Thursday, May 26, 2011
Martin_Portfolio_IntroductoryDraft
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
ParkerRoe-portfolio intro draft
Introductory Essay Draft Liza Veysikh
For the text-based paper, I have decided to research water conservation in Denver, Colorado by describing the causes and the history behind it. The purpose of the essay was to analyze how water conservation evolved through the history of Denver, Colorado. I discussed how in the early years of Colorado, people were ignorant of water shortage and depleted the resource, but after the drought of 2002, water conservation became an important part of life for the people. At the end of the essay, I discuss what is done now to conserve water and what each of us still should do. I actually struggled with the essay because I felt that I used too many sources and most of my essay was about citations of others, and not my own discussions or my own opinion. I also had trouble introducing my quotation and just incorporated into my essay. It was the first essay and therefore I wasn’t sure how the professor wanted the essay to look like. However, from the beginning, I effectively established ethos. I rarely used pathos structure except at the end when I discussed what every person who lives in Colorado should do to prevent water scarcity. Most of the essay was about logos and facts. The audience are also Colorado residents who need to become aware of this growing problem and students who want to learn more about water in Colorado. I believe this essay to be persuasive because one of its goals is to persuade the audience to start conserving water. In the revision process, I introduced my sources in a better way and explained some of the causes of water conservation and how that related to my research.
The intention of the second paper was to further progress my knowledge of water conservation, but instead analyze a different perspective of it. I have decided to discuss the successes and failures of some of the water conservation companies and their projects, to conclude about the limits of them in reducing water shortage. Since it was a qualitative paper, I conducted three interviews. The first interview was done with a person at the Colorado Water Conservation Board located in Denver and the other two were done online with representatives of water conservation companies in Greeley, Colorado. The audience of this piece is all major water companies because they might need to re-evaluate their projects and all other Colorado residents who are faced with water conservation problems. This paper is more informative because its goals is to evaluate the efficiency of water companies in Colorado. In my revision process, I have decided to change the wording of my thesis because it was too general and could not be answered by only conducting three interviews. Also, one of the professor’s comments was that when I described my previous research concerning this project, the manner of writing was bland and did not belong in the research paper. For example, I wrote, “Some of the research I have conducted earlier…” is not relevant to my paper. I think this essay I need to work on the most because there is a lot of information in the results section that might overwhelm the reader. For the revision, I condensed the results section.
The third project on Google Maps was interesting, but very time-consuming. Especially, when it was a group project and part of the group did not want to contribute to it. So I ended up doing the whole project. Aside from that, I loved this project. It was something new and interested me a lot. For the project, we decided our topic would be public art in Denver and how it affects the lives of the people. The major concern that our professor had was that it was intended for popular audience, but we weren’t sure. For the introduction and conclusion of the project, I incorporated outside textual sources that were needed from the assignment sheet. That made the project more for the academic world, and not the common people. The audience then should be all people who appreciate and accept public art in Denver. It was mostly informative, but in the conclusion that I wrote, I appealed to pathos too showing the importance of it in the lives of the people. For the revision process, I don’t think I need to do much. Maybe explain why I incorporated outside sources, but mostly the time I put into the project, was reflected in a good grade we got.
For the outside paper from another class, I have decided to use my WRIT 1122 essay that discusses the significance of metaphor of learning as growth.
To be continued…
Throughout the quarter, I felt that my writing based solely on research has greatly improved.
portfolio draft Baca
During my second paper, I wrote the first draft early enough to submit for the class to revise as an activity in class. This helped me because I thought that if I awanted to learn about revision than who better to learn it from than the people around me in the same class. It always sounds better to hear the tough words about ones work from a peer than an authority figure.
The third project looked at what DU students do off of campus. I immediately thought of skiing. DU students flock to the mountains on the weekend to get away from the business of school. The main point of this essay was to show the outsiders looking in on DU students, even prospective students that there are so many things to do off campus even some that are just a short train ride into the city of Denver.
The first essay took up the topic of Education Issues of Denver, as presented in the first paragraph. I, thinking that I knew what education needed looked at a few sources then tried to write my essay based on two people opinions. Not looking at the broader scheme of the paper. I didn’t take into account the impact on the world if the USA doesn’t take education seriously. Through the revision process I added these ideas, as well as idea from more people to take into account the reality that educational issues have on people of America and not just what I think the classroom needs to do to improve the quality of education. Also, I didn’t read it over. I took it as I thought it was without reading back over it. I didn’t realize that the paper was the beginning of the process. The ideas were on the page but the scheme, the structure wasn’t. In order to make a paper better it needs to be revised. There is no way that just slamming down the keys the first time can get an A on a paper. Through the course I realized that. This in my eyes didn’t seem wrong at the time I wrote it however reading that paper again at this point in my writing maturation stage I can see why sources are important in writing anything. It credits the writer ethos. Sources also make it easier to write. What I mean by easier is that it is not just writing generally what happens with the topic at hand. It gives real world academic research done by Doctors and Professors who know what they are talking about.
In this essay, I will be discussing the topic of, College students. I want to 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 are 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.
For this project I intend to show outsiders of DU, or even parents what DU students enjoy when they are not hitting the books. Most people think that college is just one big party but there are many more things to do in the beautiful landscape of the Rocky Mountains than just party and sleep all day recovering from the previous night. The weekends of winter quarter are a busy sensation for the mountains that border Denver to the west. Skiing is a huge activity that many people here at DU pride themselves on. They love getting out of the busy atmosphere of school to just forget about everything and just flow down the mountain with the wind in their faces.
In order to find out a little bit more about the lifestyle that is skiing here in Colorado I interviewed my neighbor and friend Bryant Wilkinson. When asked to write about what DU students do off campus skiing immediately came to mind, as did Bryant. I picked him to interview because out of the many people that go to the mountains extremely often I would say that he by far was up there the most. Each weekend he would leave early Friday morning and not come back until Sunday evening. I narrowed my search in the skiing world by choosing him to interview. I wrote up some questions that outlined what skiers do on the weekends that they are off on the slopes that Wilkinson answered beautifully. At first I was trying to write this as a research topic with a question to answer then I realized that the assignment was to show what DU students do off of campus there is really no question to answer. I changed my writing style after that. The comments helped out because I got to see what students here are actually interested in. By their questions I could see what I was lacking in.
During the Spring quarter taking Writ 1133 I realized the scope of writing, completing my package of writing. I have good words, but typing them out.
Introduction Draft-Scott Haraway
Over the course of this quarter and last in the WRIT sequence, I have developed a breadth of writing skills for a number of different situations and corresponding audiences. I can demonstrate this through four pieces of writing that I created: a text-based research paper, an ethnography, a Google Map, and a newspaper feature article. In these different pieces I appeal to ethos, logos, and pathos, in very different ways to appeal to both the reader and the academic community. Through the documents discussed below, I will show my growth in in-depth research and revision that has made me the better, more versatile writer that I am today.
The first paper I wrote was a text-based research paper. The assignment was to create an argument that had to do with an issue in the city of Denver or its surrounding area in some way, as all of our assignments for WRIT 1133 had to be, and to ground the argument in at least five previously written, peer-reviewed academic publications. Not a week before the paper was assigned, I read an article about how a man named Stan Kroenke had become the primary shareholder (owner) of Arsenal Football Club in England. This struck me as amazing, because I knew that Kroenke already owned the Colorado Avalanche, the Denver Nuggets, the Colorado Rapids, the Colorado Mammoth, the St. Louis Rams, and the Pepsi Center where three of these teams call home and numerous concerts take place year round. Clearly this is an amazing empire in the sporting world, not to mention his wife is a Walmart child, and the so-called Denver sports monopoly interested me being a huge sports fan.
The purpose of this paper was to show how this sort of sports monopoly was a bad thing for Colorado sports. It was very difficult to find sources that had academic credibility, because it is an increasingly current topic and also a small scope of people geographically who would care about this man…
The next paper I wrote was an ethnography/study about why people go to coffee shops. The assignment was to write a qualitative study about why or how people do what they do, again in some way related to Denver. The main point of the project was to create our own research and that the research was qualitative as opposed to quantitative, number-based research. I chose to research what people do at coffee shops, because it is a place that my brother and I had always spent a lot of time and always observed people at. It always struck us as interested that most people, including us, visited a coffee with the cup of coffee they were purchasing as their last priority.
The purpose of the paper was to demonstrate exactly this point. So, I conducted my research through a series of four structured observations in which I used a checklist to systematically observe the patrons of two different coffee shops over an hour period of time. The checklist included almost every trait of physical appearance that you could think of as well as questions on what they purchased and what they did while they were there. In addition, I conducted eight short interviews with a sample of interviewees that I thought represented the coffee shop population very well. With the combination of these research interests I formulated conclusions based on the trends I began to see…
The third product produced in WRIT 1133 was a Google Map, which was a very unorthodox yet extremely fun research project. The assignment was to work with a group, in my case of four, to create an original Google Map that was almost a guide around some part of Denver, for example the DU campus itself or the Denver slam poetry scene. On this map we were supposed to place two to three “markers” each, which were places that we had gone to do firsthand observatory research on and later written a blurb about describing our experience and overall impressions of the place. We were encouraged to include videos, pictures, audio, etc. to enhance our map.
My group chose to do a map based on what DU students do off campus. The reason for this is because it had great personal resonation in that the four of us are always trying to find something fun to do in Denver and explore the city when our campus starts getting a little stale. We also wanted to create something that was very comprehensive and varied throughout the city both geographically and interest-wise. The purpose of that was that our map would then be able to help inform more students from different backgrounds. One critique we seemed to get that it didn’t seem to necessarily have a very focused theme, but that was exactly it. We wanted to provide at least one or two things for each student, no matter what their interests were. So someone could go to
Portfolio Introduction: Kelsie Cage
As I entered my first year at the University of Denver, I was not sure what to expect for the writing courses that I had to take. Throughout high school I was always taught how to analyze works of literature, but rarely conducted hands on research papers. I quickly realized that the two are very different forms of writing. Although, I was always a strong writer, I struggled with maintaing formal writing diction and understanding how to properly conduct a research-based paper. I tend to write with detail and and like to include wordy diction. Throughout this course I have learned that research papers are based on exact material and do not need a lot of detail for the reader to understand the paper. Research papers are full of facts, examples and more or less a non-biased view. The writing does not need excess, polished words; I learned throughout the writing course how to cut out unnecessary information that was not needed. Specifically in the text based paper our writ class was instructed to write about. The assignment as giving to us from our instructor to write about an 'Interpretive' research paper in which you will derive an argument from previously-published sources. As individuals we had to find a topic and conduct a research based paper, while analyzing another authors work and incorporating it into our writing. I wanted to uncover the reason why DU no longer has a football. This arose when I was on my tour of the campus last spring and my leader stated that one of the buildings had been blown up during a football rivalry. I had heard many rumors about the abolishment of the team and wanted to find out the true meaning. When I was conducting my research I felt the need to include the football teams history and the history of the school to give my reader background information. Unfortunately, I felt this could have hindered my writing piece. Instead of it turing out to be a constructive research paper it became more like a media report. One thing that has really stuck with my in this course is the importance of revising a piece. I spent more hours revising this paper than I did on its first draft. I wanted to give my reader reason to read and become interested in my paper. I acknowledged what I did wrong throughout my piece, and attempted to edit it so that it flowed.
I struggled getting to the main point of my paper. I “beat around the bush” and put a lot of “fluff” in my paper, without meaning too. I took a lot of time revising and reconstructing my paper; I wanted to take the time to understand why I was writing the way I did and learn how I could change my style to the appropriate form. I have reflected on my strengths and I have learned to take the time to acknowledge and focus on my weaknesses throughout this course.
Furthermore, I could not override my own opinion while I was writing (this happened with my qualitative paper as well). By the end of the course I have a better understanding on how to write with a biases tone, however I still struggle with it; I have come to be aware of my perspective while writing.
The second piece our class was required to write about was: a qualitative research project in which you gather research via a qualitative method such as ethnography or interview. This piece was my favorite work. I talked about the undercover drug scene on the University of Denver's campus. I used pieces from other authors, such as a research paper that was conducted by a professor at Yale University. Although I was passionate about the topic, because I felt that this research could actually be useful to our university's administrators, like it was used for Yale; my speed bump came with the questions I asked students in an anonymous survey. Our university provides its students with an IRB introduction and research limitation. It is meant to protect the rights and safety of individuals participation in research projects that involve human subjects. The guidelines stated that drug profound questions were not allowed. It did not clearly state exactly what the qualifications of those questions were, so I assumed that there was some grey area and I could wriggle my questions to students, while obtaining the anonymous information I needed while not disobeying the IRB rules and restrictions. I found out that most of my questions slid past the “frowning upon” questions, so I was able to gain most of the information I needed. Yet, I felt cheated that I could not directly ask the members of my survey detailed information that could have positively affected my research. I had to take some of my questions out, which left me a few questions short on my survey. I understand the implications the university is under, however it took a toll on my paper. With that in mind, I did the best I could with the paper. My first draft had information that could not be publicized so my revision lead me down another path with my paper. I had to come up with other ways I could express my topic without stepping on anyones toes. This was my main challenge with this paper. I had learned from my first paper in this course how to effectively write a research paper (still learning, but better than I started off) but did not have to include interviews or a survey. This paper challenged me by understanding how to effectively incorporate my findings. My revision included reforming my topic and taking out my main points in order to follow the IRB format. Although this was a challenge for me, I tried to get my point across the best I could without using certain information. I felt that this piece was a challenge in which I learned a lot about my writing and the different styles used. I had never written a piece that was broken up in sections of method, discussion, conclusion, etc. I did like writing in the different sections, however at one point I felt that I was repeating myself a lot; which resulted me in giving up talking about some main points. In the revision I made and effort to go back and try to provide more information without the feeling that the paper was just creating repetition.
The third and final paper of this course was a group project that was: a Google Maps project that displays your rhetorical map of Denver. Our group conducted research on what DU students do around campus at night. We had two greek-life students discuss what there is to do around campus and two non-greek life students. The two sections over lapped which provided information for those students who are interested in exploring DU's night life and they can gain different perspectives through the eyes of different views.
William Summitt
I have always struggled as a writer. My senior year of high school I had an amazing AP English teacher and I thought I learned a lot, and improved dramatically. However, upon entering college I realized still how sub par my writing skills were. Over the course of the year I have completed WRIT 1122, where I learned how to properly form an argument and appeal to certain audiences among other things. I am now nearing the final days of the quarter and thus the final days of my WRIT 1133 course. While nearing the end we are instructed to review literature we produced and reflect upon this. To accomplish this I am analyzing the first two papers from this course amongst a piece of writing from another course that will compliment my stance on my academic advancement in the form of writing.
WRIT 1133 is one of two introductory writing courses and specifically focuses on more researched based papers. The first two papers we constructed for this course were in fact researched based, however they differ in where the research is derived from.
The first paper was an interpretive essay in which we derived an argument from previously published sources. In other words we found scholarly documents in the form of books, published online articles, and so on and so forth. My topic for this paper was marijuana. With this paper I wanted to find out the facts on why it is illegal and the arguments on why it should be legalized and from this form a conclusion of my standpoint on the matter. While researching this I was able to find a lot of books of which the majority demonstrated the positive aspects of marijuana, whereas most of my online sources were medical based and argued the negative effects of the drug. Through my research I found a lot of controversial medical opinions. This was one set back to my paper, the topic. It was hard to find solid facts, because this is a topic with rising popularity but relatively little research. The other difficulty with this request was time. To conduct full research on a topic, write a paper and then revise that paper numerous times takes a lot of time and effort. We were given roughly two weeks and we are students with other activities and assignments on our plates.
The second assignment for the quarter was another research project, only this time we conducted our own research. We were supposed to focus on something related to Denver, conduct our own research, and then format our paper similar to a lab write-up. By this I mean an Inro, Method, Response and Conclusion. My project was on the DU food service. I chose this topic because it was realistic. We had another two weeks to conduct research for this paper and then devise the paper itself. To be realistic with time I had to begin collecting data immediately and also focus on a narrow, local audience. By doing this I was able to make my data more accurate. Collecting data was an important thing to consider from the start of this paper. I needed a way to collect data quickly and effectively. My approach was sending surveys to peers of mine through Facebook. I chose to use Facebook because it is such a popular form of media for college students. The other form of collection that I used was simple observation. From this information I concluded that students at the University of Denver were unsatisfied with their provided food service and formed a possible solution to the issue.
I have always hated revising, and for the first paper I was lazy enough to only revise about twice, which is not even the bare minimum for writing of my caliber. Through this course I found through lots of critique from both peers and professors that revision is the only way to meet near perfection and achieve an acceptable grade by my standards. This means formatting a paper prior to writing, make a rough draft, and then revise it twice myself. After this it I found it helpful to get an outside opinion, so I turned to a friend and asked that they revise my writing. At this point I would then revise again and if I had time refer to the writing center. I think by learning this approach this quarter my writing has again improved dramatically. I know that I am not a skilled enough writer to appreciate a first draft as a final one. It was a painful piece of information, but in the long run a helpful one that I can attribute to this writing program, and a strict grading system holding me to a higher standard.
Bland Introductory Portfolio essay
The first essay, entitled, “Text-Based Paper,” I was required to write a research paper with a thesis about a topic of interest pertaining to Colorado. I was to create a textual research tool to support my argument including that of outside sources. I wrote about the injustice of incarcerating the mentally ill. I developed arguments based off of the negative and positive effects of this part of the justice system, and further supported my thesis by addressing the need for change in the way the United States government treats and thinks of the mentally ill. This paper exemplified my inexperience in citing research. My development of arguments was clear and well supported, but without the citations, my writing lacked credibility. This paper exercised the ability to gather well-rounded sources and use sources to further my personal points.
The second essay, entitled, “Qualitative Project,” I was required to use the skills developed in the Text-Based assignment and further the research towards a piece that was broken into four sections: Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. In this project I conducted several interviews and used 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 did this by interviewing a skeptic, a devout Catholic, a non-traditional episcopal, and agnostic, and an atheist. I created my own interview process and later analyzed the parent’s experience with religion and how religion has played into family life. I then reflected on the current believes of individuals, when relating to their families experience with religion. The overall purpose of the experiment was to determine 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. The most improvement on this essay was in regard to the requirements of the process note. Using this introduction to state the purpose and process of this paper was more difficult for me then writing and analyzing the actual research collected. I found that personal bias regarding my thesis influenced how I interpreted the results of my interviews. This was an issue to work on in regard to credibility and reliability of my conclusions.
The third essay, entitled, “Proofs Paper,” was an analysis of how Wikipedia and Britannica use logos and ethos in their research. By comparing two articles from each source about Coco Chanel I was able to develop an argument to the usefulness of using these two sources. I needed to develop less of report about the two sources and use transitions to make the argument more fluid.
introductory portfolio rough draft-Josh Goetz
The intention of this paper is to find whether freshman at the University of Denver use Facebook to keep in touch with friends or as a distraction from their school work. The research I do will hopefully be typical of most freshmen at universities across the United States. I want to see what students think of the influence of Facebook. This is a topic that is relevant in the life of a college student and the world that we live in because we are so absorbed by wireless communities. We are never more than a click away from our emails, Facebook, or Twitter because we are logged in on our phones, laptops, and other forms of technology. The technological advances that have been made are changing the dynamics in the classroom and the distractions that students have to deal with. This generation has to stay focused while these distractions are always present. Since there is no way to escape technology we have to learn to live with it. This qualitative paper was a struggle for me because I had never done anything like it before. In high school I would just write book reports and to actually take my own data and relate it to others and make inferences from my data was a learning experience for me. I found that I achieved a deeper level of understanding of the data representation and improved greatly from my first draft to my last. I found that I was able to quickly transition myself into this type of more scientific writing.
This Google Maps Project was intended to observe and report on Denver’s rhetorical situation. The topic that my group chose to do was to analyze the different purposes and influences that local art has in Denver. There are many examples of public art from graffiti to city sponsored art displays. The Denver Public Art Program was passed in the late 1980s and opened the door for public art in Denver. Any large scale city expansion project is required to spend one percent of their costs on art. This bill has improved the city’s beauty by mandating a focus on art in the development of the city. This bill has led to over 150 public art displays around the metro area. Local art is also expanding into new horizons due to the counter-culture movement. Local artists are being featured in local businesses around the city. This mutualism is growing by blending and expanding industries. Local artists whose art does not fit the style of art galleries or is not meant for the audience that attends art walks would not be given a chance to expand and be influential. The introduction of art into retail businesses allow these artists to get on the map with their productions.
We found that there is a vast range in art around the city so after some concluding we decided to narrow it down to four locations that would summarize the types of art that we were looking to observe. First we examined public art using examples from the Mustang on Pena Boulevard on the way to the Denver International Airport which is generally the first piece of art that any visitor sees upon their arrival at DIA. The second public display of art that we observed was the blue bear that peeks inside of the Colorado Convention Center. The other two sources catered to the other side of local art. We found that there was a connection between local businesses and local artists. We used Division West a store that sells trendy young men’s clothing that also premiers a new local artist every month by using their art to decorate the shop and offers the pieces to their customers. The other location was located downtown which was a high end exotic car dealership named the Motorsports Gallery which sells foreign cars but filled its shop’s walls with art from locals. We analyzed the differences in the types of art that we saw around the city and the different purposes for which they were intended. This project was also something new for me but I felt much more at home while writing than I have in the past. I felt like I was able to relate to the topic and provide useful insight. When gathering research I felt much more attached to this writing and by actually going out into the city I was able to collect a vibe and feel that I successfully explained my reactions to the reader.
Throughout this quarter I feel that my writing improved greatly especially in types of writing that I had not previously experimented with. This class gave me opportunities to expand my realms of writing and to write on topics that I felt were important to the city in which I live. I felt a sense of attachment to the projects that I did because of how they were relative to my place of residence.
Olivia Anton Introductory essay
In writing 1133 we composed three very different styles of writing, a text-based, qualitative paper, and a Google Maps. The purpose of these writings was to give us a broad range of styles we can draw from in order to succeed in the up coming years at the
Clear blue skies—not too much to ask for;
They were here before we came;
Will they be here when we're gone?
Clean water—not too much to hope for;
It's the basis of our lives,
And without it we are done.
It was meant to create a personal connection between the reader and the author that is not normally associated with scholarly writing. This was a new style that I was unsure how to conduct in an effective way, it resulted in a weak attempt to use pathos in order to invest the reader in the paper. Pathos was not obviously constructed and created an awkward pause in the paper that ran together with the other introductory parts. The second paper focused on Qualitative research, we were asked to construct our own testable thesis that we connected to our past project or an entirely new subject. We then had to find a subject group to test our thesis on and drawing from past research to support the claim we were attempting to make. This research looks at how much the students at the
In the third piece of work, Google Maps, looks at a more interactive form of writing in order to influence a population greater than the DU campus. This was a group project were the individuals were connected by the groups theme. My personal goal of this Google maps document looked at the importance of culture and cuisine in
Introduction portfolio Draft- Lucas Kukulka
For my qualitative paper I researched the topic why student went to college. I chose this topic because it was interesting to me and I thought it would engaging to see the reasons students go to college these days. I gave out a questionnaire to a large amount of freshman in order to get responses. I think this was a good project because it allowed us to conduct our research for a topic we were interested in.
For our project, my group and I did a mapping assignment in Denver. Our topic was medical marijuana and what effect it has had on the city of Denver. We chose this topic because medical marijuana has become a growing trend in Denver and we wanted to explore if this was changing the culture of Denver itself. The audience for a project like this would be people who want to learn about Denver and the impact of marijuana.
The planning and process of this project was actually quite enjoyable. In order to get proper research for this project our group planned out various locations that we thought either represented the marijuana culture or directly sold marijuana. After narrowing down our locations we traveled around Denver and visited our various locations. At each location we took picture of the place and spent a little time there to get the vibe of it. It was splendid visiting all these places and also getting to know the city of Denver. In a few of the places we interviewed employees to get their opinion on marijuana as well. The people we interviewed were very friendly and had great deal of information to share with us. After visiting our locations we wrote a 200-300 words about each place about how we thought that place represented our topic and mapped it in Google maps. From our in class workshop we were made aware that many of our responses could be similar so that is why we opted to go to a wide variety of places rather than our original decision of just visiting dispensaries. Overall, I found this project to be fun, new and interesting. It allowed my group and I to not only to interactively research our topic but also get a better feeling of Denver itself.
Lucas Kukulka
Howe_In Class_Portfolio Intro
Throughout my freshman year, I dreaded going through the ‘WRIT’ class sequence. I had always considered myself somewhat of a mediocre writer and was not excited to be scrutinized by what I thought were limitations of my abilities as a writer. To my surprise I am coming out of the class with a new mind set on writing as a whole. The first project assigned focused on textual based research in which I chose the topic of Nuclear Power in the Colorado area. My audience being college-graduates who actively vote in Colorado was chosen because my goal was to attempt to present unbiased research showing the actual benefits and dangers of nuclear power.
The second project was a qualitative research project which I again focused on nuclear power. This time I created research of my own through interviewing University of Denver students in an attempt to get a grasp about their general feelings about the power source and how outside influences have affected their opinions. I learned how to properly conduct research and use the IMRaD format to explain my research methodology and reasons behind my research.
The third project was from a prior Writ class in which the theme of the class was rhetoric through the power of remix. For this assignment we were instructed to take an original piece of writing and remix it to change the rhetorical situation to our liking and eventually change the entire meaning of the writing. I chose a highly liberal article written by a notoriously left-winged journalist and changed the writer the be Bill O’Rielly. This changed the whole work and meaning.
Meziere_Introduction_In-class
My name is Mark Meziere and I am currently finishing up my freshman year at the University of Denver (DU) in Colorado. I began my college career at the University of Oklahoma (OU) where I took an English composition class which is equivalent to DU’s writing class. Luckily for me, my high school English teacher did an excellent job of preparing me to write at a college level. I easily powered through my English composition class at OU, receiving A’s on every paper. I transferred to DU at the beginning of the Winter quarter and used the term as a break from writing. In the Spring quarter I was given one of the last registration times and almost did not get into WRIT 1133. Luckily, I was able to secure a position in the class to fulfill DU’s core requirements.
At the University of Oklahoma I had a very humorous and enjoyable professor but when it came time to do work she was all business. I completed a very lengthy and time consuming work which analyzed the Norman police department and how they affect the community. I found this to be an enjoyable paper to do because I learned a lot about the police community. I also felt satisfied after completing it because I put in a great amount of effort into making the paper perfect. The previous papers she had assigned were not too difficult, but this one made for a challenge.
The works I will put my utmost focus on I completed at the University of Denver. My first paper analyzes Colorado’s medical marijuana policies and how they affect the community. I feel this paper can definitely be improved through adding more reliable sources. I can also improve and make my argument stronger through a more detailed introduction and lengthier conclusion. I felt the content was all there but it could use some reorganization to make the paper easier to follow for the reader. I was pleased with my job in appealing to my audience. Overall, I feel this paper was not as polished as the others and therefore not as effective.
I would also like to revise my second paper which analyzed members of the DU community’s views on the smoke-free policy which DU enacted in 2010. I was proud of most of my work in this paper, especially in the organization. For this paper I had to find students and faculty to fill out my questionnaire. This proved to be no easy task, as many people will not respond to your requests to fill out a questionnaire. If I were to gather research again for this project I would ensure to have a larger and more accurate sample to DU’s community.
Muray_In-class Portfolio Draft
Dear Reader,
The purpose behind my Google map was to delineate the marijuana culture in Denver, Colorado. With two other University of Denver classmates, we pinpointed various locations that reflect the marijuana culture. Our locations are diverse, ranging from dispensaries to convention centers. My personal hope for this project was to discuss the relationship between the legalization of medical marijuana in Denver and the city’s already “laid-back” atmosphere. Colorado is a state famous for it’s liberal and progressive thinking and citizens. I wanted to reflect on how this new American movement of medical marijuana legalization has infiltrated and influenced the culture of this Colorado city.The research, which was conducted via interviews and observations, wasn’t too difficult to conduct. However, it required a lot of time, because we traveled to various parts of Denver. Not only was it a good experience to witness many different parts of Denver where marijuana is present, but it also provided a great opportunity to explore Denver.Living in a city that permits medical marijuana is rare in the United States. I find it interesting to see if this legalization can change the culture of the city or not. Our research was to attempt to notice some cultural changes made by the legalization of marijuana. Overall, I find our Google map to be an effective and correct illustration of Denver’s marijuana culture.
Kelley Murray
Dear Reader,
This essay delineates research gathered through a qualitative study I conducted concerning the purpose and validity of the University of Denver’s greek system. The research was gathered via an anonymous survey conducted on 50 DU under-graduate students. The survey asked various questions about greek life, student activity, and greek participation. The survey’s results were used as the main source for my paper, and supported my investigation and analysis if whether campus greek life is an imperative, positive, and/or negative aspect of the University of Denver’s social community. I also used outside research, which can be found throughout the review of literature in my essay, to gain a better understanding of the silence influence and presence greek life plays on a college campus.
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 feel that Denver’s greek community is “unique” compared to other universities in being less selective/exclusive. I am in interested in knowing if students feel as if the greek life is a vital being of the University of Denver’s campus life, if it does serve a purpose, and if it is just not for four years, or for life, but for something more.
-Kelley Murray
Dear Reader,
This is a research text-based paper that discusses the controversy of art censorship in Colorado. I conducted my research by reading various scholarly texts. I found this topic important, because censorship can be very destructive to a healthy society and culture. I was very interested in learning about the current issue of censorship in the Denver community.In my WRIT 1133 course, I learned various ways to analyze and effectively write an academic paper. The course better informed me on how to appropriately identify and assess an argument through various mediums of research. I never have considered myself to be a “strong” writer. However, with the aid of WRIT 1133 I fee like I have developed into a more confident writer.
Oka Draft of Portfolio
The first project assigned for this class was to produce a text- based paper. The paper was to offer a satisfactory answer to a research question of our choosing and had to include at least five scholarly sources. The main form of research required for this paper was textual research, a concept that I am relatively comfortable with. I experienced no difficulty in incorporating the academic sources into my piece, as I have done this before for my biology lab reports. The research question that guided my paper was, “Should the US Government Increase Funding for Genetic Research?” The target audience for this project was college individuals whom possess a decent amount of knowledge with regards to the matter at hand. In order to cater to the target audience group, my paper contained a significant amount of supported facts in order to allow the reader to comprehend the basis of my argument. After constructing a rough draft of the paper, a process note was created to help reassess the objectives of the paper. Revision of work is a concept that is relatively new to me. In Singapore, where I previously studied, written work was done in- class and revisions were never allowed much less encouraged. Upon writing the process note, I discovered that my paper lacked an appropriate scope and that I had neglected to introduce the reader to some of the sources before including it in the paper.
Andy Thomas_intro essay
For my particular paper, I intend to explore the pros and cons of natural gas drilling in Colorado. I feel as if this is becoming an increasingly important issue to both this state, and the country as a whole. With increased discussion and emphasis on new “green” technologies, I believe that the issue of natural gas will only become more important in the future, and understanding it now is of the utmost importance.
To complete my research for this topic, I intended to heavily use Internet databases and news sources. I planned to use databases to find scholarly works that would help me better understand the logic behind the controversies surrounding this topic, and then use news sources to gain a perspective of what the local people, who are most directly impacted, felt about this issue.
I felt that this essay best resembled other works that I have written. Thus, I feel it is the best indication of the type of writer that I am. I felt that this essay helped me grow in my ability to find quality sources, and it helped me improve my ability to incorporate them into my writing.
The second assignment asked me to conduct qualitative research on a topic of my choosing. It forced me to gain background information on the topic and then conduct original qualitative research involving other students.
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.
Qualitative research was not a topic I had ever been asked to do before this assignment. Thus, I felt that I was able to gain a new understanding of how to conduct research. I feel that I was able to incorporate techniques from my earlier project into this one as well as build on my writing skills while including outside research.
My final project was a unique assignment that incorporated Google Maps to complete it. I was asked to choose a topic dealing with something about the city of Denver. Then I had to go into the city and make observations about my topic, then record these and make a “Google map”. This required me to mark where in the city I had made these observations and discuss their significance.
For my Denver area map research project, I wished to examine the local music scene of the city. I feel as if music is an interesting reflection of a culture, and as a new resident to Denver this is something I wished to understand further. Additionally, music is something that I enjoy and the prospect of gaining a greater understanding of Colorado’s local music seemed to be an interesting project.
To conduct our research, my group and I will plan on attending a few local concerts and use our own experiences as evidence. We planed on viewing both local bands as well as other more national bands. We did this so as to determine not only what the city of Denver can produce, but also attract. We attended several concerts of both local and non-local bands, splitting the two about equally.
This final project required me to include most of the research skills I had previously learned or developed throughout the course. It also forced me to explore new interactive research techniques.
Walkovitz_Inclass_Rough Draft of Intro Essay
For the first paper of this course and my portfolio, I am using my text-based paper that was a research paper on medical marijuana. This paper looked at the uses of marijuana and how, although it is useful as a medical product, it is not acceptable for the general public. I wrote this for a general audience and tried to persuade them that marijuana should not be legalized for the general public and it should remain how it is currently. In writing this, I hoped to show my own thoughts while also backing my opinion up with proper scholarly sources.
My second paper was a qualitative paper 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 looked at how having a job affects the student’s grade point average. By surveying and interviewing college students, I determined 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.
In my final project, the intent was to look at different public and local art around the city of Denver. We were assigned to create a Google Map mapping out different locations that we visited pertaining to our topic. By doing this, the relationship between popular culture and art was analyzed. There are many different examples of popular culture intertwined with art around Denver, and a lot of it goes unnoticed. Companies from the clothing store, Division West, to the exotic car dealership, Motorsports Gallery, use art by local artists in their showrooms to add more of a sophisticated environment. Division West has been trying to get more stores in Cherry Creek North to help out the local artists, but none are interested in staying open the extra hours for an art walk on the weekends or at night. Motorsports Gallery is also doing this while adding a high-class, homely feel to their showroom floor. Not only does this aid the companies, but it also gives these local artists a place to show their work and hopefully make some extra money.
Grencik_Introduction
For the most part, I love to write in my room. I need to put on my headphones and listen to my “hardcore” music. I wear some sort of hoodie to keep me cozy warm with my hood up to narrow my vision strictly on my laptop. If I come across writers block for more than 30 minutes, that’s when I go to the library (still with the headphones and hoodie) and sit in one of the white cubicles and force myself to type. I do a very basic outline with what would be subheadings in the paper to organize my thoughts, and then type away from there.
The purpose of my first essay is to persuade readers that illegal immigration isn’t as bad as for those who are highly against it believe. I do want the readers to see things from the illegal’s point of view just to have some sort of sympathy and compassion towards these people, rather than just seeing them as “aliens.” I did about two hours of research on the matter finding mostly scholarly or attributable resources to strengthen my argument, and then a few that oppose it. Comments from my peers helped me by allowing me to see things that I may have not noticed before (e.g., I have a tendency to use a lot of parenthesis explaining my previous sentence or to go further into detail, such as this sentence here).
The essay does what my letter promises, as I go into a lot of detail on the troubles these illegal immigrants face in their home country. Regardless of whether or not the person is persuaded to see that it’s not as bad as people make it out to be, they will still see the other side and (if they have any morals or feelings) will sympathize for these illegal immigrants.
The first paper shows how I have grown as a writer because I feel that this is my most thoroughly revised essay, as you will see all of the red text (all of which are revisions). I revised citing my sources where they needed to be. For example, I opened a paragraph with “Most illegal immigrants cross the border through Mexico,” which one can question. Thus I found a source and made sure to cite that source directly after that sentence.
The purpose of this Google Map is to inform those whom are unfamiliar with Denver, Colorado about the music scene. What kinds of different venues are there in Denver? Do a lot of different bands come through and play? What’s the atmosphere of these events like? I want to answer the question of, “Is paying a few dollars worth the cost to go see a concert in Denver?” Hopefully the answer to that question will be yes after you read the descriptions of the different concerts. Choosing this topic was one of the easiest decisions I had to make during this project. The one “thing” that I love most is music, so why not go to different concert venues and watch some live music? Any chance that I have to make work fun, I will take be sure to take it.
Knowing now what I wanted to write about, I had to choose different concerts to go to and be economical about the situation as well. Considering I attended one of the best concerts with two of my favorite bands performing on March 27, I decided to include this concert as I will never forget a single detail of this one. Next our team found a concert at Cervantes that was cheap and we all could attend, so we did. Then we started hitting road blocks. With everyone’s different and busy schedules it was very difficult to get all four team members at one concert. To solve this problem, we would split up and each go to whatever concert we could, and made sure to get some sort of picture or footage. Finally, when putting together the final map, I could not find a way to embed the picture that I took from MusicFest. To solve this problem I decided to share the link where the pictures can be easily viewed.
The in class activities helped me figure out how to create and embed videos and pictures within Google Maps. The peer review also helped out a lot. It opened my eyes to see that I wasn’t being as descriptive about the surroundings and people as I needed to be. It’s so easy to miss details like that when you were at the show (so clearly you have a good visual image, but those who weren’t there don’t). This was especially true for the crowd reaction because the pictures give a good image of what the artists and lights were like, but each venue was dark in the crowd so it was near impossible to get even a “decent” photo (let alone one that could clearly show the types of people in the crowd).
That all being said, I hope that you will ultimately see that Denver has one of the most diverse and best music scenes in the nation.
The second essay I did in class 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. I use more open-ended responses to help form the best and non-biased questions possible (i.e., “Please describe the typical listener of “X” genre) similar to that of the McDonald, et al. study.
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, such as the example question listed above. I’m not sure on exactly what I expect to come out of this research because of the large diversity of where people come from attending this University. However, like all stereotypes go, I do expect some agreements and disagreements on different genres among participants (but again, I’m not exactly sure what stereotypes will come of which genres).
I chose this topic specifically because I love music. Without music then I feel like my life would be much more boring. Nearly everything I do involves music. Working in the library, doing homework, goofing around on the internet, the list goes on and on. 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.
Matt Kase, Introductory Essay draft
Each of the assignments below used a different method not only in gathering data, but also in how that data was presented through my writing. I do not necessarily notice any chronological progression of my writing skills between the essays, however the range of topics and processes provided an opportunity for me to diversify my writing.
Text Based Paper
My text based paper focused on the evolving field of cognitive rehabilitation, specifically in conjunction with music or sound. Most of the information within the essay came from studies done by Michael Thaut, a professor of music therapy at Colorado State University. CSU has one of the largest and most successful musical cognitive rehabilitation graduate research programs in the nation. While most of my essay was spent explaining exactly what music therapy is and how music can affect the brain, much of the content was directed towards the value of continuing research in the field at CSU. Here lies the problematic aspect to this assignment. I wanted to explain how cognitive rehabilitation works, but that explanation was cutting into the amount of time I could spend talking about how Colorado, and America in general, should perceive music therapy. However, without the explanation of what music therapy is, its validity or impracticality as an alternative medicinal practice would be impossible to get across. While revising, I will attempt to find an even balance between explanation and argument.
Qualitative Research Paper
I hold a strong belief that popular music reflects the culture of a generation. After coming to Colorado from Illinois, I discovered an extremely popular genre that had yet to catch on so heavily in the Midwest. Dubstep is a form of electronic music in which a low frequency oscillator, or “wobble,” is used to create a grimy sound laid over a thick and highly syncopated beat. The sound is interesting, but I do not understand why it has gained such enormous popularity, particularly among college students my age. My study aims to explain what drives the Dubstep trend and tries to frame the genre’s success in terms of cultural and musical concepts. I interviewed several students at the University of Denver with one questionnaire designed to inquire about each of their personal beliefs and perceptions regarding both music in general and Dubstep.
Google Maps Paper
In hopes of incorporating some of the information I found while conducting interviews for the qualitative research paper, my Google Maps project revolved around the popular music culture and concert scene in Denver. I, along with the other three members in my group, visited seven concerts in the Denver area. With monetary restrictions in mind, our choices of concerts mainly reflected the underground or local aspect of Denver music. The writing style I incorporated into my description of Cervantes’ Cinco de Mayhem celebration is very different from the approaches I took with my first two essays. As a reporter on the location, I felt obligated to incorporate colloquialisms and slight humor. Although this may have detracted from the seriousness of my reporting, it was almost impossible to explain the public sex occurring at the show without a humorous touch. In the end, I believe that my cheeky descriptions made for a better piece of writing.
Fredrickson_ Portfolio_Introduction_Draft
Our project maps the locations of various important areas related to marijuana culture in Denver. This includes restaurants, medical marijuana dispensaries, convention locations related to marijuana, as well as companies that develop and sell technologies related to marijuana. By doing so, it was our intention to map marijuana culture in Denver and by doing so, to show how engrained marijuana culture is in Denver. With no particular concentration of locations on the map, at least none the could be attributed to anything more than us being located at the University of Denver, we showed how expansive marijuana culture has become. Our aim was simply to provide information to those interested in this topic by mapping everything we could that was related not only to marijuana culture, but the medical marijuana movement in Denver and by doing so to show the locations where one might go if they were interested in learning more about the culture. Marijuana has become something much more than just a drug grown in people's garages under black lights and used by hippies. These days, marijuana has turned into what most would call a legitimate business venture.
In order to gather all of this information, we visited locations as well as researched legal interactions between those who are for and against medical marijuana in Denver. At each location we described whatever was there, and for the locations that we visited personally, we described the atmosphere of said location as well as any social interactions we had there.
This project is relevant to all those whom are interested or concerned about marijuana culture in Denver, and was chosen because of its large influence on the culture in our area.
This project improved my writing because I haven't done anything quite like it. Using Google maps as well as photos and videos forced me to write less academically and focus more on descriptive writing as a tried to paint a picture of the atmosphere of each area we visited.
Alexander Fredrickson
Dear reader,
In this essay, I focused on the not only positive, but necessary effects of capital punishment in Denver. I gathered my research by using the academic search engines provided by the Penrose library. The paper centered around three points: capital punishment keeps us safe, saves us money when we need it most, and will be easy to see the longevity of in Denver as it is human nature to resist change and capital punishment is engrained in the history of the city of Denver. In this paper, I also tried to explain all of the most common views of those whom oppose capital punishment and why and afterwords refute them.
This project is relevant to everyone who cares about the economy and safety of the city of Denver, as well as for those interested in capital punishment policy as a whole. As the economy of Denver effects both the state and national economy, you could even go so far as to say anyone whom is concerned with the well-being of the United States in general.
This paper improved my writing by improving my research skills. It was a learning experience for me as I was forced away from the “.com” and into more scholarly articles and websites.
Alexander Fredrickson
Dear Reader,
In this essay I intend to explore the issue of racial diversity here at the University of Denver. It is my intention to discern the majority opinion on how DU is dealing with diversity both in and out of the classroom. I intend to have this paper read by both DU students and hopefully the University of Denver administration and CME (Center for Multicultural Excellence) in the hopes that they will use this information to better deal with racial diversity here at the University of Denver. It is my opinion that the University administration is doing a terrible job dealing with diversity at the University of Denver. It is abhorrent that “…of the class of 2008, 70.0% are White, 1.8% are Black, 6.8% are Hispanic, 5.2% are Asian or Pacific Islander, 1.7% are American Indian, 5.3% are international, and 9.1% are race/ethnicity unknown(du.edu).” (This is the last statistic provided)The complete lack of diversity at the University of Denver is taking away an important aspect of our education which consequently makes us less ready for the post-college work environment. This topic is very important to me and should be to any student at the University of Denver as the diversity of our campus and classrooms effect our overall education. After admittedly trying experiences with diversity here at DU in both the classroom and in everyday life, I understand that the successful implementation of diversity at this University is difficult. However, it is of my opinion that diversity is necessary for a well-rounded education and its pros greatly outweigh the cons.
I will go about researching this topic by doing a series of 10 interviews with DU students who are living on campus.
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.
This paper improved my writing by forcing me to learn how to effectively do my own research by using interviews. I also learned what was necessary in order to use said interviews in my papers (referring of course to IRB).
-Alexander Fredrickson
Benedetti, Portfolio Introduction Draft
For the first assignment, the text-based research paper, I chose to focus on a topic that interests me: sex trafficking in the city and surrounding areas of Denver. The purpose of this assignment was to create a research question to write about and to discuss both sides of the argument and eventually come up with a clearly-stated argument. I used various research instruments including the online library sources and magazine articles to come up with my information. Since I feel very strongly about this topic, it was fairly easy to come up with a clear and well-organized argument. This helped me learn how to use texts for research, like books, websites and other texts. With so many forms of information it is rather difficult to find and gather relevant information about a certain topic, so this assignment was very helpful in that sense.
The second paper we were assigned was the hardest for me out of all three. The qualitative research paper was designed to gather qualitative research around the DU campus in order to answer a question that interests us. Instruments such as surveys, interviews and people-watching were all options for us. For this assignment I chose to answer the question "Is there a direct correlation between a students happiness with DU and their amount of school spirit?" Simply, is a happier student more inclined to sport DU attire than a student who is less content with the school? In order to answer this question, I primarily used people-watching to come up with a percentage of people who were wearing DU attire. After this, I asked random students to be honest in answering how content they were with the school, and if there is anything they would change. This was definitely the hardest and most time-consuming assignment out of them all, but all of the information that was collected provided a strong research argument.
The third project, Mapping the Local, was my favorite project out of the three. Since it was a group project, it was easy to divide up all the work and put it together in the end, instead of having to do everything individually. Our group decided to create a Google Map, illustrating some of our favorite restaurants around Denver. Our basic question was "What makes restaurants popular?" We went to a variety of different restaurants of all kinds of cuisines and gathered information about the atmosphere, the food, the decor and the happiness of the customers. We conducted interviews at each restaurant and asked why they enjoyed (or did not enjoy) the restaurant. In the end, we compiled all of our information and made a map which included reviews, interviews and photos. It was fun working with a group. I find group projects much easier than individual assignments.
All of the in-class work and process notes definitely helped me to better organize my writing and focus on my weaknesses as a writer. Process notes allowed me to carefully articulate all aspects of my writing and allowed me to notice flaws that I would not have noticed otherwise. The in-class revisions were also particularly helpful because peers tend to have a different take on a certain paper, and their insight is almost always constructive. A great weakness that I have as a writer is being able to organize my thoughts into concise paragraphs to create an argument. This has always been a burden on my writing abilities and I am very glad I got to improve this through the Writing 1133 course.
Westin_Underberger
Dear Reader,
This project was all about using proper text-based research to create and construct a paper. Through using actual text, the paper becomes backed up by concrete facts, and solid sources to site the paper with. The specific topic to this research paper was focused on the legalization of marijuana and how this was a bad thing for the state and its residents.
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
Dear Reader,
The emphasis of this project was to highlight some of the top outdoor trails in Colorado that can be used for hiking, biking, and camping. At the start of the project, our group narrowed it down to a total of nine trails that depicted the ideal hiking or biking experience. Due to the fact that Colorado is a state mainly known for its outdoor activities, this made narrowing down the trails a bit difficult. In fact, Colorado has over 1000 miles of trails alone, including some that have been said to be among the likes of the world’s seven natural wonders. The ones that made the final cut are due to the amazing views, and natural beauty of the trails. None of the final trails are shown the map just because it is rated as a difficult trail. This guide is mainly for those who enjoy hiking and the outdoor world, but is not limited to anyone without previous knowledge of hiking or the outdoor world. While creating the project, the group was open to many suggestions and ideas. Some trails, which were extremely far in distance from the University of Denver were excluded due to the fact that mainly students at DU will see this map. Another revision due to comments from others is the mention of many popular trails that DU students hike and tend to enjoy. However most of the trails shown are accessible to DU students through the use of private or public transportation. Therefore, the trails are a direct reflection of our groups favorite places in Colorado.
Overall this project encompasses many trails and areas that any nature enthusiast will enjoy. The scenes of sheer beauty are eye-opening to many, and makes one truly appreciate the natural world for which they live in. I hope you enjoy.
Sincerely,
Westin Underberger