Thlog #4

            After reading over my WP1, I knew I had to fix some stuff but I wasn’t too sure where to start. The highlighting activity we did on Monday was the key to success. I completely got what Zack said about seeing our paper in a bird’s eye view. By highlighting the evidence and analysis, I got a clearer picture of what was missing. I was never really a fan of color-coding as I thought it was a waste of time, but after seeing it used this way, I’m a changed man. Reading the paper wasn’t enough for me to see what was wrong; I needed to visually see the problems. Also, highlighting is aesthetically pleasing, especially if you use bright colors. After highlighting, I quickly saw that there was too much analysis and not enough direct evidence. Like having too much cereal to your milk, having the right proportion is important. It brings harmony and a good mouth-feel.

On Wednesday, we did a group project on Google Docs about writing on a topic based on our assigned genre. Every group had the same topic but we just have to write in the style of our assigned genres. The topic was about a man’s murder and my group had to write it as a newspaper report. Zack gave us the option to add in details so naturally, we made him the murderer. Not that we think he would make a good murderer, we just did it for kicks and giggles.

To be honest though Zack’s a great teacher and I think he really does put a lot of effort into making us into better writers, especially during the process of writing our WP1. I would be more specific and add details but I’m pretty sure the whole class knows what I’m talking about. 10/10 would recommend as Writing 2 teacher.

Thlog #3

            I’m still stuck using the rules and outlines high school gave me. I have to calibrate my brain and remind myself that there are times when those rules could be broken. Seeing how the student who wrote the paper on Modest Mouse had a different introduction helped me out a little. Although his paper might not be the best example, there’s hope that a different introduction is possible. I understand though that different doesn’t always mean good, and just because I can do it, does not mean I should. If I were to take the road less traveled by, my introduction would have to be really great, because this is one of those situations where it could either be really good, or really bad.

            Another moment of enlightenment I received this week was from the arguability test. I mean I already know what the arguability test means since it’s pretty self-explanatory. How to conduct that test was the mystery. To test the argument, just add a “not” or “don’t” somewhere in the thesis to make it prove the opposite of its initial argument. If this is possible then the thesis is arguable. It’s simple and functional, one of my favorite combinations of adjectives. Personally, it’s hard for me to come up with a concise thesis, so I have trouble figuring out if my thesis is arguable or what I’m even trying to argue. This simple solution would surely go a long way.

            The reading “Responding—Really Responding—to other Students’ Writing” by Richard Straub taught me a valuable lesson that will go beyond my Writing 2 class. I learned that constructive criticism is easier to give by balancing it with compliments. It’s nice to get compliments every now and then especially with your writing. Writing is something many people struggle with and to know that someone appreciates their hard work verifies the effort put into it.        

Thlog #2

            I tend to come up with ideas while I’m writing but they usually sidetrack from my current topic. What I do is just write the ideas down and then come back to them later when I know where to place them. My problem is that I don’t get to use those ideas because I end up not knowing where to put them. Some of those ideas are pretty swell too so there’s that feeling of wasted effort. To fix my predicament, I’ll start using Zack’s placeholder tip. When I’m organizing my paper, I could look at these placeholders and see if my leftover ideas could be applied to them. I’m also very stubborn when I get writer’s block, as I stay on the topic until I figure out what to write breaking my writing momentum. These placeholders could help my writing process be overall smoother. Another tip I will gratefully use is the oxford comma. Thanks to the Vampire Weekend song, I’m aware of the oxford comma, but never realized the importance of it until last Monday. I’ll start to think of it as a mandatory tool. It's so interesting to me that these symbols change how we read, especially with dashes, commas, and parentheses. I like how the meaning of the sentence change just because of these little symbols.

            The thesis statement is probably one of the most frustrating aspect in writing a paper. I have never thought or knew of a working thesis statement. I do feel that a regular thesis statement is limiting and I don’t like how my paper has to revolve around it. It’s even worse when my paper ends up not fulfilling what my thesis statement states. I feel as if I’m not in control of my own paper anymore. I will keep the working statement in mind and will experiment with it for future papers.

            

PB1B

            Understanding genres and their conventions have enabled people to make software that generate genres. These “genre generators” use a certain genre’s conventions and create an example of that genre. Patterns of some genres have become so predictable that they could be programmed in a computer. The programmers who developed these “genre generators” know how certain genres are set up and used that knowledge to let internet users create works of that particular genre.

A genre as sophisticated as Computer Science research papers could be broken down and replicated by a machine. SCIgen, the automatic CS paper generator, allows the user to create a computer-made CS paper just by entering a name of an author and then pushing a button. All of the papers generated in SCIgen follow the same format: title, authors’ names, abstract, introduction, body, conclusion, and references. For “genre generators” like this to work, it would require consistency. If the paper has information that makes sense, the rest of the information on the paper must not only make sense, but be coherent as well. However, having a machine write a valid paper would require more than just patterns. So to solve this problem, everything that is written on the paper must be complete nonsense. The point of this generator is not to create a legitimate CS paper but to show what a typical CS paper may look like, or “to auto-generate submissions to conferences that you suspect might have very low submission standards” as mentioned in the “About” section of the SCIgen homepage. To give some credibility to the paper, academic language is used. They also included graphs and figures to make the paper more believable. To make the graphs and figures appear true, the paper uses the first-person word “we” as if to show that personal research had been done to obtain the data. I personally searched the references used in the generated papers and I learned that they were also fake. One of the authors were actually “agjhk”, the made-up author name that I entered.

Another “genre generator” is Pandyland, a comic generator. Every comic is comprised of images and text inside speech bubbles. Pandyland makes exactly that. As it says on its website, Pandyland is random, so like SCIgen, some of the comics generated might not make sense. The comics users can make only have three panels: beginning, middle, and end. Because of that, the stories created are not too intricate and don’t make much sense. It does however give room for the viewer to use their imagination and make sense out of the comic. It is easy to assume that Pandyland’s intention is to provoke humor as the panels contain silly elements to them. A generator that produces random and nonsensical images with the intention of comedy would have a better chance of receiving a positive response from the audience than with the intention to produce serious comics. With Pandyland, preset images with no apparent context are shuffled to make a somewhat sensible comic.

Instead of having prewritten text, Memegenerator just provides a template and lets the users create the text. These memes that users create consist of an image with text on the top and bottom of the picture. The top text is usually the intro to the joke and the bottom would be the punchline. The generator provides different meme images for people to use. Each of these images have their own context and creators use jokes that fit with the context of that image. One example of a meme image is Bad Luck Brian. The picture shows a boy who someone could say appears unlucky and the textual jokes used with the picture involves Brian getting into very unfortunate events. These individual meme images are a genre themselves.

A “genre generator” that I found called Chaoticshiny, specializes in writing and gaming for the game Dungeons and Dragons. For people that run out of ideas for their story, they could use the generator to make stuff for them. It has multiple generators to choose from including a civilization generator, name generators, and even an RPG Drinking Game generator. One that stood out to me was their tarot card generator. It lets you choose the quantity of tarot cards you want to create and which information from description, meaning, condition, and the back of the card you want to include. The format of the tarot card is simple; it starts with what image is on the card, then says what is associated with it and what it represents. A description of what’s on the back of the card could also be included. Using conventions of a tarot card, the program can randomize the stereotypical information on a tarot card and combine them to make a new card.

PB1A

            A textual genre contains conventions that make works of a genre fit into that particular genre. These conventions grow out of situations that surround the genre and the way that the genre responds to those situations. An example of textual genre is a syllabus. A syllabus’ purpose is to give students an outline of how a course will proceed. Written by a teacher to their students, the syllabus should have the intention of helping the students pass the class. The less questions the syllabus leaves open the more appropriate the syllabus is to the genre. This situation of teachers wanting their students to succeed continues the recurrence of conventions that will assist students through their courses. Features that are useless or do the opposite of helping students pass their classes will be dropped and will likely not appear in future syllabuses as conventions.

            To give a quick idea of the course, a syllabus will first provide the basics. These include the course’s name, the teacher’s name, the teacher’s contact info, and the time and location of the course. This information provides which course the syllabus will be about. The course’s title, usually typed in a big font, is on the top of the front page also acting as the title of the syllabus. It helps students distinguish it from syllabuses they might have for other classes. Students could use their syllabus as a resource for general information so it is best if teachers keep their syllabus accessible. In case students have questions not answered in their syllabus, they can ask their teacher with the contact info they provided.

            Information regarding what to expect of the class comes after. These include course description, required materials, assignments, and the schedule of the course. Despite the different kinds of subjects syllabuses cover, they all have course descriptions informing students of the knowledge they will get out of class. Then they are given a list of materials necessary or recommended for passing the class. Assignments are usually listed with the weight they have in the students’ grades, enabling students to prioritize the most important assignments. The course schedule shows the plan for each day students have the class. It could also include assignments that are expected to be finished before the day of each class.

Besides information on what students should expect from the class, teachers also present what they expect of the students. The syllabus acts as a constitution, informing students on how they should act in class. Rules are in the syllabus to confirm that if students do break them, consequences will follow. Attendance is highly valued, as some classes emphasize their importance by applying attendance to students’ grades.

Teachers want their syllabuses to be easily understood by their students, so a straightforward syllabus is beneficial. Some syllabuses are categorized by bullet points, making it faster to find a specific piece of information. Students who are not new to school should be aware of what a syllabus is. The consistency of how syllabuses are organized help students stay familiar with the format for syllabuses from their other classes.

Thlog #1

I try to view all my classes as a chance to learn something new. Even if I’ve learned about the subject before, I keep in mind that there’s always an unlimited amount of information and perspectives pertaining to the subject. Genre for example, is a subject that I encounter numerous times in everyday life. Ever since I was an elementary schooler, what comes to mind when I think of genres are different types of music, literature, or films. My perspective on what a genre is has expanded. I learned that genres could be anything with conventions and be as specific as a ransom note or a eulogy. Ransom notes aren’t threatening just for kicks; they are threatening because their purpose is to have their demands met.

Another important thing I try to keep in mind is that things I learn in class could also be applied to other aspects of my life. First-order thinking and second-order thinking was interesting to learn about because I practice them every day. I just never noticed I did because I wasn’t aware of their existence. It also does not have to be related to writing when I practice first and second-order thinking. When I think of going out to eat, my first-order thinking would be thinking of what I’m craving at the time. My second-order thinking would be what restaurants are open, how far the restaurant is from my current location, price, and other factors involving if it is worth getting the food. “Teaching Two Kinds of Thinking by Teaching Writing” by Peter Elbow mentioned that people are scared to be creative with first-order thinking because they don’t want to appear stupid. I think that is something that many people can relate to, and it is helpful to conquer fear when you know why you’re scared in the first place.

About Me

I was born in the Philippines on August 14, 1995. I’m the youngest of four with two brothers and one sister. In 2004, my family, except for my oldest brother and sister, moved to America in hopes of getting a better life. My brother came here before us and my sister already had her own family in the Philippines. I was only 8 years old when we moved so I can’t clearly recall what I felt about the situation. Either it was because I was in denial of having to leave everything I know and love behind or I genuinely did not know what was going on. Before coming to America, my only experience of the country came from television and movies. Because of that, what came to mind when I think of America was Disneyland, snow, and blonde hair. Having lived here for more than ten years, I learned that it does not snow in every part of America and that not everyone that lives here has blonde hair. Disneyland however, was as relevant then as it is now. It was definitely a culture shock for me as even the air somehow felt new and different. More than half of my life was spent here so I associate myself more with American culture while also sticking to my roots of course. I still know how to read, write, and speak my native language Tagalog and am somewhat aware of current events in the Philippines. In America, I lived in a Latino dominated community and most of my friends back in my city were of Mexican decent. I like to think that I’ve absorbed some of their culture as I was constantly surrounded by Spanish and actual legit Mexican food. With the help of the internet, my taste in things has even become more diverse. My music taste can go from The Cure to K-pop and I can watch an episode of The Office and watch anime right after. I am grateful for my parents for bringing me here and giving me the chance to be exposed to multiple cultures. I truly do think that America has provided us a better life.