reggiedomme

[reggiedomme]

Personal Academic Journal

At some point in our lives, we would all like to get out of the house or our country and see the world with our two eyes. This idea made me decide to travel for my master’s course elsewhere. I sought for a country that is conducive and accommodating, where I can live and study peacefully continue my educational ladder. Even though there were a lot of hurdles in my journey, I have been able to make it to my destination. I am persuaded that traveling can make people grow because of the experiences I had. After all, it is our nature to aspire to become a better version of ourselves and we strive to satisfy this. 

I started my journal today September 24, 2019 because I arrived in Canada late for the course. I am eager to learn as much as I can from this course. Deeming the oratory that people with no goals, go nowhere. Therefore, with such a great journey ahead, I should like any stranger traveling, prepare myself by laying out a road-map with a planned route, anticipate the need to nourish myself with new ideas, pack the possibility of getting lost (due to construction, of course), and leave beyond the fear of failure. I am reading “Gilthrow” to make up for the classes I missed. In chapter one, the writer introduces genre by different perspectives and in different situations. Each of these has it’s style of utterances from the circumstances it arises, and from the settings it takes place. I understood that genre depends on different situations and can be enacted from culture, education, social, political and the others which suits the occasion. I need to use different wordings for every discipline and take note of the level of education in my essay writing.

In chapter two, I learned about summary citation and authority. In summary, the writer made it clear that the summary might look like a peripheral formality, but it is not a check to see if students have done assigned readings or its roles in exams to see if readings were understood. It touches the salient points. 

25 September, 2019

Audience and Discourse Communities

I had my first class on Academic writing before I had my class I read about “audience” in the book of Gilthrow chapter 4. What I gathered was when I am writing, I must not let my individuality and resistance make me lose sight of my listener’s but,  put them into consideration. My daily activities and interaction with people can make me know what to write to facilitate communication. It was quite long so I couldn't finish reading to the end. I now realize I am a total stranger in a dynamic community. I need to have in-depth knowledge by doing a lot of reading in order to write. To be a successful member I need to be developed by other community members to be acquainted with the dynamism, norms and it’s culturing over time. I am referred to  APA citation, over and over again. Hugh! It is not easy to be trained.

2nd October, 2019

Coloring Epistemology

 I read Gilthrow chapter 3. I read Patti Lather’s writing on Paradigm Proliferation but couldn't synthesis it well with all the diagrams. In our lecture, it was discussed that she explored the shitload of stories and perspective on paradigms and how knowledge is in the academy. She brought in different ideologies on history, colonialism, power, writings, readings, racism and other educational angles to be materialized to make learning useful. In our groups we discussed what we read in Gilthrow Chapter 3, thus anticipating my audience objection and refuting them in my writing, can help me to make a better argument.

9th October, 2019

Scholarly Styles  and Discursive ‘I’

 The scholarly style of writing is based on specific goals and classified vocabulary.  The syntactic well-formed sentences and ambiguity of strings of diction by Patti Lather challenged me cognitively. Patti Lather’s book “Paradigm Proliferation”, and some chapters of Gilthrow and other articles I read before classes make me lose track of what I am reading by looking up words in the dictionary. Again, I need to learn how to integrate a summary of writers and bind together parts of the argument. (Mitchel will say; connecting the dots).  Another style I need not be perturbed to use is ‘I’. At the end of my research, I need to elaborate on my perspective and assumption based on my findings. My identity and subjectivity would not be relevant without the use of the discursive ‘I’. I don’t know much about politics here but the question; “What would you like to say to the leaders of Canada’s political parties?” was to make my harness on the use of ‘I’.

16th October, 2019

Rhetorical Techniques

I must admit; this is the most fascinating article that I enjoyed reading before class. Eubanks & Schaeffer, “ A kind word for bullshit”(2008). This scholarly style depicts how academic writers use ethos, pathos, and logos to build a strong argument. “Never tell a lie when you can bullshit your way through.” ( Eubanks & Schaeffer, 2008 pp. 380) , is my favorite quote. I need to be able to use these rhetoric techniques to tell lies for my readers to believe spiel.

  My habit of not acknowledging writers when quote them is one of my idiosyncrasies. This character makes it difficult for me when it comes to citation. I was taught how to cite to make a strong point and need to apply it to my “critical response” review. In spite of this, APA citation is too difficult for me. If I had been a little girl in the family, I would have asked my father; “Daddy why are we using APA to write? It is so difficult. All the same, I am working on it.

23rd October, 2019

A Critique

Reading the work of Roxane Gay gave me chunks of ideas of how to criticize someone’s work. Gay’s panning of the works of some writers was touching on every aspect of the writings. The perception was, “the end of men is the rise of women and the end of women is the rise of men,” which is not the fact. In learning how to criticize, I need to be fair in my writing, and not to think in a vacuum, but to maneuver to communicate.

Furthermore, I also learned that at the end of my research, I need to check what others have also accomplished on the same topic I have researched on to combine, summarize, and analyze my work. I need to synthesize to tell a story.

Critical Response Paper

My critical response paper made me learn how to explain myself logically. Going through this guise, however, has greatly opened my mind. My thoughts are now complex because I have learned how to sustain a logical argument in an organized manner. Furthermore, writing on my peers’ critical response paper has significantly widened the scope of my writing. My writing is more superior than it used to be. When it was mentioned that we were going to review our peer’s paper I soliloquized; “what do I know to criticize someone’s work?” I was quite shy and reluctant to do it. I must be frank with this, my peers’ paper was better than mine. It was difficult to identify gaps in her writing at that time, only because I felt like I had not learned so much. I felt that I had not largely expanded my literary analysis and writing skills, but I needed to be prepared to review the work which required an eagle eye. Going through an academic writing course has taught me how to organize my thoughts and support it with the works of others. I learned that as everyone had their own point of view, many different ideas could be produced and I found the energy of group participation made me feel more energetic about contributing something. Writing had always been one of my strengths, but it was challenging to take that initial step to write in a master’s course.

 Hmmmmm,  few moments reflection seemed like an eternity as I feel my consciousness ebbing away, and my thoughts, as clear and concise as they were mere moments ago, we're coming to an end. My eyes grow heavy from the strenuous effects of excessive agitation of my mental faculty.

                               References

Eubank, P. & Schaeffer J. D. (2008). A Kind Word  For Bulshit. (pp. 380).

[reggiedomme]

i

[reggiedomme]

Happi