Update

Week before finals is pretty interesting...

going to start working on MGRW3 ASAP.

In class we are getting other interesting stuff done such as ARP.

Research Symposium

was a success.

Everything else is slowly getting done. Currently revising my results and discussions sections. !

Update

I finished the poster presentation.

Ha..ha

Going to take it easy this week due to the holiday spirit. The poster presentation for the next week might slightly disagree with me.

Update Againnnnnn

Finished my 3 interviews... signed up for the research symposium. Let's see, I'm going to do my observations today at the Improv!

Update

On Tuesday I finished and turned in my Multigenre Writing #1. Currently working on my draft for Results section for the ARP.

Update

This week I did my second interview. I also wrote a draft of my introduction and methodology section. I did a draft of my first multigenre writing. My observation should be done very soon as well as my third interview. I am planning on interviewing a faculty member instead of a student to compare and contrast my findings.

Btw, the first multigenre writing is due on tuesday!

Research update

Finally got done with my survey, you can take it here.

I did 2 interviews, currently in a process of writing about them. I still need to do an observation, most likely will go to an Improv and watch people's reactions. That is it for now.

Observations

I went to one of the Library Computer Labs. I mainly went there because I figured there would have a lot of people walking by and doing other stuff.

I sat in front of one of the computers. There was a glass window in front of me so I could see what was going on in the library's main room as well as all around me. I was not involved, I simply observed what was happening around me. I brought my notebook and a pencil. I recorded my observations in the notebook.

- Some guy sat next to me to watch some youtube videos.
- There is an older man and an older woman sitting across from me, they seem to be talking about something important.
- The guy next to me put on big headphones, he looks funny. I hope I do not get beat up.
- Some guy wearing a cap, a red shirt and a backpack is standing in front of an information desk and asking questions.
- Same guy has an orange soda and he is playing with the cap.
- Another guy next to me is studying basketball shoes on the internet.
- The computer screen went onto a screen saver mode.
- Guy with the big headphones left.
- There is an interesting art on a wall which was previously covered by the guy with headphones.
- Lights are on in well-lit places.
- Sounds Observed: people are talking, mouse clicks, key strokes, beeping noise from one of the doors, cough, books get slammed on the desk, sneeze and somebody moving their chair.

My observations were pretty straight forward. I did add some personal commentary to the observations so they would be a little biased. That in return made my observations more fun. In reality, I noticed so many more things, I could probably write a book sitting in that one spot. I could go into much more detailed descriptions about the stuff that I observed, but its okay. Conlusion: descriptions does not equal reality. No matter how long I sit there for I won't be able to get even close to the actual experience.

Survey

Hey everyone,

Here is a draft for my survey, let me know what you think.

Click Here to take survey

Update

Finished and submitted my annotated bibliography on Thursday. As I looked through various sources I found that pretty much all authors have a different take on comedy writing. There were some that shared similar ideas while others contradicted each other. There is no easy way to distinguish "good or bad" authors in this research because humor is such a subjective subject (ha!). For the annotated bibliography I first looked at the nature of a website where I found the article, then I picked the ones that I found funny/useful for my research.

Traps in Questions

Here is a list of some bad interview questions which you should avoid. If you do have to use some of them: look serious.

The double question: Do you drink water or write essays?

The wrong choice question:

The "fuzzy word" question: Do you do it big over there?

The cover the world question: What do you think about food?

Jargon question: What do you think about nuclear proliferation mixed with Lysergic acid diethylamide?

The kitchen sink question: Please talk about your life: family, friends, hobbies and work.

Dream question: If you could have a superpower, what would it be?

Leading quetion: Do you not think that most of your coworkers are stupid?

Hearsey question: What does the school principal think about illegal drugs?

Fallot question: Do you speak English? Yes... No...
In your Enlish class was your grade below a C? Yes... No...
Would you take Enlish writting classes in the future? Yes... No...

Interview

I did an interview with Bob. He grew up Argentina. There he had a very close bond of friends which he knew since he was little. In school, he stayed with the same class throughout all of the years. His hobbies included playing soccer, doing BMX biking, and sitting on sidewalks watching people and drinking 2 liter coke bottles with friends. His family had two dogs: husky and German Shepard. He also mentioned having another dog, which he could not remember very well since it died when he was little.
Bob moved to the United States when he was a freshmen in high school. When I asked him about his first impression when he first moved here, I could see that he hated it at first. From his words, "I got into a lot of fights my first year in school," one can see that transitioning cultures was not an easy thing to do. Main thing that he did not like about the US, was that friendships seemed to be very superficial. He said that he studied "formal" British English in Argentina. When he moved to the US what helped him a lot was listening to people speak. Up to this point, he has no idea how he learned English.

Update

Turned in my research proposal on Thursday. Right now, I'm looking over the annotated bibliography assignment. I will probably start today or tomorrow looking for sources to examine. That's about it for now.

Research Progress

Started writing the research proposal. I'm heading into the direction of comedy writing, something along the lines "what makes funny writing." By jotting down ideas, it helped me formulate thoughts and get the project going. Best resource I got so far was uncyclopedia's How To Be Funny And Not Just Stupid which can be found here. It talks about how to make funny uncyclopedia (which is a parody of wikipedia) articles. I found it interesting because it uses a variety of different genres of comedy "writing" incuding satire, lists, pictures, stupidity, truth and quotes. Once again, I'll try to formulate all of the questions and ideas as I write the research proposal.

Nelson reaction

In my opinion, there are a lot of reasons why hopes of teachers and professors do not match those of students regarding research papers. One of the reasons being that students do not have the same passion for the subject or the research process itself as their teachers and professors do. The core of this problem lies in the overall values that students are conditioned to have since they are little. Everything is done with a hope of a goal, there is no passion in the process itself simply the idea of a "paper."