This Writing Class!

This is my first writing class, and I don’t like writing, but I actually don’t mind coming to this class every Tuesday. I like the way the class is loosely structured, with writing strategies, discussions about the book, fun clips from YouTube or Comedy Central, and class discussions. I enjoy the book we are reading and like that it is easy to actually relate to instead of a stale outdated text. The intimate setting of the classroom allows us to interact with one another, hear one other’s opinions in a discussion setting rather than sitting and listening to the teacher speak for an hour and a half. This allows us to enjoy ourselves, sharing funny ideas and examples. I like the fact that it’s not a traditional classroom. It makes group work seem less tedious, without having to apathetically move around desks to face the stranger next to you.

I dislike Writing Studio, and don’t really understand the point of using it for this class, having to figure it out for only a one-quarter class. I’d much rather use the EEE listserv to get information on assignments since we are already familiar with it as UCI students. The personal nature of our blog assignments are enjoyable, so that we can share our opinions and views, including what we think of the class. I like the set up of Blogger and like that each post is displayed with a place to post comments for each post. I’ve never used it before, but it’s really easy to navigate, unlike Writing Studio. All in all, I like the class thus far. I just don’t enjoy navigating around Writing Studio

Some things I like... some things I don't like

Writing 39C has been a challenging class for me just because I'm not much of a "writing person." I don't like to write and when assigned to write essays, I dread it. The thing that I like about this class is that it's a hybrid class, which only meets once a week. I like the fact that I could save gas (because I commute), have more hours to work, and be more independent. I also like meeting my peers (especially assigned to group projects) and getting to know them. I don't like reading as well when its assigned for school, because I like to read for fun. However, this book, has been pretty good so far. I also don't like researching for hours, but when going to the drop-in-library session, it really helped to know what other peers used for their essays, and how to research, so you don't have to spend hours and hours trying to find a particular topic when helpful databases are given to you. I also like how the blog posts are a way of writing to my peers and professor, and it's a little personal- I can write about my thoughts and how I feel. I also like the fact that the professor shows particular films or videos related to the particular subject or topic that the professor wants to prove or a way that we can understand and learn.

Pros and Cons

Writing 39C is a unique class in that we will only meet ten times this entire quarter. There are both pros and cons to this hybrid writing class. I like the fact that the class meets once a week, and then works independently for the remainder of the week. With work three or four times a week and three other classes, it is nice to get class work done at my apartment. I also like that even though we only meet once a week, it is easy to ask questions and get clarification via email and EEE. I think that communication outside of class is important.

A con that I have found in this class was the focus and start of the in-class essay prompt. Once it was explained a couple times, I caught on and it became clearer. Although it is interesting to learn more and more things about my plant, I wish we could write about other subjects. I believe writing and researching on other subjects would help expand my writing skills. Also, it is sometimes confusing as to when the assignments are due, whether in or outside of class. Lastly, I do not think it is necessary to have Blogger as well as Writing Studio. I find Writing Studio confusing and hard to navigate. However, Blogger has become easier to handle and the format is straight forward.

As the weeks have passed by, I have become more immune to the schedule and routine of the class. I enjoy that the class has a small number; it makes learning more personal.

Blog 5

My favorite thing about this class is only meeting once a week. This allows class to be more productive and informative versus slow and merely busy work. Spending less time in class also provides me with more time to get my studying/homework done and provides more flexibility in my schedule to work. The small class size is great because it’s easier to ask questions and allows us to work in groups. I did not enjoy the library research tutorial. Though the information was useful, the tutorial was time consuming and could have easily been provided in one of our regular class sessions. Blog posts are good assignments because they are generally opinion based and not strict on format. However, the main aspect of this class, the research papers, are somewhat stressful for me since the two main papers are half our grade. Writing is something you cannot study for, you have to do your best to present a good argument and present it convincingly and appropriately to your target audience. However, it’s a good thing that we are turning drafts in first so we can improve our writing and work our way to a good paper.

O-P-I-U-M

Releasing my frustration: GAARRRR!!! THIS PAPER WAS ..... GGGAAARRRR!!! OK, I've let it all out.


The coolest thing I learned about Opium poppy is that Canadians wear poppies on "Veterans Day" or Remembrance Day. It is a symbol of the author's (Lieutenant John McCrae) friend's death and Canadian school children recite the poem on that particular day. And of course, the fact that opium causes infertility rate to decrease (my thesis.)
I picked opium because it was ok. I mean, I didn't dislike it, so I guess it's ok learning about it. After I heard the other theses from the opium group, I chose to write something different from them. I was researching opium and reading the different titles of the articles, while keeping in mind that I had to write something that would catch the readers' attention. So... " Opium is negatively correlated with infertility rates". I thought that this would catch readers' attention.
I didn't know what about at first, because I had so many options. Because everyone else on Opium was writing about how the plant politically affecting a particular group of people, I wanted to reach out to everyone. I went back and researched on its health effects and came across some studies. So I decided to write about that with a brief history of addictions mentioned in the bible and the Muslim culture. After writing my paper, I felt that something was wrong with my conclusion....like it wasn't strong enough. Sometimes, you get that feeling when you're writing when you want to mention all of these random, but interesting facts that may help sway the readers to your side. I felt that I had a lot of those in my essays, and that my essay wasn't as organized as it could be if I could have spent more time on it. Oh well... did anyone else get the feeling that you were some kind of advertiser as you were writing this paper?

Paper Progress

When we first went around the classroom and chose our plants, I chose the coca plant mainly because I thought it would be interesting to learn about and easy to research. Well, it turns out I couldn’t have been more wrong. After hours of researching with nothing interesting to show for it, I decided to switch to opium poppy. While researching I found tons of interesting facts, but the most shocking was learning that America’s consumption of opium is funding the Taliban.
I would have never thought in a million that poppy plants would be contributing to the war on terror. I was originally searching the term “opium poppy” on the library database, but everything that popped up was somehow related to Afghanistan. Once I noticed this, I began searching terms related to both opium poppy and Afghanistan, which is where I learned that opium provides 30% of their economy. This topic struck my interest because it is different than the everyday topic, a very current issue that most citizens as well as the government are concerned with, and it is information that the average person does not know.
After I knew the area I wanted to focus on, the problem came with the research. Most of the information that I found was in news articles or magazines. It was very difficult to piece all of my findings together because most of the research was just talking about the current problem in Iraq. I had to look for the events/ history leading up to the problem and Americas role in contributing to the issue.
Eventually, after I got a feel for the timeline of events, I began researching certain topics in depth to fully understand everything. For example, it took me hours of research to understand why the United States couldn’t just spray pesticides on the poppy fields and be done with the problem. After searching various specific terms, such as “pesticide harm in Afghanistan,” I slowly began to find information on how pesticides would hurt the economy, farmers, as well as the environment. Then the problem was finding how the pesticide hurt farmers and why they couldn’t grow other plants. My research basically progressed slowly, but I always eventually found what I was looking for.
I feel like this paper is forcing me to truly understand the difference between legitimate websites and faulty ones. I am now realizing how many different sites there are with bias information that seems true. I am absolutely in love with the online resources the library provides, which I will probably be using for the rest of my life.

Cattle production and water

In researching the effect of cattle on our water supply, finding out how much water goes into the production of such a small amount of meat is definitely interesting. It has been easy finding academic sources specific to this topic because most of the activist-based information centers on the ills of consuming animal products or animal rights, whereas the affect on water supply is mostly scientific, unbiased (for the most part) information. Statistics on energy lost from the production of cattle meat have been pretty interesting. I found that the energy input to protein output ratio for chicken production is 4:1 whereas the ratio for cattle is 54:1, which makes sense considering that the cow is such a larger animal with more brain function.

Roadblocks I’ve run into while researching the effect on the cattle industry on water supply, is that most of the information regarding cattle is directed more towards animal rights. I think I have to look at more books that are specific to this information rather than referring back to articles. A lot of the articles report on the scientific levels of pollution, which is good to have in a paper, but holds a lot of useless information to me. It is also interesting running into websites and organizations that are pro-beef and pro-cattle farming that have scientific research backing up that cattle production is good for the environment, that only 2.6 pounds of grain is used to produce a pound of beef in developed countries and 0.3 pounds in developing countries.

I actually became vegetarian after taking a one-unit course, Water Crisis in the West. A tiny side piece of information I got from the class was the fact that tens of thousands of gallons of water is necessary for the production of a single eight ounce steak. It was actually the only piece of information from the whole course that stuck with me. I grew up eating a lot of meat, but decided afterwards to stop for environmental reasons, though now I am obviously aware of the moral and animal rights for cutting back consumption of animal products.

Banana Research

Researching bananas was a bit of a challenge, but nonetheless, I didn't know that workers had to spray a certian pesticide to have the banana ripen and be sent out to consumers. Also, if you look carefully at the blue sticker on bananas from the Chiquita company, they have that certain Latin American woman on it, which is suppose to represent a famous singer, Carmen. (There were a lot of stereotypes of Latin American woman, and the Chiquita girl got really popular). I can use this information by showing the historical facts and why bananas were popular in my essay just as Polland wrote about Johnny Appleseed. I found this information by researching online at the databases and by looking at the course reserves at ANTPAC. I found all this information by going to the library drop-in session, and saw what other students were using to research bananas last year (course reserve) and by browsing through some of the books by looking at the table of contents and what most suited for my thesis. In class, the professor mentioned something about Carmen Miranda and so, I researched her up looking at historical facts about bananas and how they came to be. I also looked at particular databases like Worldwide Political Science Abstracts and Expanded Academic ASAP. On the essay, I had to keep on reminding myself what my main focus was on the essay and what I was trying to convince my readers. This essay was challenging in a way to not make it a five paragraph essay and be strong and not have a passive voice.

My Opium Research

I chose the Opium Poppy as the plant I would be researching because I presumed that there would be a lot of issues with it, and that most of the issues would be current and interesting. So far, this has been the case. It has been easy to find interesting information. From what I already knew about the plant, I was able to start searching broadly, and when I saw something interesting or relevant in the articles I found in a broad search, I changed my search terms.
I think the most interesting piece of information I have found so far is that opium actually used to be eaten by the wealthy in China, and that way it was not very addictive. I read that they did not start smoking it until they were introduced to tobacco for smoking, which lead to the trend of smoking the opium as well. I think this is valuable information because it shows a major point in the developement of Opium's use as a highly addictive drug, which is the major problem with it today. Another thing that I found out was that the major problem with Opium is that the majority of it is from Afghanistan, and that is mainly what my research is based on now, but I'm not sure what value I would put on that information because it is so widely available and known, but I was just ignorant of it before.
The only frustration I have found in researching the opium poppy is the unreliability of websites that are found via google or yahoo etc. I started to notice that a lot of the sites I found had contradictions, and many of them did not look credible. A lot of the search results were things such as ways to try to get high from making tea out of the poppy seeds you buy in the store, and I don't think any credible source would discuss possible cheap ways to get high. For the most part, I have been using academic sources and books.

Researching Cattle

I chose my topic of cattle, because it is something I feel strongly about and felt as though I could relate to. I am a vegetarian and believe there are a multitude of problems with the meat industry, including cattle. Thus far, I have actually enjoyed researching my topic because I am interested in the information I have been finding. I have never done true research on the treatment and politics of animals, but I have found a plethora of really intriguing information. The information I have found has been eye opening for me, even though I always thought I knew more on the subject of meat production than the average person. What I have learned has solidified my belief in being a vegetarian and almost makes me not want to eat any animal products, but I'm not quite ready to go that far. My hope is to share this information with my reader and make them question the meat industry and its practices. The hardest part with my research has been having too much information, statistics, and examples to work with. When there is so much strong evidence and research it is hard for me to narrow down what information is most pertinent and would best support my argument. Another problem I have been working through is making a really strong case for why people should care and do something about what I am talking about. I have all this information, but if I don't make it personal, no one is going to care. I want to make sure I get people's attention and make them think. It also has been difficult for me not to let my personal feelings in too much. While I know I am supposed to argue a point, I feel like I want to tell my reader, "don't you see why you shouldn’t eat meat?" However, I realize I am not researching vegetarians or advocating that people should become one, just that there is a problem with the cattle industry and something needs to be done. I am happy with the topic I chose because it has been interesting and informative for myself and I hope to be able to share this information with others.

Tea

When I first started my research I couldn't really find any problems distinctive to tea. There are problems with tea such as unfair trade and labor issues but those issues are present in all imported products. I wasn't crazy about my research but as I tried to look for other topics, I ended up with a very narrow perspective. For that reason, I stuck with tea so I can bring attention to global politics by exploring the problems related to tea.
Library session helped me a lot with my research. I could not get any credible sources without using library's online data base because people who are concerned about tea problems tend to be people working for anti G8 or WTO political activist organizations. Through my research I learned to distinguish the intentions of the sources. For example, one of my source came from the CQ researcher article about FTC labeled tea products . The article talked about how much the FTC labeled products are fair to the producers of the tea and they hinted at the fact that the U.S government is doing a really good job. The article didn't directly say anything to promote U.S government, but the facts and voice the article presented made me feel like the U.S government really cares about Sri Lankan tea workers.
So far, I don't really like the work I have to put into but I find that I am learning important things that will help me in the future. I have to write lots of research papers in my art history classes and learning how to obtain valuable sources will save me a lot of time.

When I started writing my paper on opium I assumed it would be very straightforward - Drugs are bad, opium makes heroin, etc. As I did my research, though, I discovered things about the opium plant and its affects that were much more complicated and less black and white than my original "drugs are bad" idea. When I started searching I would just use "opium" as the keyword and get a lot of articles about the refinement process, stats on the number of users of heroin, general information on heroin. When I started using the phrase " problems with opium" (which was, after n all, the topic of the paper) I started getting more diverse articles and things that I had never heard of before. I guess I kind of stumbled onto the information that would eventually become the basis for my paper, that is, opium and terrorism and their link and co-dependence. The hardest part of writing the paper was deciding what to have prepared beforehand - what sources I should have ready, what parts of those sources would be the most relevent, and which sources and facts would be the most persuasive in convincing an audience of the severity and importance of my problem. I also wanted to find a newer perspective to use to address the problem. I didn't want to have the same paper as anyone else, so that posed a challenge as well.

Coffee Research

The plant in which I am researching and writing on is coffee.  One of the most fascinating pieces of information that I have encountered is that coffee has the ability to magnify one's perceptiveness of stressful situations in his or her life.  I always knew that coffee could make people jittery and hyper but I had not previously known that it could actually alter your anxiety levels.  I, like the majority of individuals, drink coffee at least once everyday, so I particularly found this fact interesting because it pertains to me and I was able to learn more about how this beverage could be effecting my behavior.  This detail also directly relates to the topic of my paper, which involves the negative heath effects associated with the consumption of coffee.  It affects the many individuals who consume coffee and therefore grasps the reader's attention and makes him care about the health issues surrounding coffee.

My research process has included the use of the library databases primarily to find scholarly journals, articles, and magazines related to my topic as well as the Google search engines on the Internet, such as Google Scholar.  The most helpful sources that I was able to use in my paper came from the library databases because they provided me with a vast amount of worthy and reliable journals and articles that specifically related to the issue of my paper.  The Internet was useful as well but it was more difficult to determine the dependability and accuracy of the resulting sources.  One of the roadblocks that I encountered was having to endlessly read through a lot of worthless material before finding information that directly relates to the issue and which is worthy of being used as solid evidence in my paper.  I also had to continuously come up with and enter different key terms to find adequate sources.

As I found more sources, I would highlight key terms from them and use them in the search engine of the databases.  This allowed me to overcome the problem of too many or too few results to read through.  I am sure that people have encountered this time issue, but as more research is done, additional key terms come into view that more closely relate to the problem in which you are researching for, thereby allowing you to efficiently and rapidly find new sources.