- What parts of the book’s advice on the above bulleted topics are helpful for writing in this genre?
I found most of the book's advice on how to write a paper very helpful, especially its recommendations on creating effective thesis statements. For me, what stuck out the most when it came to writing a thesis was asking yourself a question that was worth being answered. If you aren't able to think of an interesting question and develop a meaningful answer yourself, is there truly a point in writing it? Although not all QRGs utilize a thesis statement, keeping these ideas in mind when writing will help to direct your paper. Another piece of advice that I found useful was utilizing signal words to connect topics to each other. By continually connecting ideas to one another, you are staying in tune with your paper and are avoiding going off on tangents. This is especially effective when trying to display large amounts of information to an audience.
What parts of the book’s advice on these topics might not be so helpful, considering the genre you’re writing in?
- What parts of the book’s advice on these topics might not be so helpful, considering the genre you’re writing in?
The book had great advice on effective ways to write a standard essay, however, some of these methods are not practical when writing a QRG. I personally found the book's advice on writing paragraphs in the form of PIEIEIE to be unhelpful. Using this format often creates long, in-depth paragraphs, and in a QRG we want to avoid having walls of text everywhere. However, utilizing the simple form of Point-Illustrate-Explain is a great way to ensure that you are staying on track in your paragraphs and that they are sensible.
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| Wightman, Chris. "all's well that inks well". April 11, 2008 via flickr. Attribution 2.0 Generic License |
Reflection:
Reading through Chloe's blog post, I found there was a heavy emphasis on how important it is to have a strong thesis statement. We both agreed that the book was helpful with the advice of asking yourself if your thesis is interesting and if it answers an important question as you formulate it. Although Casey and I disagreed on the usefulness of PIE in a QRG, we both found that most of the book's advice was very helpful when pertaining to writing our own QRGs. Looking through my own QRG, I found there were three things that could use some work:
1) Giving my introduction a better sense of direction
2) Better presentations of the two sides involved in my debate
3) A conclusion that closes off the QRG
Reading through Chloe's blog post, I found there was a heavy emphasis on how important it is to have a strong thesis statement. We both agreed that the book was helpful with the advice of asking yourself if your thesis is interesting and if it answers an important question as you formulate it. Although Casey and I disagreed on the usefulness of PIE in a QRG, we both found that most of the book's advice was very helpful when pertaining to writing our own QRGs. Looking through my own QRG, I found there were three things that could use some work:
1) Giving my introduction a better sense of direction
2) Better presentations of the two sides involved in my debate
3) A conclusion that closes off the QRG
After reading through your post, I realized that you picked up on some stuff that I hadn't noticed, like the question of whether a thesis is worth reading or not, so I found that really insightful. In regards to what you found unhelpful, I did't think the portion on PIEIEIE was very helpful for the QRG genre either. It's just too dense for a genre that is meant to be read quickly.
ReplyDeleteHey Chelsea! I also really liked your point about an insightful thesis. That didn't jump out at me at first, but I'm glad it did to you, because now I can be more aware of it. I also thought the book was helpful in the advise of linking points together. Just because they are all separate points, doesn't mean they shouldn't be linked or have flow. Good post!
ReplyDeleteI think that the thesis statement does have some purpose in the QRG now that I am reading this. The use of signal words also is extremely helpful when writing and I think that it is one of the most misused ways of writing. The PIE format I thought was helpful in organizing the paragraphs because there should be some form of evaluating of the sources in the QRG.
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