conclusion, think about what you would like your readers to do after they finish reading.

Writing Process:
invention activity-research-more invention work-first draft-more invention work-more research to fill in the gaps-revise your draft..... (circular process vs a linear process)

Organizing your info and research:
See ?? on Pg. 228-229.

Responding to drafts:
Ask ?? of other's writings and respond to their ideas. Give your reactions and responses to their thoughts. Give the writer's strengths and where they need to develop their ideas more fully. See additional ?? on Pg. 236-237.

Same format as other writing: Intro-body-conclusion- title

Writing to an unknown audience

2008-03-19T17:43:00.000-07:00

It is very interesting writing to an unknown audience. I chose to be informative and explain my future goals on a personal level. This of course, would change if I were applying for a job or even writing a performance improvement plan. With an unknown audience, the writer is left to choose the format or preference. When the audience is then known, the entire paper could change focus or formality.

Where I would like to be in Five Years

2008-03-02T17:32:00.000-08:00

I am very satisfied with my personal goals. I am happily married of 18 years with my High School sweetheart (after we married other people first!) and we have three wonderful daughters. Their ages range 12-20-22 years. Our oldest daughter was married 1 1/2 years ago and we all "lived" through planning her wedding. My family is extremely supportive of me and whatever goals I set before me. This includes my parents and two sisters. We have an extremely close and supportive family.
Professionally, I have successfully worked as a Registered Nurse since 1984 and worked in the Emergency and Endoscopy Departments. I became the Nurse Manager six years ago of the Endoscopy Department after serving as a staff member for eleven years. While working in this role, I discovered that I have the God-given talent to lead others. I didn't have to read books or take a lot of classes to learn this, I just have always tried to treat others with respect and guide them in the way that I would like to be treated. In doing this, our department became one of the best nursing departments in the hospital with a great reputation. We are known for our outstanding staff members, no employee turnover and for the exceptional care that we deliver to our patients.
This position has opened up several opportunities for me to consider advancing in my career to lead a larger group of staff members and departments. In order to do this, I need to achieve additional education beyond my nursing license. This would be my next academic goal: to achieve a Master's degree in nursing. Presently, I have a Diploma in nursing and can "bridge" to a Master's degree program and skip achieving a Bachelor's Degree. I am interested in going to Walden University. It is an on line program that will take approximately three years to achieve.
In order to apply to this program, I need six credits of English.
With achieving a higher level of nursing degree, I will be eligible for an Administrative Director position. I have actually most recently been promoted as a Director of several departments; Endoscopy, Angiography, PreAdmission Testing, OR Holding and the PACU (Recovery Room).
This position is teaching me a lot about leading multiple departments. The challenge that has been the greatest thus far is the fact that we are building our leadership teams in this area. We have most recently promoted a staff RN to Supervisor and are interviewing for the Nurse Manager position of three of the departments.
My Administrative Director of Surgical Services is supporting me in this role and helping me prepare to eventually become an Administrative Director of Surgical Services myself. My greatest challenge is the fact that I have never worked in the Operating Room. The plan for me is to work on supporting and leading the departments that I am working with and be responsible for Leadership Development of our new leaders within our divison. I am very excited about this challenge and striving to maintain some type of stability within these departments for the staff.
I am uncertain if there will actually be a position upon the conclusion of my studies or where this will lead me. I am told that there are multiple opportunities within our Bon Secours Health System that would be qualified to apply. So, I am not quite sure where this educational achievement will lead me, but have faith that God will place me where he would like for me to work and influence others.

Minute Paper on Chapter 5

2008-03-02T17:18:00.000-08:00

Exploratory Writing allows you to explore the subject, while in the midst of writing about it. The author has the ability to explore on a variety of perspectives on issues,, concepts, places or people while writing. This assists the writer to work their way through the ideas and problems in the professional, civic and personal areas of their life.
When you write to explore, you gain a greater understanding of the topic in a new way and assist in gaining additional understanding.

Notes on Chapter 5- Writing to Explore

2008-03-02T10:15:00.000-08:00

Explore various perspectives on issues:

concept

places

people

This will help you to work your way through ideas and problems through:

professional

civic

personal

Rhetorical Knowledge- when you write to explore, you can gain greater understanding and how you can help your readers understand your topic. As the writer, you decide what medium and genre will help you communicate in the most effective way to your audience. Also, what information you might need to include, how you would describe your exploration, what visuals, or examples you might use.

One of the most powerful ways to use writing as a tool:

write to learn

write to discover

often your first response to or thoughts about a particular situation are not the best ones

writing can help you discover new and sometimes better options

Rhetorical considerations for Exploratory writing:

Audience- YOU are part of the audience along with your professor and classmates. Others may learn from your research and ask ?? and think of ideas that you had not considered

Purpose- your purpose is to exploare various aspects of your topic in enough detail/depth to increase understanding

Voice, tone, point of view- you already have your own ideas, knowledge, background and experiences. As you explore your topic, consider whether your preconceptions are accurate. You should be objective and open to different possibilities and then you will discover. You should be ?? what you can learn. Your tone can range from humorous -serious.

Context, medium and genre- since you are interested in the subject, you will have the incentive to learnmore as you research and write. The knowledge you gain may benefit you later. Consider your audience as you write on the most effective way to present your info.

Critical Thinking, Reading and writing: Effective exploratory writing is based on reasonable options and uses info from solid research.

Learning the Qualities of Effective Exploratory Writing:

Focus on a concept/question- more open ended. Try to answer a ??, lay groundwork for a solution to a problem or redefine a concept.

An inquisitive spirit- ask ?? that you really want to answer and let the answers lead you to further ??

Consider a range of perspectives in a subject- be willing to see it from different vantage points and consider its negative/positive anspects.

Coverage of the subject- examine all aspects of the topic, often developing a profile of its subject.

When considering and examining multiple viewpoints, you have the responsibility to the readers to present viewpoints as accurately as possible. You can express your opinions, responses and reflections; do not misrepresent the viewpoints of others.

Research to Explore your subject:

you need to answer the ?? that you raise

Answer who, what , where, when, why and how

determine what kind of research you need to conduct to gather that information

it's not about getting and giving information and simple answers

exploration involves the hard work of experiencing and understanding different perspectives.

you can conduct several kinds of research- web sites, newspapers, interviews, search and read blogs

Writing processes: writing is recursive ( you might start with an invention activity- conduct research- more invention work- first draft- more invention work- research- revise your draft. Writing is more circular, than a linear process. You keep coming back to your earlier work, adding to it, modifying to make it more accurate as you conduct further research and become more familiar with your topic.

Invention: to discover what you already know about the subject, utilize some of the activities on pg. 160

Reviewing your invention and research: review your work and think about the information that you have collected from outside sources. Decide on a thesis statement that summarizes the main point of your exploration. The thesis comes from your exploration. (Try listing, brainstorming, cluster, etc. )

Working with classmates: See pg. 165

Organizing your ideas and details: ask these ??

Who is your audience?

Why might they be interested in your writing or how can you make them interested?

What is your purpose for writing?

Deciding on your organizational approach:

you might want to ask a number of ??, then answer them in logical order

you might present a situation and then follow with an understandable, chronological order

you might define multiple perpectives and then explore the possibilities of each one

Constructing a complete draft: you are organizing your thoughts and research into some coherent form. Review the information you have gathered from your invention and research. Write your draft, exploring your subject in as much depth as possible and using the organizational scheme that works best, with as much detail as possible.

Introduction- needs to grab and hold the reader's attention a) take the reader on a journey b) ask one or more ?? c) establish multiple perpectives

Body- leads the reader through your exploration process. You can choose several different kinds of organization. a) classification- grouping ideas in like categories b) comparison/contrast- discover both similarities and differences c) cause/effect- xonsider whether one event has caused another event

Conclusion- leave the reader's feeling "satisfied". a) if in your exploration you discover that there are consequences, you may choose to present these. b) if you discover that your exploration has led to even more ?? that need to be researched. c) if your exploration leads you to a reasonable conclusion, state that conclusion, explaining how that was reached.

Title- it is often more useful to get a first draft down on paper/computer, then consider possible titles

Revising- reseeing and rethinking your exploratory text. The most effective way is to read it as though you are reading it for the first time. Be sure and include a questioning, probing and exploring attitude. You can also ask the ?? on Pg. 173-174.

Responding to reader's comments: first, consider carefully what your readers have to say about your text. You may reject some comments.

Knowledge of Conventions: when effective writers edit their work, they pay attention to conventions that help the reader move through the writing effortlessly. This includes genre conventions, documentation, format, usage, grammar and mechanics.

Editing: the final polishing of your document. Make changes to the sentence structure and word choice to improve your style and make your writing clearer and more concise. You also check your work to make sure it adheres to conventions of grammar, usage, puncuation , mechanics and spelling.

Genre, Documentation and format- fluctate these according to whom the writing is intended for.

Major Goals of this class

2008-02-20T17:50:00.000-08:00

1. Investigate what we already know about writing
2.. Research and learn more about writing as a comparison to original knowledge
3. Practice writing skills to become successful
4. Learn a variety of ways to improve your writing skills; critique others and learn by them also!
5. Pass this class! and utilize what I have learned in my future studies

2008-02-20T17:49:00.000-08:00

Notes on "One Writing Style to rule them all"

2008-02-18T18:13:00.000-08:00

Writing styles always tend to depending on the Rhetorical situation.
Keys:

figure out your reasons for writing
your audience
the noise that keeps your audience from understanding your message

KISS- Keep It Simple, Stupid!

SVO<24->

Good writing starts with good sentence structure. This is also called "right branching sentence"

10 Guidelines to Clearer Writing:

One idea per sentence
Limit sentences to 23-25 words
S-V-O Don't use a lot of commas
Use strong verbs and an active voice
Reduce difficult words to simple terms
Don't back into a sentence
Don't use more than three numbers in one sentence
Use no more than three prepositional phrases in one sentence
Choose the precise word
KISS

Notes on how professionals write

2008-02-18T17:39:00.000-08:00

most (90%) writers write during the morning; some (40%) in the afternoon also. 30% during the night; 10% worked during all three times. Afternoons are known as "dead time".
50% have a specific start time; usually before 8:30. Most do not work in the afternoon/evening. Several mentioned that they were productive during the late night hrs and sleep during the day, but this wasn't condusive to normal society.
60% described a quiet environment as their choice. Magazine writers can write in any environment.
50% have a ritual before writing
most drink lots of coffee
most write in isolation; many with no phone/internet

Writer's advice to students:

Spread out your work over several days. This will increase the chances of your work being fresh.
Get up early
Start the day with a mini-ritual- coffee, breakfast, etc. make it short
Go to an isolated place
Read over what you have written
Work for 2-3 hrs
Don't write during other times

Notes on how to write a good Writing Inventory

2008-02-16T13:54:00.000-08:00

Before starting a writing project, you should always take an inventory of what you already know. Then, you can add to this information with additional info that you have gathered from other sources, through reading, writing about your reading and research.
This building and adding is part of a process:

You articulate what you know
You learn to talk about writing with knowledge
You identify gaps in your knowledge and you fill these in , one at a time.
You learn to apply the above concepts and continuously add in small increments

Key: Good writing isn't about a product, it's about the process in place, which produces successful writing. (S. Brandon)

Process Paper- Improving Patient Satisfaction in a hospital setting

2008-02-09T08:41:00.000-08:00

Our hospitals utilize a company that polls our patients to determine the degree of their satisfaction with our services during their hospital stay. This is known as "Patient Satisfaction". Despite the fact that every patient that comes through the Endoscopy Department at MRMC receives top notch care is not always evident in the scores. Our Administration only looks at the Percentile ranking to determine how we are doing. This ranking is the comparison of our unit's scores against another like facility. The scores many be within points of one another, but the rank is the entire focus. Despite the fact that we have good scores about 60% of our patients rank us as "Excellent" with the remainder ranking us as "Very Good", our percentile ranking is low. The goal is to reach the 90th percentile ranking. We are working on the following to help impact our scores and encourage the "Excellent" scores:

The management team meets biweekly with Administration to look at the scores and look for improvements in the scores
The Administration sends out the weekly scores via email to the management teams
We (the managment team) have developed additional measures in order to affect and improve our departmental scores

Initate Team Cards that are given to the patients at the discharge point of their care. These cards thank the patients for utilizing our services with the signature of each staff member that took care of them during their procedure. It also gives the Administrative contacts if the patient or family would like to notify us of concerns or compliments of a staff member.
Share and post scores with the staff members so that they are aware of the Key Drivers (the areas that are our most focus) and the progress that the team is making.
Leadership rounding on the patients and families to find out what we could do to improve our services and care. This will also give us the opportunity to improve the services before the patient leaves the facility.
Inform our patients that our goal is to "Provide Excellent Care". We do this with the team card and by informing them of our goals during rounding. Also, our staff use the "Excellent" word while delivering care to the patient.
Leadership teams walk around and look for ways to improve our services. Whether it is cosmetically or work in teams to improve processes that are within the dept or work with another dept.
Update scripting used by staff during the post procedure phone call to the patient.
Have the staff sign up and attend the "Lighting the Way" series classes to improve customer service.

Responses to Class blogs- English 111- Feb 4th week

2008-02-09T07:54:00.000-08:00

Writing Process:
Most of my nursing career has been in Endoscopy, so the "verbal constipation" phrase really caught my eye as we attempt to write a draft of papers!!! This was a nice, concise explanation of the writing process.
Kaizen:
I was especially interested in this topic regarding Kaizen, as I am about to participate in an actual Kaizen within my departments!! I was not familiar with this word until about a month ago. Your description is absolutely clear and I can relate it so well to my work situation. We have already submitted a list of participants and are in the planning stages of the event. I am working with a consultant to break down the steps involved in the surgical process. ie the patient goes to the MD office, PreAdmission Testing, Holding (day of surgery), Operating Room, PACU (Recovery Room) The outcome or goal is to improve the efficiency for the patient moving through this entire process. I really enjoyed reading your description and didn't really know the "big picture" of the project yet, but now am more informed. Thanks
Procrastination:
I usually do not have much of a problem with procrastination, since I am quite the opposite. I usually drive myself crazy trying to "get it all done." Motivation has never been a problem for me. I have been challenged though, with this new concept of an on line class. The technology has challenged me and I will be greatly relieved once it is all more comfortable for me to use. I am not use to having to resource others in order to get my work completed. Asking a young adult daughter to assist me is not only humbling, but she is very inpatient for some reason. I have tried to equate this to the fact that I am a constant "Mother and Nurse" resource to every member of the family!! Anyway, the only other thing that I have been known to procrastinate about is exercise. I enjoy walking, but do not put it as a top priority, as I have so many "mandatory" responsibilities. Your tips were helpful on this subject. It also made me thankful for my obsessive personality and the fact that I usually do not struggle with this problem! I typically fall under the self-destructive mode.
I have actually saved the articles about the Ten steps to writing and the 24 hr librarian, as I think that they will be helpful to me in the future!

Reading Response to Chapter 4

2008-02-03T12:07:00.000-08:00

Minute Paper
After reading this Chapter, I have definately realized the amount of preparation and difficulty that is present in writing a true article, paper, etc. Writing about a topic of interest has always been fairly easy for me, but it is much more involved than I originally realized. It seems that the focus should be on organizing your thoughts. This organization brings out a better product.

This brings up a personal question for me. Am I going to be successful given this new challenge of writing? Perhaps, this is why I didn't pass the CLEP involved for this class!

Summary
The act of writing about an experience helps the writer because the act of writing requires reflection. This is a powerful tool for gaining insight and understanding about life.

Rhetorical Knowledge
You need to consider the following:

Audience- Make your experience relevant to them. Ask yourself: Who is your primary audience? Who might be interested in the subject?
Purpose- entertain the audience or inform/persuade them. You can have more than one purpose.
Rhetorical situation- consider the factors affecting what you are writing. ie. the audience, yourself, the topic, your purpose.
Writer's voice/tone- your attitude toward the topic. Examples include: amusing, sarcastic, neutral, regretful, etc. Depending on the assignment, you a may/may not be major character in your narrative. If you are a participant, you are the writer and also the major character. If you are not a participant, you might write in the 3rd person. Your attitude toward the characters will help determine your tone.
Context, medium and genre- all affect your writing decisions. You need to understand the situation that creates the occasion to write. How will the writing be used? What is the most effective way to present your information?
Consider what your audience may already know about the subject
Significant point-fresh, usually unexpected. You can show significance by explaining in great detail; how the event you are telling about changed you, affected you or improved your life.

Critical thinking, reading and writing
Writing about experiences can have several qualities- a clear sense of purpose, a significant point, a narrative or an honest representation. You have to also respect the privacy of those that you are writing about.

Learning- you need to learn in order to share experiences so that your writing is effective
Responsibilities- you have the responsibility to write your experiences with accuracy and sensitivity towards others
Reading and research- utilize your own memories or that of others, photos, documents and ideas from your reading
Narrative writing- writing about experiences. Usually engages readers and keeps them interested. Incorporating diaglogue increases the engagement of the reader.
Lively narrative- the foundation for writing about experiences. Answers the questions Who? What? Where? Why? How?
Dialogue- what people have to say. Brings a narrative to life. Can also reveal something about the character of the people involved.
Vivid description- detailed descriptions of the people/characters involved.
Point of view- first person is the most often used (I, me). Third person may be a more interesting or effective way to tell a story. It could be the point of view of another participant at the event or an observer.
Climax or crisis- an effective narrative that leads to something; usually makes a point or an idea that the writer wants to explain or a concept the writer wants the reader to understand.
Honest representation- it is importnat to represent the characters as accurately as possible. Present the events without unnecessary embellishments.

Writing Processes

Invention- choose the strategies that help you to recall the details of your experiences. Use the strategies on Pg. 98
Research
Organize your details and ideas- organize in a series of events. Who is your audience? Why might they be interested? or how can you make them interested? What is your main purpose of writing? Consider utilizing a "flashback". Something that happened in the past is shown "just the way it happened", then the narrator returns to the present to reflect on it's significance.
Constructing a complete draft-Introduction- (start with a surprising event or dialogue, interesting details or a comment that might startle your readers), Body, Conclusion, Title.
Revising- read your work with a critical eye.
Work with peers- classmates offer you comments or questions about your work. You need to carefully consider what the reader has to say. Remember: YOU are the writer and are responsible for dealing with the responses to your work! Use ?? on Pg. 112.
Editing- Make changes to the sentence structure and word choice to improve your style to make your writing clearer and more concise. Check your work for grammer, usage, punctuation, mechanics and spelling.
Recursive- to revisit each stage numerous times as you work.

Steps that it includes:

Topic
Audience
Develop the topic
Figure out what you want to say
Figure out the order to present your ideas
Write a rough draft (often the most difficult) "Verbal constipation"
Revision- multiple drafts/changes to check for the right tone. Also, include examples, evidence, etc.
Edit- (proof read) check for grammer, usage and spelling
Review- judge what you have done.

Conventions

Editing- utilizing dialogue to share the experience
Genres for sharing experiences- includes personal essay, autobiography, magazine or newspaper essay, blog, letters, accident reports, etc.
Documentation- list sources that were utilized using the correct style

I especially enjoyed the writing of the Farm Girl. Reading the transitions that the paper took on was quite interesting. I really liked how she changed/modified the story after she obtained feedback from others.

Kristi Seay

English 111/DL02

Addendum to Chapter 3- Kristi Seay

2008-01-23T16:38:00.000-08:00

Minute blog:
This chapter actually gave more techniques/strategies to discover various ideas to enhance your writing abilities. It also included ways to organize and synthesize (condense) it into a brief format.
I don't have any questions at this point.

Summarize/Paraphrase:
There are techniques that can be utilized to help the writer to discover more information, enhance learning. These would include: listing keywords, freewriting (write about what you already know and think about the subject), make a list of questions, answer the questions Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?, brainstorming (also recording what you know), and clustering (cause/effect relationships). It also included various ways to collect information by keeping a notebook or journal. These notebooks can vary between a double entry, field, vocabulary notebooks. Another techniques include the minute paper, muddiest point, preconception check and paraphrasing. Utilizing inventive dialogue or interview can also give another challenging way to research a topic. Process flowcharts, timelines and pedigree charts can be great visual aids.

Daily life:
Again, these techniques can be used in various modalities to aid in writing more effectively.
They can assist the writer to investigate a topic in a different demension to enhance the subject matter.

Kristi Seay

Addendum to Chapter 2- Kristi Seay

2008-01-23T16:11:00.000-08:00

It seems that I only did the vocab portion of these two chapters, so I am including an addendum.

Minute blog:
This chapter emphasized techniques in order to read in a more critical manner, instead of casually.
I don't really have any questions about this chapter, as it was very clear to me. The most difficult part is to take/make the time to jot down notes and utilize the various techniques to enhance your understanding.

Summarize/Paraphrase:
This chapter was informative as to several techniques to utilize when reading material, to enhance your understanding or to allow you the opportunity to question. To read the material in a more critical manner, instead of casually. It also emphasized utilizing your knowledge and experiences of the subject to assist you in writing and developing this skill.
It mentioned the importance of your rhetorical purpose (what you are hoping to accomplish).
This should be thought about before even starting to write. It included strategies for making notes, underlining important facts and developing questions to utilize later.

Daily Life:
These techniques will be helpful in the future with reading material and writing the various/numerous papers that are required to successfully complete your college career!

Kristi Seay

Response to Chapter 3

2008-01-20T09:35:00.000-08:00

This chapter had a lot of vocab. words that I decided to take notes on, as the chapter suggested to enhance learning!

This chapter describes a tool to use while reading to enhance the learning experience. Strategies include:
Listing- jot down key words
Freewriting- write for a set period of time, starting with what you already know about the subject
Questioning- ask questions about the topic
Answering Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?
Brainstorming- record info you already know
Clustering- figuring out possible cause/effect relationships

Notebooks/Journals (dialectical notebook):
write notes and observations on one side/questions and comments on the other
Double entry notebook- type of dialectical, most commonly used with left/right columns
Field notebook- used during field research to take notes in titled columns
Vocab. journal- list of new terms that you encounter
Minute paper- quick useful way to reflect on a discussion. What you learned and the most important questions about the lecture/discussion
Muddiest point- jotting down some concept or idea that is unclear or confusing
Preconception check- something thatyou know about the subject
Paraphrasing- restate in your own words

Organizing and synthesizing information:
Don't write down everything!
Organize what in a useful and logical manner
Synthesize- condense it into a brief form

Invented dialogue-bring out divergent views together
Invented interview/unsent letter- you are the interviewer asking the person ?? who you are studying associated with the concept that you are studying. You conduct research to determine how your questions might have been answered. The key is to move beyond the limits of your initial response to the event/person. This helps you to explore the topic from an intellectual and emotional perspective.
Resume- tend to be used outside academia; short
Vita- used within the academia; longer; include lists of publications and presentations
Bio-poem- get down basic, essential information in a poem format (does not have to rhyme)
Clustering and concept mapping-construct a visual representation of your ideas and how they connect to each other. Helps to visualize cause/effect
Process flowchart- allow you to translate several paragraphs of info in to a clear visual making it easier to understand.
Timeline/Chronology- shows the concepts over time; may be set up horizontally or vertically
Pedigree chart- demonstrates the origin of a person, character or idea
Test questions- create your own ?? to anticipate what you will be asked.
Mnemonic play- develop memory aids to remember material

Many of these seam to be useful tools to me and are a reminder of various techniques to use!
Kristi Seay

Response to Chapter 2- Kristi Seay

2008-01-19T08:36:00.000-08:00

I am surprised with each chapter that the material is actually interesting.
This chapter talks about how to read in a critical manner. To look deeper into the subject matter by questioning , researching and comparing to your own knowledge base.
A rhetorical purpose refers to, what you are hoping to accomplish.
It talked about the importance of taking notes or to annotate. These notes are then used to write a summary of the material.
Kristi Seay

Welcome To My Writing Journal

2008-01-19T07:55:00.000-08:00

This is my new writing journal. I have experienced difficulty in doing this myself, but fortunately I have a computer savy daughter that assists me, when she is in the mood. The younger generation is so much more comfortable with all of this, than we are. I truly appreciate her expertise and know that eventually, hopefully soon, I will feel more comfortable in accessing all of these sites with ease. I suppose this is the learning "bump" that Steve was speaking of.
This is my very first internet course, with many classes to follow to achieve my master's degree in Nursing.
Kristi Seay