Religion: a Paper

It would appear that all I know how to blog about is up coming papers I have to write! Well that's alright because this is now a certifiably critical portion of my writing process. So what's the topic of this term's paper? I don't know! The basic prompt is to research and write on "a topic about which you want to be clear concerning the LDS position".  What that topic will be for me remains to be seen! (Any ideas???) For your entertainment the rest of the 2 pages of assignment go something like this....

Art of Science: A Research Report

*For those of you following previous posts on my struggles to write this paper here is the closer you've been looking for! Enjoy!

I.                     INTRODUCTION

“This work is organized around the assumption that professionally trained people have non-verbalized thoughts worth publishing.” [1]

In recent years visual aids have accompanied the written word more frequently. This is especially true in scientific, engineer, and other technical writing. Technical writers make use of visuals because they work in visual fields, and many of the ideas that they have to communicate are best 'seen' and not 'read'. "Graphics of various kinds play a major role in technical writing, often presenting data and ideas more efficiently and precisely than words." [2]

Writing in Engineering:some-what-not-really-final draft

A continuation of the research paper I am writing on the topic of visuals in technical writing.

Abstract
 In the engineering and technological sciences researchers use the written word to communicate processes and ideas to their peers and validate their findings. Central to that communication is the use of diagrams, drawings, and other visual aids. Visuals not only communicate the data found in the process of research, but they can also show relationships,trends, the experimental process itself, and details of the machines and instrumentation used. Although visual communication in the technological sciences extends beyond pure research, this paper will focus mostly on the addition of visuals to research paper. This paper aims to foremost teach how to appropriately use visuals, and secondarily convince the reader of the centrality of visuals to the technical communicator.

Index Terms: Data Communication, Image Communication, Writing,

Writing in Engineering: Proposal

Since my last blog post I have interrupted my writing process with many mighty adventures which will hopefully fill a blog post soon to come. In the mean time my writing professor has instructed that I actually get around to writing this research paper. To this end I have written up the proposal for the project, and will be turning it in tomorrow. If you would like to view said paper I have put it online as Google Doc because the required format just doesn't fit into that of the post. I have put a brief outline here for those only mildly interested.

Writing in Engineering: Bibliography

What follows is the beginning of an annotated bibliography I began as I research a paper I am writing for an Honors class at BYU. The topic for the paper is a research paper that addresses some aspect of writing within your discipline. I have chosen engineering/technical fields in general, and am focusing on visuals. Any thoughts, comments, or resources are greatly appreciated.

IEEE: Ex) J. K. Author, “Title of chapter in the book,” in Title of His Published Book, xth ed. City of Publisher, Country if not USA: Abbrev. of Publisher, year, ch. x, sec. x, pp. xxx–xxx. 

[1] T.E. Pearsall, "Think Visually," The Elements of Technical Writing, 2nd ed. Needham Heights: Allyn & Bacon, 2001, ch.6, pp. 49-65.

- "Graphics of various kinds play a major role in technical writing, often presenting data and ideas more efficiently and precisely than words."(49) Consistent caption placement (49) Photos w/ rulers effectively show scales. (51) Site/annotate all photos. (51) Minimize extraneous detail. (53) Easier to focus and annotate drawings. (54) Flowcharts show process well. (57) Use both simple and complex charts, most of the interpretation will be done in the accompanying text. (60) Graphs summarize, show treands and relationships well. "Bar and pie graphs show well the relationships among data. Line graphs are superior to bar graphs for showing the shapes of data." Line graphs show trends well, best for technical audiances only. (62)

Sharing theses: Audiances and tutors

This is a response to this post by Gideon Burton. I am the writing tutor he mentions in his post. This started as a comment on the post and then morphed to email, and finally post of my own as I learned exactly how much I had to say on the subject.

This is the longest post I've actually read all the way through! Very engaging. I loved hearing what Brian Jackson had to say.

The back of the shirt I just designed
for the Writing Fellows. Look for them
on campus.

We actually sort of talked about many of the points he brought up in my tutoring class the other day. We had just read an essay by Kenneth A. Bruffee called, "Peer Tutoring and the Conversation of Mankind", in which he talks, in part, about the benefits of peer tutors in writing and in general. (I work with Brigham Young University's Writing Fellows program.)


Our in class discussion focused around our roles as tutors as we interact with our students. We concluded that we (the tutors) are the solution to this problem posed by Brian," They do not have a vested interest in the outcome of the paper, nor do they know the ways of making knowledge in the community of practice--unless the tweethis is directed to other members of the class." 


Before tutoring a class the Fellows spend time with the professor gettting to know the format conventions, and the specifics of the assignment for the class, so that we can approach the papers as an informed audience. It is true that we get paid whether the students get As or Fs, but the nature of most of the Fellows is such that we actually care about helping each student and their writing improve. Therefore we (the tutors) provide an audience not only with a vested interest, but also with the know-how to provide useful feedback.


The class that I am currently working with is ME 363: Early Instrumentation, not surprisingly this is not the sort of class that doesn't exactly involve the writing and perfecting of theses. However, as a tutor I think that given the opportunity I would encourage students to "tweet" their theses, especially to each other. Feedback is an important part of improving the writing of anyone. (That's why we have jobs!)

I also know that several of my fellow students take issue with letting others into their writing process. They are stuck in the mode of only presenting to the world a finished product. But by our own admission, the tutoring process works best when you let some one else look at a draft and give you insightful feedback.

For those that can't/won't sit down with a tutor, tweeting theses could work as an alternate. 

My Writing Process

*The following is a rough draft of a paper I have written for my teaching writing class. The purpose of the assignment is to reflect/describe my writing process. Thoughts and comments appreciated!*

Never the End

As we age, undoubtedly our lives see some progress. Evidenced in nearly all areas of our lives, progress takes a special meaning for me in the development of my writing process. Although many people claim rectilinear progression in the development of their writing process I claim an elliptical progression that has brought my process, not quality, near again to its origin. Most especially I claim this as truth relative to the “pre-writing” and “revision” portions of my writing process. But more than simply the process I go through to write a paper, I see writing as a process to be admired without a finish.

In the beginning is the topic. Then along comes the writer, and sometimes good things happen. As a second grade writer the “pre-writing” steps always involved charts, forms, and other nonsense to fill out in an attempt to teach “the” writing process, and how to coherently develop arguments. The authority then read and commented on the nature of these forms offering praise and guidance to the beginning writer. While well intentioned, this methodology irked me as a second grader because I felt it a waste of time. Some what ironically, my current writing process has “developed” similar patterns to those taught so long ago. Now almost without fail as I sit down to write a paper, some form of it is subjected to the “authority”, of the internet. That is my “pre-writing”, I let the people of the internet look at my paper in its most unpolished form, and amazingly, like the teacher's insights, the ideas that come from other peoples can help rework a paper to its perfection.

Then after receiving input and depending on the state of the paper, it needs active writing and some polishing. Back in the second grade almost all of the polishing comes from a draft submitted again to the authority (and occasionally your grammar centered mother). Now I print my own drafts, read them out loud (try to remember all of the grammar rules), and send another copy to the internet. Although currently more of the process is independent, than in the second grade, the crucial element of a second set of eyes has never left.

Thus the elliptical nature of my progression has returned the process to the origin of the progression, another set of eyes. Not only does the bug principle apply to the origin of the progression, but it also serves as the theme to the progress. For me the steps to this writing process does not the paper make, but rather it is that theme of letting orther people into your process and seeing it as a product in and of itself. That matters the most to me. No piece of writing is ever truly finished, every piece should start a conversation, continue a conversation, but never finish one.  

Thoughts on Peer Tutoring

*The following is a response to a reading assaignment for my class Honors 300r: Writing and Pedagogy, which is attached to the writing peer tutoring system (Writting Fellows) at BYU. Enjoy!*

                As a recent addition to Brigham Young University’s Writing Fellows program I found Margot Soven’s “Curriculum-Based Peer Tutors and WAC”, an exceptionally interesting read. Particularly, Soven offers an interesting analysis of the effect of attaching Writing Fellows (WFs) to courses in their own major. (A position I find myself in!)