Tag: unit 3

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Final Reflection – Samantha Danylchuk

Within the larger body of material, I found in my research from Unit 2, I decided to focus on the generational gap in the workplace because I felt as though this was the most relatable topic for me. After hearing about the different topics brought up by my classmates, this one definitely intrigued me the most because I never considered associating diversity with age until this assignment. To determine what would actually make it into the project, I examined my sources and eliminated the ones that were too difficult to easily work with or held the wrong kind of information for my topic. If the author wasn’t credible or the content was too specific in certain ways where it didn’t focus on my assignment topic how I wanted, I chose not to use those sources. The lessons/skills from the course that I applied in doing this were definitely the TSIS templates. I really enjoyed using the templates to form my own statements and putting my thoughts together in a cohesive, organized way. For example, agreeing with an author on an opinion helped me recognize my own beliefs while finding a work where I countered an idea helped me challenge myself.

I learned that I really do enjoy writing. I absolutely loved the blog format of this class. I have never had experience with this before, and I loved the interactions between classmates because that definitely helped me grow as a student. I will admit that on some posts I was intimidated to share how I felt or bit uncomfortable when we dove into posts that touched upon racial or gender issues because I’m not used to openly discussing these topics. But I’m so thankful I was pushed out of my comfort zone because I definitely think those kinds of discussions will help me with my future classes. I enjoyed commenting on other people’s posts and receiving feedback. I’ve always been a fan of feedback because I’ve always loved hearing other people’s opinions on my work and how I can enhance my own work to make it better. It was difficult for me to acknowledge what I should prioritize and what I should give less of my attention too. I always feel the need to include absolutely every single detail in anything I do, so understanding the bigger picture and summarizing an article for example, are things I could definitely improve on. Talking right to my audience about my research was so unique in itself. It was pleasing to know that not only my teacher is receiving my work, but also other students. I feel like I am taking away so much just from what I’ve learned through my other classmates’ posts and comments, especially because new ideas were brought to me that I would have never thought of before.

This assignment taught me that generalizing information isn’t always the answer. In Unit 1 when this class first began, I definitely think my submissions held less value because generalization became my best friend. As the weeks went on and I got deeper into this class, I think I learned how to directly answer questions with responses that were articulate and detailed. For example, I couldn’t just say “I want to work with this source because it talks about my topic.” I had to explain I wanted to work with it because of the data it contained, the industry within the working generations that it focused on, etc. Additionally, using the “add media” feature on the blog post exposed me to working with unique features that the class layout entailed. I now know more about uploading files, converting pdfs, hyperlinks, etc. which none of my classes required as much last year. I also have never used the SUMMON feature at school last year, so this was extremely helpful in my research and will be sure to remember this going forward in my academic research.

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Final reflection (Dan)

 

After unit 2 ended and we had a list of sources that contained the accumulation of knowledge we would be writing about, I thought that my final project was going to be a breeze. I suppose my thought process was that I have so much information on the topic I chose, that I would have a surplus of things to discuss. Though this was true, I overlooked the fact that having a surplus of sources also complicates your job as a writer because it often forces you to make cuts to your portfolio of sources. Deciding which sources made it into my article and which ones did not was a big struggle for me. In fact, a part of me wishes that I would have put a different article in my final project than the one I did. I am pleased with the way that my project turned out, but in retrospect I feel that the other article would have strengthened my arguments and made my writing flow better.

One thing I learned about writing research papers is that finding article that are of good quality and useful to you is challenging. Sometimes, I would find an article that seems promising only to find out that it is not for me. Another thing I learned was the importance of keeping my intended audience in the back of my mind at all times. When I was looking for articles, I would occasionally come across one that sounded like it is perfect for the topic I was writing about. However, I had found that the audience that the author intended to reach was other peers that are of the same knowledge as them. Reading these papers as a novice was very challenging as I did not have any background knowledge and was not familiar with the nomenclature.

Lastly, this research paper helped me understand the importance of understanding how when you write about a topic you are entering a discussion. It was important that when we wrote papers, we contributed something unique to the overall story. Reading this tip in they say I say was daunting to me. I thought “how am I supposed to come up with a new idea that the people that are experts in the subject?”. Upon further reading, one of the suggestions that I found most helpful was that contributing something unique can be as simple as paraphrasing something someone else wrote and giving your opinion on the matter or the meaning of the matter. One thing I have found really helpful is to come up with a analogy that makes sense to you and share it with your readers.

 

Thank you all for being a great community this semester. I wish you all good luck this upcoming  semester.  Stay healthy and safe

-Dan

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Final Reflection, Aaron

In doing my final research project, I decided to focus on the areas of diversity in education and also the bias that teachers/instructors have towards students who are ethnic minorities. There were many different options for sources to pick for this kind of project, but I wanted to key in on what the concept of implicit bias/complicit theories of intelligence were, and how the students are affected (their academic performance) in the classroom. I learned the critical thinking skills to not just take everything that I see as a useful source- that there are some instances where I have to let some things go, because while they may be useful in one context, they didn’t necessarily fit with what I wanted my narrative to be.

In doing this research I learned quite a bit about the whole process: first and foremost was the different styles of writing and using rhetorical situations depending on who my intended audience is and what I wanted my message to be. Using certain words to grab attention, and adjusting the length of my writing (my audience was high school students/young undergrads) to not turn their attention spans off by writing a twenty page essay. Also, keeping my audience in mind, I wanted to try to make this conversational but also academic, so it wasn’t just like me having a casual talk with someone where i’m just spouting things from my mouth. I wanted to have sources and examples that justified why I was writing what I was. The receiving of feedback from my fellow students was important in two ways: one, was to see what they were choosing to focus on while they were doing their work, and what they thought of mine, and also to get a gauge of what people in that population had to say, so I can get an idea of what changes I should make. The feedback I received from my instructor was also really valuable, as she gave me a good outline on how I should craft my final work and not have it be an unorganized mess, she gave me a more concrete idea of what I needed to focus on to make it the best I was able to.

What I am taking away from this assignment is that there are so many options that a writer has when it comes to saying what they want to say- using rhetoric to tinker your message and make it more digestible to your intended audience. Before this, I didn’t really think about this process much at all, I would just write what comes to mind and basically hope for the best. Now that I have these tools to really make any writing I do in the future much more polished I am feeling confident. Another lesson I will take from this in general comes from the assigned text we read in class, the concept of using templates to get an idea going if you are ever stuck in your writing. I will definitely remember to use this as I think it’s a really valuable tool to have.

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Final Reflection

From the ongoing research I did for Unit 2, it ultimately led me to continue my focus soon the discrimination and inequality currently in our education system. This is a major topic in todays society however a very broad one. I wanted to focus on a specific issue within this big issue. Adding on to the research already done, I looked at articles surrounding the screening process. I did this because I wanted to write about a way that could potentially help solve this inequality that many students face today and a way for more people to be informed on the topic at hand. It was at first difficult to decide what to actually put in the project because it is such a big issue and there can be many sections to it. However, I wanted to focus on a smaller issue regarding inequality in schools. For me, that included the screening aspect of it, in addition to statistics, and an experience from a student and his perspective on being a minority in a school. The exercises we did really helped me get my thoughts out and helped me understand the reading better. For example the note taking exercises prompted me to annotate and take notes which ultimately helped me obtain the main idea from the article and helped me implement my viewpoints.

I learned a lot during this class surrounding my knowledge of diversity and inclusion, but I would say the most important thing I learned was about audience. A post on the blog that really stuck with me was the one that said how location is the most important factor in real estate, and thats the same effect audience has for writing. When I had a targeted audience in mind, I found it easier to write. I am going to continue to do that in my writing. I noticed how different writing styles can be depending on the audience you are trying to appeal to. In addition to that, I learned a lot about research. What to type in the search bar and the filters are so important. I hadn’t done too much research based writings in college so this class was a big help for that and helped me become more prepared for more writing I will have to do in the future like that.

To me the assignment had many values. First and foremost a better understanding of the issues facing racial injustice in the education system. Racial injustice has been a huge talking point recently and the research I have done for this class, increased my knowledge of the subject which is really beneficial. Looking at the statistics and numbers, minorities are heavily underrepresented in some schools. Knowing this information from my research, along with what I already knew, allowed me to expand my writing to strengthen my argument. In addition, inform the reader who might not know too much about the topic. Focusing on what to include and what to leave out of my writing is something I have struggled with in the past. I feel like this class improved that for me by keeping the audience in mind and considering what is most beneficial for them. Ultimately, I believe the tools I learned in this class increased my skills that I will maintain in my writing in the future.

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Taking it public, reflection, Benjamin Fisch

I decided what to focus on in my Unit 2 body of material, by researching something that hit home to me. There are a lot of sub topics one could explore that fall under organizational culture. However, studying neurological diversity in the work place caught my attention more than any other potential sub topic I had. I chose neurological diversity in the work place, because neurological disorders is something I can relate to. My little brother was a slow developer as a baby and a toddler, and at one point we were worried that he may be on the spectrum. Thankfully he was just a slow developer and eventually began to progress into the wonderful young man he is today, but at first we had this scare. This is why I feel closely connected to my sub topic, hence why I chose it. I decided what would make it into the project by selecting research that was straight to the point and closely related to my topic.
I learned a lot and got a lot out of this project, that I put together throughout the course of our class. Primarily, I learned a ton about people with neurological disorders and how they can benefit a company. Before I started collecting my research on this sub topic of organizational culture, I had the opinion that people with neurological disorders were not fit for the workplace. That perspective definitely changed as I gathered research for my project. I learned that people with neurological disorders definitely have their limitations, but they also have unique abilities that outweigh their limitations. They have the ability to hyper focus on a task more than someone who does not have a neurological disorder. I learned a lot about how to take information, digest it, and then write about it. Some of the writing I learned during this course, was writing to help explain my research to my audience or more so, introduce my gathered research to my audience, so it would be easier for them to absorb all the information that I would be throwing at them in my research project. I learned that giving and receiving feedback is a crucial element of developing a research project. The feedback I received on my work definitely benefited what made it into my final portfolio. I learned how to engage a target audience. My targeted audience is professional with the responsibilities of hiring new employees and people with neurological disorders. I learned to engage them, but cutting out the excess writing of the research I gathered, and presenting my audience with the straight forward writing that would bet educate them on my sub topic.
This assignment had a lot of value for me. The most important bit of value I got from the course, is more than just how to conduct research. The value I received is how to conduct research tailored for a specific targeted audience. My targeted audience is professionals in the workplace who are responsible for hiring new employees, and people with neurological disorders. I learned how to present information in an organized way to people that need to see it. That’s the value I gained, gathering research and organizing it in a way that best suits the audience that it is intended for.

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Final Reflection

From the research complied from Unit 2, i had ultimately decided to continue focusing on the LGBTQ community. Fascinated by the amount of information I had been exposed to, I knew that likewise my fellow counterparts would have not known much about the information I had acquired. What surprised me the most was the statistics, the numbers that only amplified the change that needed to be made within our society. Although movements for more inclusion of the LGBTQ community have picked up attention and support, learning statistically how far we are from equality for all sexualities was eyeopening. Most certainly, I wanted to share these statistics with as many people as possible in a way that would capture the audience as much as it did for myself. I really focused on my rhetoric when pursuing this project/unit, really creating a piece that would strike a wide audience of people and not just target one demographic. I tried to implement some of the teachings from “They Say I Say” as I pulled for strong information that would impact someone whether or not they were part of the LGBTQ community.

From this work I learned a vast amount about the discrimination towards the LGBTQ community. Furthermore, I took away from this project the strength and value of writing structure. The suggestions made on the rough draft of my infographic allowed me to challenge myself to compile a project that had more power. My sentences were very wordy and too much for an audience to read and want to learn more about. I was then challenged to fixate on what fragments made the biggest impact and supported the overall premise of what I was trying to promote within the infographic. Before, I was prioritizing the amount of information on the infographic, and that later changed to prioritize the strength of the information I had. There is no debating that a statistic is a statistic, but for one to be strong it needs to sucker-punch the audience with a hit at the current reality to have them reconsider their stance and understanding of a topic. When addressing the audience I wanted this infographic to hit home in a way that was not blaming something or another, but instead was focused on a conversation about education. Sharing statistics that counter the common belief that the LGBTQ movement is on a way to equality, which is true it is just the road ahead is long and not as short as perceived by those who are not identifiers of the community.

I really took away from this assignment how to manage and prioritize what is going to push my point across. Instead of honing into what an educator or professor may want to see, I had to reconsider my audience and who I was writing for. This audience was not someone who overlooked the progression of the project or had any idea about the assignment, it would be people stumbling upon this on social media and feel inclined to share with others the staggering information on it. Looking forward into the future I definitely want to continue practicing the projection of my purpose to the audience and focusing on the goal of the project, and less on the progression and grade. Improving this mindset will only make my writing stronger as I pretend to write to my intended audience instead of writing for the approval of a professor.

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Final Reflection

From my unit 2 research, I found a lot of overlapping themes particularly on the lacking level of awareness language diversity has amongst other diversity competencies. Leading into unit 3 I wanted to focus on why this subject isn’t as openly discussed and how I could convince more of the public to listen to what was being said. I wrestled with what I wanted to use in my project in the end because of the vast research there was written on the topic. Eventually what it came down to was reflecting on the sources I’ve looked at from when I first began up until the end. For me that included revisiting the work I did from our unit 1 assignment, note-taking exercises, and some of the last discussion posts we shared as a class. From there the sources I focused on were those that initially caught my line of interest and kept the horizon open (without getting to specific or technical). The exercises we did throughout unit 2 really helped me organize my thoughts on the page which became very useful when it came to applying this to my own writing style. I found it easier to get words on the page because of the direct connections I made prior. The course also enlightened me on genres and specifically different writing styles.  Some of the skills I learned we’re being able to critically analyze the sources and either pick out the content I wanted to use for my research or rhetorically understand the author’s purpose, target audience, and writing strategies.

For one, the work I did enlightened my knowledge of diversity and inclusion. Prior to taking this class I hadn’t fully appreciated the degree and significance conversations on this subject had. I learned ways I could directly take what I learned and apply it in everyday realities. Furthermore learning about language helped reflect on my own experiences inspiring to want and engage in more meaningful conversations with others. It also helped explain the thought process that goes behind communication and dig a bit deeper into how the brain works. What this course helped me do is practice my writing skills and find ways in which I could get more comfortable in doing so. The templates we learned from TSIS and familiar/ friendly style of writing in our blog posts eased the anxiety I would often get before writing. Also because I was writing a lot more than usual, I found myself get into the swing of things (flow) instead of dreading and waiting last minute to submit writing assignments as I did in the past. It felt easier to engage and enter other conversations which I found myself do a lot through the comments and feedbacks we would give to our peers and later help reflect on my own work. It made me excited to see other people’s posts and compare/ see where their lines of interest fell similar or different. Likewise, it reassured me I was on the right path and understanding of what was being said and why we were saying things in return. Regarding audience, the rhetorical argumentative analysis we did throughout the course exposed me to a lot of different writing strategies for targeting interest groups. It served me as inspiration for my later research having seen many examples and analyze their success. Similarily understanding my audience helped shape what I was eventually going to include in my final project. I did this by imagining myself with no knowledge of the subject prior and trying to capture their attention through the text style, visual media, and overall structure of my project.

Just as understanding target audiences helped shaped my research, it equally guided what I wanted to deliver and say in my final assignment.  I was able to pick up different strategies for how to incorporate mixed media sources and use them to not only strengthen my argument but retain the reader’s attention and give them the freedom to look closer or further into subtopics. Finally, the greatest value I gained was becoming more confident in my abilities as a writer and public speaker because of the strategies I learned to communicate my thoughts across more effectively.

 

 

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Final Reflection

For my unit 2 project I researched a blend between the discrimination faced in the workplace and the underrepresentation of minorities in gifted programs. Although I wanted to dive deeply into both subjects I found that it would be easier to focus on the topic of minority gifted students. Not only was I able to fully research the project but I was able to explore the ideas and methods that could be used to solve some of the issues. When I was completing my presentation I applied skills from the course that incorporated clearly laying out information and ideas and broadening them to the readers as a whole. By precisely formatting my research I was able to truly convey to the readers my ideas and lay it out in a way that would compel them towards my ideas.

Not only was I able to lay out a presentation and research on a topic that I’m really passionate about but I was able to truly entice the readers towards my argument. Through this course I learned to adequately convey a message and share it with an audience looking for guidance. Through the use of articles, diagrams, and multiple slides I was able to show the readers how truly important the topic of racial bias is within the school place. Although the problem has been identified, there have been no true strides established in making schools more inclusive spaces in poor areas. Through the use of my research, minorities will have the resources and opportunities needed to create futures for themselves despite their opportunities.

Through giving and receiving feedback with my peers I was able to question and access my own work and reflect on the mistakes I made. I was also able to use the responses to improve my work and make the presentation more formatted to reaching critiques and an audience. Just by sharing my work with my peers I was able to interpret the reviews and specify my work more towards a specific audience. With the use of these ideas and writing tools I was able to perfect my writing and not only make it useful to myself and the individual reading it but to the audience of readers that will be interested in the topic in the future.

This assignment was valuable because the topic plays a monumental role towards the real injustices of the world. Children are continuously mis-valued in terms of education and although inequalities were constantly identified within the education programs it was important for me to learn them first hand. Students are constantly being misjudged because of their race and face bias in their education programs. Although I knew minority students were constantly unrepresented in gifted programs it was scary to see the true scale of students being kept from new opportunities. I learned how to take new information and the important things I learned and spread them on a large scale. It is important to know that in order to make change we must reflect on the issues within each problem and work towards making a positive change. I hope that with this assignment and with the work I’ve done I will be able to make vast improvements upon my writing and truly make a difference.

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Final Project

For my presentation I created a powerpoint centered towards schools with minority underrepresentation in their gifted programs. My presentation aims to provide information and opportunities for students with poor backgrounds to secure higher educations. I am able to lay out opportunities and different assessments for screening minority students and new methods on how to forgo racial bias within school systems. With these new methods schools will be able to ensure equal representation for all students and make schools more nourishing environments.

Final Presentation

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Dan final project

For my final project I have created a blog post with my intended audience being individuals who may not have given much attention to accent discrimination in their lives. The intent of my paper is to create awareness amongst these individuals so that they may identify situations where accent bias is present. I have done this by including a few stories from people who have suffered through scenarios of which they were discriminated against. I then included some information on why this may occur from a psychology standpoint and some various findings from studies of this topic.  A link to my PDF file is below

 

Thanks,

WRT 205 Final essay