PB2B

Ting Pan

Writing 2 / MW 3PM

04/26/2015

PB2A

“Moves”

    “Moves” means decisions writers make when writing. Commonly, all writing consists of a series of choices and successful “moves” will make arguments more persuasive. For readers, paying attention to these “rhetorical moves” can help them work on their own writing. In this PB, I will revisit two of the articles that I have read this quarter. The first piece is “Finding Evidence,” and the second one is written by Dana Lynn Driscoll, “Introduction to Primary Research: Observations, Surveys, and Interviews.”

   First of all, I will analyze the purpose and intended audience of these two articles. “Find Evidence” help readers consider the rhetorical situations, find data and evidence from research sources or collect on their own. Dana Driscoll attempts to tell her audience how to plan, gather and organize information for a research project. Unlike “Find Evidence”, which just includes the ways of how to obtain evidence, Driscoll introduces a complete series of processes when making a primary research. Intended audience of both articles are college students because in “Find Evidence”, the author mentions how to explore college library resources, and the other piece is a chapter in a peer-reviewed open textbook series for the college writing classroom.

    “Find Evidence” is a textbook article. A textbook is mean to communicate established knowledge to students of a given subject. It provides a general introduction to the subject as well as relevant problems, concepts and theories. This article presents knowledge of collecting data and evidence, and explains how to do it. It informs and instructs. It does not argue for or against particular positions, but to present the existing views. “Introduction to Primary Research” is more likely to be a scholarly article. As mentioned before, this article is peer-reviewed. In addition, the author gives us an original guide of primary research and also explains them. Both of these two articles are instructive and informal. This is appropriate because they are both for college students, but they can be more interesting and attractive if containing a little bit of humor in language.

    Both of the authors apply transitions to move from one idea to another in the writings. In “Finding Evidence,” the author uses questions such as “how many sources should you consult for an academic argument?” and transitional sentences like “but that’s not the end of your choices”. The other piece also applies transitions effectively. For example, Driscoll writes that “Now that we have considered the ethical implications of research, we will examine how to formulate research questions and plan your primary research project.” Not only this sentence summarizes the content of this section, but it also indicates what will be introduced in the following section.

    These two articles use the same technique in writing. Both of these two articles contain many subheading. This technique makes the article well-constructed and makes authors much easier when revising the articles. For readers, each subheading is a summary of each section, so it helps readers know what the article section is about, no matter how complexly the article is written. Also, subheadings give the readers the chance to find and focus only on the parts of your article that he or she wishes to or needs to read. 

    There are also many different techniques between these two pieces. In “Finding Evidence,” we can see many bulleted or numbered lists, such as questions which can help readers understand rhetorical situation of a particular field, suggestions of searching online or in databases, and a lot of guidelines. These lists work well because they help organize information and make the article easy and clear to read. If these materials are written in a paragraph, it will be quite wordy and readers will be confused about so much information. However, compared to the other article, this piece does not have the part of conclusion. This is an important part of writing and the author should add it. “Suggested resources” is a special section in Driscoll’s article. It gives audience some related sources to acquire more information about this topic. What’s more, comparison is frequently used in “Introduction to Primary Research.” Driscoll compares two student projects throughout the whole piece and points out what things are good to do and what things aren't in each section.

    Additionally, we can also find many images in this article. In “Find Evidence”, there’s a screenshot of Google, which helps readers to learn “advanced search.” We can also see picture in the section of personal experience. What’s interesting is the two cartoon pictures. They are quite attractive for audience. Different from these images, Driscoll prefer to use charts and tables. This scientific figures make the article professional and credible.

   Overall, “moves” is a crucial part in writing. Analyzing these “moves” is an opportunity to for readers think and learn about writing.

PB2A

Ting Pan

Writing 2 / MW 3PM

04/19/2015

PB2A

Comparing Genres: “SCIgen” and a Scholarly Source

    In PB1B, we have explored the papers present in the SCIgen. As is known, these papers are non-academic and definitely distinguished from scholarly academic publications. In the school library, I find a scholarly academic publication, “The Free Software Alternative: Freeware, Open-source software, and Libraries.” Rhetorical features and conventions of this genre can be analyzed by comparing with papers generated by SCIgen. 

    First, the audience of scholarly academic publications are narrower than those of SCIgen. SCIgen is accessed to everyone on the Internet. However, because of the protection of copyrights, academic publications may not be copied or posted without the copyright holder's permission and less people can access them. For example, in online school library, if I do not log in, then I am unable to get so many academic works. On the other hand, each piece of academic publications focus on a specific topic, people who are interesting in this topic are more likely to read them instead of a large academic crowd. For this publication, the topic is “freeware and open-source software.” Maybe students or scholars of social science are more likely to read it.
   Secondly, the purpose of these two genres are quite different. SCIgen a computer program to randomly generate computer science research papers. It is just for amusement. But for scholarly academic publications, researchers write these papers to explore, interpret and evaluate sources related to the specific topic and offer their own perspective on the issue. Also, these works can attract more people to participate in the discussion about this topic. 

    Thirdly, the style of these them are distinct. We can notice that the fake academic papers in SCIgen use context-free grammar. For real academic publications, the grammar must be correct. Also, the tone of them is formal, unemotional, instructive and there are no ambiguities in language. 

   The content of academic publications is truthful. In SCIgen, all generated papers are entirely nonsense. However, all information gathered in scholarly academic publications must be based on facts. For example, “One cannot charge a fee for copies of the freeware save for distribution costs” mentioned in this publication is a truth. We can also observe that authoritative sources are listed at the end of this publication, which reveal that this publication is reliable.

   Scholarly academic publications should be well-organized and understandable. Like papers generated by SCIgen, this academic publication is arranged in order - abstract, introduction ... conclusion and lastly references. Even if in this publication, there are no figures. But for most scholarly academic publications, especially which related to science subjects, we can find many figures numbered consecutively and with caption.They are sometimes necessary to present results.

    Additionally, same as papers in SCIgen, scholarly academic publications are written in a mixture of present and past tenses. Researchers use present tense to report well accepted facts, like “The author retains sole possession of the copyright, so users cannot alter the software. ”; they use past tense to describe specific research process, such as “After much searching, I discovered the right tool—David Lord’s Ascii Chart. ” 

    Last but not least, peer review is a central aspect for most scholarly academic publishing. In academia peer review is often used to determine an academic work's suitability for publication. Other scholars in a field need to find a work sufficiently high in quality for publication. Meanwhile, since reviewers are usually very familiar with the sources used by the authors, another benefit of the peer review process is an indirect guard against plagiarism. Therefore, I think that peer review is the most important concept of scholarly genre, because it helps maintain standards of quality of scholarly publications and provide credibility.

PB1B

Ting Pan

Writing 2 / MW 3PM

04/08/2015

PB1B

Inspecting Genre Generators

      If we want to analyze a genre, we need to find its rhetorical features, such as audience, purpose, context and tone. Also, each genre has unique conventions, which make it distinguishable from others. “Genre generator” websites randomly compose works of the specific genre, but features are applied to each piece. Therefore, we can explore genres by using these websites. 

      SCIgen is a computer program that uses context-free grammar to randomly generate computer science research papers. From this website, we can get rhetorical features and patterns of research papers. The audience of research papers can be a large academic crowd, but people who are interesting in the topic of the paper are more likely to read them. Researchers write these papers to explore, interpret and evaluate sources related to the specific topic and offer their own perspective on the issue. Also, they can attract more people to participate in the discussion about this topic. As a kind of academic paperwork, the tone of research papers is formal, unemotional, instructive and there are no ambiguities in language. Then, what are the conventions of research papers? First, they are truthful. All information gathered in paper must be based on facts. Secondly, these papers should be clear and understandable. We can find many figures in the papers generated, which are necessary to present results. Regardless of placement, each figure must be numbered consecutively and complete with caption. Thirdly, research papers are well-organized. We can find that they are arranged in order - abstract (short and concise summary), table of contents (include introduction, investigation, related work, implementation, evaluation and conclusion), and references. References is an important part in papers, and in this website, they are formed in alphabetical order by the first author. We can also observe that authoritative sources are listed instead of inappropriate websites, which makes paper truthful. Lastly, research papers are written in a mixture of present and past tenses. Researchers use present tense to report well accepted facts, like “GodGombo runs on hardened standard software”; they use past tense to describe specific results, such as “Bugs in our system caused the unstable behavior throughout the experiments.” 

      A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels or boxes. Pandyland is website to randomly generate comic strips. We can view comic strips there to find common rhetorical features and conventions of them. Nowadays, comics are no longer just for children, and some are designed for adult audience; so both younger and older crowd can be the audience of comic strips. The purpose of comic strips is displaying brief humor to make audience happy. Wording in comic strips is typically informal, humorous and emotional. First of all, we can notice that all letters in comic strips are capitalized and bolder than normal. The second feature is combining words and pictures. In visual story telling, text and images rely on each other, so they must be well-integrated and balanced. In most cases, there is not too much text in panels, ensuring the comic readable. Thirdly, the perspective of comic strips is subjective and covey the character’s opinion. For example, “I BLAME OBAMA FOR THIS” and “I LIKE BIG PUTTS AND I CANNOT LIE.” Fourthly, daily life is the origin of these comic strips, such as “I JUST BOUGHT THE NEW IPAD” and “YOUR CAT IS DEAD.” Additionally, speech bubbles are a vital part in comic strips. Speech bubbles are usually round or square shapes with a tail pointing to the character's mouth, indicating that the character is speaking out loud. A scream bubble indicates a character is screaming or shouting and has a jagged outline. Cloud-shaped word bubbles means that a character is thinking. 

      Meme is a popular and usually funny idea or concept that spread via the Internet. Most commonly, it is an image with witty text. We can analyze rhetorical features and conventions of them by meme generator. The audience of memes are all people on the Internet, but they seem more attractive to young people. People create memes to share their own jokes or funny captions, and also make others laugh. The tone of the sayings in memes is informal, casual and facetious. The first convention of memes is entertaining. Good memes are always related to the hot topics, and what makes people laugh the most can get the most hilarious responses. Secondly, with so many distractions online, memes spread rapidly and extensively. To let a meme get lots of online exposure, the creator tweets it, posts it on Facebook or personal websites, shares it on Reddit, emails it to family and friends. In addition, captions in memes must be short and simple. The most popular memes commonly have catchphrases that use simple and memorable language. 

      The last genre generator I want to analyze is business cards generator. We often share our business cards during formal introductions as a convenience. The purpose of business cards is to convey information about the giver. The style of the words in business cards is formal and introductory. Firstly, design of a business card is essential. An alluring and unique business help leave a good impression on others. Secondly, business cards are simple. They typically have a standard size, so there are not too much space to work on. Choosing information appear on business cards should be deliberate. Besides, we can observe that the logo and words are balanced in these cards, to make audience read comfortably.

      Typically, “genre generator” produces works which seem erudite but are actually nonsensical. Although most of them are fake and just for fun, they are quite helpful to let us know the specific genre. It is convenient and effective to collect works of a specific genre via such “genre generator” websites. Most importantly, rhetorical features and conventions are completely reflected in these random works.

PB1A

Ting Pan

Writing 2 / MW 3PM

04/05/2015

PB1A

Invitation Letter

    An invitation letter is considered as an important part in organizing a party, event or celebration and serves as a request for an individual's presence or attendance. It is typically written in third-person language and mailed in advance of the scheduled activity. It helps to convey some information about the activity and determine the number of guests attending. Apparently, the audience of invitation letters are people who are invited by the host. Invitation letters generally serve two purposes; first, to invite the individual to the event and secondly, to ensure that the person receiving the letter is going to attend. A letter of invitation includes the introduction, to allow the host and sender to introduce themselves, as well as the organization in which they represent. A simple background of the individual or institution will suffice. In the body of the letter, it is crucial to outline all of the information about the event. The time, date and location should be included as well as the theme and purpose for the event. At this point, a date should be mentioned in which audience should provide their reply by. This is intended for parties and events where host must know exactly who is coming so arrangements can be made for seating, food, and other accommodations. The letter may also contain some instructions about the occasion, such as special roles played at the party, or attire and items required for the guest to bring. Next, the appreciation for the guest to attend the party should be shown. Commonly, the invitation letter takes a polite, but semi-formal tone. It also depends on the occasion. The tone can be formal and serious if it is a business invitation letter. A friendly invitation letter may contain less formal wording, but more enthusiasm. 

    Generally, invitation letters are written in a mixture of present and future tenses. The present tense conveys information about the event and the future tense ensures the guest is going to attend. Linking words and phrases about description and explanation are used, such as "it will be", "we hope that", "after", "during", "in order to". In addition, invitation letter is a specific kind of letter, and must accord with features of letters. In detail, it should contain sender's address, date, inside address, salutation, body, closing, and apply regular letter format with generally accepted font - Times New Roman, size 12. Also, punctuation after the salutation and closing - use a colon (:) after the salutation (never a comma) and a comma (,) after the closing. Moreover, invitation letters are used as an alternative to traditional invitations. Compared with simple and rigid traditional invitations, they are more casual, sincere and detailed. They allow the host to convey different messages through the tone of the letter as well as additional information that is not shared in a traditional invitations. For example, when we send an invitation letter to close friends or family members, memories or past events can be shared with them.

  As a summary, invitation letters are written by the host to invite the audience and also provide information of the event. Semi-formal tone, present and future tenses and linking terms are applied in invitation letter. The regular letter format and font are applicable to invitation letters. Besides, they do not have strict limitations in content which required in traditional invitations.