APA Style B-9

A specific detail that I'm struggling with is trying to determine whether to use both a detailed graph and a table.  In the A&B book they show using both in the APA style and I'm not sure if I need both.  I think I have some more to learn about APA style.

Primary Research B8

I was a board member of The Northern Chapter of professional Surveyors for four years and one of things I had to research was the trends on how many out of town people came to the Surveyors convention, that only happened once a year.  We were trying to get the number of people up and we accomplished this by having the convention in a city that was centrally located. 

Changing a Kids game

I am currently writing a response letter to a published magazine regarding youth hockey.  This person whom I'm responding to is trying to change the way that 8 year kids play hockey.  The game itself is hundreds of years old and all of a sudden they want to change it.  I don't want to get into the details but, I hope my response letter will be read and taken into consideration.  Along with myself I have numerous people in my letter that have given me permission to use their name to go against what there trying to do.  I am not afraid of change, but some things are better off left alone.

Draft Revisions

What’s working well in my draft is that I can type one thing and mean another and go back and change it.  I’ve changed my draft around four times and I’m pretty sure it’s a good read now.  Another thing that is working well, I’ve been calling some friends and family and asking questions about the particular topic I’m writing on and I’m getting good feedback.  It’s helping tremendously.

My strengths and weaknesses of writing summaries

What I have found most difficult about responding to the article that I have chosen is, trying to put all my thoughts and ideas into sentences that make sense. One thing that I’m finding difficult is coming up with words or phrases right before I quote the author.  I’ve been reading quite a few summaries and response papers online and I think I’m starting to get the gist of it. The good thing about the article I chose is that it deals with something that I have been doing a greater part of my life.  If you have suggestions or ideas regarding how to transition into a quote, please respond.

Easy Writing

I think some writing is easy for me because I can use my own experiences or experiences of friends.  I've lived in five different cities and have met a lot of people with each one of them having a unique story.  I also have been playing hockey for twenty-seven years and that in it self is a story.  Some of the troubles I have with writing is thinking of new ideas, I think most people that read something funny are much more apt to continue reading.  Would you rather be laughing, questioning, or to be challenged after you read an article?

Changes in Structure

The most significant change in my draft after peer review was taking out quite of bit of information about a specific topic and focused more on a detail that was stated in my draft.  I think it may of taken the "so what" out of my paper, always keeping in mind the genre.

One of the things that I had tried for the first time was cutting and pasting a portion of my conclusion and inserting it into the introduction.  I'm pretty sure it's better read because of it.  My introduction starts right into a story rather than dragging on about the topic itself.  In a short paper, I think jumping right into a story is a way to catch the readers attention rather than dragging on about what your going to write about.

I think the aspect of this essay that makes me proud is that all the events and statements that I wrote about are fact.  It is much easier writing about facts and details when you have lived and experienced it.  I've also learned  that it takes more than just a pen and pad of paper to create a final draft.  For this paper, I have changed the context about ten times and I'm still contemplating whether I'm finished yet.