My inclass assignment

Assignment from Box 17
The doctor’s office was covered in beige from ceiling to floor. Even the countertops were the same color. The color made me nauseous looking at the same constant color the whole time while sitting in an undersized chair in the corner next to the door. This was convenient to torcher any husband waiting for their wife because every time someone opened the door my knees would hit my chin. At least that was what it felt like.
While I tried to not look at the gross beige I focused on the ugly green border that circled the top part of the wall. I tried to stay calm but my left leg kept shaking uncontrollably. I was so nervous. I didn’t have any idea what a babies heartbeat sounded like. So, I sat in my little corner and waited in this nauseous colored room waiting to hear what was going to be a product of me.
Finally, what seemed like hours, the doctor came in with my wife, who was holding her stomach, and propped her up on the medical bed? I stood up almost instantly as they opened the door and I ended up falling back into the seat hitting my tailbone against the back of the chair. I didn’t feel it until I got out of the doctors office later.
The doctor was a female with dark brown hair, similar to my wife’s, and she introduced herself as someone. I can’t remember the name because my heart was beating in my ears. She pulled out an old plastic brown box hooked up to an old 1950’s microphone. I looked at my wife and smiled as assuredly as I could because she looked more scared than I felt. I went over to her and took her hand holding it gently letting her know it was going to be okay.
The doctor rubbed some clear gooey lotion on my wife’s lower belly and turned a knob on the brown box causing a hissing noise. We both held our breath as the doctor put the microphone to the lotion and began moving it around looking for a specific noise. All my wife and I heard was a sound of someone moving skin over a microphone until a rapidly moving pulse came into the background. As the doctor moved the microphone slowly the pulse grew and soon consumed the room. It was so strong and vibrant that the brown box began to slightly vibrate in the doctor’s hand. It was at this moment, all my anxiety and fears vanished at the sound of the rapid heartbeat.
I began jumping up and down like a little school boy who just won the kickball game for his team. I felt pride, not for me, but for the little life growing inside my wife. My cheeks began to hurt from the gleaming smile permanently smeared on my face. I bent down and kissed my wife on the forehead and then her lips telling her I loved her so much. Then I looked into her eyes and that changed everything.
My emotional high went from twelve, on a ten point scale, to a five when I saw her thoughts. Her big brown eyes were expanding exponentially, not out of total happiness, but from freaking out. I didn’t say anything until we left the office. I asked her what was wrong with her after hearing the heartbeat. She turned to me with that same look and said
“I don’t want to be pregnant during the summer. It’s going to be awful. I’m going to be hot and sweaty and hot….”
She went on for a little longer while I pulled her close to comfort her. She rested her head on my chest and sobbed a little. I knew what was going on. The last part of the pregnancy was going to happen in July and August, the hottest parts of the summer and she was going to be the biggest. I held her close and reassured her that I would do everything I could to make sure she was comfortable during that time. She made me promise, not a serious hold you to your life promise, but a promise that would make her feel better. Then we kissed and parted. I went to my car feeling like I just won the lottery. It was the best feeling in the world, until I sat down and felt the searing pain from where my tail bone hit the back of the chair. I drove back to work in pain, but smiling knowing it was worth it.

Quantitative vs. Qualitative

Comparing the two exercises I have found quantitative research to be easier to follow and understand. This could be from my background in psychological research, but even in doing that some of the research was qualitative. This brings up some interesting questions about these two types of research for me. My qualitative research assignment was in the field of language and teaching practices. I found it extremely difficult to follow and understand what the researchers were studying. This made me think about the writing involved in the actual paper itself. I thought about different feilds writing in different ways. I'm sure this concept isn't new, in fact, that is evident in writing between different types of creative writing. What I have found is that the style of writing may not always be the right type when reporting qualitative or quantitative research. I feel that if quantitative or qualitative research is being reported, a more scientific or technical type of writing style should be followed in research papers. It organizes information in a much clearer and more concrete way. Anyway, I thought I would share.

My proposal

Because my proposal is surrounding my picture book, it has caused me to go back and reevaluate my picture book again. I'm doing this to go over the focus of what the book is about and who my target audience is. By doing this, it is helping me to narrow who my target audience is for my proposal.

My proposal

This is my proposal I turned in. I thought I would post it so I could get feedback from other people in class.

I am going to do my research proposal on publishing my picture book. The book is already done and would be the best choice to work on because one of the professions I would like to be is a children’s author. This would be a good opportunity for me to get familiar with the process of researching for children publication.

The type of research I would do for publishing a children’s picture book would be varied. First, I would start with researching the proper market that would fit my picture book. For example, I would want to research what area of the market would be interested in my book from highest to lowest. Since my picture book is about a dog and the proper ways to take care of it, I would find the niche’ that would fit this subject matter the best and then look for the second and so on. This way I have a good starting point to go from when I go to market the book to the public.

Second, I would research publishers the same way. I would find the publishers that deal with the most criteria of the subject matter. In this case I would find publishers that deal in children picture books, animals, specific subject matter about training, and proper care of an animal. From here, I would go to the next group of publishers that didn’t have as many criteria as the first group. This way I have a good starting point to go from again.

Third, I would research grants and/or agencies that would be interested in funding the book for educational or other purposes. I would start by finding the proper process to find grants, and then go through the process of finding the appropriate ones and applying for them. As far as agencies I would start with agencies that would meet as many criteria as possible. These would be animal shelters, animal activists, or others. This process would take a long time and would require a completely different proposal, but I think it would be worth looking into.

These three can be modified and combined to produce the best options for me to take in getting the book published. Also, the research is so diversified that it will help in the other areas I was interested in developing proposals for. I figure if I am going to do this type of research for the first time, it should be on something that I truly love and put a lot of passion into.

If anyone has any ideas, suggestions, or comments they would be most welcome.