Please take a moment and reflect on last Thursday’s workshop. What did you learn from Thomas’ presentation? What questions or concerns did it raise for you? If you could you further this conversation, what other issues would you want to discuss or see addressed?
Second, reflect on what it was like to write your observational reflection on your experience at Project Homeless Connect. First, explain how the research you did for this assignment differed from the research you did for the first two assignments. (That is, using your assignments, how would you explain the differences between working with texts vs. working from your own observations?) Second, what did you do differently in this assignment to appeal to a more popular, non-academic audience?
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I learned a lot from Thomas' presentation last Thursday. I had heard his presentation before but he changed it up a bit which was nice. The thing that I enjoyed the most was the web exercise. It really showed me how women are portrayed in society and the setbacks that we face everyday. It helped us bond over a mutual topic. I felt like it would be beneficial to discuss privilege a bit more.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was a really cool experience to write a paper on my own observations. I truly felt like the topic was in my hands and the point I was making came from my own experiences. I felt more for this paper than the first two. I believe that it was more interesting to write because I was relating to it. I used my voice and wrote as "normal Jessica" in order to appeal to a more popular, non-academic audience.
Unfortunately I was feeling under the weather last Thursday and was unable to make it to the workshop. However, in talking to those who were at the workshop it sounded very effective. It presented everyone with a new perspective on a number of issues. I wish I could have been there to to present a different perspective on gender issues or just hear what Thomas had to say about it.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed writing the observational reflection. It was much less structured than the research paper we did before. There was much less research to be done and when you did research it was to strengthen a point you had already made. Whereas, when we did the research paper we took a number of sources and synthesized them together to make a cohesive argument. Working with observations requires a greater attention to detail than texts because you must describe your experience to the reader. To appeal to a more non-academic audience you also needed to explain in more detail. You cannot assume that the reader knows what you are talking about, so you must include details that you wouldn't necessarily include with an academic audience. I found the assignment very enjoyable to write, however it was difficult to determine if it was within the parameters of the assignment.
I had the same person do a program on diversity in a class last quarter, so I was already familiar with that type of program. Although he did do some things that were different from the session before, I thought a lot of it wasn't new to me. I think that the session was a little bit basic, with the hula hoop demonstration being kind of obvious that we all belong to many different groups. In other similar sessions that I have participated in for other groups/training/etc. we have done similar activities that have been more personal for everyone, which I think is more effective in recognizing diversity. I did think that the activity at the end with the different limits/stereotypes/portrayals of women was really interesting and thought provoking, and it definitely could apply (with different cards) to other groups of people as well. The explanation of some people being above the netting and some people being stuck below it made me think about how I have felt in the past, and how others probably feel every day.
ReplyDeleteIn writing the observational paper, I found it kind of difficult to transition back into using my own voice in a paper. I started off writing in a very formal way, but realized that I probably should be more creative with this assignment compared to the others. Writing with my own voice is something that I was very used to before this quarter, but we had been learning so much about research oriented, more formal papers, that I was getting used to writing that way. I thought that finding sources for this paper was easier than finding qualitative studies as we did in the paper before.
Thursday's workshop was interesting. I liked the scar activity. It was a fun way for us to hear interesting stories about one another. However, I did not like the activity where we had to explain different things to different groups of people, such as those fishing in the middle of the street. I have done that activity before, and I didn't like it the first two times.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was very interesting to do the gender roles activity, especially since the class was only women (and Professor Bateman and Thomas). When there aren't other men in our age group around to judge us, it is more likely that we would say what is truly on our minds.
It was a very different experience writing a paper based on observational data, rather than researching solely in the library and on library databases. I was able to pull information from my experiences at Project Homeless Connect, and how my client was feeling, rather than just taking other scholars' observations.
I was able to use scholarly sources to back up my findings, but it was nice to take my own findings initially.
I really enjoyed Thomas' presentation. I think it's important to see how cultural differences can compete with what we try to communicate to each other. Also, talking about how different aspects of society, such as laws, traditions, and stereotypes, interact. Even though I thought that we touched on a lot of good topics during the workshop, and I didn't feel any hostility in the room, I don't think that one workshop can solve the problems that we are experiencing in this class. In the midst of being conscious of the things we say out loud, the thoughts that we do not say are the ones that probably best express how each of us is feeling.
ReplyDeleteAs for my observational paper about PHC, I initially had a lot of trouble writing in a different mode. My first draft sounded purely academic and non-partisan. I drew up a blank document, and just began writing a narration of my day at PHC and the thoughts that it had triggered. Once I did this, I felt like I could integrate other sources, and still be expressive. I really enjoyed reflecting on my experience and everyone else's blogs. I tried to write in a conversational tone that I would use with my friends, and not hesitate to write down an observation just because I wasn't sure if others would agree.
I thought that last workdays workshop was interesting. I think the workshop in itself was really good and definitely made me think. The exercise that we did at the beginning about the scars was related to the whole idea of not judging people based off of their appearances, or making up stories about people that you don’t know. However, though I thought the workshop was good, I’m not quite sure how productive it was for our class in particular. With the things that we were talking about fixing in the class before the workshop I just didn’t see very much correlation between the workshop and those themes. Certainly some things were, but overall I just didn’t really understand how it helped our class very much. I thought all the exercises that he showed us were very interesting, especially the problem solving ones, but I just didn’t quite understand how they related to our class in general.
ReplyDeleteI really liked writing the paper for our qualitative project homeless connect reflections. I personally am much more drawn to creative writing so this paper gave me a chance to use that more. For me one of the most important aspects to writing this paper was not getting research done for use in my paper, but rather “creating my own research” by writing the field notes when I was done with PHC. I think that if I didn’t write everything that I remembered about the day down right after it happened I wouldn’t forgotten a lot of it and wouldn’t have been able to write detailed descriptions in my paper. I definitely like working with my own observations better because I felt that the significance of certain observations just came much easier rather than trying to analyze someone else’s observations and make my own meaning out of it. My meaning was already kind of inherent in my observation. I used the “I” voice a lot more in this assignment and a lot more personal quotes from my client that I think people can relate to more.
I’ve already seen Thomas presentation multiple times so it really wasn’t anything new for me. What you get from a presentation like that is must not discount anyone’s experience, nor hold anything against him or her just because they are a certain away. I noticed that a lot of the presentation was focused around issues of women being oppressed, which is interesting since this class is all women except for one. I wonder of the presentation had gone longer if we would have gotten into other people’s oppression and personally I feel would have made the overall point better.
ReplyDeleteWriting this essay I felt much more at ease and relaxed knowing that this was much more opinion based and not such an argumentative piece. The research I did for this assignment I felt was only slightly different, because most of the references are based on personal experiences not necessarily scholarly. Witting about my personal experience and observations felt like I was writing a better essay, because I didn't have to depend on the research of others, nor did I have to have my point validated, it was my opinion. I wrote this essay for non-academic audience so I didn’t use incredibly scholarly diction, nor did the make the essay sound like I was stating facts. I was giving my voice and the story of someone else.
From Thomas' presesntation I gained a more acute awareness of the societal "web" that is in place defining a proper women's role. This exercise made me want to take a look at the other webs that serve to keep other subsets of the population in a place that they don't deserve to be in. I think it would have been beneficial to also take a look at the webs that hold down minorities.
ReplyDeleteI found the exercise of trying to explain to someone who lives in water what water is like really interesting. I did not quiet understand what type of metaphors we could draw with it, as far as the issue of diversity goes, but I found it thought-provoking.
To conduct research on Project Homeless Connect, I observed my clients as well as the other people present to obtain qualitative information about homelessness, service providers, and the interaction between the two. This kind of research differed from the type of research I conducted in the past because of its immersive nature. Before I read sources about methodical qualitative studies and their conclusions. For my popular audience paper, I used the observations of Project Homeless Connect to inform my paper and its main idea. To support the main idea, I excerpted portions of my peers' blog responses and also pulled a quote from a financial report. This research compared more to the type of research conducted for my literature review because it involved encorporating the work of other authors and researchers.
IN this assignment I used some fun imagery to appeal to a more popular, non-academic audience. I also alluded to a famous actor to draw a comparison that people might relate to.
I think that the workshop on Thursday had some beneficial aspects. I think that the activity at the end of the class seemed to be a little arbitrary, but I might actually have likes it the best. That activity gave everyone a common interest to relate over and share opinions about. It really only worked since Dave wasn’t in attendance, since it would be a little more challenging to relate over women’s rights issues with our male classmate (not impossible just a little more complicated). I found the activity with the three scenarios to be a little frustrating because two were purely hypothetical and one was grounded in reality and a more poignant issue. Overall I’m not sure what evaluation of the day is. Perhaps if we had gone through something like that earlier in the quarter it would have been more helpful to bring the class together.
ReplyDeleteWhile writing this qualitative paper, I had a lot of trouble trying to decide what it should actually be like. My research for this paper was much more haphazard than the last papers; I practically just looked for support of very specific small ideas within my paper. Other than that my “research” was just my experience at Project Homeless Connect. I struggled with this concept, making a personal experience into some kind of scholastic evidence. Honestly I don’t even know if ended up achieving it. The main difference that I had in order to appeal a popular audience, was to include a lot of narrative detail and a window into my experience. Hopefully my audience will be able to look through that window and see the bigger point in addition to just my thoughts. I don’t know how I feel about this essay in the end. I don’t know when I will ever have to write anything like this again, and I think I am glad for that.
Having experience Thomas’ presentation before I knew what to expect. I really appreciated working with a new set of people though. Through this class I have found that I am very isolated to a set group of people that look like me, think like me, eat like me, and come from the same places although this gives me a support network and a family in a sometimes hostile environment I feel like I have robed myself of what other people that may not be like me. For a while I thought that DU needed more diversity and I felt the oppression and what it means to be singled out but more than a diversity of race I think DU needs a diversity of minds. A diversity of how people see the world, of values and beliefs, of experiences because it is in the exchanging of those that a person can really grow.
ReplyDeleteI still feel scattered about my reflection for PHC, there is almost too much to take in and then voice out. I believe that tiny moments, fragments of a picture are what makes up a whole sacred being. My experience with PHC was really hard. It was as if GI was my farther the line that I had drawn for myself was blurred and I could really feel GI’s frustration. My research for this assignment was to read my peers blogs and I really liked doing that because prior to this assignment I had not really read them. Reading their comments reactions and emotions gave me an insight to the diversity of this class and in how this class thinks. To do something differently I would give more time to this piece. Procrastination is not one of my weaknesses. I can get things done in an orderly fashion and I do not tolerate excuses for myself however, life is a funny thing and its full of surprises and sometimes it gets in the way of papers and the like.
Last Thursday’s workshop was informative on social issues that interconnect with the class. Especially the part when Thomas asked us to hold up the web that represents the system. We as individuals all have responsibility in participating in the system; however, we are also the one to change that system.
ReplyDeleteThe research I did for this assignment is personable. I am able to relate to the topic on a personal base. Using the word “I” was helpful, it seems like I was writing a story, instead of a paper. However, I had a difficult time trying to input academic research into my paper. The academic papers are easier to write because I had a peer-review study to based my paper on. I feel like all I wrote on this paper was my feeling towards PHC instead of peer academic study.
I personally was not here for the workshop, but from the things that i have heard from other students and the changes in class dynamics that i have personally noticed so i'm guessing some good things were discussed and tackled head on. Writing my observational reflection on my experience at PHC was really cool because i got a chance to really think deep about what i learned and some of the thoughts i held before and the differences in myself as well. It was really an eye opening experience for me and to be able to share that with who ever reads my paper is really exciting for me because i really feel like i learned alot. My research was really based on conversations i had, and interviews with a classmate of mine, I guess the biggest difference was that it was a more personable approach in terms of research as opposed to looking on the internet for the works of others. To appeal to a wider audience i just really talked freely in my paper with no real concerns or inhibitions about who i would properly address or who would be judging my paper. I just wrote my thoughts to be honest.
ReplyDeleteI think the diversity workshop did a good job bringing our class together based on commonalities while emphasizing the importance to recognize other’s perceptions and experiences. I had previously done the exercise related the three scenarios during a diversity workshop in my leadership class. However, it is always different getting a new perspective from students in a new class who you do not know very well. The scenario exercise caused us to engage more with each other while discussing the perspectives of others. By examining the perspectives in these scenarios, we can translate this idea of differing perspectives to relate to our view of each other’s perspectives. I learned to take other’s perspectives into consideration more. The second exercise with the web brought us together on the commonality that we are all women. While I knew prior to the exercise the injustices that women face, it was more shocking once they are all read one after the other. Although hearing the injustices was not necessarily the objective of the exercise, it really brought out more of a reaction from all people in the class. I think it would have been a good idea to relate this directly to the differing socio-economic backgrounds within our class. Though these exercises brought us together based on the idea of differing perceptions, it did not necessarily address the exact problems we had been facing. Still, it was helpful to work together more rather than simply discuss or debate ideas related to poverty or homelessness.
ReplyDeleteRather than synthesize sources into an argument, this research assignment allowed me to focus more on my own personal observation as a way to structure my argument. As I reflected on my experiences at Project Homeless Connect, my argument about changing perceptions became more apparent. The observational reflection allowed me to include more of a narrative descriptive voice in this assignment. It brought me back more to last quarter because I was able to creatively describe my own experience. As I described my experience, I tried to include examples of experiences related to my claim that people’s perceptions change after working with homeless people. Still, most of my paper was structured around my observation rather than outside sources. This paper allowed me to be more expressive.
I enjoyed Thomas’ presentation on Thursday. However, I have participated in it in another class, which had a more in-depth on the issue or cultural identification. I think that one thing that Thomas’ presentation missed out on is what we as individuals identify as. I think that personally I tend to see a white person as just a white person, when I, as a white person, am in fact quite the mutt.
ReplyDeleteWriting this quarter has been somewhat challenging for me. I am also in a Core class about satire and am constantly having to write piece with odd voices of perspectives that can be quite personal and are very informal. Then I have this class which is the antithesis because of the voice and research component. Researching this project was easy for me because of my familiarity with my topic. It was also much easier because the sources were so much more informal than the last paper. This paper was also much easier for me to write than the first paper because of how contradicting my feelings are about sources such as films. Working with texts for my is a job I respect and honor and believe deserves the most seriousness and accuracy. Using my own observations allows me to be more free and creative, which I have bee practicing in my satire class. In this most recent piece, my descriptive adjectives and phrases give the paper a more colorful and active voice, which differs greatly form the lit review paper. Using my personal story of the day made it less abstract and allows the reader to have a more personal interaction with my experience, which I do not believe was the case at all in my last piece.
Oops--that last comment was from Briana.
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