Daily notes, April 27

Wednesday April 27, 2011

Happy Birthday Ace Frehley!

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1.  Example of strong student qualitative project. http://uwp.duke.edu/deliberations/2009, click on “High Stakes and Higher Impacts”. Particularly look at the methods through conclusions.

2.  Workshop

3.  Due date for this draft: 24 hours after Monday 5/2 class ends:

a.   10 – noon class, due by noon, Tues. 5/3

b.  noon – 2 class, due by 2 p.m., Tues. 5/3

c.   2 – 4 class, due by 4 p.m., Tues. 5/3

4.  Filename requirements: please read the “Filename Requirements” document on the blog.

5.  Office hours tomorrow are from noon – 5.

Qualitative Example - Black Students Ethnography

Olivia
Ally
Josh
1. The author introduces their project through an abstract, which incorporates the hypothesis and indicates the control that is being tested. How black students feel at primarily white institutions compared to black students at a primarily black institution.
2. The methods includes the research setting which describes the school’s demographics, it gives a feeling for the life on campus. The subject schools racial demographics of the less than 5% black population on campus. It cites a college guide book that suggests average students are white and wealthy. She conducted formal interviews with 38 black students in a snowball fashion. The students were African American, with the addition of 1 Puerto Rican, and 2 white students all of whom were members of minority groups on campus. 21 of which were males 17 females between the ages of 16-22. The research was done in multiple steps over a period of three years. She was introduced to black students through professors on this campus. She met other African Americans through her previous subjects.
3. Through this experiment she found that African American students were “looked at funny” by whites. Black students spoke about a deeper sense of marginality on campus. Although racism was present it wasn’t the primary reason for feelings of inferiority.
4. Her conclusion discusses the implications of suggested racism through education and demeaning African Americans.

Process Draft - Benedetti

Dear Reader,

When I selected a university, I took notice to the campus’ amount of spirit and willingness to support the school team. I noticed this more so at the University of Denver than any other school I had visited. This has prompted by research question; whether or not there is a correlation between how much a student likes being at their school and whether or not they show school spirit on a regular basis (in the form of attire). I believe there is, in fact, a direct relationship between someone's happiness in their school environment, and their decision to wear school spirit attire on a regular basis (regular basis meaning there is no sporting event or school event on that day).

To obtain this data, I will first be “people-watching” to see what percentage of students are wearing an article of DU clothing. As a second step, I will collect interviews from people wearing school attire and wearing regular attire to determine how happy they are with the university. Comparing and contrasting these pieces of information (the data collected from the population wearing school attire vs. the population wearing regular attire) will show either a direct correlation between happiness on campus and school spirit, or will come out inconclusive, indicating that there is not a relationship between the two.

Kevin Boutilier process draft

Dear Reader

I intend to research how the bicycle industry has changed over the recent years. Technology in bicycles has changed drastically over the past few years in bikes of all categories. People have had increasing concern for environmental safety and their impact on the environment, and I intend to investigate how this has influenced the bike industry as well as the consumer. Concerns of gas prices have likely also affected the public’s view on biking. By conducting interviews and observations, I will investigate what motivates people to choose to travel by bike, and how the bike industry has changed as a result.

William Summitt Process Draft

Process Note

The topic of my paper is on the DU provided food services. I will explore in depth on the students opinion of the provided food quality, which on campus dining hall is their favorite, and if they would prefer making their own food sophomore year instead of being forced into paying for another meal plan. I want the students opinions on the food and if they like it I want to know how they think it could be improved and if it does not meet their standards what alternatives may provide them with appropriate meals.

To gain my data, knowledge, and information I will send a link to an online questionnaire through Facebook to all of my DU friends. Along with this I will also interview a number of professors that I happen to know eat the food provided at said Dining halls.

In conclusion I will compare and analyze the data I receive and find out how DU could improve their food or policy on meal plans for living on campus

process draft

Process draft: KELSIE CAGE


Drug:a chemical substance used in the treatment, cure, prevention, or diagnosis of disease or used too the otherwise enhance physical or mental well-being.

University: an institution of learning of the the highest level, having a college of liberal arts and a program of graduate studies together with several professional schools, as of theology, law medicine, and engineering, and authorized to confer both undergraduate and graduate degrees. Continental European universities usually have only graduate or professional schools. (dictionary.com).

What do these two words have in common? The definition of a drug, according to dictionary.com, does not state it being for recreational use, so how did it become that way? If universities are “institution(s) of learning of the highest level” then why are drugs so commonly found on the campuses? The analysis of these too correlations will result in surveys and statistics found throughout pristine universities, including University of Denver.

My research paper is going to be constructed on the use of drugs in private schools vs. public schools. What drugs are most common on both campuses and if more expensive drugs are found commonly on private campuses than public ones. I will conduct my research through finding out the tuition of the schools and see if it correlates to the expense of the drugs used on that campus. Example: In state, public schools pay half of what out of state private school students pay, how does the drug use correlate?
In addition, I will conduct a survey of student's at DU who know of students that take part in using recreational drugs and how much they spend on the classified substance. This will not include alcohol.

Process Note Bland

Dear Reader,
Religion is based off of faith and beliefs in practices and traditions. I am curious to how an individual forms an opinion on religion and how that belief is connected to the traditions and expectations of the individual’s family’s religious affiliation. In this project I will conduct several interviews and use the support of three scholarly sources to show the links and the causes to why people believe or do not believe in religion and, or God. I will do this by interviewing a skeptic, a devote Catholic, a non-traditional episcopal, and agnostic, and an atheist. I will analyze much of the parent’s experience with religion and how religion has played into family life. Then I will reflect on the current believes of individuals, when relating to their families experience with religion. The overall purpose of the experiment is to determine whether how people form religious affiliations and whether people believe in religion and, or God for personal fulfillment or because of the traditions and expectations of family members.

Ali Bland

Process Note Draft - Parker Roe

When I was choosing colleges I knew I wanted a school with a vibrant, exciting, and prominent Greek atmosphere. It is one of the things that was important to me; however, it is increasingly difficult to find accurate information in regards to Greek life at every school, and that is why I have chosen to conduct a study that will demonstrate how the Greeks at DU compare to the Greeks on a national level.

In this study I compiled a qualitative research questionnaire compiled of ten questions for Greek members and non-Greek students at the University of Denver. The questions aim to separate the Greeks from the non-Greeks and then observe how their opinions on hazing, alcohol consumption, overall student body perception of Greek life, perception of philanthropic work, and comparison to Greek life on a national scale compare and contrast. Setting the Greeks apart from the Non-Greeks in this study is crucial in determining an accurate understanding of my research question because, as Cheryl Drout, in her article “Attitudes towards fraternity hazing among Fraternity member, Sorority members, and Non-Greek Students” and Alan DeSantis, in his book, “Inside Greek U.: Fraternities, Sororities, and the Pursuit of Pleasure, Power, and Prestige” both demonstrate within their work, that Greeks and Non-Greeks tend to yield differing opinions on Greek life as a whole.

It is my hypothesis that students at the University of Denver, judging by personal experience and observation, will tend to agree that Greek life is vibrant and exciting, and in certain areas maintains an “Animal House” style, but overall is not its poster child, and that overall it is not as wild as popular media manifests it to be.

Process Note Draft-Scott Haraway

Dear Reader,

This project revolves around the idea of the coffee shop, and I would like to emphasize the “idea” aspect of that topic. There seems to me to be some sort of mythological aura surrounding the idea of gathering at a coffee shop for reasons far from just buying quality coffee or pastries. People go there by themselves for hours just to study, which they could do at the library. They go with one friend or prospective client, etc., and sit for hours talking about something they could talk about just as easily in a more familiar setting like their office or home. So the question I have is simply, “Why do people in Denver gather go to coffee shops?”

This question has purpose for me, because my brother, a sociology graduate student, and I are two of those people that will go to the coffee shop to do nothing more than plug in our headphones and read or surf the internet while sitting across from each other. We always discuss this very topic and how we would love to do research on it. Moreover, we like to think of ourselves as very observant people, and when we are in the coffee shop we do as much looking and judging of fellow patrons as we do reading and surfing.

For the project I intend to go to two different coffee shops close to the DU campus at two different times and simply observe the flow of patrons. Furthermore, I will have a sort of checklist to work with and make tabs on peoples overall appearance and actions with. Also, I will interview five to ten people to get a bit more in depth of a look on the motives for coming to the coffee shop.

Scott Haraway

Kevin Frey Process Draft

Dear Reader,

The intent of the following essay is to examine the effects of Facebook on the student population here at the University of Denver. Facebook’s global success can be traced back to it original intent which was to bring the social experience of college online for everyone to experience. In doing so Facebook itself has altered the social experience on college campuses. As the readers and the primary people to which this research is being conducted, my hope is that this essay will help you as students, peers, and young people understand the effects that Facebook has had not only on you but on the entire population of the University of Denver.

The idea for this research topic came to me for a variety of reasons; first, I watched the “Social Network” which although a dramatization of actual events opened my eyes to just how powerful the Facebook idea had become. Facebook’s existence is based on the destruction of friendships so natural I wondered if it would have the same effect on the general population or if it would be a tool for good as it was marketed. To accomplish this I drafted a series of interview questions that examined a variety of topics pertaining to being a college Facebook user. These questions were then administered through a one on one interview. I also decided to include my own experiences with Facebook in order to add an older students perspective on how the website has changed lives. Prior to the interviews, outside research was also gathered on studies done that were similar in nature to the questions I was presenting in the interview. These studies included research done on Facebook’s effect on self-esteem, grade point average, and communication practices among college students. These studies were then analyzed and compared to the interviews that were conducted to reach a conclusion.

Kevin Frey

Process Note - Hoa Vo

Dear readers,

The topic of my paper is about mathematics courses at DU. I will explore the student’s perception of mathematics classes. The paper will cover students from several different courses as well as teacher. I want to find out students’ thoughts about the viability of mathematics courses for their respective majors.

I’ll do an online questionnaire and several individual interviews. The questionnaire will contain a specific set of questions designed to generate a wide range of responses. I’m planning on completing a separate set of questions for math instructors as well.

In the conclusion, I’ll try to see what results I get from the responses and come up with analysis of the future of math courses at D.U in general and how to raise student’s interests in taking math classes.

Process Draft Liza Veysikh

Dear Reader,
This essay is about a qualitative study on the effectiveness of water conservation initiatives in Colorado. I discuss previous research in order to have background on recent water conservation and programs and how, overall, water conservation was implemented throughout last couple of years. The essay should be informative concerning water conservation initiatives in Colorado and evaluative (to decide if the conservation initiatives in Colorado are effective. The purpose of this essay to give primary information from a Water Conservation Board about conservation initiatives and conservation planning and conclude based on that research. The readers are probably all people who are faced with water scarcity problems in Colorado and all other local water providers because they have to become conscious of “using only what you need” to conserve water. I want people to become aware of water conservation initiatives and distinguish between the helpful, non-profit organizations and organizations or programs that do not promote water conservation.

I am interested in this topic because water conservation is a very important part of our life in Colorado and all of us need to do small things in order to prolong water supply for the future of our generation. I began by researching some of the programs that Denver Water has implemented and discussed the plans of the Statewide Water Supply Initiative and the Colorado Water Conservation Board. I then conducted my research by interviewing Kevin Reidy, a State Water Conservation Specialist at the Colorado Water Conservation Board. He handles most of the planning of water in Colorado. He told me about what kind of water conservation planning they do at the Board, about their current projects at the state-level and he also told me about his opinions of the major water companies in Colorado.

I think right now my letter matches up with the essay but I still haven’t finished the essay.
Peer revisions and class activities helped me understand how to write the Review of Literature and how to structure this essay. Peer revisions helped me understand specific areas I need to work on.

Liza Veysikh

Process Draft-Zach Baca

In this essay, I will be discussing the topic of, College students. I want t know why these people come to college; Namely the men in my fraternity. I asked these men because I feel like they of any other group of people here at DU they have the biggest sense of why they are here. The purpose is purely educational; I just want to learn more about why people do the things that they do. College is one of those things that most people think about but fewer actually do. I want to show more reasons for going to college other than getting a good job and my parents made me. I hope to find out the real reasons that students come to college. I narrowed it down to my fraternity because interviewing a whole 10,000 people would be too difficult to do. I believe the readers of my paper are people who want to learn more about their peers; and or professors who think that fraternity men are just here to party. Not one person said that they are here to get drunk everyday. Independence, education, and making a career is what they want to get out of college. I was wondering one day about who everyone was when he was in high school i.e. the jock, the stoner, the badass etc. Then I started thinking about why they decided to come to DU. Then I started thinking, it would be easy to write a paper on this topic. Then I could interview the people in my fraternity, the people who I spend the most time with. I could learn about my brothers and do homework at the same time.

Process conversation- For Matt

Matt is going to do a research paper on the musical preferences of DU students. Specifically the genres they prefer, and the student’s opinion of the importance and role of music in society.

The main form of research he is going to conduct is interviews, with an emphasis on opinions as opposed to facts. He will then make use of these opinions to develop a paper around the current importance and role of music in society.

The reason for his choice of topic is because he wishes to discover the role music plays in the life of individuals.

Reed Kinning Process Draft

Dear Reader,

This essay will cover diet in colleges and students perception of the school food they eat everyday. I want to raise awareness on how a persons diet can severely affect overall health and happiness while observing what students currently perceive they are eating.

I will do a tally and observe how many people use one dining hall on any specific night. As students leave, I will ask them brief questions on the quality of food they just ate and what could be done to improve. I will also ask students how important dorm food is to them.

Finally, I will provide solutions to a better diet and a more healthy, edible meal that we have already paid for.

Reed Kinning

Josh Goetz - Process Draft

Dear reader,
The intention for this paper is to find the connection between Facebook usage in class and students’ focus. I also hope to focus on the effect of social media on college students, the use of these sites and their effect on academics. I want to know if students notice a difference in their academics with how much time they spend on social media sites. These sources are often used in class and I wonder if students think that they are able to catch up on their social lives while staying involved and focused in class.
This is a topic that is relevant because nearly all students have a Facebook account and use social media every day. These sites are used to keep in touch with friends but can also be used as a distraction from class and homework. I hope to find the connection between these influences on students’ lives at DU. There has to be a connection between social media and academics and I aim to find this correlation.

Joey Messina_Process Draft

Dear Reader,

The main purpose of writing my essay is to examine the extra difficulties put onto student athletes in college. I originally approached this essay realizing that student athletes really do have a lot more responsibilities to cope in college. But I wanted to dive deeper into the issue and really see the exact reasons for their added stresses. By asking many student athletes questions on how their daily life goes with attending classes, practices, getting homework done, as well as finding time for some rest and relaxation time.

The first part of my paper does contain an introduction that does explain my hypothesis as well as the main point for writing it. The next section contains my methods for writing the paper, which I used my interview questions that I constructed as well as other strategies I used as well as discussing the other research used in looking up information on the topic. Then finally I will discuss the results for the many interviews that I constructed as well as comparing those results to the main question I came up with.


Joey Messina

Kelley Murray-Draft Process Note

Dear Reader,

The purpose of the paper is to question, investigate, and rationalize if DU’s Greek life serves a purpose, and/or if it is a positive aspect of the University of Denver’s campus. The research, which was conducted on undergraduate University of Denver students, helped determine if current students believe that fraternities and sororities are beneficial to the current student life and campus. The research was conducted via survey, in which I asked students various questions about Greek life, student activity, and Greek participation. I also used outside research throughout my essay which compares and contrasts statistics from campuses that do and do not have Greek life, to further support the paper and my thesis.

The topic of Greek life at the University of Denver is one that interests me for various reasons. Firstly, I am an active member in Denver’s Greek life community, and would like to gain another perspective on DU’s Greek life. As a member, I also realize that Denver’s Greek community is “unique” compared to other universities. I am in interested in knowing if students feel as if the Greek life is or isn’t an imperative part of the University of Denver experience.

-Kelley Murray

Corey Walkovitz - Process Draft

Dear Reader,
This paper is about the correlation, if any, between student employment and grade point average. There are many students that are forced to have jobs for tuition, parental needs, or just to have money to live. In my paper I will look at how having a job affects the students grade point average and see if having a job causes a person to obtain lower, or higher, grades. By surveying and interviewing students, I will determine if having a job affects their schoolwork and how it affects them, whether is adds more stress or gives them time to break away from school.
I chose this topic because I know that having a job and trying to deal with school and life is all very stressful. Although some people can manage their school life and work life, being a science major, I choose to not work due to the many hours of classes and homework I have.

Sincerely,
Corey Walkovitz

James Howe- Process Draft

Dear Reader,

This essay is made to help point out the benefits of nuclear energy and to build awareness of the safety and efficiency of this energy source. The research is designed to show how uneducated students at DU are about nuclear power. The questions are designed to test the energy knowledge of its participants and get the general idea of students’ opinion on the energy. It will also gain input on the proposed nuclear power plant that was to be built in Pueblo, CO. I also plan for it to see if there is a trend between support for nuclear power before and after the accidents with the power plants in Japan after the tsunami.

My essay contains an introduction that explains my hypothesis and the general idea behind my paper. Next there is a methods section which describes the way my research was conducted and the strategies used, here I will bring up other research that is similar to my own. Finally, there is a results section that gives my findings through my research followed by a discussion of my hypothesis and my actual results along with any surprising findings. Finishing the essay I will have a conclusion summarizing my essay as a whole.

Sincerely,

James Howe

Lucas Kukulka-Draft Process Note

Lucas Kukulka
Process Note
Dear Reader,
This essay is research about my family history and about how the goals of your relatives are still present in today’s life. I intend to show a well, researched history of my relatives that immigrated to America. I want to show why they did and what their goals were when they left their home country. Hopefully my readers take in interest in their own history and try to find a connection between themselves and their history.
When I had to choose a topic for this assignment I had almost no idea what I wanted to do, but I liked the suggestion by my teacher to do a family history since I have a very large and diverse background. After I decided on my topic I created interview questions to give to my parents, aunts and uncles so I could gather as much information as possible. One challenge I faced was finding academic sources relating to family history. I decided to change my research topics from family history to research about where my family had come from to see what was going on when they fled their countries. This way I could see what my relatives were going through.

Andrew Thomas- Process draft

Dear Reader,

For this paper, I plan to explore the pros, cons, and logic behind general education requirements, and how these are perceived by students at DU. I have found that many students are often strongly opposed to general education requirements, despite their nearly universal presents in academics throughout the country. For this reason I wish to explore why, either why there is a possible discrepancy between these two forces.

To do this I wish to conduct several interviews with students, preferably of different backgrounds and opinions on the topic. I wish to ask what their opinions are of the current gen. ed. requirements, how they feel these requirements should be addressed, and whether they understand and agree with the logic behind them.

I wished to address this particular topic because, especially as a first year student, I felt it particularly concerned my peers and myself. I felt it was an issue that many had strong and very varied feelings about, both students as well as administrators.

-Andrew Thomas

Process Draft- Alex Fredrickson

Dear Reader,
In this essay I intent to explore the topic of diversity here at the University of Denver. I want to discern the majority opinion on how DU is dealing with diversity in both the classroom and the overall environment of DU. I intend to have this paper read by both DU students and hopefully the University of Denver administration and CME (Center for Multicultural Excellence). I would like to show the administration that they are dealing with diversity at the University of Denver ineffectively in hopes that change will allow for a more cohesive learning environment here at DU. This topic is very important to me and to any students here at the University of Denver as diversity effects our education which is something that I am very serious about.
I plan to both inform you about diversity here at DU (a basic breakdown of the population here at DU along with the mission statement of the CME) and then ask questions along the lines of: How well do you think that DU as well as the CME has upheld this mission statement? What do you think is the best way for DU students to experience diversity? And: What do you find to be the advantages of experiencing a diverse campus (if any)?
In order to get a more qualitative response, I plan on asking participants follow up questions based on their answer to the main interview questions. I hope to figure out what they see as the pros and cons of diversity on our education here at DU.

-Alexander Fredrickson

Mark Meziere -- Process Note

Dear Reader,

This essay is a qualitative study of views on no-tobacco policies at colleges and universities by University of Denver faculty, staff, and students. This study is intended to determine how effective the no-tobacco policy is at the University of Denver. It is also intended to describe student and faculty’s opinions on this policy. Who in this community is supportive of the no-tobacco policy? Who feels their rights are being violated?

If one walks around the DU campus for a day, they would still see several people smoking cigarettes on their way to class or just outside residence halls. What are the reasons for this no-smoking policy if it is not fully enforced? I picked the topic of no-tobacco policies at the University of Denver because it is interesting to know what effects this policy has on our community. It is also something students and faculty are very highly opinionated about.

Process Draft-Oka

Dear Reader,

I intend for my research paper to explore the improper use of Adderall among college students, specifically in DU. The research is to discover the motivations behind such behavior, and also the safeguards that should be put into place by the authorities in order to limit the misuse of the drug.

The first portion of my piece consists of an introduction that introduces the purpose of my paper, as well as to set an appropriate context and reason for the research to be carried out. This is followed by the review of literature that summarizes and analyzes the sources that are intended to be used or have been used in the research. The research instrument being implemented is the interviewing of several individuals (probably 4) with an equal amount of ADD sufferers and non-ADD suffering individuals.

The purpose of me choosing this topic is because academic dishonesty seems to be a major issue especially at the college level. I feel that this concept is ambiguous and Adderall is one of the main forms of academic dishonesty taking place. Hence it is essential that this relevant issue is given our utmost attention, and exploration.

Grencik_Process Draft

Dear Reader,

This essay is about how people view different music fans and their stereotypes towards them. I open the essay with previous studies done by other researchers to give you an idea of what exactly I intend on researching. I also take ideas from these researchers to form questions of my own. This background research provides credibility to my research as my sources are scholarly. By establishing credibility you should remain interested (or at least believe me) throughout the entire paper.

The methods section describes step by step precisely how I will perform my research and will send you to the appendix for the exact questions. This will establish even more credibility as it's not some random research project thrown together, and it is in fact well done. I also include some similar methods done by the sources that I've researched to get the most out of my own research.

I chose this topic specifically because I love music. Without music then I feel like my life would be much more boring. There are stereotypes about race, gender, even different social classes, so I wanted to research whether or not there is a stereotype for different types of music fans. Specifically all of my research is related only to the University of Denver. Ultimately, my goal is to educate you on what (if any) stereotypes do exist among the students at the University of Denver.

Process Draft- Sara Ach

Dear Reader,
I intend for this essay to explore the topic of school spirit at University of Denver. I want to answer the question of what school spirit means to the community, and I want to answer it in many ways; to explore what people think “school spirit” means, what it is like at DU, and then analyze why it is so important to the DU community. I would like it to show the readers that there is a lack of school spirit at University of Denver, and while everyone feels it and does not like it, nobody ever does anything about it. This paper will be intended for students at DU to read.
From the moment this paper was assigned, I knew I wanted to write about school spirit at DU. It is a topic that was important to me when I was choosing a college, and it has been an issue on my mind every since I started school here in the fall. I began the writing process by writing out a bunch of questions, starting with the most simply question of, “do you think University of Denver has school spirit?” and let the questions flow out from there, unfiltered, and writing them down as they came to mind. Through this, I feel like I was able to go deeper into the subject with my questions. I came to difficult point, though, as I could not figure out a definite research question. I looked through my questions and sought some help, and defined a clear cut question.
(will write about comments from peers after peer editing in class)

-Sara Ach

Chris Martin Process Draft

Dear Reader,

This essay is a qualitative study performed on the University of Denver student body. I believe that at the University of Denver, that many students do not follow the DU drug policy. I have personally observed the policy being broken and I believe that a major part of it is what the policy entails. Living in a city like Denver, means students are exposed to a variety medical marijuana offices and dispensaries. I truly believe that this has a profound effect on how University of Denver students view drug use and the drug policy. Many students are in possession of a medical marijuana license, yet still cannot utilize their medication on the campus. The true purpose of this study is to discover what factors affect the student’s perception of the drug policy and if the setting of Denver, CO has anything to do with it.

I picked a topic like DU’s drug policy because of its relevance to our campus and city. The city of Denver has been very progressive in its medical marijuana legalization and going to a University nearly surrounded by medical marijuana dispensaries can be influential among the student body. This topic also provides insight to the population of DU and the perception of Denver’s medical marijuana as well. Also, this can exemplify the nature of the “normal DU” student, and their perception of the city and the school.

Mike Ness Process Draftp

Dear Reader,

What are the motivators for college men and women to join fraternities or sororities? What about them makes them interesting and appealing to incoming freshmen or even current students?

I plan to ask questions such as whether or not the individual knew that they wanted to be apart of Greek life prior to attending DU. If they knew they wanted to join a fraternity or sorority did they know which one? I plan to get a quantitative amount of legacies.

To get a more qualitative response I plan on asking the participants their feelings on DU’s Greek life after they decided to join. I plan to seek out the pros and cons individuals feel to be true about DU Greek life.

Mike Ness

Westin Underberger- Process Draft

Dear Reader,

This paper is about a study that was performed to see whether or not people that live outside the state of California hold a bias against the Los Angeles Lakers. As a student at the University of Denver, one of the most common quotes I hear around campus is: “Lakers suck” or “I hate the Lakers.” As a result, it has given me the idea to discover if people outside of the state of California are truly opposed to the Lakers. By surveying the population at the University of Denver, it will provide a greater insight on the opinions of the Lakers from a group of people that are not from the city of Los Angeles. It is my hope that the survey results will show me how ones hometown effects the feelings they have towards other teams.

I chose this topic because the city of Los Angeles is where I grew up, and upon hearing so much hatred and disgust towards the city and its basketball team, I have been extremely curious as to who are people that are Lakers fans, and whether or not it is a regional thing.

Sincerely,
Westin Underberger

Ryan Biondo - Process Draft

Religion is a subject that I have considered for very much most of my life. My parents and all my family before them have been devout Catholics. I began to wonder, after years of catholic practice, if I was truly believing in the religion. Certainly the Catholic church in it's most basic values, value peace, honesty, justice, and spirituality, and these are certainly values of my own. I felt like I understood the processes of morality and spirituality for myself, and that the Catholic church kept me from fully experiencing life. But my parents continued to force me into religious education classes and church on Sundays, even if I tried to choose otherwise. Now that I have created a distance between my parents and I, I have been able to freely explore the beliefs that I believe more identify with me, like Satanism, Zen Buddhism, Hinduism, and Atheism. The point of learning from other beliefs, is to gain more understanding of the entire human perspective, and help myself. I want to see how other people have changed their views (or not) since leaving their families and coming to DU.

Process Draft-Brendan Hickey

Dear Reader,

I have written this essay in order to determine how the immigration should be dealt with in the United States. While the united states currently has a policies and practices for bring immigrants into the united states, the survey I have conducted gauges possible improvements to the existing system. The main reason for writing this was to determine the best course of action in dealing with immigration.

The issue of immigration is of interest to me since I have the opinion that the system could use some improvement. This issue has also been very popular lately with the violence in Mexico and Arizona. In order to gauge how others feel immigration should be dealt with I built the questionnaire to garner various solutions or lack there of.

The results of my questionnaire combined with the solutions that have already been researched should provide a good overall view of what citizens feel should be done to improve the immigration policy.

Signed,
Brendan William Hickey

Jennessa Lever Process Draft

The purpose of my paper is to determine the reasons for why students choose to participate in Greek Life. There are many incentives to choosing this type of college lifestyle. You are guaranteed a social life, friends are introduced to you, and after college it could lead to job opportunities. I will use questionnaires to gather the reasons people joined Greek Life, and why they decided to stay a part of it. This topic is of particular interest to me because I am considering joining Greek Life next year for the benefits it provides its members. Many times my friends are able to go to Greek Events while I am forced to simply study, and I know that through their Greek connections they will be able to get a job straight out of college. Many influential people have been Greek thus it is possible that it could be worth everyone’s while to find out if that is true. This paper delves into this mystery.

Elliott Process Note

Dear Reader,

This paper is designed to bring to mind the issue that is under-aged drinking. I wrote this paper with the fact in mind that many freshman at DU are currently drinking illegally. The audience of this paper are students at DU as well as falculty and administrators who deal with teen drinking.
The first part of my essay is an introduction to the issue that is teen drinking. I mention fake ID’s and the issues with the legal drinking age. This has always been an interesting topic for me because it is something that is relevant and has always been an issue in America. I designed a questionnaire to ask my peers and to get their opinions on this issue.
My research was first designed to ask whether or not students are drinking illegally, however, this is against ethical research policies so I changed my questionnaire to ask peoples opinions on the matter. During my research I found that many students are of the opinion that the drinking age should be lowered. This was something I expected and something my research showed to be true.

Thank you,

Jeff Elliott

Rachel Richard - Process Draft

Dear Reader,

This essay will discuss the possible issues and difficulties that only children face when coming to college and living in dormitories their first year. The topic was designed as an experiment to find if in fact it is harder for only children to adapt to college dorm life, rather than children with one or more siblings. As a result, any one who may read this may understand the possible issues or difficulties they may face being an only child in a college dorm situation.

I chose this topic because coming from a family of two younger siblings and being able to adapt to college living very nicely I wondered what the experience was like for only children. I have many friends who have no siblings and they have described the experience as challenging. I wanted to research and discover if this was true for all only children entering the college environment. I will be bringing in evidence from outside sources of experiences from only children as an idea as well as experiences of children with siblings. This paper topic is mainly for me to understand what it might be like to be an only child.

My data that I used to find this information was in a questionnaire. I read over the answers and was able to get the basic idea of the differences between only children and children with siblings.

Respectfully,

Rachel Richard

Natalie Roche Process Draft

Natalie Roche
April 19, 2011
Writing 1133

Essay 2:
Uniform and Unified – Are they the Same as they Sound?

My introduction. first paragraph goes into my process of how I interviewed people, the criteria, etc. How do school students feel as individuals about school uniforms, whether they are forced to wear them in an academic environment or not but have seen others doing so? I was interested in seeing how people felt their freedoms were limited (or not) simply by being forced to wear certain attire in school, and to conduct my research I assembled a list of fifteen questions based off of this main idea asking students about certain aspects of their lives that could possibly be hindered by wearing or not wearing a uniform. Fourteen of these people between the ages of eighteen and twenty-two responded. Three of them were male and the rest were female. Five students total had worn a school uniform in their lives before for two to nine years of their lives (one male, four females), though none of them were currently in a position where they were wearing one. The rest were simply speculating what it would be like to wear one if they did, using their own school experiences without being forced into a uniform to make their opinions. I divided my research between these two separate groups and compared their answers together, as well as to examples of experts who enforced wearing a school uniform, to determine the overall feelings of the public about this issue through two different sources. These sources were from professional viewpoints, based off of the ideas of school safety and the importance of school uniforms. My interest was to compare the values of the students to those enforcing the rules to see how their feelings compared in all aspects of the situation regarding school uniforms.

Secondly, I went into the results, and how this has to do with Colorado. After collecting all the data, I properly divided the people who filled out the questionnaire between uniforms and non-uniforms. Then, I read each section invidually, summed up the main points from each grouping, and compared the two different answers to find how they differed. Here, I will list the main points of what I noticed in all of the arguments. One main aspect was that in the professional articles, the adutls stated that the safety that comes with school uniforms is the most important piece, and “the pros of having uniforms in schools are definitely higher than the cons, but the students will continue to go against the idea as far as it doesn't make them feel good”.

Kelly Terry Process Draft

Dear Reader,

Restaurants consist of two worlds: the world they portray to their customers and the backstage, more secret world. The money that servers make in tips is usually their entire income and paycheck due to taxes, therefore each time a person eats at a restaurant and leaves a measly two or three dollars to represent their gratitude, those dollars are noted and cherished. My paper attempts to look deeper into the backstage world of waitressing and the tactics they utilize to raise their tip income. The readers of my paper I would assume to be servers who are a part of the backstage restaurant life looking for new and useful ways to raise tips or people who are generally interested in the culinary world. I hope that this paper proves to be insightful and informative about the restaurant world.

Although I am such a person who is interested in the culinary world, I seriously struggled while deciding on a topic. My study topic initially dealt with the affect that students’ parents’ discipline theories in high school had on students’ partying tendencies in college. However, after realizing that this topic is not in compliance with IRB regulations, I switched my topic to the social pressures and discrimination experienced by lesbian and gay students. Unfortuneately, this topic does not follow IRB regulations either, so I again changed my topic… this time to the issue of airport security and the general public’s opinion of the system. After deciding that asking people in an airport what their impression of the security system is might be intrusive and possibly disturbing to many airport travelers, I decided on my topic regarding restaurant serving and the tipping phenomenon.

The planning that I put into my project was in a very organized fashion. I began by researching different studies that dealt with my topic and formulating my review of literature. After having a base of knowledge to deal with this topic, I decided on three restaurants to observe the servers and their interactions with the customers.

Because I struggled so much with deciding on a topic, I was helped by comments and suggestions of my teacher and by looking at examples of different ethnography studies. I also read different studies to get an idea of how they wrote and organized their article.

Kelly Terry

Bao Le - Process Draft

Dear Reader,

This essay was meant to examine the benefits or costs of not having a student center at DU. I approached this essay with the idea that DU’s students have coped with not having a student center but was relatively unsure about whether this was detrimental or not to student life in general. My main point is to come to a conclusion as to whether a more traditional student center is needed at DU or not.

This topic has always been interesting to me as a commuter student. There simply is no designated place for students to spend their times outside of classrooms or dorms at DU. So to gather information on to what other students think, I’ve designed a questionnaire to ask my fellow students: Where do they spend their time and why?

I’ve used this data plus the data from my observations as to where the largest population of students gathers outside of classrooms to see whether students have created their own makeshift student center locations. The combination of this data should allow me to see if students exhibit a need for a student center or not.

Signed,
Bao Le

Adrianna Romero_Process Draft

Dear Reader,

The main purpose of this essay is to examine the knowledge that several DU students have regarding its policy on the use of medical marijuana and then have them state their opinion of said policy. The audience of this essay is not only the DU student population but also the administration that enforces the policy and is in charge of educating the students about it.

The first part of the essay is to inform readers about the existing marijuana policy on campus as well as some of Colorado’s statewide policies. Because these two guidelines are very different, I mention why this may be and how DU students are expected to act. The second part of the essay is made up of a research survey that I conducted and the results of it.

My investigation was initially about the amount of DU students that owned a medical marijuana card and still chose to use it on campus despite the policy and why. After reviewing the project with my supervisor I was reminded that this type of investigation was not appropriate for class work. The research questions for this investigation would be incriminating to the students therefore I changed my angle in the topic. I then chose to see how many students had a medical marijuana license and how they felt about the policy. The goal was to find a correlation between those who had a license and their feelings on the policy. During my research period I found that most students were not even aware of the current medical marijuana policy on the DU campus. This brought up some interesting discussion topics for m y conclusion in which I present possible solutions for the lack of knowledge of the policy.

Mazurek Process Draft

Dear Reader,

This essay is about a qualitative study that I performed about the knowledge and acceptance among students of the University of Denver, of converting the campus’ grass into a native grass species such as buffalo grass. I discuss previous research in order to illustrate the necessity of this conversion and to provide you with some background information regarding the topic. My purpose is to discover the extent to which DU students care about, are knowledgeable about, and are accepting to sustainability initiatives on campus. My readers will be college students. It is my hope that this qualitative essay will inform and inspire students to take the initiative to help make their campus more sustainable.

I chose this topic because sustainability is a major interest of mine and the current grass on DU’s campus requires a very unsustainable amount of watering and fertilizers. I began by researching the unsustainable practice of maintaining a non-native lawn. I then conducted my research by having students participate in a questionnaire regarding their views on the importance of sustainability, their knowledge of unsustainable practices in DU’s campus, and their acceptance to sustainability initiatives on campus.

Peer revisions and class activities helped me by pointing out areas where poor sentence structure and other grammar related issues were present. They also helped me by broadening my perspective on the issue and by giving me multiple perspectives.

Thank you,

Jared Mazurek

Daily Note 4/25

Monday April 25, 2011
Happy Birthday, Batman!

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1.         Peer critique of process note. Criteria are on the blog for today, “Process Note Critique”. Please post your draft to the blog, with the label of “process draft xx”. Your reviewer will compose their response and will post as a comment to your post.

2.         “Brief Revision Overview”.  Discuss the sheet and develop revision plan for first document. In addition to the comments that I’ve already provided for you, what other work should you do in order to strengthen your first draft? For instance, how might you write for a new audience? Or how might you revise for a more aesthetic piece? Or by incorporating new information? Brainstorm for 5 minutes how you would include one of the “Motivations for revision” then chat in small groups about your ideas. I will give feedback and suggestions as well.

3.         Reminder: Submission problems and changes. Comments not working well on PDFs; new version of Scribd not allowing me to download .doc(x) files. So, I’m getting back to people as soon as possible with the grade, but you do have my comments. After reading through several papers, I think emailing papers will make more sense. Other projects may still require posting through the blog, and we will deal with those individually. Further, revised grade of the first paper will replace first grade on first draft.

Brief Revision Overview

A (Very) Brief Overview of Revision[1]

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True, effective revision mostly concerns itself with global concerns rather than local concerns. This means that revision (which literally means “to see again”) focuses on the “global” concerns of a document (i.e., the overall argument, overall reasoning, transitions between ideas, coherence to conventions such as the IMRaD format, and so on). Editing, on the other hand, concerns itself with “local” concerns (i.e., issues of grammar, mechanics, style, format, and so on). Both are important components of writing, but today we concern ourselves with revision.

Types and Levels of Revision Operations

	Add	Subtract	Substitute	Transpose
Word
Sentence
Paragraph
Idea/Chunk
Topic

Motivations for Revision

Improve precision/accuracy

Improve clarity

Improve argument/persuasion

Incorporate new information

Incorporate new ideas; discard or revise old ideas

Change interpretation of existing information

Address new audience or new understanding of existing audience

Meet new purpose or changed sense of purpose

Convey a different persona or voice

Achieve an aesthetic effect

Match conventions of target discourse

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[1] Based on original document created by Doug Hesse

Process Note Critique

Peer Critique : Process Note

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For this critique, I would like you to do something a bit different than we’ve done before: I want you to be a skeptic, question everything about your peer’s writing. Please do so kindly. Your questions should help prod the writer to think through her or his writing more carefully.

In addition to focusing on any concerns of the author and on any concerns that you notice while reading, please address the following items:

1.     Describe what portions of the process note are currently the clearest and most effective. Please be as specific as possible. In other words, writing that, “Your introduction is clear and interesting” does not provide specificity or detail that lets the author know what is working and why. Instead you should try writing comments that give the author some clear direction, “The word choice in your discussion of audience was particularly useful in that you clearly described that you thought your audience did not know the reasons for the DU smoking ban because most people you know are against it. What is not clear, however, is how you have used this preliminary instinct to construct a research question or hypothesis.

2.     Compare the process note with what the author has already drafted of the paper. Essentially, I am asking that you determine if the author’s qualitative paper lives up to the promise of the process note. Again, please be critical, but do so nicely, so the author will receive useful feedback from you. While you might find the writing to be “good,” most writing can usually be improved and clarified.