by
Lena Levette and Erin Evans
Reading for class:
For class this Tuesday we were assigned to read Scenario 19 “Repurposing a Text” and take notes. This scenario asks the reader taking on the role of a writer who works for the online magazine, Perspex. You are asked to recreate the style and structure of an article for an audience that is not specialized on the topic. In order to accomplish this task you must be able to reorganize the text while still conveying the message. In addition to this you must avoid plagiarism or copyright. Coinciding with this reading, we were also 
asked to find a scholarly article and bring it into class. Scenario 19 goes along with our class discussion because we will have to use this example to help us take on the challenge of writing essay 2. The first step in this process should be pretty clear, start off with a topic that interests you and find an article that correlates to it. Keep in mind that once you have found your article it is important to read between the lines and draw a deeper conclusion so that your new audience can be informed and entertained.
For Thursday we were asked by Dr. Crowther to read Chapter 1: Introduction to Writing (SCC) –1.3. This section of the text discussed how to properly use a source and what it really is. In college a source is simply anything that is not your own work that you will use for your writing. Anything from a poem to an online editorial can be categorized as a source. Majority of the assignments you will and have been given require a source. To briefly state why they are necessary in academic work, sources help the writer take part in a fundamental conversion of knowledge that has long preceded you and will long succeed you. The knowledge you will need to engage in academic dialogue must come from a certain understanding that can only be obtained from a higher viewpoint.
After using quotes, paraphrases, and summaries you must give credit to the original creator to avoid plagiarism. The first guideline
for using a source is to first have permission to use the source. Next comes the citation of the source using MLA or APA format. This is a highly important step because it gives the reader a chance to locate the source. Lastly include the citations at the end of your work. Also remember to properly introduce your use of sources in your writing by explicating it. In order to do this you may use quotes such as, “In other words”, to signal a phrase and justify how it supports the argument being made. Overall good source usage is prevalent to your writing because it provides concrete evidence for your audience.
Class Lecture:
In English 1101 we were lectured to about better writing strategies and how to properly construct an essay. In order that you must first create an outline to better construct a paper, because it helps you organize your ideas and paper. We also talked more about outside sources and how to put it in your own writing. When using outside information it is important that you give the most accurate credit to wherever you got the sources from not only that but, it’s highly recommended that you use a scholarly/ peer reviewed document because the source is more accurate and stronger. While going through the source you want to highlight keys ideas or quotes except they must be in your own words, which falls back on the plagiarism side. At the end of your essay you want have a work cited page so that if your reader wanted to check you on your quotes, then they can find the quote exactly where you found it at.
For Tuesday’s lecture we started off with the Daily Grade number 7. We were asked to write about the process of writing essay 1. What went well? What strategies were helpful? What was challenging and why? What would you do the same or choose to do differently next 
time? Once our daily grades were completed Dr. Crowther then let us share and we all got feedback on our responses. Many students had trouble with their organization skills and Dr. Crowther went back to stress the importance of writing an outline, which are essential to any writing project. Included in this discussion she also showed the class her dissertation to show us that when you write as long as you have organization, from writing an outline, you can always complete the assignment at hand no matter how long it is. Other answers and suggestions such as brainstorming and writing sloppy rough drafts came up in the discussion as well. After that we began the introduction on essay 2 which is all about how we use outside information when we are writing. For our editorial we mainly relied on our own opinion but moving forward, outside information will be necessary for majority of our writing. When you are trying to add knowledge to your writing you must do it responsibly. This means giving full credit to the place where you received your information. Dr. Crowther explained that scenario 19 models this very well. She then went on to explain the summary and paraphrase assignment we will do for the scholarly article we chose for our topic. But first we need to know if the article we choose is reliable or not because there is a plethora of access to information and not all of it is true. To test this she broke the class up into groups of three to think about the author, place of publication, date, and where they are getting their information from as well.
For Thursday’s class we started off again with the daily grade which was to write 2-3 sentences describing what happens about a movie or book without naming it. Then we were asked to pick a scene and describe it in detail. This daily grade assignment went along with our paraphrasing and summary discussion because it showed us that you should have already have a good understanding of the information instead of just simply changing a few words from your source and calling the work your own. To fully understand the text you must first read and annotate the text. Then what Dr. Crowther recommended was to read it again and take notes. It is important for your notes to be your own words because if you use another person’s words it makes it more difficult to avoid plagiarism in your writing. As you’re writing you should add your own ideas to the research you found. If you use a quotation you must use an in-text citation, which is the author’s last name and the page number in parenthesis, so you can reference your source. To make the lesson
clearer, Dr. Crowther showed the class three summary examples from Purdue owl’s website and had the class work on them in groups of three. Each group chose an example to work on and completed their summaries individually. Once they were done everyone in the group came together to create one summary with all their ideas. This task helped the class get more practice on summarizing and collaborate on ways to make our work better.