Reading for today/Class

I apologize for not being in class today due to a family crisis.

The reading for today was very interesting to say the least. It seemed like a very well thought out merge between fiction and scientific writing (more fiction than science). Definitely very visually stimulating with phrases like "gleaming cathedral of science" and "glass doors". I could see myself in those spaces. The use of headings was very remeniscent of a scientific paper, but the paragraphs underneath felt more like short fiction or even narrative poetry. It opened my perception to another form of writing I never seen before. Also, the way it describes a type of scientific study or test on a subject but instead of data and scientific results it is a narrative.

It was a fabulous original piece. Something I would like to experiment with later in my writings.

Something Annoying

I just love when professors give you additional readings within a project you are working on and don't tell you. Then I love it even more when you try to find a link for it on their web site and it doesn't exist leaving you without any hope of trying to find it so you can complete a project (particularly an analysis project) properly.

Grant writing proposal

Grant writing has always been an interest to me for several reasons. First, I would like to learn how to get funding for my ideas like everyone else. Especially money one doesn't necessarily have to pay back. Second, learning to write effective grants would benifit me as I go into the workplace. I could end up working for a firm or an organization writing grant proposals such as at an university. They are writing grants all the time. Third, with this type of information I could start my own consulting firm and help others researching and developing grant proposals. This is an interesting topic one that I will have to research further before I make my final decision.

Journalism Reading

I found a big difference when comparing writing styles between the reading for today and the past two. The journalism piece was more to the point and it included clever little catch phrases like "supersize" to help reinforce its point. Also, it was much more cynical in context. Especially toward the end of the second page.
On a side note, I find it really interesting how the style becomes more relaxed as we go from the progression of technical writing, to academic writing, to journalistic writing this far. In a way it makes me wonder how these types of styles became labeled to the certain types of writing. Why can't the journalistic style be used for academic writing? Who decided what type goes to what? These are the questions I started to ask myself after reading these articles.

Business Plan Proposal

I have given writing a proposal for either a non-profit or for-profit business plan a lot of thought. the advantages is that by doing this idea I will have knowledge in researching information to formulate and design effective business plans. This would be really benificial down the road. I could use this knowledge to take my own ideas and develop them into business plans. I could use the knowledge to help others refine thiers or even help them create a new one. This would open up more possibilities because I could start a consulting firm, or work as a freelance consultant helping businesses restructure thier business plans or even help them gather research if they are planning to go a different direction. I could even write my own book on how to create an effective business plan (if I got good enough at creating them). This idea looks very promising, but before I commit, I still want to run through my other options.

Todays Reading

I found todays reading interesting from an English students perspective. As a student with a concentration in writing, this article presented a subject that presented some of the same writing problems I often have so it was really interesting to see his progression with his writing through his schooling.
What I didn't like was the choices they made such as the school they chose to get a subject and the fact that they didn't use a student entering a university from high school. I think if you are going to analyze conventions of writing students then you should start at the beginning and see the foundation of these students backgrounds. Their test subject had an already vast background in writing, while studying students entering a university or even high school would have been more interesting and intriguing. Especially when you are trying to solve problems with the writing convention used by more experience students or even professionals. By studying the students learning and beginning to develope writing conventions, it would become easier to pin point problem areas whether it was in the teaching style, the way the student processes information and translates it in their writing, or something else. I just feel the designers of this study chose something easy to do rather than going for more benificial research with younger less experienced subjects.

Decisions

Thinking back to deciding what type of proposal we are supposed to do, and I gving 5 different types in class, it is really time for me to, like Professor Amidon said, to decide. The problem is, I want to do all of them or at least learn how to do all of them. But, like everyone else, I have to choose one.
So, my solution, is to form a method and research each idea's advantage and disadvantage, for me, and use my findings to hopefully narrow down, if not decide, which idea to do. In doing so, I am going to share this on my upcoming blog entries. Starting with my next entry I will look at the not-for-profit and for-profit business plan ideas as one of the possible ones for me.

The way I research

Since we are talking about researching, I thought I would describe the process in which I do research. This way other people can see how I do it, and it may help them in doing research as well as if they do it a different way that is easier, then they can offer that information to me.

I go about researching something very systematically. An example is I want information on Dacshund breed types, life spans, and coloring. Usually, I go to the internet first because I have found that most information is easily accessible through it. I use Google and break what I am looking for down into sections such as "Dacshund breed types" then "Dacshund life spans", and "Dacshund coloring" if I need to. Something as factual as this usually brings up encyclopedias and other factual based sites that have all the information together.

If I'm looking for more abstract ideas then I have to do a little more searching, but I still use the breaking down into sections method. I use this method when I go into the databases through the library to find more scientific and scholarly articles for term papers, and other projects.

This is what I do. If it helps others great, if someone has a better way of doing things please let me know what you do. That would really help me out.

A New Beginning

This is the first of (what I hope) will be a ongoing weblog that moves past the class this was designed for.