For this blog post you are doing an SRR: summary, respond, reflect. First quickly summarize what happened in Ballenger's #4. Next respond to it, in other words, what did you learn; what applies to your own research; what was your reaction to learning these things. And last, you are going to reflect on the chapter. What connections can you make between other readings, class discussions, and drafting of your own essay?
***He discusses two ways to respond to inquiry-based research. Remember for your essay, you are NOT creating an argument.
Shoot for 250-350 words and engage with your peers.
Due: Monday, May 6, 2013 by class time.
I don’t think I am alone when I say that “getting into the draft” proves challenging and difficult for many writers. In fact, Ballenger devotes an entire chapter of his book to explore the difficulties of drafting a research paper. Ballenger conveniently divides the drafting process into several steps. First a writer must decide whether to choose an explorative or argumentative inquiry on which to base their paper. The type of inquiry question they choose to answer determines the structure of essay. An exploratory essay, like the one assigned to us by Dr. KT, uses a delayed thesis structure where the writer never tries to claim or disclaim anything. They simply state their thesis after researching available data and evaluating its importance. Before jumping into the meat of the draft a writer should closely examine their paper’s tentative thesis to ensure that they include relevant data. Ballenger wraps up his chapter, “Getting into the Draft,” by highlighting the importance of forming effective introductions and conclusions. An effective introduction and conclusion not only grabs the reader’s attention, but it gives the reader a new lens through which to view a particular topic. Writing for and finding common ground with the audience helps to further captivate them and keep them interested in your particular topic.
ReplyDeleteBallenger’s chapter introduced me to several snippets of information that I find exceptionally useful. The tips for writing an introduction he provides will help me as I beginning drafting my paper. I usually write boring, generic leads, but Ballenger gives some tips for spicing up an introduction, such as starting with an anecdote, scene, comparison, quote, or announcement. Also, I will make more effort to portray my topic in a new light for my audience.
The biggest connection I can make between this chapter and to former class discussions is the importance of remembering the audience. Blah, blah, blah, of course remembering audience is important, but why? Ballenger showed the importance of knowing the audience in his section “Writing for the Reader’s Interest.” This section allowed my to see the relationship between understanding audience and successful writing.
I agree with what you say about the importance of the audience. I think Ballenger stresses this because without the ability to capture an audience, nobody would read your work, and if nobody reads your work, then does it even matter? In a lot of ways an audience gives our research papers a purpose so I am going to try to make sure my intro is really captivating too!
DeleteHannah you are definitely not alone. After all the searching, note taking, researching, background work, outlines, and more writing the first couple sentences is the hardest thing. I probably rewrite the first few about 10 times before I decide on one, but over time I have realized that it really does not matter how right or perfect the first sentences are because after writing it I always go back and change those sentences. Because after I have written my whole essay, I have a fresh and much better idea of exactly how I want to start my essay.
DeleteBallenger’s #4 has definitely cleared up many of the stresses that I have felt as I begin to start the draft of my paper. In this chapter, Ballenger talks about the right way to go into writing your draft. He walks you through the steps from first emphasizing the importance of starting early, choosing either argumentative or exploratory (we are doing this one), organizing the draft, and talks about the different steps to go through as you write the draft. One of the main pieces I recognized from this chapter was the time Ballenger spends going over preparing to write the draft. While some people think that the pressure of a close deadline pushes them to write their best, there is a greater feeling of relief afterwards than satisfaction. This chapter provides different examples on how to prepare, like the dialogue with Dave, which is an exercise that helps guide you to what message you are attempting to convey by asking leading questions on your topic. Ballenger also gives different structures for organizing your draft, suggesting which structure works best for the type of essay, argumentative or exploratory.
ReplyDeleteIn my own writing, I am unfortunately one of the many people who end up writing the paper close to the deadline. After reading this chapter however, I feel more motivated to get an early start on my writing. Ballenger breaks down the draft process into different steps which makes working on it at different times more manageable. Going through a checklist of steps will also help me refine my ideas better and make sure I will have all of the information I need. Another difficult aspect of the writing process is organizing the piece, based on Ballenger’s recommendations; a delayed thesis structure is better suited for my paper.
The connection I made with our in class discussions and this chapter is importance of the purpose. In this chapter, Ballenger talks about S.O.F.T which stands for say one fricking thing. If an academic research paper has no real purpose, than the entire essay becomes pointless. The whole reason for writing this paper is to elaborate on some thesis that you have made this main idea is something that is developed throughout the entire research process and even when writing your draft. This chapter made me think more about the different aspects involved in the writing process.
What I realized is that we always panic over nothing. Writing needs an outline and an organized schedule. Ballenger said that even though pressure is a great motivator, one of this chapter's goals were to stop students from procrastinating.
DeleteI agree with Abdul in the sense that outlining is a great way to stay ahead of the paper and not get caught behind the deadlines. outlining is also good because its helpful to organize your thoughts in a logical way and be able to look at exactly what you know. It also helps with the structure of any writing and breaking up the information logically.
DeleteI agree with Abdul-
DeleteWe've been hyping ourselves up for this essay all quarter. All of that can freak us out... or not. This essay is really just the final step. We've been prepping for this all quarter, and like Ballenger says, starting early is the key!
I always struggle to start a piece of writing. I used to struggle with coming up with a creative introduction and now I’m struggling to begin a research essay. When it comes to research, as what Ballenger mentioned, some of us might feel that we don’t have enough information to start the research where others may feel that they are overwhelmed with the amount of information they have. The amount of information you have is connected to the difficulty of creating the structure of the research essay; more information leads to more difficult structure. Ballenger mentions an insightful researcher, McPhee, who uses the game of Monopoly to organize himself and create the structure. In order to start on the draft, Ballenger suggests that the researcher needs to figure out if his research is going to be an argument, which has a question-claim structure or an explorative research, which has a delayed thesis structure. Since Professor Taczak assigned me an explorative research essay, I’ll be using a delayed thesis structure. Ballenger provides many helpful ideas to start the drafting of the research paper. He suggests starting with an anectode, scene, profile, etc., therefore, choosing a lead that will lay the ground for the draft. He also suggests that the audience is important when writing a research essay when a part of his chapter states the importance of writing for the reader’s interest. Moreover, he provides helpful information on how to handle quotes and writing with sources.
ReplyDeleteBallenger’s piece helped me to stop panicking over this first draft. He presents a subtle and easy to follow guide into writing the first draft. He stresses the importance of writing a creative introduction and a good ending, which I’ll be trying to do in my own research essay. He also stresses the importance of the audience so now I know that I’m not writing this research just for myself and I guess that’s why Professor Taczak told us to choose journals to write to.
Many connections can be found in Ballenger’s piece. The biggest thing for me is providing a guideline into a certain genre of writing. I don’t remember the names of some of the past readings but I remember that whenever we wanted to do a main assignment in this course, we panicked and those readings helped us to relax and start from the right place. One of those readings was for the Portfolio, if I’m not mistaken. This structure also reminds me of our class discussions; whenever things get complicated, Professor Taczak starts to ask us simple questions and work from there to get a bigger picture of the topic.
I am also one of those people who worries to much about a fist draft. I tend to think of the paper as a whole instead of breaking up into different pieces. Audience is always important to be thinking about when writing, they are the ones reading your piece, so it is good to write it with them in mind
DeleteAbdul- I agree with your final reflection section in that Dr. KT will often facilitate a discussion for us if we are lost in information. Often this will help us make sense of the reading and give us a starting point. For me as well, the beginning of the paper is the most difficult part of the writing process. A guideline gives me the structure and motivation to begin my paper. I too thought that Ballenger outlined an effective way to begin drafting. Hopefully it will get me to start my paper earlier, as I have been known to procrastinate quite a bit. Nice blog, I liked the way you divided your information. It was easy to follow and conducive to discussion.
DeleteI am definitely a person who struggles to start on any writing activity ahead of time. I can never come up with anything to say or to get onto paper which leaves me nowhere to start my paper. I like your second paragraph about how Ballenger helped you to stop panicking over the first draft. He lays it out perfectly in easy to follow steps. Nice blog post
DeleteBallenger’s #4 is a chapter about staying ahead in writing and the process research writing follows. He first talks about developing an argument for writing. Utilizing research as evidence is also brought up by Ballenger to support an argument. This research should be used as proof according to him. Ballenger also writes about the delayed thesis structure. This method of writing incorporates a research question similar to the inquiry-based assignment. After the question is devised, he then states that the next logical step is organize ones thinking, touching on what’s been said about the topic and what new material can be included.
ReplyDeleteI think the delayed thesis structure is an interesting tool especially when it comes to my topic. The idea of organizing thoughts into what has been said and into what should be said seems like an interesting approach to an inquiry-based essay. This could especially be helpful in my case because all of the articles I have read so far do not touch on the children’s perspective of ADHD and whether or not they think they have it. The information from the interview, the observations and the surveys also fall under this category and will do well along with the lab reports and other articles surrounding the issue of ADHD.
What Ballenger wrote links up to some of the ideas Vats had when he wrote about the rhetor. With both of these writers, the belief is that the rhetor or writer holds most of the power surrounding the research topic. Ballenger states that the writer is in control of what is included in the essay and Vats describes that the rhetor impacts the situation. I agree with both of these theorists because the rhetor is the only person in my opinion that holds all of the cards. The rhetor can include or exclude whatever they want allowing for them to be in control of the situation.
Paul,
DeleteI really liked how you applied the delayed thesis structure to your topic; it makes total sense! You cannot come up with a thesis yet because the data you need you have not found (the data about what the kids think) this is very similar to my topic and I think that I will use the delayed thesis structure too. I also agree with you that Ballinger and Vatz has similar ideas when it comes to the power of the rhetor. However, Do you think their ideas are the exact same?
Summary:
ReplyDeleteBallenger discusses the various techniques of beginning to write the essay, or as he puts it, “getting into the draft.” He begins with S.O.F.T. (say one freaking thing) and explaining the ways in which theses should be formed. Various organization techniques are then covered before specific, in-depth discussions tips provide direction for writing the actual paper (including citing sources, relating to the audience, and writing leads/conclusions).
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Response:
Writing an “exploratory paper” isn’t something I’ve ever done. That’s what has been worrying me most about this assignment; if I can’t argue something, what am I supposed to do? Ballenger cleared this up, saying we should be “less concerned with trying to get []our readers to think or do something than you are with helping them to appreciate what you find interesting or complicated about your topic.” I’m still unclear about how I’ll accomplish this, but it’s good to see the purpose spelled out like that! The description of the delayed thesis structure helped with this as well. The idea of a thesis opening doors instead of closing them is completely foreign to me, but it’s also pretty cool.
The discussion of whether or not to use first person in the research essay was also very helpful. I’m used to bringing myself into my papers, and I was worried about how I’d avoid that for this assignment. But with Ballenger’s guidance, I think I’ll stick with first person. Especially since my topic is so socially oriented, and because I have personal narratives to incorporate into it, using first person style is actually probably beneficial.
A last quick detail-- I love the idea of starting or concluding with a relevant quotation! In my public speaking class we talk all the time about how important openings and closings are, and I would’ve never thought to use the creative methods suggested by Ballenger in a formal research essay.
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Reflection:
I agree with Hannah on this one: audience, audience, audience. (Ballenger stresses this in terms of “writing for reader interest.”) Especially for topics like mine which are probably not so thrilling for most people, really hooking the audience is the key to writing a good essay.
I share your concern about the lack of argumentative structure in this essay. I feel like I should attempt to prove a point, and my entire essay should center around proving this point. That is not the case with this essay. I was not entirely sure how to go about writing this type of "exploratory paper." Ballenger gave some tools to help us write exploratory papers. (Ex: delayed-structure thesis, getting readers to appreciate something insightful from the paper, etc...)
ReplyDeleteI actually found Ballenger’s chapter 4 to be really helpful. He clearly explains the differences between a question claim structure (our research paper’s structure) and an argument structure. I am definitely on the same page as Abdul. I have always struggled or spent the most time on trying to figure out how to start the paper. Once that happens, the rest of the paper flows pretty easily. Ballinger gives three examples of how you could start your paper: provide factual background, give an anecdote, or cite experts or other observers. Personally, this gave me the idea to use an anecdote. I am very connected to my research because I am a runner. I also don’t want to come off as biased, though. I have loved running and hated it at the same time so I think this struggle could make a good personal story that would be interesting and a great way to lead into my research. Ballinger also lays out a very clear outline. An outline is most of the work when writing a research paper. He gives examples of how to review the literature that is already present on your topic as well as how to properly explain the significance of your claim. After looking through Ballinger’s outline along with what we have done in class to prepare for the research essay, I feel ready to write this paper.
ReplyDeleteBallinger’s article brought a lot of things full circle for me. By that, I mean that I realized that everything we have been doing and blogging about until this point had one main goal. Of course, I knew that at some point everything would come full circle and I have been making connections along the way, but this is where I finally saw it. Ballinger talks about the importance of your audience, your purpose, your structure, your outline, making connections and so on. From the beginning of this course we have been investigating key terms in order to figure out what is important to us personally, as well as what should be apart of our key terms in order to write in the right genre. Our readings on keys terms, genre theory, discourse and textual analysis and so on have guided us to this point. We have a voice, we have a bag of key terms to keep in mind, we have the tools to write in this particular genre and we have sufficient preparation from class discussions to write awesome research papers. Now we just have to apply everything ☺
Ballenger’s #4 discusses how to effectively write a draft of a research paper. A lot of what he says makes sense. He talks about S.O.F.T (Say One Freaking Thing), and that makes a lot of sense. Too many papers fail because they try to be more than they make out to be. One concise thesis is thousands of times better than a number of incoherent thoughts. He talks about different thesis structures. The main consensus between his structures is that it starts with a question about wanting to know more, and leads through previous materials to come to a new idea. This makes sense with the idea of a research paper that we’re working on in this class. There were a few things I didn’t like about it, though. Mainly, his idea of why some people prefer to procrastinate and do the draft all at once. While yes, a looming deadline can act as the force that pushes people to write, people who find this type of writing effective, I think, have a different reason why it works for them. For me, at least, I like to write my first draft in one long session, whether or not it’s right at the deadline. This is because I write narratively, and if I stop and try to come back, my narrative becomes disjointed. If you ever see any sort of work that I write that I stop and restart in the middle, you would be able to tell exactly where I stopped. This also means that it can be apparent when I make an edit to my writing, but I can usually work around an already constructed narrative to fit in what I need to add. Otherwise, I liked the paper, and it seems to relate to the class well. The way Ballenger lays out the construction of an essay is similar to the way we’ve been discussing this assignment in class. I can take the lessons from this to improve both my essay, and to help improve how I go about approaching future writing assignments.
ReplyDeleteLewis,
DeleteI think you got a good grasp of the essay and understood how what Ballenger said can apply to this class and the research essay we are writing. I liked what you said about your disagreement with Ballenger, I think I approach writing in a similar way. I usually feel like I need to get all my thoughts down in one long session, then go back and make the appropriate changes. If I stop and go too much though, I lose what I am saying.
Upon too many occasions have I heard the words, "getting started is the hardest part", and as cliché as it may be, it most definitely is in my writing process. The deadline looming approach is the one I take to writing. The biggest procrastinator ever right here at your service, and so the deadline kicks me into gear. Ballenger does make some great points that I hope to learn from though. In his article, he tries to explain the right way to write a paper. He talks about getting started a week or two before the deadline, deciding what kind of paper to write given the research you’ve done (argumentative or exploratory), and so on. A main focus of his is the organization of the draft. Although the five-paragraph essay is often frowned upon at this stage in our writing development, he praises it as a great way to organize your information due to hierarchy. So it’s a good place to start, and expand from there using a better, more in-depth style to your paper. I had learned that you need a thesis to be upfront and use your essay to answer this. I now know about the exploratory essay. The delayed thesis structure is one thing I’m going to take from Ballenger.
ReplyDeleteThe exploratory essay portion of his article is what I’d like to talk about. We all picked topics that we were interested in, but we weren’t trying to answer a yes or no. The most interesting thing I got out of this idea is that you use the information gathered to answer a question, rather than the question driving your research. In that sense, the research is one of the most critical parts in being able to write a good essay because it is the base.
When Ballenger talks about writing to “Dave”, it helped to make the connection of how important the audience is. The idea of using your essay as a way to relay information to a single individual is an interesting strategy in how to really focus on the audience instead of getting swept away in your own writing and forgetting this is directed at certain people.
In Ballenger’s piece he provides an excellent basis on the foundations of drafting. I have struggled for years with starting my essays; I just never feel the need to begin an assignment until I am in a time crunch. Luckily, Ballenger outlines specific methods in which to structure an inquiry-based essay. The two types of essays that he describes are Argumentative and Exploratory. For WRIT 1133 we will be focusing on the elements characteristic of an exploratory essay. In order to describe an exploratory essay Ballenger states, “You are less concerned with trying to get readers to think or do something than you are with helping them to appreciate what you find interesting or complicated about your topic” (Ballenger 144). On the other hand, an argumentative essay attempts to prove or persuade a certain point or perspective to the audience. Ballenger goes on to describe the “delayed thesis structure” and the “question-claim structure.” The delayed thesis is associated with an exploratory essay; it is utilized when it is more effective to structure one’s essay with the facts and observations first, and then a conclusion. On the contrary, a “question-claim structure” seeks to develop and introduce a claim or question first, and then make claims about that question, reinforced with facts and evidence. Ballenger continues to reinforce the importance of an effective introduction and conclusion. Although they should contain valuable information, it is more effective to produce a clear and concise introduction and conclusion, rather than become “wordy” and fill space.
ReplyDeleteI was astounded at how much Ballenger’s chapter related to my own writing process. All of the methods he described are applicable in the structuring of my paper. I would definitely describe myself as the type to “thrive on a looming deadline.” However, hope is not lost. Ballenger referenced specific methods of structuring the essay, which will allow me to develop a starting point and have motivation to write my essay. I believe that I will utilize a “delayed thesis structure” for my essay because it is associated with an exploratory essay.
Ballenger’s methods of beginning a draft are similar to how we begin class discussions. Often we can not make sense of all the information we have just read. Dr. KT will then provide a structure for us to process and interpret the information we have gained. Through these smaller steps, it is simpler to make sense of the data, and provides a starting point. Much like the “delayed thesis structure” provides a method of organizing our essay, our class discussion activities provide a more cohesive and effective way to facilitate a discussion and understand the material.
Ballenger places a lot of emphasis on exactly this, and how tough it is to start drafting your essay. The first step is choosing what type of essay you will be writing, which can sometimes be dictated by your audience. The main two are exploratory and inquiry. An inquiry always starts with a question and the goal of the essay is to answer that question. As for an exploratory essay is one that you might not have to conclude anything, for the purpose is to take research and show what as been done in that field, and if you can come to a consensuses that is fine. Then you can just say that this topic needs more research in this area. In the end the take away point I got from Ballenger was that you need to be flexible with your writing, meaning that your question might change or that you might have to edit your introduction, but doing so makes the paper strong. Your writing needs to be more like thinking, it needs to be more sporadic, so if you decided you really want write about one part, you can and adjust your question.
ReplyDeleteWhat I took away from Ballenger was writing ends. He suggests that you could end your paper with referring to a figure if it was a scientific paper, which I had never considered before. He then goes onto talk about how the conclusion can be what ever you want it to be and that you should not feel limited to summarizing the answer to your question, but come up with creative way of leaving your audience with an increased interest in the topic.
The biggest connection I made was remembering the purpose, why are you writing this essay, who are you appealing too, what do they want to hear, and why do they want to hear it. You have to consider all those things if you want to have a well written essay that grasps your audience attention.
I found this chapter to be extremely helpful. I have always struggled to start the actual writing process and usually I stare at the blank word document for a good twenty minutes before I put anything down. However, after reading this chapter I feel that I now have some good ideas and approaches to use in order to make the whole writing process much easier.
ReplyDeleteFirst, Ballinger emphasized the difference between and argumentative essay and exploratory essay. Based on the research that I have done so far, I think it would make sense if I did an argumentative piece. I think the most helpful section of this chapter was the one titled, Organizing the Draft. In this section he gave us important points that should be included in a research paper. He also talked about delaying the thesis, which means that the question you are posing is derived from the research not the other way around. Sometimes, this method can open more doors and questions instead of answers.
I think the section about the delayed thesis will be most helpful to me in writing my paper. In past research papers, I have always come up with my thesis first and derived all of my facts and research around that question. This has sometimes proved difficult when the research does not support what I initially thought. However, using the delayed thesis method, I think I could have a much easier time writing my paper. Also, I always struggle with my introduction paragraph. I think that in this paper I will try to use some of Ballinger’s suggestions and I will start with a quote, story, etc. to really hood the audience.
Speaking of audience… this part of the chapter really related to what we have done in the class so far. According to Ballinger, we need to write for the interest of the reader. This means that even if my topic is not the most interesting to some people, I need to somehow find a way to make it really thrilling! Just like Vatz said, I as the rhetor has the power to influence my audience. In this paper I will have to keep that in mind so that I can write an interesting paper for everyone to read.
Ballenger discusses the importance of beginning the writing process early. Ballenger’s #4 begins with “It’s not 2 a.m. Your paper is not due in 12 hours but in one or two weeks.” I found this quote a fantastic way to begin his chapter. Ballenger goes on to explain how one of the hardest parts of the writing process is just buckling down and getting started. It begins with whether or not the essay is argumentative or exploratory. Moving forward from this, Ballenger discusses how drafting and organizing your thoughts is an effective way of moving towards the actual writing. Beginning this process even just a week before the deadline would be an improvement for me. Getting starting is always the most difficult part of the writing process. I never can get my ideas onto paper which leaves me nowhere to start. I usually wait till the last possible moment before I begin (Kind of like how this is being written 40 minutes before class starts…) But I see this as an opportunity to improve my writing. For our inquiry based research essay, it is an exploratory essay because we are not presenting an argument; instead we are presenting a topic and moving through research to come to a conclusion. A delayed thesis structure which does not have a formal thesis at the beginning of the paper but instead coming to a summary statement at the end of the essay. This is exactly the process we will be using for our inquiry research essay.
ReplyDeleteThe connections that I made with our class were that when anything in the writing process becomes overly complicated that we need to break things into simple pieces which are easy for the class to understand. An example of this in class was when we were discussing what rhetorical situation and nobody could agree on a definition. We broke rhetorical situation down into just symbols instead of words which made it incredibly easy to understand. Processes like this one are helpful to the class or audience in most situations.
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ReplyDeleteIn Ballenger’s #4, he talks about two different types of organization in inquiry based research paper: argument based or exploratory. In an argument based essay, the author presents a thesis for the topic and uses the paper to argue the point and conclude why it is correct. In an exploratory essay, the author presents a topic, but then explores all the different aspects of the research and concludes with something resembling a thesis. This structure is known as a “delayed thesis structure.” There is no formal thesis placed at the beginning but rather, at the end, the conclusion acts somewhat like a thesis but less definitively as it is more of a summary of what was argued. I learned about this approach formally as it applies to this research project. It helped me to understand the scope of the project and exactly how to write it, as it is an approach that I am not familiar with. Normally, I feel that I need to start my papers with a thesis statement, as this is how I have developed as a writer. Connections can be made to other readings with the similarities of aspects to consider in the writing process. Ballenger focuses on the importance of remembering the audience of your paper. Ballenger also focuses on maintaining a concise purpose in the paper, S.O.F.T, as he refers to it – “say one freaking thing.” Ballenger’s text, along with other readings from this quarter, show me different ways to approach writing and research, and Ballenger’s was particularly useful in getting into gear for the research paper as it showed how to approach this delayed thesis style paper.
ReplyDelete