IMRaD Report

Mason Knight

4/10/2015

Mr. Paudel

Alcohol Ideology and Actuality in the U.S.

Abstract

Does the public believe underage consumption/purchase of alcohol can be stopped and feels that is should be, or is it felt that it would be better just to legalize it because it happens anyway. A short survey was created using ten basic questions that address how the public feels about underage consumption/purchase of alcohol, and if it is something that they feel can truly be stopped altogether. Also addressing the issue that race and cultural could play a critical role in how a participant answers the questions.

NEED BULLET 3 AND 4!

Introduction

The topic of underage drinking is a large and varied issue in the U.S., forming due to the age related legality differences among the different major countries across the world. It is ‘widely’ believed in the U.S. that the minimum age for purchase and consumption of alcohol being set at 21 is a good marker for young adults, the term widely here is used jokingly because it is not actually the truth. All government funded sites and organizations will say that it is ‘widely’ believed that this age should be raised, however this is not only not the case but it is the complete opposite. Only referring to those who have served or are currently serving in any branch of the military, it is a commonly held belief that is you can fight and die for your country than you should be able to drink in it. So there is a clear gap in credibility to what the rest of the population believes, and this report is designed to attempt to fill some of the gap.

Methods

A questionnaire with questions relating to age, religion, and personal thoughts about underage purchase and consumption of alcohol has been create. Age and religion are included in the questionnaire because they could play a major role in why a participant believes in what they do, and this research wishes to show that as well. However, this survey mainly address if the population feels that underage consumption and purchase is a true problem and if it can really be stopped.

Participants

The survey was created and emailed out to multiple people ranging from 12 years of age to 80 years of age. As well as all cultures, races, religions, ethnicities, and backgrounds. Including these the survey was also posted on multiple social media websites including: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The survey itself is anonymous about names to protect the true identity of the participants, but it does require you to complete the: age, race, religion, and ethnicity questions to project the data gathered. However, the survey is ongoing and will remain open so the number of participants will continue to increase. The participant count for this report will be based off of the number of completed surveys when the information is collected for this report.

Procedures

Participants simply complete the survey, and the results are gathered.

Data Analysis

Data will be analyzed and weighted based on the participant’s answers to a selected number of important questions, the other questions are designed to be used as proof that this survey is not target a specific group of people. Previous surveys of this type have had a targeted audience, with the audience having the same general idea creating a type of faked result.  A few comment boxes are available under some questions to help gain a better understanding of where an individual belongs as far as culture and religion.

Results

For the sake of this Rough Draft, I would like to leave my survey open longer to get more participants than I currently have. If this is not acceptable please email me at mtknig03.louisville.edu so I may post the current results and resubmit.

Discussion

I feel like the discussion section is to talk about what my results mean and how they apply to the problem at hand. Since I have stated that the survey is to prove that most people are actually favoring changing the current drinking age, I need to wait until I post the results in this paper to have a discussion over it. Therefore, the discussion section should remain blank until I have completely evaluated my results.

Questionnaire

1: Do you believe underage drinking is a severe problem in the US?
                                                                                                               Strongly Agree
                                                                                                                       Agree
                                                                                                                     Disagree
                                                                                                             Strongly Disagree
2: Have you ever participated in underage drinking?  YES/NO
     If NO, please write a few sentences explaining why.
3: If the punishment for underage drinking was harsher, it would happen less.
                                                                                                               Strongly Agree
                                                                                                                       Agree
                                                                                                                     Disagree
                                                                                                             Strongly Disagree
4: Underage teens go above and beyond to hide their alcohol consumption habits? YES/NO
5: If the drinking age were lowered in the US, it would only have severe negative impacts on the country? YES/NO
     If NO, please write a few sentences explaining why.

Research

So I did my two previous assignment on underage drinking, and the idea came to me that I could research it since I am still a minor and other minor will be more open with me than they will with adults.
One question I have is: If the punishment for underage drinking was death, would you still do it?
This is a complete jump on reality, and I would collect data by having people answer the question out right. Then the following question could be: Why would you still do it if you could be killed for it?

A different question I really don't have, I know we needed two but this one came to me and i really like it. Since I can't seem to focus enough to come up with another one because I keep thinking about this question, I don't feel like I can go wrong by using it.

Reflection on Remediation Assignment

The purpose of remediation is to take information presented in a form or context, and try to change it into a new form to help new people understand what the information is saying or representing. Now it is not just factual information, I mean it is not just limited to discoveries or important things. Information, to me, is everything your brain perceives. Having said that, books are considered information. And books are changed into movies, which more people will have access to than the original book.
But when remediation occurs it is very difficult to keep all of the original information, there is just so much. Imagine if the Harry Potter books were made into movies word for word, the movies would take weeks to watch. This was my biggest challenge with remediation, I struggle with trying to decide what information is important enough to keep and what should be left out.
Audiences don't really change with remediation, they just grow as a targeted group.

IMRad

So up next we have a new and different type of research report, and I personally have never done this type of writing before. The first research paper this semester was just a basic research paper, a topic was chosen and you did research about that topic. Then you wrote down the results of your findings and tried to show the facts, both good and bad. That was it, the whole paper was done simply by looking at other peoples findings and experiences to help with the topic.
This research paper however, will be much different. I will actually be doing experiments with the topic I chose, whether its taking a poll to see what other people think about it or actually doing an experiment to prove a point. I will also need to document it like an actually research report, so I will have to include an abstract and talk about my methods as well as keeping a detailed report of my results then ending with a discussion.
This paper will be a lot different based on the idea that I will be the one providing the research, not just simply finding it.

Translation Assignment

http://prezi.com/aja_tbxbylhi/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

Multimodal Choice

I am planning to use Prezi as my medium to re-present to information gathered in my research paper, there are multiple reasons why I am choosing this multimodal text. Prezi is a presenting software that works a lot like Microsoft's PowerPoint, the major difference between Prezi and PowerPoint is that Prezi is an online software which means that you can activate and work on it from anywhere that you have internet access while PowerPoint must be uploaded into the iCloud and re-downloaded onto the device that you want to work from. Prezi also allows multiple people to work on a project at the same time if you have a subscription to them, so it is very useful for group assignments.

I am choosing Prezi because it is an online(electronic) source which will give me the freedom to work on it just about anywhere I want, it will allow me to use different fonts and colors to help emphasis major points. I can also make it more interactive than a blog for example, I can choose options to make Prezi more appealing than simply listing the important pieces of information like a blog might do. I can also insert images into the Prezi, which will give it more pizzazz for everyone who views it. Lastly, I have used Prezi in the past for many different things and I just enjoy using it.

These are some of the main reasons behind my choice to use the Prezi presenting software.

MLA Formatting

MLA:

• Bullock, Richard, Maureen Goggin, and Francine Weinberg. 'The Norton Field Guide to Writing, with Readings and Handbook (third edition).' New York: W. W. Norton and Company. 2013. Print.
• Martin, David S. Transnational Writing Program Administration. Boulder, Colorado: Utah State University Press. 2015. Print.
• 'Text-to-Text Remediation - Writing Commons'. n.p., 2015. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.
• Baker, Peter. 'G.O.P. Senators’ Letter To Iran About Nuclear Deal Angers White House'. Nytimes.com. n.p., 2015. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.
• 'Emergency Notification — Department Of Environmental Health And Safety'. louisville.edu. n.p., 2015. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.
• Lu, Min-zhan. 'Redefining the Legacy of Mina Shaughnessy: A Critique of the Politics of Linguistic Innocence'. Journal of Basic Writing. 1991. Print.

Reflection of Research Paper

     To choose a topic for this assignment, I started by just writing down arguments that are meaningful to me. So things I had an opinion of that was entirely my own, it was not created by reading about the argument but instead it was all original. Then I went through that list and started by taking off all the topics I felt that I already knew to much about, this was to just allow myself to learn and use sources more effectively instead of trying to find sources that backed exactly what I want. After all this I chose my topic.
     Then I started brainstorming possible reasons why my side of the argument was correct, I came up with a list of about 7 reasons why I felt I was correct. I had to narrow that list down to about 3 major topics, and then for each topic I needed a counter argument and my own argument to invalidate the counter argument. This became my general outline for what I wanted to include in m paper.
     The next thing was finding sources, Sources to back what i wanted to say and sources to attempt to invalidate the counter argument, both scholarly and not. I found 4 academic journals, a blog from an organization that is directly related to the argument in question, and I also used personal experience as a source but I cited it like an interview.
     It was challenging for me to be opinionated in this writing, because I prefer to list and talk about the facts whether I agree with them or not. But I did overcome this in the writing because I not only needed to but i enjoyed writing about the argument itself.
     I learned a lot about the laws surrounding my argument and how they are not only pointless, but that research shows they have actually increased the "problem" in most cases. It was very interesting to learn about how people view the same topic, and how something seems so obvious to me can be so foreign to someone else.
     The first assignment and this assignment were very different for me, I went into the first assignment already knowing how I wanted it to turn out. I knew how it would sound and what sources would be used. This assignment I went into less sure of myself. Also the assignments themselves were very different for me as an Engineering Major, the first assignment was strictly factual and there was little to no of my own opinion involved. This one however was much more opinionated and wanted me to back up my opinions as well as dispute counter arguments that arise because of my opinions and reasoning.

Remediation

Remediation seems the be simple in meaning, it is taking information from one form and presenting it in another. The term for form when talking about remediation is medium; writings, comics, pictures, movies, music, these are all mediums. So my research paper was a medium for the information I presented then, but I could have presented it in a song. Yes, I could have sang to you every word that was written on the paper and i could have gone as far as to make it lyrical and flow smoothly. This would be a type of remediation, if you had the written paper in front of you but i sang it to you I would be remediating the written for of the information.
Remediation also appears to be happening all the time, all around us. Now I have a word to go with what is happening, for example: every time the movie "The Incredible Hulk" is re-made that is a remediation. This is so because first it was only in theaters, next we had VHS tapes to watch the movie at home, then they upgraded to DVDs and another jump to Blue-Ray. Now you do not even need to own the film in any form, you can get on the computer and download it to watch instantly. These are all types of remediation, like if i were to make my research paper into a film or YouTube video, these are remediation's.

Second Assignment: Outline

Drinking is an enjoyable way to pass the time with friends, and a great way to unwind from the stresses of everyday life. Everyone has, at some point in time, thought about drinking, and in most first world countries it is something most people look forward to being able to do. But why is the legal drinking age different all around the world? Why is it that something everyone can agree on eventually being acceptable, can't have a standard age that applies EVERYWHERE?

Most of Europe has a purchasing age of 18, and in some places like Germany that age is 16. BUT minors are allowed to consume alcohol as long as it is provided free of charge, which basically means if it is given to them by friends or family.
Yet in this great country (USofA) the Legal Drinking Age is 21, but that's not all because it is illegal for anyone under the age of 21 to consume alcohol much less purchase it. And this is enforced so strictly that fines and even punishment can be given to minors who try.

Here's my position:
America as a country is new, when you compare the age of this country to the ages of European countries we are very young. So why is it that we think our laws are the best, particularly the laws about drinking. These other countries have been around for literally hundreds of years longer then America has, so why don't we think about changing our ways to more reflect those countries with greater experience?

Arguments:
Drinking by persons between the ages of 18 and 20 happens, this is a known fact. Why doesn't the government just go ahead and drop the purchase age to 18 because:

• It will allow the government to increase revenue from taxes because people from ages 18 to 20 will now be able to purchase alcohol.
• This age group will no longer feel the need to "hide" while drinking which is where the danger comes from, they will no longer need to find a place to get drunk then try to find a way home
• People will know how to handle being intoxicated by the time they are actually able to enter society and get a real job, so it will become less of a problem for public intoxication type incidences.

Counter Arguments:

• It will heavily affect seniors in high school and possible ruin GPA's in the last year of school.
• Students in college will focus more on partying and less on studying
• The human brain doesn't fully develop until 21

Answers to Counter Arguments:

• If seniors in high school have decreases in GPA's, they are still in a situation where their parents have some control over them. In these situations the parent/guardian needs to take action to prevent excessive consumption
• If a student makes it to the college level, and this is coming from personal experience, and they make the adult decision to go out to parties and not study. Then that is their choice, and they will have to deal with the consequences that come from those choices.
• If the human brain were seriously affected by the moderate alcohol consumption that comes from a few drinks a week, the world would have seen the affects of this from most countries in Europe.

So it couldn't possibly do that much harm to persons or society to lower the drinking age, however, personally I feel that there will be a significant increase in alcohol related problems for the first few years of the lowered limit. This can be expected as the rush of newly legalized drinkers go slightly crazy from the ability to buy and consume, however, this can also be compared to the amount of people who are publicly high due to the new marijuana laws that are slowly moving across the country.


Mason Knight

Drinking in the States

     Drinking in the US is a social attraction, you can buy a beer just about anywhere in this country. Drinking is considered a recreational activity that almost everyone looks forward to participating in, and it the last major mark of becoming an adult in our society. But why is it that the drinking age is so radically different around the globe? Why is it that something everyone can agree on being socially acceptable, can't have an agreed age restriction across the world?

Examples of Citations

For starters, all of these papers are properly cited using the correct process to cite the sources used whether it be: scholarly, newspapers, websites, or unpublished works. All papers give clear examples on how to properly cite sources in writing, both with in-text-citations as well as a work cited page. Commonly, all of these papers appear to be intended to be helpful in teaching the proper way to cite, and can be used and references for more tricky citing. All papers listed helpful tips regarding the citations that were used, and the tips were placed in a way that made it easy to follow along with what was being cited.
As with the first example of their similarities, a major difference in these papers is the style of citation each uses. There are also different requirements for the different styles of citations. Some information that is required to properly cite a source using MLA style, for example, may not be needed for correct citation using APA style. Also, the layout of the works cited page between these two styles is different, I mean the order that the information regarding the sources is listed is different. In-text layout is also different for the styles, and since the papers don't use the same style these differences apply to their respective citations. Lastly, the way the information on correct citing varied with the different papers and the video was completely different since it was a video.

Research Paper

   1.  Students being given personal computers for school in lower level education (high school and down)

• Is this really beneficial or is it even more of a distraction than cellphones

   2.  Raising minimum wage will benefit all lower class Americans.

• Prices will increase at the same pace as minimum wage to keep the gap.

   3.  Should the drinking age be dropped to 18 like most countries in Europe?

• More alcohol related deaths and higher teen death rates

   4.  Core classes shouldn't be included in the college curriculum.

• Core classes teach many useful skills that can be applied throughout the college career.

   5.  The death penalty should be implemented.

• Killing innocent people who have been wrongful found guilty is a crime itself.

Should the US follow the example of most European countries and lower the drinking age to eighteen? With the drinking age a full three years sooner than in America, Europe doesn't experience anymore crime than we do. So what is the real reason behind our American government keeping the drinking age at twenty-one?  The government would actually make more money if the drinking age got lowered, since there would be three year age group that will begin buying alcohol which is taxed. It really doesn't appear that there would be any real drawbacks in the grand scheme of things, so maybe the age should be lowered?

Questions from "Reviews of Scholarly Literature"

Johnson cites eight different sources in her piece, these sources appear credible in a few different ways. For starters, I recognize a few of these Publishers and I know that they usually only publish academic work. This, to me, says that these sources are works done by educated individuals who know what they are talking about, but there are also better examples. These sources have all been, for the most part, scholarly reviewed by other professionals in that field, this means that others with as much knowledge or more knowledge than that author read the piece and approved it to be published as credible. Johnson uses these sources to back up her own opinion in her piece, she states her opinion and reasons then uses these sources to help prove that her idea is correct.

Reflection of First Major Assignment

The first major assignment was Informational Writing about how professional writing in my field of study is and compared to writing in other fields of study.
I learned a few things I didn't know or want to believe about writing as an engineer, but I actually learned more about writing as an English student. I learned the correct way to cite 'unpublished' and 'personal communication' sources, and I believe this is incredibly important because I will probably need to do it in the future. My assumptions of professional writing as an engineer were only supported with the completion of this assignment, I had a strong knowledge of the types of things that are included get included in this type of writing, all the facts both good and bad along with graphs and charts. The only real challenge I had with this assignment was trying to find source that helped  exemplify the writing done by engineers, I couldn't really find any published sources that provided good enough examples for the purpose of this assignment. So I overcame this by using unpublished sources for engineers I know, the only drawback to this was that I was unable to keep or copy any of the documents I used and the information I used in my assignment had to be screened by the actual owners to make sure I didn't use any information that didn't need to be reproduced...that probably didn't make a lot of sense. Let's try this. The in-text-citations of my essay, had to be approved by the actual owners of the source, before I could include them. I learned that as a writer I am good with this kind of writing, I don't really enjoy trying to argue or make somebody believe me. I found group conferences to be very useful, mainly because I wasn't in a group and the conference is what helped me learn how to cite my sources.  I think group conferences should continue, but maybe only for those who feel like they need it. The returned draft with comments was basically the same thing that got said in the conference, so all i really took away from the conference was the correct way to cite my "odd" sources.

Analysis of Joanna Mackay

In this essay, the main topic appears to be the selling of organs. The argument being made here is whether or not organ sales should be legal, or regulated by the government. Her position is based on the fact that it could save lives because people are put onto waiting lists when they need an organ, but she argues that for these people who are dying being put on a list just isn't good enough. She also states that there are people in need of money who would gladly sell an organ for cash, and that these people would provide an increase in available organs and thereby save other's lives. Her final position seems to be that these types of organ sales happen anyway on the black-market where it is not only illegal but it isn't safe. She proposes that the government control this market so it is safe for the people who are selling their organs. Joanna organizes her argument in that basic order, people need organs while people need money and are willing to sell organs. Followed by how dangerous it is and how the safety and benefits would greatly increase if the government would regulate it.

Conference

Today I have scheduled a conference with my English professor to review the draft of my first major assignment of the course, it has been a bit since you heard from me here so lets refresh our memories.
My first assignment is an informative writing piece that will compare writing in my field of study, Mechanical Engineering, to other fields. This is to help me understand writing genres better and also hopefully gain a better understanding of writing as an engineer.
There is one goal that I must accomplish, and that is to learn how to correctly site a few sources that I am using in my assignment. I am not sure how to site them because they are not 'published' sources, but instead our sources written by other engineers during their course of study.
After getting out of my conference, I began applying all of the information on citing my source into my paper. The problem I was having with trying to cite my sources before had to do with the fact that those specific sources weren't published sources, this made citing them harder than if I were just using regular scholarly articles. But, I am glad that I chose to use these source instead of just giving up and changing my sources to make it easier on myself. These are both really good sources, and i was able to learn how to cite non published work because of my choice.
So all in all, I fell my conference went well. And I achieved the goal I gave myself earlier of learning how to cite my source.

Constructive Ideas and Editing for IR

Writing is a major part of the world today, whether it’s a book being read for fun or an email to a big promotion. But writing in a field is not just for fun, what I mean by that is: Scientist do not write about discoveries in an email, they take the time to create a report and list their findings so the world can understand. This is what is can be considered as professional writing in that field, but I am not a scientist so this does not concern me that much. I am studying to be a mechanical engineer, so what I will be focusing on is writing done by engineers specifically. To do this I have interviewed two engineers, whom I will refer to as Mr. A and Mr. B, and three written sources done by engineers. I hope to analyze these sources and present a better understanding of what it means for a piece of writing to be considered ‘professional’ in this field.

Being an engineer can mean many different things, but professional writing as an engineer will be the same no matter what type of engineer you are. Writing as an engineer means that you are presenting facts or data or both, the reason for presenting the information can vary greatly but generally this is what engineers are attempting to do with their writing. As an example here is a piece about solar energy, as a little background the author is trying to persuade a group of investors to fund a project that will replace several major roadways and most parking lots in California with solar panels.  The author writes, “…solar panels of this size will not exactly be cheap to make, at about $200 per piece and around $50 to install…but after only 3 years of these panels being the road and absorbing the sun’s energy the cost of creation and installation would have been repaid.” (source 2). The writer of this report lists the statistics of what it would cost to create and install these solar panels as the roadway, “…now these panels are actually going to be driven on, and it will also be outfitted with many mini multicolored lights to help with the road and parking lot configurations after installation, this all contributes to the cost of production and why these panels cost more than other panels of the same general size and shape.” (source 2).

            The source I used as examples above matches what one Mr. A said repeatedly during my interview with him, “When I write seriously as an engineer there is nothing casual about it, I am putting my name on something so above everything else it must be accurate and correct.” was what he said to me. This moment had a huge impact on the way I think about writing as an engineer, I had not understood exactly how important and serious presenting every little detail of information was. “If you want to keep or get more funds to continue your project than you have to give detailed information on everything…if you are behind schedule you better have a damn good reason why, and if you are over budget it is actually worse…everything comes back to me because I am in charge of these projects so at the end of the day it is my name on the document they read” is what I was told when I asked him why it was so critical for everything to be accounted for in a report.

            After this it came to my attention that writing as an engineer is incredibly different from writing as an English major, the first example that came to my mind was the use of facts. When writing in English it has been my experience that the facts are used to back up my opinion or position, I use the facts that are relevant to me and leave out the ones that may harm my point. As an engineer I am not allowed to leave anything out, Mr. A explained, “If something gets left out, even by accident, when the superiors find out you will almost certainly lose your job but you will definitely lose your reputation as an engineer…” So even if the facts are nothing but harmful for me to included, they must be included. I cannot overlook a failure or blunder for the sake of my position simply because my position is dependent on those facts. One of the last things Mr. A said to me that really sent the engineering writing style home was “Honesty is paramount in this profession, your reputation is your job application.” Mr. A’s interview went along almost perfectly with the writing style and layout of (source 2).

            Mr. B provided me with a report he wrote and turned into his company about the operations of the new cargo lift that needs to be installed on the back of the moving trucks the company uses, during my interview with him he was kind enough to actually talk about the report and how he implemented the information in a way that showed all of both the positive and negative aspects of the cargo lift. Mr. B started with, “This report definitely has information on it that I do not want there, that is even harmful to the convincing that we need this new lift, ‘…the GEN. X lift has a written max payload of 6 tons, 2 tons lighter than our current lift…its size is ¾ that of our current Champion model so we will be able to install it on our smaller trucks and not have to load them at the warehouse.’(source 1) like right here for example, it comes with a pro and a con but I must list them both.” I understood the importance of this immediately but then Mr. B used a great example of why it was important, “Imagine ordering 20 of these new lifts and me not mentioning the maximum load size, we would break all of them on day one. Then I would get blamed for all the lost expensies and broken equipment, and most likely get fired.” Mr. B reiterated many things that Mr. A had said in my earlier interview, reminding me that it was of the utmost importance to list everything that was relevant to the report and not what was relevant to making me look good. “The best way to look good in the world of engineering is to be honest, honesty gets you promotions as an engineer...” was the best quote I heard from Mr. B, he and Mr. A have had no contact that I am aware of and yet the both told me countless times that being honest was the most important thing about writing a report as being an engineer. 

Peer Suggestions

So as the members in my group of three we discussed the sources we will use for our individual papers, and got feedback from the other group members on what the sources help support. We developed a criteria that our sources should be able to meet in general regardless of the genre, the sources need to be:

1. Relevant to the assignment's topic
2. Provide a clear example of writing in the field of study
3. Be comparable to writing in other fields of study
4. Be a reliable source

In my case one of my original possible sources didn't meet the criteria, so I decided not to consider including it in my report. I also learned of a good place to find a lot of scholarly articles, if I go to the UofL homepage and click on the library link I can select an online library that holds J.pegs of scholarly articles.
We also discussed how to organize and implement our interviews into the report, the interviews can be used as background views and real life examples of what the writing is used for and what it can affect. So my sources are reports of projects or possible project that have happen or could happen in the real world, then my interviews can be used to explain what the report actually means or what it is used for in respect with the topic that report is about.

Sources Summary

My interview with Subject A was very casual and relaxed, since I have know this subject for a period of time. When asked about his day to day writing he responded, 'Most of my writing daily just consists of emails, usually between myself and coworkers or sponsors of the projects I manage.' This was especially important when I questioned him about what he would consider to be Professional Writing, when I brought this up he sported a very gloomy expression and stated, '...professional writing is a pain for me....mainly consisting of statistics and analysis of a project written in report form...But these are of extreme importance because they allow us to keep are funding and continue designing models.' I raised a question I hadn't pre-written, my question was why does he feel as though his 'reports' are a burden or hassle? 'Well they aren't as bad as you would think or as I make them out to be, they are just extremely time consuming...the are needed but you have to be super specific, and pay a lot of attention to the details that the sponsors request, if you forget information it can cause major damage to your companies name and image so its important to get it right. This is why I don't like doing it, it's a lot of responsibility and you already know how lazy I am!'

One source is my own personal writing, and I have gone into detail on several others posts and notes
so I do not see a need to talk about that source further. Another source I hope to utilize will be the Army Corps of Engineers report regarding the Wolf Creek Dam project, I would be thrilled to use this in my piece because I am originally from Jamestown, KY so this is something that is close to home. I can really get into this assignment if I can manage to use sources that interest me and this definitely interests me, so this source is ideal. This project basically is to stop and prevent leaks that have begun occurring in the 60 year old dam. However i have only been successful in finding the initial report and the summary of the project, this could cause me to be unable to use this source so it is not set in stone. Another source I could possibly be using in a report written by an fellow student attempting to get their masters degree in engineering, his report is about one of the 20 engineering grand challenges which basically are problems that the world faces and need to be fixed. His report is describing the completion of one of these challenges and the implications it would bring on the current world, as well as the probably cost of a specific solution as an example to be used on a much larger scale. Also included are some statistics related to the problem the challenge presents, and general locations of heavily affected areas. This report is a good source because it is an example of writing I will be expected to do in the future for my major, as well as being a great comparative item for writing in other fields.

Quotation Exercise

While taking an engineering class in a previous semester, I was instructed to write an informative piece on resources consumption along with how it damages our planet and possible ways to cut back on it. Whatever I offered had to be backed in facts and needed to be cited with sources as extra information about the topic, this was simply to prove that i had actually done research on my on. I used multiple sources about trying to integrate solar roadways into our society, both the pros and cons of an operation like this needed to be discussed and dealt with accordingly.

One quote I used was introduced in the pros portion of my paper, it was used to help provide expert advice on the advantages of this technology, I provided the source as a follow up to my own thoughts about how this idea could help benefit everyone on our planet. I then followed the source up with information I found directly in that source to provide small examples of what this source is helping me justify.

Another quote I used did the exact opposite, I applied it in my paper as an argument to try and represent those who will oppose this technology. It was included with the cons portion of my paper, where I discussed the negative impacts and drawbacks of using solar roadways, although it was specific to only one argument that could be made about this. It argued that the roads would have to be shut down in order to insert the solar cells , and this would have a huge impact on the economy which was a risk that just wasn't worth it. I then argued that the source was wrong because the advantages that would be brought by this out-way the impact that shutting down a road would have.

These are just two examples of how I have used sources in previous writing.

Possible Source

A source I have that could possibly be used for this assignment is a paper that classmates and I wrote for an engineering class I previously took, the reason I feel like this is a good source is due to the fact that we wrote this throughout the semester and had 5 total drafts submitted before the final product was graded.
This source is a paper, and it is a conceptually based informative essay. We discussed the implications of resource consumption around the world and how we are literally burning up the worlds supplies. So we came up with an alternative and discussed how it could be implicated, along with the pros and cons of the technology. Everything we wrote was theorized because we were attempting to convince possible financiers why this solution was the best for the problem described. An affect of the type of writing it was, we had to use real world sources and examples of how our solution could possible harm the environment as well as aid in the decreased consumption of natural resources.
I feel this piece could be beneficial to my paper now because of how many 'rough' drafts were originally submitted before the final product, and it also gives an idea of the types of papers engineers may have to write to get an idea funded. We were forced to back our solution with real world examples that can already be seen today, and since this was a theorized solution it became difficult to find examples convincing enough to actually be part of the paper. With everything that had to be put into this paper, as well as how many drafts were submitted to check on the element of the writing itself, I feel this is an excellent source to possibly go into my paper.

Assignment 1

This assignment is asking me to write about writing in my field of interest, or to look at what it is that is normally written about in this field. I am to interview a few professionals and also come up with written sources, all to help inform current and incoming freshman who are considering this field understand it a little better. It is to be informational piece so I should be careful not to use opinions or ideas to much. I will also explain how my thoughts on writing of my field were originally compared to how they are at the end of the assignment. 

Essay Analysis

In English 101 I wrote an argumentative piece trying to convince my readers that the rich, or upper class, has more power in the government than they should. That was the purpose, and the audience was everyone else in our society who didn’t make millions of dollars a year. I had already experienced what I was trying to convince my audience of, but that wasn’t enough so I needed to get support from others as well. This somewhat affected my stance, since I had previously been exposed to instances where I felt that someone ‘rich’ was in charge of the government. I used a few sources on the subject to help support my argument, one of my sources being a man who actually deals with instances of the power abuse and tries to get them corrected legally. My overall message was that; people with money have more say in our government simply because they can pay people to do things for them or vote certain ways, and this outweighs what the average person is capable of doing by just voting. Throughout this piece I use examples of real life instances and expert testimonies to help build the argument in my favor and make it that much more difficult to counter. I do however feel that if I were to write this again now it would be that much better, only because I have more experience in writing and know where and how to find better sources to back myself and my opinion up.

Syllabus Review

Mason Knight

1/10/2015

Professor Paudel

ENGL 102-59

Syllabus Questions

            After reading over the syllabus for English 102 with instructor H. Paudel, I have no real concerns about anything that is mentioned I the syllabus. All requirements and expectations are clear cut and rather straight forward, and the rules are clearly outlined. The syllabus also states that the instructor has the right to make to make changes to the syllabus and schedule if need, my only question is about the “Daily Schedule” section. It says that students will want to check Blackboard regularly for updates and materials, as well as possible adjustments to the material.

            When it says adjustments I am assuming that it means possible changes to the schedule to fit where we are as a class, and if this is the case my only question is could these types of adjustments happen often? Mainly because I organize other things around my classes as I am sure most students do, but some things are very hard to reschedule so I would like to be prepared if this is a common occurrence. Besides this I have no other real issues with anything covered in the syllabus, and everything seems to be covered in it rather well. I am looking forward to starting this class and this semester.

About Me

My name is Mason Knight, I am 19 and currently attending the University of Louisville to get a Mechanical Engineering degree. This blog was created for my English 102 class, during class to be exact. I love working on vehicles of all types, but in reality I am very good with fixing machines in general. I am anxious to see how this semester will be and what will be required of me in this course.