Unit 3 Ideas

As I mentioned earlier, I have been considering two routes for an argumentative essay on Memory and Forgetting: (1) An ambitious argument regarding gender and (2) exploring the differences between our ability to recognize faces better than our ability to recall names. Both are seemingly interesting and have a good deal of potential in my opinion.

As we both agreed before, attempting to argue that there is a dominance amongst one gender over the other is pretty much out of the question. Though on the contrary, I feel I could argue that there are differences between the genders when it comes to memory and forgetting. However, I'm not sure I would be able to form a strong argument as I would think finding information on the side of equality would pose a difficult obstacle.

So, more and more I guess you could say I am leaning towards an argument centered around facial recognition and name recall. I believe I will be able to find information to back up an argument and though I still think it would be difficult to find information strongly arguing that name recall is a more prominent, I believe I will be able to find cases where this is true for certain people.

I suppose once I am more aware of the assignment details for this unit 3 paper I will be able to more a more educated decision. However, for the time being, I am leaning towards an argument regarding facial recognition and name recall.

Website Revisions

I have just finished making my final website revisions. After almost two hours, I think I have finally achieved all that I wished I would be able to. 

My first feat was to fix the "small text" issue. To do this, I adjusted the type of text boxes I incorporated. When I first made my site I was unaware I could incorporate scroll bars. However, after seeing other people's sites with scroll bars and some messing around on my site editor, I figured out how to do so. By changing all the text boxes to those with a scroll bar, I was able to increase the size of the text drastically. Further still, I figured out how to publish my site without it shrinking and compressing it down. Together, these two changes comprised my greatest revision.

Additionally, I decided to split up my primary research presentation. I'm not sure why this though never occurred to me until you mentioned it Torii, though I thank you for the thought. I split up my analysis, and now my presentation has been split up to match. Though I did separate some of it out, I did so in a way other than you suggested. You mentioned dividing my results by class, though I feel it is necessary to be able to compare them side-by-side and not moved to a completely separate page. Therefore, I chose instead to match the division I had created in my analysis. I separated the survey which contained basic information regarding memory from the activities which revolved more around gender. 

Along with this split came a few more changes. I added a direct link to my survey so as to provide site viewers with an opportunity to see the survey itself, not just the results I gathered. Unfortunately, added the activities in the same way presented a much greater challenge. So I instead chose to simply incorporate a description of what each consisted of. Though it is not as desired, I feel it is the best I could do. 

Last but not least, I was able to incorporate a link to the NPR audio clip that I included previously without a link. This definitely adds to the "user-friendly" aspect I think is necessary in website design. 

Overall, I am fully satisfied with my revisions and I hope you enjoy viewing it over spring break!

Website and Presentation Reflection

Yesterday, March 14th, I presented my website. Though I never feel 100% confident in any presentation, as I tend to be a shy person who gets nervous easily, I feel my presentation went well. For the most part, I think my only real negatives were due to the "problems" I had with my website and not my actual presentation. I am planning on going back in to work those problems out. I agree with you, Torii, that it would probably be more clear and user friendly to add more pages and 'cram' less onto one. And obviously,  I need to adjust the text so it is easier to read. Maybe with enough messing around I'll be able to adjust the pages so they don't all consist of the same format. For the time being, these things will be my focus. All in all, I am happy with the way things went.

Project Update

So I realize that it's been quite some time since I have posted to my blog so today's will be extra long and extensive. I have been keep busy with the creation of my website. Today is Monday, March 14th and I am the first to present in class. Though I don't feel my website is perfect, I think it is the best I can make it. I am a little disappointed that when I published the site it wasn't clearer than it is. I hope that people don't find it too much of strain on their eyes as I am presenting, though oh well, there is not much I can do about it now.

Yesterday I finished my rhetorical analysis. It is always interesting to explore why we make the decisions we make as it seems we often make them without seeming to put much thought behind them. Definitely though, writing these analysis pieces is becoming easier every time. I think I have somewhat of an advantage over other people considering I had you as a professor last semester and am used to the way in which we tend to go about things.

As for the next unit, I have done a little bit of thinking about where I can take the topic of memory and forgetting in an argumentative essay. My primary research from this unit has prompted me with two directions I am considering exploring. The first is to explore how gender affects one's ability to remember. I have already found and gathered myself some interesting information, though I am not sure what exactly I would argue. Saying that one gender is better than the other isn't really my style as I like to remain neutral and equal. My second option is to explore why people have a higher tendency to remember faces over names. I think I would be able to find information to support and argument regarding these occurances. Either way, I think I will have something interesting to work with. I suppose now is the time to continue/begin research in these two areas to obtain a better understanding of which route I wish to pursue for unit three.

Primary Research Proposal

As we continue to work on gathering and expanding an understanding on our research topics, we will be conducting primary research. There are a number of different possibilities for performing this research, two of which I am choosing to carry out throughout the next few weeks. My primary method of collecting data will be through conducting surveys. I hope to further supplement my data collection through the use of two fairly simple memory activities.

My reasons for choosing these methods over that of an interview is that (1) the most common and likely useful means for collecting data related to memory and forgetting evolve from experimental studies which are more closely related to surveys and ‘activities’ rather than interviews, and (2) I haven’t the slightest idea who to interview. Though I’m not quite sure how I will develop any side for an argumentative paper (unit 3), I feel I will get some very interesting and useful data from my proposed primary research methods.

The current plan is two administer two surveys to the students in my English 102 class. The first of which will ask basic memory questions related to ordinary forgetting. With the data collected, I hope to be able to produce visual representations of the kinds of things we forget on a daily basis and how often we experience ordinary forgetting of various tasks. I then plan to administer a second survey roughly a week after the first. This survey will also ask similar types of questions as experienced on survey number one, however it will also ask questions relating back to the first survey. Therefore, I am able to test student’s abilities to remember while continuing to gather basic memory and forgetting relating data.

Of course, the student’s will not be forewarned that the second survey will have information pertaining to the first. Hopefully, this will serve as a true test of remembering/forgetting information seemingly irrelevant to their everyday lives and provide an interesting data collection to work with.

One of the questions on the second survey asks the student’s how similar they think their survey results would be if they were given the first survey a second time. Therefore, I am hoping to choose a select few (maybe ¼ of the class or so) to repeat the first survey while the rest of the class takes the second survey. What I am hoping to achieve in doing this is gathering evidence to compare how students feel they would do in repeating the survey to how they actually do when repeating the survey. I think this could provide yet another interesting bit of information to work with.  

As far as supplementing this data with that of memory activities, I have two planned (one with each survey). These two activities will test the attention of the participants: one pertaining to spatial awareness, the other to attention to detail and change in the surrounding environment. Interestingly enough, males are said to typically score better at one, while females are said to typically score better at the other. The reasons behind these advantages are believed to lie in hormonal levels, specifically testosterone and oestrogen. However, I scored better on the one that males are said to typically score higher on. I think it will be interesting to see how the results of the class compare to that which is said to typically happen.

Overall, I feel that through the administration of these two surveys and two memory activities I will gather plenty of interesting data to work with and analyze. Much more than I feel I could ever obtain through an interview.

RR - Ballenger: Interviews

Why include primary research in your paper?

Although ordinary (secondary) research may seem to be going well, when it comes time to use it it may begin to feel dull. However, incorporating primary research from that of an interview (or other areas of interest) can add life to your piece.  "Ultimately, what makes almost any topic compelling is discovering why it matters to people."

Interviews

Finding Experts:

Don't hesitate. The majority of people love the attention of an interview.

How do you find them?

- Check the phone book

- Ask other people you know

- Check the faculty directory

- Check the Internet

Find Nonexperts Affected by Your Topic

Making Contact:

Consider the type of interview you wish to have before contacting your source.

• Observing the gestures made throughout the interview can be beneficial and revealing
• Interview people who can provide you with what you want to know
• Know the purpose of your interview
• Use both specific and open-ended questions
• Realize interviews are CONVERSATIONS not surveys
• Take notes throughout the interview - by hand, recorder, video, etc.

E-Mail Interviews

These are spontaneous in nature.

Use the Internet to hunt down experts on your topic.

Proceed cautiously and curiously.

Project Update #2

Today we finished our peer review discussions. I feel that my feedback was somewhat helpful as it is always useful to obtain multiple "outsider" opinions on your work. However, over the past few days, I have been working on revising my own work. Therefore, the feedback I received today was on an older draft than the one I have most recently completed. Because of this, I think it will be a little more difficult to incorporate my peers' responses though they, of course, still provide good ideas for consideration as I continue to work and complete my paper. 

Though we discussed in class our feedback, I have yet to look at the actual copies of my paper that were returned to me. I think this, along with a little more of my own revision will fulfill the completion of my paper (considering I have already spent a couple days working on improving my original draft). On top of wrapping up my paper, I must also create my works cited and write my revision statement and any other required unit one inclusions. However, overall I fell I have plenty of time before next Wednesday to successfully complete unit one.