Solutions and Websites

After my conference yesterday, I was able to fix my issue with the organization of my paper. Natalie gave me some great advice about how to deal with organization. She said to copy and paste each of my topic sentences from my paragraphs into a separate word document and then see if they all made sense and flowed nicely. It really helped me to be able to distinguish what ideas worked well together and places where I needed to change my flow of ideas. Also, to help with not sounding redundant in my paper, I found some specific examples that I can include in my argument.

Effective Websites:
http://www.ae.com/web/index.jsp
http://mormon.org/
http://www.apple.com/
 http://www.bettycrocker.com/

Ineffective Websites:
 http://www.nutrition.gov/
 http://nccam.nih.gov/
 http://mhs.d321.k12.id.us/
 http://www.foxnews.com/

Not Patchwriting/Issue Paper Struggles

The meaning of the word 'myth' has changed and adapted throughout time based on people and circumstances. What used to be something of cultural importance is now used to reject another idea that seems to be invalid based on other ideals (Bacchilega 25). 

The hardest part in the writing process for me is making sure that my ideas make sense in the order of my paper. Having a strong appeal to logos is a lot more difficult than I anticipated. Also, in some spots in my paper it feels like I am getting repetitive with my ideas, which could become a problem.

Researching at the Library

Monday's class was extremely helpful in learning about how to start researching. Getting starting on research for research papers can be intimidating, but learning about the numerous resources that are available for our use made it not seem like such a daunting task. It was very cool to learn that the library has a whole page dedicated to Writing 150. I never would have known that before. Also, it was very beneficial to learn that there are several databases that you can find through the library's home page. In the past, I had just used one database and sometimes it can be hard to find adequate information when you are just using one database to find sources. I have already found some great scholarly and peer reviewed journals and articles while searching for the short amount of time that we had in class on Monday. I am anxious to start looking for more sources. The only concern that I have is that I won't be able to find books that relate very well to my topic. Hopefully I will be able to find some beneficial information that isn't just found online. Also, I would just like to mention that I felt super high-tech while using an i-pad and sitting in those nifty little desks :)

Issues Paper Proposal

Initial Stance: Reality television promotes degrading morals and behavior to young-adult audiences.
 
I decided to choose this topic because I think it is very kairotic and it is an interesting topic to discuss with others.  It's not what the topic that I was going to choose originally, but the more I thought about it, the more I decided that I could probably write a research paper about it. I think that as I focus and really narrow in on my topic that it will be easier to find reliable information about the topic.

Some questions that I hope to answer with this topic are:
What kind of values does Reality TV appeal to?
How does the behavior that Reality TV portrays effect the young adult/teenage audiences that tune in to watch?

I am not completely sold on this topic because my feelings are kind of mixed about the whole issue. I think that some so-called "Reality TV" programs serve a good purpose and have good messages to send to viewers (eg. Extreme Home Makeover). On the other hand, some Reality TV shows (eg. Jersey Shore and other MTV shows) are extremely degrading and promote bad morals and ethics to those who watch. I will just have to be specific enough that I can be persuasive to the audience.