Evaluation of Rhetorical Sources

In this post I will be examining and discussing three rhetorical sources in order to answer some of hte research questions I posed in my previous blog post.

To access my three sources and analysis of them, please click here.

Proembinski, Kamil. "Silhouette of a man reading by the ocean." FreeStockPhotos. Creative Commons License.

EDIT:

For the reflection portion of this I read Casey and Sam's blogs. Casey did a great job of doing research on the author of each article which I think is pretty important in order to deem whether or not an article is credible. Sam did a great job of finding different sources and summarizing them. For my own I think I did a pretty okay job with analyzing and summarizing each article but I would maybe do a little more research on the author and context.

Developing a Research Question

In this post I will be exploring some more research questions in conjunction with Project 1.

A new topic that I would like to examine is the debate between printed books and e-books or even some audiobooks. Personally, I hate anything that isn't actually a book or in print but I would be interested to see what others have to say.

Here are a couple questions I came up with:

1) Is there an environmental advantage to purchasing e-books instead of printed books? I think it would be interesting to see the data on how many books are printed per year and how many trees that costs us. Also, how many trees do we save by purchasing e-books?

2) Environmental issues aside, which do people actually prefer? I know some people like to read on their tablet instead of carrying around a book. Why is that?

3) How has the book industry catered to the needs of the modern consumer? With the introduction of the kindle and Amazon audibles there are a multitude of companies that are trying to steer away from the printed book.

Raysonho. "An audiobook collection in a library." 9/02/15 via Wikipedia. Creative Commons license.

Reflection on Project 1

In this post I will be examining some of the challenges I faced while completing Project 1. 

What challenges did you face during the Quick Reference Guide project and how did you deal with them?

The biggest challenge I faced was summarizing some of the research and also finding specific articles. I had an idea in my head ahead of time of what sources I wanted to use and how to present my QRG but I first had to find those sources. Once I found them I had to narrow down on what quote to use and how to summarize the overall idea of the article.

What successes did you experience on the project and how did they happen?

I found it surprisingly easy to format my QRG. A lot of my ideas flowed together naturally and when I was writing I didn't have to go back as much to reword something or move around a quote. I think that's because when I was researching my sources I sort of planned how I would use them.

What kinds of arguments, rhetorical strategies, design choices and writing practices did you find the most effective for your project? Why?

I am a heavy planner so researching my sources and writing my annotated bibliography helped give me a general sense of how to plan and write my QRG.

What kinds of arguments, rhetorical strategies, design choices and writing practices did you find were not effective for your project? Why?

I needed to work on presenting an argument without seeming biased or inserting  my own personal opinion. I also didn't find some of the grammar exercises extremely useful because they were 1) pretty boring and 2) I had written my QRG in such a way that my revision was mostly rewording a couple sentences and reorganizing paragraphs and not so much the nitty-gritty details of making sure the subject and verb makes sense.

How was the writing process for this project similar to other school writing experiences you’ve had in the past?

In my AP Government class last year we kept a blog exactly like we're doing now. I also took journalism in high school so the QRG was also a lot like writing journalism articles so it came very naturally to me. I've also written an Annotated Bibliography before.

How was the writing process for this project different from other school writing experiences you’ve had in the past?

This was different because I had to use a multitude of sources including graphs, social media, images and text in order to support some of my arguments.

Would any of the skills you practiced for this project be useful in your other coursework? Why or why not?

I've learned to analyze the credibility of the author because some sources can be very unreliable as demonstrated in the exercises and blog posts we've done. Also I've found that knowing how to properly cite an image is extremely useful.

Kaufmann, Bert. "Autumn trees in Dresden." 10/14/08 via Wikipedia. Creative Commons License.

EDIT:

I read both Victoria's and Casey's reflections on their QRGs. I like how Victoria brought up that it taught her how to convey information faster and in a more understandable way. I now realize that is something else I have learned. I am glad I chose a topic that is somewhat easy to understand and the source material is not too hard. Casey sounded like he had a hard time understanding some of the material which made difficult to write.

Project 1

Click here to access my Project 1!

Chakravarthy, Kaylan. "Freedom...!" 6/27/10 via Flickr. Creative Commons License.

Clarity, Part 2

In this post I will be examining the convention presented in the Clarity section of the Rules for Writers.

Parallel Ideas: This is a great way to be more clearer in your sentences. Parallel ideas help you make it where the idea is very obviously laid out so that it is easy to understand and can help reinforce the overall idea. I learned that the key to this is balance in order to create the most efficient parallel idea.

 Untangle mixed constructions: Sometimes when people write their words or ideas come out very jumbled and thus their sentence is difficult to understand. This was helpful in pinpointing a specific part of the sentence in order to make it more concise and thereby making the sentence easier to comprehend.

ie. Supporters of the Creative Writing MFA believe that it is beneficial in cultivating writing skills and for joining a community of passionate artists, but it is not necessary.

Emphasize key ideas: Sometimes sentences lose the focus of their focus aka the subject. This section helped reinforce the idea that the main goal of each sentence is to provide support for the overarching idea. I learned that coordination between sentences and ideas is the key to success.

Choose appropriate language: As the saying goes, "there's a time and place for everything" and this is especially true for this section. Since the QRG's are meant for the general public it's important to keep them as easy to read and understand as possible. Using complicated terms related to the controversy are okay as long as they are defined, or otherwise use a more comprehensible word.

ie. The purpose of the Creative Writing MFA (Master of Fine Arts) is to provide a safe space for passionate writers to share their thoughts and ideas and hone in their writing skills.

Before I didn't define what exactly an MFA is and so I decoded the initials and gave a brief description.

EDIT:
Going back and making changes in conjunction with the topics I wrote about was helpful in ironing out the ideas I wanted to present and how I wanted to present them. A lot of my sentences can be written in order to be more coherent and making my overarching idea stronger.

Hakoten. "Examples sentence to describe traces in linguistics." 03/14/13 via Wikipedia. Creative Commons License.

Identifying Basic Grammar Patterns

In this post I will be talking about the grammar exercise I completed in conjunction with my longest paragraph from my quick reference guide. I found this exercise somewhat difficult because grammar rules are hard for me to grasp and it always somewhat boring. However, it did refresh my memory on the proper sentence rules, especially compound sentences and adverbs. The link to my longest paragraph can be found by clicking here.

Gattegno, Caleb. "Gattegno's original sound-color chart for English. This type of chart is used right from the beginning stages to teach pronunciation and word stress." 12/31/76 via Wikipedia. Public Domain License.

Paragraph Analysis

I am writing this post based on the exercise I just completed, where I wrote comments for each of my paragraphs in my Quick Reference Guide. This exercise was especially helpful in aiding me in narrowing down the sections that needed the most work. I realized in my support section there was seriously lacking some analysis and support. I would say my critics side is pretty strong. I think I can add another section about the different MFA programs offered and more detail about the courses and purpose. Now when I go back to my final draft I have a clearer picture of what I want to change and edit based off of not only my peers' comments but this exercise as well.

You can access my paragraph analysis exercise with this link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/157vEEO2mMar3hXC5x9lVtVRYVaGLzZHXpsBnv69hfaw/edit?usp=sharing

BK. "Arial." 02/26/05 via Wikipedia. Public Domain License.

Reflection on Project 1 Draft

In this post I will be reflecting on the drafts I have read for the Quick Reference Guide project as well as my own draft. The two QRG's I read were by Alex and Isaac. Alex focused his QRG on the controversy of euthanasia, and Isaac concentrated on concussions in the NFL.

Audience

Who, specifically is going to be reading this essay? Who am I trying to reach with my argument?
Since I am writing my quick reference guide for the purpose of my English class, the main audience that is going to be reading this is my peers. I am trying to make the information available for them from both sides in order for them to decide which they most believe in.

What are their values and expectations? Am I adequately meeting those expectations?
I think my peers expect me to have put a considerable amount of effort and time into my quick reference guide. They want to be able to understand all the material and then draw their own opinion from that without  having to look anywhere else. I believe I am doing a fine job so far of representing both sides equally with as much information as possible.

How much information do I need to give to my audience? How much background information or context should I provide for them without insulting their expertise?
I think most people are really unaware of the Creative Writing MFA so I do have to explain a lot in order to make sense. Most of the details I provide are pretty relevant to the argument. There needs to be enough background information in order to truly grasp the argument of which side is saying.

What kind of language is suitable for this audience?
While the language is supposed to be professional and polished, it is not supposed to be academic writing. Rather, it is more journalism writing than anything. Quick, concise sentences with as much detail as possible in all of them without being too confusing.

What tone should I use with my audience? Do I Use this tone consistently throughout my draft?
I adopt a neutral tone in my quick reference guide because I am not supporting one argument more than the other. Thus, I choose to write in third person instead of first person because it is a lot easier to sound impartial that way.

Context

What are the formatting requirements of the assignment? Do I meet them?
The formatting requirements are making important decisions about the font, titles, margins, images and visuals because that is what will draw your reader in. I tried to make my QRG very polished with a minimalistic design because that is the easiest to read without being too boring. Use of color and images are very important. I think I have done a good job of accomplishing this.

What are the content requirements for the assignment? Do I meet them?
You must cover the entire controversy. So in mine I made sure to cover both sides of the argument with equal amounts of evidence. After reading my peers comments I think I could divide them into more subtopics to make it even clearer.  Obviously some people's will be shorter or longer depending on the amount of information they have to share.

Does my draft reflect knowledge or skills gained in class in addition to my own ideas and voice?
Yes, I've adequately cited all my images - something I didn't know I had to do or even knew how to do before I started this class. I also learned more about formatting, which is reflected in the major title along with subtitles.

Have I addressed any grammatical issues that my teacher highlighted in class or in my previously-graded assignments?
As always, I try to make sure to follow the rules of English language and grammar to the best of my ability. I feel like it would be especially embarrassing to have some errors in my QRG because it's about English graduate programs. I followed the rules of titles and opening introductions, as well as short but concise sentences. My peers did make a couple comments on my QRG on some verb tenses I need to fix so I should probably fix those.

Mummelgrummel. "Student writing takes many shapes in Freshman writing classes; including handwritten freewriting and notetaking." 02/08/13 via Wikipedia. Creative Commons License. 

Clarity, Part 1

In this post I will be focusing on four topics that are present in the "Clarity" section of the book Rules for Writers. The four topics I have chose are variety, needed words, wordy sentences and shifts.

Variety

People have told me I have a very monotone voice and I think that reflects in my writing. I have a tendency to write all my sentences the same way with the same length. I think I could work on making my sentences more varied so that all of my sentences don't sound the same. I think the advice on "varying sentence openings" was helpful because that way I don't start off all my sentences the same way. Also the piece on "inverting sentences" was helpful in order to change how I write certain things.

Needed words

Sometimes when I type too fast I leave out words so sometimes it doesn't quite make sense. I need to spend more time going back and making sure that's understandable which subject I am talking about. The book gave useful advice on completing compound structure, because sometimes verb agreements get pretty confusing.

Wordy sentences

When I'm typing really fast I also have a tendency to repeat a lot of my words. This section really spoke to me because it talked about eliminating redundancies which I definitely need to work on. A lot of my thoughts come out at once so this gave me some useful tips on how to combine words. Rewording some of my words will help a lot in making the sentences more understandable.

Shifts
Something I have the most trouble with is verb tenses! I constantly switch back and forth between the different tenses. I'll be writing in present tense when I should be writing in the past tense. I like how the book gave different times when to use different tenses. For example, you always use the present tense when writing about fictional events. I also found the section on shifting from indirect to direct questions/quotations to be very helpful because I do that a lot too.

All of these sections were helpful in making my writing more concise.

Vvp1. "A Harkness table being used in a freshman English class." 12/31/08 via Wikipedia. Creative Commons License.

EDIT:

For the peer review I read both Isaac's and Alex's quick reference guides, both of which were very good! It was interesting to read my peers' writings and see how my quick reference guide compared to theirs. I realized when reading Isaac's and Alex's the structure of the guide. Some sections could be moved around to make it more understandable for the reader. The sentence I chose to examine came from Alex's blog, who chose to write about the euthanasia controversy. 

"Those who represent us do and sadly they aren’t against being bought.  People will do anything for their beliefs though.  That is why this debate won’t ever die until one side wins.  Euthanasia has to be legalized or shut down for the debate to even have a chance of ending."

The book had a section devoted to sentence variation and I think it could be very useful here. Alex's sentences all are the same length and sound the same so he could combine them, add new ideas or rephrase his sentences in order to make them better. 

Thoughts on Drafting

Recently I drafted my Quick Reference Guide concerning the controversy surrounding the Creative Writing MFA program. In this post I will be answering some questions about my drafting process and a couple of my thoughts.

1. What parts of the book’s advice on the above bulleted topics are helpful for writing in this genre?

I think the information given on the "PIE" writing style is very helpful when writing a paragraph. Often times when I'm writing I completely forget about the topic sentence and usually just keep writing. Then I have to go back and revise my topic sentence to match my paragraph. This forces you to write it in a specific order and thus it will be easier to connect evidence and concluding analysis. 

The thesis statement is the most important aspect of an essay because that's what your analysis is based upon. The book gives the reader very good tips on how to craft a meaningful thesis statement, like "is it interesting" and "is it precise and specific?" Often times when I read other people's papers the most common error is that their thesis statement is way too broad. 

Even though the thesis statement is especially important, so is the introduction. I like the bullet points that the book goes through in order to strengthen your introductory paragraph. Obviously it is a little more work but the payoff is it worth it when you have already outlined the rest of your essay in your introductory paragraph.

Organizing information is important to order it in a somewhat chronological order so that the essay flows from one point to the other. It's important to introduce ideas in the previous paragraph in order for the essay to be a coherent thought. Conclusions are always difficult to write because often times people just rely on summarizing the essay again, which they pretty much already did in the opening paragraph. Answering the "so what?" of your essay, like described in the book, is especially important.

1. What parts of the book’s advice on these topics might not be so helpful, considering the genre you’re writing in?

I don't find any major pieces of advice that would not help my writing at all. Most of these are basic grammar rules which helps because my major, Creative Writing, is essentially a branch of the English major. The "PIE" style might be a little too narrow as when I was writing the Creative Major Quick Reference Guide I had a lot of evidence and that might take multiple paragraphs. The advice the book gives is pretty straightforward and can be interpreted loosely to fit everyone's genre. 

Elson. "Climbing Guidebook." 08/26/07 via Wikipedia. Creative Commons License.

EDIT:

I read both Isaac's and Casey's blog posts on their thoughts on drafting and it seems like we all pretty much had the same idea. Casey did point out that the information provided for writing a conclusion wasn't as useful as the other ones but still wasn't too bad. Isaac and I both agreed that there wasn't any un-useful information presented throughout the book. Everything said was something that we could take away from and help improve our own QRGs. Here are three points that I would like to do to improve my own QRG:

1) make my introductory paragraph more interesting

2) provide more analysis for some of my evidence

3) work on my conclusion

Extra Credit: Putting Quotes Into Context

In this post I will analyze various quotes said by celebrities and the context in which they were presented. Also I will include how the quote and context has either changed or remained the same of my perception of the celebrity.

“I know people want to talk about the American Dream, but my dream is a world dream. It's a world in which everyone's main goal would be to help each other. The first thing I told my team on New Year's Day was, "You know, people say bad news travels fast, but this year let's make good news travel faster.” - Kanye West

Kanye is notoriously known as someone pretty aggressive, exemplified when he took to the stage at the VMAs when Taylor Swift won for Best Music Video. In fact, most people generalize Kanye off of his intense rap lyrics or his seemingly placid facial expression plastered all over tabloid magazines. First reading this quote it didn't seem like it was Kanye. However, after I read the article and was able to understand the context, I saw a different side of Kanye. Kanye was interviewed in Paper Magazine about his life and ambitions. He talked about growing up working at Gap, and how he's always been an artist - an artist not restricted to just one field of art. He wants to branch out into different areas - whether that be fashion, music, or any other form. He doesn't want to be confined. He just wants to be Kanye. If anything, after reading the quote and the article it would be only obvious that Kanye said this quote.

“I feel like I was put here to be a mother… I definitely will be married before I have my baby. I want to make sure I do it in that order.” - Nicki Minaj

Finding out that Nicki said this quote seriously surprised me... Apparently she has been saying this for awhile but I hadn't heard until now. Reading the article reaffirmed my idea of her; a strong, independent woman paving the way for the rest of the female rappers and artists. She does not want to be confined to a box and is not intent on pleasing everyone. So that's why I was so surprised when she considers herself to be paving the path, to resort back to an idea that seems so 1950s. Motherhood? A baby? I believe in the idea of a career and a family and I'm glad to hear that Nicki does as well. I am constantly inspired by her when she says things to her fans like "Be independent" and "Don't ever rely on a man." In an industry where women are constantly sexualized and objectified, it's really nice to have someone as Nicki to stand up to all of that.

Draft of Quick Reference Guide

In this post I will be posting and discussing the draft of my Quick Reference Guide concerning the debate over the Creative Writing MFA. You can access by my QRG by clicking here.

Center for Scientific Review. "A reviewer at the American National Institute of Health evaluates a grant proposal." 08/22/05 via Wikipedia. Public Domain License.

In my guide I broke it up into two major sections: the supporters, as in those who believe in the value of the Creative Writing MFA, and the critics, who think that the MFA does not promote good writing and is homogenized. I would welcome feedback concerning the general understanding of my guide; as in, is the way I broke it up easily readable? Do the transitions flow together? Or should I format it a different way? In terms of evidence for both side, is there enough? If you have any other comments, feel free to share those too.

Practicing Quoting

In this post I took two quotes from two different sources from my Annotated Bibliography that I posted in an earlier post. Below is a screenshot of the paragraph of the two quotes I used and highlighting in order to make it more clear.

Signal phrase

Author credentials

Context of source material

Ellipses/Brackets

Durand, Chloe. "Screenshot of 'Practicing Quoting.'" 9/12/15.

QRGs: The Genre

In this post I attempt to analyze the conventions of a successful Quick Reference Guide.

What do the conventions of this genre - the Quick Reference Guide - seem to be? 

• Quick, easy to read subtitles
• Bold fonts
• Attractive visuals
• Scannable paragraphs
• A lot of hyperlinking to other source

How are those conventions defined by the author’s formatting and design choices?

Many of the QRGs are formatted in a question and answer style of writing in order to draw the reader in to a specific part of the QRG. The subtitles are generally larger in font than the body but not as big as the title. The paragraphs are broken up in a way that are easily scannable with a lot of links to other sources. The QRGs are written in order to be scanned in order to give a quick summary of reliable facts. 

What does the purpose of these QRGs seem to be?

The purpose of the QRG appears to be to convey as much information as possible in the most readable, easy format. As such there are a lot of bold typography in order to draw reader's eyes to. The subtitles are generally leaning towards one side or another which gives a clearer picture to the reader. The reader doesn't necessarily have to read the entire QRG in order to grasp the content. 

Who is the intended audience for these different QRGs? Are they all intended for similar audiences? Or different? How & why?

The intended audience for these QRGs tends to be the general public. The subtitles are formatted and written in a way that easily understood by a multitude of people whether they have previously heard about the topic or not. 

How do the QRGs use imagery or visuals? Why do you think they use them in this way?

The QRGs tend to use bold, bright visuals in order to draw attention from the reader. Had there been no visuals there might be not enough incentive for readers to stay on the page. The visuals draw the reader in and entice them to read more of what the QRG has to offer. 

Abbot, Bill. "Boeing 737-300/400/500 Reference Guide." 11/8/09 via Flickr. Creative Commons License.

EDIT:
After reading Michael's, Mira's, and Namratha's blog posts I noticed a general trend among our posts. We generally all said the same thing in terms of the conventions of the quick reference guide like interesting title, subtitles, lots of visuals, and easy to read text. I liked how all of them emphasized the importance the design of the quick reference guide. 

Cluster of My Controversy

For this blog post I will be describing the Coggle cluster I made for the pros and cons of the Creative writing MFA. You can view the cluster by clicking here.

I organized the cluster into two main groups: people that supported the MFA and those that didn't. Under each there were different bullets affirming the core beliefs of each group and what media they used in order to convey these ideas. I used the cluster in order to capture the essence of the value of writing from each side.

Hubble Space Telescope. "Hubble Uncovering the Secrets of the Quintuplet Cluster."
07/13/2015 via Flickr. Creative Commons License.

EDIT:
After reading Chelsea's and Laurence's blog posts I started to evaluate my own cluster. Chelsea's cluster was a lot more succinct in terms of detail compared to my own cluster. Laurence's was a lot simpler but conveyed information in a very easy, readable manner. I liked how Laurence deviated from a lot of the other blog posts and used his own software to make his cluster instead of Coggle. I was trying to think of how I could have organized my own cluster differently but I think I created it in a way that is the most suitable form in order to understand the information, as there are only really two sides to my controversy.

Annotated Bibliography in MLA Style

This posts serves as my annotated bibliography for all my previous posts concerning the debate about whether to obtain a Creative Writing MFA. I used the MLA citation style.

To view my Annotated Bibliography, please click here.

To view an example of MLA style writing, you can go to pages 111-113 in Student's Guide to First-Year Writing.

North. "日本語: creative writing." 02/13/14 via Wikipedia. Creative Commons License.

EDIT:

For this reflection I read Samantha's blog, who also wrote in MLA style and Hallye, who wrote in Chicago Manual style. I wrote in MLA style like Samantha so our citations were almost exactly alike. Her summaries were a little more detailed and lengthy so I wish I added a couple more sentences but I think I did a good job of summarizing without being too long. Hallye also did a really good job following her example. It's interesting that different fields have different citation styles but I guess each one is designed to accustom the field's needs, hence why they are so many.

Ideology in My Controversy

In this post I discuss the ideology concerning the Creative Writing MFA.

gnuckx. "Writing Sunset Roma Italy Italia." 10/27/08 via Wikipedia. Creative Commons license.

Who is involved in the controversy?
The people involved in this controversy are those that are pro-Creative Writing MFA and anti-Creative Writing MFA. There are a couple of people that are kind of in between but usually they are leaning towards one side more than the other. The pro-Creative Writing MFA believe that it is a benefit in obtaining the degree in order to strengthen writing skills, while the other side disagrees by saying that talent is born not created and an MFA creates a uniform writing style.

Who are some of the major speakers/writers within these groups?
Various professors and students have expressed their opinion over the pros and cons of obtaining an MFA in creative writing. Ryan Boudinot, whose article I examined a couple of posts back, created backlash when he posted his article on why he did not agree with the philosophy of the creative writing MFA and why he didn't find it of any value. In response, people took to social media and other news outlets. There isn't exactly one or two people that are leaders in the controversy, rather a generalized group of writers and artists.

What kind of social/cultural/political/ economic power does each group hold?
Both sides value the artistic power and influence that writing holds. Writing and literature has the ability to change a nation. Literature does have political influence, such as Betty Friedan's "The Feminine Mystique" and "All The President's Men" by Bob Woodward. Both agree the power of writing and literature, but disagree on how to cultivate talent. Pro-Creative Writing MFA believe that writing can be improved through the use of writing programs. Anti-Creative Writing MFA believe that writing can only be developed at a young age and how talent is born, not created.

What resources are available to different positions?
People that obtain Creative Writing MFAs generally have a large network of alumni and professors that they are able to contact in hopes of publishing their work and networking opportunities, but they must know how to communicate with people. They must be smart enough to not only write a novel but also have the skills necessary and know the people in order to get it published.

What does each group value?
Each group both values literature and the craft of writing. They believe that the art of writing is very sacred and valued. However, they disagree on how to produce and improve the writing process.

What counts as evidence for the different positions?
The pro- Creative Writing Majors are able to publish the amount of alumni that are able to get their work published after they obtain their degree. Universities that offer the MFA are able to keep track of their graduates. People that don't obtain MFAs are harder to keep track of and whether or not they get published, so unless the author becomes an acclaimed, best-selling author and their background comes out that they didn't obtain an MFA, then they have no way to know.

Is there a power differential between the groups?
I would say both groups are on pretty level playing fields. No group has the other hand, because it's simply a debate about whether to get an MFA or not. There can be disagreements between the two groups but ultimately no group has more power than the other because everyone can write a novel and publish it, whether they have an MFA or not.

Is there any acknowledged common ground between the groups?
There is a lot of common ground between the two groups. Both believe in the art of writing and its necessity in the world. They both agree that to become a skilled writer, you have to read a lot of books. Both groups recognize good prose and talent, they just differ on how to achieve it.

Is there any unacknowledged common ground?
I would say both groups want people to value more writing, reading and books themselves. They want people to see the value in studying literature and not entirely dismissing that a large amount of people do, as they don't see any value in it in today's society. People think more highly of people that study science and math instead of english and history.

Do the various groups listen to each other? That is, do they respond directly to claims made by each other? Or do they only talk to people who already hold the same position?
There seems to be a lot of back and forth between the two groups. Ryan Boudinot spurred many articles countering his claims, but the discussions seems to be have been going on for a long time. People seem to voice their opinion on their own but do usually cite other articles concerning the same topic.

Evaluation of Social Media sources

In my past posts I have evaluated both general and scholarly sources concerning the debate on obtaining a Creative Writing MFA, and in this post I will be analyzing social media sources based on this topic.

First source

Durand, Chloe. "Screenshot of Elizabeth McCraken's Tweet." September 2013 via Twitter.

The first source that I chose to analyze was posted on Twitter by a woman named Elizabeth McCraken. After reading more about her on her website, I discovered that she was the author of five books and has taught creative writing at various universities, therefore deeming her a pretty credible source based on her experience and accolades. Searching through Storify she actually had several tweets posted about applying for a Creative Writing MFA but this one stuck out to me because it directly contradicted previous sources I have analyzed. A lot of them said that you needed to be young in order to excel at a Creative Writing MFA but McCraken disagrees by saying that actually being older allows you to be more experienced at life and therefore you will have more to share. Even on Twitter, she has a very large following - over 13,000 people. She does seem to tweet a lot along the lines of literature and creative writing. This tweet is from two years ago but McCraken stills seems a pretty avid Creative Writing fan with over 40,000 tweets, with still more to go.

Second source

Durand, Chloe. "Screenshot of The Pros and Cons of Getting a Creative Writing MFA."1/3/14 via Writer's Digest.

This was a surprisingly refreshing read. The author of this article, Chuck Sambuchino, is an editor for Writer's Digest and has published three books. His Twitter account was even named by Forbes as one of the top influencers in publishing. Sambuchino does not dismiss the MFA; instead, he simply gives both sides. He himself did obtain an MFA which he declared to help him a lot in his writing. However, he is also able to list several practical cons of obtaining the degree, such as cost and no guarantee of literary success. He does seem to be related to the topic and seems to be able to be an authority figure on the subject based on his experience, and he does have a large network of followers on Twitter. He has been tweeting for some time about creative writing and publishing. His twitter is still updated regularly. This article is more of an opinion piece but does cite an author, Carla Norton, who achieved success after obtaining a Creative Writing MFA from Goddard College.

Evaluation of Scholarly sources

I was able to find a couple articles concerning the debate about whether to get an MFA degree or not, which I evaluate here in this post. The first article I came across was written by Charles H. Webb and published in the Mississippi Review, titled "Teaching Creative Writing." The second article I chose to analyze was "On Creative Writing Programs" by Heather McHugh, which was published in The American Scholar.

First scholarly source

The first source I examined is written by Charles H. Webb, who is a both a professor and poet. He has won a Whiting Award, a Guggenheim fellowship, and a Pushcart Prize. In his article published in the Mississippi Review, he examines the purpose of the Creative Writing degree to fellow colleagues and aspiring MFA owners. He describes how the Creative Writing MFA has a purpose to teach students how to write, and how to write well. He does not dismiss the MFA entirely - rather he simply concludes that in order to be successful at a writing career, you must be born with imagination and imagination cannot be cultivated even with an MFA. He cites his own experience as a professor and basing his opinion after reading countless student essays and prose. I found this article by perusing through JSTOR.

Second scholarly source

The second source I decided to analyze is by Heather McHugh, who is an American poet. Like Webb, she has also won a Guggenheim fellowship in addition to a MacArthur Fellowship. In contrast to Webb, McHugh completely dismisses the Creative Writing MFA. While she admits that the MFA can teach students how to write correctly and follow trends based off of other great literature, she says that if anything the MFA teaches students how to become better readers, more so than better writers. She says how people do not obtain MFA degrees to get a job; they pursue it in order to satisfy their desire for the fine arts. She credits the Associated Writing Programs for statistics of employment after graduating with an MFA, which has shown to be declining. Her purpose in writing this article seems to be alerting students and colleagues of the precarious decision in pursuing an MFA degree. I found this article on JSTOR as well.

Pasternak, Leonid. "Throes of Creation." 19th century via Wikipedia. Public Domain License.

Evaluation of General Sources

Scott, Jay. "Abstract, Art, Painting, Colors." February 2015 via pixabay. CC0 Public Domain License.

I chose this picture as abstract art is very debated. Some see it as meaningful and beautiful,

while others don't see the point. I feel the same goes for the Creative Writing MFA.

In this post I examine the differing opinions and value in getting an MFA in Creative Writing. My first source is an article published by Cecilia Capuzzi Simon in The New York Times titled "Why Writers Love to Hate the M.F.A." The second source I examined was written by Ryan Boudinot titled "Things I Can Say About MFA Writing Programs Now That I No Longer Teach In One."

First source 

As an article published in a newspaper, the author of the first source I examined "Why Writers Love to Hate the M.F.A.," appeared to be very unbiased and presented both the pros and cons of obtaining the MFA. While pretty much can create a domain name with the ending .com, the New York Times is a very credible source based on the amount of respect that the publication has garnered throughout the years. The author of the article, Cecilia Capuzzi Simon, is a professor at American University's School of Communication and has been a contributing writer for the NY Times since 2004. The article has not been updated since being uploaded to the website on April 9, 2015 and published in physical print on April 15, 2015. 

Simon spends a decent amount of time discussing varying writers opinions on the benefits and disadvantages of the MFA writing program. Some credited their alma mater as the reason for their success in the industry, while others criticized the program by saying that natural talent is born, not created. Graphics were used of people writing, in addition to portraits of people from both sides. In addition, Simon spends considerable time discussing the different MFA programs offered across the country - raging from University of Iowa to New York University. No personal opinion of Simon appears to be presented in this article.

Second source

The second source I examined was much more opinion based than fact based. Ryan Boudinot, the author of this piece, used to teach writing at the Evergreen State College in Washington. His article, "Things I Can Say About MFA Writing Programs Now That I No Longer Teach In One," garnered national attention and backlash for trashing his own program and students. Basically, he said that unless you were born with the gift of writing and cultivated it at a very young age, especially in your teens, then just forget a writing career altogether. He also mentioned how you need to read a lot in order to become a great writer, which is something I agree with. 

Boudinot was very harsh and cynical of the creative writing MFA, but after reading the NY Times article it seems like it wouldn't be the worst idea in the world to pursue one. Boudinot also failed to include any other opinions from other teachers or students in creative writing programs. The article was also published online in a newspaper called The Stranger  which is based out of Seattle and was created by the same guy who created the satirical newspaper The Onion.  There is only one image which has a woman being absorbed in her computer contrasted with the colorful outside world. it has not been updated since it was published on February 27, 2015. The sole purpose of this article seems to be to give a long rant about the disadvantages of the MFA and dissuade anyone from pursuing it. With all this in mind, Boudinot's piece seems a lot less credible than the NY Times article by Simon. 

My Discipline

Altmann, Gerd. "Book, Books, Bookshelf, Read, Literature." 6/22/08 via pixabay. CC0 Public Domain License.

In this post I attempt to explain the philosophy of the Creative Writing degree as well as my decision to pursue it as my major here at the University of Arizona.

• What do students in your program learn how to do?

Creative Writing majors differ in many ways from English majors. English is more of the study of literature, understanding complex symbols and literary analysis. Creative Writing is more of the study of writing itself. You learn how to develop your thoughts, use specific diction, and develop a sense of style in your own writing. 

• What do people who get degrees in this field usually go on to do for work?

Most people think that a Creative Writing major can only get you to one place... Becoming a writer. But you can pretty much do anything you want with a Creative Writing degree, which is why I chose it over an English degree. Every company, business, and organization needs people that know how to write - otherwise there's no way to communicate with their customers or audience. In fact, after searching through the University of Arizona's Creative Writing page, I found a list of all the occupations that alumni hold. You can click here for the link. 

• What drew you to this field?

In high school I always excelled at my English and journalism classes so when I entered college I was immediately drawn to this field. I also really enjoy to read; some of my favorite books are the The Stranger by Albert Camus and Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri. People kept telling me that an English or Creative Writing degree won't get me anywhere but I guess I'll just see where I end up. 

• Who are the leaders/most exciting people involved in your field right now? Why? 

I would say a well-known person in the writing field right now is author John Green. Some of his most notable works are Looking for Alaska and The Fault in Our Stars. Two of his books have been turned into movies, and a third is in the works. Since he's a young adult novel writer, he has a large fan base and even posts weekly Youtube videos addressing his brother who lives in another state from him. Most of his books connect with teens on a very relatable and emotional level, hence why they're so popular. 

The New York Times has always been a very prominent force in the art of writing. While it is technically considered journalistic writing, they are influential in upholding writing standards to all artists and authors. 

• What are the leading academic/scholarly journals in your field? Where are they published? 

A leading academic journal would be The New Yorker, which is a magazine that produces essays, criticism, fiction and other writing works. It is published by Condé Nast in New York City. 

Another one would be The Atlantic, which is a monthly magazine that focuses on politics, business and other current events happening in America. It is published by Atlantic Media and is based out of Washington D.C.

The Paris Review is also a leading journal in the field of Creative Writing, as it focuses on original writing and art pieces. It is published by Antonio Weiss and is headquartered in New York City. 

EDIT:
After reading Mike and Andrea's blogs, I feel a little more confused with my choice. I'm not entirely sure I want to do Creative Writing, I just kind of picked it because that's what I'm good at it and the general education requirements were broad enough so if I really wanted to I could switch to another major. Honestly now I'm kind of intimidated after reading my peer's blogs. Andrea talked about how she knew exactly what she wanted to do since high school after competing in some contests. Mike's computer science degree can get him pretty much anywhere because it's such a growing field. Creative Writing on the other hand isn't as sought out and you have to work on your resume and gain more experience to be more valued. However, I'm glad to be surrounded by such determined people.