Nathan Houston's Blog

 I never really grasped academic writing in high school until senior year when we wrote our senior thesis'. This taught me how to be prepared for college and to research my topics properly. Before doing complete research I would just wing it off of my own ideas and did not have professionals back me up. McClure's essay about "Googlepedia: Turning Information Behaviors into Research Skills" talks about which sources are creditable and which are not. Before taking this class and my senior thesis class I would just use Google or Wikipedia for information and not websites such s google scholar to find good sources. Another difference is using the first person in college writing. this is a lot different from high school where you would almost be crucified if you were to use the first person on a paper. Maddalena states, "First of all, the more “voices” you add to the conversation, the more confusing it gets. You must separate your own interpretations of scholars’ clai...

 In Boyd's essay, she talks about finding your inner detective and using it to write your paper. A quote by Boyd states, "Since detectives are trained observers who search for clues to aid in the investigation of a crime, they provide written, first-hand accounts of the tangible evidence they find." I translated this as the crime as the essay and the clues are the information needed to base strong and true arguments off of. The first-hand accounts are scholarly articles that help prove your point through people more knowledgeable than you in the subject. Overall it is important to do your homework on the topic you are writing about and finding specialists to back up your thoughts.

 When organizing my Doc2 I like to introduce all my points in the introduction so it gives me and the reader an outline for the rest of the essay. I also like to research my topic heavily before I even start. Rebecca Jones agrees with me in her essay by saying, "When you begin to conduct any kind of primary research, creating a  timeline will help keep you on task. Because students conducting primary  research usually focus on the collection of data itself, they often  overlook the equally important areas of planning (invention), analyzing  data, and writing." (Jones). My thesis is that a nursing major and career is one of the most needed and favorable jobs. I argue that it has great pay and brings you joy and satisfaction in what you do and have time for others in your life. In my Doc2 I state this in my Introduction, " Becoming a nurse checks all the boxes I layout for myself, such as finding the right environment to be a nurse, flexible hours for the hobbies ...

     Rhetoric context by definition refers to any writing situation that you are analyzing the purpose, audience, and focus of the piece. In Carroll's Essay Backpacks vs. Briefcases  she talks about ""can't judge a book by its cover" but, in fact, we do it all the time." in this quote she isn't just talking about judging people, she is using it as a real-life example. Carroll is depicting that we should look deeper into literature and not just take it at face value. We need to break it down to find the purpose the author has in writing, the audience they are trying to reach, and the main focus. In my Doc 2, my purpose is to convince you why I would love to become a nurse and to try to convince my audience (classmates) why it is such a great profession.

       This week we were assigned to review Doc 1's for our classmates. Our Doc 1 was designed to appeal to our peers with a certain thing that holds you back in school. Mine was over test anxiety. In my paper I had my own thought and feelings, but why listen to me? Who am I to tell you what makes you anxious or what makes you have poor study habits. I had to find academic articles and experts in this field who agreed with my thoughts on the subject. To appeal to your audience you want to use expect opinions so that others will listen and be convinced of my way of thinking because I am no expert. For example, in my Doc 1, I put a quote from  Karatus, Alci, and Aydin that states,   “Twenty- percent of test-anxious students quit school before graduating because of repeated academic failure. High test anxiety is also associated with low self-esteem, negative attitudes toward school, and unpleasant feelings of nervousness and dread that stem from an intense fea...

      In my Doc1 I will be writing about test anxiety. I strongly relate to this topic because I know I have to study longer than usual so that I retain information after my ten-minute mental breakdown once the test is handed out. I ( the writer) know that I'm not the only one who struggles with this and the purpose is to communicate to my audience helpful information on how to deal with test anxiety. The issue with test anxiety is that it does not reflect the scholar's hard work and knowledge or capabilities of the subjects. In my paper, I hope to explain how to help alleviate test anxiety and what are the causes.