Monday, October 27, 2008

Updates and Stuff

Well I haven't posted on this thing in a while, and my grade has reflectively sunk. So I've decided to do sort of a summary type thing to basically catch myself up.

I've begun writing my second draft of my essay, and I'm about four pages in. The writing is very similar to my first draft, but I did make a lot of well-needed changes such as taking out rhetorical questions, creating a better and funnier introduction, and deleting some of the more random jokes that were scattered throughout the essay (except for one which I decided had to stay). I unfortunately was not in class on Friday as I was visiting home, so I did not get the chance to exchange papers with someone for feedback, but something good did come of this. I did have Taylor Ham for the first time in two and a half months on both Thursday night and Friday morning. On top of that I ate at several 24/7 diners, which are extremely scarce down here, and ate real pizza.

I also should respond to the comments that Professor Scott made on my research proposal, so here it goes.

I did make several format errors in terms of my cover letter, so I will probably have to pay more attention to the formatting and overall mechanics next time. I will also try to elaborate more in my cover letter. I noticed that a lot of the feedback received I almost expected after reading it myself, but decided to submit the essay as it was just because it wasn't clear to me exactly what I needed to be saying. One thing I did not really notice until reading your feedback was exactly how unclear it was that I desired something out of this proposal.

Something I did notice, but did not change was the fact that my claims did not seem very strong. I feel like if I did make strong and solid claims, than I would need some type of evidence or information to back them up. Because no such evidence exists in a formal or citable report, I did not know whether it would acceptable for me to claim expertise on the subject, or even cite my interview.

I also noticed that a lot of my framework seemed contradictory, but I did not change this because it proved to be false if you looked more in depth into the type of questions I would be asking. I stated that my questions would require factual and personal answers, but I did not mean that each question would have both a factual and personal aspect to it, because that would in fact be contradictory. What I meant was that several of my questions would be factual and several would be personal and subjective. Furthermore, I do believe you can use straightforward logic to determine a solution to a problem even if a good amount of your data is subjective. Chances are, most people I interview would share the same feelings on some of the questions I would ask, and a logical solution could be catered to what the majority thinks.

Otherwise, I do agree with you that my methods sections is in need of a complete revamp, and that I should also discuss further benefits of funding my proposal towards the end. Thats about it for the proposal feedback I guess.

Well its time to finish my second draft then.

- Dave

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