Post 3: Not an Expert
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 fear of failure” (Karatus, Alci, and Aydin). Then afterward added my own thoughts and cleared it up a bit. Mike Bunn uses this same technique in his "How to Read Like a Writer". He uses professional opinions and research to prove and further convince his audience of his purpose in the essay. He uses his own ideas and then he backs them with a quote or states a quote then puts his own thoughts afterward.
Your understanding of the use of quotations is correct in my opinion. A reader might not choose to agree with a topic that a writer puts in words, therefore that writer must pull information that backs his or her topic up from elsewhere to try to show the reader that what you write is not just an opinion. If a piece of information is indeed an opinion, it can still be backed up by someone else's opinion to show where the writer stands on that topic. Using quotations shows the audience that the writer is indeed a reader too.
ReplyDeleteI very much enjoyed reading your blog post. The topic that you chose was one that students everywhere stuggle with. When reading you blog post, I had the same idea as of why my reader should listen to me and my experiences. The way you brought this post to using evidence from other sources that had analysis of various students and you even refering the the article "How to Read Like a Writer". I admire your effort.
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