Chapter Six of Envision and Movies

This book several times has interested me in many ways. As I was reading the first paragraph I thought to myself this sounds very familiar. The name River and she fighting Reavers sounded so familiar. So I re-read the paragraph and come to find out the author was talking about the movie Serenity. I freaked out. I have actually seen the film, and is one of my favorite movies. The book then went on talking about how film makers must be very organized and how that they can rearrange a film to make it flow better, and also saying that you can do this with your papers. This got me even more interested because I would like to be a film maker. As the book went on, it got to a point when the authors were then talking about Avatar. This is another one of my most favorite movies. This furthered peaked my interest in reading more within this book. The authors talked about how the trailer was loosely but also suggest an outline of what will happen. I really liked reading this part of the book, because of how it compared writing to film making. I felt I could really relate with what the authors where trying to say.

FaceBook, Twitter, YouTube, Comic Strip, and Live Performance! But no Plays?

Chapter seven of Envision explained how to properly document sources in order to avoid plagiarism, whether intentional or not. It began with discussing why it is important to give credit where credit is due. One of the parts I found most interesting was when it talked about how, in ancient times, students would copy a speech word by word before they analyzed it. This was in order to further study the organization, rhythm, and other such factors of the writing. This is what helped them become better writers themselves and help the world of literature evolve. The other section I found particularly helpful was the section about avoiding unintentional plagiarism. This, I feel like, is probably the number one issue that student have. Ho do we know if we are plagiarizing? The two practices they gave to help are to “Always keep in mind that you are contributing to a conversation with other writers” and to “Develop effective ways of note taking while reading through your sources.” The first put into perspective how thinking of writing as either responding to another’s works or quoting them in order to include them in the dialogue. The second gave me the idea of, when copying a quite, taking note of how I might use that quote. The section of the chapter that I found myself a little frustrated with was when it went through almost every single way to document almost every single type of source out there… except for how to document lines from a play. It even had visual sources and facebook and twitter. But, because I am writing a textual analysis of a play for a different class right now, I referred to the book for help on how to cite lines from a play, but there was nothing to help me. Although, it did go into deep detail that will probably help me on different projects. But I was a little disappointed.

Envision Chapter 7

As I read through this chapter I found it very interesting. I viewed documenting sources differently from what the book described. I thought that originally this chapter would just talk about what you should and should not do while document sources. On the third, or so, page of this book I found it interesting how the author talked about how you are contributing to a conversation with other writers. I just thought that when writing research papers you only cited sources because you give credit to the authors of the sources. I never considered the possibility of me actually contributing to a group conversation.

I also found it interesting when I read the paragraph discussing how using citations helps guide the readers. Meaning, the work(s) cited page allows the reader of your papers to look back on to the sources that you found. It is almost like a treasure map for the readers of your paper to find your sources.

Taking notes is also very important. If trying to avoid unintentional plagiarism taking good, clear notes helps to avoid this. Through good note taking, you can see where you found certain information. I think the story about the writer who worked a paper for years got accused of plagiarism. Over the years to researching she forgot where certain information came from. She said it was her fault and promised that she would try not to do it again.

I think I see a clearer understanding of why we, as writers, need to know why work(s) cited pages are needed.

My close encounter with plagiarism

Chapter seven of Envision talks about plagiarism and how to avoid plagiarizing. This whole chapter reminded me of a funny thing that happened to me my second year of high school. I was in tenth grade English and was doing great I had an A and everything seemed really simple. All we had done in the course was book based so far. I was good at reading and retaining what I had been reading in the class. Toward the end of the course there was a twist though, a lengthy research paper that would soon throw my grade why off. The paper was due just a week before school ended and I had it done on time and in what I though was the correct format, but I guess I was wrong.

On the last day of school we got our papers back from our teacher, but something was wrong with mine. It had a big fat red F written on the front so I went to the front of the room and confronted my teacher. He said he believe I had plagiarized, but he also said it looked like an accident. With just a couple minutes left in the last class of my sophomore year my teacher told me I could fix the citation mistake I had made on the paper. I asked him what my grade was without the paper and e told me it was a B+. So I thought about it for a while and answered as snarky as I could no I’m fine with my grade, and to top it all off on my way out of class I triumphantly threw my F of a research paper in the trash. By now though I have learned my lesson that citation is important and needs to be done correctly the first time.

Remember That Time I Already Learned This?

I do. Chapter seven of Envision covered avoiding plagiarism and documenting sources. At this point, I'd like to mention the huge appreciation I have for my high school honors English teacher, Mr. Jones. Because of his advanced instruction, I feel like the smartest kid in my college English class.

I learned all this plagiarizing and documenting nonsense my freshman year of high school. Give properly formatted credit where credit is due. Simple enough. So, did I read the chapter of Envision? Hell, no. I skimmed it. I read through the headings and didn't come upon anything new. Mr. Jones had the kids of my class doing lengthy research papers in proper MLA format all four years of school. He was so precise in grading that points were taken off if the margins were slightly off. He would constantly stress how difficult college English courses are and how the class needs to be prepared for them. He had some good jokes, but that was probably his greatest. I was fairly intimidated.

Now I'm in that "difficult" class, and I laugh at the thought of it. I suppose that's what Mr. Jones's was going for. Thanks, man.

Chapter 6 Envision

In this chapter it discusses the organization and writing of research arguments. It starts out by giving different ways to organize a visual draft. An example is a bubble web where you arrange your ideas using shapes into categories. Another is a graphic flowchart where you list ideas and connect them with lines showing the relationships. These different ways to organize your ideas will help with the next step which is a written outline. In the outline it is helpful to use subheads which are labeled headings for each section of your outline. These can help the structure of ideas to also help the development of the argument. This leads into the argumentative subheads that help specify the argument in each point made. The chapter then helped with enhancing the flow of the argument with transitions which are phrases that help deliver connections between the paragraphs of the paper.

Chapter 6 also explained how to use sources correctly. It described how it can be hard to know what you want to say but not being able to use the sources you chose to explain your argument. Selecting summary is a way to summarize a text in your own words to get a point across. Another way to use a source is using direct quotations. It described that direct quoting should only be included to accomplish a rhetorical purpose. The last thing that is needed to do to a paper is to revise the paper or use the prewriting checklist. The overall purpose of this chapter is to acquire strategies for visual mapping, organizing, outlining, drafting, and revising a research paper. I have learned many techniques to use on my next research paper.

Writing an effective outline

Chapter six of Envision talks about Organizing and writing your research arguments. One of the beginning steps of writing a research argument paper is to make an outline. One thing that stood out to me in this chapter is the way that Envision decided to describe how to write an effective outline.

Its first states that an outline is important for a longer and more complex paper. It helps you figure out how to organize and place your main points you are trying to prove. It then goes on to compare an outline to a movie, Avatar. Personally I though Avatar was an okay movie, but the book uses the trailer to show how an outline is like a movie trailer. A movie trailer shows key scenes, the main conflict, the crucial characters, and the main message. Whereas an outline contains the main points, the topic area, the crucial evidence, and the thesis to your argument.

Envision goes on to show how the filmmakers use the trailer to get people to want to see the details of the outline, which is like wanting to see the rest of a paper. It shows that a good outline makes a good paper and a bad outline can make a bad paper.

This is important to me because I always use outlines for projects and activities. In debate I always try to outline the round the way I want it to go before we even start. It is important way to become prepared for many school related activities.