Exit Conference

May 1st Wed 10:00-12:00PM    RB396

Reflection paper

Reflection paper

Reflect your own progress over this semester, how they became through the semester, things that helped you and didn’t help, identify your weakness /strengths in writing.

ex) You can choose one piece of paper and then explain/analyze the strategies for writing and revising and how those strategies affect your essay. It's opportunity to think about yourself and look back at on your past work. 

Save it as PDF file and send it to jhlee8023@hotmail.com

THIS I BELIEVE

·    Explain the origins of their principle or idea

·    Using reasons and source-based experience (field research source)

·    Include a clear statement of their own belief

·    Use an organization approach that is appropriate and engaging for the audience

QUICK SIMPLE ORGANIZATION CHECK LIST

Context Does the reader need to know what gave rise to the question you plan to address, or why the question is important? If so, that belongs first or second. Possible Forms: Broad Statement, Anecdote, Both.

Focus Have you stated your question or thesis? (Either one suffices here.)

Body (your presentation of the facts and ideas that led you to your thesis) Does the body take up most of the paper's space? (Normally it would.) Have you broken the body down into its logical parts? Will your reader be able to tell how each part differs from all other parts? Have you put those parts into some logical sequence (temporal, spatial, least important to most important, least controversial to most controversial, etc.)? Will your reader be able to see how each part relates to your thesis? Have you left space to deal with possible objections to your thesis, either by concession or by refutation?

Conclusion Do you end in a way that ties your paper together without being simply repetitive? Possible Forms: A Thesis Statement (if, for Focus above, you relied just on your Question); A Reformulation of Your Thesis; A New Anecdote; An Echo of the Anecdote Used Above for Context (making a frame around the paper); Further Implications of Your Thesis; Further Work Needed To Be Done on the Question.

Revising and refining research paper

Revising: Begin by strengthening global issues in your first draft- the quality and clarity of your ideas and your support for those ideas: the organization or line of reasoning in your draft; and the overall tone or voice. At this stage, you cut, condense, expand, and add material. By addressing these whole-paper issues first, you can edit and proofread more efficiently later. After all, what’s the point of carefully editing a passage for style and grammar when in the end, you cut the passage?

Editing: Once you are fairly confident about the global traits of ideas, organization, and voice, begin strengthening sentence style and word choice. At this stage, your aim is to make your writing clear, concise, energetic, and varied, Because your attention is focused more locally or microscopically on your writing, you can also fix obvious errors, though that task is really the focus of the next phase, proofreading.

Proofreading: This phase focuses on correctness-accuracy of information and research references; and correct grammar, punctuation, mechanics, usage, and spelling. At this stage, your goal is to make your already edited writing clean.

Global issues --- ideas, paper’s organization, and voice of the paper

Local issues—title, transitions, spelling, grammar, punctuation, mechanics errors

Test the strength of your essential thinking

To get a sense of how well your overall thinking works, highlight your initial thesis statement and your restatement of the thesis in your conclusion, Then also highlight the main points along the way from thesis statement A to thesis statement B: these points are likely featured in your paragraphs’ topic sentences. Do the thesis statements relate to each other? Is the line of reasoning from A to B solid, or are there weak links that need repair?

Test the balance of reasoning and support

Examine the big picture of how you have used source material in relation to your own discussion of the issue. Highlight all source material in your draft and weigh that material against your own thinking. If your draft includes claim that lack needed support you need to either scale back the claims or add information and evidence.

Conversely, your draft may be dominated by source material, not your own thinking. If your paper reads like a series of source summaries or loosely stitched together quotations, if it contains big patches of copy-and paste material, if your paragraphs all seem to start and end with source material, or if your is dense with detailed but almost incomprehensible data, deepen your own contribution to the paper by trying the following

1. Expand your discussion.

2. Elaborate the evidence.

3. Clarify the significance

Selecting and integrating evidence

Types of evidence 

• Observations and anecdotes
• Primary-text quotations: direct word-to-word evidence 
• Statistics --
• Test or experiment results 
• Visuals  
• Analogies  -- compare two things, creating clarity by drawing parallels 
• Expert testimony
• Illustrations, examples, and demonstrations
• Predictions

    1. Look what happened in Southeast Asia with the Tsunami: 150,000 lives lost to the misnomer of all misnomers, “mother nature.” Well, in Africa, 150,000 lives are lost every month, a tsunami every month. And it’s a completely avoidable catastrophe. – Bono

2. According to the two scientists, the rats with unlimited access to the functional running wheel ran each day and gradually increased the amount of running; in addition, they started to eat less (Mcgovern 1-2) 
3.  Most of us have closets full of clothes: jeans, sweaters, khakis, T-shirts, and shoes for every occasion.

    4.  Pennsylvania spends $30 million annually in deer-related costs. Wisconsin has an estimated annual loss of $37 million for crop damage alone (Blumig).

    5. Hulga blames this affliction for keeping her on the Hopewell farm, making it plain that ‘if it had not been for this condition, she would be far from these red hills and good country people” (O’connor 1994).

Arrange an Argument by Clustering

Clustering can help you explore the relationships among your thesis statement, reasons, and evidence. To create a cluster:

1.      In the middle of a sheet of paper, or in the center of an electronic document (word processing file or graphics file), list your thesis statement.

2.      Place your reasons around your thesis statement.

3.      List the evidence you’ll present to support your reasons next to each reason.

4.      Think about the relationships among your main point, reasons, and evidence, and draw lines and circles to show those relationships.

5.      Annotate your cluster to indicate the nature of the relationships you’ve identified.

Thesis statement

Megan's Research Question

What is the difference between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes and how can Americans reduce their risk of getting these diseases?

Megan's Preliminary Thesis Statement

Type 1 diabetes is a disease where a person loses their insulin cells. People with Type 2 diabetes aren’t able to use their insulin very well. You can't reduce your risk of Type 1 diabetes but you can reduce your risk of Type 2 diabetes by eating better and exercising.

Megan's Thesis Statement

Type 1 diabetes is a disease in which a person loses all of their insulin-producing cells and thus must depend on insulin injections for survival. Type 2 diabetes is a disease in which a person is no longer able to efficiently use the insulin their body produces. Although Americans are so far unable to reduce their risk of getting Type 1 diabetes, they can reduce their risk of getting Type 2 diabetes by keeping their weight down, eating healthy foods low in sugar, and getting daily exercise.

 

Megan's Revised Thesis Statement

Type 1 diabetes is a disease in which a person loses all of their insulin-producing cells and thus must depend on insulin injections for survival. Type 2 diabetes is a disease in which a person is no longer able to efficiently use the insulin their body produces. Americans are so far unable to reduce their risk of getting Type 1 diabetes. However, every American should attempt to reduce their risk of getting Type 2 diabetes by keeping their weight down, eating healthy foods low in sugar, and getting daily exercise.

 

Megan's Revised Thesis Statement

Type 1 diabetes is a disease in which a person, usually under the age of 35, loses all of their insulin-producing cells and thus must depend on insulin injections for survival. Type 2 diabetes usually affects older Americans and is a disease in which a person is no longer able to efficiently use the insulin their body produces. Although Americans are so far unable to reduce their risk of getting Type 1 diabetes, they can reduce their risk of getting Type 2 diabetes by keeping their weight down, eating healthy foods low in sugar, and getting daily exercise.

 

Megan's Shorter, But Still Broad, Thesis Statement

Americans should reduce their risks of getting Type 2 diabetes.

Megan's Focused Thesis Statement

Americans should reduce their risks of getting Type 2 diabetes by keeping their weight down, eating healthy foods low in sugar, and getting daily exercise.

An effective thesis statement can invite your readers to learn something new, suggest that they change their attitudes or beliefs, or argue that they should take action of some kind.

Position statement: Preserving privacy on social networking websites is an individual responsibility.

Thesis statement: Asking readers to learn something new

Social networking web sites don’t reveal personal information; people reveal personal information

Thesis statement: asking readers to change their attitudes or beliefs

We should view the use of social networking sites in educational settings with a great deal of caution.

Thesis statement: asking readers to take action

People who use social networking web sites should learn how to safeguard sensitive, personal information.