Saturday, November 27, 2010

3 words for rice

In Hahm Hanhee's article, "Rice and Koreans: Three Identities and Meanings", the author talks about how much Rice has effected Korean society. In English there is only one word but there are 3 words for rice in Korean.
They are "byeo," "ssal," and "bap." "Byeo" is the plant. This word instills harmony because people must work together with their community and nature in order to realize it. It is a peaceful word.
"Ssal" is a troubling word because it invokes memories of tension and conflict between the wealthy landlords and the poor tenant cultivators.
"Bap" has to do with the enjoyment of food and sharing it with one's family. Whereas people in China and Japan have started to consume less rice, it is still very much a staple in Korea. Many people eat it with every meal. It can be seen as the national dish.
However, since it is widespread, having it as a national dish does not make Korea distinctive. Therefore, Kimchi is looked upon as the national dish as it is unique amongst all countries. So Kimchi gets more attention but rice is more of a staple food.
Rice has a lot of meaning and significance to Korean Culture.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

The Publication Process

In the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Chapter 8, p. 225 - p. 243, the authors discuss the publication process.
The Peer Review process is the typically the method used to choose an article for publication.
Four areas are discussed and they include the four things the author is responsible for, like preparing the manuscript for submission, attending to administrative and ethical responsibilities, complying with publisher policy requirements, and working with the publisher during the production process.
The authors go on to say the Editorial Process uses Peer Review to select articles. For an article to be used in a journal, it must pass the following criteria. The journal article must not have been previously published, it must contribute to the archive of scientific knowledge, and it must have been reviewed by a panel of peers.
The author say, the peer-reviewed literature in a field is built by individual contributions that together represent the accumulated knowledge of a field.
Journal editors look for manuscripts that contribute significantly to the content area covered by the journal, communicate with clarity and conciseness, and follow style guidelines.
A reviewer may be asked to help in the selection process. A reviewer can provide technical expertise, might have familiarity with a particular controversy, and the reviewer might have a balance of perspectives. The reviewer typically provides scholarly input into the editorial decision.
To insure impartiality a masked review is used so that the reviewers do not know the author and the author does not know the reviewers.
A manuscript will be accepted or rejected based upon the importance of the novel contribution that the work might provide, and the appropriateness of the work to the particular journal.
Sometimes an article is rejected with an invitation to revise and resubmit it. The editor may want more empirical data to be gathered, that entire new experiments may need to be added, or that analyses need to be modified.
The author should attempt to submit a paper that looks good, is well formatted, and follows all APA rules. An author should comply with all ethical, legal, and policy requirements. The author should closely follow all APA rules and comply with all the policies and procedures when submitting and preparing a paper for publication.
I hope you get to enjoy the publication process.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Example Paper to Edit

This paper was offered on the Moodle as a sample paper to edit. I am not sure where it is suppose to be uploaded so I will post it here.

April 18, 2006

Statement of Purpose

I knew since tenth grade that I wanted to make an impact in adolescent’s lives. My middle and high school years were the hardest time of my life – I was changing and growing in so many different ways. My teachers became the positive role models in my life and pushed me to grow into the woman I am today. I value those teachers immensely and hope that one day I can become a positive role model for my students. My motivation to teach was present at the beginning of my program at the University of Vermont. Through my experiences within the program, tutoring at Edmunds Middle School, interning at a Burlington High School, the interaction with students continued to increase my drive. As I was working in both of these schools I began to realize how complex it is to teach students. I was a tutor at Edmunds Middle School which helped me learn how to build one – on – one relationships with students and to match meaningful strategies with a student’s personal needs. In Burlington High School, I was placed in a Special Education Resource Room, an English college prep and honors class, and an ESL classroom. Working with students at various levels helped me to appreciate students’ differences and challenges which take on all shapes and sizes. I wanted to learn through my courses effective teaching methods and strategies that would help mold my personal teaching style and philosophy. I wanted to match my natural drive with knowledge of the content area as well as with effective teaching methods. Throughout my time at the University I have begun to build my own teaching knowledge base that I am excited to incorporate into any classroom I am involved with.

Since the track changes are not visible, the edits are hard to see. I am sorry about that.

Data Commentary

In Swales & Feak's article in Unit Four, the authors say that in many writing assignments, there comes a place where graduate students need to discuss data. The authors say that the data is displayed in a table, graph, figure, or some kind of nonverbal illustration. They have called these writing subtasks data commentaries.
When someone analyses data one danger is to just repeat what was said. Another danger is to read too much into the data and draw unjustified conclusions.
The authors suggest using the general-specific writing method when discussing data.
The authors offer expressions that can be used to make a commentary about data. The strongest sentence variation is "caused." From there they get weaker and go "was probably a major cause of", "was one of the causes of", "contributed to", "may have contributed to", and "might have been a small factor in."
The authors offer an article about computer viruses. They use it as a task to help the reader analyze data. Then the reader is asked to write a commentary on the data.
The authors go on to discuss the verbs in indicative and informative summaries.
The authors stress the point that highlighting statements are usually ordered from general to specific. Major claims should be followed by minor claims.
The authors discuss dealing with graphs. It is tricky to analyze data from graphs and there are a lot of pitfalls. But there is a lot of valuable information that can be discerned from graphs.
Later, the authors go on to discuss how to deal with chronological data. In cases of chronological data the general-specific rule may be substituted with chronological order. The writer can start with the earliest data and finish with the latest data.
The authors provide a lot of helpful information in regards to data commentary.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Swales & Feak, Article 14, Unit 3

In Swales & Feak, Article 14, Unit 3, the authors focus on the problem-to-solution writing style movement. They say that this structure will prove useful when writing critiques and introductions.
They also discuss process descriptions. They say it makes sense to see describing the parts of a process as the steps required to provide a solution to some problems. So the authors feel that giving tiny steps will help a writer follow their pattern and produce results. In this case, that means providing a solution to the problem that has been posed.
The authors say that a writer must be informed and organized if they are to follow an argumentative approach to a problem-to-solution task. If a writer wants to be evaluative then they should be questioning and perceptive.
An example essay "The Role of English in Research and Scholarship" is provided. The essay purports that the number of English essays is inflated. Also, the number on non-English essays are underrepresented.
The authors point out that the word, "However", introduces the counter-argument. The authors want to convince the reader that the problem really is a problem.
The authors wonder how many points must be made in order for the argument to be convincing. Of course, the more points that are made, the more convincing the argument will be.
The next essay describes a desert climate in Chile - the Atacama Desert.
The authors say that the passive voice is used in this essay to describe a technical process. Therefore the perceptiveness of the essay is meant to convince the readers.
An active voice is used to describe nature. Also -ing can be used to describe a result. Indirect questions can be persuasive and they are less likely to make a reader defensive.
Another way that information can be presented is in a question-and-answer format. Since the answers are possible solutions, they can be very convincing.
Students generally provide a topic sentence when they present a paper. Then they provide an answer based upon their research. In order to make their position more convincing, they should use one of the essay writing methods mentioned above.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Beginning to Construct a Research Paper

In this week's readings, Swales and Freak talk about how to construct a research paper. They provide the IMRD outline. A writer should start with an introduction, then explain what methods will be used to acquire data, then present the results, and then discuss what repercussions the results have upon the research questions poised.
The authors explain that the writers of a research paper operate in a strategic manner. They want to begin by asking sufficiently interesting questions. The questions need to be answerable in a way that will satisfy the reader. The research paper needs to be competitive with current research. Thus, a writer needs to be familiar with the research that is current.
I will sketch a draft of my paper.
Introduction - I am observing a language club in Korea. The majority of the people in the club are highly motivated. My research questions are the following: What kind of motivation drives these people? Why is it that they are so driven?
Methods - I am creating an ethnography of a language club in Korea by 'participant observation.' This means that I attend the club as a member. I observe the other members and I ask them questions.
Results - The results that I have accumulated indicate that the club members are highly educated and they have a lot of intrinsic motivation. Research indicates that intrinsic motivation is the best motivation to have because it is self-sustaining. Therefore, it persists for a long time and it leads to the best results.
Discussion - Why are the people in the group so successful? If someone is willing to learn another language then chances are that they are open-minded and inquisitive. This desire acts as a filter for the group members as those that attend the club continue to strive to improve their language skills and accomplish their career goals.
Korea has four seasons so people here need to prepare for the winter season. To survive they must have enough kimchi so that they do not starve throughout the cold months. This requires planning and preparation. Therefore, Koreans are driven.
There is also a long history of education being revered in Korea. From the time of Confucius, state tests were used to determine who got the lucrative government jobs. Therefore, studying hard is very much a part of Korean tradition.
This was a rough sketch of my paper.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Writing Summaries

This weeks reading focuses on writing summaries. Swales & Feak say that we typically write summaries about conversations we have, lectures we attend, or about the things we read.
People write summaries for many reasons but they are typically for future reference.
A University student will create a summary in order to prepare for an exam. They need to memorize certain information so they need to summarize it to become familiar with it and make it digestible. They made also need to create a summary for a class discussion. Plus, they may need to summarize in order to create a term paper, a research paper, or a thesis. We are all preparing to do a thesis so that is the area that interests us the most.
A public summary is a display for others of your understanding of some material. We will all be making our summaries public as we share them with each other.
The authors provide an example summary that is fairly straight forward since it is dealing with factual material. It focuses on the agricultural revolution in Egypt and how that has affected the land and population. Since the 1800's the population has grown and people have migrated to the cities. In 1800 the population was 2.5 million, 1900 it was 9.7 million, in 1940 it was 18.8 million, 1970 it was 37 million, 1984 it was 46 million, and in 2000 it was 65 million. Currently Russia has 140 million people. Egypt is projected to have a higher population than Russia by the year 2050.
After examining the factual passage about Egypt, the authors then look at an argumentative passage about patents. This passage is harder to summarize because the writers of it have a specific agenda. They want to convince the reader of a certain way of thinking. There is a passage about 'patents' and a passage about 'reducing air pollution.' A lot of ideas are shared to try and make the arguments convincing.
The authors warn against plagiarizing other people's work. We should all respect other author's work and acknowledge them when used or cited.
Another type of summary are the Comparative Summaries. Comparative Summaries require you to analyze and use information from two or more sources rather than one. It may not be an objective representation of the original sources. Relevant material is required for this task. Humor is the topic that is picked as an example for Comparative Summaries.
Thus, the final task is a comparative summary about humor. Wilson (1979) and Ziv (1984) discuss humor and we are to compare and contrast the two authors view. An example comparative summary is provided.
Wilson feels that humor reflects the social hierarchy. Those in a higher social position mock or ridicule those in a lower social position. Merely being outside a group can make someone an object of ridicule. Therefore we go out of our way to try and fit in.
Ziv sees the social function of humor as one of control and maintaining or establishing rapport. Joking is a way to establish social order.
Both the authors see humor as an important tool in our communication arsenal. However, Wilson offers a lot more specifics.
I hope you enjoyed the unit about writing summaries. Especially since we will all be doing a lot of that in the near future. Take care. Cheers, Chad