Note Edit

I thought Murray had a lot of good things to say when it came to editing papers. Personally I find this to be one of the hardest things to when writing a paper. I liked what Murray said about no just doing the nitpicky details of grammar in editing but rather going to the big picture first. I find it much more helpful to start out with the big picture and then move to the smaller more picky details. This helps me as a writer to not get so caught up in Grammar, instead I can look at the big picture and make changes structurally that will make the paper much better.

I also enjoyed the section on note taking. Having done research paper I can probably say I have made most of the mistakes Dr. Schut mentioned. For me I find the most helpful way to do research is to make a word document, and keep my thoughts and page numbers in the file as I read the book. I especially find this helpful if I want to take down interesting quotes. Overall its effective for me because it cannot get lost. I also like the idea of using sticky books to mark the important places in the book. However, I would still prefer

The draft

Murray writes that, "writing is thinking"(172). This makes sense, you have ideas and you respond by allocating them from your mind onto your page. What makes me stumble a bit is what exactly you should do once you put your ideas down. Or more specifically, how do you compose a draft you can actually write on? I understand you need all the necessary components such as, the introduction, thesis statement, point 1,2,&3, and conclusion. Great- you write these down in an orderly fashion that suites your writing style. Now what do you do?

I agree with Murray, when I am composing my "discovery draft"... "I want to know what I am going to say and how I am going to say it[,]I want neatness, order, correctness" (172). This part of the writing process is most frustrating to me because, its such a huge task. Everything on that one page is what you are going to expand on for the next 8-10 pages. So what if your outline is a drag? You need to re-draft. Ugh, I find this part so hard because, I don't know everything I am going to say for my entire paper. I guess I am stuck on the question, what do you do when your outline stinks? I don't like to re-draft because, I think its too long and painful to come up with better ideas. 

Good readers

In Murray’s Writers Help Writers chapter reminds me the experiences in writing center. A place that could bring both joy and disaster depend on the situation and the reader you work with. For sure there are times when readers point out something I didn’t think of and makes me see the paper in different; or times their positive comments about my paper gives me the confident about my ability of writing. Those times are wonderful. But there are also times when the readers try to make my paper into theirs without asking me what I was trying to say and that really frustrate and confuse me a lot. I felt that I was suppose getting help to express my ideas more fluently but it ended up just having a grammar checking section and sometimes even left with confusion.

I agree with Murray about reader should not take over others’ draft, and revision isn’t just the matter of spelling and grammar checking. A good test reader should help us to develop our strengths of the draft and make us “eager to write” (200-201).It didn’t happen a lot of times in writing center, but it does happen sometimes. And I think the best way to avoid this problem is giving my main idea at the beginning so they will have a basic idea about what I want to say on the paper.

Outlining

Wow, I have never know that there are eleven different kinds of outlines I can use before reading chapter nine. The ontlines are really useful for my writing becuase I will have more choice to choose the best way of my writing. Also, more kinds of outlins help me to expand my thought. When I was studing in ESLI, the professors only taught me one kind outline which is demonstration of outline 3. In fact, that kind outline helps me a lot when I was a beginner of learning english. However, when you use one kind of outline,which will make you feel boreded.
On the other hand,I just have no idea what I am writing about when I am writing papers sometimes. Outlines helps me recall my ideas, and it helps my writing logic. However, I totally have no idea about that how can I use a different outlines to write the same logic article?

I was thinking about that taking notes was not necessary for me to get a high grade. Taking notes only can hlep me solidify the knowledge on the class. It was not helping my exames. However, afrer class review is very important for student to memmize what professor said on the class. When I know how to use notes, I start to enjoy studing.

baby sparrow, learn to fly...

What I got from chapter 9 in Murray’s book was that there are many ways to do outlines. The first few examples of outlines started off pretty normal; however, as the chapter progressed, the outlines got stupider. I will never use some of the outlines that he suggested. But I will use outlines. I do use outlines. Mine are usually closer to a formal outline in structure. I like to keep things neat and arranged in some logical order.
So on to Badke. I do take notes... sort of and sometimes. Every source I use gets its own page on Word and away I go, taking notes. Each source is cited at the top of the page as well. Sometimes I will switch back and forth between paper and computer screen. And that’s usually as far as I go with note taking. I have photocopied a few things before. I made sure I took down all the information that I would need for the bibliography and wrote it on the copy. I only do this occasionally though. In the end, the readings this week made me think about how I outline and note take.

The first big research project I did was probably in grade 4 on owls. We had to use Powerpoint to present and we had to have notes. I took notes the same way in grade 7 and a much more advanced version of the same method in highschool. Badke called my method summarizing and I tend to think he's right. This is the simplest form and it has always worked for me in the past. I would usually read a paragraph, write out the main point in bullet form (and a sentence fragment so I'd be forced to rewrite it entirely in my own words later to avoid plagourism), and note any useful statistics that were included.

I am way to familier with this method by now to switch to something new. I should give some other methods a try to see if they can replace the simple summarizing (except photocopier obviously, way too much money).

Note Taking

In Research Strategies chapter 8, Badke gives some extremely helpful advice on note taking. Note taking is something I have never done well and often avoided, up until this past year. Recently I realized the value of taking notes so that when I read material I stay focused and can take away the main and important points. Since I have started to become a better note taker, I have quickly seen that I have improved on reading material and remembering it.

Badke lists and explains several approaches to note taking. The first one is the photo copier. This meathod is definitely not for me, I think it is too much work for what its worth. The notebook computer whiz is a very interesting take on note taking. He explains how you can use one of those electronic pens to take notes and to copy lines straight our of your material. I have never tried this but it sounds like a great idea that could work for me. He then goes through the most common note taking types, the quoter, summarizer, and the paraphraser. I am definitely a summarizer because I read a page of material and I right down the main point in my own words usually summarizing much of what is going on in the chapter.

This section of the chapter helped me a lot because it forced me to consider which type of note taker I am and evaluate if it is working for me. If you are not a good note taker, I suggest that you figure out how to become one because I learned that it is very important to do so.