Reflection
Reflect on the writing process for your first essay. Answer these questions:
- What did you do well in your essay?
- What are the strengths and weaknesses of your essay?
- Where did you struggle, if at all?
Intro to Report
Reports are as diverse as all the classes you will take. You can write a report on a lab experiment, conduct interviews and assemble into a report, and even research a topic and publish it for the benefit of everyone.
Reports are a genre that you may be familiar with but not know it. Reports are what we have done since elementary school. Reports are produced by government organizations, websites, companies, universities, and even individual students like yourselves. A report can answer a question, explore a topic, review what is already known about a subject, or report new knowledge, to name a few.
There are a few qualities that a report usually has:
- Presents information
- Uses reliable sources
- Aims for objectivity
- Information is clear and well structured
For this assignment, I want you to choose a topic that interests you and you want to learn more about. It can be related to your major, future or current career, something you are familiar with, or something you want to know more about.
You can research a problem that you want to know more about.
We will learn to research the library databases in order to find reliable sources of information.
Subgenres of Report
The report can be in any style or format that you think best suits it. If you choose to do a PowerPoint, that is your report. You do not need to write a separate report, the PowerPoint should have all the information on it. Here is a list of possible choices:
- Research Report –What it takes to be a teacher
- Visual Essay
- PowerPoint – Mexican-American Report
- Wikipedia style entry
- Featured Article in Newspaper
- Infographic, Torture, Very Infographic
- Other, cleared by Professor
The Conversation Review
We spent the first couple of weeks talking about the conversation. What was the ongoing conversation? How is it connected to a report?
Brainstorming
Let us brainstorm some ideas. We first need to choose a topic to write about.
- Build from lists
- Mapping ideas
- Freewriting
- Memory Prompts
- Search online for ideas
Come up with at least two ideas that you want to write about. They can be general now, they will become more focused as you begin the research.
Quick Write
What two topics are you considering for your report? List the topics you came up with in class.
The Art of Quoting
Chapter 3, introduces us to the art of quoting. It warns that quoting too little or too much can hurt an argument. It is very important to frame all quotations.
According to the book, what is the purpose of a citation?
When is the use of a citation appropriate?
The article warns about quoting too little or quoting too much. Do not assume the quotations speak for themselves. Two key ways to integrate quotations that you need to keep in mind.
- Choose quotations wisely
- Surround quotations in a frame, Quote Sanwich
Quote Sandwich
- Introduce the quotation p. 46
- Quote, relevant
- Explain Quotation p. 47
Claims
Why do these need support? Where can you find it?
Practice
Use a quote from the article in a quotation sandwich.
Professor Ramos' Blog 
I wrote my memories very well.
The strength in my essay is the lesson I wanted to teach and the weakness is the ending.
It me a while to figure out how to end the essay.
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in my essay I gave very detailed dialogue
my strengths were my strong memories my weaknesses is I had to make the be able to be understood by everyone
I struggles with getting what I saw in my head on paper, because I had to explain everything.
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What did you do well in your essay? I thought I did well on description overall.
2.What are the strengths and weaknesses of your essay? I thought my strength was mostly staying on point and my weaknesses was run on sentences.
3.Where did you struggle, if at all? I struggle the most in my intro for sure. It takes me a while to get my thought on paper.
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I believe that I didn’t really jump around with different topics. I was able to stay focused on my main point. I think that one of my weaknesses of my essay was that I could have maybe added more details to where the reader felt like they were in my shoes through the whole narrative. I really struggled in the beginning of this assignment. Trying to brainstorm what I wanted to write about and how I was going to construct my whole narrative.
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