What Happens in Between Semesters?

composition?

KUCC Program

Here it is folks: the KU Composition Conference program!

2011 KU Composition Conference Program

Music and the Brain:Developmental and Psychological Disorders in Children

I have gathered together a TON of information and studies over the past two weeks. In the process of getting all of my sources, I have been writing my paper. Last night, I just finished it! But, I am not very happy with the conclusion paragraph so I have to tweak that a little bit. Overall, I liked doing this research project because it was about something that I was interested in. It also seemed as though I found more information as I was going along throughout my paper instead of just looking for sources blindly at the beginning. I used a total of 15 sources within my paper which seems like a lot, but considering my topic, not really. I payed particular attention to putting a “story”, if you would call it that, around my sources. So, when you read it, its not just naming sources with no reason why it fits into the paragraph. Also, my paper is going to be a little longer than 6-8 pages. Just about 9 or 10. Not too bad.

I am extremely happy with the progress I have made so far. Now, I just want to revise my whole paper and put together my works cited which accounts for extremely different sources than I originally had in my annotated bibliography.

I hope everyone else is doing well with their paper and is finding interesting stuff!

Music and the Body

So far, I’ve found a lot of sources through my researching. I finished up my annotated bibliography, and now I just have to sort through all of the other sources that I could potentially include in my paper. Overall, everything’s going pretty well!

The Art of Gymnastics

Hey so this is my first post finally figured out how to blog I think. I’m right in the middle of finishing my annotated bibliography. Found some great stuff that I’m pretty sure I’m going to put in my paper eventually. So far so good, hope everyone else is doing well.

Research Progress

My initial stages of research have been quite a success; I am finding ample amounts of detailed information that deal with various different aspects of my topic.  For example, I have been researching the different culture folklores of the vampire. I was intrigued to discover that the vampire of the Malaya Peninsula is a head attached to bodily entrails; not the best image to imagine but it is interesting how this contrasts from the American vampire. I’ve also been researching the origin of the vampire, finding that two cultural beliefs are widely accepted; the first dealing with the story of Lilith, the mother of all demons and Cain, who killed his brother Able, and the second dealing with Prince Lamia of Libya. I have also been researching the biological illnesses that scientists believe may explain “vampire outbreaks” throughout history. Many of these illnesses display symptoms strikingly similar to that of the vampire. I have also read various biographies on Vlad Teps, the historical Dracula who ruled Wallachia in the 15^th Centur, and have actually confirmed that Stoker based his character Dracula partially on Vlad Teps. I plan to conduct more research regarding the connection between the historical Dracula and the Dracula of Transylvania.

Once I begin to write my paper I will see what additional information I may require. One topic I plan to research further information on is the dominance of the vampire in today’s society. I found one piece of evidence that was quite interesting. In February of 2004, the body of a Romania man was dug up, feared to have transformed into a vampire. Hearing this, I plan to research if there are any more recent instances where people have feared for vampires. Overall this topic is very intriguing and I am excited to piece together my research in the final research paper.

First Post John Merlino

Got it working, i wrote my proposal and have 3 sources.

Welcome to Mahoney’s Spring 2011 College Comp!

Here it is: the web page and blog for Mahoney’s ENG 023 College Composition Class! I want to welcome everyone to our little corner of the ‘blogosphere.’ This will be a space to continue class discussions, pose questions and ideas, and to experiment with forms of writing.

In this class, we will be talking about writing–academic writing in particular–as an on-going conversation. In his book The Philosophy of Literary Form: Studies in Symbolic Action, Kenneth Burke, a literary scholar rhetorical theorist, gave us the metaphor of a “parlor” to highlight the conversational nature of knowledge-making and, I would argue, writing:

Imagine that you enter a parlor. You come late. When you arrive, others have long preceded you, and they are engaged in a heated discussion, a discussion too heated for them to pause and tell you exactly what it is about. In fact, the discussion had already begun long before any of them got there, so that no one present is qualified to retrace for you all the steps that had gone before. You listen for a while, until you decide that you have caught the tenor of the argument, then you put in your oar.Someone answers; you answer him [or her]; another comes to your defense; another aligns himself [or herself] against you, to either the embarrassment of gratification of your opponent, depending upon the quality of your ally’s assistance. However, the discussion is interminable. The hour grows late, you must depart. And you do depart, with the discussion still vigorously in progress (110-111, brackets mine).

So, we’ll be talking a lot about conversations…and, hopefully, we will add tothis conversation in new and interesting ways…ways that reflect who you are and what you have to say.

There’s one thing I should say about “academic writing.” It ain’t always what ya find in high school text books.  Nor is “academic writing” exhausted by the five paragraph essay.  Nope.  it would be more appropriate to talk about academic writings or the kind of writing that is done in colleges and universities, by academics and scholars, and professionals.  In fact, we’ll ask the question “what counts as academic writing?”  But we’ll never fully answer that question…after all, who wants to continue a conversation if there’s nothing left to discuss?

So, take some time to introduce yourself by commenting on this post.

I’m looking forward to a great semester!

 

Ira Glass on Storytelling

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4