After discussing with my husband that I just can't think of anything to blog about I opted to go with Azor's prompt on my perception of research and writing. I kind of laugh as this blog is being typed just due to the fact I need to reflect back in high school when research was so different and ancient as what is done today.
Our research was old school using newspapers, books and encyclopedias. Sure, interviews were done but not as deep as what I have learned thus far. The internet really didn't exist back then and it is such a phenomenal resource tool that for me it becomes overwhelming. I feel the need to look at everything out there instead of focusing in on just a few sites. How does one get beyond that point? Is my curiosity going way too out there for my own good? How do some of you finally narrow it down?
Don't get me wrong! The process that I have learned this semester has helped me tremendously since returning to school. I feel that each time I have written a paper I have improved my skills and process along the way. I truly hope that it all comes together in my last paper and that I feel like I have come full circle in research and writing.
Working in an elementary school (Comprehensive Literacy Charter School), they stress much of the same techniques with the young children such as creating a draft, revising and then editing. In middle school they definitely reinforce the entire research/writing process - saw it in my own 8th grade daughter this year. I do sometimes wonder though, is spelling as important as what it was when I grew up. My children are 10 and 13 and I really never saw spelling lists coming home for study and a ton of spelling tests. Has the computer age eliminated that benchmark skill due to the fact we now have spell check or a computer that automatically corrects the spelling for you? Off the subject it reminds me of how there is no longer any thought process at the grocery stores in giving change back. That could definitely be an entire blog entry!
In all my papers my final product was definitely enhanced by the peer feedback I received. I was always able to go back over my notes and enhance my final product. The flow of writing has become a bit more relaxing and natural once I'm in that "zone" and I actually look forward to the final challenge of the synthesis paper. Bringing everything together will be a challenge, I know that for sure, but hoping to having a unique topic that makes it interesting to not only me but my readers as well.
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It is funny I was just thinking about the importance of spelling correctly. My best friend is an excellent speller and I am a horrible speller. We were sitting at a coffee shop today and we began debating the meaning of the word perturbed and how it was to be used in a sentence. He has a twisted sense of humor that many find particularly offensive but I find extremely entertaining. He told me that I wasn't allowed to use words that I couldn't spell and he was right I couldn't spell it. If I misuse a word or spell something incorrectly in one of our texts he disregards the entire message and zones in on my inability to spell until he has corrected me. I was wondering why that bothered him so much and I think he just likes to display one of his attributes any chance he can. So now I purposely misspell words to mess with him (and to cover up when I actually do misspell things). I told him that they need to put spell check on texting and he laughed. It is true though, I am so used to having the computer spell check as a tool, that I haven't found it necessary to learn how to spell correctly. Many things that were taught even when I went to grade school have become obsolete (wow, I spelled that one right!). The computer and the internet are, in my opinion, such great resources because they allow focus to be shifted to things that cannot be automatically corrected in Microsoft Word.
ReplyDeleteI am right there with you Anna when it comes to finding sources on the internet; I am bad at it. I joke that the internet Gods hate me because I can never find reliable sources in the internet's chaotic (spelled that one wrong) realm. I hope to one day break my curse but until then I am going to stick to the sites that I know and books, because I can handle opening a book. Anyway, I think I am done rambling. I wish you the best of luck with you paper, I am sure you will do very well.